Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Choices: The End of Award History and the Last Mile?

by Gary Leff on June 18, 2006

Jun 18 2006

I’ve probably undercovered the introduction of the Mileage Plus Choices program (okay, I’ve undercovered everything since I haven’t had the time or brainspace to post for the last couple of weeks). The June 2006 issue of Inside Flyer calls the Choices program “The New Golden Egg” so it certainly warrants a mention, though I’m not nearly as high on it as Randy Petersen seems to be. United’s new bombshell, Mileage Plus Choices, means looking at the future of frequent flyer programs in a whole new way. The “Choices” program allows United Visa cardholders to use the portion of their miles earned through their credit card as a form of cash to buy airline tickets, hotel nights, or rental car days (along with a few specialty items) with their miles. The program is incredibly confusing at…

Finally Able to Earn United Miles on America West (er USAirways) flights

by Gary Leff on May 26, 2006

May 26 2006

Effective this past Saturday, May 20, United Mileage Plus members earn miles on “USAirways West” — USAirways flights operated under the America West flight certificate. This ends one of the more confusing mileage accrual issues in recent times, where USAirways is a member of Star Alliance and a partner of United’s but a sizable portion of USAirways flights were ineligible for United mileage accrual because they were ‘really’ America West flights operating under the USAirways name — meaning they were old America West flights, operating under the old America West flight certificate, and America West was not a United partner even though the company was merged into one and now called USAirways and the flights were sold as USAirways flights. Mergers are indeed messy things, and in this case quite customer unfriendly. That piece of…

USAirways/America West Merger Takes Another Step

by Gary Leff on May 22, 2006

May 22 2006

Both USAirways.com and AmericaWest.com now both direct you to the same, new website. It looks like a rocky transition, the website was put up before it was ready. Some Flyertalkers are reporting that the merger of their frequent flyer accounts is a mess, with their status being downgraded. Others see miles missing from their accounts. Some attempted ticket purchases either are or are no going through, or in some cases going through without notice to the traveler (so they’ve bought tickets but need to call the airline to find out, and even the airline representatives take awhile to figure out that yes, indeed, a ticket has been purchased). Developing…

25,000 American Mile Signup Bonus for New Mastercard

by Gary Leff on May 18, 2006

May 18 2006

Citibank is offering 25,000 American Airlines miles for purchases of $250 or more on a new American Mastercard. It’s today’s (day 18) American AAdvantage 25th Anniversary offer, though I owe the heads up to the indispensable free MilesLink newsletter. I still like the 20,000 mile offer better because it comes with fee waived the first year, and a simple $1 gas purchase will trigger the bonus. The 25,000 mile offer’s $85 fee comes immediately, so you’re paying 1.7 cents a mile for the incremental 5000 miles. Update: the offer mentioned in MilesLink and today’s AAdvantage25 offer are different. The former is 25,000 miles for $250 in spend and an $85 annual fee. The latter is 25,000 miles for $250 in spend and fee waived the first year. In theory you have to apply today to…

Alaska Airlines Updates

by Gary Leff on May 5, 2006

May 05 2006

A Flyertalk member posted a summary of Wednesday’s Alaska Airlines MVP Gold lunch in Anchorage. (Alaska regularly hosts gatherings for their top tier elites.) Key points:A new Platinum top tier will be introduced in 2008, requiring 70,000 to 80,000 miles. MVP Gold “Guest Upgrade” certificates will be going electronic in 2007 (bye bye, eBay). Alaska’s website can now book partner awards on Delta. Alaska will be introducing a new destination that members “will really like.” Rumors have been flying for a long time about Hawaii, but this is hardly confirmation of that. (Alaska’s 737s can make the jaunt…)

Northwest Gets One Right

by Gary Leff on April 22, 2006

Apr 22 2006

Last month Northwest began charging $15 to pre-reserve its best (sic) coach seats. Now they’ve relented and decided not to charge this fee to elite members. One benefit has always been blocking the better coach seats for elites. There’s not really much in the way of ‘better’ coach seats on Northwest, unlike United which offers elites extra legroom at the front of the coach cabin. But all of a sudden non-elites could take these seats for $15, and even elites had to pay. (Bizarrely under the scheme, elites would get upgraded to first class but still be charged extra money for cruddy the coach seating they had pre-reserved.) Now Northwest says they’ll still reserve some of these seats exclusively for elites and won’t charge elites for ‘coach choice’ seating. It’s a small victory, a very…

United Eviscerates its Award Chart

by Gary Leff on April 21, 2006

Apr 21 2006

I’m pleasantly ensconced in the Diplomatic Suite at the Intercontinental Bangkok, but this news is important enough to say some things about before I head out to dinner. United has announced changes to its frequent flyer program, which are pretty much all bad. They begin by announcing new “Domestic Short Haul Saver Awards” — these are short flights that require 15,000 miles in coach instead of 25,000 miles. United has actually been offering these for some time now, and the announcement is that the benefit is being reduced not introduced. Previously the reduced mileage was applicable to flights of 750 miles or less. Now it applies only to flights of 700 miles or less. What difference does 50 miles make? Just ask New Yorkers. LaGuardia-Chicago is 733 miles. Newark-Chicago is 719 miles. Since the awards…

Anyone can open a British Airways Executive Club account

by Gary Leff on March 28, 2006

Mar 28 2006

Some time ago British Airways stopped allowing people to open frequent flyer accounts. Strange, I know. You had to book a full fare coach ticket to be eligible to join Executive Club (and then discount coach tickets still only earn a fraction of flown mileage). At the time I advised folks to just go ahead and open British Airways accounts ‘just in case’. You never know when you might need one, such as when Jaguar was offering 10,000 miles for a test drive (and since you can combine 4 accounts in a household, you could earn 40,000 miles from the simple promotion). It turns out that another way to get a British Airways account is to get a co-branded British Airways Visa. After all, the points you earn from that Visa need somewhere to go.…

Northwest lies about the advantages of charging for premium coach seats.

by Gary Leff on March 21, 2006

Mar 21 2006

Last week I mentioned that I didn’t think Northwest’s move to charge for ‘premium’ seats in coach (which, outside of exit rows, aren’t in any way actually better) was a big deal. For infrequent flyers it’s neutral or a positive, the opportunity to access seats — though not meaningfully better — otherwise were mostly available to Northwest elites. For frequent flyers it’s more or less a non-issue: if you’re regularly flying Northwest and spending much time at all in coach you should be changing airlines. The only positive Northwest has is its domestic upgrade program, which isn’t just complimentary but also something they regularly deliver on. Still, charging elites for something they used to get for free (without even anything new offered up in return) is never a good thing. But what really irks me…

Northwest Elite Status for Asia Residents

by Gary Leff on March 19, 2006

Mar 19 2006

Northwest is again explicitly targeting Asia-Pacific frequent flyers with offers of an elite status match. Details are rather scarce on the website, certainly they’ll match up to Gold (mid-tier) but I wonder whether they’ll go to Platinum since they’re looking for any possible incremental revenue while in bankruptcy. Presumably matched status will last through the end of the year. No information is provided on what documentation is required of your existing status levels.In all likelihood this will operate in a similar manner as when they offered it in 2005, detailed discussion of which can be found at Flyertalk.com.