Tommy passes along an article on Southwest’s plans for Atlanta, which suggests that Atlanta could become the carrier’s biggest city. His note with the link? “The end of bag fees.” Intriguing argument, one not made in the piece. But Southwest merger partner has over 200 flights daily in Atlanta, Southwest has only about 10% more than that in its biggest city, Las Vegas. If Southwest goes to war in Atlanta, and maintains its baggage fee stance, and if that shifts customers away from Delta then one possible competitive response is for Delta to drop baggage fees. Hard to imagine they could do so just in Atlanta. If they did it systemwide other majors would surely have to follow. So far, so good. And I’ve long suspected that while baggage fees have added some revenue to…
Outstanding Accor Hotels Sale
Outsourced to Lucky: Accor’s annual 50% off sale is back for the next few days. Bookings must be made between October 27 and November 1 for A-Club members, and between October 29 and November 1 for non-members. The promotion is valid for stays between December 12 and February 12. This is about as gimmick-free of a promotion as you’ll find. They take the best flexible rate and charge you half of it. The only catch is that the rate is non-refundable. Combined with this Flyertalk discussion on how to get free Platinum status in their loyalty program, this is an exceptionally interesting promo.
AutoSlash Will Now Help Reduce the Price of Car Rentals You’ve Booked Through Other Websites
Back in June I recommended a new car rental booking website, AutoSlash. And it’s really great — they search not just published rates like every other website, but they also search, test, and apply publicly available coupons and discount codes in order to get the best price. And that’s not all, they keep tracking your reservation to see if they can find a lower price and they email you if they do for permission to make the change. However, the site does have limitations, they don’t cover all of the major booking agencies. So they haven’t been the true killer app — until now. They’ve added a new feature, Track a Rental You’ve Already Booked. If you book your car rental on another website (like Expedia or the Avis website), you can either enter your…
Answer the Priority Club Challenge for 2000 Points (And I Give You the Answer!)
Last week I prompted y’all with the answer to the ‘Priority Club Challenge’ — guessing a location based on clues to earn 2000 points. And now the Challenge is back for its final week. And the Flyertalk consensus answer seems to be Paphos, Cyprus. (Hat tip to jb831 in the comments.)
United’s Check-in Kiosks Really Aren’t That Useful to Sighted People, Either….
The National Federation for the Blind has initiated a class action lawsuit against United Airlines because United’s check-in kiosks cannot be used by blind passengers. The complaint itself was shot over to me via Twitter. The lawsuit alleges violations of California law and I’m not familiar with the nuances of the California Disabled Persons Act or California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act. So I can’t speak to this as a matter of law. But this seems rather frivolous to me. To wit, Mr. Easy Check-in as I’ve long called him is really not all that useful to passengers to begin with. In fact, I don’t recall the last time I used him, and I am fully capable of seeing and using his screens. I use united.bomb and their airport personnel. Who are fully available to assist…
1000 Miles for Joining US Airways Dividend Miles
US Airways is offering 1000 miles to new members for joining by December 31 using promo code NMCB. Members who join under this promotion and book a ticket within 60 days using a Mastercard will earn an additional 2000 miles.
Venetian (and Palazzo) to Join Priority Club
VegasChatter has the news that the Venetian and Palazzo in Las Vegas have entered into a 10-year agreement with Intercontinental Hotels Group. The property will be bookable on the Intercontinental website and will be eligible for earning and burning Priority Club points. Otherwise, the hotels will maintain their own identities. Which tells me they won’t become Intercontinental properties (no stellar Royal Ambassador upgrade benefits and free minibar!). More generally, while time will tell whether they honor any Priority Club elite benefits at all, Priority Club’s platinum level isn’t especially rewarding to begin with so this won’t be a major driver for the elite-status crowd. Still, the opportunity for points earn and burn at better properties in Vegas is certainly welcomed, as the Wynn and Bellagio for instance offer no such conventional chain loyalty opportunities. Traditionally…
Delta Execs Share their Views of and Plans for the Skymiles Programs
Yesterday I posted links to notes on presentations by Delta Executives to members of Flyertalk. Since I’m not really much of a Delta flyer, the specifics weren’t hugely engaging for me, but I passed them along for those of you out there hub-captive to Delta for whom the nitty gritty of the Delta experience matters a great deal. Flyertalk member ND76 has posted notes of a couple more presentations, and these are much more up my alley. Bob Kupbens is Vice President of e-commerce and offered significant feedback on the airline’s IT priorities. I was most interested in the following comment: 16. When award calendar showed up on the screen, the house almost came down. There will be a new look to the award calendar by end of first quarter 2011, with emphasis on accuracy…
Notes from Delta Management’s Presentations to Flyertalkers
Delta hosted an event for Flyertalkers, and ND76 took notes of some of the presentations and posted them in Flyertalk’s Delta forum. I’m not a big Delta guy as regular readers know, but those who are may find these presentation notes interesting: Richard Anderson, CEO Tim Mapes, Sr. Vice President of Marketing Sandy Gordon, Vice President of Inflight Services Neil Stronach, Vice-President of Operations, Planning, Control and Reliability
US Airways Award Chart Giveth… and US Airways Award Chart Taketh Away
In the neverending saga of US Airways award zone adjustments, after just last week definitively moving Thailand to their North Asia region (thus reducing the cost of US-Thailand awards in business class by 30,000 miles and in first class by 40,000 miles!), they’ve once again updated their partner award chart (.pdf) and it’s now back in South Asia. In the first iteration they moved Russia from North Asia to Europe. Ok, no more Moscow – Frankfurt – Seoul first class roundtrips for 40,000 miles. Fair enough. And they listed Thailand and the Philippines under both North Asia and South Asia, instead of just South Asia where they had previously resided. Then US Airways corrected the double listing mistake, moving Thailand and the Philippines to North Asia only. And now they’ve moved both countries back to…
