New legislation has been proposed to add 36 flights at Washington National airport (a roughly 5%) increase and to allow 24 of those flights to travel more than 1250 miles (an exception to current limits which are known as the ‘perimeter rule’). Local politicians hate this, even though it benefits travelers. They make silly arguments that somehow the perimeter rule benefits Dulles airport, which it does not. I wrote in the Washington Post (perhaps four years ago, can’t find it online) that restricting the distance flown out of National Airport, and reserving long haul flights for Dulles in order to ‘protect it’ and ‘enhance it’s growth’ actually had the opposite effect. The perimeter rule led to an overabundance of short haul flights at National, the preferred carrier for pasengers in downtown DC. That meant fewer…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for May 2003.
Worse customer service than the airlines
I complain about customer service from the airlines quite a bit. On the whole, the majors are pretty bad (and for all of the accolades Southwest receives, I want to fly them even less). But they’re better than most public transit. When I drive to work, I have a lovely commute — along the George Washington Parkway which borders the Potomac River and all of the monuments. When the weather is nice, I drive with the top down as planes approaching National airport fly overhead. This morning I took the metro (for all non-DC types, that’s our subway system). And we were delayed due to a report of smoke in one of the tunnels. Earlier this year my metro rides have been delayed because of a passenger hit by a train and a train derailment.…
Now your dog or cat can get hooked on miles, too.
Continental has started to award miles for shipping your pet as Cargo. True to form, Virgin Atlantic takes the concept a bit further, focusing on rewarding the cat or dog through it’s “Bone-us-Miles” and “Frequent Feline” clubs that reward your pet with pampering weekends for flying Virgin. For all the coverage these two programs are getting, you’d think it was something new. But for two years, El Al has offered a frequent flyer program for dogs, cats & birds where pets earn 1 free roundtrip after 3 roundtrips within a 3 year period. Several hotels have been on this bandwagon for a few years. The San Ysidro Ranch hotel offers pets baked salmon from room service, a massage by the fireplace, and homemade cookies made in their own likeness, as well as vitamin-fortified water and…
The problem with space travel
Happy Fun Pundit offers the “Top 10 Things I Hate About Star Trek”. Pretty darn insightful, actually.
United referral bonus
Earn 5000 miles for referring an acquaintence to United if they fly by July 31st. Since they will also earn 5000 bonus miles with the first flight, the acquaintence will become a friend. But they may not like you too much since you’ll both only get the bonuses if their ticket is booked as a “Q” fare or above — which means that the four lowest generally available fare classes (T, S, V, W) don’t count.
Whither the shuttle?
With falling traffic and schedule cutbacks by USAirways and Delta, the New York/Boston/DC shuttle operations are a different experience than they used to be. American has introduced regional jet service on these routes, while Delta and USAirways are cancelling flights and downsizing planes. Both Delta and USAirways are also scaling back their shuttle guarantees, and USAirways is swapping in aircraft with less legroom. Less convenient and less comfortable than in the psat, it might be time to rethink the shuttle. Only rethinking doesn’t happen often or easily in this industry.
Why Frequent Flyer Programs Make Sense — and Gutting Benefits Does Not
Airlines are jumping on the ‘reward revenue not miles flown’ bandwagon and they are cutting back the benefits of their frequent flyer programs. I’m not sure this decision makes alot of business sense. That’s a very broad statement, and since I’m often critical of other travel writers from making unsupportable overbroad generalizations, let me outline the scope of this shift. USAirways was first out of the box with the idea that loyalty is about absolute revenue generated rather than frequent purchases. They tried to alter their frequent flyer program accordingly, but backed off as a result of negative PR. Delta has gutted it’s frequent flyer program in an effort to restructure it to reward only high fare passengers. United has its own entry into this game, creating a new frequent flyer program level run out…
An infinite number of monkeys, or Sesame Street brought to you by the letter ‘s’
Back in October, Eugene Volokh posted about logical flaws in the old cliche about an infinite number of monkeys eventually producing the works of Shakespeare. Since the cliche relies on randomness of the monkeys typing, and since chimps don’t type randomly (even if we aren’t able to discern the patterns), they would never accomplish a play — let alone a sonnet. This argument is now backed up by science, apparently. According to a report from BBC News Lecturers and students from the University of Plymouth wanted to test the claim that an infinite number of monkeys given typewriters would create the works of The Bard. A single computer was placed in a monkey enclosure at Paignton Zoo to monitor the literary output of six primates. But after a month, the Sulawesi crested macaques had only…
Long distance travel – intergalactic commute – but the benefits are worth it
An Oregon mental health facility is looking to hire a translator who speaks Klingon. Apparently enough patients insist on speaking only Klingon that they need a special interpreter. (Link via the Volokh Conspiracy.) Update: CNN and the AP appear to have gotten the story wrong. Klingon was thrown into the long list of potential languages, and a Klingon interpreter would only be paid if their services were needed — but no patient has actually attempted to communicate in Klingon…
Instant Starwood Gold
Get automatic Gold status in the Starwood Preferred Guest program by calling Starwood (888-625-4988) and mentioning code “VF.” You’ll need to provide your Lufthansa frequent flyer number (you can sign up for one here). The promotion is valid through September 15 2003. Giving Starwood your Lufthansa number sets you up to deposit your Starwood points earned directly in your Lufthansa Miles & More account plus 3000 Lufthansa points after every second stay (up to a maximum of 9000 points).
