Flyertalkers are reporting that Thai Airways is canceling its New York-JFK to Bangkok flights, effective July 1. Actually, the consensus seems to be that Thai isn’t currently selling any tickets on the route after that date, and that the flight is ‘under review’ with a decision to be made shortly, possibly next week. Asian long-haul flights clearly are gas guzzlers, they need really high load factors and high average fares in order to be profitable. My sense has long been that Thai has neither for this route, scheduled at roughly 17 hours of travel time. It’s sad to see flights like these disappear, they’ve long been some of the better award redemption values and certainly anyone who has booked their travel for dates beyond July 1 could be in a difficult spot. Thai will certainly…
Spirit Air (as we know it) next to go?
Via Joe Sharkey points to the Miami Herald‘s report of massive downsizing at Spirit. Spirit Airlines may lay off or displace up to 60 percent of its flight attendants and as many as 45 percent of its pilots in two months, as it struggles to cope with soaring jet-fuel prices. The Miramar-based low-cost carrier sent letters to union leaders Saturday, notifying them that it will furlough or displace up to 448 flight attendants and 242 pilots on Aug. 1, as the airline closes its New York LaGuardia and San Juan bases and reduces its Fort Lauderdale base. For flight attendants, the airline is also shutting its Detroit base In 2002, Spirit Air CEO Ben Baldanza was a Senior Vice President at USAirways and became famous for publicly stating that the airline should fire its ‘unprofitable’…
Speculation on United Downsizing
Holly Hegemen passes on the rumor du jour about United’s plans to downsize in the face of record fuel prices. 1. Culling the B737 fleet (94 airplanes) by Fall 2009. 2. Selling off 7 B747s by Fall 2008. 3. 25 percent staff cuts by Fall 2008. 4. Death to TED (quickly but painfully). Small city domestic mainline flying pretty much goes away. Reduced frequency on more major routes currently served by the old 737s which guzzle gas. Presumably free up the TED Airbus aircraft to replace some of the 737s which are only losing a little money in hopes that reduced fuel costs can turn around the route economics. Speculation at this point, and the specific numbers may change, but it seems a good bet that we see the 737s going away.
Continental Introduces Million Miler Program
Continental Airlines is introducing a million miler program. Lifetime status is one of those wonderful holy grails of loyalty programs, continue to strive to give loyalty to a single company over several years and be rewarded with a wonderful (to mix metaphors) brass ring at the other side of the rainbow. American offers lifetime Gold at 1,000,000 miles and lifetime Platinum at 2,000,000 miles. The kicker here – and why American has the most generous million miler program – is that all miles earned in an account count towards this status, not just flown miles. United offers lifetime Premier Executive (mid-tier) at 1,000,000 flown miles. Delta offers lifetime Silver at 1,000,000, lifetime Gold at 2,000,000, and lifetime Platinum at 4,000,000. These are all airline miles, not any source miles a la American. Continental’s new offering…
USAirways’ Pilots Union Goes Federal On Its Own Members
Most folks’ mental model of unions is that they are representing the interests of ‘the workers’ against ‘management’. That’s frequently not the case, at least as unions age, they often represent the entrenched union leadership over the interests of the workers, if even such a thing as a common interest across employees is a coherent concept (and this phenomenon isn’t uncommon with corporate management, either, just replace ’employees’ with ‘shareholders’). Over at USAirways we’re seeing the unfolding of one of the most interesting and vivid (from the outside, I feel bad for the players) illustration of how employee interests aren’t a unified whole — and we’re watching some of its most malicious consequences, first hand. PlaneBuzz reports on the lawsuit which the new union representing pilots at USAirways has filed against some of its own…
Europe This Summer in Business Class for Less Than $1900
There’s a current thread on Flyertalk about several US cities (so far noting Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Pittsburgh, but no doubt others) having August fares across Europe — Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, and More — for less than $1900. The fare is nonrefundable and bookable on Expedia and also shows up on Orbitz, though there are reports of pricing difficulties on Orbitz. It seems to be the key that the overwater segments either be on Lufthansa or a Lufthansa-coded United flight. This is an outstanding fare for peak summer season, and especially from the US West Coast. Plenty of coach itineraries will be approaching this price…
Which Hotel Progam is Most Rewarding?
In response to a post on Starwood Hotels in-hotel points-earning, reader Greg wrote: Based on your comment about SPG not a great program based strictly on hotel revenue, which program do you think is the greatest value, and in turn, easiest to get rewards? My somewhat meandering answer: Easiest redemption is Starwood and now Hilton since they’re now advertising no capacity controls as well. (Starwood is going to have to come out with something new, at least for Platinum members, since Hilton has matched their unique selling proposition. I predict that they will.) Starwood has plenty of properties that I actually want to redeem at, much more so than Hilton, but that’s a function of my luxe preference. And Starwood is a great place to accumulate points via credit card spending in order to redeem…
Questions United Asks When It Suspects an Award or Upgrade Has Been Bought or Sold
Flyertalk member bseller, whom I had the pleasure to sit next to on a flight from the West Coast to Chicago in business class on a 777 back in 2002, offers some experience with United’s Mileage Plus fraud folks. He tells the story of an upgrade — which was technically traded for with another member against Mileage Plus rules — being flagged by United as possible fraud. “There was a FRAUD ALERT in the PNR and it required that I verify the validity of the upgrade”, or words to that effect. I should point out that this U/G was done ONLINE. Here are the questions asked- AND they were REQUIRED to be anssered PRIOR to the issuance of a BP. This is NOT “optional” sh*t; You guys can proceed at your risk: Q: How did…
Quadruple Starwood Points at aloft Hotel Properties
Starwood is offering quadruple points on spending at their new aloft hotels through the end of the year. Registration required. General members will earn 8 points per dollar spent, while Gold and Platinum members will earn 9.. and paying with a Starwood American Express card, of course, earns an additional bonus point (plus the dollar for the credit card charge). So a Gold member paying with an SPG Amex for their aloft stay will net 11 Starwood points per dollar. Which, of course, finally makes Starwood competitive with other programs when it comes to redemptions derived from in-hotel spend. But only for aloft stays, only through the end of the year, and only for members who register. (Starwood is a great program, and the Starwood American Express is a great credit card, but make no…
American Ups Award Prices, Requires $5 Payment to Book Free Tickets Online
This is already being much discussed elsewhere, but American has imposed a $5 fee for website award bookings. The old argument was that reservation centers were more costly than web, an airline wanted to (a) push its reservations online to lower costs and (b) charge a fee for the ‘extra’ service of having a person handle the booking. Now, even the cheaper online booking will come at a fee. Why? Because they’re looking for revenue sources, and because they can. Online booking is still cheaper than booking by phone, and American has a captive market to some extent amongst AAdvantage members looking to redeem their miles. With millions of awards redeemed annually, multiply those out by $5 and they’re predicting serious revenue. Of course, AAdvantage members aren’t really captive at least in terms of their…
