Posted by Seth on January 10, 2012 under frequent flyer, points | 
JetBlue and interline partner South African Airways have come up with a rather interesting promotion for earning points in the TrueBlue program this month. They’re letting passengers double dip on points earnings for a limited time, netting 10,000 TrueBlue points in addition to the regular points the route would earn on South African. The rules are reasonably simple: Book by 20 January and travel by 31 March. Fill out the web form after the trip and you should score the TrueBlue points.
There is also a contest to win two "free" tickets to South Africa, but I’m not as convinced of the value there. There are blackout dates, which is fine, but the winner is responsible for all fuel surcharges on the winning, which is pretty crappy, especially considering that they are still "subject to seat availability" as well.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to book a trip just for the TrueBlue points, but if you’re buying and flying inside the promo dates anyways there’s definitely nothing wrong with 10,000 free TrueBlue points.
See http://flysaausa.com/jetblue/ for all the fine print.
Posted by Seth on December 13, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Ethiopian Airlines became the third African carrier to join the Star Alliance network this week, growing the alliance to 28 carriers. Of those 28, 16 provide service to Africa, covering 110 airports in 48 countries. The move also integrates Ethiopian into the fare and award products, though some integration on fare products won’t occur until January 2012.
The move also integrates the carrier into frequent flier earning across the alliance. Thus far I’ve seen earing details for Asiana, Continental, United Airlines, Turkish, TAP Air Portugal, Air Canada, Lufthansa‘s Miles & More and Agean Airlines. Those earning rates have been incorporated into the calculators on the Travel Tools site. Generally speaking most of the carriers are providing 100% earning rates for all economy fares and a bonus for business class fares. Full details about the rates can be found on the Travel Tools Update here.
Tags: Africa, Agean, Air Canada, Asiana, Continental, Ethiopian Airlines, frequent flier, frequent flyer, Lufthansa, points, Star Alliance, TAP Air Portugal, tools, Turkish Air, United, United Airlines
Posted by Seth on October 13, 2011 under Trip Reports |
It is a bit hard to see the arrival at Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, as a welcoming event. As our boat arrived after the ~50 minute cruise over from the Cape Town Waterfront, it was hard not to feel both very welcome on the island as well as the effects of stepping back into history, near and far.
The island was used for hundreds of years as a prison, leper colony and quarantine station. Starting in the 1960s Robben Island had a number of buildings constructed to allow for its use as a maximum security prison facility to house political prisoners. The most famous of its residents in that time was Nelson Mandela, and several other famous political figures from South Africa served sentences there as well. In 1991 the last of the prisoners were removed from the island, ending its long-running role. Five years later Nelson Mandela, a former resident of the prison, was elected as the President of South Africa and the prison complex became a museum.
Today the Robben Island Museum is operated by the Ministry of Arts and Culture, offering tours of the island. The Island is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (and it is the 47th I have visited). In addition to the boat ride out to Robben Island and a tour of the maximum security prison facilities and other bits of the island the tours also include a portion guided by an ex-prisoner of the facility. When I first read that on their website I was mostly unimpressed. I’m not entirely sure why, but I didn’t expect that part of the tour to be particularly special. I could not have been more wrong.
It was clear that he was not a professional tour guide, but having someone there with the personal connection to the site really made an enormous difference. And having him give us a tour not just of the prison complex, but of the cell where he personally spent so many years of his life, was incredibly moving.
The common cells (shown in the photo above) were crowded, offered no privacy and were exposed to the elements, leaving the prisoners cold and wet in the winters and overheated in the summers. The private cells weren’t much better. The isolation that the prisoners were subjected to was just as punishing as the fact that they were imprisoned at all.
After we left the main prison complex portion of the tour we boarded buses and drove around the rest of the island. There is a small town still on the island – many of the former prisoners still live there with their families today – and there are some phenomenal views back across the harbor to Cape Town.
We also drove past the old quarry on the island. The quarry was worked by the prisoners and was also one of the main areas they used as a meeting place to provide education to each other and to continue their work for the African National Congress. When the former prisoners returned in 1996 after winning control of the government they were faced with the decision of what to do with the facility. As they completed their tour of the quarry area Nelson Mandela picked up a stone and carried it towards the exit of the area, depositing it at the exit of the quarry. Others followed in his footsteps, eventually building the mound of stones that is now visible at the site.
This is the only monument of any sort that was built on the grounds.
And then it was time for the boat ride back across the harbor into Cape Town. The mood on the ride over was somewhat chipper and sociable. The return ride was much quieter, to say the least. Most passengers were lost in their own thoughts.
I simply cannot express enough how amazing the whole experience was. Yes, it was somewhat emotionally draining, but every now and then it is good to really feel something like that in your travels rather than simply gliding through a city only seeing the pretty things.
Posted by Seth on August 25, 2011 under Flying, Trip Reports |
Given a few days bumming around in Cape Town, South Africa, there were several different tours of the Cape on the itinerary. One of the trips was a bit more special than the others, mostly because it was run at 2500 feet above ground in a helicopter. Yes, the tour was a bit pricey (~$320/person for the hour-long flight), but it was an awesome way to see the area and a ton of fun.
We started off at the Helicopters Cape Town offices adjacent to the V&A Waterfront. This is the main tourist area downtown and offers up the infrastructure to support the tour operations. The crew working there were friendly and fun and quite accommodating of our rather ridiculous behavior. After watching the safety video and signing away our lives on the waiver form it was time to head out to the helicopter and go for a ride.
Taking off over the harbor we flew down the western coast of the Cape, past Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and the other peaks dotting the coast line.
As we approached Hout Bay we crossed over a bit of land and then made our run at the tip of the continent. The beaches and coast line in this area is mostly national park lands and rather well managed. This leaves them in a pristine state. Gaining access on the ground to many of them is quite difficult but they are stunning from above.
We also passed by a beach with some folks riding horses along the shore and a beach with a shipwreck right in the middle. Apparently the captain thought that he was pulling into False Bay and missed. The outline of the wreck in the sand is pretty cool.
The next stop on the tour was the Cape itself. The chunk of rock jutting out into the ocean is rather impressive. Seeing it from above is awesome.
After circling around there for a bit we headed up the eastern side of the Cape back towards town. Once again, amazing views along the coast line. The inside of the Cape is more populated and that created a rather different set of scenery as we flew along. At one point we crossed near a military base. Apparently they are known for running training missions from time to time firing shells out into the sea. Or our pilot was just having some fun with us. Either way, an entertaining story.
Finally, we made our approach to land. Being the aerogeeks that we are, and because we were given the option, we chose to have the flight end at our hotel rather than back up at the waterfront. Mostly because it is cool but also to save the 30 minute drive back after the flight. Needless to say, the folks playing golf on the course adjacent to where we landed were a bit annoyed. But it sure was nice landing about 100 feet from the room.
Overall, a fantastic experience and one that I’m quite happy I let myself be talked into.
Posted by Seth on August 1, 2011 under Trip Reports |
What’s the one animal you want to see most? The one that would make today’s game drive a "win" for you?
This was the question, posed by my friend, I pondered over breakfast at the Kichaka Game Lodge on the morning of our last day. Having previously experienced mostly mud and rain (though it was a fun adventure) I knew that this was our last chance to see the wild animals. The weather was finally cooperating and so it was time to throw in my vote for the animal I really, really wanted to see in the wild.
Giraffe. It actually wasn’t all that tough a decision for me. The cats are cool (and we did see some of those, too), but giraffes are so incredibly strange to me that seeing one in the wild was the coolest option I could think of. It took all of three minutes for that desire to be satisfied.
We cleared the gates out of the lodge and started up the road to the reserve. About 500 meters in to the drive the road was blocked by a half dozen or so giraffes, calmly eating their breakfast from the brush alongside the road. Awesome.
Eventually they cleared the road (it is their land, not ours, so we just waited for them) and headed up into the main entrance of the reserve to see what other animals were around. A couple minutes later the CB radio crackled to life with the voice of one of the other guides indicating that they’d spotted cheetahs on the move. As it turns out, these cheetahs were hanging out at the same place we were the day prior as we were trying to rescue our truck out of the mud adjacent to an antelope carcass. Much as we had joked over drinks the night before about eyes in bush, staring at us as we worked to free the vehicle, it turns out they really were there. Good thing we didn’t try to eat the antelope, I suppose.
The cheetahs – a mother and two cubs – were on the move from that kill site. Their route took them down a hill, across a road and into the brush on the far side of that small valley. Fortunately for us that road just happened to be where we were stationed. These amazing, graceful, deadly animals pretty much walked directly in front of us. Beautiful.
Next up on our list of sightings was the elephant, a huge and surprisingly graceful animal. This was the "winner" animal of my friend and so, in the span of about an hour, we were both rather sated from a spotting perspective. Not that we were about to object to seeing any other animals, of course.
We left the elephant for a while as he headed into the woods and we drove on for our morning tea break. As we came back onto the main road the elephant had reappeared and was munching on some lunch. We were chatting with Geoff, our guide, about the behavior of the elephant and the animals in general and, before we knew what happened, the six ton beast was more or less next to our truck. It had approached in near silence and it moved on with similar stealth. More than anything, its ability to move so quietly was truly amazing.
With the elephant now gone back into the woods it was time to spot a few other species. Antelopes by the dozens, just waiting to be a meal for one of the larger beasts. Ostrich, too, though no heads buried. We saw some warthogs but they were skittish and didn’t pose for pictures.
In the end, the big missing beast was the lion. We saw tracks a number of times but they weren’t coming out to play and if they do not want to be found they almost certainly will not be. Just gives me an excuse to have to go back, I suppose.
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Posted by Seth on July 28, 2011 under Trip Reports |
Our arrival at the Kichaka Game Lodge was met by a most unexpected interloper: rain. Lots and lots of rain. So much that they had roads washed out and flooding across parts of the region by the end of the week we were there. Still, we were there for a safari adventure and we were going to have one. A little rain couldn’t hold us back. It probably should have.
We spotted what appeared to be a small break in the rain, changing from downpour to misting drizzle and decided that we’d like to have a go at it. Geoff, our steadfast and dedicated guide agreed to head out, though it wasn’t hard to see that he considered it a somewhat foolish plan. Still, in the face of our unwavering desire he agreed to suit up and take the truck out for a spin.
The roads were, well, not really roads in many areas. The rains had caused small ponds to overflow their banks, turning portions of the park lands in to rivers.
Shortly after our arrival in the park we spotted some antelope. This was incredibly cool to us. Geoff seemed less enthused. It turns out the antelope are everywhere and can be spotted pretty much anywhere and anytime on the reserve. As such, they weren’t nearly as special a sight. Still, they were very cool for us the first time.
An hour or so into the drive we spotted a light yellow splotch on a hill across the way. An animal? A rock? The only way to find out was to drive up and check it out. As we bounced across the hills the light yellow splotch didn’t move. We were convinced it was a rock. It was not. It was this carcass, recently killed by cheetahs and not yet fully picked over.
Looking at it from the road way was fine but not completely rewarding. Given all the rain it was somewhat questionable as to whether we should press forward off the dirt road. Geoff asked our thoughts and I replied with my usual thought, "What’s the worst that could happen??"
This.
We were quite quickly axle-deep in mud, getting rained on, with no way out. And did I mention that we were about 100 feet from a fresh carcass that was not yet fully picked over? Ruh-roh.
We jacked the truck up, filling the mud pit under each of the four tires with rocks gathered from the area. We eventually were able to move about 5 feet before sinking right back into the same mud. Not good at all. All the while, we could feel the animals watching us from the brush, or so we thought. Turns out the cheetahs really were there as we’d discover the next morning. Zoinks!
Eventually another truck drove by and was able to help us out of the mud with a tow rope. And we made it back to the lodge in one piece to the warm welcome of the staff and the bar where hot toddies were consumed n front of the fire to restore warmth to our cold, soaked bodies.
We made it back to the lodge in one piece so the drive can certainly be considered a success. We even spotted a couple animals along the way. Still, it was most definitely not what we expected from our game drives on safari. Fortunately the drive the next morning was much better. Details on that trip coming soon.
Posted by Seth on April 8, 2011 under Trip Reports |
There are two things I concern myself with on every airport arrival: cash and transportation. Getting some money in the local currency – preferably from an ATM machine – and finding my way into town or to my hotel – preferably on public transit – are key. Unfortunately for visitors, these tasks are not nearly as easy as they should be at South Africa‘s international gateway airport.
Sure, it looks easy enough. Just like most every other airport in the world there are money changers right outside the customs call when you arrive. But unlike most airports those money changers do not have ATMs attached. Indeed, there are no ATMs at all to be found on the arrivals level in the airport. The money change facilities all advertise “ATM Services” but you’re still almost certain to get hosed on the exchange rate. No thanks.
The key to getting cash is to head upstairs. More or less directly above the doors from which one exits customs there are ATM machines from a number of banks available. This is a WAY better deal than changing money with the folks on the ground floor and is well worth the escalator ride. It also happens to give a nice view of the arrivals hall, which is rather pretty.
Next up is finding your way into town. For me that meant a ride to Sandton on the Gautrain rail system. Finding the train platform is pretty easy – just keep heading up and follow the signs to the train.
A round-trip fare from the airport to Sandton is 200 Rand (~$30 USD at time of writing). In addition, you have to purchase the smart card that the train system uses for fare collection and debit for an extra 10 Rand. This souvenir is yours to keep. Check out the attached video for the step-by-step instructions in this video for making the purchase.
The trains are pretty new and quite a comfortable ride. As we rolled through the farms surrounding the airport, speeding past the traffic jams, I was quite happy that the Gautrain option existed. At only 25 minutes or so each way to Sandton, with several trains each hour it really is the best way to get between the airport and town.
You’ll be in Nelson Mandela Square (and likely just as disappointed by it as I was) in no time.
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Posted by Seth on March 28, 2011 under Book Review, Review |
There are three main lessons that I learned from reading Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next:
- Logistics and speed are unstoppable forces that will define the next several generations of economic development globally;
- The United States has already lost most any chance of keeping pace; and,
- The global economy may never actually cash in on the investments it is making.
The first of these observations is not particularly surprising and the conclusions there are pretty reasonable. The second and third scare me to no end. Indeed, reading a couple steps down the line in the global economic environment laid bare in Aerotropolis, it is quite easy to see the whole system collapsing on itself in a matter of years, assuming we make it that far. That small bits have already experienced such a decline is of little comfort.
The premise of the areotropolis is rather simple. Rather than try to explain it myself I’ll let you understand it in the words of its greatest proponent, John Kasarda through the lens of author Greg Lindsay:
…[R]ather than banish airports to the edge of town and then do our best to avoid them, we will build this century’s cities around them. Why? Because people once chose to live in cities for the wealth of connections they offered socially, financially, intellectually, and so forth. But in the era of globalization we choose cities drawing closer together themselves, linked by fiber-optic cables and jet aircraft.
…
In essence, the aerotropolis of [Kasarda’s]imagination isn’t necessarily a city but a superconductor, a piece of infrastructure promising zero resistance to anyone wanting to set up shop there. Examine [Kasarda’s] initial sketches for one – with the carefully arranged waves of white boxes and office cubes – and you’ll find a city expressly planned on behalf of the companies expected to populate it. An aerotropolis isn’t an airport either, and building one isn’t a matter of having the longest runways or the largest landmass. Frictionlessness is the product of a whole host of attributes, many of which are invisible: tariff-free trade zones, faster customs clearance, fewer and faster permits, and a right-to-work workforce that knows what it’s doing. ‘It’s the way you reduce time, the way you reduce costs, the way you reduce space,’ Kasarda says. ‘The aerotropolis is where the elastic mile, the friction of space, community without propinquity, and trade routes all come together.’
…
[A] third of the value of all the goods made in the world, three trillions dollars’ worth, travels by air while composing barely 1 percent of their weight. Air cargo’s growth outpaced world trade’s by a factor of four-to-one over the last thirty-five years, and blew past global GDP growth by nine-to-one, meaning more and more of what’s worth making and moving (including half of American exports) is aloft. In the Instant age, Kasarda says, ‘The price of oil matters less than the price of speed.’
Building an aerotropolis is a relatively easy thing to do, assuming no political or environmental concerns. Find a plot of land, clear it out and build a world-class airport in the middle. From there, add on industrial, commercial and residential bits in the appropriate ratios and then watch as industry beats down the doors to show up and open shop inside your free-trade zone. Free of tariffs and , in many cases, free of local laws, these aerotropolii represent the free market economy at its most basic level.
The problems that arise are, of course, plentiful. Starting with the political and environmental concerns, there are plenty of reasons for many in the western world to object to such developments. Still, looking at the present evidence, there is no doubt that such developments have been successful. Louisville and Memphis are essentially subsidiaries of UPS and FedEx, respectively. The area surrounding Amsterdam’s Schipol airport is a testimony to the efficacy of global trade and just-in-time delivery of flowers on a scale that is yet to be matched, though Addis Abba is one of several hoping to edge in on that market.
Dulles, Denver and Dallas-Fort Worth are all representative of this not-so-new approach to urban planning. Centralize around a transportation hub, just like ports in the days of yore and train terminals in the not quite so distant past. Today that hub is the airport large enough to easily handle frequent service from Boeing 747F freighters laden with cargo inbound from manufacturing hubs in southeast Asia or agricultural hubs in South America. It is not at all difficult to see how this progression has been made and Lindsay does a phenomenal job of explaining in detail some specific examples of why certain areas have succeeded and other have failed in developing these aerotropolii.
The concept of what makes an aerotropolis is just half the story, however. The economic impact that they can bring to the developing world is the other half, and it scares the hell out of me.
Asia, Africa and the Middle East are the main development targets today. China is in the midst of an unprecedented infrastructure build that is dedicating a tremendous portion of their GDP to highways, high-speed trains and airports. Many of those airports are destined to be aerotropolii. Thailand started a similar effort with Suvarnabhumi, the new international airport in Bangkok. Ho Chi Minh City is doing the same with their new international airport.
In China the development is easy. The local, provincial or national government decrees that an airport will be built on a specific plot of land and that’s the end of the story. It happens – quickly – and those currently there are relocated. In Thailand, however, a similar set of plans resulted in relatives of ministers suddenly operating real estate and logistics operations. When word got out of the coming aerotropolis everyone tried to get in on the deal and real estate prices shot through the roof. The recent coups can be related, in part, to the failure of these plans to get off the ground or the revolt of the people against the abuse of that power.
So there is the risk of political upheaval as the working class feels they’ve been wronged. This potential is more pronounced as those same workers start to profit from the business that the aerotropolii bring in now have the means to afford to protest, rather than to accept whatever they are told to do. And now that the protesters know that the airports are the life-blood of their economies (e.g. the recent Bangkok protests that saw both sides seize airport terminals at various points to stymie the ruling party) the risk is that much more real.
But that isn’t the part that worries me the most. What scares me is the potential for all this investment to be a very efficient and expedient means to spend billions of dollars of someone else’s money in hopes of a return that is impossible to realize. And Lindsay outlines exactly how that will come to pass as the aerotropolii develop and multiply.
There are currently scores of such projects in various stages of development. Can they all possibly be successful? Dubai already almost collapsed once as the highly leveraged construction efforts there saw money and credit dry up in the recent financial crisis.
In effect, Dubai was a giant arbitrage play, a pure experiment in funneling and funding globalization. A tiny city-state with literally nothing – no oil, few people, and little education – sought to become a global capital in a single generation…. That’s why everything was so oversize, including Dubai’s ambitions.
Bangkok failed to move swiftly enough and to avoid corruption, leading to the failure of the aerotropolis there, though not to the collapse of the economy. FedEx has been wooed by China to move their Pacific sort hub from Subic Bay to Baiyun International Airport near Ghangzhou.
First, [the Chinese] drained the pond covering the site – the only reason urban scrubland hasn’t subsumed it already. Then they diverted a river, paved over its marshes, and pumped concrete into caves underneath. FedEx had sought equally drastic changed to China’s legal code, rewriting customs and aviation statutes to grant itself an unlimited number of flights…. True to form, doing so required a year of tortuous negotiations with more than a hundred agencies and bureaucracies. Once given the green light, construction of the six-lane highway linking the hub to the Delta’s factories had taken all of six months.
But what does such a shift mean to Subic Bay? Or to the other local facilities that have been operating as regional cargo hubs? For now, they are struggling to fight back, to find tenants for the space and to keep their economies alive. Why have similar projects in Hanoi or Saigon failed (or not been as rapidly successful)? They can offer cheaper labor, but the total pool of raw materials and labor is still larger in China. So the Vietnamese versions strain to get sufficient traction and businesses in their aerotropolii. But the cost of developing them is already sunk.
But even the shift of FedEx into the airport is no guarantee. There are still other areas desperate for similar growth and they are somewhat ruthless in their pursuit of the business.
As the Hong Kong economist Steven Cheung once explained their attitude, ‘You want a business license? The locality will assign someone to do the walking and talking for you. Want a building permit? They will give you one with money-back guarantees. Unhappy about that dirty creek passing through the site? They may offer to build a small lake for you…. They sell their cheap electricity, sell their parks and entertainment, sell their easy transportation, sell their water supply, sell their glorious history and even sell how good looking their girls are – no exaggeration!’
There are hospitals operating in India that see themselves as the far end of a long-haul commuter healthcare road. Just like the Polish doctors who commute to England to work the weekend shift and are home Monday morning on a cheap flight, these hospitals are luring in patients from abroad with the promise of top-quality healthcare at bargain prices. Infrastructure is being built but there is no guarantee that the Ray Kinsella-styled plan will come through. What if they build it and no one comes?
The danger is that someone else will siphon [patients] away with lower costs and better connectivity in the form of nonstop flights; layovers are not an option when you’ve just come out of traction.
Indeed, Hyderabad is already trying to steal the market from Mumbai and Bangalore. The brand new airport in Hyderabad was built with an eye towards being a Healthport, among other things.
The book highlights tells several other stories, from a man-made city built literally in the middle of the ocean in Korea to the amazing fresh flowers market that is centered in Amsterdam, though showing signs of sprouting in Africa and China. And in each example precious little attention is paid to what happens to the legacy locations as the new sites go up. No book can cover everything, but at least mentioning the potential for billions of dollars of invested funds to end up with no return is a worthwhile acknowledgement to make in my book.
And that’s what ultimately has me scared. Not all of these aerotropolii will be successful. There are simply too many competing to offer the same services in concentrated regional centers. Some will almost certainly succeed and it will provide a boon to the local economy of the winners. Right up until the competitor down the road offers up cheaper, faster and better services a couple years later. Moving the factories is an expensive undertaking, with short-term effects on to the balance sheet of the company in question and with potentially devastating long-term repercussions to the aerotropolis that loses the business.
The book is an interesting read and definitely worth checking out, both from a global economics and a aerophile perspective. And I actually believe that most of the predictions of growth are likely to come true; all current evidence certainly supports them. I just fear for the fallout that comes with those developments and its impact on the global economy. For someone to win big in these efforts someone else is likely to lose badly.
Posted by Seth on March 17, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Yesterday it was announced that Continental and United Airlines are aligning their award charts for flight redemption. Initial reviews were mixed (Lucky didn’t think it was so bad; neither does Gary) and ultimately I think that mixed is the best way to see the changes. There are some good and some bad. But from my view the bad ones are REALLY bad. There are a couple awards that have gotten VERY expensive. Fortunately, however, it seems that there are workarounds in many cases.
First, the background. The changes take effect for awards booked on or after 15 June 2011. Until then the old charts for Continental and United still govern. This means there is still room for arbitrage on certain awards that are higher or lower cost between the two programs thanks to the points being fungible between the two.
The changes will also remove ambiguity in the region assignments for some countries that currently exist in multiple award charts. That will be quite nice, if not necessarily resulting in lower prices in all cases.
And, on the plus side, there are a number of rewards that are actually getting less expensive. Most notably for me is that tickets in business class between the US and Europe will go down in price from 105K to 100K. Actually a lot of regions are seeing business class awards drop in price for travel to/from North America. Given that the best value in awards is often in these premium cabin tickets this is mostly a good thing. And Asia stays very attractive on the award charts.
Coach awards – where more people actually redeem – have gone up in many regions, including the US-Europe and US-South America. US-South Africa seems to be the only area where the prices went down in coach.
And then there are the scenarios that are VERY ugly in the new charts, mostly with respect to upgrades. Upgrade awards have been losing value for a while now. They used to be considered the best value for redemption a decade or so ago. And maybe they still are for some folks who have someone else buying them full fare coach seats. But if you’re buying your own tickets the value of upgrades continues to decrease. This latest award chart adjustment further hammers that point home.
First, there are the actual mileage amounts. Many categories have seen an increase in the number of points required for an upgrade. A few have remained level. I haven’t found any that have decreased in points required. OK, so it is an extra 5-10K miles round trip for an upgrade. Not a tremendous change but still annoying.
Then come the co-pay fees. The airlines basically have decided that the cheapest fares should not be upgradable. Rather than prevent such upgrades, however, they simply charge a "co-pay" to increase the fare paid to balance out the cash side of the ticket. That’s in addition to the miles required. Pegging a point’s value to a penny – the common, conservative rate – and adding in the co-pay it is actually ridiculous in many cases to buy an upgrade.
The cheapest fares between North and South America require 35K points PLUS $600 each way for an upgrade, on top of the coach fare. That’s roughly $1900 in cash + 70K points, along with the $1200-$1500 (plus taxes and fees) of airfare. Or you could just redeem 100K points for the same ticket. Redeeming for an upgrade is a losing proposition in nearly every case, even taking into account the points earned for the travel and any other benefits you’d get.
I never really considered the upgrade award a good idea. It is now probably the worst value option out there. Very bad idea.
As a parting shot, it is also worth noting that the golden goose of the legacy Continental award chart is also disappearing. The "Around the World" or RTW award from Continental is one of the best values out there at 160/220/280K in Y/C/F. The rates on that award are migrating to the legacy United numbers of 200/300/400K. That’s a 25-40% increase on those numbers. Not a surprise, really. Actually the surprise is that it lasted as long as it did. But still sad to see it go.
Things could have been a lot worse. There are definitely some bright spots on the charts. But, like always, understanding the changes and planning for them will help maximize the value of the points.
Check out the new and old charts here.
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Posted by Seth on March 15, 2011 under Trip Reports |
If you’ve traveled the twenty-odd hours on an airplane from New York City to make it all the way to Mauritius, odds are you’re going to stay for more than 24 hours. Then again, odds are you are not me, so you’ve got that going for you as well. I made the long trip across the Atlantic, across Africa and then across the Indian Ocean and eventually found myself on the ground in Mauritius for a scheduled 24 hour stay. It wasn’t a ton of time, but we absolutely made the most of it and had a blast doing so.
The inbound flight from Johannesburg was uneventful and rather empty. I even managed to squeeze in a nap between the meal and the drinks. This was useful as the jetlag was starting to kick in. On arrival we cleared immigration reasonably quickly and I learned that I had booked the rental car for the wrong day. Whoopsie. Fortunately they had cars available so that was quickly resolved and we headed out of the airport and across the island towards the hotel. It was time for a beer and a dip in the ocean at the Le Meridien Ile Maurice as we watched the sun set.
The hotel was fine, I suppose, if you’re into the isolated beach resort sort of thing. The upgraded room was nice and we were in the section of the resort that was kid-free so that helped a bit, but there was also not really much going on, particularly if you weren’t a couple. When faced with the prospect of a $60 buffet dinner we quickly realized that it was time to get out of there and to see a bit of the island.
Read more of this article »
Posted by Seth on March 8, 2011 under Flying, frequent flyer, points |
In part one of this report I recounted a great award booking – even though it was all in economy and on small planes – to the Canadian Maritime provinces. Part two will cover my exploitation of the bmi Diamond Club program and their quite flexible routing and award zone rules.
It all started with plans to visit Bangkok in July for a friend’s wedding. With Thai Air still operating their incredibly long LAX-BKK flight I figured it would be nice to get a change to fly that route. Plus I have never been on the Airbus A340-500 so that’s an added bonus. It turns out that Thai has had a TON of award inventory available for westbound travel but nothing available coming back east. Turns out that isn’t much of a problem for me as I’ve turned a long weekend in Thailand into a RTW ticket adventure.
By sheer coincidence a friend of mine is going to be in Capetown, South Africa the week after the wedding. And I have the points available so why not? Even better is that the award cost from Thailand to South Africa is pretty cheap with Diamond Club. Oh, and I am flying via Mumbai, flying in on Thai and out on South African Airways. South African operates the A340-200 on the route which is also new to me.
And then I needed to get home from South Africa. This is where the Diamond Club rules become VERY favorable if you’re willing (or wanting!) a bit of an adventure. Most carriers only permit North Atlantic crossings for that award. Diamond Club permits South Atlantic crossings, too. So I’m taking one. Award seats form Johannesburg to Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo are pretty readily available.
Seats from there back north are a bit harder but I found some availability with Air Canada from Santiago to Toronto. Getting from Toronto to New York City is pretty easy with a ton of frequencies and a couple airports to choose from. To get from Buenos Aires to Santiago there is really only Star Alliance routing. It just so happens to leave 40 minutes before the flight from Johannesburg arrives. So I have a 23 hour 20 minute connection in Argentina. That’ll be fun.
So I’ve made it back to New York City and I’m home. That’s the end, right? Not for me. Diamond Club considers Puerto Rico part of their South America/Caribbean zone. And award flights from South Africa to South America are less expensive than those to North America. Based on straight geography that sortof makes sense – it should be fewer total miles flown – but getting to Puerto Rico can only be done via North America with the existing partners and routes. So I have a stopover in New York (one stopover is free on the bmi award) and then, two months later, a flight in first class from Newark to San Juan. It was actually many fewer miles to take the extra flight. Plus, I’ve been looking for a good excuse to get back to Puerto Rico, possibly in daylight this time. Given that the flight down there is better than free, I see no reason to skip that bit.
Put it all together and I’ve got this 31,586 mile masterpiece:
And all the flights save two short ones are in business class. All but one of the lines are new and a few of the aircraft are, too. All for under 200,000 Diamond Club points. I could’ve done it as cash & points for even fewer but I’m trying to use up my stash and this is a great way to do it.
The booking process was bit more frustrating than I generally enjoy, partly because my Skype connection was flaking out but mostly because the agents at the Diamond Club call center don’t have the best grasp of geography nor of the rules of their program. They initially tried to charge me 5 separate awards rather than the three I booked and all at higher rates than I should have paid. Fortunately I was able to eventually get a supervisor to understand and put it in correctly, but that was two extra hours of annoyance on the phone that I didn’t really need. Still, at the end of the day, completely worth it for this trip. Retail value on the ticket is somewhere north of $10,000; getting it on points for the routes and dates I wanted is just phenomenal.
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Tags: Africa, Air Canada, Airbus, Argentina, award, Bangkok, bmi, Canada, frequent flyer, New York City, points, Puerto Rico, RTW2011, San Juan, South Africa, Star Alliance, Thai Air, Thailand, Toronto
