News and notes from around the interweb: 30,000 United Miles for DirecTV service which I’ve written about in the past has been extended through April 19 (HT: Free Frequent Flyer Miles. There’s also an offer for 25,000 American miles. You can now (through April 10) double dip at Office Depot using Plink Rewards (but Staples is gone from their network). Gogo inflight internet monthly rates go up by $10 on April 6 but if you have an existing plan before that you’ll be grandfathered at old rates. I currently pay $39.95 per month for unlimited access on American Airlines flights (amortized across all of my flights I consider a pretty good value), access to Gogo on all airlines they serve would be $5 more per month. A 30% off first month offer is available. Air…
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Qatar Airways Defends Itself Over Mistreatment of Employees
Last month I linked to an article about working conditions at Qatar Airways. Qatar judges potential flight attendants on looks and personality, and no tattoos are allowed. Employment policies include, At the tryouts, information is shared about what the employees are signing up for. A pledge to stay single for five years, that permission from CEO Akbar Al Baker is required to marry as a flight attendant, and if you become pregnant, you must inform the company immediately. Also, Qatar Airways reserves the right to fire an employee without having to give a reason. Qatar closely monitors flight attendant behavior both on duty and off. And, typical of employment in the region, The entire country of Qatar adheres to a sponsorship system where the employer dictates the right of the employees to enter and exit…
British Airways Will Have First Class On to Their New 787-9 Fleet Arriving Next Year
Current Boeing 787s (787-8 aircraft) operated by British Airways are configured with business class, premium economy, and economy seating. However according to Australian Business Traveller, British Airways is planning a new first class cabin for its forthcoming Boeing 787-9 fleet in a further evolution of the current design seen on its Airbus A380s. …Van der Post has now confirmed that the long-range Boeing 787-9, which it will begin flying next year, will also have a small number of First suites at the pointy end. “It may not be a full cabin of 12 to 14 seats, it will be a little bit smaller” van der Post told Australian Business Traveller. The A380 seat is an evolution off of the 777/747 seat. I like first class more on their 777 than their 747. I flew both…
“The Best Time to Book Airline Tickets is 3:15am on Fridays. Here’s Why.”
A couple of days ago I shared Peter Greenberg’s advice for the best time to book an airline ticket. His claim was so non-sensical that I did not even bother to refute it. I left it to readers. He said you needed to buy tickets on Wednesday at 1 am, because “most low airfares seem to appear between Sunday night and Monday night. And then, when people find those fares, they have 24 hours in which to purchase them. At midnight Tuesday, all the discount fares that weren’t purchased come flooding back into the airline’s computer systems.” But — you could only purchase these fares over the phone. Readers submitted their own (im)plausible stories about why the best time to book tickets is actually 3:15am on Friday. I promised to pick a ‘winning story’ and…
Double Points on Amtrak Through May 17 – And Amtrak’s Weasely Terms and Conditions
Amtrak is offering double points on all routes between March 17 and May 17, registration required. Amtrak Guest Rewards number must be included at the time of reservation. They’ll award double points on up to two one-way trips per day (they seemingly don’t want train versions of mileage-runners, but since Amtrak’s program is revenue-based outside of their Acela Express service and those trains are too pricey for it to make sense I don’t think they’d have much of a problem anyway). I don’t like weasel words in the terms and conditions like, “Other terms and conditions may apply.” (Emphasis mine.) Ah, yes, unlisted secret terms and conditions — but in practice such weasel terms aren’t likely to pose a problem. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day —…
The Onion Takes on Loyalty, Reduced Award Options, and the TSA Hides Behind a Flag (Bits ‘n Pieces for March 11, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: American is eliminating elite-only Dynamic Air Awards that let you book non-changeable economy travel in the Continental U.S. for a variable points price based on the cost of the ticket. I never found these to be how I’d want to use my miles anyway.. Southwest Airlines expects loyalty members to be loyal to them. And they’re coming to collect. It’s an Onion piece, but apparently done in conjunction with Southwest. And pretty funny, because it’s the Onion. But a bit ironic considering their points devalue this month. Mark your calendar for Noon eastern on Friday, I’ll be participating on twitter in a chat about miles and points (hash tag “#TravelSkills“) hosted by Johnny Jet and Chris McGinnis. It runs for an hour. Should be a lot of fun.…
Bottom-tier Elite Members Will Lose Complimentary American Airlines Extra Legroom Seating March 17
American was an early pioneer of extra legroom coach seating with their ‘More Room Throughout Coach’ product. This blog took its original name from that product, with an overly lofty goal of helping people achieve more space and freedom in their travels and lives. I changed the name to View from the Wing in early 2003 and American started adding seats back into their coach cabins in 2004. It was a product before its time, but since then extra legroom coach seats have become standard. Far from eliminating United’s “economy plus” seating with its Continental merger, Continental executives learned that they could make money upselling it. And Delta has added extra legroom seating as well. So American launched its own Main Cabin Extra product two years ago. United removed the ability for their ‘Premier Silver’…
How Delta’s New Revenue-Based Points Earning Destroys the Romance of Miles
The problem with Delta’s new revenue-based mileage earning (rewarding you points based on the price of your ticket instead of the miles you fly) isn’t actually that it: Doesn’t actually reward high spenders, since the “break-even point” for earning the same number of points in 2015 as in 2014 is a ticket price of 20 cents per mile flown, which is twice as high as the revenue required by Delta to earn elite status in that element of its revenue-based reforms, and Gold elite members and higher will have to spend more per ticket than general members just to remain even. And Delta actually limits the miles that can be earned by top spenders. Misses the point on how to incentivize incremental business at the margin and contribute to the airline’s bottom line. Business travelers…
Spirit Air Introduces Its Anti-Revenue Based Frequent Flyer Program
Delta recently announced that in 2015 they will award points based on the price of your ticket instead of time (distance flown) in their seats. There are many things wrong with the changes, and the new program will actually place limits on how much expensive tickets can get rewarded. Spirit Air, on the other hand, is offering more miles to customers who spend less. Tickets purchased through April 15 will earn bonus miles — but the more your tickets cost the fewer miles you’ll earn. Flights under $36 earn 1000 bonus miles Flights which cost $36 – $65 earn 500 bonus miles Flights which cost $66 – $99 earn 250 bonus miles None of which would be enough to actually get me to fly Spirit. And while Delta’s miles may not be the most lucrative,…
Is Alien Technology a Threat to Modern Aviation?
Like everyone else, I continue to watch with trepidation as the investigation proceeds into what happened to Malaysia Airlines flight 370. I’ve aleady said that I’m not an expert on airline crashes, so I’ve withheld speculation. I do know that it is going to take months, and probably a year or more, to definitely know just what happened in this tragedy. And I also know that whatever happened, it wasn’t this. The inescapable conclusion is that Flight 370 simply vanished in some way that we do not yet understand. This is what is currently giving rise to all sorts of bizarre-sounding theories across the ‘net, including discussions of possible secret military weapons tests, Bermuda Triangle-like ripples in the fabric of spacetime, and even conjecture that non-terrestrial (alien) technology may have teleported the plane away. …The…
