In other airline, hotel and travel industry news last week…

• United Airlines shifted its Washington Dulles to Buenos Aires flight over to Newark on Friday. They didn’t totally Continental it up, though, as they’re using a legacy United 3-cabin 767 on the route. The airline is also ending service to Accra and Copenhagen later this year, according to Airline Route. Washington Dulles to Accra ends July 3 and Newark to Copenhagen terminates on September 26.
• US Airways has completed conversion of 14 of its 16 Airbus A330 aircraft with the new Envoy Class and is expected to get the remaining two birds completed by the end of summer. The seats are actually pretty darn nice looking and setup in a reverse herringbone 1 x 2 x 1 configuration. The airline was also awarded the “2012 MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) of the Year” award last week by Aviation Week and Overhaul & Maintenance magazine.
• Virgin America officially launched service to Philadelphia last Wednesday from Los Angeles and will begin San Francisco-Philly service tomorrow. Sir Richard Branson greeted the first arrival at PHL and hosted a “tailgate on the tarmac” party with a bunch of invited guests. Later that night, the official launch party was held at Hotel Palomar downtown and based on some Twitter reports, it sounded like a fantastic time.
• Allegiant Air began charging passengers with new reservations from last Wednesday for large carry-ons, joining Spirit Airlines in charging for the privilege to use the overhead bins. One bag is still free, but it must fit underneath the seat. You can get a discount on the $35 fee if you book the space in advance online.
• Southwest Airlines shifted some the flying it took over from AirTran in Atlanta back to the carrier, including flights to Los Angeles, Chicago Midway, Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas. A combination of IT issues and route optimization appear to be the reason. A Southwest spokesman said, “In some cases, until we get to a point a little bit further down the road, it makes sense to transfer some of that flying from Southwest to AirTran.”
• Starwood Hotels will open a dual-branded ski resort complex in China later this year. Both a 257-room Westin and 296-room Sheraton are opening in August next to the slopes of the Changbai Mountains.
• My “air traveling idiot of the week” award goes to a man who tried to smuggle a knife through security in a jar of mayonnaise. What? Yes, that’s correct. He was flying from New York’s Kennedy airport to Mexico City when the banned items were found and confiscated during routine screening. Amazingly, he was still allowed to catch his flight.

Finally, here are some other noteworthy items from last week:

• A TSA screener throws coffee on a pilot at JFK.
• A Delta Air Lines flight attendant was removed from a flight for irregular behavior.
• Alaska Airlines will begin testing a nextgen ATC system at SEA in June.
• Qantas’ stranded A380 in Singapore will return to service in May.

In other airline, hotel and travel industry news last week…

• Southwest Airlines acquired AirTran in May last year and received a single operating certificate from the FAA last month, but each carrier remains an independent operation for the time being meaning AirTran’s baggage and other fees will remain intact. Unlike the relatively faster integration between Delta & Northwest and United & Continental, Southwest says it will take, “several years to fully transition AirTran into Southwest Airlines to become one airline.” The fees will continue through at least the end of 2013 and possibly into 2014.
• US Airways is expanding its Gogo Wi-Fi service across their entire Airbus fleet and Embraer 190 aircraft, eventually bringing onboard internet capabilities to 90 percent of its domestic mainline fleet. Regional carrier Republic Airlines will also add the service to its Express Embrarer 170 and 175 aircraft. Gogo Vision will be included where passengers have the option to download movies, TV shows and other content directly to their Wi-Fi enabled devices.
• Lufthansa announced their new Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental aircraft will be deployed on the Frankfurt to Washington Dulles route shortly after deliveries begin April 23. It will replace the existing 747-400 flights, LH 418 and LH 419. All of Lufthansa’s 747-8 aircraft will feature the new business and first class product, as well as 787-style overhead bins and LED lighting. I look forward to burning some miles to fly this bird in a premium cabin later this year.
• Japan Airlines took delivery of its first two Boeing 787-8s this past week making it the second airline to receive the long-delayed Dreamliner. The airline is expected to begin 787 flights to Boston this month and to San Diego later this year. I may have to start building up my American AAdvantage miles for a future redemption.
• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel predicts Chicago O’Hare’s newest runway will be built and in use by 2015. The city will rely on financial help from both American and United to get it built and predicts once in use, it will reduce delays by 80 percent and allow for 300,000 more passengers annually.
• My “air traveling idiot of the week” award goes to a woman onboard US Airways flight 1697 from Charlotte to Fort Myers who, in an allegedly intoxicated state, kicked, scratched and spit on flight attendants, even knocking one to the ground. Unlike other recent incidents, the flight didn’t divert and continued to Fort Myers after she was restrained with the help of an off-duty sheriff’s deputy.

Finally, here are some other noteworthy items deserving of a click-through:

• A revealing Q&A with American Airlines CEO Thomas Horton.
• Alaska Airlines dedicates it’s new Terminal 6 location at LAX.
• New York-area airports may fine and prosecute disruptive passengers.
• Airlines for America ends its lawsuit over the EU ETS “tax” scheme.
• New Marriott properties will pop up in 2014 at L.A. Live in Los Angeles.

In other airline industry news this week…

• United Airlines announced new daily nonstop service from Newark to Istanbul effective July 1, 2012. Initially the route will be flown with United’s current international 767-300ER aircraft with three classes of service, but beginning August 28, the airline will swap in a new configuration that features BusinessFirst, Economy Plus and standard economy. United is planning to convert the current domestic 767-300 fleet typically seen on the Hawaii routes into this new layout.
• Delta Air Lines completed the installation of Wi-Fi on all Delta Shuttle aircraft flying the New York-LaGuardia to Boston, Washington National and Chicago O’Hare flights. According to the carrier’s local Senior Vice President Gail Grimmett, “We are thrilled that Wi-Fi is now available to our Delta Shuttle customers as it’s a perfect complement to other Shuttle amenities including free morning coffee and newspapers.” The carrier expects to have internet service available on more than 800 aircraft by this summer.
• Sticking with Delta for the moment, they announced expanded codeshare agreements with both China Eastern and China Southern Airlines this week. The Civil Aviation Administration of China approved the link-up of codes and flight numbers and once implemented, codeshare service will be seen across 34 cities within the U.S. and China with China Eastern and 18 cities with China Southern.
• American Airlines issued another letter to its employees this week notifying them of the necessity to “re-gauge” their fleet in order to match supply with market demand, particularly from their hub in Chicago. Current contracts with the pilot’s union prevent the carrier from subbing larger regional jets into markets currently flown with larger mainline aircraft, causing an industry-losing position in unit revenue. The letter also states the airline will focus on premium international business traffic once it exits Chapter 11 protection, hoping to grow their share of the lucrative segment.
• US Airways filed a formal objection with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday claiming Philadelphia’s planned airport expansion would “harm its finances and business operations and force it to shift flights elsewhere.” The carrier controls 70% of the market flying to, through or from PHL, and as a result, the airline would take the brunt of the all but likely increases to airport rates and fees charged to fund the expansion. The city, meanwhile, claims the proposed new runway and terminal expansion are essential to sustain further growth.
• Survey results were released this week from Buyology and uSamp (who?) revealing the most desired brand in the United States. Sorry, Apple, top honors went to Southwest Airlines. Buyology CEO Gary Singer thinks Southwest did so well largely due to its no-fee ad campaign and because of what its service represents in the minds of passengers.
• Finally, and hopefully not an omen of things to come at United, Cathay Pacific continues to have issues a week after it converted from an in-house reservations system to GDS provider Amadeus. Passengers with award tickets are still unable to manage their bookings online and the carrier is working through additional “teething issues” (their words) with the system migration. With United’s upcoming switchover, let this be a reminder to passengers to be proactive and have as much detail about their itineraries as possible in print.

In other airline industry news this week…

• Delta Air Lines announced this week new interiors featuring lie-flat seats in BusinessElite and “slim line” seats with individual entertainment units as well as an Economy Comfort section in coach will be seen on all 747-400 aircraft by October 2012. A total of 48 seats will occupy the BusinessElite cabin in an angled herringbone configuration allowing aisle access from every seat. The Economy Comfort section will seat 42 passengers and offers up to four inches of additional legroom and 50 percent more recline than standard economy seating.
• A handful of original People Express executives announced the return of a rebranded PeoplExpress carrier on Monday. The new airline will be based at the Newport News-Williamsburg Airport in Virginia and expects to begin service this summer to Newark, Pittsburgh, Providence and West Palm Beach. COO Mike Morisi said service will be operated with single-cabin Boeing 737-400s and fares will be at a “pricing structure that is significantly more affordable than regional service provided by feeder airlines.”
• American Airlines posted a $1.1 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2011, accounting for half of the airline’s $2 billion loss for the full year. Executives mentioned much of the quarter’s loss stemmed from one-time charges attributed to reorganizing the company in bankruptcy. Jet fuel prices were also a factor and American paid an average of $3.01/gallon in 2011 versus $2.32 in 2010. The carrier expects to slash 13,000 jobs this year and is being very closely monitored by both Delta and US Airways for a possible acquisition.
• United Airlines this week confirmed it will adopt Continental’s “PetSafe” policy for transporting animals who don’t travel in the passenger cabin effective March 3. According to a company spokesperson, the rates aren’t significantly higher than the now current fees for checking an animal, with the exception of Japan whose government requires an extra fee be paid to a third-party handler. This change has many military families outraged as what cost some $130 when moving to Japan with their pet will now be in the $1,400 range under the new policy. PetSafe has been praised by pet transport professionals for taking exceptional care of animals in their care.
• Speaking of pets traveling in the cargo hold, more pets died on Delta Air Lines last year than any other carrier – 19 out of the total 35 reported deaths. Delta claims less than 0.2 percent of pets carried were injured or died while in its care and noted its size as the country’s largest carrier in terms of passengers carried often means it transports more pets than other airlines. Delta did institute changes to its policy and now bans certain types of dogs that are prone to respiratory problems. The Humane Society of the United States advises owners should not transport pets by air “unless absolutely necessary.”
• Low-fare carrier Spirit Airlines will resume service out of Denver this May. Daily nonstops to Chicago, Dallas, Ft. Lauderdale and Las Vegas will commence on May 3 and enable passengers to connect to an additional 29 cities in the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America. Denver is a hub for United, Frontier and (effectively based on passenger volume) Southwest. While I’ve noticed United tends not to match Spirit’s fares, it remains to be seen what impact Spirit’s entry will have on Southwest and Frontier fares.

Finally, here are some Quick Hits:

• Regional carrier SkyWest posted its first annual loss since 1988.
• Qantas is discontinuing LAX-Auckland flights, pointing to higher Air New Zealand fares on the route.
• Spirit Airlines intends to increase capacity by 23% in 2012 vs. 2011.
• Southwest Airlines officially launches service in Atlanta.

In other airline industry news this week…

• As I expected and not at all surprising, American, Delta, United and US Airways have added a $6 roundtrip surcharge for flights to Europe to offset the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme. United’s 767-300s that fly to Europe hold a total of 183 passengers. If it goes out full in both directions, United will collect $1,098 in surcharge fees. I haven’t looked into what type of fees airlines will pay if they go over their allocated carbon emissions, but I can’t help but wonder if this might be a new mini-profit center for them.
• In fantastically pleasurable news to myself – and many, many others – United Airlines has officially confirmed that “Rhapsody in Blue” will continue as their theme song. Phew. The tulip has wilted, but I’m happy to cling onto at least one aspect of “my” carrier that I’ve grown to love.
• Staying with United for a moment, the carrier opened up exclusive experiences via MileagePlus that allow members to bid on a variety of auctions. I blogged back in April that I’d like the option to redeem miles on once-in-a-lifetime type events and United now offers some of them, including flight simulator rides, tickets to PGA Tour events and a host of other items.
• American Airlines was officially delisted from the New York Stock Exchange this week for failing to hold a minimum share price of more than $1 for a consecutive 30 days. I remember when United suffered the same fate, but they’ve bounced back and I’m certain American will, too. Sadly, current shareholders will likely see their stake in the airline wiped out while the carrier reorganizes in bankruptcy.
• AirTran Airways was fined $60,000 for failing to include a “prominent link” in an advertisement last fall that would take a customer to a page fully detailing additional taxes and fees. These type of fines will certainly be less frequent come January 26^th when airlines will be required to advertise prices inclusive of such fees. I look forward to it, actually, as the prices we see will be all-in and represent the actual amount we have to pay.
• With their reduction of international services, about 150 Qantas pilots have taken unpaid leave. The carrier has offered the option since the 2008 financial crisis and many pilots end up accepting jobs with overseas airlines. This is total conjecture, but one of my Cathay Pacific pilots on my trip last year had an Australian accent, so now can’t help but think he might be a Qantas pilot on leave.
• Brussels Airlines, a Star Alliance member, is set to begin service to the United States on June 1, 2012. Daily flights between Brussels and New York’s JFK airport will commence at that time with two-cabin Airbus A330 aircraft, either the -200 or -300 series, according to the carrier.
• Finally, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported this week that the world’s airlines netted $5 billion in profits for the third quarter of 2011, down from $9.71 billion for the same period in 2010. IATA also said passenger yields continue to increase due in part to “careful capacity management, particularly in the United States.”

Eastern Airlines pioneered the air shuttle concept in 1961 with hourly service from New York’s La Guardia airport to both Washington National and Boston. It was operated with Lockheed Constellations way back then and eventually included widebodies at peak times in the 1980s.

In 1989, Donald Trump bought the Air-Shuttle service and operated it for a short time. It eventually merged into USAir, now US Airways, and both they and Delta Air Lines currently operate hourly service in those markets.

Here’s the Eastern Airbus A300 B2 used on Air-Shuttle flights seating a total of 265 coach passengers. These flights were no-frills and didn’t even allow for advance seat assignments. No big deal, really, given they were short-haul routes. I’d definitely be in a window seat and would try for rows three, four, 14 or 15 (those last two for a view of the engine).

Where would you sit?

In other airline, hotel and travel industry news this week…

[Edited last minute to include:] Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has taken severe action and cancelled all flights in response to continued pressure by three union groups at the airline. He states, ”They are trashing our strategy and our brand. They are deliberately destabilising the company and there is no end in sight.” Paging Prime Minister Julia Gillard… would Julia Gillard please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone.

• All the major air carriers released their third quarter 2011 financial results in the last week. Most missed analyst expectations and all cited the approximate 40% increase in jet fuel prices from the previous year’s quarter as the main reason. Starting with the winners, United Airlines – Continental Airlines posted a combined net income of $653 million, down 23% from 2010, Delta Air Lines posted a profit of $549 million, up from $366 million in 2010 and US Airways netted $95 million, down from $243 million in 2010. Not unsurprising, American Airlines posted a $162 million loss this past quarter compared to a $143 million profit in 2010.
• The Chicago Tribune recently interviewed the founder of AirplaneFood.net, Luis Ramirez, after the reporter read an announcement that American Airlines will be working with two top chefs to provide in-flight meals on some flights. In my opinion, first class meals today are the free coach meals of 1990 and it’s a favorite gripe among travelers. Not surprisingly, Ramirez’s top three carriers for meals are foreign, namely Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Emirates. His bottom three are United Airlines, US Airways and Alitalia. I particularly like his quote about United’s meals: “Uninspired, unattractive, predictable, and most importantly, lacks minimum quality.”
• Even though domestic airlines claim they’re not seeing a drop in demand in business travelers, IATA – the International Air Transport Association – points to slowing growth for premium traffic. The association reports international premium traffic growth in August slowed to 2.3%, down sharply from July’s 7.5% rate. Routes within North America declined, actually, and were down 13.2%.
• When Google Flight Search launched last month it only offered links to book a ticket on the websites of the carriers it featured. It seems they’ve had a change of heart and now show the ability to “try this search” on the major Online Travel Agency (OTA) websites. I’m sure they had a bit of pressure from the OTAs and a Google spokesperson stated, “While this is just a start, we look forward to expanding our advertising efforts with partners and to continue experimenting with different formats, placements and targeting capabilities.” I honestly haven’t been back since I gave it a rather scathing review.
• Flight diversions make for a stressful situation for passengers, but some of the stress was shared this week with workers at Abilene Regional Airport. Dense fog at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport caused seven flights to divert to the small airport, which generally never sees that much traffic. One café ended up selling out of some items and had lines 25 people deep. A kind passenger reportedly helped the café out by changing out the trash bag!

I actually had a lot more to cover from the week, including bonus mileage and point offers from airlines and hotels, but the other fine bloggers here at BoardingArea covered them nicely. As this post goes live, I’ll be listening to View From The Wing’s Gary Leff give his Award Bookings presentation at the Chicago Seminars.

It’s officially here! Tonight begins the 2011 Chicago Frequent Flyer Seminars and I’ll be in attendance for the entire weekend. The event has sold-out and it promises to bring an uncompromised amount of education to all areas we mile and point fanatics care about.

I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and am certain I’ll pick up a few tips and tricks I don’t already know about. The knowledge base of the presenters is at the PhD level, so if you’ll be there it sort of goes without saying that you’ll learn how to maximize your frequent traveler program accounts. Here are the threads at FlyerTalk and MilePoint that discuss the weekend.

As far as my schedule, I’ll be attending:

Friday October 28: Tech Travel Skills at 7:00pm

Saturday October 29: Rookie Bootcamp at 9:00am

Saturday October 29: Award Bookings at 10:00am

Saturday October 29: SPG/UA with Lucky and UA Captain Denny at 1:00pm

Saturday October 29: Mileage Runs at 3:00pm

Saturday October 29: Mileage Runs Hands-on Workshop at 5:00pm

Sunday October 30: Moderated breakouts on airline & hotel programs at 11:00am

Sunday October 30: Cherry Picking with Beaubo and Randy Petersen at 3:00pm

I’ll be live Tweeting during the weekend, so be sure to follow me. Also, posting on my blog might be light or non-existent over the weekend depending on how much time I have. Next week look for a post summarizing my experience and hopefully it’ll encourage you to attend next year if you haven’t yet been to one.

[Edited to add:] Be sure to check out night one here.

Most airline reviews posted in the mainstream media are traveler-based specifically focusing on the opinions of the end-user. Earlier this month, Business Travel News published the results from its 14^th annual Airline Survey of 716 corporate travel managers and buyers, of which 406 represent or manage the accounts of companies who spend in excess of $500,000 annually. The majority of those 406 spend more than $12 million each year.

In my opinion the results reveal a different side to the industry many don’t normally consider – the contracted and often private fare airline clients. This year, Delta Air Lines beat out Continental Airlines earning the highest ratings overall, and winning five out of the 10 total service delivery categories scored. Here are those categories:

Image courtesy Business Travel News

It’s important to note just how different some of them are when compared to traditional airline reviews, as you and I generally don’t have contracted rates with negotiated pricing or deal with a dedicated account manager. Here, then, are the results from corporate buyers:

Image courtesy Business Travel News

Southwest generally scores pretty high in consumer end-user satisfaction, but it appears they’re not winning many purchasers over on the corporate contract front coming in last of the five surveyed. Some other tidbits revealed by airline:

Delta Air Lines:

• Finishing fourth last year, travel managers are saying the carrier started listening to companies and have become more flexible.
• Delta itself states they’ve empowered their sales agents to be more collaborative and have enhanced client reporting.
• Rolling out Economy Comfort, more flatbed seats and offering Wi-Fi on its entire domestic fleet also won high marks.

United Airlines:

• Truth be told, United came in fifth last year (Continental was #1) and the report states, “The new United already may be harnessing Continental’s history of goodwill in the corporate marketplace.”
• United acknowledges the challenges the merger brings and claims there’s “an enormous amount of work to do” on corporate customer programs.
• Even with merger pains, the carrier took the #1 spot in service & amenity flexibility, distribution channels and quality of customer service (which sort of surprises me as the description of that category is pretty much on par with how we travelers rate the carrier – often not taking the top spot).

US Airways:

• The carrier claims it is shedding their previous position as a “low-cost” carrier after they acquired America West and have been ramping up their sales department to compete with those of the legacy network carriers. They gained 100 new North American accounts in the past year.
• As such, they’ve increased their sales force by 50% in North America (up to 42 people) and have expanded internationally in Brussels, Zurich, Ireland and Scandinavia.
• They took #1 in “overall price value,” which doesn’t surprise me since they actually still match many of Spirit’s fares whereas no other major generally does in the markets I monitor.

American Airlines:

• American came in second last year, but a combination of their financial position, perceived value of network and alliance partnerships and distribution woes moved them into fourth place this year.
• Here’s a disparity from my experiences with them this year – they came in last in quality of customer service. Either I had the most exceptional crews, airport agents and phone interactions this year or this category might be more skewed to being specific to the sales teams and related support personnel (unlike the way it sounds in the above description).

Southwest Airlines:

• Southwest is sort-of unique to compare to these other carriers from a corporate travel perspective, but they did take third place last year. This year, not so much as travel managers find their lack of negotiated discounts and third-party distribution channels a pressing point.
• Their merger with AirTran is also of importance to many corporate planners. AirTran had a fairly differentiated product with advance seat assignments, a premium cabin and actually went after corporate clients. It’s unclear Southwest’s direction concerning corporate accounts so far with the merger.

Consumers and travel managers both agree on one thing, however. Service improvements are scarce and most have seen no improvement with many finding things worse off than in the past. This pretty much mirrors consumer sentiment today:

Image courtesy Business Travel News

I held positions at two different travel companies where we negotiated with the airlines on these types of contracts, so I always have a keen interest in following how that industry has been evolving. I read one article where United no longer offers bulk pricing contracts to wholesale travel distributors, but need to do more research into that before assuming it’s industry-wide. If true, look for a post soon on how that changes the game for many popular travel operators.

These rankings are often in striking contrast to many consumer-based reviews, but it shows off the importance contracts with top spending travel management companies can provide to an airline’s bottom line, an area not often reviewed on BoardingArea.

When a family member or loved one is seriously ill, possibly near death or has already passed, airlines used to have very generous bereavement airfares back in the 1980s and 1990s. They have generally disappeared and I believe when I worked for United Airlines in the 1990s such airfares no longer existed. During a recent scan under each of the header tabs on United’s homepage I did find a category for “Compassion Fares.” It reads:

They are only bookable by calling United directly, but the normal fee for making a reservation via phone of $25 is waived in these instances. Flights have to be solely on United or United Express and other requirements apply, including that ticketing must be completed within six days of travel.

United considers a family member, whether biological, adoptive, step, in-law, foster or ward/legal guardian, to be a:

• Spouse
• Domestic partner (nice to see)
• Child
• Parent
• Sister
• Brother
• Grandparent
• Grandchild
• Aunt
• Uncle
• Niece
• Nephew

Further information is required when making the reservation and requires that you provide:

• The reason for your travel
• The name of the family member who is the reason for your travel (if applicable) and his or her relationship to you
• The name, address and telephone number of the hospital, hospice or funeral home
• The name of the attending physician (if applicable)

I certainly hope no one would ever take advantage of wanting a discount by claiming bereavement, so I understand why the above info is required. If United actually follows through with calling or other attempts at confirmation is another story.

What is definitely nice to see is that United will refund 10% of your fare if you purchased a ticket for this purpose and didn’t think to ask about it in advance. Once completing travel, you can submit a refund request with the same information about the loved one as outlined above.

As you know, last minute fares can usually be incredibly pricey and a 10% discount might not seem very friendly. Nonetheless, I was happy to see United publish an actual policy online for this type of travel. I also checked with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and US Airways. I called each carrier last night asking to travel tomorrow from Los Angeles to Chicago returning October 11^th and was given the following quotes:

American: I first checked their website and after searching for “bereavement fares,” the result simply mentioned to call reservations. I called and the least expensive roundtrip fare was $612.40 and carried the same requirements needing the funeral home info, phone number, etc. I asked what the normal fare would be and she quoted $732.40, nearly 20% more than the compassion fare, however the $25 phone-booking fee would still apply. Not too bad, considering. Kudos to American.

Delta: The cheapest fare here was $566.30 and this agent claimed there was no special discount for bereavement. Their website, however, has a page dedicated to such instances and states, “Since you may not have time to qualify for an advance-purchase discount, we’d like to help.” I think I got an unknowing agent, so thanked her and hung up. Typical of airline call centers, actually. If more people knew the frequent flyer standard to hang up and call again, it would make a world of difference.

US Airways: Since they don’t fly nonstop from LAX to Chicago, she actually first offered a United flight even before I mentioned my urgent need to travel due to a bereavement. Eventually, she found flights on US Airways for $587.80 plus the $25 phone-booking fee and added that they don’t have any special discounts for compassion reasons.

I believe all airlines should have a fully detailed published policy on their websites for these distressful occasions and was happy United and Delta had a complete description, though the agent at Delta seemed unaware. When I had to travel last minute last year and first priced out tickets and saw the exorbitant fare, I simply burned miles for a standard award. Have you ever needed a bereavement fare? What was your experience?

In other airline, hotel and travel industry news this week…

• All Nippon Airways (ANA) took delivery of its first Boeing 787 this week and it flew to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Wednesday. Regularly scheduled service doesn’t begin until November 1^st, but the carrier plans to fly a charter flight from Narita to Hong Kong on October 26^th. The Dreamliner will be seen initially flying regionally with long-haul service from Tokyo to Frankfurt beginning in January 2012.
• Lufthansa has ordered two additional Airbus A380s and 10 other aircraft in a deal that carries a list price of about $1.3 billion. The carrier says the increased capacity is necessary for “short-term requirements.” The other additions are one A330-300, four A320s for regional intra-Europe flying and five Embraer 195 regional jets. Once delivered, Lufty will have a fleet of 17 A380s.
• The Air Line Pilots Association at United Airlines sued the carrier claiming pilots weren’t given enough time to learn, train and implement a new procedure when a jet is caught in a strong wind gust. The procedure in question is currently used at Continental Airlines and requires pilots to let the autopilot make the necessary adjustments vs. pilots taking control in those instances. Courts ruled with the airline allowing the changes to go ahead. Something tells me, though, that pilots against the change might disobey procedure and take over control of the airplane. Just a hunch as it’s something I might do.
• Courts also sided with US Airways this week forcing pilots to quit engaging in work slowdowns that have caused delays and cancellations impacting the carrier’s ability to handle reaccommodation of passengers. When the suit was filed, the US Airline Pilots Association claimed the carrier’s allegations were “categorically false” and instead said they were performing a “safety campaign.” The judge disagreed after reviewing the evidence and issued an injunction against the union.
• Many hotels require you to cancel a reservation by 6pm the day of arrival, or some even 24- to 48-hours out. It’s nothing new, but one hotel in Packwood, WA has a vague policy stating, “If Manager is able to re-sell Guest’s dates at net rates of at least equal to those charged to Guest, Manager will refund Guest’s Use Fee less a Re-Booking fee as specified by Manager.” Chris Elliott thinks hotels might adopt airline-like rebooking fees on some rates in addition to the already existing non-refundable ones. It’s an interesting concept where hotels could create a new revenue stream, but I don’t think it will catch on.
• Hilton HHonors revealed its fourth quarter promotion offering either double points or a free night certificate after four qualifying stays or 10 nights. Registration is required for stays between October 1^st and December 31^st this year. The list of non-qualifying properties is lengthy and includes two I have bookings at in October. As such, I signed up for the double miles since it wouldn’t pay off to do a couple of mattress runs just to get a free night.
• Even with the current economic downturn, it’s being reported business travelers are returning to booking premium cabins on airlines. Corporate travel managers saw a five percent increase this year in North American companies that allow premium-class travel. 56% of companies here have such a policy, with 46% of European firms, up from 34% last year. I always feel fortunate to get a complimentary upgrade on United’s A319 fleet with only 8 seats in First Class, but my luck might change should these figures continue to rise.
• Finally, Virgin Atlantic was fined $25,000 by the U.S. Department of Transportation for violating the rules for advertising taxes and fees clearly. They found the carrier, “displayed internet ads that did not provide direct access to information on taxes and fees that were in addition to the base fare.” If you clicked on the ad, the fees were there, but fairly well hidden in the fine print. This will all change come January next year, though, as all advertised prices will be required to include the fees.