Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Northwest Enhances its Website – in a Good Way

by Gary Leff

nwa-planes
Jan 18 2005

Another reason that I picked Northwest for Best Website in the Freddie Awards balloting — they’ve just introduced online redemption for upgrade awards. Most airline programs won’t even tell you when upgrades are available. Most won’t even display their upgrade inventory buckets publicly in the Global Distribution Systems. They keep the information proprietary and you have to call and and waste tremendous amounts of your (and their agents’) time. Sure, there are workarounds. With United you can search for award travel in expert mode and the upgrade buckets appear (e.g. X is the first class upgrade bucket, I is for upgrading to business class). But nothing replaces good ‘ol functionality, and it looks like Northwest has got it.

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Facts about miles

by Gary Leff

airplane
Jan 16 2005

Colloquy summarizes the current state of frequent flyer miles: By the end of 2004, almost 14 trillion frequent flyer miles had been accumulated worldwide. According to a new analysis by The Economist magazine, the global stock is worth more than $700 billion, more than all the US dollar bills in circulation. More than 130 airlines issue them, handing out more than 14-million free flights annually. So many different types of frequent flyer miles are in circulation that consultancies have sprung up in Europe and America devoted solely to helping people get the most of their portfolio. Ravindra Bhagwanani, founder of Frankfurt-based Global Flight Management, said: “[Frequent flyer] miles are a game you have to play. If you want to play a game successfully, you need to know the rules.” …More than 120 million people belong…

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Free Upgrades on ATA

by Gary Leff

american trans air
Jan 06 2005

Bankrupt American Trans Air, working on recovery via cost and schedule cutting, cash from Southwest, and codesharing, is trying to entice bookings by promoting its business class cabin. If you book online at ATA.com by January 10 for travel by February 3, you’ll earn a day of departure business class upgrade certificate (to be mailed after February 3).

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Are Delta’s Frequent Flyer Changes Their Death Knell?

by Gary Leff

delta-airline-plane
Dec 24 2004

Joel Widzer (whose book I reviewed over the summer) doesn’t like the changes to the Delta Skymiles program that I reported on last week. He sees Delta as [c]aving to the protests of its stingiest customers and believes that the changes will “accelerat[e] Delta’s path toward bankruptcy.” I usually start by giving an airline, or any company, the benefit of the doubt – concluding that they know a lot more about their business than I do as a simple armchair observer. Certainly they have more data at their disposal and knowledge of their specific circumstances. It’s hard to do that in the case of a company on the verge of bankruptcy with losses in the 10 figures. But I could have made that same negative assumption about Delta before the announced changes so the simple…

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Independence Air to Operate as United Express again?

by Gary Leff

independence air
Dec 24 2004

It’s still a long-shot, but United requested a bid from Independence Air to operate as a United Express carrier. This is precisely the move being pushed for by Independence Air’s largest shareholder. The Washington Dulles-based low fare carrier has been losing buckets of money and warnings have been issued about a possible bankruptcy filing in January, a mere seven months after starting service as an independent carrier. FlyI used to operate as Atlantic Coast Airlines with most of their flying as the United Express carrier at Dulles and additional activity as a regional carrier for United at Chicago and for Delta at Boston (if I recall correctly, in this last case). The problems they face are several-fold. They decided to sell tickets directly to consumers, bypassing Global Distribution Systems. The model works well for an…

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Accounting and Frequent Flyer Programs

by Gary Leff

alaska airlines
Dec 24 2004

Alaska Air made a $5.2 million accounting error in the third quarter related to its frequent flyer program. They sold a bunch of bonus miles to their partners and booked the revenue. That turns out to have been the problem — because their accounting practices require them to book revenue when the miles are redeemed rather than sold. That simple item may offer a window into the behavior of airlines offering award sales and alternative redemption options. In the case of award sales, customers are encouraged to book award flights they otherwise wouldn’t — allowing the airline to recognize revenue. In the case of alternative redemption options (such as magazines for miles or even points exchanges), the airline gets to book revenue even though it also has a cash cost. In this latter case the…

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Swiss Service Fee

by Gary Leff

swiss airlines
Dec 22 2004

Starting January 3rd, SWISS will begin charging a “Swiss Service Fee” for booking tickets in its home Swiss market – including tickets purchased online. SWISS unveiled its new and more transparent 2005 Distribution Model to the travel sector back in June 2004. Under the new model, the price paid for any SWISS ticket will consist of two components, which will be shown separately on the ticket. The first of these will consist of the fare, all airport user fees and any other flight-related surcharges. The second will be the SWISS Service Fee. The new approach will enable customers to distinguish clearly between the price they pay for their journey by air and the service fee they are charged for the advisory, booking and ticket-issuing services provided by SWISS. Maybe they should charge a higher fare…

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Lufthansa Introduces New Top Tier

by Gary Leff

lufthansa
Dec 16 2004

Lufthansa has announced a new top tier elite level for their frequent flyer program, HON Circle. Link to details are on the airlines homepage. There’s a nice summary in the current MilesLink newsletter. Members who earn at least 600,000 status miles in two consecutive years on Lufthansa, Lufthansa Regional, Austrian, LOT, Air One, Air Dolomiti or United will achieve the status, represented by a sexy new black membership card (up to 100,000 miles earned by rail travel will count toward the status, as well). …Members will enjoy use of the new first-class terminal and two new first class lounges at Frankfurt, which offer gourmet meals and limousine service to departing flights. A personal assistant will be available at both departure and arrival for each member. Members will also receive free subscriptions to Stern, Financial Times,…

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