Posted by Seth on November 7, 2008 under Uncategorized | 
Today was day one of my ridiculous weekend of travel. So far, so good, though there is still time for things to go wrong as I’m only on flight number one. But overall things are good.
I started in NYC this morning and hopped on a bus for the ride down to Philadelphia. It turns out that many flights are much less expensive out of Philly than NYC, so even with a ride to Philly I save money on the flying. Plus, in theory, the chances for upgrades on Continental flights out of Philly are pretty good. But more on that later.
I planned on going to Philly early to meet up with a friend down there and finally have my first real Philly Cheese Steak. I previously wrote about the BoltBus service and this time I took MegaBus, just to compare. They are basically the same and pick up/drop off about the same places at both ends of the trip. On this trip the WiFi did not work, which was annoying, but hardly the end of the world on the quick ride.
So I got to Philly and we headed over to Tony Luke’s for an authentic cheese steak. My order was the same as I’d get anywhere else – provolone with – and, well, it was a good cheese steak. It was not an earth shattering or life changing experience. I actually thought that the meat was a bit dry and bland. But it was pretty good.
After cheese steaks we had a bit of time to kill so we drove down to the end of the Philadelphia runway under the approach path and hung out for an hour or so, snapping shots of the planes coming in to the airport. It was a little too early for the big planes to be coming in from Europe and the grey skies made exposing the shots a bit harder, but I still got a couple decent pictures out of it. Plus, I didn’t get arrested while wandering among the light stanchions that are used to guide the planes in, so that was a bonus.
I thought that I had a decent chance for an upgrade on this flight as my previous flights out of Philly have been easy to upgrade on. Today’s flight, however, could not be farther from that experience. There were about 40 people on the waitlist, and I was in the high teens or low twenties; I stopped checking as it was depressing me. So I’m sitting in my exit row seat and planning my next move.
The layover in Houston gives me about 2.5 hours of time to hit up the Presidents Club with a couple buddies and do what I can to make up for the lack of drinking on thin flight before heading off to my onward connection, where I will also be sitting in coach.
More to come tomorrow as I zigzag my way across the west coast, from The Cowboy (John Wayne Airport) to actual cowboys (Oklahoma City).
Posted by Seth on November 7, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Early November is a strange time of year for the frequent flyer mileage obsessed. With just a few weeks remaining in the year the number of points earned so far and the number remaining to reach the next elite status become crystal clear. And when the numbers align correctly, the truly obsessed set out on trips for no particular purpose other than to fly those few miles and make the next level. Plus fares from early November through early December seem conducive to these sorts of run, with routes selling somewhat cheaper (even this year) as business travel ebbs heading into the holidays.
Yes, it seems strange to pay to fly just for elite status. But depending on the program, expected future travel and just how close you are, the value of the benefits of elite status can be paid back with a quick trip. Especially now that pretty much every airline charges fees for checked baggage, but exempts their elites (and people traveling with them) from such fees, the value of status is actually a calculable number. And then there are bonus miles (unless you fly US Air) and upgrade opportunities, so the elite status can have real value.
This is at least the third time I’ve made such a trip. My first was on US Air a few years back. I flew NYC – Boston – NYC – Washington, DC – NYC one Saturday morning. The same flight crew worked the Washington, DC turn and one flight attendant recognized me getting back on the plane. I tried to explain that I really just wanted a lunch of chowder from the Legal Sea Foods in DCA but she wasn’t buying that. I finally explained the elite status benefits and the trivial costs and she understood and agreed that it made sense.
My second run was last year around this time. I flew from JFK to Anchorage, via Houston and Seattle in both directions, over a 36 hour period. We were on the ground in Anchorage for about 45 minutes, just long enough to brush my teeth and get back on the plane for a cat nap to Seattle. And that got me to platinum status with Continental, meaning no change fees on reward flights. I took full advantage of that benefit (and still will into early next year), more than recouping the cost of the flights.
For me this year I’ve actually flown about the same number of miles as last year (~100,000) but I have split them among a couple programs and I’ve had virtually zero business travel. This leaves me a bit short of qualifying for the lowest level of elite status on my primary program (Continental). My other main program (bmi) has seen a lot of points crediting in thanks to some flights on United, but they have a rolling 12 month qualification program, so I just reset to zero there on November first. With those two stats staring me in the face, and some pretty reasonable flight prices, I’m setting off this weekend on a pretty ridiculous sequence of 12 flights in about 66 hours.
The overall trip is NYC to Philly on the bus, followed by Philly to Orange County, California on Continental. That is today’s flights. Tomorrow I’ll wake up ridiculously early and head to the airport to fly Orange County – San Francisco – Los Angeles – Denver – Oklahoma City on United in first class, thanks to a small pricing error on their part. Sunday sees me flying Oklahoma City – Denver – Portland – San Francisco – Orange County on United and then finishing off the evening with a redeye flight from Orange County to Newark on Continental. Flight number twelve comes on Monday morning from Newark to Philadelphia. I’m planning on lunch with a friend before heading back up to New York later on Monday afternoon.
Like I said, pretty ridiculous. But I’ve already put a pretty big dent in my “to read” pile, I get to meet up with friends in lounges and on flights along the way, and it really is relaxing for me to be flying. And the points are fun to use, too.
Posted by Seth on November 6, 2008 under Uncategorized |
With the distractions of their merger with Northwest behind them, Delta is now moving forward in actually operating the airline. They are announcing two new routes from Paris planned to start next spring. Service will run between Paris and Pittsburgh and Raleigh-Durham, operating on 757 aircraft. The flight to Raleigh-Durham is pretty much at the edge of the operating range of a 757-200, so that will be interesting to watch over the winter to see if they are forced to block seats to reduce weight or divert for fuel stops.
Happy flying!
Posted by Seth on November 5, 2008 under Uncategorized |
bmi, the British carrier that has been in the news a lot lately thanks to their recent sale to Lufthansa, made more news today, announcing that they will be pulling out of the Americas effective in the Spring of ‘09. The carrier currently operates flights from Manchester, UK to Chicago, Las Vegas and Barbados. Chicago flights will end in mid-January and the Las Vegas and Barbados flights will end in late April, after the Easter holidays.
The planes are coming up on a heavy maintenance check period and the carrier doesn’t have spares to sub in. Plus long-haul flying got pretty expensive when fuel prices spiked over the summer. And with the current/impending implosion of the US economy I’m really not all that surprised that the carrier has decided to reallocate the planes to routes in the Middle East, where it seems there is still plenty of money to spend.
I’m saddened mostly because I never got to fly them while they were here, and now it seems that I never will. Then again, I’ve been looking at visits to Egypt and Jordan, and the planes will be moving to those routes, so maybe I will get to fly on them after all. Hope springs eternal.
Posted by Seth on November 5, 2008 under Uncategorized |
They cut a very significant one, in fact – the fuel surcharge on many reward flights.
As part of aligning the various policies between Northwest and Delta changes to a variety of fees have been announced. Some have gone down (calling to book a ticket costs $20 now) or been removed completely (no more paying $3 for each bag checked with a skycap). Checked baggage fees have come down for Delta customers, going to $15 for the first and $50 for the second across the board for the carrier. Some fees have gone up or been added, with Delta adopting the “SkyChoice” program that charges an incremental ($5-25) amount for the “good seats” on a flight.
And then there is the fuel surcharge on reward flights.
Effective immediately, Delta will eliminate the $25-$100 fuel surcharges assessed for SkyMiles and WorldPerks award ticket travel originating from the U.S. and Canada. The surcharges were instituted earlier this year by both airlines in response to unprecedented fuel costs.
This fuel surcharge was also causing taxes to be applied to tickets, so this change will likely save passengers much, much more than the $25-100 that they were seeing. This is a HUGE improvement for the SkyMiles program. Kudos to Delta for taking this step.
Posted by Seth on November 4, 2008 under Internet |
At the beginning of the year Continental announced that they would be fitting out their entire domestic fleet with LiveTV, the system that JetBlue uses to provide their in-flight TV service. Things are move forward rapidly at this point with the service and one lucky guy recently got to visit the LiveTV facilities in Florida and see just what the new system will offer. I’m ridiculously jealous that he got to see the new system, but happy to share some of the information he discovered.
The new system will include 80 channels, an on-screen programming guide and an 8” 16:9 ratio wide-screen monitor. So the system installed on the Continental planes will actually be better than that running on the JetBlue planes. Of course, watching the TV on Continental will cost $6 while it will remain free on JetBlue, so everything isn’t rosy in Continental-land. Still, it is nice to see things getting better for in-flight entertainment.
The system is still scheduled to go live in early 2009, with the first plane installed shortly after new years and then a couple months vetting process from the FAA before the rest of the fleet will be converted. The conversion process takes 2-3 days per plane. There are ~180 planes to be fitted out and it is possible that more than one will happen at a time, so things should be pretty much completed by the end of 2009.
Posted by Seth on November 3, 2008 under Uncategorized |
I haven’t yet figured out just how bad the changes are, but United seems to have pissed quite a few folks off today by announcing their changes to the 2009 version of the Mileage Plus program. I have a membership, but only so that I can book flights online; I credit all those flights elsewhere. Ultimately that means this has absolutely zero effect on me personally. But it will affect others, so it is worth noting.
The changes include a significant jump in some reward costs (US-Asia in Biz goes from 90K to 125K points, for example) and a change to the cost structure for mileage upgrades. They have instituted a cash + miles structure for upgrades now, rather than a straight miles approach. This is very similar to the Continental OnePass program in its implementation, and it certainly means upgrades are going to cost more for just about everyone over at United. I can see how this will incense many, many folks there.
The only positive thing that they did was to restore the 500-mile minimum credit benefit for their elite members, following Continental’s path there. Even better, they are doing it retroactively to July 1, 2008, and adjusting bonuses, elite status and earned upgrades retroactively too. That is actually a very nice thing for them to have done. But it doesn’t make up for the gutting of the program on the other fronts.
I guess I should be used to this sort of thing by now, but it still hurts every time it happens. I’m in for the long haul, however, and the programs seem to be cyclical. Here’s hoping for brighter days ahead.
Posted by Seth on November 3, 2008 under Uncategorized |
And they really meant it on this flight.
An Air Europa plane, operating as a charter for Thomas Cook, ran off the end of the runway in the Canaries, resulting in damage to the plane and forcing the closure of the airport for several hours while emergency crews cleaned things up. Fortunately no one was injured in the accident.
I do have to admire the ability of the Air Europa corporate spokesman to put the best spin possible on the event.
There was a problem on landing. All the passengers left the plane and are fine. The plane came to a halt on the runway past the spot where it should have stopped.
Sure, it is only Monday, but that line is in the running for understatement of the week at this point.
Posted by Seth on November 2, 2008 under Uncategorized |
It seems that the recent retreat of fuel prices is allowing more airlines to cut their fuel surcharges. It is not across the board by any sense, but more and more airlines seem to be getting in the spirit, though none of them are US-based carriers.
This week’s airline announcing a cut in fuel surcharges is bmi. They’ve removed all fuel surcharges for flights within the UK and Europe. Of course, the fuel surcharge on those flights was minimal – generally around £5 – so it isn’t that great a cut. The long-haul routes continue to have ridiculously high fuel surcharges – as high as £271 between Las Vegas and Manchester – so that will still take a pretty big bite out of the travel budget.
But each step in that direction is a good one.
