Posted by Seth on June 29, 2011 under frequent flyer, News | 
The competition was pretty weak but Mileage Plus was announced this morning as the surviving frequent flier program name for the new United Airlines. This isn’t much of a surprise given the previous announcements about various other components of the program that are coming out, but it was still a decision that had to be made and an announcement to be communicated.
Sadly, however, there are no other details being released at this time. That said, at least the company knows people are waiting for answers:
Later this year we will announce the specific details of the 2012 Mileage Plus program, including mileage expiration, account numbers, lifetime status, elite tiers, qualification and benefits.
The one somewhat significant bit that they did include in the announcement is that "lifetime status (if applicable) will be preserved as we transition to a single program in 2012." It is not clear what that really means but given the wide disparity between the two lifetime programs it is nice to see that they are planning on "preserving" the status that exists today.
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Posted by Seth on June 28, 2011 under Hotel, points, Review |
The road to the opening of the Dream Hotel Downtown in New York City‘s Chelsea neighborhood was a long and expensive one. The project took 4-6 years, depending on who you ask, and the total construction price tag was in the ball park of a quarter billion dollars. Given the investment at stake it is no wonder that the owners did everything they could to make the property shine. It definitely does, from the lobby to the pool deck to the roof-top bar area, so much so that the police were called in several times during the grand opening party due to noise complaints.
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| Looking up at the northern façade of the hotel. The original building was designed to look like a ship with portholes; they were augmented with smaller ones to look more artistic in the renovations. |
That’s probably not the initial interaction the hotel wanted with its neighbors and things have gotten better since then. As part of their soft launch process (and partially to smooth relations after the late-night bender) they also had an open house for locals recently, showing off their pool area and some guest rooms.
I have to admit, they’re pretty impressive.
First, the pool area, including the walk up from the lobby (access is also available directly from the elevator banks).
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| The larger holes in the pool bottom go all the way through to the lobby ceiling, providing both a skylight and fish bowl effect. |
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| Feel real sand between your toes on the "beach" adjacent to the pool deck. |
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| Rooms in the south tower include Juliet balconies, some overlooking the beach area. |
The pool and "beach" area include a lifeguard and bar service, with specialty cocktails in the $14 range which isn’t horribly expensive for either a hotel bar or a pool-side bar. And while the pool is only open to hotel guests the bar area is one of 6 F&B facilities on the property open to the public. Also of note is that the pool is only open to children prior to noon; after that, until it closes at 8pm, the pool area is restricted to adults only.
The lobby area is similarly swank, with the Marble Lane steakhouse and bar as well as a lounge area that includes a DJ station and banquettes situated under the pool area for prime swimmer-watching if you’re so inclined.
We got to see two different rooms during the tour. The first was the room they wanted to show us, a Platinum King room (starting at $655++ on the random night in July I searched and listed as a "B Suite" on the website) and it was quite nice. The bathroom area is huge and there is a separate sitting area with a couch, plus the space for the bed, of course. And the views are phenomenal, including unobstructed sight-lines to the Empire State Building through the porthole windows.
The mini-bar is fully stocked and the toiletries and other amenities in the room are top-notch, which I’d expect at those prices. Still, it is good to see that they deliver on those details.
The other room we saw was decidedly not on the tour agenda. But I have a bad habit of walking off and poking my nose into things so I got to see one of the regular rooms that was still under construction. It was decidedly smaller than the 480 square feet of the Platinum King room, probably a bit under 300 square feet based on what the website is showing (though those specific rooms are not yet bookable). And if you’re more excited about good closet space and a huge bathroom in your hotel room then these are probably right up your alley. The room looked to be split about 50/50 between the bathroom/closet and the living space where the bed would be. That’s not a problem, really, but it is an interesting use of the limited space and probably not my first choice. Then again, I know I’m not the target market for this hotel.
With a sizeable number of premium hotel rooms already in the area (The Maritime is directly adjacent while the Gansevoort and The Standard are only a couple blocks away) it is going to be a challenge for the Dream to compete in the market. Maybe their recent association with the Wyndham Guest Rewards loyalty program is a small tip in their favor.
There are a lot of other little things I noticed on the property, like heavy use of LED light bulbs in the public areas to conserve energy, all of which add up to making for what appears to be a pretty awesome stay experience. I just wish I had an easy way to come up with the scratch to afford it. I wonder how many Wyndham points it takes to redeem for a room…..
This property is also bookable on the Hotels.com website and participates in their Welcome Rewards program so there is at least one other option for getting a discount on the rates (searching right now Hotels.com is 20% off the hotel’s asking price) and loyalty points for the stay.
Finally, I only got to walk around the place, not actually sleep there, so no guarantees on that front. Still, the food and drinks I experienced were pretty solid and the room looked nice enough so I’m guessing it’ll be just fine.
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Posted by Seth on June 27, 2011 under frequent flyer, media coverage, News, points |
As part of a story in the June issue of Inside Flyer magazine I was included in an interview panel with some big names in frequent flyer points analysis. Reading the responses of Steve Belkin, the only man I know who was interrogated by the DEA for his mileage earning schemes, and Gary Leff, author of View From The Wing, was an interesting way to spend a few minutes. I was somewhat intrigued to read the varied views on some of the points earning and redemption valuations and opportunities. Most surprising, however, was the claim made by Gary that points are growing in value.
His claim is a reasonable one – alliances have made it easier to go farther with award travel than was possible 10 years ago.
But it’s hard to say that the era of great value is over when there are more opportunities than ever to redeem your miles, and in better ways. When I redeemed United miles to go to Australia in business back in 2000, the Mileage Plus agents offered me the chance to fly Air New Zealand and then I could fly United in coach to California to catch that flight “as a courtesy.” Now I redeem my Mileage Plus miles for awards that include Lufthansa, Thai Airways, All Nippon, and Asiana–all on one award–and my United segments are in first class, too! The partnerships are expanding and becoming better integrated, improving the award experience all around.
I cannot deny that the global alliances have made things generally better, though, as Gary notes, he was able to get that "courtesy" flight anyways so it wasn’t all that much different. And while award charts are definitely trending towards more expensive there are still some decent values out there. At the same time, however, getting access to the award seats is more difficult as demand rises and airline capacities are tightened.
Points definitely still have value. As I note in the story, I’m traveling more and better than ever, thanks in large part to the points. But I do not believe the points are growing in value. Odds of getting better value from your points tomorrow versus today are pretty low.
There is no doubt that the loyalty programs and points still allow for some incredible redemption opportunities–experiences that I’d almost certainly never be able to pay full price on–but the overall trend is definitely one of stagnant to decreasing value.
That’s why I’m so strongly opposed to hoarding of points. Yes, I have about a million points in various accounts that I’m managing through my account at GoMiles.com, but I avoid ever getting too many in one place before I cash them in. And I’m ALWAYS cashing them in. I just booked another couple trips last week using points and I’ve got my eye on a couple for the end of this year as well. The points aren’t accruing interest and they aren’t doing any good as a big number on a balance sheet.
The whole reason to earn the is so they can be spent. So get out there and travel!
Posted by Seth on June 26, 2011 under News |
I’m going to be in Bangkok at the end of July for a couple nights and recently was looking for a hotel room for that stay. I was excited to see that Accor was offering up a pretty good sale for summer bookings. Sure, the program isn’t incredibly good for awards but they’ve got a pretty solid portfolio of properties in Asia, Africa and Europe and I spend a lot of time in those areas so getting a few points for my effort doesn’t suck. Combine that with an "up to 50% off" sale and I was clicking on the link without hesitation to find a deal.
And it was a pretty good deal. I filled in the search form and came up with a good range of rates, from $25-200, according to the display. I narrowed it down to a couple options based mostly on location and price and that’s where things started to fall apart.
The Novotel Bangkok Fenix Ploenchit was a leading candidate for my stay. Average room rate starting at $63/night according to the search page and a solid location near a SkyTrain stop. I was ready to book it and be done with that part of my trip planning.
So imagine my surprise when I clicked through to the booking link and discovered that the price was double that advertised:
Needless to say, I was not amused.
I called in to figure out why the pricing wasn’t working. The agent I spoke with was quick with an answer, informing me that the price on the first page is a monthly average, not specific to the dates I entered in the search parameters. So why have the dates there at all? He could not say.
Even more interesting to me was that the "average" price was always lower than the rates I was seeing. I did not check the full month on each of the 15 hotels listed but I checked enough that I should have been able to uncover at least one room somewhere close to the reported average starting price. I could not.
So that Accor hotel would not be receiving my business. Moreover, it seems unlikely that any Accor hotels are going to be getting my business in the near future, at least not through their own website. I’ll still consider them if the price and location are correct, but I’ll also likely be booking them through Hotels.com where I get better returns through the Welcome Rewards program and more accurate pricing information for my specific dates.
Posted by Seth on June 24, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
First it was the YouTube video of soldiers being charged the appropriate fees for checking their bags on a Delta flight that caused the airline to change their policies and issue an apology. Then things calmed down for a few days and it looked like we were back to normal. But it could not last. No, Delta found itself in the middle of a mess again this week when someone managed to completely misinterpret the carrier’s policies regarding a planed partnership with Saudi Arabia Airlines as part of the latter’s efforts to join the SkyTeam alliance.
With awesome headlines like "Delta adopts Saudi ‘no-Jew’ fly policy" and "U.S. Jews Not Able To Fly On Delta Flights To Saudi Arabia" it i s no wonder that the media went crazy over this one. And eventually Delta capitulated. It is a sad day indeed.
The uproar is over the fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ("KSA") generally will not issue visas to travelers who state their religion as Jewish on their passport or who have stamps from Israel in their passport. Every airline is responsible for ensuring that passengers boarding an international flight have the correct documentation to permit them entry at the destination country. The fines can be severe for non-compliance. So Delta would be required to comply with the policies of the KSA and ensure that passengers boarding a flight had the correct Visa. If they do not then they do not board. This is not racism, anti-Semitism or anything else that the stories written about it have claimed, at least not on the part of Delta. But with leading paragraphs like this one, it is easy to see how the facts got confused:
Delta Air Lines’ plan to add Saudi Arabian Airlines to its SkyTeam Alliance of partnering companies would require the American carrier to ban Jews and holders of Israeli passports from boarding flights from New York or Washington bound for Jeddah, prompting outraged accusations of illegal religious discrimination.
What is most interesting to me, however, is Delta’s response. In a blog post yesterday they did their best to clarify the situation and in doing so they appear to have made a few assertions that are, at best, confusing. For example, on the topic of service to Saudi Arabia Delta offered this:
Q: Do you operate any service to Saudi Arabia?
A: No, we don’t codeshare with any airline that serves that country
Except they do. Delta codeshares extensively with Air France which offers service to Riyadh 3x weekly. There is no Delta code on that flight but that’s not the statement made in their answer.
The other interesting assertion in their post is this one:
Q: Will Saudi Air’s membership into SkyTeam affect Delta customers?
A: Simply put, no. We don’t intend to codeshare or share any reciprocal benefits (such as frequent flier benefits) with Saudi Air.
The whole point of the global alliances is a seamless travel experience across member carriers. Things like frequent flyer point earning and redemption reciprocity and codeshares are the reason the alliances exist. And instead of celebrating the growth of the alliance Delta is yielding to the fear mongers and bible-thumpers and disavowing all relationships.
Let me be very clear on this: I’m not a fan of the KSA policies. I’m also not planning on visiting soon. But I’m also not supportive of boycotting a company in the USA that does no business there, certainly not with misinformation and knee-jerk reactions like the ones we’ve seen this week.
It never ceases to amaze me how the idiots can drive policy by proclaiming their ignorance louder than anyone smart.
Posted by Seth on June 20, 2011 under All You Can Jet, AYCJ, News |
As part of their announcement this morning that the All You Can Jet promotion would not be returning for 2011 JetBlue offered up a 15% off discount to help soften the blow. This discount is valid for all travelers and can be used as often as you want, so long as you book by 21 June 2011. Book online at JetBlue.com and use the code FRIENDS11.
The discount is only valid for travel during the "normal" AYCJ period which is 6 September – 5 October this year. Still, if you’re flying then anyways this is a pretty good deal. Happy Jetting, even if it isn’t unlimited.
**Offer ends 6/21/11 (11:59 PM ET). Valid only for flights purchased on jetblue.com/promo. Code (case-sensitive) is valid toward newly-booked travel; cannot be combined with other offers; not redeemable for cash, but is transferable. Valid for 15% off r/t base fare for travel from any JetBlue city to any JetBlue city from 09/06/2011 to 10/05/2011. Travel must originate in the United States. If travel changed/cancelled after 06/21/11, discount is forfeited and fare differential plus $100 change/cancel fee per person applied. Cancellations are for JetBlue travel credit only, valid for one year. If reservation is not changed/canceled prior to scheduled departure, all money associated with reservation is forfeited. All fares must be purchased at time of reservation, and are oneway, and nontransferable. JetBlue reserves the right to deny boarding to passengers without proper documentation. Other restrictions apply; see jetblue.com/about/legal/legal.asp.
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Posted by Seth on June 20, 2011 under All You Can Jet, AYCJ, News |
In an announcement just emailed to previous All You Can Jet participants, JetBlue indicated that the AYCJ program will not be returning for 2011.
Dear Wandering Aramean,
Thank you for being a part of our All-You-Can-Jet program. We hope you enjoyed flying anywhere you liked, as often as you liked!
We’ve been fielding a lot of questions about our plans for the AYCJ program. As a member of the AYCJ community we wanted you to be the first to know that we will not be offering this program in 2011.
Even though we are not offering AYCJ in 2011, we still want you to enjoy a discount this fall. As a special thank you, please enjoy this single-use Promo Code: for 30% off* your next roundtrip flight on JetBlue this fall. This offer is valid for one-time use and can be used for you and up to 6 friends on the same itinerary. Plus – here’s a special 15% off** Promo Code for you to share with your friends and family.
JetBlue strives to create fun, flexible and affordable ways for our customers to travel. Please stay tuned for bigger and more exciting promotions to come!
We look forward to welcoming you onboard soon.
Thank you for your loyalty,
Martin St. George
SVP Marketing and Commercial Strategy
Twitter: @martysg
This is a sad day in many ways. Not that it is horribly surprising – load factors are up along with fuel prices – but still sad. I had a blast the past two years, flying tens of thousands of miles at pennies on the dollar and making some great friends along the way.
Now to start planning other adventures in September and October.
Posted by Seth on June 16, 2011 under News |
Continental has historically been opposed to selling discounted upgrades for cash on their BusinessFirst premium cabin flights. They’ve also mostly been opposed to processing upgrades on the day of departure so as to protect their yields. But there has been one exception to this trend: Honolulu.
The Honolulu market is the only one where Continental offers a set rate for upgrades on the day of departure, and the prices have always been pretty good. The system, known as a REVUP allows passengers to buy into the forward cabin on the day of departure (inside 24 hours for elites; inside 2 hours for non-elites) if there is inventory available in the Z fare bucket.
With loads higher than ever finding a flight with seats can be difficult, but it is definitely possible. Check out my Inventory Search Tool if you want to check the Z inventory for a particular flight. Assuming there are seats available in Z a quick call to the reservations desk and paying the fee should have you in the forward cabin. If the agent doesn’t know what you’re talking about ask them to "look up GG REVUP in SHARES" and go from there.
As of a couple weeks ago the rates changed, with some increases and some decreases and generally a more complicated system. In addition to the route traveled day of departure now comes into play.
The above prices are for passengers with elite status; non-elites pay $50 more per person.
This is still a great benefit and one that hopefully survives the merger (assuming that the flights do not convert to all free upgrades like they are on United Airlines right now). With the most recent change to the award charts that went into effect this week these fees are generally lower than the cash component of the miles+cash option. But it is also a riskier approach as the forward cabin does sell out in advance quite often.
Aloha!
Posted by Seth on June 16, 2011 under Trip Reports |
Sitting in my room last night I finally got around to booking my ticket to get out of town on Friday. Yes, I waited a bit longer than I should have, leaving me inside the 7-day advance purchase window, but my schedule wasn’t settled yet so I had to. The schedule still isn’t settled but I’m booking anyways. It is a simple trip – I need to get from Raleigh to Atlanta. I need to do so in the afternoon, arriving no later than 6pm. So I searched for options and got the following results:
The first two flights are obviously the cheapest by a bit but the long layovers and poor departure times mean not actually getting work done if I pick those. And since someone is actually paying me to work these days that seems like a bad plan. Similarly, the last choice is rather pricey and still has the bad connection timing.
The 1:30pm departure on Delta is a bit too early to leave the office. The 2:45pm would actually be perfect but it is the most expensive of the options out there that has a decent schedule. Options 4, 6 and 7 seem to be still in contention and I’ve got a voucher from US Airways from when they screwed me coming home from Africa last year so spending that would be nice. But skipping the connection would be nicer.
So it is down to the two Delta choices – the 2:45pm flight in coach or the 4:00pm flight in first. And the first class seat is cheaper!
Turns out it actually wasn’t that hard a decision to make after all.
Yes, I know that it is a short flight in a rather mediocre first class cabin. And I know that I have to pick up a rental car on arrival and be mostly coherent so drinking up a storm isn’t likely to happen. Still, getting the better seat for LESS money is one of those opportunities I generally take full advantage of.
I just hope the accounting folks understand when I submit my receipts…
Posted by Seth on June 15, 2011 under News |
Want access to the priority security lines at the airport without elite status or buying a first class ticket? Looks like it is time to start flying JetBlue. The carrier announced today the 15 airports at which their new "Even More Speed" program will be implemented, allowing customers access to the "priority" line that other carriers afford to elites or premium cabin customers. With JetBlue this perk will be an additional benefit of the Even More Legroom seats which are being rebranded as well as part of the move.
The initial airports for priority screening are:
Priority screening is also coming to Boston in the next 4-6 weeks as the reconfiguration of the checkpoint there is completed.
In addition to the priority screening access the company is changing the Even More Legroom moniker to Even More Space. The impetus for this change is the addition of early boarding for those customers, providing them the first chance to get at the overhead bins. The early boarding benefit isn’t particularly new but the branding is. Maybe they got a bulk discount on trademark registrations with "Even More" in the name.
Overall this is a nice addition to the offerings that JetBlue has. Combined with the previous indications that some sort of "elite" program (though they refuse to use that word) is coming and that some of these benefits are likely to carry over, it seems clear that JetBlue is working hard to woo the business traveler segment more than ever.
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Tags: Boston, Chicago, elite status, JetBlue, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, San Francisco, Seattle, TSA, Washington DC
Posted by Seth on June 14, 2011 under Trip Reports |
This week sees me on another business trip to Raleigh, NC, which isn’t all that big a deal. It also saw me flying on perhaps my least preferred carrier – American Airlines – once again for perhaps the silliest reason possible. I really, really, really wanted to fly on the Embraer E-135 regional jet. This is the smallest of the regional jets in operation these days and yet I went out of my way to ride on one.
Why? Because it is the last of the Embraer models out there in commercial service that I had not yet flown. And I’m a big enough aviation geek that I keep track of this sort of thing.
I tried to grab this ride a couple weeks ago but my efforts were thwarted by the cAAncelAAtor, leaving me on a CR7 instead. When this trip came up I crossed my fingers, booked the same exact itinerary and hoped that the plane would not break this time around, letting me fly on the mini-jet.
The plane is the same interior cross-section as its larger cousin, the ERJ-145, but it felt smaller inside. Maybe that’s because I’ve been on too many wide-body aircraft lately or some other psychological problem I’m experiencing, but it was small inside. That said, once I settled into 11C, almost all the way in the back, the space wasn’t all that horrible. Sure, it is just a coach seat and I was on the plane for less than 2 hours total, but it was fine.
Overall a generally unremarkable trip, though it does allow me to cross off the last entry on that list.
One bit that caught my eye during boarding is that the plane I was on, N725AE, is actually a "named" plane. It has a plaque inside to honor a company employee. Considering most named planes are the big ones this was quite a surprise. I guess it is still an honor, even if it is the smallest commercial jet in operation, right? So congratulations to Gary Opbroek for being the 2010 Tech Ops Employee of the Year!
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