Cranky Flier offers a really interesting chart on airline per-passenger food spending over the past 20 years. The drop in food spend during the current decade is even bigger than the chart makes it appear, because the figures aren’t adjusted for inflation. United spends the most on food, with their large international premium cabins and large domestic aircraft flying cross country routes. And that’s before the recent improvement in onboard offerings. And as Cranky observes, and as in everything else, United does what American does and vice versa.
Phoenix and Scottsdale Dining
A couple years back, Randy Petersen treated Flyertalk’s member-elected Board to dinner at Cowboy Ciao in Scottsdale. I much enjoyed the meal and decided to return for lunch. Here’s the menu: As an appetizer I ordered the Crispy Mac ‘n Cheese with white cheddar, bacon, tomato/chile salsa. It could have used a bit of salt, but was otherwise good. The salsa strangely reminded me of Pace Picante Sauce, though with a slight kick. I ordered a sandwich to follow the entrée, but the waitress misheard and thought I ordered the risotto. She was most apologetic, but left the Short Rib Risotto with asparagus, pecorino romano, and truffle oil rather than bringing it back to the kitchen so that I could try it. Again, a bit undersalted but otherwise interesting, creative, and delicious. I ate many…
Intercontinental Montelucia Resort & Spa, Paradise Valley Arizona
On arrival in Phoenix I took the airport rental car bus over to the shared rental center, where Avis had waiting for me a brand new Cadillac with 3 miles on it. And off we went to the Intercontinental Montelucia Resort & Spa. I had booked the Facebook promo $99 per night rate with a $25 daily room credit. This booked into the lowest category room, but I was given a first floor Oasis Village Suite (room 501). My reservation became inaccessible online shortly after I had booked it, presumably due to the room type change being made long in advance as a Royal Ambassador. We arrived and found valet parking $15, apparently reduced over the summer, though self-parking is also almost as convenient. Walking into the resort it’s not entirely clear where reception is,…
Complimentary Offbeat Travel Guide from Starwood Preferred Guest
Starwood is partnering with Offbeat Guides to provide complimentary travel guides. This Flyertalk thread suggests it is for people who have earned free weekend nights from the current promotion, and it’s suggested you’re supposed to get one free guide for each free night earned. But in fact once you enter a Starwood number, anyone can customize and email themselves a .pdf travel guide. And in fact the link doesn’t appear to say it’s limited to anyone in particular. You’re asked for your Starwood member number, then your destination and origin cities. It’ll ask for your travel dates in order to customize your guide based on specific events during your travels. And then you have the option to specify the Starwood property you’re staying at, but you can leave that blank. Then you’ll be e-mailed a…
The Beauty of Air Canada Aeroplan’s Routing Rules and “Mini Round the World” Award Itineraries
I’ve written in the past about how much I like working with Air Canada Aeroplan, but an award that I booked yesterday really illustrates the power of those miles. Their award chart is on the whole pretty good, 80,000 miles for business class from North American to nearer points in Europe and 100,000 in first. For farther destinations like Greece it’s 100,000 and 120,000. A value on some destinations, competitive for others. South Asia — as far south as Singapore — is 120,000 miles in first class. Great value on its own, but where Aeroplan really shines is the routing rules: Up to 10 segments (not overly generous, but not cumbersome either) Transit either the Atlantic or the Pacific, or one ocean in each direction (round-the-world) Two stopovers — or a stopover and an open…
Department of Totally Obvious Unintended Consequences
Scott Mayerowitz details the first month consequences new rule on tarmac delays. With steep fines of up to $27,500 per passenger when a flight delays three or more hours on the tarmac, airlines are cancelling flights instead of risking coming out of pocket very deeply. Airlines appear now to be canceling more flights rather than risk multi-million dollar fines for keeping passengers stuck on the tarmac for three hours or more. While passengers won’t be trapped in hot, crowded jets for hours on end, they might be stuck waiting in terminals even longer, and getting to their destination hours, maybe even days later. Only five domestic flights in May waited on the tarmac for more than three hours, according to new data from the Department of Transportation. That’s down from 34 planes last May. At…
Could Virgin Group Start its Own Airline Alliance?
Wendy Perrin interviews Sir Richard Branson, who answers Steve Belkin’s question and says he would consider starting his own alliance. Steve imagines a world where Virgin hooks up with “Etihad Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Alaska Airlines, El Al…” I usually leave the industry commentary to Cranky Flier except where it touches on those things I’m uniquely positioned to speak on. But Wendy Tweeted this interview to me, and I couldn’t help but add my two pence. Virgin really is ‘left out’ of the current alliance game. They’re not joining oneworld, anchored in Europe by British Airways. Though they are 49% owned by Singapore, Star Alliance is pretty well anchored in Europe with Lufthansa and Miles & More partners Swiss, Brussels, Austrian, and soon-to-be British Midland.. in addition to LOT and Scandinavian, Croatian, Aegean, et al. That…
My So-Called Travel Life
I’ve had a few recent comments on here on the blog suggesting that I’m out of touch from my readers, that all I do is flying international premium cabins. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of my travels are really quite mundane, average experiences – not average for the leisure traveler flying once a year with family perhaps, but average for the frequent flyer I turn up for my domestic flight about an hour before departure. I pass through security like everyone else, though I certainly have my routines. Maybe there’s an elite line, maybe not, but lines are rarely bad when.I fly. If I’m not wearing a jacket I don’t even use a bin. I use a checkpoint flyer laptop bag, so I unclip it so it lays flat. Laptop doesn’t come…
Delta Reverses Themselves On Minimum Stay Requirements for Award Tickets…. Maybe
A week ago I posted that Delta planned to implement minimum stay requirements on award tickets booked at the ‘low’ (aka standard) level within 21 days of departure. The change was posted on their website as coming in August. A reliable source, who knows much more about these things than I do, emailed to let me know that the change had been pulled from Delta.com. And indeed, it’s gone off the page. I do not yet know if (1) they’ve reconsidered the decision after bad publicity, (2) it was just posted before they had intended to roll out the change, or perhasp (3) the change is being pushed back because the IT systems weren’t ready to implement it. This isn’t the first time that information has disappeared into a memory hole on the Delta site.…
The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Three Airline Alliances, or the Wall Street Journal Covers United Starnet Blocking
Scott McCartney‘s “Middle Seat” column in the Wall Street Journal today focuses on the benefits of alliances. The action, as Scott rightly notes, is all in upgrades, lounge access, and mileage accrual and redemption. He points out that oneworld top tier elites have access to first class lounges, not just business lounges, but that oneworld doesn’t currently offer an alliance upgrade product. And he offers my take on award redemption: “There’s little question that Star Alliance is the best for award redemption,” said Gary Leff, the member-elected president of FlyerTalk.com. “They’re the biggest alliance and in general their award availability is the best.” This then keyed off a discussion of United’s insidious practice of ‘starnet blocking’ — telling customers that award seats which its partners are offering are not available when they do not want…
