A couple of weeks ago going through Dulles airport I opted out of the nude-o-scope, and the TSO that had been called over for my screening was clearly uncomfortable with giving me the full body rub and was trying to motion me to just go through the metal detector. But the guy who sent me over for the rub down was still watching, so he couldn’t get away with it. After I offered some bawdy talk about the process the screener became so visibly uncomfortable that he gave me the old-style pat down instead of the required enhanced one and sent me on my way. Usually I manage to avoid the scanner by hanging back, fiddling with my stuff, so that I go through the checkpoint right after someone else has been sent in. And…
Thanksgiving in Mumbai: Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt
Our transatlantic flight touched down on time and fortunately came into an “A” gate which meant the trip over to the First Class Terminal was going to be an easy one. The special terminal is really intended for first class passengers originating in Frankfurt only, and certainly the path of least resistance is to use a First Class Lounge since you’re already airside and most won’t want to actually go through passport control to enter Germany in order to visit the First Class Terminal. Especially since the First Class Lounges are actually quite similar. The First Class Lounge in the A terminal, which I visited on my return trip, has the same design elements and the same food and better views. The First Class Lounge in the B terminal even has a car service that’ll…
Thanksgiving in Mumbai: Washington Dulles – Frankfurt in Lufthansa First Class
Upon boarding, a flight attendant distributed amenity kit, pajamas, and slippers and immediately brought a choice of beverage and nuts to munch on while the rest of the aircraft got settled. I was struck by how modest the amenity kit has become, really just a single liquid item. The contents of the mens and womens bags were similar though the bags themselves were more pedestrian and understated for men and more designed for women. Still, my wife tells me that the quality of the contents is high. I had come to the airport in fairly relaxed uniform, prepared for an overnight flight, so I stuck the PJs in my bag and settled in. This flight had just one other person in first class. Sadly not an entire upper deck to ourselves, but close. As we…
Airtran Adds Complimentary Upgrade Benefit for Elite Members… Before Removing the Front Cabin from their Planes
This Flyertalk thread discusses a new Airtran procedure. Airtran elite members have long been able to confirm upgrades to the front cabin for a fee a day in advance, subject to availability. And while as far as I know complimentary upgrades were not a formal benefit of the program, they usually happened at the gate — but you’d have to ask the gate agent to upgrade you. I was an Airtran elite years ago, they ran a status match promo and I sent in my elite credentials from another airline. Used to be that Airtran elite status was lifetime, once obtained it was never taken away. So I had my Airtran status for years, though I only used it a handful of times. I never sat in back. It came out on Flyertalk that elites…
Why Has Starwood Allowed the Competition to Catch Up to It?
I’ve given Starwood Preferred Guest a bit of a hard time in recent posts. And I stand by everything that I’ve said — that their unique value propositions have been eroded. They were once head and shoulders above the pack but I believe they’d fallen behind Hyatt Gold Passport and they aren’t quite as unique in differentiating themselves from the rest of the field, either. Still, I’d certainly rather be a Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum than a Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond, or Priority Club Platinum. I don’t think that Starwood has really intentionally rested on their laurels. It’s really just speculation, based on personal observation rather than direct knowledge of their financials, but my sense is that the program has the highest cost structure of any of the major hotel loyalty offerings. When Starwood Preferred…
Free $10 Per Night Priceline ‘Bonus Cash’
Priceline is offering ‘bonus cash’ for watching a video. Just watch (or let the video run in the background) and a green button appears that says “GET BONUS CASH NOW.” You’ll be prompted to log into your account and Priceline will deposit a coupon which will add $10 per night on top of whatever you bid on a stay of up to 5 nights. It doesn’t REDUCE the price you are charged. If you bid $50 for a hotel, Priceline will act as though you bid $60. You’ll be charged the price you bid, in this example $50 per night plus taxes and fees. But your bid will be accepted or rejected on the basis of $60 per night. So you’ll use the coupon to bid $10 less than you otherwise would have. The coupon…
Something Big on the Horizon for Starwood Preferred Guest?
Flyertalk’s Starwood Lurker is ‘teasing us’ with the tagline, Guess what’s next? in his signature appended to all of his posts. There’s even a Flyertalk thread dedicated to guessing what’s next. And William does helpfully tell us in that thread that ‘what’s next’ does not refer to the return of peak season increased redemption rates for category 5, 6, and 7 properties. Now, the last time Starwood built up suspense for a big announcement, all they had was SPG Flights, the option to redeem flights for air travel directly rather than through mileage transfers. A benefit I would never, ever take advantage of, the value proposition is simply poor (though I’ll never complain about new added options for members, this one was simply not one to get excited about). Personally though, in spite of being…
Starwood Brings Back Peak Season Points Redemption Surcharges for Most Expensive Hotels
For the past two years Starwood has ‘suspended’ peak season surcharges, where they charge extra points for up to 16 weeks a year for category 5, 6, and 7 hotels. They’ve cited the overall economy and room rates as the reason for the decision, and it was a real boon to members. Each hotel in the upper 3 redemption categories gets to declare what dates are their peak season and members are charged: 16,000 points per night instead of 12,000 for category 5 (33% upcharge) 25,000 points per night instead of 20,000 for category 6 (25% upcharge) 35,000 points per night instead of 30,000 for category 7 (17% upcharge) But in 2009 and 2010 the practice was suspended. However, it’s back and Starwood has announced peak season dates that hotels have submitted for 2011 and…
Thanksgiving in Mumbai: Washington Dulles and the Lufthansa Senator Lounge
I decided to have my Thanksgiving dinner with Indians, so my wife and I went to India. She expressed a strong preference against my usual ‘let’s try out new flight product’ approach, and I didn’t take the opportunity to fly Turkish first to Istanbul or fly the new Swiss first (hop up to Montreal..). Instead we made the flight with just two flights in each direction, 3 segments in first class on Lufthansa and a final flight home in first on United. I’ve actually been a fan of the Lufthansa first class product, it’s old and dated but certainly comfortable. But it’s sure wearing thin. And the United product, well, we’ll get to that. I was flying the old United first. I haven’t flown it internationally in 3 years. At first it seemed familiar, like…
Air Traffic Delays Cause Significant Economic Harm, and How to Solve Them
Sean from the Budget Travel blog passes along this post on the economic cost of flight delays. I was actually surprised by the quality of the analysis in the post about the FAA-commissioned academic study. The study itself concludes Passengers lose about $16 billion a year because of “schedule buffer, delayed flights, flight cancellations, and missed connections. But there are real differences between the various causes of delays, and while each is costly it’s not really useful to talk about ‘schedule buffer’ along with delays and of course missed connections are mostly a function of delays and cancellations, and are minimized by schedule buffer. Sean points to air traffic control as the biggest driver of the problem, citing the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General, and that gets it right. Of course plenty of operational factors…
