Two weeks ago I said that Northwest Airlines was best positioned not to change its frequent flyer elite program qualification rules, but that they’d face pressure because partners Delta and Continental had already made changes. Looks like they followed their own best interest, ignoring the calls to restructure their program to reward fare basis purchased rather than miles flown.
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No news is the best news
Northwest Airlines has announced program changes for 2004. The biggest news is no change at all: Northwest won’t go along with partners Delta and Continental on elite qualification — Northwest flights will continue to earn 100% elite mileage even on the lowest fares.Additional changes: Northwest will only award 50% of elite mileage on Continental flights at the lowest fares, so stay on Northwest metal! Most strikingly, Northwest will award 100% of elite mileage on Delta flights at the lowest fares (effective this Sunday – we don’t have to wait until January 1 for this one!). So Delta frequent flyers flying L, U, and T fares will only earn 50% mileage, Northwest frequent flyers will earn 100% elite mileage on the same flights. Northwest is increasing the number of miles required for First Class awards from…
So long 757
Transport Blog eulogizes the Boeing 757 as that aircraft is ushered out of production. The 757 was intended to replace the 727, but for some reason Boeing got its market research wrong. Rather than building a 150 seat replacement for the 150 seat 727, Boeing made the 757 a 200 seater. As it happened, most of the airlines that were replacing their 727s didn’t want a 200 seater, but wanted a 150 seater. Boeing did not immediately have one available, and this provided a market opening that was ultimately taken up by Airbus, who built the A320, and by McDonnell Douglas, who built a stretched version of the DC-9 called the MD-80. This was the market opening that allowed Airbus to move from a niche player in the airliner world to being clear number two…
Priceline Followup
A week or so ago, I noted that Andrew Sullivan was complaining about his Priceline hotel experience. Turns out that Priceline gave him a refund. (Link via Spot On.)
That Can’t Be Her Real Name, Right?
Patrice Miles, Vice President of Consumer Marketing for Delta Air Lines, defends changes to the Delta Skymiles program in USA Today. Her piece is pretty weak. Elliott’s commentary [criticizing Delta’s frequent flyer program changes], in our view, fails to recognize the fundamental nature of recent Delta Air Lines’ SkyMiles program changes. They do not severely cut back customer benefits but rather reallocate them to passengers based on miles flown and revenue spent. Delta’s changes have two parts. First, they change who qualifies for elite status (in a crude way realigning status with revenue). Second, the benefits of status have changed. Patrice Miles says part one has changed but not part two. That is patently false. Delta’s top spenders under the new plan lose their unlimited upgrade benefit and ability to confirm upgrades at booking on…
Government Demands Prettier Stewardesses
According to one reader, India’s Minister of State for Civil Aviation is demanding that state airlines hire more attractive flight attendants.I haven’t found stories validating the claims in the aforelinked-to article, and the piece in question takes on more of a tone of opinion (criticism) than reporting, but I assume that the quotes are genuine.Presumably the government believes that more attractive flight attendants will help attract business to the country’s national carriers. And as a passenger I’m not opposed to that — Singapore Air has followed this model quite well — but perhaps the airlines’ troubles can be traced to government policies that demand frequent air service on unprofitable routes and subsidized air travel for officials.
Fast track to America West elite
Just fly two roundtrips on America West’s new coast to coast flights for silver elite through February 2005!
$25 off United — useable at United.com
Sign up for a free $25.00 off E-certificate for United Airlines. This is a promotion with Safeway Grocery Stores, so you need to have a Safeway Club card (their free discount card) associated with your United Mileage Plus account – which you want anyway because you’ll get United miles for your grocery purchases. The e-certificate will be e-mailed in November. Thanks to an alert reader for the pointer.
Southwest Speculation
An article in the Dallas Morning News speculates that Southwest may be considering offering inflight entertainment to compete with lowcost rival JetBlue and the addition of smaller aircraft to grow service to smaller markets. This on top of recent speculation that Southwest may offer assigned seating. All this speculation comes in recognition of the challenges ahead for the most profitable airline in the industry over the past three decades. As a maturing carrier their costs are rising. New lowcost competitors like JetBlue are offering a superior inflight experience (all leather seating, satellite television, and they’re taking out a row of seats to offer more legroom). And the easy profitable growth routes may already be cherrypicked.
