Posted by Seth on January 21, 2010 under Trip Reports | 
It has been a long couple weeks on the ground in New York City. Sure, I’m having plenty of fun but I’m also working a lot more than usual so getting back into the air is a great pleasure that I get to indulge in this weekend. And it really is a bit of indulgence – probably more fun than I should have in any given weekend.
First up today is the trek from New York to Seattle. I’m flying via Chicago to meet up with some friends who are based there. Plus it is my first opportunity to use my Continental Star Alliance Gold credentials while flying with United Airlines so that’s been fun to see how it plays out. Oh, and it means free drinks thanks to a large supply of coupons provided by one of the guys in the group. Today is two flights and gets me across the country but that’s just the beginning for the weekend.
After a couple days in Seattle we’re flying down to Houston on Continental. We’ll spend a day there doing some things with the carrier and then it is on to San Diego on Sunday. I’ll be flying on US Airways via Phoenix because of the significant cost savings. That’s five flights and three cities over four days.
The trip home will be equally entertaining. On Monday I fly San Diego – Los Angeles – Portland – Seattle – Newark on a combination of United, United Express and Continental. I get three new routes and a new aircraft type – the Embrear 120. Yeah, it is a tiny turboprop and I don’t expect it to be particularly wonderful in terms of the in-flight experience, but it does get me very, very close to closing out the entire Embrear product line in terms of aircraft flown. This is the second time I’m trying for the E120 and last time I was the victim of delays so I missed it. I’m hoping that I can get it more quickly than I did the upper deck of the 747; that was way too many tries.
On the plus side, the lounges have all been nice thus far. The Bloody Mary at the Presidents Club in LaGuardia this morning was perfect, as always. The Goose Island brew at the newly remodeled Red Carpet Club was excellent; I’m a fan of local beers in the lounges. And the drink certs on the flights have come in quite handy. The plane is now out of rum and gin; yeah, we’re having a great time here. More of the same is expected this weekend in air world. It is a great place to visit frequently.
Posted by Seth on January 18, 2010 under News |
There are scores of stories coming out of Haiti every day. Most are tragic. The destruction is simply overwhelming and the infrastructure wasn’t really all that great to begin with. Watching the recovery efforts over the past several days has been gut-wrenching in many ways, but also incredibly cool in at least one: Air Traffic Control.
The airport in Port-au-Prince is small. It has a single runway and only space on the ground for about 10 planes to park and load or unload. That isn’t much room when it comes time to handle hundreds of relief flights each day, especially since the planes coming in are larger than most of the commercial service that the airport regularly sees. And, yet, in the past week the airport has seen more flights and bigger planes than it has seen in years, thanks in large part to to a US Air Force Special Operations forces known as the Combat Control Team.
The Combat Control Team (CCT) is made up of folks trained in just about everything that Special Ops handles, plus they are all certified as Air Traffic Controllers by the FAA. They are the first group to arrive on the scene when the armed forces need to be able to get aircraft in to a theatre, often while simultaneously defending themselves from hostile parties. They are also some of the first on the scene when a disaster strikes, showing up to manage the airspace around the crisis scene. So it should come as no surprise that on the evening after the earthquake in Haiti a group of guys showed up on the side of the runway, set up a folding table with a few radios and began transmitting words that the air traffic in the area was in desperate need of, “This is Port-au-Prince tower.”
Since that time the crew has coordinated the arrival of close to 1,000 planes carrying supplies critical to the search and recovery efforts. On Friday, January 15th United States control of the airport received the blessing of the Haitian government – there was nothing they could do any better considering the damage done to the tower in the earthquake – and so the FAA began issuing landing slots and coordinating the flow of traffic into Haiti.
There is no fuel available on the ground at the airport so inbound aircraft are required to bring enough with them to ensure that they can depart once they are unloaded. The 10 ramp positions were originally counted based on typical commercial aircraft that serve the region, not on the jumbos that are arriving on a regular basis. And there aren’t really ground control crews available to work, meaning that every now and then a CCT member hops on a motorcycle and rides across the field to lead a plane to a parking position.
They’ve even bent the rules a bit in terms of which types of planes are permitted to land. The runway is apparently not quite up to spec for the super-jumbo cargo craft such as the Anatov An-124. But the CCT guys are bringing them in anyways. They need the supplies and in critical situations the rules tend to flex.
It is one small glimmer of hope and progress in the midst of a terrible tragedy. And it is an amazing display of coordination and logistics management under horrible circumstances. But the CCT is living up to its motto of “First There” and putting on one hell of a show on the ground at the airport.
Godspeed.
Posted by Seth on January 18, 2010 under News |
The Department of Transportation announced on Friday that United Airlines has been assessed a fine of $30,000 for failing to properly disclose fares inclusive of taxes on their website. Specifically, there was a 60 hour period during which United failed to include the 7.5% Federal Excise Tax in fares displayed at www.united.com. Although they quickly resolved the issue when confronted with the error the carrier was still hit with a rather notable fine, mostly because this was the second such violation in a short period of time.
In August United had a similar violation for which they were fined $75,000. Half of that fine was suspended for a one year period pending any further violations of the regulation. They barely made it four months of that probationary year before committing a similar violation, however, meaning that they were required to pay not only the new $30,000 fine but also the $37,500 still pending from the previous violation.
Whoopsie!
Posted by Seth on January 18, 2010 under frequent flyer, News |
It has been barely six weeks since the new management team stepped in at bmi, the British carrier that Lufthansa took full ownership of several months ago. But the new management team hasn’t wasted any time in making rather drastic changes to the airline, its service offerings and its frequent flyer loyalty program. First there were the cuts to the mid-haul service and the announcement that the Airbus A330s would be returned after the lease expired in early 2010. Then there were the announcements of the Dublin crew base closures and cuts to the service between that city and London. And then they started strictly enforcing some of the previously unenforced rules of their loyalty program, trimming a bit of value out for folks looking to redeem in premium cabin service.
Today’s announcement, however, seems to be a rather major milestone in the efforts to completely reform the carrier into less of a stand-alone brand and into more of a regional feeder carrier. As of January 27, 2010 – only 10 days out – the carrier is cutting business class service on all its domestic UK and Dublin flights, switching to an economy-only product.
They will be introducing “Flexible Economy” fares as part of the cuts. These fares seem to be comparably expensive – less the APD tax differences – and earn the same Diamond Club miles as the business class seats did. They come with complimentary snacks and drinks and seats in the front of the plane. They even include access to lounge facilities in most destinations. In other words, they’re just like the business class seats used to be but without the name “business class” attached.
So roughly the same product with a slightly different name probably shouldn’t raise too many red flags for most folks, right? Well, except for the few very loyal domestic bmi customers you’d be right. The perks being cut affect the few customers who were generally paying more to fly on bmi than on competitors based on the benefits that the program offered in the form of upgrades and free snacks on the flights, two things that used to be a big part of the elite benefits for those flights. They’re gone now and that leaves a lot of customers wondering where the benefits are for the increased spend.
Ultimately this actually seems like it is the right move for the carrier to make. The service wasn’t really anything like an actual business class product so at least they won’t have disappointed customers who thought they were buying one thing and end up get something rather different. And the “out-the-door” price of the flights drops by about £20 thanks to the APD cut. That’s going to work out well for them from a competitive pricing perspective. But it is also yet another in a series of recent changes that have slowly chipped away at the value of the bmi product and loyalty program. It isn’t much of a surprise that this is happening – Lufthansa is in charge now and they actually want to change the carrier into a profitable organization – but it also raises some concerns about what may be just around the corner for folks holding a lot of Diamond Club points. They’re almost certainly going to become Miles & More points sooner or later and the pace of these other changes suggests that the case is likely to be sooner.
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Posted by Seth on January 15, 2010 under News |
Continental loves their hubs. They have historically had an incredibly intense focus on offering only hub-and-spoke service, to the point that non-hub routes could be counted on your fingers, sometimes only requiring one hand. Things are changing, however, and the non-hub route map is growing.
Late last year Continental announced several non-hub routes serving Hawaii from Los Angeles and Orange County. Today they’ve announced service between Portland, Oregon and Anchorage. The service will be seasonal for the peak summer months and not particularly well timed for connections from Newark but it will serve the local market and other west-coast feed (from United , I suppose) reasonably well. From the release:
The flight from Portland International Airport (PDX) will depart at 6:10 p.m. and arrive at Ted Stevens International Airport (ANC) in Anchorage at 8:55 p.m. The return flight will depart Anchorage at 1:25 a.m. and arrive in Portland at 6:15 a.m. Continental will operate the flight with a Boeing 737-800 with 160 seats.
I might need to start using my toes to count the non-hub routes soon. Nice to see some growth in the industry.
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Posted by Seth on January 13, 2010 under News |
Amtrak has announced that they are joining the ranks of the various other commercial transit means – namely planes and buses – and adding wifi connectivity to the Acela Express line plying routes between Washington, DC and Boston. The service is being rolled out as part of the 2010 cabin upgrades on the Acela Express fleet and is expected to be complete in March. The service will be “initially free” though there is no indication what the duration of that free service will be or what the pricing will be when that expires.
Nice to see that Amtrak is signing on for such an endeavor, though the lack of details makes the value of this offering a bit uncertain right now. Then again, paying for a day’s worth of access for the trip on Acela almost certainly means getting more time online for your money than a similar charge on a flight or in an airport. It will be interesting to see if Acela can team with the providers in the major stations along the route which also offer internet service to put together a package deal for customers or if it will still be a la carte throughout the journey.
Posted by Seth on January 13, 2010 under News |
It was only a matter of time before the additional up-sale options started on board once Continental switched to a cashless cabin on-board (all transactions are now CC/Debit based). The carrier has long charged for alcoholic beverages on their flights, even with a cash cabin. Once the CC terminals are deployed, however, it seems that finding new ways to use them is de rigeur in the industry and the Houston-based carrier is no exception.
Starting in February the airline will be running a trial of a number of specialty drinks, from Pomegranate Martinis to Mojitos to pre-mixed cappuccino drinks. These beverages will be available on the 737-900 fleet, not system-wide, and the alcoholic options will be $8 each or two drink coupons. The mix without the booze – which seems like a terribly sweet and miserable way to quench a thirst, though maybe tolerable with club soda – will be $3.
With the removal of pillows and cutbacks on blankets in recent months it would not be all that surprising to see sleep kits coming out soon as well, or even potentially buy-on-board food, though Continental does own their own catering company so their food costs remain rather low. Still, the switch to a cashless cabin seems to be starting an interesting series of moves for the carrier.
Here’s the full drink/price list:
- Glaceau Smartwater $3 or one drink chit
- Illy Chilled Cappuccino $3 or one drink chit
- Stirring Simple Pomegranate Martini with Skyy Vodka $8 or two drink chits
- Stirring Simple Mojito Mix with Bacardi Light Rum $8 or two drink chits
No word yet on the pricing for the drinks up front, though I’m betting they are free. They’d better be.
Posted by Seth on January 12, 2010 under media coverage, News |
Medical solutions for jetlag have been featured quite a bit in the news lately. Another article came out this morning from ABCNews.com. The story is pretty much the same: Nuvigil, a drug from pharmaceutical company Cephalon, has been submitted to the FDA to “treat” jetlag and they’re hopeful that it will receive approval soon. And the story behind the story is almost as entertaining as the actual news.
It turns out that testing the effects of a drug against jetlag means inducing jetlag and that means flying across an ocean. The testing experience was some fun and some not so fun to be certain, but the end result is the same: it is a great story. Plus, the drug seemed to work pretty well for me. Perhaps too well. Taking it for multiple days was more than I think I really needed, but it definitely kept me up and more alert than I think I otherwise would have been.
Oh, and there’s a great picture of me on page two of the story.
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Posted by Seth on January 8, 2010 under points |
Amtrak is pretty good at keeping promos alive for their Guest Rewards program. They expire every few months but there is always another promo right behind it. This winter is no exception and there are two promos out there now for folks who ride in the northeast corridor (Washington, DC – Boston).
Promo number 1 is for Acela riders, a/k/a folks on expense accounts who don’t mind paying double to save minimal amounts of time. And, yes, I’ve done it, too. The promo is for one free round-trip Acela ride for three paid trips (or six paid one-ways). Not too terrible a deal as you also earn the regular AGR points on the rides. The freebie will be valid from June 1 – August 31, 2010 and is not valid for peak weekday trains. A minimum spend of $85 each way applies, a maximum of two one-ways can be credited per day and a maximum of 8 reward can be earned so there isn’t a huge arbitrage opportunity here, but for folks who are regularly riding on Acela the deal is pretty decent. Registration is here.
Promo number 2 is for non-Acela riders in the northeast corridor. The details are reasonably similar though the spend minimum is lower. Thanks to Gary for sharing the details on that one.
I do find it somewhat interesting that I got the Acela promo rather than the regional trains one. I guess they are mining their data pretty well to figure out who does what more often. I appreciate that.
Posted by Seth on January 8, 2010 under Mileage Run |
Interesting in a weekend getaway to London? Wanna more than double the number of miles you travel to get there?
There’s a “sale” of sorts on right now for flights between New York City and London that isn’t all that phenomenal, especially for travel only into mid-March. Seriously, a $650 fare is nothing to write home about normally. But this one is somewhat unique in that a permissible routing is via Los Angeles, California. That more than doubles the miles involved (and roughly triples the travel time) making it a somewhat better value for folks looking to accrue miles.
The fare requires a Saturday night stay and expires March 15th. The timing of the flights via LAX mean that there is a forced overnight in London. Happy trails!
