Where does an airline go for cash when it’s short? Its frequent flyer program, even when that program is a separately traded entity. Aeroplan is pre-paying Air Canada for award tickets: Air Canada (ACa.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Monday that Groupe Aeroplan Inc (AER.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the operator the airline’s frequent flyer plan, has agreed to speed payment for reward tickets issued under the plan, raising C$70 million ($56.6 million) for the cash-strapped carrier. Air Canada, the country’s biggest airline, said in a statement the payment is for reward tickets issued by Aeroplan through May 29, 2009. The airline also said Air Canada and Aeroplan have also agreed to unspecified “commercial terms that are beneficial to both parties.” Air Canada said the deal was a part of a move…
Be Careful Driving to Detroit Metro Airport
The Airport Authority is warning passengers of speed traps on the way to the airport, and the city enforcing those speed traps is miffed. The City posted signs which read “The Romulus Police Department has dramatically increased its patrols at the entrances and exits to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, using unmarked vehicles. Please be careful to observe all speed limits and traffic laws when driving in and out of the airport.” But that’s not all they do. “When they see one of our cars … sitting stationary with radar on, they will pull their cars in front of ours and turn on their lights, so people are warned that police are there.” Apparently the city of Romulus has issued 10,000 tickets since July. And, ironically, they’re miffed that the airport authority has taken steps which discourage…
Delta 150% Partner Promotion Bonus to Be Honored, Sort of, Maybe
A week and a half ago, Delta introduced an amazing partner promotion, offering up to a 150% bonus on most partner activity. This presented some amazing opportunities. Too amazing, perhaps. Because Delta pulled the plug. Turns out that Delta either was testing the idea, mocked it up, but offered it live by mistake. Or, depending on who you believe, only intended to offer it as a targeted promotion but didn’t include that in the terms and conditions and didn’t restrict who could sign up. In any case, a disaster — because folks who signed up started transferring points into their Delta Skymiles accounts to take advantage of the offer. And Delta pulled the promo off their website. Personally, I transferred Diners Club points to my Delta account (to take advantage of the up to 35%…
Rebookings as a Result of the Bangkok Airport Shutdown
I mentioned a couple of days ago that a friend was scheduled to transit Bangkok overnight on the way back home from Kathmandu, Nepal. With the Bangkok airport closed, this was a challenge. (And to top it all off, many connections out of Kathmandu involve flying to Delhi and onward through Mumbai.) To complicate matters further, the flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok was on a separate ticket from the rest of the journey. United has historically refused to issue awards on the Thai Airways Bangkok-Kathmandu segment despite generally good availability in business class. I tried once for the award and found availability on two days only out of sixty I queried, and then only in coach. Thai was offering award seats on the flight on more than fifty days during that period. United has a travel…
No AirMilesMart Points for Starbucks Cards
Last month I cited Frugal Travel Guy on the ability to earn AirMilesMart points (which transfer to Starwood, among others) for reloading Starbucks cards. The December, 2008 Inside Flyer picks up on the offer (subscription required). But my wife points out to me that AirMilesMart has tagged the merchant explicitly now with the statement, “Not Valid on Starbucks Cards.” Bummer.
Good luck to Thais and Their Visitors
I’m up early Thanksgiving morning, looking into flight options for a friend of mine in Nepal who is supposed to fly back to the States via Bangkok. She’s on two separate tickets, a paid flight out of Nepal to connect to her award ticket departing Bangkok. Of course Bangkok is closed. United doesn’t permit changes to Star Alliance awards post-departure, except to change to all-United aircraft, hopefully we’ll get them to permit her to drop her flight out of Bangkok and she can then buy a new ticket out of Nepal to connect to her award elsewhere, that seems the simplest solution at the moment. Meanwhile, there’s much chatter about a coup this evening in Thailand. There’s pressure on the military to solve the current crisis. The PAD protesters who have seized the two commercial…
Northwest Visa 25,000 Bonus Miles and No Fee First Year
The proprietor of Free Frequent Flyer Miles points me to his site where he has an offer for the Northwest Visa with 25,000 bonus miles after $500 in spend and no annual fee for the first year. Several readers have sent along links with 25,000 bonus miles (the one I recently posted offered only 23,500) but those links didn’t say anything about the fee waiver. This one does, so thanks, Gary!
HOLD OFF ON ANY DELTA SKYMILES PARTNER ACTIVITY
They have apparently pulled the up to 150% bonus on partners. Looks like they’re playing a real fast one here. Unfortuantely I already transferred Diners Club points and they’ve posted to Skymiles, so I’m going to have to fight real hard for the bonus — because otherwise there’s no getting those points back into an account where points are worth anything. Shame on Delta. Shame, shame. More over at Flyertalk. (And thanks for the heads up, Carol.)
An Academic Theory of Airline Industry Woes
An NBER working paper seeks to explain airline financial difficulties through changes in price sensitivity of travelers, as well as a shift in costs and preferences favoring non-stop flights over connections through hubs. A non-gated .pdf version of the paper can be found here. (Hat tip to Tyler Cowen.) Ultimately I think it does a good job in demonstrating price sensitive consumers, and less well demonstrating changes in consumer preferences. The paper appears to contain some factual inaccuracies — I’m a staunch critic of much so-called security regulation, but it hasn’t measurably increased baggage handling time on connecting flights. Meanwhile, the paper is correct that connection times have grown, but that’s a function of ‘de-banking’ hubs to spread labor costs evenly throughout the day rather than having peaks and then paying workers to wait around…
Northwest Visa Offer — 23,500 Bonus Miles for $500 in Spend, No Fee the First Year
Thanks to Reza for the tip. Others have flagged offers that are supposed to have no fee, but the fee waiver didn’t appear explicit on the offer’s web page. This one does. Moreover, with the Worldperks program going away, it’s close to a last opportunity to get the card and signup bonus of miles which will be converted into the Delta Skymiles program. 23,500 bonus miles after $500 in spend is a good offer with no fee for the first year, just cancel before that year is up. In my experience, by the way, the card is churnable — at least after some period of time has elapsed. I had a Northwest Visa card back in 2004 and had no problem getting a signup bonus again earlier this year.
