I very rarely watch TV, though when I heard that the CEO of Choice Hotels would be on Undercover Boss, I figured it was worth a watch. While I’m sure the show is at least somewhat scripted and planned, it was nonetheless a very interesting look into the hotel industry and some of the challenges faced by workers. If you have 45 minutes, give the show a watch on Hulu (though I believe Hulu only works in the US, unfortunately).

I realize this isn’t a new phenomenon, but I don’t travel United a whole lot internationally on revenue fares. I do remember a few years back, however, when “W” fares, the minimum fare class required to upgrade internationally with a systemwide upgrade, were reasonable. Three or four years back, a “W” fare from San Francisco to London was under $500. Tampa to London or Frankfurt was under $600.

Now I’m looking at “W” fares to London totally off season, and they’re around $950. And let’s not even discuss Australia, which has seen an insane increase in the cost of “W” fares. I guess from a supply and demand standpoint, I can rationalize this. United has a new business class product which has resulted in substantially fewer premium cabin seats and theoretically higher demand. Someone’s gonna get those seats, so would you rather see a lot of people not clear their upgrades, or would you rather charge people more? And I think the answer is obvious, so it’s not that I’m trying to blame United for playing games here.

Don’t get me wrong, United is still much better than Delta, where an upgradable fare using their upgrade certificates is typically $2,000+, but at the same time there’s American. There’s a good chance I’ll need to be traveling to Germany more often than I already do starting next year, and if that’s the case, I’m not going to constantly be using award tickets. American has no restrictions on using their version of the systemwide upgrade, not to mention Executive Platinum members (their top tier) get eight of them just for qualifying, as opposed to the six that United 1Ks get. Unfortunately American’s coverage to Germany sucks, but it’s still better than nothing, and with $500 fares that can be confirmed in business class, it’s more tempting than ever to go for Executive Platinum status.

As I blogged about last week, the partnership between American Express and Continental is ending September 30, 2011. That means that American Express cardholders will no longer get access to Presidents Clubs, and also that Continental OnePass will no longer participate in Membership Rewards.

To make up for this loss, American Express is adding a couple of benefits for Platinum members, including a $200 airline fee credit. Here’s how it was described back then:

Cardmembers can check a bag or enjoy an in-flight meal on American Express. Every year American Express will cover up to $200 of incidental airline fees that are charged on the Cardmember’s enrolled Card on a selected airline. The $200 Airline Fee Credit can apply to fees such as baggage fees, flight change fees, in-flight food and airport lounge day passes.

I was curious about what the terms and conditions would be. Well, they’re out now, and can be reviewed here. To summarize, the benefit starts on December 1 of this year, and the cardmember must enroll and choose a single airline to which they want to apply the $200 credit. The real catch is that you have to use your American Express card to purchase the ticket if you want to get any sort of discount for the incidentals.

Overall this is a nice new benefit. For those that don’t fly Continental, this is probably a net gain. For those that fly Continental, it’s probably a net loss, since you’ll have to find a new way to gain access to the Presidents Clubs.

As I blogged about back in early July, Aegean Airlines joining the Star Alliance has some positive implications for the not-so-frequent flyer. Their elite level which gets you Star Alliance Silver status requires only 4,000 miles, and there’s even a sign up bonus of 1,000 elite qualifying miles the first year, meaning you only need to fly 3,000 miles to earn Star Alliance Silver status.

If you’re not a frequent flyer (or have friends or family that aren’t frequent flyers), this is the program to credit to. Reader hobo13 just sent me an email saying that he had his friends credit their roundtrip Boston to Denver flight to Aegean Airlines, and they’re now both Star Alliance Silver. While it took a bit of work since United wasn’t accepting their frequent flyer numbers, it all worked out.

So for that simple roundtrip they get free checked bags and priority boarding.

And if you’re looking for an easy way to get Star Alliance Gold status (which gets you lounge access for all Star Alliance flights), they’re not bad either at just 20,000 miles…

It’s time for a reader photo. Thanks to Scott for sending in this one.

Correct Answer: Canaima, Venezuela
Winner: AzureAutumn

If you’d like your photo featured, please email it to me at onemileatatime@hotmail.com, along with the correct answer.

A few nights ago a friend sent me a link to what he claimed was Air France’s new business class product. My reaction? “Eh, dude, you sent me a link to Air France’s “new” business class product from five years ago. It just has the wrong press release date. Way to go!”

The product looks identical to when I flew Air France over five years ago. And as far as I can tell it really is the same seat. It’s not even fully flat, which is truly pathetic. Rolling out a new seat now which will take years to implement, which is at least one to two generations behind the current “standard” business class seat, is sad.

And it’s not like Air France has the world’s best service either…

A couple of weeks ago, Singapore started allowing redemptions into their “Suites” class on the Airbus 380. Real generous of them, right? Check out their redemption levels:

London -> Singapore

Round trip: 2,000,000 miles
One way: 1,000,000 miles

Round trip upgrade from paid J (A380 only) -> R: 1,200,000 miles
One way upgrade from paid J (A380 only) -> R: 600,000 miles

————————

Singapore -> Sydney

Round trip: 1,100,000 miles
One way: 550,000 miles

Round trip upgrade from paid J (A380 only) -> R: 650,000 miles
One way upgrade from paid J (A380 only) -> R: 325,000 miles.

If you’re like me and want to fly from London to Sydney (via Singapore), it’s a mere 3,100,000 miles in Suites Class.

Hurry up and make your booking. Supplies are limited.

As widely reported today, United was fined $12,000 for NOT exceeding the three hour tarmac delay rule. What happened? Well, back in May several United flights were diverted to Colorado Springs due to weather in Denver, and United openly reported that they violated the tarmac delay rule.

As it turns out, though, they didn’t. They were supposed to “stop the clock” at the point that passengers were allowed to disembark, which they didn’t. In other words, they did better than they reported.

What makes this story laughable is the DOT quote:

“United’s misreporting of this data wasted valuable department resources,” said the consent order, since the United report forced the Transportation Department’s enforcement office to initiate an investigation.

…which is exactly what makes me believe that Leslie Knope of Parks & Recreation is running the DOT.

Unbelievable.

While the Freddie Awards ceased to exist last year, some brave FlyerTalkers have taken on the task of creating a similar awards program, The Frequent Traveler Awards, to recognize the best loyalty programs out there. Voting this year goes through October 15, and the awards ceremony will be held on November 4 in Houston (which everyone is invited to attend).

Yes, on one hand this is a popularity contest, no doubt. Loyalty programs blast out emails to all their customers, many of which have no basis of comparison. But at the same time, it’s one of the only ways we can, on a large scale, send a message to airlines and hotel programs about how we feel about them. Whether it’s giving programs love for their good practices (like Hyatt’s very generous promotions) or their bad practices (do I really need to mention them?), this is the best way to let them know how you feel short of shifting your business around.