Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

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.

It pays to be a procrastinator

by Gary Leff on March 8, 2006

Mar 08 2006

Last month I reported that American Airlines was offering 2500 miles for test driving a Lincoln. (250 miles also on offer for watching a video about Lincoln.) Now they’ve upped the offer to 5000 miles for a test drive (and 50,000 miles for purchase, along with the original 250 miles for watching the video). I’ll finally get off my duff and go for a test drive this weekend! The new 5000 mile offer does say that it was targeted, though I have no idea if there’s actually a way for them to check who got this in their American Airlines eSummary. You might just use the old 2500 mile offer, but I’m going to use the new one.

Alaska to Pull Out of Dulles

by Gary Leff on February 25, 2006

Feb 25 2006

Alaska Airlines is pulling out of the Seattle-Washington Dulles market on June 4. This is a bummer because the Dulles outbound was the only way to connect in Seattle to the last Juneau non-stop of the day. DC-Juneau will now require a double-connection. I know this probably doesn’t affect more than a handful of people in the world, but it’s still disappointing. I am confused though about Alaska’s rationale, which includes both longer ground times to pad their schedules and improve reliability systemwide (which would imply lower aircraft utilizastion) and redeploying this aircraft on more profitable routes. It’s not clear to me that they can reasonably accomplish both. I do suspect, though, that there are real cost savings to be had by shuttering a marginal station. They have only one Dulles flight now but have…

USAirways/America West Extends Elite Status

by Gary Leff on February 11, 2006

Feb 11 2006

USAirways and America West haven’t quite gotten their act together combining their two frequent flyer programs. They don’t want to send out new elite membership cards under the old programs and can’t send out new cards under the combined programs (which count status from having flown both airlines) until they’re further along with integration. So they’re extending everyone’s elite status in the meantime. If your status was set to expire or be downgraded on February 28th, you have a reprieve. If you were counting on combining last year’s flying from both carriers to boost your status, you’ll have to wait. An email like the following was sent to current elite members: As a valued Gold Elite member, we want to make you aware of some important information about your membership. The new Dividend Miles program…

United CFO’s Presentation to Bond Investors

by Gary Leff on February 9, 2006

Feb 09 2006

Pursuant to Regulation FD, United filed its presentation to the JPMorgan Annual High Yield Conference with the SEC. It makes for interesting reading. United has cut labor costs per available seat mile by 32%. Only USAirways — which went through two bankruptcies — has gone further. Northwest, just entering the bankruptcy process, has only cut their labor costs 3% over the same period of time. Northwest has the highest costs of any major carrier. Shocker — United has far less debt after bankruptcy. The reduction is all centered around rejecting pensions, retirement benefits, and some leases. Playing with numbers — United compares its operating margins with Southwest’s by removing Southwest’s fuel hedges. Going forward United plans to de-peak hubs (more continuous flow of aircraft so they don’t pay people to sit around, people wait for…