Last month I wrote about a Brookings Institution proposal to save Amtrak by shedding some of its most unprofitable routes while using the profits from the Acela Express along the Northeast Corridor to subsidize some of the routes that almost make sense. What Brookings found is not surprising. There are only two routes that do better than break even — New York – DC and New York – Boston — and even those only make money on an operating basis, they don’t cover their capital costs. Brookings finds that the operating profits (if the federal government subsidizes capital expenses) would cover the top 26 Amtrak routes (which carry 80% of passengers). They recommend having affected states cover the losses of other routes if they want those to survive. I repeated their numbers that the Acela…
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Air France KLM Flying Blue Raising Award Prices, Reducing Fuel Surcharges
Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program is increasing mileage costs for premium cabin awards and reducing fuel surcharges. Fuel surcharges are a convenient way for airlines to raise and lower prices quickly across an entire market without re-filing every single fare in that market — they save time and effort since they apply equally to all fares. Those charges also help airlines raise price on a bunch of discounted tickets, since these fees are on top of the base fare so discounts usually don’t apply to the surcharges. But for frequent flyers they are a pain because some airlines — most notably European and Asian frequent flyer programs, but also a handful of North American programs (Aeroplan on about half of its Star Alliance partners, American predominantly on British Airways, and Delta on several partners)…
Hang Up, Call Back (The Four Most Important Words in Travel, and Maybe Even Life)
I don’t think there can possibly be any better advice in travel than ‘hang up and call back’. Any time you don’t get the answer you’re looking for, try another agent. Most airlines are big companies, agents have varying levels of competence, and also varying levels of helpfulness. Just because an agent tells you that an award ticket isn’t available doesn’t mean that it isn’t available. I’ve frequently had agents tell me that nothing was available when they clearly hadn’t had time to even search yet. I would ask about multiple dates and they’d just reply that nothing was available the whole month when I know they couldn’t possibly have searched for that. If you aren’t going to search for award space yourself using tools like partner websites (Qantas and British Airways for oneworld awards,…
American’s New 2013 Elite Rewards Offer Easier, More Generous Bonuses Than in Past Years
I haven’t gotten my email from American about this, but Pizza in Motion is already all over it. American has launched a huge new promotion for elite members, their 2013 Elite Rewards which look far more lucrative than past versions of the program that they’ve run. Fly 40,000 miles, earn 40,000 points, or fly 45 segments and you get to pick from the following extra rewards. 10,000 miles (3) 500-mile upgrades 2 Admiral’s Club one-day lounge passes Free BAGS VIP luggage delivery 10% AA.com discount Fly 75,000 miles, earn 75,000 points, or fly 80 segments and you get to pick from the following extra rewards. 20,000 miles (1) Systemwide (“eVIP”) upgrade (5) 500-mile upgrades (4) Admiral’s Club one-day lounge passes (5) Single-segment wifi passes Fly 125,000 miles, earn 125,000 points, or fly 130 segments and…
Simple Math: Who is to Blame for Flight Delays?
Let’s take the 2012 FAA budget of $15.9 billion. Now let’s reduce that by sequestration ($637 million) and you get $15.3 billion. Adjust it for inflation, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI inflation calculator, and you have $14.3 billion in 2008 dollars. Which is still higher in real terms than the FAA’s 2008 budget. Air traffic control handled planes in 2008 with less money than the FAA has now, post-sequestration. What’s more, there were one million more flights in 2008 than there were in 2012. They used to do a whole lot more than they have to do today, with less money. A 4% cut to budget, even normalized across an entire year, does not have to wreak havoc on the traveling public unless the FAA chooses to make those cuts in the most…
Bits ‘n Pieces for April 23, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Alaska Airlines is installing Recaro slimline seats in and adding seat power to its 737 fleet, and plans to introduce inflight entertainment that can be streamed inflight to wireless devices. Wendy Perrin publishes the story of a reader who funded their recent trip to Europe on points from credit card signups. What humbles me is that they pass along the story of having contacted me to do their award booking and I told them they could probably get what they were looking for pretty easily on their own, without paying me. And they did. Rick adds that before booking any travel he had contacted Gary Leff,Condé Nast Traveler‘s frequent-flier mileage-award specialist, who often helps readers with mileage conundrums and the intricacies of travel rewards programs. “In view of my…
The Hyatt Regency Austin’s View of the River from a Confirmed Suite
One of my favorite things is a great hotel suite. I recognize that’s not everyone’s preference, many of my readers will say “I don’t need a suite, I don’t spend time in the room anyway, get out and see a great city!” And I don’t disagree with that. But I also enjoy a resort that I can spend time at and relax, a vacation where I’m not running around the whole time. My normal life is at warp speed so being able to take time where I’m sedentary means a lot. Even in a city, and when not on vacation, I love a sanctuary. By my nature I’m an introvert. So if I’m attending a conference, or a bunch of meetings, or even just doing sightseeing it’s nice to have a great space to return…
Up to 100% Bonus for US Airways Shopping Portal Purchases
I believe that Pizza in Motion was the first to highlight that US Airways is offering a bonus on shopping portal transactions of up to 100% through June 23rd. The more transactions the bigger the bonus, up to a 100%, bonusing up to 12 transactions. Registration required. Here’s the earning chart: And here are the partners for which transactions are eligible to earn a bonus: Teleflora: Earn 15 miles per $1 spent 1800Flowers: Earn 25 miles per $1 spent FedEx: 250 miles for first shipment & earn 1 mile per $1 spent Dividend MilesDining Vinesse: 5,000 miles when you sign up (first shipment is 6 wines @ $6.99 per bottle) Wine Insiders: 1,000 bonus miles for $7.99 wines & 1 cent shipping FTD: Earn 15 miles per $1 spent Skymall: 10 miles per $1 spent…
Prepare for Air Traffic Delays as the Traveling Public Becomes a Pawn in Budget Battles
The FAA has instituted work furloughs of air traffic controllers, which they claim is necessary to comply with sequestration budget cuts. These went into effect yesterday, and inbound delays of over an hour could be seen at New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports. The FAA has predicted much longer delays to come at major airports. We’ll see what actually develops, it’s not obvious that even lower staffing levels should cause the degree of delays have been predicted (although they could certainly make it so). As I wrote to Tyler Cowen, the FAA budget is up substantially over the past decade while air traffic control handles fewer flights. It’s hardly necessary to cut this deep into air traffic control to comply with the Budget Control Act’s sequestration provisions. And the notion that they can’t make modest…
New Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Benefit: Triple Points on Dining the First Friday of Each Month
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card, the card to get if you’re only going to get one rewards card, normally earns double points on travel and dining spend. But double points on dining becomes triple points the first Friday of each month through the rest of 2013. Here’s the news on their Facebook page. They’re apparently co-sponsoring the promotion with OpenTable but there’s no need to book reservations at OpenTable to get the 3x points. Note that the card in this post offers credit to me if you’re approved using my links. I try to offer only the best available cards, and most lucrative deals available for those cards. The opinions, analyses, and evaluations here are mine. The content is not provided or commissioned by American Express, by Chase, by Citibank, US Bank, Bank of America,…
