Archive for October, 2008
October 31 2008
I’m not sure if “Ask the OTR” will become a regular feature here, but here goes the first topic: How is the Northwest/Delta merger going to affect me?
Q: What’s going to happen with my miles?
A: Nothing for now. There won’t be any changes until they eventually combine the two programs, but I bet we’re at least a year from that happening.
Q: Is combining the programs a good thing or a bad thing for me?
A: I think it’s somewhat bad thing for you, especially if you’re coming from Northwest. You’ll likely lose Continental as a redemption partner and Northwest had pretty good award availability. Delta has the opposite of good award availability. Plus, you’ll now deal with Delta’s 3-tiered award structure, which means that on many flights it will cost you considerably more to get a ticket (since Delta’s miserable award availability pushes you to the middle tier of awards). On the plus side, once the programs are combined Northwest members will now have access to Singapore Airlines awards (assuming you can actually get a seat).
Q: Hm, that’s a bummer. What about my Elite benefits?
A: For Northwest members, there’s a nice immediate benefit - you can now get upgrades on Delta (assuming any are available. And they won’t be). For Delta flyers, they actually will benefit, because Northwest actually does have upgrades available on many routes.
Q: I’m a Delta flyer and I’ve heard people complain a lot about Northwest, often referring to it by the not-particularly-clever Northworst. Does Northwest suck?
A: No. I lived in Detroit for a while and I never really understood why people bashed it so much. It’s perfectly fine. On domestic routes there’s no food and no entertainment systems of any kind. Get over it - that’s pretty much how it is with all of the majors. And yes, they fly ancient DC-9’s on some routes. But those aircraft are quiet, and there’s only a 20% of ending up in a middle seat (compared to 33% on other narrowbodies). Plus, their international A330s are a great product, both up front and in the back. Quit your damn whining. Delta had a great product with Song and then stole it out from under you. You won’t notice much difference on domestic flying, except that you’ll get upgraded more on Northwest. And you’ll be thrilled flying on the A330s.
Q: What about the hubs? Does the combined airline really need all of those hubs?
A: Need? Of course not. Nobody needs hubs in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, New York (both JFK and LaGuardia), Detroit, Minneapolis and Memphis. Does that sound like a streamlined operation? No it doesn’t. Memphis and/or Cincinnati seem to be the most obvious to go, but Delta swears they won’t get rid of them. In 24 months they will be gone (or Memphis will be gone and Cincinnati will be a regional operation, primarily, after Southwest comes in in 2 years and lowers prices).
Q: Will this merger save the industry?
A: Yes, just like combining Western and Delta saved the industry. And Republic and Northwest.
Q: Were you being sarcastic? It’s kinda hard to tell when you’re reading this.
A: Yes, I was being sarcastic.
Q: Why is there no public transportation from Northwest’s hub in Detroit into the city of Detroit?
A: Because of the automakers. Always a good idea to listen to them.
Q: What’s your worst Northwest experience?
A: I’m serious, I’ve only had good interactions with them. My wife was once sick coming back on a Northwest flight from Paris and they gave her a seat in business class. I once missed a connection in Minneapolis (weather delay) and they upgraded me on the next leg and apologized profusely. I’m not saying every interaction is like this. But I think their poor reputation is overstated.
Q: Can I send you stories about how terrible Northwest is?
A: Yes, of course you can.
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October 31 2008
Delta has launched Choice Seats, a program similar to one at Northwest where exit row and a handful of other good seats are held to be available for purchase 24 hours before departure. Fees are based on mileage and yes, you do pay per segment. On a plus note, Medallion and Sky Team Elite do not have to pay.
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October 29 2008
(Thanks so OTR Swedish correspondent Marcus for the heads up)
Iceland-owned Danish airline Sterling has gone bankrupt, stranding thousands of passengers across Europe (I feel like it’s actually been a couple of weeks since we’ve seen a bankruptcy. Well done.) The carrier had flown to 40 destinations across Europe but struggled with higher costs, etc. The financial meltdown in Iceland certainly didn’t help, as it had been trying to raise additional capital over the past couple of months.
Unfortunately, if you’ve purchased tickets with them, they’re not refunding the cash - call your credit card company. SAS says they’ll help get travelers who are stranded back home.
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October 28 2008
Someone over at Airliners has posted the copy of an internal memo from the head OpenSkies that sounds very, very, very much like the type of memos we used to see at Eos right when it was getting bad: They’re not taking delivery of their 5th airplane thereby cutting out any expansion in the near future, they’re eliminating flights on slow days through the holiday season, they’re moving their headquarters to Paris, and they’ll have full codeshare on both the OpenSkies and L’Avion flights (even though the products are pretty different).
Much like Eos, it’s a great product at a fantastic price. Unfortunately, given the cost structure and economic environment, that’s not nearly enough to succeed.
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October 27 2008
Princess Victoria of Sweden was delayed boarding a Jet Airways flight in Delhi and was booed by fellow passengers when she finally boarded the aircraft, causing a bit of an international incident between Sweden and Jet Airways. Jet Airways admits that it did not follow correct protocols when dealing with the Princess, and that led to her delay in boarding the plane. Then for some reason they made an announcement on the plane that the delay was caused by the delayed arrival of a VIP which, as you may imagine, didn’t make the passengers very happy. Jet Airways has apologized profusely.
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October 27 2008
This is not something you hear every day: A Jet Airways flight attendant fell out of a 737 at Delhi’s airport while she was trying to close the door to the plane. She suffered only minor injuries when she fell and landed on her head after she slipped while closing the door. The airline claims she did not follow correct procedures for closing the door.
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October 24 2008
American is in some sort of pissing match with Continental, because they have a $35 each way fare from Newark to Belize (not good during X-Mas). Round trip comes to about $145 including taxes. Crazy!
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October 23 2008
A bit of a departure today for the OTR…
As some of you know, most of my time is spent running Tripmela.com, India’s only publisher of travel deals (if you know Travelzoo, we are Travelzoo for India - we publish a weekly email newsletter and website with airfare, hotel and package deals for India). We also run Searchmela.com, which is basically Bookingbuddy for India (airfare and hotel comparison). We’ve been running for nearly 3 years, but it’s been a fulltime endeavor for about a year since we raised a bit of cash.
Long story short: we need some help in three areas, and I’m using Online Travel Review to hit my readers up for ideas with the following (I thank you in advance for indulging me):
- We have not seen the growth in Tripmela newsletter subscribers that we had hoped. We can acquire customers cheaply, but we’ve struggled to drive free traffic to the website. If anyone has any thoughts about how we can do a better job driving traffic, I’d love to hear them.
- Searchmela actually works pretty well - we’ve launched paid search campaigns driving cheap traffic to the site. Our issue is getting more people to do searches (which is how we get paid). Feel free to check out Searchmela.com and any suggestions you have about how to increase the number of people actually doing searches on us would be very helpful.
- Last, and most importantly, we have been trying to raise about $700,000 to take the business to the next level. We feel we have all the pieces in place (nearly 100,000 newsletter subscribers; paying clients, etc), but we have, as yet, been unable to find an angel investor (or investors) for the business. If you know anyone who might be interested in hearing a bit more about Tripmela, I’d be extremely thrilled to chat. We’ve found that people who understand the travel business and people in the Indian American community are the most receptive, as they understand the potential. We think there’s a great opportunity here, and we know that the right investor will help make it possible. We just need some help meeting that person.
I can be reached at jared (at) tripmela.com
Thanks for your indulgence, and I promise I’ll be back on Monday with the usual ridiculousness.
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October 23 2008
(Thanks to Upgrade Travel Better)
I’m basically including this info solely for my friend Doug, who would be interested (for some reason) in learning how to crash your plane’s in-flight entertainment system. You can read the geek-heavy answer here.
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October 23 2008
Delta will launch once weekly 757 service between Atlanta and Monrovia, Liberia (with a refueling stop in Cape Verde) beginning next June. Bravo to Delta for expanding their African operations, especially to Monrovia, which hasn’t seen a US airline fly there since Pan Am.
For the airline nerd details: It appears from the announcement that you won’t be able to get out in Cape Verde - it will just be a refueling stop. The plane turns around after an hour in Liberia and heads back home, leading to a discussion here about where the crew gets on and off. The consensus seems to be that Delta will launch additional Africa service on 757s stopping in Cape Verde, and the crews will cycle through there. If so, building a decent sized African presence using 757s through Cape Verde would be a really interesting tactic. It didn’t work for North American Airlines, but with Delta’s feeder network, it may work for them.
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Ask the OTR: What Does the Northwest Delta Merger Mean for Me?