With falling traffic and schedule cutbacks by USAirways and Delta, the New York/Boston/DC shuttle operations are a different experience than they used to be. American has introduced regional jet service on these routes, while Delta and USAirways are cancelling flights and downsizing planes. Both Delta and USAirways are also scaling back their shuttle guarantees, and USAirways is swapping in aircraft with less legroom. Less convenient and less comfortable than in the psat, it might be time to rethink the shuttle. Only rethinking doesn’t happen often or easily in this industry.
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Search Results for "Delta".
Why Frequent Flyer Programs Make Sense — and Gutting Benefits Does Not
Airlines are jumping on the ‘reward revenue not miles flown’ bandwagon and they are cutting back the benefits of their frequent flyer programs. I’m not sure this decision makes alot of business sense. That’s a very broad statement, and since I’m often critical of other travel writers from making unsupportable overbroad generalizations, let me outline the scope of this shift. USAirways was first out of the box with the idea that loyalty is about absolute revenue generated rather than frequent purchases. They tried to alter their frequent flyer program accordingly, but backed off as a result of negative PR. Delta has gutted it’s frequent flyer program in an effort to restructure it to reward only high fare passengers. United has its own entry into this game, creating a new frequent flyer program level run out…
A mess of mileage opportunities
Five opportunities I may not have mentioned before: United Visa customers get 250 miles for creating a dining profile with iDine. Sprint customers get 250 miles for signing up for email notification about the miles they earn and can even choose the program from America West, Alaska, United, USAirways, and Midwest Airlines. Get 12,000 Delta miles for funding a brokerage account. This is better than Delta’s Ameritrade and Etrade offers at similar initial deposit levels. (Although if you want to give Etrade $150,000….) I think I’ve mentioned earning miles for conference calls before, but am too tired to search for it on my site. 5000 Delta miles for getting a satellite dish.
Let’s Earn (2) Domestic First Class Tickets Quickly and Cheaply
I was recently asked how someone could get (2) first class tickets from Washington, DC to San Francisco without paying first class prices. So I sat down to think for a few minutes. First, I compared airfare costs. Tickets purchased now for travel in October and November from DC to San Francisco run ~ $276 in coach (although some specific itineraries can be had for as little as $203). First class runs from $1450 (for one-stop service from Baltimore to San Jose) to $3000 (for non-stop Dulles to San Francisco) per person. How to Get into First Class Upgrades can be confirmed on most airlines and on most fares using frequent flyer miles. You can search for flights that have space available in free upgrades to First Class when you’re booking, and choose those flights.…
United Really Doesn’t Care
I fly United. They have been very good to me. But it became very clear last night that United Mileage Plus really doesn’t get it. At the post-Freddie Awards reception, I stood next to a very frequent traveler from Texas (> 220,000 miles flown last year and a top-level elite with both United and American) talking to Robert Sahadevan of Mileage Plus. She told him that the changes to United’s top-level elite program were chasing her away. No longer are United’s “Systemwide Upgrades” (certificates given to 100,000 mile flyers that can confirm international upgrades at the time of booking) good on any fare. That means that if she chooses to give United her high revenue business fares, she is not able to upgrade her lower priced personal trips — and so she’d rather give all…
20,000 Mile Signup Bonus for Mileage Plus Visa
This may be the most generous credit card offer yet. No, it isn’t the 25,000 mile bonus that Northwest offered last summer — but you had to wait 15 months for all the miles to show up. And it isn’t the 25,000 mile bonus that Delta has been offering at times — but you had to spend tens of thousands of dollars before all the miles showed up. This offer is simple. Use the $60 annual fee card once and pocket 20,000 United miles. Very bold… especially since the consensus seems to be that United is turning a corner financially with labor concessions in place and the impact of the war on Iraq being somewhat less than expected.
Maybe if we subjected Norm Mineta to this, we’d get some reform?
Howard Kurtz reports that White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was subjected to extra security screening at National Airport. Security Risk? When Ari Fleischer was in a long line for the Delta Shuttle to head to New York for NBC correspondent David Bloom’s funeral, an airline employee offered to escort the president’s press secretary directly onto the plane. Fleischer declined, saying he would wait like everyone else. A moment later, another worker pulled him out of line and subjected him to a random search. No such indignities on Air Force One.
Only fly domestic?
John Bloom thinks some airlines need to be liquidated and others need to just fly domestic. He may have a point, but unfortunately he fails to make it in the piece. No doubt government subsidies and handouts have kept airlines afloat that should have shut down long ago. After 9/11, government bailout money put the twice bankrupt Midway Airlines back in the air after it shut down. That business plan didn’t work, and so they’re resurrecting themselves as a USAirways express carrier (third time’s the charm?). But giving up international flying isn’t the panacea that Bloom makes it out to be. While there isn’t “some rule that says United, American and Delta are REQUIRED to fly to Moscow and Hong Kong and Sydney?” they certainly should if the route is profitable and shouldn’t if it…
Don’t you wish reporters writing about the airline industry actually knew what they were talking about?
Today’s Washington Post story on the Flight Attendants wage concession vote and an impending American Airlines bankruptcy makes the following statement in order to be relevant to the local community: Although [American] is the world’s largest airline, it is one of the smallest in the Washington area. The airline accounts for 9 percent of the flights at Reagan National Airport, 3 percent at Dulles International and 8.7 percent at Baltimore-Washington International. US Airways, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines are the region’s most dominant major carriers. (Emphasis mine) The dominant carrier at Washington-Dulles airport is, of course, United Airlines.
McKinsey & Co.: Bubonic plague for the airlines?
Steven Pearlstein lampoons McKinsey & Co’s airline consulting practice — and United and Delta for hiring them at $1 million per month. His Washington Post piece uses United’s 278-page January creditors committee presentation as a case in point.
