Posted by Seth on February 3, 2010 under News, media coverage | 
It turns out that the folks who love flying so much don’t only enjoy those experiences in the air. Folks fly to hang out and party together on the ground, too.
As a follow-up to the article in the February issue of Conde Nast Traveler, the magazine, Lufthansa and Boarding Area sponsored a reception in New York City earlier this week. More than 50 folks showed up, many of them coming in from across the country for a quick evening of revelry before heading back to the real world, work and other obligations. It was a lot of fun.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a frequent flyer event without plenty of discussion of travel and deals. That was magnified in this case by the fact that there were a couple great deals on offer briefly Monday evening. The number of flights booked to Mexico City via Panama in the bar that night was rather significant. Good times!
More on the party here.
Posted by Seth on January 28, 2010 under News, frequent flyer |
jetBlue is making major changes to their systems this weekend, starting on Friday afternoon and scheduled to finish on Saturday, that are expected to interrupt their operations throughout their network. These upgrades are for the reservations and flight scheduling systems that run the back-office functions at the carrier, and the upgrade is nothing short of huge. The new system, SabreSonic, allows for a number of new features to be included in the booking, ticketing and operational processes that the carrier deals with on a daily basis. It means that things like interlining and codesharing with other carriers will be possible, allowing for tighter integration with partner Lufthansa, for example.
Just how significant are the interruptions to operations during this upgrade? Very is an understatement. Here are some of the details that jetBlue provided to their customers:
- Travelers will be unable to book flights or make changes to reservations. If your matter is urgent and you need to book a flight or make changes to flights during this period, you can do so only at the airport.
- Flight status will be unavailable.
- Online check-in will be unavailable.
- Reservation agents will be unable to book flights or make changes to reservations. If your matter is urgent and you need to book a flight or make changes during this period, you can do so only at the airport.
And that’s just for making new plans. At the airport things are going to be pretty bad, too. Again, from jetBlue:
- Check-in and bag-drop lines will be longer during and immediately after the transition.
- We recommend that you arrive at the airport:
- Two hours before your scheduled departure for domestic flights.
- Three hours before your scheduled departure for international flights.
It is going to be a rough weekend for customers and the fact that it is snowing in New York City right now probably isn’t helping things. Of course, the carrier will be monitoring the weather situation and can always pull the plug prior to starting the changeover. No matter what, this change needs to happen and the carrier will come out of the deal in a better situation. Here’s hoping that they can make the transition with minimal pain for their customers.
Fortunately I’ve got 6 weeks until my next jetBlue flight, plenty of time for them to work the kinks out.
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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.
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Posted by Seth on December 29, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I sit in the airport in Luxor, Egypt pondering the absolute insanity of the trip I’m beginning. Nothing quite like a 36+ hour adventure to travel from Luxor to Barcelona, Spain. It is just across the Mediterranean. It really isn’t that far. But I’m crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice – three hours apart – to make the trip. Yeah, it is crazy.
versus
Back over the summer Delta offered up a sale for flights to Spain so we bought a couple for the weekend over New Years. Celebrating in Barcelona seemed like a good idea. A few months later, we learned that my wife got a few extra vacation days for the time between Christmas and New Years. Use ‘em or lose ‘em, so we used them. A quick search of various reward inventory showed Egypt as a destination with premium cabin seats available and a destination where the country doesn’t shutdown over the Christmas period. Plus, it is a pretty soft introduction to travel in Africa. We were sold, and the trip was phenomenal.
But we still had to be back in New York City in time for our flight to Spain. No need to spend any extra time there. Three hours should be more than enough for an international to international connection. So we’re off.
We’ve got an 11:10pm flight from Luxor to Cairo followed by a 3:30am flight from Cairo to Istanbul and then a 10:30am flight from Istanbul to New York’s JFK airport. All in premium seats including the first class suites of the Turkish Air 777-300 wet-leased from Jet Airways. That should be quite nice. We follow that up with coach seats on a Delta 767-300ER. Probably one of the worst long-haul products out there today that crosses the Atlantic (likely still better than a Lufthansa 747-400 in the back), but the price was right. And there is plenty of potential fun and crazy along the way. Just the way I like to travel.
Images from Great Circle Mapper
Posted by Seth on December 21, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I’m rather proud of my ability to understand a VERY limited number of words and phrases in various (mostly Western European) languages. Being able to order a beer and find the bathroom, airport and train station are useful life skills, especially when you can do it in many places around the world. Like the weekend I spent in Belgium constantly trying to speak French when everyone there spoke perfect English, but what the heck. I was having fun.
After the crazy week in Germany last month for the Star MegaDo and other meetings I found myself in the business class cabin of Lufthansa’s Munich – Los Angeles non-stop flight. Damn, that is a long flight. But with the big comfy seat and plenty of booze available I figured to be quite fine. The flight attendants came through offering up beverages and I put my limited German to use. A glass of sekt to start would be lovely. Danke. And then, after takeoff, the drink cart. The weißwein, bitte. It really is delicious. And, if you wouldn’t mind, also some wasser mit gas. After all, I have to stay hydrated and the little bubbles are nice. So I’m 90 minutes or so into the flight and I’ve managed to only speak German with the crew. Not too shabby.
And then my little dream came crashing down around me in a hurry. They came out to offer dinner and the flight attendant addressed me in a flurry of German. Perhaps if she spoke slowly I had a chance but she assumed I actually spoke the language. I very much don’t. I actually found myself sitting there laughing quite a bit. I wasn’t really sure how else to respond. I explained that I actually don’t really speak German and she admitted that she thought I did. We switched to English and the rest of the flight was quite fine, though uneventful. And not nearly as entertaining as that first 90 minutes where I appeared to be quite accomplished in my knowledge of German.
As for the rest of the details about the flight, as I said, it was uneventful. The food was OK but nothing special. There are two sunsets, at least during the early winter months, so that is fun. And Lufthansa’s version of the A340-600 have the economy lavs downstairs in the back which is pretty cool. And the business class lav on the starboard side has a window in it. That’s rather awesome.
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| Headed down to the coach lavs |
Looking out the window in the biz lav |
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| The glow of the second sunset we experienced during the flight shining on the engines |
But I wasn’t all that wowed by their business class service. It was very professional and very proper but not a ton of emotion in the service. It comes across as stiff and a bit standoffish, but lots of Germany appears that way. I’ll get over it. I enjoyed it much more than my recent United Airlines business class service but that is mostly because the seats are way better (no, I wasn’t in the new UA seats) and, more importantly, because the flight attendants didn’t yell at me because she spilled orange juice on another guy’s laptop. But I’m drifting off topic now.
Overall, the experience was probably around 3.5-4 stars out of 5. Quite proper and efficient but lacking the little personal touches that make me think “great” service.
Posted by Seth on December 10, 2009 under points |
I’m really wondering just how much fun I could have over a few days in Europe come mid-January. Why? Because Condor, a low cost carrier based in Germany, is offering up an All You Can Fly deal (web page is in German only), rather similar to the one jetBlue had earlier this year. Maybe it is because of the relationship both carriers have with Lufthansa but it isn’t hard to see the similarities in the schemes. The best part about it for folks in Europe is that the price is truly all-inclusive – no extra taxes or fees – and it is only €299. Even at today’s exchange rates that is about 25% less than the jetBlue AYCJ deal was.
There is, of course, the usual fine print. The pass must be reserved by 18 December and all bookings (except for the first and the last) must be round-trip. Also, the pass only applies to the carrier’s short and medium haul routes, so no crossing the Atlantic. Still, access to the carrier’s route network throughout most of Europe, the Canary Islands and maybe Eastern Africa seems like a pretty good deal to me. There is a 72-hour advance booking requirement, just like the jetBlue deal. And these flights are actually eligible to earn frequent flyer points in the Miles+More program. Not too shabby.
I would truly love to take advantage of this deal. It is incredibly tempting. Alas, I think it is not meant to be. But that’s not going to stop me from looking at their route map and schedules to see what king of fun I could have. Wishful thinking never hurt anyone, right?
Posted by Seth on November 25, 2009 under News |
There was a somewhat surprising announcement out of London this morning from regional airline bmi: they’re making some rather significant cuts to their fleet, destinations and staffing levels. There will be a loss of nine aircraft in total – over 25% of the fleet. Two of the planes beign removed from the fleet are A330s. This essentially kills any chance of longhaul service coming back to the bmi fold.
Destinations being cut include Kiev, Ukraine; Tel Aviv, Israel, Brussels, Belgium and Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Brussels route will be picked up by Star Alliance and Lufthansa Group partner Brussels Airlines. There is no indication that the other destinations will see service restored via a partner or other means. Most of these cuts take effect in the second week of January 2010.
And then there are the job cuts. The carrier expects to trim about 600 employees from their ranks and did not rule out additional cuts in the future. Not good at all for those affected by these cuts.
Looking past the cuts there is a rather glaring question out there: What is left of bmi? Sadly, the answer seems to be not all that much. They still hold a ton of slots at London’s Heathrow airport but even the value of those is dropping lately. Still, with the carrier now quickly rolling into the fold of the Lufthansa group (the new CEO either just started or is starting very soon) it makes a decent amount of sense to shift what few viable assets there are around in the organization to places where they make the most sense. Sure, bmi still offers a reasonably competitive regional network around the British Isles and Ireland, and they also have some decent coverage into the Middle East and former Soviet states. And they’ve got pretty decent connections from Heathrow to other Star Alliance partners. But they’re still a small fish in a big pond and having trouble remaining competitive.
Could the carrier remain as a holding company for the slots, slowly doling them out to other airlines in the Lufthansa group (or selling them for real money)? Few to zero direct operations but most of the routes would still be covered and customers would still have options within the alliance.
Things aren’t looking particularly great over at Donnington Hall. They haven’t been for a while now and it doesn’t seem that they’ll be turning a corner anytime soon. Not good at all.
I’m not panicking about my stash of points in their program. Yet. But I am looking at cashing in a couple redemptions sooner than not just to hedge my bets on their rather advantageous reward chart. The points won’t just disappear but the Miles+More scheme isn’t as rewarding for me.
Posted by Seth on November 4, 2009 under Trip Reports |
It is just before 4am local time in Frankfurt, Germany and I’m wide awake. I’ve been up for almost two hours working on blog posts (check out www.starmegado.com) and sorting photos from the previous couple days’ events and all I can say is WOW!
Me, helping out the Flight Attendants on one of the flights
From the welcome we received at United’s operations in Chicago to tours offered by Continental in Newark to actually beating the VanWyck on our way from Newark to JFK, the first day was great. We were hosted by Lufthansa in their flagship lounge at JFK and the service we had on the (entirely too short) flight from NYC to Frankfurt we we treated to the professional and proper service that Lufthansa is known for.
We overwhelmed another lounge (they aren’t used to having 60 folks arrive all at once, it turns out) on arrival and then got to partake in a variety of events, from sleeping to tours to a photo shoot for an article in a national magazine (I’ll share details of that when I get the clearance, but it is going to be AWESOME!).
Hanging out in the lounge upon arrival in Frankfurt
Suffice it to say that everything has been just fantastic thus far, and we’re just getting started. This morning the “official” part of the tour begins. In just about 2 hours Condor flight DE 9254 will depart Frankfurt for Oslo where we’ll be picking up more of our crowd and then heading on to Toulouse for the Airbus A380 factory tour. I’m so excited I literally can’t sleep.
Inside the Lufthansa HQ building
Getting ready for the dinner party on Wednesday night
The dinner party on Wednesday night was top notch, sponsored by Lufthansa and Star Alliance. The CEO of the alliance was there and he happily interacted with us, acknowledging that the FlyerTalk community knows their products better than they do and that they have a lot they could learn from us about where there are failings in the system. That was a pretty humble thing to say in front of a group like ours and quite well received.
I only broke one champagne glass during the day so I think I’m still ahead of the curve in terms of potential or expected damage. I’m rather proud of that.
OK…enough of the typing. I’ve gotta go get showered and ready to go. I’m working as a flight attendant on this morning’s first flight and I want to make sure I’m ready.
Posted by Seth on November 2, 2009 under Trip Reports |
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| 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 27, 2009 under News |
As expected, lots of updates hit Continental’s website at midnight CDT this morning, and the Star Alliance details are all over the place. From the hundreds of lounges now accessible for Presidents Club and Star Gold members to an interactive travel reward chart that is actually comprehensive and accurate to many details on upgrades available for travel on other Star Alliance carriers, there is lots of information there to digest.
The Star Alliance upgrades are a nice feature but ridiculously expensive in most cases, charged per segment and require a full-fare (Y or B) ticket to begin with. Not a great value, but it is always nice to have more options.
The reward search online is also quite nice, with more than 10 carriers available immediately. A couple test searches this morning show availability in line with what other Star Alliance carriers are seeing which is quite nice. Of course the three carriers that are delayed in reward integration – Swiss, EgyptAir and Shanghai Airlines – affect me personally (I need a reward on EgyptAir) but I’ll get over it eventually.
The move also means an end to the Continental partnership with Qantas. Hardly a surprise as Continental now has United Airlines and Air New Zealand as partners offering service to Australia. The relationship officially ends on December 17, 2009. Tickets for reward travel after that date will be honored but no new tickets will be issued and no miles will be accrued on revenue tickets.
The lounge access benefit is ridiculously good at this point. There are over 800 lounges available for Star Gold members, a group that now includes Continental Platinum and Gold elites, not just Platinum elites. That’s a lot more lounges for a lot more people. Many of the lounges are now also accessible for Presidents Club members. It might actually be enough to tempt me to join, though with the Star Gold access maybe not.
Partner earning rates were also announced and no major surprises there. The bad news is that the lowest fares on many carriers don’t actually earn miles. Plus most partner carriers will no longer earn bonus miles for elites; only United, US Airways and Lufthansa earn elite bonuses. On the plus side, there are not too many 50% earning fare classes. So it is all or nothing, with plenty of nothing on the cheapest fares. Combined with the new reward chart announced a few weeks ago, rewards are going to be a little more expensive and the miles are a bit harder to earn. That’s not great at all. But the interactive reward chart – more than a year in the works – is accurate and mostly functional (I’ve found one bug). That is a major improvement.
Considering the amount of work required to make the leap from SkyTeam to Star Alliance in a 48-hour span I’m quite impressed at just how much of things are functional. And more will get better over the coming weeks. This change is good on the whole for most OnePass members and Continental customers (with few exceptions). I’m off to book some reward travel now!
