Le Meridien Barcelona Just under 30 euro cab ride from the airport, and I walk into the hotel and up to the checkin desk. Relatively quick and painless, but not suite available. In fact, no upgrade available. “It is a very nice room, it is an upgrade, trust me you will like it.” It’s the smallest room I’ve ever seen in Europe, and it faces a side street. Back down to the desk to renegotiate, they give me a somewhat larger standard room – this time facing Las Ramblas with a little standup balcony to walk out on. The only downside is that it’s two beds joined together rather than a true King. Ah, Europe. This is an improvement, at least. Service isn’t great here, no one helped me with my bags. And my first…
Columbus Dispatch Knew Skybus Was Folding, Didn’t Report it, and Offers Silly Self-Serving Excuses
The Columbus Dispatch was told by Skybus that the airline would be shutting down. And instead of reporting the story, they sent a reporter to fly the last flight and cover the story. The reporter traveled alongside all the passengers who would soon learn that they had no return ticket to Columbus, instead of letting folks know they might not want to get onto the plane. The paper explains that they honor news embargoes — they were given the information on the condition they not use it until 9:30pm. They’re proud of themselves for actually sharing the information earlier… when another news organization already broke the story, they didn’t wait to post it either! Well, bully for them. We discovered that the local ABC/Fox television stations were telling people at the airport about the shutdown…
Aer Lingus Says They Won’t Honor Mistake Fare
Apparently Aer Lingus had a 5 euro business class fare to the U.S. This one never made it to Flyertalk, which I suppose is one reason I didn’t know it had happened. One source reported it as a fare to Boston, I’ve also heard it was valid to Los Angeles. The airline says just over 100 tickets were purchased, though I’ve also heard 300. In any case, the airline currently says they won’t honor the tickets, though it doesn’t sound like all of this is final yet. It’s highly unusual for a flight deal ultimately not to be honored. Hotel error rates are more hit or miss, but airfares are mostly good once ticketed. Occasionally an airline will back out, but even then I’ve frequently seen some sort of compensation given in return. So this…
Starwood Changes Singapore Airlines Mileage Transfer Ratio – Without Notice
Starwood has – without notice – changed the transfer ratio of Starpoints into Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. Instead of a 1:1 ratio the ratio is now 2:1. This change apparently went into effect yesterday. Starwood will say it’s a function of the particular airline contractual arrangement. And it’s possible that Singapore insisted on this, they haven’t been particularly friendly or generous partners with anybody really. And they’re profitable, perhaps they don’t need to be. On the other hand, none of Starwood’s transfer arrangements have been improving for members over the past few years. United and Continental also moved to 2:1 ratios, though it also made sense in those cases that the changes were more or less dictated by those airlines’ credit card partner (Chase) who didn’t like the Starwood American Express offering a better deal…
USAirways to Offer Elite Coach Seats for Sale to Anyone
USAirways’ “elite” seats in coach are at the front of the plane, but unlike United those seats carry no extra benefits (such as additional legroom), you just get off the plane first. Elites get them at no extra cost, but starting May 7 USAirways will be offering them to all other customers during web checkin for an extra charge. Now, I wouldn’t pay extra for these seats. Non-elites will be boarding later and have a harder time finding overhead space which will presumably be taken by nearby early boarding elites. But this is a devaluation for elites, who on the rare flight that isn’t full will fface more crowded surroundings. The concept isn’t new, though, Northwest has done it for some time.
Barcelona for Dinner Continued – A British Airways Hop Across the Pond
Baltimore to London-Heathrow Flight BA 228 Depart: 9:10pm Arrive: 9:25am Class: Club World I really despise BA’s refusal to assign seats to business class passengers in advance. My wife and I were on separate record locators. I’m a British Airways silver and entitled to an advance seat assignment. She’s not. Despite a successful TCP (“to complete party”) request linking the reservations, I was unsuccessful in getting a seat assignment for her.. so I didn’t assign one myself, waiting instead so that we could secure seats together at checkin. 24 hours out I checked us in online. There was no problem checking her in all the way to Barcelona. My reservation wouldn’t allow it, I could only check myself in to Heathrow, and the website wanted me to wait until 24 hours before the Barcelona flight’s scheduled…
My Next Trip Report – Flying to Barcelona for Dinner
To some people it probably seems crazy to fly from Washington, DC to Barcelona for dinner. Somehow it doesn’t seem so crazy to me. And for foodies of the world, knowing that the dinner was at El Bulli probably means it doesn’t seem crazy at all. This will once again be a trip report in parts, so here’s the beginning. Pre-trip: Dinner Reservations and Flights In the fall of 2006 on a lark I shot off an email to El Bulli, asking them for a Friday or Saturday night dinner any time April through July. I thought I was being flexible, and that I was getting in at just the right time – about three days after their reservation book opened for the year. I knew that this was a well-regarded restaurant. All the rankings are subjective, controversial, and…
Double Elite Qualifying Miles on American
American is offering double elite qualifying miles for travel on American between April 16, 2008 and June 15, 2008. Partner flights are not eligible, and bonuses don’t add to account balances — just elite qualification. Registration required.
What a United-Continental Merger Would Mean for Their Frequent Flyer Programs
The New Jersey Star Ledger quotes me on the affect of a hypothetical United-Continental merger on frequent flyer. Frequent-flier customers of both airlines would not lose their miles because they would be combined into one program. However, Continental’s OnePass customers would benefit if United’s Mileage Plus is the surviving program, said Gary Leff, a loyalty rewards expert with Boardingarea.com, a travel website. “United’s rewards chart requires fewer miles than Continental does,” he said. “So, each Continental mile will go farther.” However, the combined airline might adopt Continental’s policy of charging for upgrades to business class on international flights, he said. I leave aside route effects and service levels on domestic flights. I’m just talking about loyalty programs here. Unquestionably, Continental OnePass members would be better off after a merger with United. The combined entity would…
Surviving as an Airport Refugee
Fortunately I’m outside the U.S. and have been spared this week’s American Airlines MD80 grounding fiasco (and somehow even managed to dodge last week’s United 777 bullet). It appears that while American really blew the communications on this one, the issue here is really FAA incompetence and c-y-a. But I couldn’t miss passing along Wendy Perrin’s Top Ten Things to Do When You’re Stranded at an Airport (Family Edition) 10. Go on a family scavenger hunt through the terminal in search of: emergency diapers, juice boxes for sale, a newsstand that has not run out of The New York Times, and an empty electrical outlet. 9. Use the cot and blanket supposedly provided by AA to make a fort. (You can build a wall out of leftover McDonald’s Happy Meal boxes.) 8. Buy ten packs of…
