News and notes from around the interweb: Mommy Points was back on ABC’s Nightline this time helping a family leverage their everyday activities to earn points. It was like a reality show, Kitchen Nightmares where Gordon Ramsey does a makeover of a restaurant, Summer drives up to a home and gives a miles and points makeover — and helps a family earn enough points for a trip in just a few weeks. Go, Summer! New Fuel Rewards Network signup bonus Use of United’s Global Upgrade certificates on Lufthansa has gone electronic which is an improvement over the old paper system. Only Q fares in economy and higher are eligible for upgrading with these on Lufthansa, and the cheapest fare bucket in premium economy and in business will not allow upgrades to a higher cabin. Uber…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for December 2014.
Singapore Reverses Course, Agrees to Honor Mistake Fare
Last week I reported that Singapore Airlines was refusing to honor a business class mistake fare between Sydney and London. It wasn’t a cheap fare — about US$3000 roundtrip — but apparently intended as an economy rather than a business class fare. There are varying reports of between 400 and 900 tickets purchased. And after much criticism of the decision to tell these customers to pound sand they’ve changed their minds and will make good on the tickets. SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) said on Monday it will allow about 400 passengers to fly business class after they purchased fares at economy-class prices in Australia following an embarrassing ticketing bungle. …About 400 passengers will fly up the front of the plane using tickets that were as much as A$5,000 (S$5,500) cheaper than they should have been. Singapore…
Hyatt Changes the Cost of Awards at 15% Of Their Hotels
Hyatt has published a list of hotels that will be increasing or decreasing in award category for 2016. Last year’s program changes were a reasonably big deal although very much not across the board. This year’s on the other hand isn’t bad at all. All in all 70 hotels or about 15% of the program is changing award category. And many more hotels are going down — costing fewer points — than going up. 22 hotels are going up a category, 48 hotels are going down a category, and only a single hotel is moving two categories — the Grand Hyatt Shenyang drops from category 4 to category 2. 7 hotels go from category 1 to category 2. These are mostly Hyatt Place properties including two in Denver. 14 hotels drop from category 2 to…
American Airlines: How to Get Your Two Workforces to Resent Each Other
As American and US Airways continue to merge their operations, one of the key issues is labor integration — and not just getting combined work contracts for flight attendants, pilots, and other groups, but getting the two work forces to operate as one and to be be both happy and productive. American management does realize that they need to avoid the kind of ‘us vs. them’ mentality that often pervades mergers. Legacy Continental flight attendants sometimes still announce that their United flights are operated by Continental crew. They’re proud of their heritage, think they’re better, and resent legacy United employees. So when American’s CEO says things like this, he probably isn’t helping: Mr. Parker said the most surprising thing of the past year was how many things needed improving at American once he arrived from…
United Running Several Award Discounts, Some Intentional… Some Maybe Not
In addition to the special deal pricing Star Alliance awards at the price of United awards through Mileage Plus, United also launched two published award sales. United is offering 20% off domestic economy awards to several US cities. Book by December 30 for travel January 12 through February 12, 2015. Aspen Bozeman Durango Fort Lauderdale Fort Myers Jackson Hole Mammoth Lakes Miami Montrose/Telluride Salt Lake City San Diego Santa Barbara Sarasota Sun Valley Vail West Palm Beach Yampa Valley What’s interesting is that they’re offering this discount even though it’s hardly low season t omany of these cities — ski destinations and sun destinations alike. There’s also an offer for 20% off Hawaii, Mexico, and Canada. That makes an economy award 20,000 miles roundtrip to Canada, 28,000 to Mexico, and 36,000 to Hawaii — although…
Let’s Celebrate TSA’s Officer of the Year!
Here’s what it takes to be the TSA’s officer of the year. “Officer [Last Name] is the type of TSA officer who others look to model,” says TSA Federal Security Director Dan Ronan. …Officer [Last Name] was just selected as TSA’s Officer of the Year for 2014 among the 45,000 TSA officers nationwide. …One afternoon when Officer [Last Name] was working earlier this year, she realized that there would be a need for additional female officers working the late afternoon shift. The airport was expecting an influx of travelers attending a nearby national woman’s lacrosse tournament, so Officer [Last Name] proactively approached her manager and offered to stay well beyond her normal 4 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. shift at HPN to assist with the expected increase in passengers. …Officer [Last Name] saw the checkpoint line…
Should Elites Even Get Extra Legroom Seating for Free?
Henry Harteveldt is one of the smartest people I know. I cited his work in a regulatory comment I filed with the Department of Transportation a couple of months ago. So I take it seriously when he calls me out on one of my posts. Yesterday Delta made a big splash announcement about the rebranding of their cabins. But as with the introduction of Sky Priority four years ago, they roll up a bunch of existing benefits and call is something exciting and new and generate a whole bunch of buzz (largely from outlets who don’t know there’s nothing new or better involved). To be sure, it’s common to roll up several non-new things to make whatever is being announced sound like ‘news’. American’s announcement about lie flat transatlantic Boeing 757s and extra legroom seats…
Prince William Flew the US Airways Shuttle. Guess Where He Was Seated?
Back in May Prince William flew American Airlines coach. It was a bulkhead seat for Memphis – Dallas. This morning he flew first class onboard the US Airways shuttle to get from New York to DC. The ABC News article incorrectly indicates he flew from New York’s JFK airport. The shuttle flight originates at LaGuardia. “Our flight was delayed and a caravan of black suburbans pulled up to the plane. Then the most unexpected guest stepped onto our DC shuttle flight this morning,” wrote Sam Kim in an Instagram post capturing the moment. Presumably he chose US Airways over Delta for the flight because of his oneworld elite status via British Airways. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just…
I Admit It: al Qaeda Was Foiled By the TSA. Plus Passengers Having Sex in Airports.
News and notes from around the interweb: Your fellow passengers are having sex in airports Up to 15,000 United or Aeroplan miles for travel between the US or Canada and Europe Apple has a new credit card with terrible rewards. A Road Warrior’s Gift Guide The bill to limit TSA security fees – intentionally increased to fund general federal revenue — which passed the House has now also passed the Senate. Fees will be higher but not as high. (HT: S.) Inside al Qaeda: How Their Plots Have Been Frustated by the TSA (some language ‘NSFW’): (HT: @grantmartin) You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can…
American Bringing Us Lie Flat 757s and Improvements to US Airways Cabins
American announced several aircraft cabin improvements, some which are a really big deal. All but a “handful” of American’s new aircraft will have seat-back video screens throughout. All of the planes in the carrier’s primary jet fleet now have Wi-Fi, with plans to expand to it to regional aircraft, said Joshua Freed, a spokesman. American’s new domestic interior is the new standard. This is what’s being installed in new aircraft. They haven’t announced plans to retrofit existing cabins with the new interior. Interesting is that this is for ‘most’ of the new aircraft. It’s likely that the interiors were already ordered for all of American’s new planes, so one imagines there are some previously-ordered new US Airways aircraft that won’t get the new interiors. What’s also good here, though I believe already expected, is the…
