Posted by Seth on December 10, 2009 under points | 
Ending a relationship that has spanned over 20 years, Delta and Singapore Air have announced an end to their frequent flyer partnership. As discussed by Lucky and Gary the partnership will be coming to an end on May 15, 2010. The rewards on Singapore Air used to be a great value for folks collecting SkyMiles. Now that the premium seats are much harder to find (though I’ve got a couple for Christmas!!) the value really isn’t there so much. Plus, with Delta growing their global footprint directly and also with their membership in SkyTeam and Singapore Air’s membership in Star Alliance it doesn’t really make sense for the partnership to continue from any perspective.
Get working on those redemptions if you’re still interested. The clock is ticking.
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 18, 2009 under News, points |
The dance of buyouts and other aid offers surrounding Japan’s JAL sped up a bit overnight with Delta leading the effort from SkyTeam to offer over USD$1Bn in cash and loans to the beleaguered carrier should they be willing to defect from the OneWorld alliance. American Airlines offered back a similar amount, though without the need for $300MM in alliance-switch penalty guaranties. Yes, things are truly interesting over in Japan these days.
But with the two airlines in question hemorrhaging cash these days there is a rather important question that needs to be answered: Where are they getting the money to make such offers?
The answer, it would seem, has a lot to do with frequent flyer points. Lately the only way the airlines seem to be raising any cash is by selling their points to credit card companies. Both American and Delta have recently signed deals to raise funds from Citibank and American Express, respectively. So the airlines are selling a ton of points to third parties and then turning around to use that cash in an attempt to buy JAL. Yup, they’re trying to buy an airline with points. Not quite as crazy as getting a boob job using points though almost certainly a better value on a dollars/point ratio.
As for the actual effects of the loans/merger/buyout/bailout/whatever we’re calling it, that isn’t particularly clear. JAL holds the largest share of takeoff and landing slots at Tokyo’s Haneda airport and they are definitely worth a fair amount of money. Of course, that value depends on having a Japanese economy that is functional and able to push passengers onto the flights.
Perhaps Delta is looking to recreate the Pan American route network buy purchasing 5th freedom rights around the world. Then again, that didn’t work out so well for Pan Am.
And maybe they’re actually trying to drag SkyTeam out of its current position of the “we got picked last” alliance, though I’m not really sure that picking up an almost bankrupt carrier really helps on that front. Still, having the JAL route network would be a huge boon for SkyTeam, though perhaps not quite as significant as the hit OneWorld will take from losing their only representation in that region.
It doesn’t seem likely that anything will actually be decided in the immediate future so there will be plenty of time to watch this one play out. And it should be a rather entertaining dance to watch.
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Posted by Seth on October 27, 2009 under News |
The show is over now and it was, for the most part, a show. It was fun to see representatives from all the airlines – both executives and flight attendants – up there to welcome Continental to Star Alliance and it was interesting to listen to the questions and answers.
Among the bits I found interesting, questions were posed by folks from the NJ Star Ledger, Bloomberg, and news outlets based in Guam, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Trinidad & Tobago and Switzerland. Quite a mix there. The questions were typical of such an event – mostly about how the change will affect and benefit whichever region was represented by the person asking the question. The answers were fun, too. Among them:
- “Everyone here flies. Sometimes in coach. What does everyone in coach want? An upgrade to first class. That is what Continental just got with our move to Star Alliance.” – Jeff Smisek, CO President and COO. That’s a pretty big swing at SkyTeam there.
- “We don’t really compete too much with Continental in New York and what is good for Star Alliance is good for US Airways.” US CEO Doug Parker, looking very uncomfortable on stage when asked about the future that US has in the alliance.
- The Japanese partners along with open skies coming to Japan are “robust opportunities” for Continental in the Asian markets. CO CEO Larry Kellner on potential expansion from Guam.
- “We’ll always win in a competitive front.” Kellner again, this time when asked about the ATIs and JVs.
- “Investment bankers are finally exercising their god-given right to fly in business class again.” Smisek, discussing booking trends and potential economic recovery.
Apparently Continental decided about 5 years ago that they made a mistake in not pursuing ATI/JV opportunities for transatlantic traffic. For some reason, however, they were not able to rectify that and remain in SkyTeam. It is hard to know if the other carriers (DL/NW/KL/AF) simply didn’t want to share or if it was something else. But the good news is that they’ve addressed the issue now.
Lots more to come as news continues to roll in.
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!
Posted by Seth on October 24, 2009 under News |
As of 11:59pm PDT tonight, with the departure of Continental flight #767 from Seattle to Houston, Continental and Copa will officially be out of SkyTeam. On Tuesday they’ll officially join Star Alliance. In the meantime, a major airline out of a global alliance. There aren’t too many of those.
This is a huge plus for Continental and its customers. There are many more carriers and options available to them with the new alliance. And it is a bit of a hit for SkyTeam, though they don’t lose too many destinations served with the loss, just frequencies and connection options.
It is going to be a fun week of news and announcements as the details of the new Star Alliance move are finally announced. I can’t wait!
Posted by Seth on October 12, 2009 under Uncategorized |
In a move that brings it much, much, much closer to soon-to-be BFF Continental, United Airlines announced today that they are switching to an unlimited domestic upgrade program for their elites. They’re ditching the e-500s and CR-1s and going to a format that will put all elites in the queue for upgrades and dole them out based on status.
The details are coming out tomorrow so we don’t know everything yet, but there are plenty of UA customers who aren’t so happy about the change. And I can’t blame them. With the existing system lower-level elites actually tend to get more upgrades since they’ll put in for the otherwise “worthless” flights, like Chicago to NYC. Why? Because they fly less so they have to use their certificates up at some point. Under the new scheme higher tier elites will get the upgrades every time, without having to spend any currency.
The move will bring UA’s upgrade scheme into alignment with that of Continental. Based on that, and the new partnership that officially starts in 2 weeks, it makes a lot of sense to also expect reciprocal upgrades for elites in the two programs starting in the second half of next year.
The future of e-500 upgrade certs and CR-1s, the lower-level upgrade papers that UA gives out is definitely in question right now. I’m betting that they disappear rather quickly but that the holy grail – the System-Wide Upgrade – remains in play. And maybe Continental will start to issue them as well.
There are going to be lots of changes over the next 12 months thanks to Continental’s move from SkyTeam to Star Alliance. This is but one of many bits that frequent fliers will get to gnash our teeth over.
Posted by Seth on July 29, 2009 under Uncategorized |
When Larry Kellner, CEO of Continental, said during their quarterly earnings call that he felt the transition time between SkyTeam and Star Alliance would be days, not weeks or months, I’m not sure that this is what he had in mind. It turns out that Continental is actually starting the transition today, if their web site is to be believed. Sure, they have almost 90 days left in SkyTeam, but why let that get in the way of an orderly transition?
Effective July 1 (but only announced today…thanks, guys) Continental will be offering credit in their OnePass program for many flights on Star Alliance carriers. There is some fine print, but the overall effect appears to be quite positive. For now credit will only be given if there is a connection to or from an intercontinental Continental flight. And the credit can only be received for a single segment. Considering that Continental has been selling connections to United and ANA lately on their website, having the ability to earn miles on those flights is really pretty nice.
OnePass members will earn 100% credit on the actual number of miles flown for all fare classes, with a 50% bonus for first and business class tickets. In addition, Continental is giving out Elite Qualification Miles on all these flights at 100% or better (150% for first, business or full fare coach). They are not giving out elite bonuses which would range from 25% to 100% depending on the elite level, but it is still a pretty sweet deal considering that they are still part of SkyTeam.
Although we won’t know with any certainty for a little while yet, it seems reasonable to assume that this will be the basis for the formal earning plan once Continental makes the jump to Star later this year. If that’s the case it is something of a mixed bag. No 500 mile minimums for anyone (currently elites get that on Continental family flights and a few other carriers) and no elite bonuses (this is a pretty significant loss for partner flights). But the base earnings are 100% across the board with bonuses for higher fares. The mix of 50% and 0% fares on Continental and partners right now is truly a pain to navigate when trying to figure out what the actual miles earned are.
For folks who fly a lot on partners the lack of an elite bonus will hurt, but that is rather typical of the Star Alliance program. For folks mostly looking for Elite miles, however, the new program looks pretty good. Of course, lots of things can change in the next 90 days, but it doesn’t completely suck as of right now.
It also would not surprise me to learn that Continental is using this as an opportunity to test their integration with their new partners’ IT systems, though the fact that it has to be on the same reservation and that it only counts for the one flight immediately before or after the Continental flight seems to belie that hope.
Posted by Seth on February 8, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Well, the weekend of partying with the folks at Continental has finally ended. I’m on a plane now on my last flight, from Austin to Newark, and the shift from indulgence and celebration to work. Yeah, that’s a buzz kill. But the good news is that the high I’m on is pretty ridiculous. The weekend was absolutely amazing from start to finish.
As I mentioned on Saturday, we got a tour of Texas on one of Continental’s 757-200 planes, with Vice Presidents and Managers working as flight attendants on the trip, serving up a bit of bubbly and shmoozing with the group. They had a good time, as did all the passengers/customers on the flight. All in all, a phenomenal event.
And then there was the party on Saturday night. An airplane hanger is ridiculously big. But when you move the planes out and bring in a catering crew, some tables and chairs, a live jazz band and set up a couple of stages for entertainment, it gets pretty cozy in a hurry. And last night was just that. When I wasn’t busy making new friends I was hanging out with old ones or enjoying the entertainment. Certainly one of the highlights was when the CEO of the company took the stage to play MC for the final round of a competition giving away 1,000,000 OnePass mile. That was pretty ridiculous, and the competition was actually intense, coming down to the very last question to decide the winner.
Oh, and there was the 737-900ER plane that they had available for us to visit. We pretty much had free reign, which may or may not have been a mistake on their part, but it certainly was fun. Many folks got to take photos in the cockpit, sitting in the engine or even in the overhead bins!
While the Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday night parts of the event were all fun and games, there were also some serious bits to the event. The Saturday afternoon sessions gave the 500+ attendees a chance to interact directly with the managers of the various departments in the company. Have a question about the OnePass program, the web site, the in-flight catering or hub operations? They had the people on-site to answer those questions for you. Some of the sessions were better than others, as is always the case, but we certainly learned a few new things that were quite good to know. Some highlights include:
- One little nugget about the Star Alliance move. Continental Gold elites will be Star Gold. This has a significant impact on checked luggage allowances and international lounge access. In the case of the latter it is a significant improvement for gold elites.
An update on the plans to roll out LiveTV and in-flight Internet on the domestic fleet. The system is a bit delayed, but they were supposed to see “power on” of the system over the weekend. They expect it to start in commercial service by March 15 and to have all 220+ of their planes retrofit by mid-2010. The bad news is that the internet part of the service is not going to be coming at the same time. That service is expected to come online much later in the year, and that sucks. I was really looking forward to that. It was also mentioned that the in-flight internet as part of the LiveTV implementation is not necessarily the only option available. The current contract allows CO to put an additional internet service on the planes if they want to. So if something like Row44 or Aircell’s gogo service really takes off then they can always do that too. Oh, and they had a set of the seats on display during Saturday night’s session so we got to see what the system will look like. I am VERY impressed with it, though I still don’t really expect that I’ll spend much time watching TV on flights. 
There is a schedule for the deployment of the new business class seats (and we got to try them out). They are a full lie-flat seat and they are pretty nice. No, they are not perfect if you are 6’ 5”, and getting out over your neighbor from the window seat will remain an acrobatic event, but overall they are a great improvement, I think. I only spent a couple minutes in the seat, but it was comfortable both fully reclined and in the “lounge” mode. And the TV screens they have are just awesome. And they aren’t as good as the Singapore Air suites for getting two people into at the same time, but a couple folks proved that it could be done on the demo set that was set up, though it didn’t look particularly comfortable. As to the deployment schedule, they will start with the 777-200s in September 2009 and the 757-200s in December 2009. Each fleet type is expected to take about 14 months to complete. Yes, that is a long time, but it is better than them not upgrading the offering at all, and considering that even with recent cuts Continental is running their international fleet pretty much at full capacity, it isn’t particularly viable for them to do it any faster. The older 767-400s will start getting the new seats at some point in 2010 (and will likely be getting the AVOD at all seats at the same time) and the 787s will be delivered with the new seats already installed.- Speaking of the 787s, there is a date on the horizon for their delivery: Q2 2011. Yes, it really is that far away. They are running a full two years late from Boeing, which sucks. But then will be now soon enough, I suppose.
- Also on the lounge front, there was some further discussion on the reciprocal relationship between Continental and United that has started to roll out. It seems that we’re stalled a bit for now, but eventually they do expect that the relationship will be fully realized. There are apparently a lot of legal ramifications because of the existing SkyTeam relationship that have to be carefully navigated. In other words, don’t hold your breath on this unless you can survive without breathing until the end of October.
New gate display systems are coming. I had a private head’s up on this one but was sworn to secrecy until Saturday night when the system was finally on display. Continental is beginning the deployment of LCD TV gate display systems similar to the ones that Delta has at their gates. These systems show things like seat maps, in-flight entertainment and meal details and, most importantly to many, upgrade waitlist status. They also show a lot of ads if the demo we saw at the event is to be believed. The information is all the same stuff that has been available for almost a year now for folks with PDAs or other mobile devices that are connected online. And they rolled out the same information on the regular website just a couple months ago. When the gate displays go live I believe that Continental will be unrivaled in terms of transparency and access to the information that they are giving to their customers about the flights.
There were lots of other things that we did and talked about, but those are the biggest ones I can think of off the top of my head.
I want to again offer my public thanks to all the folks at Continental who work so hard at putting together these events. The events are equally as amazing as the folks who plan them. One last picture with me and a couple of the guys who work so hard on this stuff, Kerwin on the left and Scott on the right.
Tags: Boeing, Continental, Dreamliner, frequent flyer, IFE, internet, Lounge, Photos, points, Singapore Air, SkyTeam, United
Posted by Seth on January 29, 2009 under Uncategorized |
October 24, 2009 is the last date that Continental Airlines will be a member of the SkyTeam alliance. This date was noted in today’s earnings conference call by CEO Larry Kellner. Kellner deftly sidestepped when pressed for a specific date that Continental would be joining Star Alliance, responding only with “promptly thereafter.” It is expected that the shift will not be immediate, but that specific bilateral agreements will be forged first with the formal alliance membership taking a bit longer to iron out thanks to all the gritty details and integration issues that will inevitably come up.
Ever since the announcement of their intention to switch back in June, there have been a lot of questions about the details and the timing of the change. At least we now have one date nailed down. I’m sure that more details will follow.
Some coverage here from the Houston Chronicle. And for those who are curious, October 25th is the last date of the summer schedule as organized by IATA, so it makes a lot of sense as the date that they make the jump.
Posted by Seth on November 22, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Copa shares the OnePass program with Continental, so when Continental announced their intention to shift from SkyTeam to Star Alliance there was a large question mark over the future fate of Copa. That question seems to have been answered with some comments made by their CEO at an airline conference in Cancun late last week.
Copa chief executive Pedro Heilbron, meanwhile, said on the sidelines of the forum that the Panamanian carrier has decided to leave SkyTeam and is in exclusive talks with Star.
Heilbron says Copa has no “commercial choice” but to leave SkyTeam because its main partner, Continental, decided earlier this year to leave SkyTeam for Star. Continental sponsored Copa’s entrance into SkyTeam. Continental is scheduled to formally leave SkyTeam for Star late next year but Heilbron says “we have some time” to decide what it should do.
“We’re looking at all our options,” he says. “We won’t rush it.”
But those options do not include staying in SkyTeam or joining oneworld, according to Heilbron. So it seems the only thing Copa needs to decide is whether it should join Star as a full or regional member and when it should make the switch. Copa is now an affiliate of SkyTeam rather than a full member.
This is very bad news for SkyTeam, as they are losing their largest presence in Latin and South America, but great for Continental and Star Alliance. This isn’t particularly surprising news based on the shared loyalty program, but this is the first time I’ve seen anything in writing that suggests it is actually happening.
