You don’t have to be a visionary to appreciate this deal. It’s out there in plain sight. You can earn 5,000 miles for attending a free lasik eye exam with LasikPlus. While it’s not nearly as rewarding as the 20,000 miles for the Bosley Hair Replacement consultation last year, this is an offer I can take advantage of with a clear conscience given that my vision sucks (and I’m not losing hair…. yet).
(Tip of the hat to Gary)
I’m trying to book a first class award seat for my mom for next week to Frankfurt using Aeroplan miles in Lufthansa First Class. One of the nice things about Aeroplan is that they don’t do any Starnet blocking, aside from a slight “issue” they have with displaying some Swiss award availability. So I did my research and called with a specific flight in mind.
What response do I get? “Sorry sir, Lufthansa doesn’t operate that flight that day.” I responded explaining that they do in fact operate that day and that there’s one first class award seat available in Starnet. “Well I guess Aeroplan has just used up all their seats then.” For good measure I called back again and got the same answer.
That sounds to me an awful lot like what we heard at United in the early days of Starnet blocking. Anyway, color me pissed!
It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to Richard for sending in this one.
Correct Answer: Macau
Winner: Blake
If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.
Pardon my rambling here for a moment, but this is something I’ve been pondering for a few days now. Thanks to my mileage runs I’m able to typically redeem miles for international first class awards. As a matter of fact, I’ve become so spoiled that I typically don’t consider international business class awards anymore; international first class is becoming the norm. Of course when I am able to get into international first class for such a low price, why the hell not? I know, I have a long life ahead of me. 
That being said, for the first time that I can remember I find myself reconsidering business class for award redemptions. When I first started with my international premium cabin travels, my favorite word was “maximize,” and actually it still is. But I guess what has changed is how I define “maximize.” It used to mean getting to the airport seven hours before a flight to visit the international first class lounge, not sleeping on the flight because I didn’t want to miss out on the “experience,” and eating all nine courses of whatever was being served. Now “maximize” has a lot more to do with arriving at my destination well rested, entertained, and reasonably well fed. I guess my ideal flight now has three components: a flat bed (an absolute must), good entertainment, and decent food (I’m no foodie, but something edible).
So what’s the point of this post? As I look at planning another award trip I find myself stepping back for a second trying to decide between two choices, and I start to examine my travel preferences in more general terms.
Take, for example, Los Angeles to London on Air New Zealand in BusinessPremier, vs. Los Angeles to Frankfurt to London on Lufthansa in First Class. For the first time ever, I can’t decide which I’d actually prefer. In the past I would have said “first class is always better than business class.” For me travel time isn’t a factor, as it might be for others; getting there is half the fun, so the nonstop doesn’t have a huge draw for me.
At the same time, on Air New Zealand I have a truly flat bed with a decent amount of privacy, a great selection of entertainment, and pretty good food options. With Lufthansa, on the other hand, I have excellent service, excellent food, decent entertainment, and more personal space (although not necessarily more privacy). And given the options, I couldn’t decide which choice to go with.
Along the same lines for me is Air Canada’s business class product. The entertainment is great, the service is decent, the food is perfect in my book (again, I’m a simple eater), and the seat allows for good rest. When I look back at my Shanghai to Toronto flight from last summer in their business class product, I really can’t imagine how first class would have been any better. I got nine hours of sleep, at no point felt uncomfortably full (yet was well fed), and I was even thoroughly entertained.
So I guess the point is that I’m actually becoming less snobby when it comes to food, service, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love a charming, attentive flight attendant over a grouchy flight attendant that disappears after the meal service, but on the whole it’s becoming less important to me, while in the past I would have preferred excellent service and awful entertainment. Along the same lines, I find myself considering United’s new international first class as an award redemption option, even when I have options like Asiana, Lufthansa, Swiss, etc.
My apologies for this complete rambling of a post, but what’s the deal here? Am I sane or going crazy? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the answer is very much a function of how many hours one has spent in premium international cabins.
Oh yeah, and eating too much in first class — that’s totally your fault, blog readers. It’s because of you that I feel the need to never turn down food, if only to snap a picture of the plate. 
Now that Delta has unveiled a few more details about their new top tier status, let’s summarize what you get for your 125,000 MQM’s or 140 segments per year with Delta:
So basically this is Platinum status from a few years ago, before all the double elite qualifying miles promotions and all that other good stuff. The idea as such of a fourth tier is a good one, in my opinion, given the huge combined elite ranks of Delta/Northwest. I would expect that Platinum members will have close to a 100% success rate with domestic upgrades. Other than that, the benefits are by no means fantastic, although they’re not bad either. The one thing I was desperately hoping for were some “real” systemwide upgrades which wouldn’t require a ridiculously expensive coach fare, but they quite purposefully left that out.
I would argue that despite requiring 25,000 more flown miles, Diamond isn’t as good as Executive Platinum at American or 1K at United, thanks largely to the international systemwide upgrades. Diamond is probably better than US Airways Chairman, although that has more to do with the product as such instead of the actual benefits. As of now they have a slight edge to Continental, although I bet we’ll see some adjustments in Continental’s program soon.
I see a lot of people speculating about how the other airlines will react to this. I’m betting they won’t. This is a non-event. American and United know their elite programs are better, so there really isn’t much of a need to throw in a free lounge membership or more redeemable miles. Continental is the only airline where we might see a reaction, but that has a lot more to do with their transition to the Star Alliance than anything else.
The only thing I’m really not sure about is the awesome new “rollover” benefit which Delta has introduced, whereby “extra” elite qualifying miles count towards next year’s status. Will the other airlines match? It wouldn’t surprise me, but I’m not counting on it. If United matched I might just have 1K in the bag till 2013.
Finally we have some real details about Delta’s fourth tier, which will be called Diamond status. According to The Salt Lake Tribune article, Diamond status will require 125,000 elite qualifying miles or 140 segments.
What are the benefits? Well, Diamond, Platinum, and Gold members have ticketing fees waived for bookings made by phone, online, or in person (big whoop), and Diamond members get a free SkyClub membership, which, up until a few years ago, was included for Platinum members. Is that really it? There has to be something else, given that we’re talking about 125,000 elite qualifying miles a year here. No improved international upgrades? No other priority services? I hope there’s more to this.
Here’s a VERY cool change, though:
For the first time, miles accumulated beyond the threshold for membership in each medallion level will be rolled over to the following year instead of being voided.
For the sake of Delta/Northwest flyers, I’m hoping there are a few more benefits for being a Diamond member….
By the way, I’d love to know what math The Salt Lake Tribune is using:
Delta Air Lines is adding a fourth tier of benefits for ultra-frequent fliers who make the equivalent of 41 cross-country trips a year.
125,000/41=3,049 miles per roundtrip, which means around 1,525 miles each way. How is 1,500 miles a “cross country trip?” That’s hardly even a midcon….
While I don’t see a publicly available offer for this card yet, it appears like United is starting to offer a Visa Club Card which comes with a $375 annual fee. While that’s a lot, it includes a Red Carpet Club membership (and no, I won’t call it a “free” membership). Given that the cheapest membership now costs $400 by itself, that’s a deal. Interestingly enough that’s the same annual fee that Continental charges for their comparable card which includes a Presidents Club membership.
For those United frequent fliers without Star Gold with a non-US airline, I’d say that’s a heck of a deal.
As much as I love Singapore Airlines in the air, they’re an absolute pain in the arse to deal with on the ground. Furthermore, getting into a Singapore Airlines premium cabin can be a challenge. Actually, as of now you won’t find a single first or business class award seat on Singapore Airlines from the US to anywhere for any date. How that’s allowed under alliance rules is beyond me.
Anyway, they have made one smart decision. Up until now A380 “Suites Class” was only available using the “R” bucket, so on a first class fare you couldn’t fly the A380, since they don’t have First Class, but instead have Suites Class. I guess they realized how their front cabins were always going out empty, so according to SQTalk they’re now releasing “F” seats for flights starting August 1, meaning you can book a segment on the A380 if you’re on a paid first fare. Unfortunately they’re not releasing “A” seats, which are discounted first class seats, but hopefully one could waitlist for “A.” This also means you can book a “full” award using KrisFlyer miles on the A380, but that would still be expensive as hell (a mere 972,000 miles per person for Singapore to London roundtrip).
This is a step in the right direction, though. Hopefully the next step is opening up some award seats in first and business class on the 777-300ER’s, A380′s, and for that matter, any plane from the US!
When I was going through my email inbox this morning all bleary-eyed (as is the case every morning), I was shocked to see an email from United with the words “eliminate” and “fees,” both of which are typical words coming from United, but are rarely seen together. I usually see something more like “United eliminates meals” and “new baggage fees.” I was looking for asterisks, small print, etc., but found nothing.
So yeah, United actually eliminated close-in ticketing fees for award travel. Kudos to them! Why? Well, it’s certainly not out of the kindness of their heart. I think Cranky is spot on in his analysis. If people don’t use their miles on United and go elsewhere, United can’t charge them $100 to check two bags roundtrip, $9 for a “gourmet” sandwich, $6 for an adult beverage, $50 for Economy Plus, $25 for Premier Line, $60 for Award Accelerator, or $400 for a first class upgrade. Along the same lines, when the airlines release award seats close to departure they would typically not otherwise be filled. Therefore United is getting people to cash in frequent flyer miles for otherwise empty seats, which is good for everyone.
Anyway, while this wasn’t done out of the kindness of their heart, great job United!
Check out this article which discusses a major problem Virgin Australia is having:
A Sydney Morning Herald report says that when Virgin Blue/V Australia ordered Boeing 777’s to operate on the Pacific, it made what appears could have been a fatal error of judgement, by ordering aircraft with smaller rear cargo doors, which means that means the V Australia 777’s cannot take freight in pallets.
This raises the question about why Virgin Australia wouldn’t have gotten the larger rear cargo doors to begin with? Like, I realize every airline makes mistakes, but that seems like an unforgivable error when we’re talking about an airline that exclusively operates longhaul transpacific flights year-round. Did they not know about the option for a larger rear cargo door (I can’t imagine this is the case), or did someone actually make a decision against it?
And here’s another interesting note:
But, industry insiders also say that V Australia’s new 777s have been modified to such an extent, with not only the smaller cargo doors being an issue, but each aircraft also having inbuilt features such as two bars and high-tech entertainment systems, means that the airline cannot gain a fair value from a sale and leaseback.
It is also believed it would cost up to $10 million to restore each aircraft to a standard state to make it suitable to leasing companies, with an industry official saying, “Those leasing companies just don’t like non-standard aircraft”.
(Tip of the hat to Stephen)
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