Apr 26 2015

Many flyers don’t remember that before 9/11 passengers could take two carry on bags onboard. Generally passengers had a free allowance of three bags — and those could be two carry ons and one checked bag, or one carry on and two checked bags.

This changed by government regulation. The TSA wanted fewer bags going through the checkpoint, which meant less screening work, and fewer delays given a fixed throughput at the checkpoint.

Continental Airlines actually pushed back: they had installed higher capacity overhead bins as a customer convenience. Passengers wanted to carry on bags, and they viewed this accommodation as a competitive advantage.

Continue Reading »

Apr 26 2015

A couple of weeks ago the New York Times carried a trend piece on arguments over seat swapping onboard.

I suppose if desires to switch seats are a trend, it’s a function of:

• Fewer seats available for advance assignment, as airlines want customers to pay for ‘premium’ seats (more and more seats are designated as somehow premium even though they aren’t better)
  
• Full planes, so fewer seats left for assignment at time of booking.

Nonetheless, it amazes me how many people don’t secure advance seat assignments, usually on international flights, and this is for people who really care where they sit.

Continue Reading »

Apr 26 2015

American Airlines has consistently revealed key metrics for the AAdvantage frequent flyer program in their 10-K SEC filings. And that let me build a spreadsheet showing how many members of the program there are, how many miles outstanding and redeemed for a given year, and what percentage of miles were accrued through partners rather than from flying.

What we see in the numbers is that American has had success in printing miles, selling them to partners, but also redeeming them. And the number of miles outstanding really hasn’t grown especially quickly over the years. So there’s not a situation of ‘too many miles chasing too few seats’ though if anything at the moment it’s ‘too few seats’.

Continue Reading »

Apr 25 2015

The single greatest sandwich at any airport can be found at Tortas Frontera, at Chicago O’Hare (terminals 1, 3, and 5).

The only downside is that they make the sandwiches fresh, and while they’re generally ready in about 10 minutes I’ve turned up.. had to wait in line.. and been told to expect a 15 minute wait once I’ve been able to order. That can make things dicey on a quick connection – a choice between a delicious choriqueso and risking having to gate check a bag.

Now you no longer need to make that tradeoff…

Continue Reading »

Apr 25 2015

Traveling on separate tickets is sometimes necessary to save money, or to put together award travel. But it presents risks.

If you’re connecting on different airlines with separate tickets, neither airline may be responsible for getting you to your final destination if things go awry. And you may not even be able to check your bags all the way through, either.

Here’s how different US airlines approach the problem, and what you can do to protect yourself.

Continue Reading »

Apr 25 2015

An underappreciated benefit of the Citi Prestige card is that you get your 4th night free on any hotel stay — as many times as you want during the year. Here’s how to take advantage of that benefit, which still gets you points, stay credit, and elite recognition.

Continue Reading »

Apr 25 2015

Size of a city alone isn’t enough to support international air service. Size of the metro area, primary destinations from that area, available aircraft, and concentration of business are much more important. And that’s why Phoenix – the 6th largest city in the US – gets only a single transatlantic flight (and a marginal one for British Airways at that).

Here are key factors airlines use in choosing international flying. And it’s why even when the idea comes up for Phoenix, it gets rejected…

Continue Reading »

Apr 25 2015

Congressman Bill Shuster is in the pocket of the airline industry. And in bed with them, too. Congressional rules allow him to ‘fall in love with’ whomever he wishes. But he shouldn’t continue on as Transportation Committee Chairman.

Continue Reading »

Apr 24 2015

Last week I wrote “No, I Do Not Trust IHG Rewards Club.”

IHG Rewards Club is the loyalty program for Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and related brands. And my ire was prompted by their announcement that they would be changing the redemption categories of a subset of their hotels, but weren’t telling us which ones.

They were doing this at the same time they were announcing there would be changes to their elite program — most of which they wouldn’t tell us until later, but we should trust them those changes will be good — and they announced that points will begin to expire after 12 months of inactivity when in the past IHG Rewards Club points did not expire.

Continue Reading »