That was fast! This morning I blogged that Delta had eliminated close-in booking fees for awards. No longer would Delta charge its customers to book awards less than 21 days in advance, following the move United made last summer. But now the fees are back! They’re waived for Platinum and Diamond elites and for American Express co-branded Delta Platinum and Reserve credit card holders. But everyone else will pay the fees. And the fees have gone up, they’re now as much as $150. Should’ve known that there wouldn’t actually be a customer-friendly move coming out of Delta.
Will the British Midland Diamond Club Be Folded into Miles & More… on May 16?
For almost two years there’s been speculation that the bmi program would be ending, folded into Lufthansa. It’s seen some changes, like increases in the cost of first class awards and a premium for first class on Lufthansa (likely because Lufthansa First was so darned available). The speculation really heated up of late, although it was mostly centered on increased costs for the award chart. But today there’s a fast-moving Flyertalk thread which caused me to log into my own (elite) bmi account. When I log into my bmi Diamond Club account, there’s a link on the left hand navigation that says “Miles and More” — click on it and the text reads: Thank you for registering for the status match and miles transfer offer, from the Diamond Club frequent flyer programme to the Miles…
The TSA’s Wise Use of Resources, or How They’re Spending Your Money to Protect You
Flyertalk member GUWonder points to a TSA procurement solicitation for new uniforms. It’s a $2.6 million contract with options up to $98 million and estimated spending of $11 million to $13 million per year. Superguy reads the document and shares these details: Provide uniform items to approximately 12,000 new hire TSOs TSA revises the uniforms in some form at least every 2-3 years. Standard issue includes a team jacket (Go TSA!) Commando sweaters (whatever those are – might explain a lot), parkas, ball caps, and knit stocking caps are optional items Looking for designs for the following: Raincoats, gloves, multiple shoe/boot choices, cardigan sweater, Honor Guard items – headgear, white gloves, aiguillettes, ascots, corfam shoes, belts, and cargo pants These uniforms will be at least as effective as, if not more effective than, Whole Body…
Delta Eliminates Close-in Award Redemption Fees
Delta has eliminated their close-in award booking fees. So no more charges for booking award tickets less than three weeks prior to travel. United eliminated these fees last summer. Delta takes a lot of heat for me here over their poor award availability, especially in premium classes, for their very much broken award pricing engine and website functionality, and for refusing to even publish an award chart for trips that originate outside of North America. So this is a rare positive move from the Skymiles program, and one that deserves some applause. What’s more, and confusingly, it was done without fanfare. The fees were in place as recently as Monday, and now they’re gone, and I haven’t seen any comment from Delta on the development at all. Naturally, it was noticed on Flyertalk. American still…
US AIrways Double Elite AND Redeemable Miles Through June 15
US Airways is offering double miles that also count towards status through June 15. Double elite quaifying miles offers don’t usually also earn double redeemable miles. But the offer does overlap Southwest’s double credits offer (and lasts a couple more weeks). Registration is required and the offer applies only to tickets issued after registration. And as usual for these sorts of promos, the offer applies only to flights on the airline’s own metal (and Express carriers) but not to partner airline flights. This offer does make it a little more likely that American and then United could do double elite qualifying miles offers over a similar period. But a little more likely doesn’t mean it will happen and I’m guessing that US Airways won’t be enough to trigger the big boys’ reactions. It would take…
Double, Triple, and Quadruple Checking Third Party and Partner Reservations
Cranky Flier relays a story about booking what appeared to be a premium class fare online but learning that the operating carrier saw the reservation as being in coach. In all likelihood the issue is driven by the website booking a fare class that it though was in a premium cabin, but that the airline considers to be a coach fare. Cranky’s general advice for this situation is sound: Always double check with your airline after booking through an online travel agent to make sure everything is in order. I’d actually expand this a bit. This is true for third party bookings. It’s also true for flights involving partner carriers, whether ticketed by one airline but involving a flight on another or involving a code share, and especially with partner award tickets. I once booked…
A 12-Year Old Boy Visits Air Canada’s Transborder Lounge in Toronto
I’ve visited this lounge twice in two weeks, both times around breakfast. It’s perfectly well-provisioned for what it is, which is unimpressive by international standards but certainly better than a red carpet room. It was busy, though with plenty of seating, certainly clean and staff were visibly picking up after folks and restocking the modest breakfast selections. I took a walk over to the restrooms and was reasonably impressed. But it was the shower room signs that stuck with me. Heh Heh. That sign’s cool, Beavis.
The ‘Almost Nice’ Fairmont Royal York
I spent this past weekend at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. This was from the United Vacations $600 off a $700+ Canada package from back in December. For $550 all-in I got 2 roundtrip tickets to Toronto (with 5000 bonus United miles apiece) and 3-nights at the Fairmont Royal York. We’re upgraded to a suite and we get complimentary internet as Fairmont Presidents Club members. And breakfast was a throw-in as well. I checked in, our suite was confirmed, but they didn’t see breakfast in the system. The desk clerk added it without argument. The paperwork had said breakfast was to be taken in “York’s Kitchen” restaurant. We asked the concierge where that was and were directed down to the basement level shopping arcade. We found the restaurant, but it was closed that first…
Chris Elliott Thinks Award Redeposit Fees are Unfair, or Too Expensive, or Something
Chris Elliott rails against US AIrways for their award redeposit fees. Award tickets are not free. Victoria Casey knew that when she made plans to fly to Europe on US Airways this summer. Each reservation cost her $50, in addition to the 320,000 miles she spent for four first-class tickets. But Casey never imagined she’s be paying the airline for nothing — and paying it a lot more than $200. Hers is a cautionary tale about the value of frequent flier mileage programs. Yes, frequent flyer programs are some sort of trap to suck out your money. Granted, US Airways charges award ‘processing fees’ in this case the $200 referenced above for 4 tickets. That does strike me as unreasonable, a fee for the privilege of booking a free ticket. And that’s entirely apart from…
The Bottom Line on Delta’s New “Sky Priority”
Delta elites above the silver level, Skyteam Elite Plus members, and business class passengers get, wait for it… “Sky Priority!” Gee whiz, what is that? Well, it’s mostly (a) what they already get and (b) marketing schmaltz. It was announced on Flyertalk and they’ve created a website to promote it. And all it is is.. new branded signage and banners across Delta’s websites and in the airports, “we try to get you on your way in under 10 minutes” when checking in for folks who already get priority checkin, dedicated elite security lines where those already exist, priority boarding, priority baggage tags (“we’ll try to do better with that going forward…”), and special phone lines for lost baggage. In other words, elite benefits! The Wandering Aramean reports on the one actual improvement to this offering:…
