Starwood has a new Chief Executive Officer, fresh from Coca Cola. If I were walking into that hotel chain, there are several things I’d do — though admittedly I’m no hotel genius or I’d be getting paid a lot more. Starwood differentiates itself with outstanding high-end properties, it’s important to keep those in the fold. They’ve been losing too many to other chains lately, such as Manele Bay and the Lodge at Koele in Hawaii. Starwood’s biggest unfilled hole is in broad coverage. The Four Points chain is a dump. There are some very good properties (such as at the Los Angeles Airport and in Sydney) but on the whole they’re completely inconsistent and so the branding doesn’t work. I have confidence in a Hilton Garden Inn. I can stay in one anywhere. But I…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for October 2004.
Difficulties redeeming United premium class awards
United has gotten very difficult for redeeming saver award seats in premium cabins, at least on the routes I check. I scanned a full four months and didn’t see a single Los Angeles-Sydney or San Francisco-Sydney flight with two seats available as award tickets in first class. Only about 3 flights that had a single award seat up front. Exception is in the 3-5 days before flight, when availability seems to open up. This was never a problem in the period from 2000 – 2002. I suspect it’s a combination of fewer seats allocated, trying to hold back space for revenue tickets and even coach upgrades (of which I found plenty) along with more demand for awards given United’s financial difficulties and the fears about loss of miles that customers face. It is interesting that…
Rant about ‘Buy on Board’ meals
US domestic airlines have pretty much transitioned to ‘buy on board’ meals for lots of domestic flights. Fine. I’d like better taste, lower fat content, and always more than what’s offered in back (or at least as much!) up front in first class. But couldn’t they provide better receipts for folks purchasing their meals? United’s are photocopy tear off scraps of paper with fill on lines for flight number, date, and amount. The amounts involved are small enough that lack of receipt doesn’t fall afoul of IRS guidelines, but the receipt itself is enough of a joke that I imagine lots of corporate accounting departments won’t reimburse the expense. At least that’s something United might survey on, especially if ‘buy on board’ sales are below expectation. Are business travelers having to bear the cost of…
Security Overreactions Not Limited to the United States
An Australian airport shut down for an hour after a vibrating sex toy was mistaken for a bomb. The suspect package was later identified as a vibrator-type “adult novelty device”. The incident was the latest in a string of false alerts regarding air security in Australia. The alarm was raised by cafeteria manager Lynne Bryant, whose staff was cleaning the area near a bin where the package was found. “It was rather disconcerting when the rubbish bin started humming furiously,” she said, Australian media reported. “We called security and next minute everybody was being evacuated while they checked it out.” Police were about to call in bomb experts when an unidentified passenger came forwards to identify the contents of the package.
American Airlines implements substantial fees to upgrade internationally with miles
The American Airlines rumor is confirmed. The Wall Street Journal writes: American Airlines will start charging passengers a $250 one-way fee to use frequent-flier miles to convert low-cost international tickets into first-class or business-class seats. The nonrefundable fee, effective Dec. 1, will apply to discounted and deeply discounted coach-class tickets. Full-fare coach tickets and business-class tickets will be exempt from the fee, said the Fort Worth, Texas, unit of AMR Corp. The fee applies to flights between North America and Europe, Japan, and parts of South America, including Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. At the same time, passengers flying between Latin America and Europe no longer will be able to use frequent-flier miles to upgrade their seats. Details on the changes can be found on American’s site here. Some interesting details emerge. Mileage costs for business…
Weigh your mail
Get a free scale from the US Postal Service. Don’t say they never gave ya nothin’!
I shouldn’t disagree with Randy
On Sunday I took Randy Petersen to task for saying that Continental was the only airline offering mileage upgrades across the Atlantic from deeply discounted fares. I gave the example of American, which allows upgrades with miles (and no cash buy-up). Now there’s a rumor that American will announce a change and require a buyup on mileage upgrades. It’s still a rumor, and unconfirmed. And the quote from Randy (which may be a misquote) will still be technically incorrect as American will allow mileage upgrades from the lowest fares. But I’ll be equally wrong if the rumor pans out.Although I still maintain, with true confidence, that Continental is far from the best business class across the Atlantic.
Discounted Business Class Tickets
Via MSNBC’s Savings Sleuth, CheapFlights.com has begun posting discounted business class fares. CheapFlights posts the best rates from a number of travel providers including unpublished consolidator fares.One more tool for the arsenal.
I Disagree with Randy
Randy Petersen is usually spot-on, but a Houston Chronicle piece from last week on changes to Continental’s frequent flyer program for 2005 have him making a couple of claims that I disagree with. Continental has extended the offer of full elite qualifying miles for discount fares booked on its website, introduced a dedicated elite telephone desk, joined Skyteam (with its concommitant benefits), and increased the money ‘buy up’ required in order to use miles to upgrade with miles on from discounted airfares on international flights. Randy says: Randy Petersen, editor and publisher of Inside Flyer magazine and an authority on frequent-flyer programs, said, “I have some problem with Continental wanting to take both my miles and money for a BusinessFirst upgrade, but they are the only airline offering these (international) upgrades against the cheapest tickets.…
Diary of a Flight Attendant.com
A Delta flight attendant has been suspended without pay for blogging. Technically, for posting a picture of herself in uniform on her blog.She doesn’t identify her employer on her blog. Instead, she describes herself as a 6-foot-tall, 29-year-old flight attendant for Anonymous International Airlines, living in Quirksville, Texas. But uniforms aside, one can discern her employer and location from the issues (catering problems) and events (specific music festival) she mentions. She’s a great read actually, and while Delta is probably well within their legal rights to discipline an employee for publicly commenting (sometimes quite negatively) on their job and the people and situations they encounter I do lament it. Check out the site before she’s forced to pull it! Need more reasons? She has photos of the famous Naked Air flight, as well as pictures…
