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

• United Airlines will begin new nonstop service from Raleigh-Durham International Airport to San Francisco on August 15. North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue broke the news on Wednesday. United will operate a 154-seat Boeing 737-800 on the route and the flight will be timed to allow for connections to the popular international bank of departures leaving in the 11 o’clock hour from SFO.
• Sacramento International Airport is trying to court Virgin America. The airport received approval from the county to offer VX up to $400,000 to begin flights to Los Angeles. Also in the works for the debt-ridden airport are deals for two new airport hotels by 2014.
• Allegiant Airlines officially announced new service to Hawaii. The airline took delivery of its first Boeing 757s last year that it will use on the route, but they have yet to receive FAA certification. Allegiant plans to operate flights to Honolulu three times weekly from Las Vegas and one flight each week from Fresno. The planned service is scheduled to begin at the end of June.
• Free Wi-Fi will be coming to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in September this year. DFW reached an agreement with AT&T to offer the service in every terminal and passengers will have to view a 30-second commercial for every 40 minutes of network usage.
• The Qantas A380 that suffered an uncontained engine failure near Singapore last year will return to service later this month. Final testing is underway and the total cost of repairs came to about $143 million. The airline claims the entire cost is covered by insurance and represents more than a third of the current $389.9 million list price for a new A380.
• Hilton Hotels & Resorts will be shifting 447 properties up or down a category level on April 30. 330 hotels are going up a level while 117 are being downgraded. The full list of properties affected can be found here.
• Hong Kong International Airport will be getting the world’s first airport IMAX theatre in June. It will replace the former 4D Extreme Screen in Terminal 2 and is located before security. A mix of Hollywood movies and “edutainment” films will air in the 358-seat cinema at a cost of about $20 per ticket.
• Finally, my air-traveling idiot of the week goes to a woman who stripped naked at Denver International Airport on Tuesday. She was apparently smoking inside the terminal and decided to take her clothes off after being asked to put her cigarette out. An airport police spokesman said she wasn’t arrested, but instead taken to a hospital for evaluation.

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…

• Delta Air Lines introduced new ancillary options available at booking called Trip Extras. The initial offerings are priority boarding starting at $9 per segment, a mileage booster starting at $29 for 1,000 miles (terrible value!) and a 24-hour Wi-Fi pass for $12. Since Delta’s own blog mentions them as being the “first offerings” to be available at booking, Trip Extras will certainly be expanded further growing the ever popular unbundling and ancillary product trend.
• Virgin America announced it will begin service to Portland, Oregon on June 5, 2012 – its 18^th destination. The airline will fly two daily roundtrip flights PDX-LAX and one PDX-SFO. CEO David Cush is hoping their entry will bring fares down noting, “Although there are strong business and leisure travel ties between California and Portland, the West Coast-to-PDX market generally has higher fares than similar flights to Seattle and the reason is competition.”
• I posted some of the insights I gleaned from United Airlines’ presentation at the J.P. Morgan investors’ conference last week and Southwest Airlines also participated revealing they expect to realize a first quarter 2012 loss. Citing an average fuel cost of $3.50 per gallon, Senior VP-Finance and CFO Laura Wright said, “Based on the current revenue and fuel estimates, we currently do not anticipate a profit in the first quarter.” The first and fourth quarters are typically the most challenging for airlines and given Southwest has earned a full-year net profit for 39 consecutive years, I wouldn’t be too worried as an investor.
• Besides the already reported new flights by American and United out of Washington’s Reagan National Airport, Air Canada, Alaska, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Sun Country and Virgin America have applied for a piece of the remaining four slots open to “beyond perimeter” flying out of DCA. Both JetBlue and Southwest are hoping to begin service to Austin, each claiming United has a high-priced monopoly on their existing service from nearby Dulles International Airport.
• Google’s Flight Search expanded its legs last week and now offers U.S.-based users the ability to search international fares and flights. I honestly haven’t been back to it since my initial underwhelming review of the ITA Software-powered search tool, and probably won’t return until I start hearing rave reviews. It might be a good tool for the general traveler with simple flight search needs, so perhaps my more advanced knowledge and ITA Matrix experience is jading my opinion.
• Hyatt Hotels plans to install new TV technology allowing guests in North American properties to stream movies from their own Netflix or HBO accounts, as well as connect their laptops to use other services. Guests will have to pay the $9.95 daily internet charge to use the service, which will include the ability to request items from housekeeping, order room service and get information on local restaurants and city tours.

On Thursday this week, the next round of passenger protections will take effect, including a requirement that airlines and other providers advertise airfare prices inclusive of taxes and mandatory fees. I took a tour around the web yesterday and noticed United Airlines (and Continental) have already begun advertising all-in rates.

First, I stopped by United’s website and noticed all their featured locations no longer showed a specific fare from each origin, rather a link to start a flight search.

When selecting between flight times, the all-in fare now populates in the middle box (shown below), whereas it used to only show the base fare requiring you to click through to book or click the link for “Price Breakdown” to reveal the total. Nice to see United launch this ahead of the deadline.

Over at Continental, fare amounts for specific city pair promotions and destinations are displayed, but they are inclusive of the mandatory taxes and fees. (Hey! There really is a $99 fare!)

I welcome this change since taxes and fees can equate for up to 20% of a domestic ticket’s total price, but do understand why airlines are against it. Gone will be attractive lead-in pricing, such as the $59 fares Virgin America had on their site yesterday (and today).

Come Thursday, that same ad will have to read, “From $69.80.” Airlines were staunchly against the new rules claiming other industries don’t have to advertise their products inclusive of tax and they feel it could lead to lowered demand.

Quick poll… would you like to see the base fares displayed, such as the $59 Virgin America example, or would you prefer to see the $69.80 all-in fare advertised?

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The other protections going into effect Thursday are:

• Bans against post-purchase price increases
• Allowing a reservation to be held for 24-hours at the quoted fare or the ability to cancel a reservation in the same time period without penalty, so long as the flights in question are at least one-week in advance
• Disclosure of baggage fees when booking flights and on itineraries
• A requirement that the same baggage allowances and fees apply throughout a passenger’s journey, irrespective of airline(s) flown
• Prompt notification of delays that exceed 30 minutes, as well as cancellations and diversions

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

• United Airlines announced they will add a segment onto the existing Washington Dulles to Dubai flight and continue to Doha, Qatar beginning May 1, 2012. The news release claims the flights will be operated with United’s International Premium Travel Experience Boeing 777s, but there’s still always a risk of getting an unconverted bird until all 777s have been refitted.
• American Eagle has been selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin daily service from Chicago O’Hare to both Sioux City and Waterloo, Iowa. It’s a part of the Essential Air Service program where the government subsidizes airlines to serve certain routes to smaller communities that would otherwise be unprofitable to fly. The carrier is planning to begin flights next spring using Embraer regional jets.
• Virgin America’s size will now warrant the carrier to report on-time data for its flights to the DOT in 2012. ExpressJet Airlines will also be required to do the same, but they’ve been doing so voluntarily this year. Meanwhile, Atlantic Southeast and Mesa no longer have to report the stats, but Mesa says they’ll continue to report on a voluntary basis.
• The International Air Transport Association (IATA) lowered its 2012 profit forecast for global airlines by nearly 29% this week. European carriers are expected to lose a collective $600 million next year in part due to the meltdown of the Euro. Carriers in North America are expected to post $2.1 billion in profits.
• Airlines are asking the DOT to delay part of the new passenger protection rules that are scheduled to take effect January 24, 2012. Many carriers issued sworn affidavits saying they need at least another year to comply with the rule related to baggage fees and allowances on multi-carrier itineraries. Current system constraints and the inability to access a passenger’s previous flight from another carrier on the same itinerary are causing the headaches for IT staff.
• The Australian Labor Party is backing Qantas unions in their desire to keep the airline Australian-owned and controlled. Legislation is being considered to strengthen the Qantas Sales Act that will “keep the majority ownership, operation and governance of (Australian) airlines in Australia.” A carrier spokeswoman warned, “Any proposed plans to change the act that restricts Qantas from doing business will not protect Australian jobs.”
• Expedia and United Airlines have extended their agreement for another multi-year term. While not confirmed, the news blurb about it sounds like Expedia might soon be able to sell Economy Plus seats and other ancillary products. One of Expedia’s brands, Travelscape, is the current provider of hotel listings on United.com.

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.

I compiled the following chart showing each airline’s travel waiver information due to the impact Hurricane Irene will cause on the East coast of the United States this weekend. Please keep in mind this is a dynamic situation and the airlines will likely update their waivers as conditions change. I will do my best to update the chart below as often as possible. As always, contact your airline directly should your flights be impacted. My apologies for how small the text is… lots of data to cram in there.

[Chart below last modified 6:45pm PDT Friday August 26, 2011]

In the words of Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti, yesterday’s announced alliance between the carrier and Singapore Airlines will “unequivocally” be bad news for Qantas. Speaking mainly in terms of the scope and connectivity to the rest of the world Singapore will bring to Virgin’s passengers wishing a seamless travel experience starting within Australia, he thinks this partnership will be a major blow to Qantas’ struggling international business.

Keep in mind this is a one-off codesharing agreement between Virgin Australia & Singapore, much like the ones they already have in place with AirNew Zealand, Etihad and soon to be Delta Air Lines pending U.S. government approval. Mr. Borghetti made it clear yesterday that this in no way should be viewed as a step to join a “big alliance” (Star Alliance in this case) by saying “the relationship between Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines shouldn’t be confused with anything else other than that.” He did continue to say, however, that joining a major alliance isn’t out of the question by adding “…that is something we’ll think about in 2012 and beyond.”

Globally, the Virgin brand has been a bit unique in shying away from joining one of the three major airline alliances: OneWorld, SkyTeam & Star Alliance. Perhaps in part due to the strength of their existing partnerships, as well as strong domestic offerings within Australia, and of course in the United States with sister company Virgin America continuing to grow. Their match up with Delta continues to intrigue me, though, as Borghetti was in attendance at a Star Alliance meeting back in December and I had selfishly hoped they’d be dumping Delta and switching focus to Star Alliance carriers within the U.S. He didn’t close the door on that possibility, so I’m hoping to one day arrive in Sydney on United Virgin Australia and have their domestic network at my disposal.

The agreement between Virgin Australia & Singapore will provide meaningful benefits for travelers with coordinated flight schedules, frequent flyer program earning & redemption opportunities and reciprocal lounge access. It is scheduled to commence August 1^st this year and has been termed a “long-term” partnership.

It’s time again for a quick wrap up of noteworthy news items from the airline and travel industry this week, summarized below:

• Delta Air Lines and US Airways have re-engaged each other for a potential slot swap at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Washington D.C.’s Reagan National Airport aimed to align each carrier better with their desired presence and route offerings in each market. The deal needs a blessing by the U.S. Department of Transportation and it is expected to clear given the recent merger by Continental and United that gave Southwest entry in the congested slot controlled New York market.
• The U.S. government also has their eye on global distribution systems (GDSs), with both airlines and GDS companies confirming they’ve received inquiries from the Justice Department to cooperate in an antitrust investigation. Stemming in part from awareness of American Airlines’ push for Direct Connect technology and the various lawsuits between carriers and GDS companies in the news lately, it will be interesting to monitor this in the coming months.
• New service, bonus miles & special offers are a plenty for Chicago-bound flyers from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Virgin America launched service into O’Hare Airport yesterday from both cities, and both American and United have targeted bonus mile offers to dissuade people from abandoning them. Additionally, American announced five days of giveaways this week to a lucky few flyers on flights from Chicago to Los Angeles and San Francisco. One person on each flight in each direction will win bonus AAdvantage miles, a couple of vouchers for future travel, and a day pass to the Admirals Club along with a $50 membership discount certificate.
• Singapore Airlines will launch a wide-bodied low-fare subsidiary in the near future aimed at gaining a share of the budget conscious medium- to long-haul markets in the Asia-Pacific region. The yet to be named carrier will look to steal some business away from existing carriers serving the area including Air Asia, JetStar (Qantas) and Tiger Airways. Oddly, Singapore Airlines holds nearly a 33% stake in Tiger, but has no managerial input as to how the carrier is run.
• Steven Slater is the former JetBlue flight attendant who will certainly be remembered for his less than professional (but wildly entertaining) exit from a flight he worked at New York’s Kennedy Airport last year. He’s penning a memoir and if his writing is as poignant and polished as this interview, he’s already sold his first book to yours truly. Very well spoken and realistic about an industry he loved, he comes across honest and comfortable with his predicament. I wish him nothing but success with upcoming book and all his future endeavors.

Last week I mentioned I was going for Gold status with American Airlines in their AAdvantage frequent flyer program. Having basically locked-in renewing my 1K status with United Airlines, my addictive behavior for flying even more is getting the better of me and I’m starting this week to fly American for the first time since 1988.

Gold status will be nice to have through February 2013 once I cross the 25,000 elite qualifying mile (EQM) threshold, but I got to thinking about doing a status challenge. I missed out on the Executive Platinum one from earlier this year, for which Ben over at One Mile at a Time is well on his way. So, I called American last night & decided to go for the Platinum challenge, which requires 10,000 elite qualifying points (EQPs) to be completed by August 15, 2011. Here’s part of the email I received summarizing what it takes to get there:

So, for $180 and a bit more flying than I already have booked, I have the opportunity to lock in Platinum on American through February 2012. At this stage in the game, I’m not sure I’ll keep flying American later in the year to hit Platinum outright, but if my experiences getting there are positive, I just might consider it.

The only downside to doing a challenge this time of year is that the fares during summer are typically higher than other times of year. Luckily, Virgin America’s entry into the Chicago and Dallas markets has prompted a bit of a fare war, so tickets can be had for around $225 to those cities. Granted, they only earn 0.5 points per mile on the deep discounted tickets, but I also have a work trip coming up to New York for which fares are a bit higher, and would get me 1.0 point per mile on that ticket.

As a data point, the Gold challenge is currently available for $100 with a 5,000 EQP requirement. The challenge fees historically change depending on the time of year, and a helpful wiki guide was created if you’d like to find out more.

I’m optimistic at this point about flying American, even though I’ll be chasing status the hard way by flying coach and not being able to book premium exit row seats due to my lack of status. Look for a post early next week detailing my first experience with American this coming weekend.

Image courtesy American Airlines

If you read my blog you know my airline loyalty lies with United Airlines. I’ve been a 1K since 2008 & all other elite levels during most years since I first became a Premier in 1990. This summer, I’ve decided to focus my flying on American Airlines and go for Gold elite status in the AAdvantage program, which requires 25,000 miles or 30 segments within a calendar year.

I actually used to fly American with great regularity back in 1998 when I consulted on a technology project for the travel company I was working for. I was based in Chicago at that time, and flew out to Philadelphia every Monday, back every Friday for six months. Sadly, since those tickets were booked in a non-revenue earning fare bucket, a perk granted to my company for their volume of business to American, I didn’t accrue a single mile during those months.

A couple of things got me thinking about going for gold with American. First, earlier this year, I applied for the Citi AAdvantage Visa card and after a little spend on the card, received 40,000 miles as a bonus. Fantastic… that’s good for a free roundtrip economy “MileSAAver off-peak” ticket to Europe. Then, I thought it might make for good blog material to fly on American once or twice to review the experience as a non-elite and compare it to how I’m treated on United. So, I had already booked two trips with American, both in June. Finally, American comes out with Double Elite Qualifying (DEQM) and Redeemable Miles for Los Angeles (and San Francisco) flights to both Chicago and Dallas, a move to de-entice flyers from switching to Virgin America’s new service in both cities.

That’s all it took to get this mileage running & elite status junkie to commit to going for it. Gold status on American brings with it priority services at check-in, boarding & preferred seating, as well as a 25% mileage bonus, free baggage allowance, minimum mile guarantee for flights under 500 miles, oneworld Ruby status, and a few other niceties. And I’ll be able to achieve the status for a “relative” bargain.

The two itineraries I have booked already will net me 8,430 elite qualifying miles (EQMs), so I need 16,570 more to hit 25,000 miles. With the DEQM promo I mentioned above to Chicago and Dallas, the fastest way to hit the mark would be to fly one roundtrip to Chicago, and two to Dallas. Looking at fares right now, though, it actually might be cheaper to do all Chicago runs, since the fares to Chicago are lower than those to Dallas. Also, I have a work trip coming up & will consider American for that one, as my company is flexible with carrier preference.

I fully expect to maintain my loyalty with United Airlines, but it will certainly be nice to have at least the lowest level elite status on American should conditions arise necessitating a switch, and my gold status will be valid through February 2013. The DEQM promos to both Chicago and Dallas end August 31, 2011, so I have a few months to play around with my options. The downside: summer fares can be unfriendly to bargain hunters like myself, and I’m locked into Chicago and Dallas for the double miles. It’s all in the fun for the hunt for status, and I look forward to blogging about my impressions of American’s service since my long hiatus from flying them in the 1990s.