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Independence Air to Operate as United Express again?

by Gary Leff on December 24, 2004

Dec 24 2004

It’s still a long-shot, but United requested a bid from Independence Air to operate as a United Express carrier. This is precisely the move being pushed for by Independence Air’s largest shareholder. The Washington Dulles-based low fare carrier has been losing buckets of money and warnings have been issued about a possible bankruptcy filing in January, a mere seven months after starting service as an independent carrier. FlyI used to operate as Atlantic Coast Airlines with most of their flying as the United Express carrier at Dulles and additional activity as a regional carrier for United at Chicago and for Delta at Boston (if I recall correctly, in this last case). The problems they face are several-fold. They decided to sell tickets directly to consumers, bypassing Global Distribution Systems. The model works well for an…

Save Skymiles: Total Victory

by Gary Leff on December 15, 2004

Dec 15 2004

The latest NotiFlyer brings news of total victory for the Save Skymiles movement. The threshold for Platinum Medallion qualification reduces from 100,000 miles to 75,000 miles – in line with partners Continental and Northwest. All discount fares will earn a full qualifying mile for each mile flown. First and business class as well as Y, B, and M coach fares will earn 1.5 qualifying miles per mile flown. The minimum miles per segment will be reduced from 750 to 500. Full information on the changes, which go into effect January 1, can be found here.I’m really glad to see all fares earning a full qualifying mile per mile flown. That’s good business and it’s a much simpler system than the craziness that had been spreading across some parts of the airline industry. My one concern…

Ya Gotta Jump On These Offers Right Away

by Gary Leff on December 10, 2004

Dec 10 2004

Looks like Delta pulled the amazing “Dash to the Gate” offer of 10,000 miles for a simple game. The page now says, “So sorry you’ve missed your chance to Dash to the Gate. If you haven’t already played, you’ll have an opportunity in the near future…”

Useful advice on upgrades

by Gary Leff on December 9, 2004

Smarterliving.com has two new useful columns on upgrades. First is a piece by Tim Winship on affordable first class and second is an article by Erica Silverstein on upgrading with miles. Both are useful and worth reading, although it’s always worth remembering that any time you try to tackle such a broad subject across a range of carriers, the devil will be in the details and some small items will be wrong or misleading. Contra-Winship, not all carriers offer unlimited domestic upgrades to their elite members. United, for example, does not. Erica Silverstein offers a bit of confusing prose about what fares are eligible for upgrades on US carriers. Northwest allows all but the most deeply discounted fare classes to be upgraded; and Delta only allows full-fare economy economy tickets to be upgraded. She’s correct…

Why Some Passengers Wait for Planes and Why Planes Wait for Some Passengers

by Gary Leff on December 6, 2004

Dec 06 2004

Tyler Cowen offers several explanations for why wait times vary across stores. Some stores put impulse purchase items near the checkout counter, and need long lines to make sales. Some stores have more conflict at checkout than others, rental transactions take longer than cash transactions, and long lines can substitute for raising prices by adding a cost to the consumer (waiting) which substitutes for a cost to the seller (adding staff). The explanation that most interested me in the context of aviation is Long lines may serve the cause of price discrimination. Perhaps the store offers personalized shopper services, free home delivery, or other services at a premium. These ancillary benefits might be more profitable if shopping takes just a bit of time. Low-income demanders won’t mind so much, high-income demanders may be pushed to…

Holiday Shopping Bonus Miles

by Gary Leff on November 17, 2004

Nov 17 2004

The online shopping portals are rolling out the mileage offers. United is offering 1000 bonus miles for spending $50 and 2500 bonus miles for spending $100 at one of five select merchants, on top of the regular miles earned. The bonus can be earned three times on purchases made through December 31. Send $100 in flowers via FTD, for example, and earn 4500 miles – for a nice 45 miles per dollar spent. That’s a nice improvement over the otherwise-excellent 30 miles per dollar that’s available the rest of the year Through December 31st, Delta is offering 150 bonus miles when you spend $100 and 500 bonus miles when you spend $250 in addition to regular miles earned with selected merchants at their online mile. If you earn $150 with two or more merchants you’ll…

What happens if you read this website and you have too many miles to use?

by Gary Leff on November 16, 2004

Nov 16 2004

You can always give them away to charity. Miles aren’t taxed when you obtain them (except if you win a contest or buy them), and they aren’t deductible when you give them away. But you can make some needy folks much better off. Liz Morgan, general manager of customer loyalty at Delta, said that last year customers donated 88 million SkyMiles award miles to 26 charities, including Operation Hero Miles, the United Way and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In one sense, that’s a lot. On the other hand, it’s a tiny fraction of the miles earned each year. Hal Brierely, an airline-marketing consultant in Dallas, said there were awards representing more than a trillion miles sitting unused in the accounts of Americans who bank them like any other asset. Unless the miles are going to expire,…

Airline Contortions

by Gary Leff on November 12, 2004

Nov 12 2004

Via USA Today‘s Today in the Sky are two stories that show airline executives making statements that just aren’t credible. Scratch that. The executives are doing verbal backflips and come off looking silly. USAirways is closing four airport lounges. Why? Because it’s “a key element of our Transformation Plan to offer our customers the full service associated with the Club network” … Since clubs are important, we’re closing them! Huh? The truthful answer is “clubs are important, they’re part of our plan to make money, but we can’t spend too much money on them or we’ll lose money.” But that would be too straightforward. Meanwhile, Delta is verbally contorting itself over service to Beijing. Since a new route to China is something to be doled out by the government, and the justification for a decision…

Biscoff Cookies

by Gary Leff on November 10, 2004

Nov 10 2004

One of the things I love about flying Skywest, a regional carrier in the Western U.S. for both United and Delta, is that they’ve long served Biscoff cookies. The Gourmet Center in San Francisco (which sells these wonderful treats) is now offering one Delta mile per dollar spent at their online store, plus 250 miles for each order (500 miles on orders of $75 or more). This isn’t the most lucrative offer on its own terms, but for folks like me who have long considered ordering the cookies anyway this gives me a pretty good excuse.

It’s amazing how much bad advice is out there…

by Gary Leff on November 8, 2004

One of the more common questions about miles and points is, “are my miles safe when files for bankruptcy?” And it’s amazing how many bad answers there are. This story in today’s Daytona Beach News-Journal may take the award for the worst advice yet. Responding to a question about Delta miles, Bob Desiderio writes:You have cause for concern, because while survivor airlines have in the past honored the mileage programs of bankrupt airlines (As Delta did for TWA customers), the major airlines now are hanging on the ropes and no one is stepping forward to help them. If an airline goes bankrupt and sells off its assets, mileage programs disappear because they are viewed as a liability; the eventual cost is transporting a passenger for free. So, in addition to using them or losing them,…