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…
Enhanced Access to the San Francisco Virgin Clubhouse
Via One Mile at a Time, Virgin America eleVAte members (in addition to first class customers) now can purchase access to the San Francisco Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse. If you have quite a bit of time to kill, and are sure you’re arriving during the lounge’s mealtimes, it’s probably worth the $40 price of admission. It’s not clear at the moment whether the policy will extend to other Virgin Clubhouse locations.
But there are still 99 that are more important…
We’ll see how long this lasts, but View from the Wing has cracked the Wikio top 100 business blogs.
Short Posting Hiatus – Back Early Next Week
Cheers from the British Airways Terraces Lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 1. I don’t expect to be online much if at the all the next few days, but it’s a quick trip and I’ll be back to normal speed early in the week … with what should be some pretty interesting stories and experiences to boot.
Delta Offers Expensive Premium Card with Unlimited Elite Qualifying Miles Earning
Randy Petersen has some big news from the co-branded credit card world. Delta is introducing a credit card which offers the ability to earn an unlimited number of status miles (with enough spending on the card, of course) and gift those status miles to yourself or others. Continental has something similar with their expensive premium card, up to 28,000 elite qualifying miles per year and the ability to drop those miles into your account whenever you wish, but the earning ratio is rather poor — just 2,000 qualifying miles for each $25,000 in spend. Delta’s offering appears to be actual unlimited qualifying miles, and a much better earning ratio: 15,000 qualifying miles for each $30,000 in spend. This is huge. I could earn Delta Platinum on that alone and gift someone platinum as well! It…
