Posted by Seth on March 9, 2010 under Flying, News | 
While airlines around the world are competing with each other on updates to their in-flight entertainment systems, rolling out on-demand selections and ever larger seat-back screens for their customers there is one carrier bucking the trend, and they’re doing it with gusto. Air AsiaX has announced updates to their longhaul wide-body fleet. Not only will the plane be a bit more crowded than previously, the in-flight experience doesn’t look to be all that great.
The carrier will be converting their fleet of aircraft from their current 8-abreast 2-4-2 arrangement to a 3-3-3 configuration. This will allow the carrier to squeeze an extra 53 passengers into the economy section of the airplane, a 20% increase. The carrier will keep a 31”-32” pitch in the economy cabin as they decrease the seat width. And they aren’t going to be adding AVOD anytime soon.
The carrier stated that, in addition to packing in passengers more tightly than any other carrier on an Airbus A330 and A340, they will not be providing any in-flight entertainment systems at the passengers’ seats. The systems are too expensive and complicated according to CEO Azran Osman Rani.
We’ve decided to move away from IFE screens on the seat backs. Demand simply isn’t there to cover the massive cost of the system, the Hollywood content and the extra weight and complexity of the wiring. We think portable units [these will be available for rental] are the way forward and we are hoping to debut these by mid-year.
Not a huge vote of confidence in the selling power of movies on board the plane. Of course, the “portable for rent” units do suggest that is some value in having the systems available, so long as the customer is willing to pay for it. The carrier also expects that customers will be bringing their own IFE on-board. Says Tim Claydon, commercial advisor for Air AsiaX:
In years to come we also feel that there will be an increase in customers bringing their own entertainment devices on board.
On the plus side, Air AsiaX does plan to keep the fares low and also upgrade the business class cabin to an angled lie-flat product. Which is great for the 18 folks up there during the flight. The lack of any IFE on flights up to 12 hours long seems to be a significant step backwards in time, but Claydon is probably right that passengers will be bringing their own more and more – I know I do – and that should help mitigate the issue.
Posted by Seth on January 18, 2010 under News, frequent flyer |
It has been barely six weeks since the new management team stepped in at bmi, the British carrier that Lufthansa took full ownership of several months ago. But the new management team hasn’t wasted any time in making rather drastic changes to the airline, its service offerings and its frequent flyer loyalty program. First there were the cuts to the mid-haul service and the announcement that the Airbus A330s would be returned after the lease expired in early 2010. Then there were the announcements of the Dublin crew base closures and cuts to the service between that city and London. And then they started strictly enforcing some of the previously unenforced rules of their loyalty program, trimming a bit of value out for folks looking to redeem in premium cabin service.
Today’s announcement, however, seems to be a rather major milestone in the efforts to completely reform the carrier into less of a stand-alone brand and into more of a regional feeder carrier. As of January 27, 2010 – only 10 days out – the carrier is cutting business class service on all its domestic UK and Dublin flights, switching to an economy-only product.
They will be introducing “Flexible Economy” fares as part of the cuts. These fares seem to be comparably expensive – less the APD tax differences – and earn the same Diamond Club miles as the business class seats did. They come with complimentary snacks and drinks and seats in the front of the plane. They even include access to lounge facilities in most destinations. In other words, they’re just like the business class seats used to be but without the name “business class” attached.
So roughly the same product with a slightly different name probably shouldn’t raise too many red flags for most folks, right? Well, except for the few very loyal domestic bmi customers you’d be right. The perks being cut affect the few customers who were generally paying more to fly on bmi than on competitors based on the benefits that the program offered in the form of upgrades and free snacks on the flights, two things that used to be a big part of the elite benefits for those flights. They’re gone now and that leaves a lot of customers wondering where the benefits are for the increased spend.
Ultimately this actually seems like it is the right move for the carrier to make. The service wasn’t really anything like an actual business class product so at least they won’t have disappointed customers who thought they were buying one thing and end up get something rather different. And the “out-the-door” price of the flights drops by about £20 thanks to the APD cut. That’s going to work out well for them from a competitive pricing perspective. But it is also yet another in a series of recent changes that have slowly chipped away at the value of the bmi product and loyalty program. It isn’t much of a surprise that this is happening – Lufthansa is in charge now and they actually want to change the carrier into a profitable organization – but it also raises some concerns about what may be just around the corner for folks holding a lot of Diamond Club points. They’re almost certainly going to become Miles & More points sooner or later and the pace of these other changes suggests that the case is likely to be sooner.
Related Posts
Posted by Seth on January 6, 2010 under Trip Reports |
 |
| Happy New Years from Barcelona! |
I’m a bit late in getting to my year-end summary of travel this year because, well, I was traveling. No sense wasting part of a wonderful vacation in Barcelona trying to figure out the details of my year in review when there was so much delicious food to be had and beautiful sights to be seen. But I’m back now and finally had a chance to update my records with the flights from last year and take a look at just how much I did. The numbers are pretty astounding to me.
My travels in 2009 were, by far, the most extensive I’ve ever had. There was more of just about everything. And it was a ton of fun. I visited more countries – 20 – than I’ve ever visited in a year. I actually doubled my previous high of 10. Even more exciting for me is that of the 20, 12 were new to me.
I flew on 25 different airlines (more if you count the various express operators out there), from the largest in the world to some of the smallest.
I flew on 34 different aircraft types, ranging in size from 6 seats to 350ish. I got on every jet type that Boeing currently has flying (I think – 717, 737 Classic, 737 NG, 747, 757, 767, 777) and most of the Airbus (A300, A318, A319, A320, A321, A330, A340) and Embrear (E140, E145, E170, E190) options, too. There were other aircraft, including random props and a few flights on a Gulfstream G IV.
I flew a total of 180,752 miles, give or take a few. I spent almost 17 days in the air and flew about three quarters of the way to the moon or just over seven times around the earth. That bests my previous annual high by over 50%.
Most amazing to me, however, was the number of new (to me) routes I flew this past year. I flew 126 flights in the year. Of those, 70 of them were on routes I had not previously flown. A full 55% of my flights were on new routes. Considering that I managed to make it home from every trip that seems rather amazing to me.
I also redeemed more miles than ever last year – over 500,000 in total. That covered a number of trips, many in the pointy end of the plane and all of them across oceans. Some of my accounts are looking a bit anemic right now but I’ve got plans to solve that problem pretty quickly.
The best part is that I’ve already started to count up for 2010. A couple countries, several new routes and a bunch of miles have already been logged. Plus, I’ve got trips booked through April so far covering lots more routes and miles.
Posted by Seth on December 30, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I should be in the air over the Atlantic Ocean right now, curled up in a First Class suite on Turkish Air. Instead I’m on an Airbus A321 over the Mediterranean on a non-stop flight to Barcelona. Indeed, the trip has taken a much more direct routing and quite substantial turn. In the end, I still get to celebrate New Years in Barcelona with the splendiferous missus and we even get to sleep in a real bed tonight rather than in coach on a Delta 767-300ER. Still, the scene today in Istanbul’s airport can only be described as frustrating and trying, with a bit of misery thrown in as well as a reasonably successful tactical retreat.
Last night, while waiting in Luxor for the departure of the flight to Cairo, I learned that the Istanbul-JFK flight for that day had been delayed pretty badly. Over three hours, in fact. That plane was turning around to come back to Istanbul and then would be used for the flight that we were scheduled to be on. Except at the time I didn’t know that it would be that plane, and there was no one in Luxor I could ask. There wasn’t really anyone to ask in Cairo, either. So I went into the flight to Istanbul hopeful and optimistic, as well as truly exhausted.
As first class passengers we were greeted at the end of the jetway with a sign and a golf cart to whisk us away to the security checkpoint and then the lounge. It took them a while to round up the necessary supplies for us to shower but we managed to get that done and settled in for breakfast. Everything seemed OK.
Failure
And then the bottom fell out. The lounge agent came over to me and handed me the house phone. An agent on the other end of the line was explaining that the flight would be rather delayed and that she had arranged for a day room at the hotel in the terminal for us. Ruh roh. Just how delayed would the flight be? At least 3 hours (it turned into 5 by the time we left the airport). That completely ruined our 3 hour connection in JFK. Time to scramble.
There was a flight to Frankfurt leaving in 40 minutes that would get us to the early Frankfurt-JFK flight by the woman could not (or would not) make the change for us. While I tried desperately to negotiate through the language barrier and explain my predicament the minutes ticked away and the flight was closed. That was our last chance to make it to JFK in time for the Delta outbound flight. Game over.
It is also worth mentioning that at this point my laptop decided it didn’t want to power on and my BlackBerry went into a reboot cycle every 5-10 minutes. Ouch.
Recovery, Part 1
The Delta tickets we had were bottom of the barrel priced sale seats. The change fees for them were more than the actual tickets cost. That money was now gone. Poof. Still, I had a mind to celebrate New Years in Barcelona more than I cared about getting the Istanbul – New York flight in Turkish Air first class (a five day vacation is always worth more than an eleven hour flight) so it was time to start making things happen. The lounge had no phones available for customers and there was no means for me to reasonably call the United States to get in touch with Continental, the carrier that issued our tickets. Things were getting worse, not better.
There was a flight leaving for Barcelona in 45 minutes and the agent was willing to put us on that flight, right up until she realized it was a reward ticket. Then she was quite willing to sell us a walk-up full fare ticket and let us deal with our “travel agency” to handle the flights that were missed. Not gonna work. Still, I managed to revive my laptop and get the Skype client working and continental.com’s reward search inventory up on screen. Even more amazing, I actually found two seats available from Barcelona to New York in business class on the date we were scheduled to go home. A glimmer of hope.
Karla answered the phone for Continental and was incredibly patient with me as I explained my needs and desires over a rather questionable voice quality connection. I was able to feed her the flight numbers and she saw the inventory available. She just wasn’t sure if she could change the flight as I had already started the return trip. She had to call a supervisor and in the mean time the 45 minutes to the Barcelona departure were ticking away with great speed. Karla made the necessary changes, inserting an open jaw into the ticket and leaving the Istanbul – Barcelona segment open for us to fill. She was still working on confirming it but we had to go immediately to catch our flight. I gave her my credit card number without knowing the charges and hung up to hop on the plane to Barcelona that was now 30 minutes away from departure.
No can do. The agent was reasonably polite about the situation but it was quite clear. We weren’t getting on that plane. Rebooking the Continental tickets took a bit too long and that flight was closed for sales, even with 30 minutes remaining. I had made the changes that she agreed to and now I was still stuck in Istanbul.
Recovery, Part 2
At this point we had some time to play with. Continental was already reissuing the return ticket so we just had to find a way to get to Barcelona at a reasonable price. There were a number of options, including overnight connections in Amsterdam, Riga and Athens. All were slightly cheaper than the non-stop afternoon flight to Barcelona. In the end, however, we settled on the non-stop flight. Better to go for a relatively sure thing. Besides, we don’t have winter coats with us so Amsterdam or Latvia would be pretty unpleasant tonight.
We booked the flight through Travelocity because is was half the price that the agent wanted in the lounge. Such transactions are normally completed pretty quickly but after 20 minutes we still only had a reservation, not a ticket. Time to make another call. The Travelocity agent initially just wanted me to wait it out. Only when I explained that the flight was 4 hours away did it get properly escalated. Apparently they were worried about fraud for a last minute, one-way ticket purchased from Istanbul to Barcelona. I can’t say that I really blame them. Another 10 minutes on the phone assuring them that I really was me and that I really was buying walk-up tickets and the ticket was finally issued.
The agent had also previously offered us that hotel room for our wait. I now called that one in, asking that we be able to still use it. She agreed and we soon were laying down for a couple hours’ nap time that was much, much needed. Everything seemed OK at this point. We had our flights to Barcelona and the onward flights from Barcelona to NYC, albeit on a somewhat circuitous routing. And we had a bed for the first time in 30 hours. Not all bad. Except one little thing.
Recovery, Part 3
For some reason, Continental couldn’t actually make the change to our reward ticket. The agents I spoke with (and there were several of them) all insisted that we were still checked in for the Turkish Air flight from Istanbul to JFK. As long as we were on that flight they couldn’t remove it from the itinerary and substitute in the three segments to get us home from Barcelona. Time and time again I approached the agents at the counter and asked them to confirm that we were not checked in anymore on that flight. Each time they said we weren’t but the folks at Continental said we were. My worst nightmare at this point was getting to Barcelona and having Turkish reporting us as a no-show for the flight, canceling out the remaining value of our tickets. The price for Istanbul-Barcelona was bad enough. Shelling out for Barcelona-NYC on top of that probably would have driven me over the edge.
I finally had our Turkish Air “handler” from the morning back at the counter so I called Continental one more time with the plan of having the two of them talk it out so I didn’t have to stay in the middle. By coincidence I managed to get Karla on the phone again.
“Karla with a ‘K’?” I inquired. Yes, she said, somewhat befuddled. “I talked to you earlier with the crazy re-route from Barcelona to New York via Brussels and London; remember me?”
I’d like to think that she has fond memories of me now, if for no other reason than I’m pretty sure I was the most entertaining customer she had today. In reality, I’m just really happy that I didn’t have to explain my story one more time. The minutes were now starting to tick away on the afternoon departure to Barcelona and I had already paid for those tickets and I wasn’t about to lose them, too. Fortunately Karla proactively got another supervisor on the phone while I was talking to the agent at the desk. The supervisor apparently has some magic “refresh” button (Karla’s words, not mine) that made the reservation sync up again and show that we were no longer checked in for the flight.
Finally.
Karla then was able to issue the new ticket, collect the $40 additional in taxes and confirm the new flights for us.
Success
And there we were, six hours after the bottom initially fell out, with our flights rebooked and a new itinerary ready to go. Sure, it cost us some cash and the price actually went up as the rebooking process continued. Still, the overall goal was met. We’re going to celebrate New Years among friends in Barcelona and we’re going to experience some fun times on premium cabin flights along the way. The new return flight gives us about four hours at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Heathrow along with our Upper Class seats across the pond. I’m sure that we’ll be exhausted on Tuesday when we get back to work but overall the adventure remains mostly alive, even if it means no Turkish Air first class. Based on their ground handling I’m not entirely sure it would be worth it.
Lessons learned from this experience:
- Betting on Turkish Air arriving within 3 hours of on-time for the NYC route is a rather large gamble. I lost.
- Creativity and flexibility can find all sorts of reward seats if desperation sets in.
- Sometimes the adventure costs a bit more than expected, but the stories are generally worth it, especially when the rest of the travels are happening on the very cheap side of the ledger.
- A good agent at the airline can really make things happen. Karla did it for me today and others have in the past. They make this whole game run just a bit more smoothly.
Posted by Seth on December 8, 2009 under News |
Wrapping up a six-month long RFP process, United Airlines announced this morning firm orders for 50 new wide-body aircraft and options on 100 additional planes. The order is split right down the middle between Airbus and Boeing, with the initial selection of the A350-900 and the B787-8 types. While it seems that such an order might be a function of inability to decide which single type is better for the carrier, United sees it a smart compromise, being able to choose the right-sized aircraft for the particular destination at hand and that the numbers from taking that approach are better than a single aircraft type.
Right-sizing the fleet
The most striking number from the new order appears to be the average plane size. Specifically, these planes are a lot smaller than the ones they are replacing. Even if United keeps the same frequencies on all of their current routes they will be drawing down passenger capacity by about 19% as these planes are smaller than the ones they are replacing. And there will be similar cargo reductions as well. Cargo capacity on a route-specific basis is a significant contributor to profitability so that all has an impact. The executives answering questions this morning suggest that such limitations will be overcome by offering direct flights to more destinations rather than connecting passengers and cargo through hubs and stops along the way, though no specific destinations or routes were discussed. The executives also suggested that they are planning for “capacity discipline” (an oft-repeated term) for the down cycles in the industry rather than the upswings.
Is this a short-sighted move? Certainly having an airline planning for max capacity at the highest peak makes no sense. After all, the industry rarely spends extended amounts of time in that position. But planning to build an airline that is right sized at the bottom of the market seems to lack a bit of foresight and optimism. It certainly doesn’t seem like a growth strategy.
Delivery Dates
United expects to take delivery of the initial order of planes starting in 2016 and extending through 2019. The 2016 date is an interesting one. The 50 new planes are expected to come online over a four year period starting seven years from now. Why commit now to such an order so far out? Apparently because Boeing and Airbus were willing to make some deals during the downturn in the economy. United felt that the time was right to negotiate on these deals and to commit to them. The actual cash outlay numbers are pretty low – only $60MM over the next 3 years and $152MM over the next 5 – so the initial commitment isn’t all that significant. And they were also able to negotiate “significant deferral flexibility and substitution rights” on the orders so there does seem to be some upside to the move today. It also commits them to actually making the move, something that is good for the company in the long run. With the minimal initial cash outlay and the backstop financing that they received from both carriers they should be on reasonably solid ground in that regard.
Costs and Savings
One of the more interesting numbers shared in the conference call was $400MM. That is the amount that United estimates they would save annually on fuel if they flew the existing 767 and 747 routes with 787s and A350s. That is a lot of money to save and demonstrates just how significant the efficiencies of the newer aircraft are. But it also belies the fact that the newer planes will carry 19% fewer passengers. The cost savings are nice but there are going to be some inherent revenue losses as well so that does not necessarily translate over directly to the bottom line.
From a pilot contract perspective the new fleet-types are covered under the existing contract through a clause that mathematically figures the new rates for those pilots. That being said, the deliveries are not going to start until 2016 so there is plenty of time for future negotiations to happen.
One significant open question is how the planes will be configured. Currently there are a number of 767s and 777s (which these new planes are also eventually going to replace) configured for domestic service. They are mostly used between the hubs and for service to Hawaii. There is no real indication as to whether some of the new birds will also be pressed into domestic service and as of now the folks in the PR office don’t have an answer to that question.
In the mean time, it seems reasonable to express cautious optimism when looking at United’s plans. New planes are good and having more of them (potentially 150 versus ~90 wide bodies today) is also good. Of course, they are smaller and the airline seems to be planning in a retrenchment mode rather than a growth mode which seems to belie the mantra of longer, thinner routes so who knows.
Posted by Seth on December 1, 2009 under News |
It is hard to pick up top-tier airlines to join a global alliance these days. Most that want to be in an alliance already are and the others that are desirable are either happy going it alone or working slowly towards other options. So it is always interesting to read the announcements of which airlines are joining up. The past couple weeks have seen some announcements out of SkyTeam and, well, they are interesting.
First up is the official word that Vietnam Airlines and Tarom will become members in June 2010. I had the pleasure of flying on Vietnam Airlines for a couple domestic flights a few years ago and they seemed to be a pretty well run organization. They’ve announced orders for four Airbus A380s with expected deliveries in the coming years and they’re expanding their international coverage. Plus the economy in Vietnam seems to be still growing so they seem like a nice addition, especially if there are options for transit visas.
Tarom, on the other hand, is a rather notable question mark. They have one true long route – Bucharest to Dubai at just over 2100 miles. The next farthest destination is London at just over 1300 miles. OK, so they’re a regional player. More options is always a good thing and I’m sure it is great for them to get in the alliance, but it just doesn’t seem all that special to have them joining up. Coverage of Eastern Europe will be phenomenal with both Tarom and Czech Air in the alliance, so that is something. Tarom will be joining as an Associate member of the alliance and will be adopting the FlyingBlue loyalty scheme from Air France as part of this move. That probably isn’t great for their direct customers but it means having the alliance so a fair trade.
The last move – somewhat unexpected to me – is that Garuda has also announced intentions to join SkyTeam. Yup, Garuda, the Indonesian airline that just a couple years ago was blacklisted from flying to Europe because of safety and maintenance concerns. But now they’re back, with service from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Dubai returning in June 2010 and ten Boeing 777s on order to allow for non-stop service in the coming years. So I suppose they are getting better, but they really had nowhere to go but up. Maybe having them in the alliance will force them to continue their improvements.
So there aren’t a whole lot of options out there and SkyTeam is doing the best they can. Their coverage in SE Asia is about to get a serious boost and they own Eastern Europe. I suppose things could be worse.
Posted by Seth on November 10, 2009 under Trip Reports |
As part of the Star Alliance Mega Do event last week just over 200 of us chartered a 757-300 to fly around Europe for the day. One of the stops was a visit to the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France. Yup, we showed up at Airbus in a Boeing. It was all we could get our hands on that would have enough seats and be at the right price.
And what an arrival it was. Rather than just show up and land like most folks would, our cabin crew decided to buzz the tower. Call it a missed approach, a fly-by or whatever else you want. We were 20 feet off the ground for the full length of runway 32L – several thousand feet. The atmosphere in the cabin was downright euphoric. Hoots and hollers of excitement.
And the view from the cockpit was amazing. Fortunately a friend was sitting there and had the foresight to take a video of the pass. It is awesome!
Posted by Seth on November 9, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Damn, that plane is big. Huge. Just plain (plane??) enormous. And going to the facility where they assemble such planes means several of them around in all their enormity. As one of the main events of the Star Alliance Mega Do event last week we visited the assembly facility in Toulouse and got to see the planes up close. And I was part of the press crew working the event which meant that I got to bring my cameras in. Yeah, I’m still experiencing a bit of a high from that.
We walked through the facility with representatives of Lufthansa and Airbus, with access that most don’t have. They were quite happy to speak with us about the planes and some of the plans that are in place. Things like how long it takes them to perform final assembly once all the parts come in to Toulouse (about 95 business days) and how they are seeing demand for travel on the A380 (very high).
We wandered among the planes for about an hour and it was truly an amazing experience.
Getting a sense for just how huge everything is on the A380 can be difficult from the photographs. Getting a person in the picture was hard enough because there were not too many folks actually working on the floor while we were there. And then to get it so that you can realize that the speck is actually a person in the photo AND that you can see just how small they are against the backdrop of the plane was just amazingly hard. Here’s one shot of a couple engineers up in the wheel well of the nose gear. There is plenty of room for both of them (and probably a few more) up in there. It is really a big plane.
Or check out how big the tires are compared to the normal sized forklift. Yeah. Big.
After the factory tour we headed over to their cabin demonstration facility. This is a building filled with fuselages of each Airbus series (A318/219/320/321, A330/340, A380 and a mock-up of the A350). Each model is configured with a variety of seat types from different manufacturers. This allows the airlines (and special guests on tours) to walk through and see how the plane would look with various seating arrangements. Sadly, no photographs permitted on this tour, but the variety of cabin layouts was quite impressive. While a typical airplane has three or four seating types in it those in the tour had as many as twelve (in the A380) to show off just how varied the options are. The first class lounge demonstrated on the A380 at the facility was ridiculously nice. I’m pretty sure that the space was larger and better appointed than my apartment. The “living room” space in the middle had a wrap-around couch that could seat six.
If you happen to find yourself anywhere near Toulouse, France and a fan of airplanes, I highly recommend that you try to get a tour of the assembly line. I’m pretty sure that they are generally open to the public. It is an amazing experience.
Posted by Seth on November 2, 2009 under Trip Reports |
 |
| GoJet CRJ-700 N153GJ operating as United Express, my ride to Chicago, with a Continental 737 in the background |
When the concept of the “Star Alliance Mega Do” was first proposed I was immediately enamored with it. I also thought that there was no way the organizers were going to be able to pull it off. Private tours for 200+ people with behind the scenes access to airlines, airplane manufacturers and airports seem pretty ridiculous to arrange. Add into the mix a privately chartered Boeing 757-300 and traversing six different airports over 4 days and the whole thing seemed like a pipe dream. Yet here I am, flying to Chicago to meet up with many of those 200 to start this week long event. It is really happening.
The itinerary is somewhat crazy. Day one includes a tour with United Airlines at O’Hare in the morning followed by a flight to Newark to meet up with Continental and more tours. Then a bus ride to JFK and more celebrating before approximately 100 folks climb aboard Lufthansa’s flight 405 with service to Frankfurt. Day two is a tour of Lufthansa facilities for many and a select few – including me!! – get to participate in some of the training activities that the Lufthansa flight attendants go through. Oh, and dinner with executives from Star Alliance and Lufthansa. Day three has the whole group flying on the chartered 757-300 to Oslo to meet with SAS and pick up more aerophiles joining the fun. Then onward to Toulouse for the main event: a tour of the Airbus facilities where the A380 is manufactured. Day four is more tours of Lufthansa in Frankfurt.
It is exhausting just describing the schedule.
There were two different contests held to give away seats on the flights, generating over 100,000 entries. Yeah, people are really excited by this event. And I cannot blame them at all. Flying on specially chartered planes with custom catering, special themes and access to facilities and people that normally don’t open their doors up to some crazy guy who loves flying, much less me AND 200 of my friends. This is going to be one crazy week.
I’ll be posting more about it here throughout the week as well as on my Twitter @WanderngAramean. You can also follow along at www.StarMegaDo.com or at twitter.com/StarMegaDo to share in the experience.
Posted by Seth on October 30, 2009 under News |
Air France took delivery of their first Airbus A380 this morning with an inaugural flight from Hamburg to Paris. The carrier is the first European operator of the type and the fourth globally. The promo photos certainly make it look pretty, but there are some scary realities that come with it. The plane is expected to begin transatlantic operations at the end of November on the New York – Paris route.
The Air France configuration is, by about 15%, the most densely packed of the seating layouts seen to date. Sure, it could be worse – Emirates has suggested an all-coach configuration for some regional flights – but this is the most packed the plane has shown up thus far. And despite claims that Premium Economy is the best money maker for airlines Air France has chosen to not add that cabin of service to the plane. It is hard to tell if that is a comment on the value of that cabin on flights or something else, but it is an interesting development, especially considering that they already have a similar product, Alize, on several of their aircraft.
Either way it is always nice to see new planes entering service. One of these days I’ll manage to fly on one of the A380s. And next week I get to visit the assembly line and see where they’re made!
(Photo from FlightGlobal/TwitPic)
Posted by Seth on October 13, 2009 under Uncategorized |
As reported yesterday, United Airlines has made some significant changes to their elite upgrade program. They’re getting rid of certificate-based upgrades for the most part and switching to a status-based upgrade solution instead. This brings them in line with Continental, their new partner, and also makes their program operate similarly to several other legacy carriers in the USA. As with any change there will be winners and losers. In this case, however, it seems that the number of losers might outweigh the winners.
Here are some of the details as announced:
- Upgrades will be processed starting at 120 hours for GS, 100 hours for 1K, 72 hours for a 1P and 48 hours for a 2P
- Upgrades are for the ticketed passenger and up to one companion on the same PNR
- Upgrades will be prioritized by status, fare bucket and time of ticketing (earlier is better)
- Upgrades will apply to domestic segments on international itineraries
- No double upgrades (Y –> F on 3 cabin planes)
- No upgrades on p.s. transcon routes
- CR-1s will be issued for the last time in Q1 2010
- e500s will no longer be issued starting in 2010 and cannot be purchased
- SWUs will remain
So who wins and who loses?
The top tier elites – GS and 1Ks win for the most part. They’re much more likely to get their upgrades and they don’t have to worry about managing their certs or buying extra e500s if they are running low. The lower tier elites are definitely losing in many cases. Because there is no longer a need to manage certs upgrades on shorter and less desirable flights will no longer be available for lower tier elites. And everyone loses on the lack of upgrades for p.s. flights.
Everyone who enjoys confirming upgrades in advance also loses, as they are not going to have CR-1s available in any reasonable quantity as 2010 comes to a close. That means advance upgrades will only happen if SWUs or miles are redeemed. Ditto for folks who like to upgrade a companion. It depends on how United programs the system, but limiting upgrades to only one companion and only if they are on the same reservation is quite a change from the existing policies.
Losing out on the CR-1 upgrade certificates is also a major pain point for United elites. The certs are pretty easy to earn and are incredibly valuable. And they are going away. Sure, there is a cooling off period where they’ll still be earned (into early 2010) and redeemable. But no more new ones hurts. It slightly increases the value of the points earned since they’ll be the best way to upgrade going forward.
Another interesting factor is that United has quite a few planes with very small forward cabins. Their A319s only have 8 F seats. Lower tier elites can pretty much kiss those upgrades goodbye. And while Continental also has a few planes with small cabins, they are generally only used on shorter flights; United uses their A319s on transcons. That is going to hurt.
Free upgrades on domestic segments of international itineraries is nice, but those were always upgradable under the old cert system, too, so no huge change there. It will make it a bit less fun to use one e500 for an upgrade from LAX-HNL-SFO (yes. that works), but if the upgrade happens anyways who cares.
This move brings United incredibly close to Continental in terms of their upgrade schemes. The only substantial difference is the timings of the upgrade windows. Pretty much everything else matches. That means there is a VERY good chance that Continental and United can start offering reciprocal upgrades as they align their programs. Of course, further details on that won’t come out until after Continental officially moves into Star Alliance and is able to officially start tying systems and programs in with United. Lots more fun to come.
