Mexicana, which is leaving the Star Alliance as of March 31, has entered into a codesharing alliance with American Airlines.There is a real hole in United’s route network to Central and South America, and I do understand that the exit of Mexicana from its United and Star Alliance relationships was initiated by Mexicana. Mexicana was receiving far less passenger feed from United – some say 50% less – than they were pre-United bankruptcy.American’s own network, combined with their partnership with Grupo TACA, makes American far stronger than United in this area.It will be interesting to see whether Mexicana’s relationship with American remains a standalone or whether it foretells entry into the oneworld alliance. Similarly, it will be interesting to see whether American’s passenger feed to Mexicana cannibalizes the passenger feed to TACA and what that…
Air New Zealand Adds Capacity to the US-Transpacific Market
Air New Zealand plans to add service from Auckland to San Francisco. That’s good news for transpacific service – and good news for frequent flyers looking for options to redeem their miles, as this adds another method of getting to both New Zealand and Australia.Remember that newly introduced flights are prime picking for frequent flyer seats.
Updated Amtrak Discounts
Most of the old Amtrak discounts that I posted have expired. So here’s a bit of an update. When booking your train, you can enter a discount or promotion code. The following promotion codes are currently valid:V822: 20% off unreserved trains in the Northeast Corridor through 12/16/04. V745: will get you 20% off Northeast Corridor unreserved trains. This is also good on Acela Express and Metroliner trains all day Saturday and on Sunday except between 1pm and 6pm. Valid through 6/22/04 except for April 8th – 12th and May 28th – June 1st. V823 and V132: offer 15% off qualifying Amtrak fares to New York City between June 1 and September 12, 2004. This discount is valid for all unreserved trains and all day Saturday and Sunday on Metroliners and all day Saturday and before…
Could the US learn something from Korea?
Although the Korean approach may be a bit too extreme. One of the most vexing problems for frequent flyers is that the programs they belong to change the rules and redemption requirements seemingly at will. Customers save miles for awards and suddenly their miles are worth less, with higher mileage required for the flight they’ve been saving up for. It can seem like mileage programs are like Lucy from the Peanuts comic strip, pulling the football away at the last moment. Admirably, Korean carriers Korean Air and Asiana are seeking to make changes to their frequent flyer programs with a year’s notice and still they are facing legal hurdles from the Korean government. Korean Air and Asiana Airlines have been warned not to change their mileage policies. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday issued…
Ansett legal battles continue
Australian carrier Ansett ceased operations in September 2001, but the legal battles continue.Most recently a sports team agreed to pay AU$18,000 for tickets that were owed. The team argued that the frequent flyer miles they lost when the airline went under were worth at least that much and should cancel out the debt. In the end, the miles didn’t have value and they agreed to pay most of the monies owed.
Investigating ticketing practices
In a possibly unprecedented move, the U.S. Attorneys office in Minneapolis is getting involved in a back-to-back ticketing case. If anyone knows more details of the story, or whether the federal government has ever gotten involved in such cases in the past, I’d be very interested to know. Drop me an email.
The rest of the world learns about Qantas Frequent Flyer changes
In a widely syndicated piece, Matthew Horan reports that Qantas has substantially increased the number of points required for certain rewards and reduced mileage earning on discount fares.
Hawaiian Proposes Australia Service
Hawaiian Airlines is planning to start Honolulu-Sydney service, becoming the second US carrier (after United) and fourth carrier (after United, Air Canada and Qantas) to serve Australia directly from the United states.However, for most travelers on Australia-US business, this option is no better than any other carrier’s one-stop service (such as Air New Zealand via Auckland).First, it will be one-stop service from the US mainline. Second, it will be offered only four days a week. Third, it will be service with 767 aircraft which are generally less preferred than 747s flown by United and Qantas.This small uptick in capacity, offering one more option to and from Australia, may be most valuable from an award redemption standpoint. Hawaiian has several airline partnerships, and a vacation award from the US to Hawaii for a stopover and on…
Voting in the Freddies
I just cast my votes for the Freddie Awards. Go cast yours. I picked United’s Mileage Plus as airline Program of the Year because they continue to offer one elite qualifying mile per mile flown on any fare, permit upgrading internationally on almost all fares for top level elites (and on mid-level fares for all members), and started recognizing customers who fly 125,000 miles or more with additional benefits. Admittedly, American matches those first two, but United was also the real innovator over the past year — with their “Great Offer” providing status miles for competitor frequent flyer statements, first out of the box with “Fly 3, Get 1 Free” and now announcing a coming music partnership with Sony.I chose American for best award redemption. Southwest is a frequent winner in this category because of…
Anticipation builds for United-Sony partnership
Notiflyer has an update on the United-Sony music download site I reported on last week which will allow Mileage Plus members to earn frequent flyer miles for buying songs or spend miles instead of money for song downloads.Here’s the money quote: “What Connect has finally done is beat the pirates at their own game to offer better-quality files without consumers having to spend a dime,” said Jay Samit, Sony Connect’s general manager. Online micropayments have failed as a business model thus far. Could miles as currency revolutionize e-business and save the music industry from itself?
