Nicholas Kralev continues to show that he’s the most well-informed and lucid of travel writers. His column this week in the Washington Times is on the Department of Transportation’s ruling to require British Airways to make customers whole to the extent they incurred costs as a result of BA cancelling a ‘mistake fare’ from the US to India. Kralev understands and points out what the rest of the media which have covered the India mistake fare story failed to understand — that the $40 base fare actually generated $370 in fuel surcharges, which with tax meant a ~ $550 ticket, only a few hundred dollars less than the next best available fare at the time. I’ve commented before that when I know there’s an airfare mistake, I iwll buy it, and then wait and see…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for November 2009.
What’s The Real Problem With Hilton HHonors’ Coming Devaluation?
Loyalty Traveler takes on the excuses and explains the concern over Hilton HHonors coming devaluation. In creating a new higher redemption category 7, Hilton is expected to push most hotels up a category making most hotels cost more points in 2010 than they did in 2009. And Loyalty Traveler notes the Hilton chain is allocating a much larger proportion of their hotels to the upper tier categories relative to the other four hotel chains’ loyalty programs. He goes on to explain, The primary objection to the Hilton HHonors changes, in my opinion, is not the addition of a new higher category 7 to the Hilton HHonors reward table. The hint from HHonors representatives that the changes will result in a large scale shift of hotels upward within the new categories is the truly objectionable aspect…
Travel Tech/Gear: Compact Power Strip Now a Standard on My Packing List
I get bombarded with requests from PR shops to try out products in the hopes that I’ll blog about them. Usually the products are useless. The less a product sells itself, the more it seems that companies hire outside flacks to sell them. Sometimes I’ll write back and agree to try whatever they’re offering, but they usually don’t warrant posting about — like the travel snuggie knockoff with a snapping pocket that comes with a hard and lumpy neck pillow and an inflatable seat cushion. Cute idea but not anything I’d ever travel with, even if confined to long-haul coach. But here’s one I’ve appreciated, and have added to my standard electronics packing list, accompanying my pocket router, power adapters, etc: the Outlets To Go Power Strip (Available at Amazon.com for ~ $14.) I hate…
Hotel Prince de Galles 52 Euro Mistake Rate Stay
Last year the Prince de Galles hotel in Paris had a mistake rate of 52 euros per night (they intended to load a 520 euro rate). It was only available for up to 4 nights, the week of Thanksgiving. I’ve just returned from the hotel, and had a lovely stay. On check-in I was upgraded to a deluxe room on the top floor with a large balcony looking out over Paris (and if you crook your neck and look right, a view of the Eiffel Tower). I did check availability, figuring that the hotel wouldn’t provide much of an upgrade – as a result of the rate and of this being Paris, after all. The hotel wasn’t offering any suites at all online, for any of the four nights of our stay. And they were…
Briggs & Riley Baseline 20″ Carry-on
Back in August, Lucky reviewed the Briggs & Riley Baseline 20″ Carryon. What caught my eye was this: Briggs & Riley sent me one of their bags to try out on my recent trip to Asia. So I admit, I shot an email off their to rep and said I’d love a free bag, too. And I gave it a spin on my Thanksgiving trip to Paris. Like Lucky, the bag seems pricey to me at a retail price of $369. But they’re running it at $100 off currently and that seems much more like it. They market their Simple as that warranty, which I’ve only heard good things about, they really will fix any problem with your bag for free for life if you bring it or send it in. To many, that makes…
Which is Worse for Award Redemption, Delta or Delta.com?
Hunter says Delta.com has gone off the rails. And he calls the Delta.com helpdesk “We’re a Bunch of Monkeys Chained to Phones.” Gee, Hunter is just realizing this. And he actually flies Delta. I do my best to avoid it, though in my case it’s because on Delta ful fare trumps status in the upgrade queue and the idiots treat cheap government fares as full fare. I live in DC, where everyone but me is flying on a government fare. But that’s beside the point. My beef with Delta.com is its award search. Delta occasionally publishes premium cabin international inventory for award booking without paying extortionate double or triple mileage pricing. But its website would never know it. Flights that actually have ‘low’ price awards will still price at the medium or high mileage levels…
Department of Transportation Rules British Airways Is Responsible for Mistake Fare
Last month I said that Wandering Aramean was going a bit far in suing British Airways over their failure to honor a mistake fare to India. Apparently the Department of Transportation disagrees with me. Wandering Aramean posts an update with a Department of Transportation ruling: “We believe that all airlines should accept some responsibility for even the erroneous fares they publish.” The DOT contends that British Airways should compensate consumers to make them whole. And British Airways is offering to reimburse customers for expenses incurred as a result of the mistake fare. British Airways is prepared to reimburse you for penalties imposed by an airline or ground service provider as a result of your cancellation of air or ground arrangements in reliance on your cancelled British Airways booking. British Airways will also reimburse those passengers…
US Airways Holiday “Big Bonus” – Up to 250% Bonus on Shopping Purchases
Through December 30, US Airways is offering their “Big Bonus” promotion. Participating stores are listed on the promotion website. Each purchase you make earns you a progressively larger bonus on all of your purchases. Stores shopped at: Bonus earned: 1 50% 2 100% 3 150% 4 200% 5 250% If you make 5 purchases from eligible merchants by December 30, then all of your purchases earn a 250% bonus. The bonus will apply to a maximum of your first 10 purchases (based on posting date of those purchases). No registration required. If you’re already going to make several purchases, which will qualify you for the maximum bonus, great. If not, just make a handful of small purchases to get up to the 250% bonus level. For instance, if you don’t already have one create a ThanksAgain…
Randy Petersen Calls Out US Airways For Egregious Changes to Their Award Chart
Randy Petersen‘s opening remarks in the December, 2009 Inside Flyer are on US Airways’ planned changes to their award chart going into effect in January. Bottom-line, Randy points out that US Airways is especially stingy in making awards available on their own flights to Dividend Miles members. They’ve gone from redeeming 9.1% of their miles flown as award tickets down to a meager 4% — less than half the rate of Continental, which has never been known as especially generous on awards. And already US Airways imposes transaction fees just for redeeming an award. Those fees are often as much as the cost to the Dividend Miles program of the award seat itself. Their change fees are uniquely high among their peers (think $250). Now that an award seat in business class to Europe can…
The Extremely Limited Use Rate for Inflight Internet
Runway Girl makes some assumptions about AirCell’s inflight internet usage and costs, thinks they’re doing very poorly — people just don’t want to pay for inflight internet — but projects they’ll break even in three years. She thinks they’re getting six users per flight on average, even with all of the giveaways going on. On short hops I suspect usage is quite limited. It’s a real step forward on mid-cons or longer, for sure. But it is interesting that paid adoption continues to be so low, whether Runway Girl’s numbers are plausible or not.
