Comments on: Goodbye, Ontario!

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:54:17 +0000

@Ron – Once, while booked on a ‘direct’ flight from Manzanillo to Seattle (stop in LAX for customs), we actually missed the second leg of the flight. I FREAKED OUT. How does it leave without the pax from the first leg,, when it’s the same flight number? OMG! LOL. Well, that didn’t help us much.

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:34:16 +0000

Adding to Eric’s question: what’s the deal with “direct” flights involving a change of aircraft? I’m flying LAX–TLV and back on US Airways, changing planes at PHL both ways. In one direction it’s different flight numbers so I get miles for the individual segments, while in the other direction it’s the same flight number so I get miles for the origin/destination (that is, 593 miles less than actually traveled).

Curiously enough, I got the same seat numbers (for 4 people) on both segments of the “direct” flight, despite the aircraft being quite different (A330 and A321).

I understand the “direct” concept originates from the time when segments were shorter, and many longer routings had stops en-route without changing planes at a hub. Today I think only Southwest utilizes this model in any significant way. I can see value in a “direct” flight on a single aircraft since this virtually eliminates the chances of misconnecting, greatly reduces the chances of a baggage misconnect, and saves you the need to get your stuff off the plane and run to a new gate at the connecting airport. But a flight involving a change of aircraft does not have these benefits, so marketing it as “direct” is rather deceptive. Plus, I want my miles

Speaking of connecting, my parents keep asking me on each new itinerary whether I booked “guaranteed” connections. I think this concept disappeared way back in the 80s.

By: lucky

lucky — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:57:46 +0000

@ Eric — Brilliant questions/post. I was trying to respond to it but my response was getting a bit lengthy, so if it’s alright I’ll make a separate post addressing your questions. I think you’ll be surprised by how much I agree with you (or might just be for a revenue based mileage program). Give me a day or two, please.

By: dmodemd

dmodemd — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:36:27 +0000

It’s a “bug”, clearly. Surely they don’t want this bozo clogging up oversold P.S. flights in F
Ingenious observations to pick up on this one! To the victor go the spoils!

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:10:25 +0000

Lucky:

When flyers are trying to accumulate miles for status, are they booking a fare from point A to point B, and then booking as many waypoints as the fare will allow? Why do the airlines allow this? Is this a technology issue? Given that a pax is paying a fare for a city pair, why don’t the airlines just award the defined mileage between those cities?

When I’ve commented on revenue based FF programs, I received a response how on an annual basis, this may benefit the airlines (a full fare flyer travelling 2x per year), but from a cash flow perspective, a miles program creates the incentive to fly more often. This made sense.

However, this argument loses some steam when these types of practices are allowed (good for you, bad for the airlines).

It’s really not fair to the frequent fliers who fly a lot, but don’t have the time to take full advanteous of the system. In other businesses, these loopholes are eventually closed. Will this be as well? Or is there a good business reason for the airlines to allow it? Or am I misunderstanding the concept altogether?

Curiously,

Eric

By: Rufftackle

Rufftackle — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:41:50 +0000

Sounds like a FUN mileage run!

By: sam

sam — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:51:58 +0000

Yeah i remember you talking about this during a Do earlier in the year, its still a bit of a hard sell for me, since you’d only earn 22500 RDMs for $550. 2.4 CPMs is a bit steep for me, but i would defiantly have jumped on the deal if i knew i was going to meet Anna Hathaway, but i guess that’s why they call you Lucky.

So Mr. Full-Fare, did they give you GS this year?

By: whakojacko

whakojacko — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:09:37 +0000

I remember this being posted early this year in the MR forum. Congrats on being able to milk it for so long.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:40:42 +0000

Gee, I am glad we blog readers are at least worthy of learning about those $25 off Flemings deals (http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/2009/11/15/25-off-flemings-through-december-30/) before they expire…

By: lucky

lucky — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:21:50 +0000

@ Mark — That’s the case this time around, but last time around they offered to double the class of service bonus as well, for a total of triple miles.