News and Notes from Around the Interweb:
- One 787 was allowed to fly yesterday.
- Some Singapore Airlines flights are offering 2 saver seats in ‘suites class’ (redeemable with Singapore’s miles, which can be reasonably transferred in from Membership Rewards or Starwood). Currently these awards can be found on routes to and from London, Melbourne, Paris, Sydney, and Zurich.
- Lucky reports the news of Air Canada’s new business class seat, the introduction of premium economy, and squeezing 10 across instead of 9 in their 777 economy cabin.
- Another Alitalia discount, this time 20% off but excludes USA, Canada, UK, France, Holland, and Libya. Book by February 13 for travel between April 5 and May 31.
- Points on the Dollar doesn’t like Travelocity’s price guarantee for airline tickets.
sort of off-topic question to the Points on the Dollar rant… how long does it take for you guys for your travelocity purchase to show up in your Chase UR? mine has been over 10 days… still nothing, should i be concerned? it was a pricey ticket…
I booked two flights last month. The first (the Hawaiian Airlines flight discussed in the article) was booked on January 20th, and I received an email from Chase confirming the bonus points on January 24th. The second was booked on January 25th, and I received a confirmation email on the 31st.
Related to the Air Canada news, I have always wanted to see a comparison of business class products from a space/economic perspective. That is, looking at the different styles (herringbone, reverse, recliners, side-by-side, thrones, etc.) how much floor space does each take up, how many will fit in a given cabin, and how does this density affect the choice of product by the airline?
For example, AC is going from 24 to 36 seats in the forward business cabin, so the new configuration must have a higher density. Is there a standard metric for this (sqft/pax or something)? Interestingly, most people I know seem to like the staggered (e.g. Swiss) seat better than the herringbone anyways.
I’d love to see you or Cranky do an analysis on this. Maybe a joint post?
Well, David at Points on the Dollar can stop kicking himself so much over the Travelocity fiasco. Hawaiian, like most airlines, charges a $150 per ticket change fee for adjusting the price of nonrefundable tickets to a new lower fare, because the adjustment is considered a ticket reissue. So he only lost out on $100 net. ($400 lower fare – $300 in change fees.) It’s published right on their website and I speak from experience on this as well.
His underlying point is a good one, though: always book directly with the airline. It goes beyond this one issue, too. If your flights are delayed, changed or cancelled, it is MUCH easier to deal with the airline directly, instead of calling Travelocity and trying to convince someone in an international call center to help you get booked onto new flights.
That’s interesting… though I continue to kick myself because I was explicitly told by the Hawaiian rep that I would have received a $400 voucher if I had booked directly through Hawaiian, and I have received vouchers for much smaller differences twice before (it was years ago, but I think the vouchers were issued by United and Delta).
Perhaps it’s because the change fee, per Hawaiian’s website, only applies to “date/flight or reroute changes” and the adjustment I requested does not fall within any of these categories, or perhaps the reps that I have dealt with were simply waiving the fee as a courtesy.