Posted by Seth on October 30, 2008 under Uncategorized | 
Berlin’s Templehof airport is closing today after 85 years of operations. The airport has many claims to fame, including its 3,000,000 square foot (286,000 square meter) terminal building which was the largest building in the world when it was constructed and remains in the top 20 today. It is also the facility that was used in 1948-1949 during the Berlin Airlift.
With a history like that it is hard to believe that it is closing, but it seems that function has finally trumped nostalgia. The airport’s runways are too short to handle most modern jets and so it sees very little service in general, fewer than 1,000 passengers a day.
And so a piece of history becomes a piece of history.
Posted by Seth on October 29, 2008 under Uncategorized |
The planned Delta buyout of Northwest cleared a significant hurdle this afternoon, with the US Department of Justice announcing that they had approved the plans. The government has found that the merger “is likely to produce substantial and credible efficiencies that will benefit U.S. consumers and is not likely to substantially lessen competition,” according to the statement issued on the topic. I think that they’re crazy if they really think that this is going to be a great thing for either consumers or the airlines’ employees, but this was the expected result from them so no major surprises.
The carriers still have to overcome a lawsuit filed by passengers who feel that the merger will stifle competition and violate antitrust law, but today’s ruling suggests that the suit has very very slim chances of going much of anywhere. Still, it will be heard in San Francisco starting next week. Shareholders have already approved the deal so at this point the lawsuit is the last hurdle to the carriers closing the deal.
Once that happens there will be a domino effect of moves in the industry. First off, Continental will be able to start their nine month countdown clock on their planned move out of SkyTeam and into Star Alliance. In addition Delta and Northwest will immediately begin shifting their fleets and routes around to maximize profit while taking advantage of their new status as the largest carrier in the world by passenger volume. They also expect to be operating on a single certificate, which will further streamline their operations, in 12-18 months. They already have a general agreement from their pilot unions to make that move which is a good thing. And they’ve already started aligning their frequent flyer programs, so that’s moving along pretty well, too.
This was inevitable and I’m actually glad it has finally happened. Now we can move on with all the various other things that come out of this move. Let’s get rolling…
Update: Apparently the lawsuit in California has settled, though no details have been released. If so that puts the two even closer to finally closing the deal.
Posted by Seth on October 29, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Today is a day that has been a long time coming. About nine years to be exact. It was nine years ago that Lufthansa purchased a sizable stake of British carrier British Midlands, now known as bmi. As part of that purchase certain stock options were defined that essentially would force bmi’s primary shareholder to sell his controlling interest (50% + 1 share) in the airline to Lufthansa sometime early next year.
In a release filed today it was announced that the paperwork has been signed and that a date has been set for that transaction: January 12, 2009. At that point Lufthansa will find itself in control of about 16% of the slots as London’s Heathrow airport, putting them in second place behind British Airways for access there.
This also means that bmi’s Diamond Club program is almost certainly on its last legs. Perhaps another year or so to go, but it will almost certainly be subsumed into Lufthansa’s Miles & More program as part of this transaction. And that sucks. Diamond Club was perhaps the best frequent flyer program out there today. Qualification for their top tier had a relatively low threshold of 55K points and requalification was ridiculously low at 38K points. Flying in the USA in a domestic F seat could earn one 300% credit, and some of those fares can be downright cheap if booked as an upgrade fare. I’ll be doing just that in 10 days as I bounce around the western part of the country picking up points on the cheap and in a relatively big comfy seat.
But the best part of Diamond Club was the redemption value for their points. In a move that was unique in the industry, bmi offered a cash + miles redemption that actually had real value to it, particularly for long-haul travel in the pointy end of the plane. And since that’s where we all want to be anyways, seeing this option starting to disappear is a sad day. Time to start planning a whirlwind trip (or trips) to cash in these points, especially now that the dollar is a bit stronger against the GB Pound.
Posted by Seth on October 28, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Delta and Northwest took a pretty big step forward in the integration of the carriers’ frequent flyer programs today, offering upgrades to elites traveling on the other carrier’s flights. The program works very similar to the current system that Northwest and Continental have, where being a Continental elite on a Northwest flight effectively give you the same status in their system as a Northwest elite of the same tier would have.
Delta has posted a few details about the new plan on their website. I can’t find anything authoritative on the NWA site yet. And the implementation seems to be a bit kludgey on the customer-facing systems, but it does seem that the systems are processing the upgrades correctly.
With Northwest elites getting upgrades on three carriers now it seems to be the best program in the USA, though it will very soon be subsumed into Delta’s SkyMiles program, which should do a pretty good job of knocking that claim down a couple rungs.
Posted by Seth on October 28, 2008 under Uncategorized |
There’s been a car commercial on recently (I honestly don’t remember the brand) that shows a family driving to “the eastern-most point in the United States” to welcome in the New Year. The imagery is great, with a snowy shore-line and a beautiful sunrise and wonderful family moments and whatnot. But it got me thinking about where the eastern-most point in the United States really is. And, of course, that led to wikipedia.
Wikipedia is full of strange information, most of which is only interesting to a very, very limited number of people. And this particular wikipedia page is one that I found intriguing. I actually know which airports I’ve flown to or from at the extremes of the compass (KEF, ZQN, AKL and HNL, if you’re keeping score at home) so reading about the extremes for the United States was fun. I’ve actually been to Key West a couple times, the southern-most city in the USA and even the Tortugas, which I think qualify as the southern-most point that is occasionally above water at low tide. Plus, I learned some interesting facts.
For example, the eastern-most point in the USA by longitude is actually in Alaska, with Pochnoi Point, Semisopochnoi Island, Alaska coming in at 179°46′E. The site that the commercial seems to be pointing to is actually in Maine, which isn’t all that much of a surprise. And there was someone in the Reagan administration that had a lot of fun with American geography.
It seems that the eastern-most point in the USA by direction of travel is Point Udall in St. Croix. It was named after Stewart Udall, the Secretary of the Interior under JFK and LBJ. That’s pretty impressive, but even more impressive was the fast one pulled by someone in 1987. I guess calling it a fast one is a bit judgmental since Mo Udall was an accomplished politician, serving 30 years as a representative from Arizona. But it seems a bit ironic that the western-most point by direction of travel could somehow pick up the same name as the eastern-most point and that the two could be named for different people.
The Western tip of Guam used to be known as Orote Point, until someone decided to change the name to Udall Point. It is a different Udall point, named for a different person, but the two locations share a name. Clearly someone in the Reagan administration had a bit of fun making that happen.
And now that I know that such a ridiculous pair of named points exist in the United States, I think I might just have to find a way to visit both of them. Besides, I’ve always wanted to visit the US Virgin Islands and actually spend a few hours in Guam instead of just connecting through.
Posted by Seth on October 27, 2008 under Uncategorized |
It was this past week, so anyone who wasn’t here missed it.
October provides a perfect mix of cool temperatures, generally clear skies (only 1 day of rain in the past 2 weeks) and the crowds haven’t really built up to holiday shopping levels. As an added bonus, Central Park generally is on its best behavior this time of year, with the leaves changing and generally looking rather pretty.
Walking through the park yesterday I saw no fewer than 4 couples taking wedding photos amongst the foliage, plus tons of other folks out enjoying the park. Enjoy the pictures of the park. And next year, plan your trip for this time of year. It is definitely worth it.
Posted by Seth on October 25, 2008 under Uncategorized |
The Essential Air Service (EAS) program gets some press every now and then and the views are mixed, generally depending on if someone lives in a small city or a big one. The program costs taxpayers ~$100MM a year (it was recently cut to $50MM, I think) and provides subsidies to airlines to operate service to cities that probably would otherwise have lost service following the deregulation of airlines in the late 70s. There was an article last week about Cape Air, a small-plane carrier that works in very limited markets, many on EAS subsidies. And they are actually growing and making money, which is rather surprising these days as most airlines haven’t been as successful.
So why is Cape Air successful on the EAS routes? The Boston – Rutland, VT route is a pretty interesting study. The route draws a subsidy of just over $1MM annually. They fly it 3x daily each way, which breaks down to a bit under $500 per flight in subsidies. The costs to operate the flight are hard to pin down exactly, but it is blocked at one hour and the hard costs for operating a Cessna 402 for a flight that long appear to be about $200. That doesn’t include the costs for the infrastructure, the plane, pilots, etc., but figure that the flights in total probably aren’t costing much more than $750 to operate. When $500 of that is covered by federal subsidies, they don’t need to sell too many seats to make the service profitable to operate. And they are selling those seats – 143% more than were sold on the route a year ago when the route was operated on a larger plane with higher costs and commensurately higher fares.
So there you have it – a route that actually makes money when subsidized by the federal government. Go figure. I still don’t like the EAS service subsidies as a tax expense, but they are such a small component of the budget that I’ll pick bigger fish to fry for a while.
Posted by Seth on October 23, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Back in June when I got to tour the JFK T5 facility during the construction phase I was fortunate enough to have the ear of some of the marketing and loyalty program folks from the airline. One of the topics of conversation that came up was the limitations on the program, particularly their lack of partners for redemption. Sure, it is good enough if you want to fly in coach to one of their destinations, but if your vision is a bit broader the options peter out pretty quickly. At that time there was a brief mention of a rework that was in progress, but very little else was mentioned.
Fast forward to yesterday morning. I met probably 20 different JetBlue employees throughout the day, from gate agents to flight attendants to back office staff to the CEO. And given the opportunity to do so, I chose to talk with as many of them as I could about the airline, the terminal, the TrueBlue program or just about anything else that seemed topical at the time.
I walked away with one rather interesting nugget of information from a “high ranking JetBlue official” I spoke with. Apparently the Lufthansa partnership is going to bear fruit in terms of trans-Atlantic reward opportunities (earning and burning), and it is coming relatively quickly. I was originally given a 2009 timeframe, and when I pressed a bit more it was narrowed to mid-2009 for this to come to fruition.
I have no idea how the details are going to play out, what the rates will be for earning or redeeming or really anything else. But I have a lot of faith in the source and their ability to follow through on this sort of thing. This is a very exciting development for the TrueBlue program and there is a lot of potential for good things to come from this. I hope it works out well.
Posted by Seth on October 23, 2008 under Uncategorized |
It was only a matter of time before Marriott made this move to stay competitive in the frequent stay program space. Starwood has had a no blackout dates policy for a long time now (though some hotels do manipulate room types to limit availability), and Hilton recently changed their program to expand that option to all their members; it previously was reserved for their Diamond (top) level group. Now Marriott has joined the crowd, removing their StayAnytime reward product and removing the blackout dates from their program.
Of course they are spinning this as a great benefit to their members. And, of course, it is an it isn’t. They have added a new Category 8 reward level. Stays at those properties will now be 40K points/night, up from the previous max of 35K points/night at a Category 7 property. The hotels that will be classified as Category 8 are:
- Paris Marriott Hotel Champs Elysees
- Renaissance Paris Vendome
- JW Marriott Capri Tiberio Palace Resort & Spa
- Rome Marriott Grand Hotel Flora
- London Marriott Hotel County Hall
- London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square
- London Marriott Hotel Marble Arch
- London Marriott Hotel Park Lane
- Le Merigot, A JW Marriott Beach Hotel & Spa, Santa Monica
- Renaissance Chancery Court London
- New York Marriott East Side
- New York Marriott Marquis
- Renaissance New York Hotel Times Square
- South Beach Marriott Hotel
In addition, multi-night stays are getting a bit of a change. The current program offers a sliding scale, where the per-night rate is reduced the longer you stay at the same place. The new program will offer a 5th night free approach; shorter stays will no longer receive a discounted rate per night. This is actually beneficial for folks who were planning on a five night stay in a hotel in categories 1-5. For the category 6-8 hotels the five night price actually goes up in the new program. And for 2-4 night stays the cost goes up across the board.
Also, they are increasing the bonus earned by their Platinum members to 50% from 30%, a much needed increase to remain competitive.
All changes are effective as of January 15, 2009; rooms cannot be booked using the new levels until that time.
This is certainly one of those changes where the value will be measured very much individually based on travel habits. It would definitely be bad for me as I rarely have a five night stay anywhere. But for folks who like that approach to travel it might not be so bad.
Posted by Seth on October 22, 2008 under Uncategorized |
About that previous comment that everything was running smoothly here…
The food services seem to be struggling a bit here today. The good news is that the sprinkler system is working very well. The bad news is that, depending on who you listen to, there was either too much heat in the pizza kitchen or a faulty sprinkler head. Either way, the water came pouring down. The good news is that it was isolated to the pizza place and that they seem to have cleaned it up pretty quickly.
I also tried to order some food at the gate, and that didn’t work so well. The systems are pretty slick. They tie in to the bar that is in the vicinity of the gate area and there is a small food prep station there that they use to put it all together. The bad news is that they had neither prosciutto nor grilled chicken available. Unfortunately it took me 30 minutes to figure out that the first sandwich wasn’t available and another 10 to find out that the second one wasn’t. The touch-screen ordering system is pretty cool. Some pics of it below.
Then I went over to the tapas place and tried to order a sandwich there. Alas, it was not meant to be. Their kitchen is also down. The Mexican place is out of enchiladas, too, I think, but they aren’t allowed to show stuff as 86’d on the menus, which is strange. So now it is 2:30pm and I’m still looking for lunch.
Oh, and the random passenger who walked out the “exit” door that was actually an emergency exit rather than out through baggage claim. But with all the other alarms going off randomly that one didn’t seem such a big deal. Fortunately the guy realized he was going the wrong way before he got onto the tarmac, but that was a bit unfortunate.
Posted by Seth on October 22, 2008 under Uncategorized |
And what a great welcome it was this morning!
The new JetBlue flagship terminal at JFK Airport is absolutely amazing. I’d like to pretend that I could see it all coming together this well when we took a tour of the facility back in June, but I had no idea that it would be this nice. Sure, there are a couple little problems, like the door alarms going off unexpectedly directly over my head, but that really seems to be the worst of it. Suffice it to say that this T5 opening beats the pants off the Heathrow experience.
The first thing you notice walking in to the terminal is the hike in from the AirTrain station. It is about a half mile, and there were a lot of people commenting about it outside the check-in areas, including the TSA agents hanging out there. But once you make it over to the terminal it is immediately striking how open and spacious it is. There are scores of kiosks set up in the space to make the check-in process as easy as possible for everyone. My check-in to just a couple seconds for swiping my credit card and then it was on to the TSA checkpoint.
The TSA went all out on this new facility, including the largest single checkpoint in the nation, with 20 lanes built. Only about six of the lanes were open, but that was plenty of capacity for the number of folks passing through this morning. Even better, they bought a ton of brand new gray bins for the x-ray machines. They were still shiny.
Immediately past security is the marketplace. In addition to the concessions that surround the area there are some great seating areas. I saw a bunch of folks from JetBlue Corporate Communications set up on one of the elevated seating areas and went over to join them and talk about the opening. Plus they were sitting in one of the only areas that have outlets for my laptop. They were all having a great time, and a few of them remembered me from the tour bank in June, so we caught up and got to talk about the facility and how things are running so far. I also managed to get a post all about me on their blog.
After that it was off to meet a couple other crewmembers who were here today. One is a flight attendant passing through on a connection (coincidentally scheduled to work the flight I am not taking today) and the other was working as part of the huge “Ask Me” contingent that was out en force here. There are a ton of folks wandering the terminal helping passengers get acclimated to the new terminal and find their way around. I even got to help a deplaning couple find their way to the Dunkin’ Donuts for their morning coffee.
I also got to meet JetBlue CEO Dave Barger and talk to him about the facility. He’s been around all morning, sending the first departing flight off, talking to passengers and employees and generally speaking being a nice guy. We chatted for a few minutes about the airline in general, the TrueBlue program, the new terminal and a bunch of other stuff. I walked away with a business card, a photo and some insight into how things are running now and some potential future developments.
The one down-side I’ve seen thus far, other than that alarm going off right in my ear, was that the first boarding area I waited at while awaiting the inbound FA appeared very crowded. None of the other areas seem too bad thus far, but this one was pretty packed and that was without all the gates there in use. I hope that it isn’t always like this, but I do worry a bit.
A relatively crowded gate area
I’m off to hang out at the end of the terminal at perhaps the best plane-spotting facility in NYC now, and also to sample some of the concessions. I might even try the delivery to the gate option that they have.
Overall, this is an incredibly well run and smooth transition. Major kudos to JetBlue for pulling it off, under budget and ~6 months early!
