Posted by Marshall Jackson on March 19, 2010 under Delta Air Lines, Safety and Security, Travel Tips | 
Word to the wise. Flew Delta out of DCA this morning on the 6:40am launch to Memphis. At 5:30am, the security line was backed a quarter of the way to the next concourse, and by the time I got close to security, I’d say the line was well on it’s way to being much further down DCA’s beautiful National Hall. I haven’t seen lines like these at DCA in years. Word was that it was like that the morning before as well. Anyone know what gives? Spring Breakers? Just that much more business since NWA’s operations joined Delta at DCA? Comment to the blog if you know the scoop.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on March 1, 2010 under Delta Air Lines, Travel Tips |
I’m a newbie when it comes to doing the legwork to redeem and upgrade using Delta SkyMiles. I’ve been flying Delta semi-regularly for only 2 years or so, with a recent uptick that will probably see me fly enough to hit Gold Medallion this year. The test and actual bookings I’ve tried in using SkyMiles for various itineraries haven’t been all that successful. For me at least, SkyMiles seem a bit more difficult to use than AAdvantage miles. But I’m starting to pick up on tips and tricks, and I’ll pass those a long as I can.
Today, I had my first opportunity to use SkyMiles to upgrade a domestic itinerary from coach to first class. Next week, I’m flying to Seattle for a 5 day business trip. I consider anything over 3 hours a reasonable candidate for a mileage based upgrade, and this trip certainly meets that threshold. But I don’t really care about the outbound as I have good seats, and I’m connecting in MSP, basically half-way there. The return however, I care about. After a long week of working, I really don’t want to sit in 16E for my return flight which will take me from SEA to DTW to DCA, with that SEA to DTW leg being a good bit over 4 hours.
Delta is fairly restrictive on the fares it will allow you to upgrade with miles with only Y, B, and M fares eligible internationally, with the addition of Q, V H, and K fares domestically. Just so happens, my trip to Seattle is booked in K. After a quick check of ExpertFlyer, which appeared to show availability in G class (mileage upgrade class for domestic flights) I gave Delta a call at the Special Member Services (SMS) number on the back of my Medallion card. Minor rant: I was on hold for 10 minutes. When I finally got through, I explained that I would like to upgrade my flight with miles, and was then transferred to the “mileage desk.” It would be better if any representative could process the upgrade, but I guess you can’t have everything. At least I didn’t have to wait any longer as the “mileage desk” picked up the phone immediately. I again explained that I’d like to upgrade the return portion of my trip. The very polite representative handled my request in minutes, and soon I was no longer seated in dreadful 16E. The “price” in miles was 12,500 and there were no dreadful co-pays.
A few observations. It would be best if mileage upgrades could be processed at the first point of contact (or better yet, online). Perhaps I called the wrong 800 #. If any Delta experts out there have any thoughts on that, leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Delta is quite restrictive on the fares it allows you to upgrade. I think a nice enhancement would be to allow Medallion members to upgrade with miles on any fare. Otherwise, no complaints about the process, except that I think a 10 minute wait to talk to a live person is over the top for the “elite” phone line (or any phone line for that matter). I’ve tried to call Delta a couple of times recently, only to hang up when I grew tired of waiting. In any event, I think this was a pretty good spend of SkyMiles, or at least it was for me.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 27, 2010 under Starwood Preferred Guest, Travel Tips |
Just completed a 2-night stay at the W Atlanta Midtown. I recently reviewed this property so I will not post a full review, just some observations. Check-in was quick, and polite. I had entered a request for a high-floor city view room in the comments section of my reservation when I booked it on spg.com. I think this was the first time I’d ever had a front desk person mention a request I’d placed in the reservation comments, and I received a 17th floor “Wonderful Room” with a city view.
The stay itself was typical W, and everything was fine. The hotel seemed busier than during my last visit, and I’m always glad to see signs of business picking up. One nice thing I noticed is that I received turndown service each night. Maybe it’s been happening before and I wasn’t paying attention, but I like it. Looking forward to returning to the area in April with stays planned at both the Midtown hotel and the W Buckhead which I will review in full as it’s been quite a while since I’ve stayed there.
I’ll be at the W Seattle the week of March 8th, and I will be sure to post a review of that hotel as well.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 23, 2010 under Delta Air Lines, Travel Tips |
My 6AM Delta flight from DCA to ATL on 2/24 is already delayed 1 hour 50 minutes. And the next couple of flights are delayed at least that much. Heads up.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 17, 2010 under Delta Air Lines, Travel Tips |
Frugal Travel Guy is one of my first blog reads everyday. In this post, FTG reveals the results of a recent award search from Savannah (SAV) to Kauai (LIH). Other airlines had better and cheaper availability than Delta SkyMiles. I always feel like I need to say this: I like flying Delta. I think their inflight product and service is the best of the big domestic airlines. SkyMiles on the other hand, leaves a bit to be desired on the redemption side. SkyMiles aren’t impossible to use, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that they are the most difficult. One suggestion I’d add to FTG’s comments. Call Delta. Their online award search/booking engine seems to have issues finding seats that might actually be there. That’s not an “apologist” attitude, just a suggestion that might help you get the seats you want.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 14, 2010 under American Airlines, Travel Products, Travel Tips |
Some months ago, American Airlines announced that it would begin priority baggage delivery for its top-tier customers system wide. I was excited to hear that American was stepping up to the plate on this, even though I rarely check bags. That said, when I do, I hate waiting for them!
After several flights without checked bags, I finally had the opportunity to put American’s new service to the test on my recent flights to and from Orlando. The results? Mixed. My bags were close to the last to be delivered when arriving in Orlando. But on the return to Washington, DC (DCA), they were among the first to hit the belt, right along with the other priority tagged bags. Score!
I’m going to give American the benefit of the doubt on my Orlando arrival. Why? We were swapped from the usual 757 on this flight to a 767-300 widebody. I don’t think AA serves Orlando with widebodies anymore since the A300’s retired last year. The ground handling needs between a widebody and a narrobody aircraft are not the same, and I think this may have impacted the delivery of baggage in some way. At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself, as the results I’ve read on Flyertalk.com and Travelingbetter.com have mostly been pretty positive.
Kudos to AA for stepping up to the plate and working to deliver this service. I hope they continue to focus on executing early delivery of priority bags because little things like this can drive travel decisions for high volume fliers.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 13, 2010 under Commentary / General Info, Destination DC, Travel Tips |
I wanted to get this out there now for DC area travelers. I’m a semi-frequent Red Top Cab customer. Red Top is a Virginia company but they can pick up in DC and transport to Virginia. Reagan National Airport (DCA) happens to be in Virginia, so Red Top is usually the first number I call for transportation from my home in northwest DC to DCA. They are supremely reliable, always on time, and unfailingly polite. Except for the morning that I needed them to show up. That would’ve been at 6AM on Sunday morning, January 31, 2010.
I had booked a cab online about a week in advance for a pick up at our home and transportation to DCA for our 8:20AM flight to Miami. As luck would have it, we had a few inches of snow the day before our flight. I don’t remember how much snow we had exactly, but it wasn’t anything like the nearly 3 feet we’ve had since.
Well, I rose a few minutes before 5AM to get ready for our trip. I checked the Taxi Magic app on my iPhone around 5:40AM to see if a cab had been dispatched, and it had not. At 5:50AM, I decided to call Red Top and see what was up. When I finally got through to a taxi dispatcher, they asked for details of my booking. In a minute or so, it became obvious that they had located my booking and realized that no cab had been dispatched. The dispatcher said something to the effect of “let me transfer you and see what happened.” I knew I was screwed. The next person came online soon enough, and basically said that they had no cab and didn’t know when they would.
Mrs MJ on Travel and I made a command decision to brush off the car and boogie to DCA. Luckily, it was quite cold, and the snow was very powdery. We had the car cleaned off in minutes, loaded the bags and were on our way. The streets were absolutely fine. Some snow in spots, but nothing that should cause a shortage of cabs. Exactly one hour after we made the decision to drive to DCA, we were in the Admirals Club having our first coffee, and thanking our lucky stars that things went so well.
Red Top Cab, you let me down. Worse yet, you let me down on the morning that kicked off my 40th birthday extravaganza. I won’t soon forget this. I’m sorry it snowed and all, but the minimal amount of snow we experienced that evening was no excuse to strand a customer when they needed you. The least you could’ve done was let me know. It’s going to be a while before I call again.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on February 10, 2010 under Commentary / General Info, Travel Tips |
We all know that the northeastern part of the US is basically shutdown while the latest blizzard beats us into submission. Airports from DC northward are basically closed, and I’m not convinced that tomorrow is going to be any better. If you are attempting to fly somewhere in the next few days, flexibility, patience, and a little luck will be your friends. A phone call from a former airline colleague today reminded me of what things can be like at the airport when major storms strike. Her airline has placed a skeleton staff at an airport hotel in hopes of having enough staff on hand to operate when the runways are finally clear. So some airport staff are holed up in hotels along with their stranded customers. Things will eventually start moving again, and when they do, just remember to try and not take out your frustration on those around you and try to be pleasant to the airline folks who stand between you and a seat home. They want to get you on your way so they can go home too.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on January 17, 2010 under Delta Air Lines, Travel Tips |
I’d say the answer to that question depends on who you are and where you want to go. I’m not going to render an opinion, I just want to share my first experience using this option with you. Delta’s Pay With Miles program is only available to SkyMiles members who carry the Gold, Platinum or Reserve Delta SkyMiles credit cards from American Express. I think it’s pretty clear to regular readers of this blog that I like Delta Air Lines just fine. However, Delta SkyMiles leaves a bit to be desired in my book when it comes to award availability, and especially my favorite award spend, upgrades. That said, Pay With Miles worked out OK for me this week, and I thought I’d share the details.
A little background might be useful. Mrs MJonTravel and I are traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma in March for a weekend visit. We’re gonna see the Black Eyed Peas while we’re there too! In any event, I need to depart on Friday, March 19th and return on Sunday, March 21st. I’d like to leave most anytime on Friday as long as we are there by 4PM or so, and I don’t want to get up at the crack of dawn to come back on Sunday morning after the concert. Frankly, this is a trip that I’d rather not use any miles for but after pricing the trip, I quickly concluded that miles were the only way I’d ever do this. Why? I’m sorry, but I’m not paying over $700 dollars for the 2 of us to get to anywhere in Oklahoma for a weekend! Southwest wanted over $1,100 dollars to depart from BWI and change planes once or twice. No, I’m not making this up. I did find a sub 200 dollar fare on Delta, but I had to return at 5:50AM. Out of the question!
Straight SkyMiles awards were pricing out at 40,000 roundtrip on delta.com and nwa.com with the same horrid schedules as that sub 200 dollar regular fare. A decent schedule was going to cost me 50,000 miles per ticket. 40 to 50 thousand miles to connect to an RJ in Atlanta for trip to Tulsa? No thanks. I decided to take a look at the Pay With Miles options, and suddenly things began to look a little more promising. I pieced together a schedule that met our needs with a fare of $338 dollars each. Choosing the pay for miles option gave me choices of using as little as 10,000 miles each for a $100 dollar discount each all the way up to 35,000 miles or $350 dollars off each fare, in other words, free. I went with 30,000 miles and paid $38 dollars each for our tickets. Not a bad outcome, especially considering the same itinerary I booked priced out just now at 60,000 miles each!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t prescient enough to check the price of a straight award booking for our exact flights when I made the purchase. I’m certain it was at least 40,000 miles which kind of makes me wonder what the heck is up with Delta’s pricing and fare logic? I can do a straight award booking and pay 40,000 miles, or do Pay With Miles and book the same trip for free with 35,000 miles. Seems off to me. In any event, Pay With Miles is just another option, and it worked out fairly well for me this time. I know there are better spends for miles, but I’m OK with the decision I made. You can read all about Pay With Miles on Delta.com, and judge for yourself. You might also check out Gary Leff’s thoughts on this program when it first hit the scene. Very useful as were the links to others’ opinions on the subject.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on January 11, 2010 under Ancillary Revenue, Southwest Airlines, Travel Products, Travel Tips |
I don’t fly Southwest Airlines very often. By that, I mean that I fly them 2 to 3 times a year, sometimes a little more. It’s not that I dislike Southwest, I certainly don’t, it’s just that between my work (which has no contracts with Southwest) and personal travel (which I tend to use to pad my elite qualifying status) I just simply don’t have that many occasions to use Southwest. I suspect if they were ever to see fit to add Washington National (DCA) to their route map, I might fly them more often, but until then, I will likely not fly them enough to become an “A Lister.”
In any event, I did fly Southwest down to Tampa this weekend, and I thought I’d share the details with you. I don’t offer my experience as any kind of evidence of anything other than the fact that I had an uneventful and pleasant trip. I’ve had 2 Rapid Rewards tickets sitting around for sometime now, and I thought this to be an ideal opportunity to use them. I booked the flights, BWI-TPA-BWI a few months ago with a Friday, January 8 departure, and Monday, January 11 return. Standard Rapid Rewards inventory was widely available when I booked, and I had no problem securing the seats.
About a week before the trip, I received an email reminder from Southwest of my upcoming trip. That reminder included a bit of advertising, including an offer to try Southwest’s new Early Bird Check-in (EBCI). If you buy EBCI, Southwest will basically check you in at 36 hours prior to departure, giving you early access to a better boarding group number in theory. I was curious to try the product, so I bit. The cost is $10 dollars each way, so a total of $20 dollars for the flight down to Tampa for Mrs MJonTravel and I. I only bought EBCI for the flight to Tampa since I just wanted to try it out. More on how it worked out in a minute.
As luck would have it, Mrs MJonTravel had a work conflict come up that caused us to need to return on Sunday instead of Monday. I thought to myself “fabulous…I’m sure there won’t be any Rapid Rewards seats left.” I grudgingly went to Southwest.com, and much to my surprise, all but one return flight on Sunday had Rapid Rewards availability, standard availability at that! Southwest.com is just one area where Southwest really sets itself apart. I changed our return reservations myself online, and I promise you, it took less than 5 minutes! It was so easy. Kudos to Southwest for making it that way. No change fees, add collects, or drama. Yay! Better yet, had these have been purchased tickets, I could’ve changed our return with no $150 dollar change fees, only paying the difference in fare if there were any.
After changing our flights, it was time to print our boarding passes. There was no need to rush to the nearest computer at exactly the 24 hour mark since I had purchased EBCI. Southwest had done the work for me. I’m sure glad they did, because even with EBCI, our boarding positions were A43 and A44. Better than C, but not that great, especially considering that we got almost the same boarding positions on the return without paying extra for it. In their defense, it was a busy Friday night, and our flight was packed. Furthermore, EBCI is first come, first served and I didn’t buy it until a few days before our flight. But it still makes me wonder if Southwest might not need to consider a limit on the number of EBCI slots made available? I think that’s something they may need to think about.
I won’t bother with reviews of my flights. They were fine. The inflight staff to/from Tampa were polite, pleasant and friendly, just like you’d expect from Southwest. We did not check luggage for this trip, and since we had checked in online, we did not interact with ticket counter staff.
Rapid Rewards – Southwest’s Frequent Flyer Program
Rapid Rewards is a fairly straightforward frequent flyer program. If you are a purely domestic flyer, don’t care about using miles to travel internationally, and live near an airport that Southwest serves, Rapid Rewards is an extremely attractive program. Fly 8 roundtrips (1 Rapid Rewards credit per flight), you get a Standard Award (16 credits) deposited into your account, no muss, no fuss. Add the Rapid Rewards Visa to your wallet, use any of their partners, and add credits to you account at a “Rapid” clip.
I was mildly amused when waiting for our flight to Tampa on Friday. A passenger whom I overheard saying she flew the same flight almost weekly was blathering about how she could never use Rapid Rewards tickets anymore unless she used a Freedom Award (2 standard awards for last seat availability). I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I was traveling on a standard award (and so was Mrs MJonTravel). 
So, those tickets are available. In fact, a bit of poking around the Southwest website with some test bookings seems to indicate to me that award availability is pretty good. I’m sure it varies from market to market and time of year, but I didn’t see anything that indicates to me that there is any kind of real difficulty in finding standard award seats on Southwest if you’re the least bit flexible.
The Bottom Line
Southwest works for a great many people, including myself. Southwest’s great people, simple product, and reasonable policies for changing your travel plans cannot be beat. While American and AAdvantage will continue to be my primary airline and frequent flyer program for the foreseeable future, Southwest is a compelling option for many, especially if extensive international travel isn’t on your agenda.
