Posted by Seth on February 29, 2012 under Flying, frequent flyer, Mileage Run, points, Trip Reports | 
Today was a good day for mileage run booking. I got myself a nice <3cpEQM run on mostly United Airlines metal (good for both upgrades and Million Miler credits with the new program rules) covering just over 20,000 miles in a 4 day span. I’ll get to visit the 50th state a couple times and even actually sleep in a bed once or twice in the middle of all the crazy.
With some of the flights also on what is considered today to be Continental metal I figured I should log in, make sure that my frequent flier number is correct in the reservation and get some seats. I headed to the website and clicked the link to see my reservations. This is what I got:
Apparently I have no real trips planned in the next two months, just mileage runs. Zoinks!
Logged in to the main reservations display page things get a bit better in June, but not before another four day marathon crisscrossing the country (including two three-hour jaunts in Hawaii) for over 20,000 miles flown:
Hat tip to gtitan for finding this one!
Oh, and a couple weeks later I go back and I’ll actually spend a few day in Hawaii while celebrating the inaugural service of both Hawaiian AIrlines’ JFK-HNL service and United’s IAD-HNL service in the same week.
At one point a few weeks ago I was worried about fare prices and not having enough good trip opportunities. I guess that’s over, at least for a few weeks.
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Posted by Seth on February 29, 2012 under frequent flyer, Hotel, points |
It would seem that, despite my best efforts, I’ve managed to maintain hotel status through my own actions. I don’t really believe much in the value of hotel status for personally paid stays, mostly because I couldn’t care less about the "free" lounge, the "free" breakfast or the "free" internet service that the status affords. Ditto for suite upgrades. Plus, I like the character and charm of independent hotels in foreign countries way more than the western-branded ones as a general rule. Yes, I have SPG gold via my AmEx Platinum card, but even that barely gets used.
So imagine my surprise when I received an email this week congratulating me on getting status with a hotel program.
FIVESTAR is the program for hotels.com users, and I’ve been a pretty heavy user for a while now. I suppose that if I knew about the program I probably would have been surprised that I hadn’t qualified earlier (it only takes 10 nights annually) but I never knew about it so I never cared. Still, now that I’ve got this status I should figure out what the benefits are, right?
So I click the link lower down in the email and I start reading. There is a PDF file for both the FIVESTAR and FIVESTAR Plus (25+ nights) on their site and I tried to figure out what’s special about the programs. I still haven’t figured it out. There is this one section that purports to be part of the benefits:
Plans change. Now, so can your reservations–with the Hassle-Free Travel Guarantee. If you need to change your reservations for any reason – weather, schedule change, or even personal preference–our FIVESTAR Plus agents will do their best to help you make new travel plans right away, without any Hotels.com change or cancellation fees.
With Hassle-Free Dispute Resolution, we will work to fix any problem that you may have during your hotel stay. Just call your members-only phone number or email us at FIVESTAR@hotels.com.
Here’s the thing about these benefits…they’re not actually unique to the "status" level. Hotels.com has a no-fee cancelation policy for all their reservations. They advertise it really big on their home page:
So that’s nothing special. And their promise to "fix any problem" is also something that seems to be available to all customers. I know that they took care of several successive fiascos with reservations in Kochi, India well before I had the special status.
They also promise a price match guarantee for FIVESTAR members, but that’s also advertised to all customers really big on the homepage. Maybe there is something to be said for the special deals that they supposedly offer for members, but I haven’t seen any of those yet. I’m not holding my breath.
I get that they want to make their most frequent customers feel special by providing them extra value for their loyalty. After all, that’s what these programs are all about. But it doesn’t really work so well when you’re not offering any tangible benefits as part of the program. I’m certainly not going to call up and complain that they gave me a worthless "status" but it is also not going to change my booking patterns, which is what these sorts of programs are supposed to do.
I’m a big fan of their Welcome Rewards program in general (even with the devaluation not too long ago), but this FIVESTAR program is pretty much worthless from what I can see.
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Posted by Seth on February 26, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points |
With just a week to go before the new MileagePlus program launches for United Airlines and the OnePas program of merger partner Continental officially disappears, there are still a number of unanswered questions about the new program. Earning rates for flying on partner airlines is among the major points still unknown. In the past couple weeks a test website for the newly merged web presence of the company has been available (http://pss.united.com) and even more recently some details regarding earning rates for partners has shown up on that site. I am hesitant to consider this data completely authoritative for many reasons, among them that the carrier has explicitly stated that the site is not official, but there is enough information there that I figured giving it a first pass was worthwhile.
Each of the programs had about 500-600 rules for earning on Star Alliance partners; the new program is no different in that regard. Of those, somewhere between 20-40% seem to have at least one aspect of the earning rates changing as part of the new program. That’s a lot of new information to process.
In most cases the changes reflect the company choosing the rates from one of the two programs which is being retired; there are, however, a few instance where the numbers are completely new. And, since many people like to wonder if the program is trending more towards the legacy United or Continental way of business, my rough count suggest that in those cases where the two were different and one of the legacy rates was chosen, Continental "won" at a 2:1 clip.
So, what are the changes of note? Here are a few, broken down by partner:
Aegean
- Four economy fare buckets – P, T, U & V – no longer earn at all. This is in line with the legacy United rates and worse than the legacy Continental rates.
- Two economy fare buckets – Y & B – will earn fewer EQMs per trip. The are now at 100%, the legacy United rate, versus the 150% rate that Continental offered.
- Four premium cabin fare buckets – A,C, D & Z – will now earn 125% EQMs per trip. This is a downgrade from the legacy Continental rate (150%) and an upgrade from the legacy United rate (100%).
Air China
- Eight full fare or premium cabin buckets – A, B, C, D, F, J, Y & Z – will earn 100% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy United program. This is a downgrade from the OnePass program (150%).
Asiana
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
- Two discount economy fares – G & T – will see earnings at 70%. This is an increase from both the OnePass program (50%) and the Mileage Plus program (0%).
Austrian
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program (100%).
- Deep-discount economy fares – S & W – will earn only for flights within Europe, at the rate of 100%. This is a downgrade from the Mileage Plus program and an upgrade from the OnePass program.
bmi
- Two economy fare buckets – L & U – no longer earn at all. This is in line with the legacy United rates and worse than the legacy Continental rates.
- Three full fare economy and premium cabin buckets – I, S & Y – will earn 100% award miles and 150% elite miles. This is in line with the legacy Continental rates and an upgrade from the legacy United rates (100%/100%).
- Six premium cabin buckets – A, C, D, J, P & Z – will earn 125% award miles and 150% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy Continental program. The EQM earning rate is an upgrade from the 100% earnt in the legacy United program.
- All fares earn 500 mile minimums, matching the OnePass charts and an upgrade from the United charts.
Blue1
- Eight full fare or premium cabin buckets – A, B, C, D, J, S, Y & Z – will earn 150% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy Continental program. This is an upgrade from the legacy United program (100%).
- One discount economy fare bucket – O – will earn at 25% RDMs/EQMs. This matches the legacy OnePass rate and is an upgrade from the legacy United rate (0%/0%).
EgyptAir
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
- Seven deep-discount economy fare buckets – G, L, S, T, U, V & W – will earn no credit, matching the legacy United program; this is a downgrade from the 25-50% rates they earnt in the OnePass program.
- Two economy fares – Q & K – will earn at 100%, matching the legacy Mileage Plus program and upgrading from the 75% rate in the OnePass program.
Ethiopian
- Three premium cabin fares – C, D & J – are upgrading from 100% to 150% EQMs. This is an upgrade from both legacy programs (100%).
Lufthansa
- Most premium cabin fares see an upgrade to the award miles earning rates, in line with the previously discussed earning rates for United flights. These rates are much higher in most cases than the legacy United or Continental rates.
- For discounted economy fares – L & T – the rates will match those of the legacy United program, earning 100% on intercontinental flights and on intra-Europe flights which connect to intercontinental flights. The OnePass program offered 50% credit on all flights in those fare buckets.
Swiss
- Similar to Lufthansa, most premium cabin fares will earn at much higher award miles rates. In addition, the EQM earning rates for those fares will be increased to 150%, matching the legacy Continental rates and improving from the 100% that United used to offer.
- Three discount economy fares – K, L &T – disappear from the earning charts completely, a downgrade from both legacy programs.
US Airways
- No more 500 mile minimums for flights, a downgrade from the OnePass program and matching the United program.
- Only 100% EQMs on Y and B fares, a downgrade from the United program and matching the OnePass rates.
Croatia AIrlines, Singapore, Thai & TAP
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
For Air Canada and TAM the earning rates are not yet loaded on the site, and the TAM page shows some data from bmi and some from TAM. For Copa it does not show an elite earning bonus, though that is unlikely to actually be the case.
The only chart that appears to remain the same across the board is that of partner Turkish Airlines.
Non-alliance partner EVA will see a much broader partnership, with many more fare buckets available for earning. The rest of the non-alliance partners look to be pretty much the same, though I didn’t give those charts as thorough a review.
Again, please remember that the analysis here is from unofficial data and should not be considered necessarily accurate, though it is accurate from what was on the website when I looked at it today.
And, should these rates end up being accurate, it would appear that this is a case where the company being somewhat one-sided in where they favor a legacy program will work out well for customers. In nearly all the cases that the legacy OnePass rates were picked it was an upgrade for the Mileage Plus rates. The same cannot be said for the cases where the legacy Mileage Plus rates prevailed.
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Tags: Air Canada, Asiana, bmi, Continental, Copa, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, frequent flier, frequent flyer, Lufthansa, points, Swiss, TAM, United, United Airlines, US Air
Posted by Seth on February 24, 2012 under Hotel |
Well, maybe they’re worth mentioning, though it is hard to know some days. Neither is an incredible offer, but both might have some value.
First up, DoubleTree is running a contest to win a trip to Costa Rica as part of a cross-promotion with The Lorax. Register here (DoubleTree.com/TheLorax) and you can win. Stay at a DoubleTree before April 29, 2012 and get an extra entry. And you can mail in a postcard to get more entries, too. Odd of winning are perilously low, but there’s no real work involved in entering (at least the one freebie) so no harm there either.
Next up is a discount promo from one of my favorite small-chain hotel brands. They recently won some award and are celebrating by offering 15% off at a bunch of their hotels for stays through March 31, 2012.
The deal includes their property in New York City, for those who are averse to such awesome destinations as Barcelona, Madrid, Buenos Aires or Mexico City. More details on that promo here.
Like I said, nothing earth-shattering, but worth mentioning.
Posted by Seth on February 24, 2012 under frequent flyer, Internet, News, points, Wandering Aramean Travel Tools |
As part of my small obsession with travel I’ve come to build a number of tools that help in searching for good deals, upgrades, award seats, airport lounges, UNESCO World Heritage Sites and many other things. I’ve mostly been focused on the functionality of the sites, trying to get as much data "out there" to as many people as possible, as I think that’s the most important aspect of these tools. But I also realize that there is something to be said for making the tools look good, and that improving the UI and the usability of the site will also increase the odds that someone will use it and find it helpful. To that end, I’m happy to announce a number of updates to the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools website.
Most of the improvements have come to the fare data searches. The data is now sortable on all columns, loads much faster and allows for much faster correlation of the information at hand. The other important aspect of these changes is that they allow me to more quickly add additional types of fare data to the site as I come up with more fun stuff to share.
Here’s what the new interface looks like:
Clicking on any of the column headers will sort the data (though I don’t really know why you’d want to sort on fare basis!?!) and you can page through the data using the controls at the bottom of the dialog.
I’m working on bringing back the flight search functionality that ITA killed off in December, getting fare validity details into the displays and I’ve got a few other ideas percolating about as well. If there’s something in particular you’d like to see added to the suite just holler. If I can find the data there is a pretty good chance I’ll build it.
Finally, I’ve removed the registration requirement from many of the tools on the site. Turns out that I thought it was cool to have at one point but I never actually did much with the registrations so there isn’t much point in walling off the data that way. You’ll still need to register for the automated fare/inventory alerts (otherwise I wouldn’t be able to send the alert emails) but most of the data should be wide open. If there’s something that isn’t that you’d like to see drop me a line.
Posted by Seth on February 24, 2012 under Flying, News |
As noted on AirlineRoute.net, Delta will be cutting two London routes this spring, Atlanta – Gatwick and Miami – Heathrow. The final eastbound flights will be on 16 April 2012 with the final return the following day.
Like most carriers, Delta launched their London service into Gatwick in 1978 because they had no rights to fly into Heathrow. With the cutting of this Atlanta route the carrier is ending their service at that station, having moved all service to Heathrow.
The Miami route is a more recent development. It was added in March 2011 as part of the approval of the BA/AA/IB ATI and their required divestiture of routes in certain markets, namely Boston and Miami. Delta picked up both of those routes and apparently the Miami route isn’t so profitable for them.
It is hard to know if this is really good or bad news for the London-USA market. Certainly the carrier cutting routes suggests that the market is soft in some areas, though it can also be seen that the the trimming of inventory is going to tighten the market and increase fares.
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Posted by Seth on February 23, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points |
One interesting nugget from an announcement by a United Airlines official caught my eye today: The ability to redeem a Star Alliance upgrade is going offline as part of their migration to the new back-end systems on March 3rd. That the feature is going offline isn’t so surprising – I expect lots of things will off and on over the weekend ad days to follow – but the expected duration of the outage caught me rather by surprise. The function will be offline for "a few weeks."
To be fair, that’s not a feature that I actually care much about since I think the value in upgrades, especially partner upgrades, is very close to nil. But I also don’t have a job where someone else is often footing the tab for full-fare tickets that I can upgrade. I suppose were I in that situation I might be more outraged at this announcement. And having the system down for a few weeks, especially a system that works just fine with the current version of the SHARES platform, seems a bit extreme.
Then again, this undertaking is mammoth by any standards so I suppose things have to be prioritized. No real big deal to me that this is lower on that list.
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Posted by Seth on February 22, 2012 under News |
Ever wish that you’d never have to fly on a turbo-prop again? The noise, vibrations and cramped cabins turn off many passengers to those aircraft yet they still fly a number of routes thanks to their generally high reliability and low operating costs. There are two airlines, however, which have been ordered to ground their prop fleets. There isn’t a problem that precludes them from operating safely. Well, sortof.
Israel has announced that they will require all flagged aircraft to carry anti-missile defense systems, effective in the next couple years. The ATRs operated by Arkira and Israir (nine total aircraft between the two) cannot be fitted with the systems and so the country’s aviation ministry is grounding them.
Probably not the most comforting reason for seeing a type go out of service, but there it is.
Posted by Seth on February 22, 2012 under Trip Reports |
Break out the bunting and the balloons: it is time for a birthday party! In this case the birthday was of Istanbul‘s Tünel transit system, second oldest subway system in the world. The system is now 137 years old and, while it has seen a number of upgrades over the years, it is still more or less providing the same service as it did when it was put into service.
The Tünel connects the waterfront of Galeta to the commercial district of Taksim up on the hill. The elevation difference isn’t huge – about 60 meters – but at the time the Tünel was built there was only one narrow road connecting the two areas handling around 40,000 pedestrians daily. Something better was needed and it was delivered in January 1875, with a tunnel built into the hill and trolley cars carrying passengers up and down the hill.
The current iteration is only slightly different from the original. The original was two parallel tracks; the current version is a single track with a passing section in the middle of the run. Also, the original was (obviously) not powered by electricity. That was changed about 100 years into the life of the Tünel and the current system is electrified and climate controlled.
For the anniversary celebration the Tünel was decked out in ribbons and balloons. It was quite festive, though I was a day late for the actual party. And, while there are now many more roads connecting the two ends of the Tünel line, the funicular is still in business as part of the Istanbul mass transit network and it continues to carry folks up and down the hill every few minutes of the day.
It is a quick ride and not particularly amazing, other than that it saves walking up the big hill and the history of the tunnel is pretty impressive. I make sure to give it a ride every time I’m in town. There is another, newer funicular on the other side of Taksim Square but it doesn’t have the same history as the Tünel.
Posted by Seth on February 21, 2012 under Trip Reports |
There are a few sites that sit atop the list of any aviation geek’s top tours. One of them is, undoubtedly, the Future of Flight museum in Everett, Washington, just north of Seattle. The facility is the base for tours of the Boeing factory where the wide-body aircraft are assembled and the base tour is fun, but there are occasionally even better versions of the tour offered.
One such opportunity was this past weekend at Aviation Geek Fest 2012. Organized by AviationReporter, the event hosted about 75 geeks and allowed us to share our love of aviation with each other, with Boeing and to gain access to some normally off-limits sections of the facilities.
One group headed off to the factory floor tour, walking under and around the planes rather than in the gangways overhead. This time around the tour also included the 787 Dreamliner line and the attendees were very much up-close and personal, getting to literally kick the tires and touch the planes still on the assembly line. A second group headed out to the Dreamliner customer center, where various interior options are on display, allowing airlines to compare the options available for the configuration of their planes. I’ve done the floor tour a couple times and I’ve been on the plane so the interiors bit didn’t really appeal to me. I went for option C, the Paine Field Fire Department tour. I think I chose the best tour.
They picked us up in their trucks and we got to ride across the field, occasionally stopping and getting out for photo opportunities around the runways and parking areas. We also got a tour of their fire house, including climbing around on the various trucks they have, playing with the lights and I even got to suit up with their full set of gear.
They showed off their foamer truck (used to extinguish fuel fires), demonstrating the two different water cannons that it carries, walked us through their living quarters and their command center, too. It has phenomenal views of the runway. They also talked about their response time requirements – no more than 3 minutes from when an alarm comes in to being fully suited up and in the middle of the runway, ready to work whatever problem they’ve been called in to work. After getting into the suit once on my own and knowing how big the field is, I’m very impressed that they can get it all done in time.
On the return trip from the station back over to the Future of Flight museum we drove along the taxiway, getting very close to the many, many aircraft that are parked all over the field. Boeing has pretty much rented out every spare chunk of tarmac to park planes as they are being pushed out of the assembly lines but before they are delivered. There were 787s from at least five different carriers, 747-800s in both cargo and passenger configurations and some other aircraft as well. And we got to take pictures up close of many of them.
After the tour we also got to meet with a group of engineers from Boeing’s Moonshine group. These engineers are responsible for solving various production issues in the assembly process, either in-house on the Boeing lines or working with their suppliers to help them solve issues in their production lines. They work outside the scope of normal mega-company bureaucracy, with projects set on very short timelines and deliverables created from scrap parts and imagination more than blueprints and budgets. Hearing about some of their solutions It was a very interesting experience and we also got a hands-on experience in optimizing the assembly process. It wasn’t the full-blown deal that they normally run with folks in-house, but we did get to take home a business card holder that we put together.
Finally, there was a raffle with a bunch of prizes for everyone to take home, ranging from squeeze-toys up to a 787 model for the big winner.
It was a great event and I’m looking forward to AGF13 next year!
There are a bunch more photos available in the gallery here or on the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools Facebook page here. You can also search #AGF12 on Twitter for lots more from the event.
Posted by Seth on February 20, 2012 under News |
There is plenty of discussion going on about the news that a new airline is looking to start up based in Newport News, VA. Yes, they are taking the name of the first LCC in the United States, but they promise they aren’t going to focus on ancillary fees, at least not for bags, to be profitable. But can it work?
I don’t think it has much of a chance, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth listening to the folks who are on the inside as to why they think their plan is sound. Here’s an interview with their VP of Operations, Brent James, conducted by Aspire Aviation. Reading some of the answers he’s got it isn’t particularly clear to me if he’s actually thinking clearly or just convinced that their approach is destined to succeed, but I suppose that’s part of the process when you buy in to a start-up operation. Among other things, James indicates that they are looking to build based on O/D traffic out of the area and to provide high frequencies to their selected destination set.
Like I said, I’m not buying it, but I give them credit for trying.
And kudos to Aspire Aviation for asking the pointed questions and getting some answers.
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