Christopher Elliott (whose column on the best airline flights in America I Fisked last month) shares one of my biggest gripes about United Airlines. They demand to see the credit card used for ticketing at check-in. This means that if you’re purchasing a ticket for someone else with your credit card, you need to show that credit card in person. And since there aren’t any “city ticket offices” anymore, you need to show it at the airport. You can get around this requirement by ticketing with a travel agent or getting paper tickets (for a fee, and takes time — the tickets would be shipped to you and then you need to get them to the traveler). But this annoyance pops up if you buy online or directly from United. They say it’s to prevent…
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Reader Mailbag — You ask, I answer
Karol from Alarming News.com asks: [W]ith the prospect of war looming as it is, and with the possibility that airfares will go down when the war starts, do you think I should buy my tickets [from New York to Chicago at the end of March] now or wait another week or so? I think you should go ahead and ticket now. Your specific flights are cheap. Depending on the particular flights you’re looking for on those days, I’m seeing a roundtrip fare of $166 on United from LaGuardia or Newark to Chicago non-stop for your days. I also see $175 on American. Will fares drop more? Even in the event of war, it’s unlikely that the fares will drop below what you can get the tickets for now. You’ll want to book your ticket 14…
Targeted Bonuses
Delta has released a whole sleuth of targeted bonuses (identified by Flyertalker bdschoebel). Targeted bonuses are opportunities to earn miles or other benefits that are only open to the recipient of the offer. Airlines and hotels evaluate a traveler’s habits and try to get them to bump up their spending in specific ways. For instance, I fly from Washington DC to California alot, but usually on cheap fares. United has sent me bonus offers good for lots of miles if only I’ll fly Washington DC to California on expensive fares. However, I’ve often found that I’ve been “targeted” and just wasn’t aware of it — maybe I received the offer buried in an email or paper statement and I just didn’t notice it. I’ve also found that many so-called targeted offers that I may not…
Car Rental Bonus
Register for a National Car Rental Emerald Club Membership and earn up to 12,500 bonus miles for renting cars on your choice of American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, or United Airlines.
Leveraging Frequent Flyer Programs: A Small Idea to Win New Customers
Why don’t airlines allow mileage accumulation on award tickets? Sure, why reward someone twice — they’re already getting a free ticket, right? But most everyone offers a free ticket to the same destinations for the same price. It could be a nice way to one-up the competition, and miles aren’t particularly expensive for an airline (see the USAirways giveaway from the Fall, or Continental in the Spring on 2001). Okay, fine, airlines are cutting back and not rewarding more. Or they see the future in low-cost carriers rather than in business travelers — so their new market is less-dependent upon loyalty programs. I think they’re off base, but that’s just my uninformed opinion. 🙂 But what if they did something a bit more targeted? What if they said — no mileage accumulation on award tickets,…
Follow the leader… off the
Follow the leader… off the cliff? American Airlines acknowledges that noone has figured out how to make a low cost carrier within a carrier work, but they’re considering it anyway because Delta and United are talking about it.
The Chicago Sun-Times has a
The Chicago Sun-Times has a piece today on the new low-cost “airlines-within-airlines” being started at United and Delta including a summary of failed past attempts by the major airlines to create low cost subsidiaries as a way of competing with Southwest and others. It’s never worked before (e.g. Continental Lite, United Shuttle). The majors simply retain too high a cost structure and dilute their premium brands by trying to mimic Southwest or JetBlue. Smaller airlines pick and choose niche markets and clean the majors’ clocks. United’s early concept was simply to re-introduce a low cost carrier with their older planes like they had with the United Shuttle on the West Coast (which they set up to compete with Southwest, but they shut down because it lost money). However, low cost carrier JetBlue offers leather seats…
USA Today reports on the
USA Today reports on the trend towards airlines rewarding high revenue flyers instead of high mileage flyers. For instance: Delta has moved towards a revenue model for elite qualification. United has formalized its VIP program. American and Northwest offer revenue tracks (parallel to mileage tracks) towards elite status. The article doesn’t point out that in most cases the perks for high revenue flyers aren’t new perks. In several cases they are even less generous than the old perks for high revenue flyers. The airlines are simultaneously cutting back and transitioning perks to a revenue-based approach. I think this is ill-advised. They run the risk of losing the loyalty of the high volume flyer who while not necessarily as lucrative are certainly built into their current businesss model. If the planes were completely packed solid, there…
Novel concept. Air Canada
Novel concept. Air Canada boosts service to earn more revenue. Funny thing is that this is a novel concept in the airline industry. With so many airlines cutting back on their amenities, customers might just choose to fly one that isn’t. In contrast, United in recent years has eroded its premium cabins by: ending hot towel service domestically ending champagne service domestically cutting Godiva chocolates and hot chocolate chip cookies cutting the personal video library in 3-class First There are fewer passengers paying premium fares in the current environment. But those that are have no reason to choose United over a competitor flying a similar route. As other airlines introduce flat beds in business class, even United’s advantage of the best seat in the sky is gone. Delta and United are both following a low-cost…
Fly full fare (Y, B,
Fly full fare (Y, B, M) coach from Europe, Latin America, India, Japan, Turkey, or Russia to the US and back and earn up to 25,000 bonus Delta miles.
