Posted by Seth on May 20, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points | 
It seems that some folks are still in denial about the fact that some customers are more valuable to an airline than others. Then again, it is not common that the CFO of an airline comes out and says it quite so bluntly. United Airlines CFO John Rainey, speaking at an investor conference last week, seemed to have no trouble speaking his mind with regard to the company’s MileagePlus program and the driving forces behind some of the recent changes:
Additionally, we also changed our Mileage Plus program, some of the benefits that accrued to the members…. [W]e had certain groups in this group were over entitled if you will…we have realigned the benefits…and this is a good change going forward….
The philosophy is similarly represented in one of the slides included in the presentation (see the first full line of text):
In both cases the CFO has essentially made it clear that the company is moving towards a different version of defining customer loyalty than the days of yore. No longer is just flying a lot of miles the measure of a good customer. Now customers must also provide value to the company to be desirable and well rewarded. At least that’s the direction the company wants to be moving in.
But is it the right direction?
Once again, this question pits a number of folks who are low revenue, high volume against the company. The company seems quite willing to write those customers off without too much apprehension or concern. Those customers (of which I’m almost certainly one) are simply no longer desirable to the company, likely for being too expensive to service, or for getting in the way of the benefits offered to other less frequent but more profitable customers. Or the company just hates all its customers and wants to go out of business. But that seems less likely.
It is also somewhat interesting to note that every revision or release of a loyalty program I can think of from the past decade has shifted the balance more towards revenue and away from simply miles flown. There’s probably a reason that has been happening.
Perhaps the greatest challenge at this point will be for the company to actually deliver on the better benefits for those whom they see as valuable customers to keep them around. It will definitely be interesting to watch that unfold.
Also in the same presentation was an interesting slide on the benefits of the PSS integration effort which happened in early March:
Of course, all the benefits listed here are for the company, not necessarily to all customers. Still, there are some aspects of these changes which will probably be beneficial for different groups of customers at different points over the coming years. Yet another thing which will be interesting to watch unfold in the coming years.
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Posted by Seth on May 19, 2012 under frequent flyer, points |
Star Alliance is celebrating its 15th anniversary this month, including a few promotions to get customers excited about the birthday. Alas, the promotions are somewhat less than stellar. Still, worth checking them out, I suppose.
First up, there is a 15% discount available for RTW fares. The deal is only valid for bookings completed by 29 May 2012 and it applies only to economy fares.
Next up there is a contest that each member program of the alliance is participating in. Within each program the 15 customers who fly on the most Star Alliance partners before 14 November 2012 will win 15,000 bonus miles. Seems a bit chintzy to me as a prize, though I suppose getting all the programs to agree on giving away a lot of points would be difficult. Also, as would be expected, only revenue flights count so award trips on partners don’t add to the count. Bummer. Some programs require registration while others don’t. Check the above link to find the details for your program of choice.
Finally, there is a grand prize contest being run by the alliance which actually sounds pretty cool. They have identified 27 different festivals around the world (a surprising number of which are tied to Mardi Gras/Carnival) and they are giving away a trip for 15 passengers, including business class tickets and "5-star treatment all the way" for hotels and such. There is a second prize (two RTW biz tickets, including a festival visit) and a third prize (15 pairs of coach tickets to a festival) available as well. This is probably the best of the opportunities out there, though also the hardest to win. And you have to pick which prize you want before you enter; I’m having trouble choosing so I haven’t entered yet.
Hey, it is all for free so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much, right?
Good luck!
Posted by Seth on May 15, 2012 under Dining, Flying, frequent flyer, Mileage Run, points, Review, Trip Reports |
Having had so much fun the last time around (plus, I did book five of these!) I was off again last week for a quick trip to Portland, Oregon, again for just long enough to have dinner before heading back home on the redeye flight. And, like last time, the trip was pleasantly uneventful. I didn’t put together a video this time, but it still was a reasonably fun trip to document.
Somewhat shockingly we left on time from LaGuardia and made it in to Houston early. Alas, only a snack plate so I declined (I had just eaten at my favorite NYC taco truck) and took a nap instead. Incredibly exciting, right??
Flight number two had a meal service offering up two options that both sounded decent enough. I asked the flight attendant to surprise me and I ended up with a ravioli-ish option in tomato sauce. Nothing to write home about, good or bad.
A couple hours later we were on final into PDX, though we came in from the "wrong" direction. The winds were different than any other time I’ve arrived in PDX so we came in from the other side. It gave me a very different view of arrival than I was expecting
The really good part of the evening came when I arrived in Portland. A friend who lives there was available to go out to dinner that night so he picked me up from the airport and we headed out to some awesome Cuban food at Pambiche.
Just a quick stay in Portland, however, so I was soon back at the airport, just in time to clear security and head over to the gate for my departure back to Chicago.
I was happy to be upgraded for the redeye, though that may have worked against me. The two folks in the row ahead seemed to become fast friends prior to departure and they kept chatting into the first hour or so of the flight. Mid-con redeyes are already bad enough. Having chatty passengers nearby didn’t help the situation. I still managed to get a bit of sleep and was semi-functional by the time we made it to O’Hare.
I did rather enjoy being the only passenger in the first class cabin on the 6am ORD-LGA flight not wearing a suit. It was a pleasant reminder that life can be fun without having to dress up to play a part.
Departure from O’Hare was right on time and pretty soon I was napping again, all the way to New York City.
We arrived early and an hour later I had navigated the bus/subway transfer – including helping another passenger who didn’t have a MetroCard and who only had bills – back in to Manhattan. The day was just getting started and I was ready to go. Or at least ready to try to survive on just a couple hours of sleep.
Like I said at the beginning, nothing too amazing on the flights, but it was a fun day. Special thanks to Luke for driving out to the airport to pick me up for dinner, and for knowing where the good food is in Portland. Definitely made for a great night.
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Tags: Chicago, Dining, Flying, frequent flier, frequent flyer, houston, in flight, New York City, PaxEx, Photos, points, Portland, review, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on May 14, 2012 under frequent flyer, News |
When the announcement came out that the PeoplExpress brand was looking to get back into the skies it also included an announcement about a loyalty program, Club Travelati. Customers could sign up as a lifetime member for only $19. In addition to other benefits (including a souvenir pin), the Club promised access to super discounted sales and deals from the carrier once they actually started flying. It turns out that the DoT isn’t so keen on such a marketing approach; the carrier agreed to a $10,000 fine based on the effort.
The company settled with the DoT, admitting no fault, and pulled all content relating to the Club off their website. At issue is whether selling access to discounts is permissible given that the airline cannot actually legally operate flights yet. By enticing customers with discounts for fares that they cannot actually sell the DoT felt that the company violated a couple CFRs. The company has stated they disagree with that position but that they are choosing to avoid litigation in an effort to not derail their pending operational certificate application.
The company has pulled the offer to buy in to the Club from their web site, showing only this now:
Club Travelati is an exciting new club by PEOPLExpress™ for people just like you! We can’t tell you all the details just yet, since we are not yet a certificated airline. But we can tell you it will be fun! Stay tuned here for more details.
Oh, and they apparently only sold about 130 of the $19 memberships since they launched the product per the DoT claim.
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Posted by Seth on May 12, 2012 under frequent flyer, media coverage, News, points |
I’ve never been above a bit of shameless self-promotion and I see no need to start now. Fozz, Stephen and I have started up a new podcast, Points Hoarder. The goal is pretty simple: we take the obsession we have with points and miles and try to help everyone better understand how we collect them, how we value them and how we redeem them. In short, how to make travel better through points.
We’re just starting out with the concept and we’ve got one episode live right now and a second just recorded. You can check out Episode 1 here; Most of the discussion is about awesome redemptions we’ve all recently had. After all, earning the miles can be fun but redeeming them is where the excitement really comes out, at least for me.
I’ll be sure to announce a link to episode 2 and the iTunes feed once those are available. In the mean time, give it a listen and let me know what you think.
Posted by Seth on May 11, 2012 under Flying, frequent flyer, points, Review, Trip Reports |
I found it somewhat strange as I met folks in Puerto Rico last week; many of them wanted to know if it was my first trip to the island and I wasn’t really sure how to answer. Technically it was my third and it was the second time I actually managed to leave the airport, but it was still the only time I’d spent more than just a layover (the previous “visit” was about 3 hours in the middle of the night). Eventually I stopped trying to explain myself and went with the simple answer, that it was my first trip, but that seemed a bit like cheating. It did get me thinking about my previous trips, as well as the current one, and I realized that all three were flown on JetBlue. The first two were part of my All You Can Jet adventures a couple years ago and this time I had a choice – flights were pretty much the same price across a couple carriers – and I quite happily ended up on JetBlue once again.
Things started a bit ugly on Monday morning. The security line at Newark A2 was, as it often is at 7:30am, a complete mess. I could have splurged for the Even More Speed benefit from JetBlue but I managed to use my United elite status to get into the elite line. It helped a bit and soon enough I was inside security, ready to board If the Blue fits… for the 3.5 hour flight to San Juan. The line for departures was reasonably short and very soon after an on-time push-back we were on our way.
Booking on JetBlue I knew there would be no upgrades, something that I almost certainly would have received on United. Not a big deal for the short, daytime flight in general, and with the standard 34″ pitch on their A320s the JetBlue seats were plenty spacious for my needs. Plus, the snack options are way more fun on JetBlue; these were not the only two packs of Animal Crackers I had on the flight.
The flight was completely uneventful. I ate my snacks, read a bit and stared out the window at the Atlantic ocean.
Three hours later we were touching down at SJU, ready to get the week rolling.
There was a minor delay getting a JetBridge operator when we landed. Not a big deal at all as we were waiting on checked bags anyways and we had arrived early.
On the return flight I managed to tease myself a bit by taking a peek at the new JetBlue terminal at SJU. It is going to be a tremendous improvement from the existing facility when it opens later this month.
We successfully navigated the USDA inspection and the TSA process and shortly thereafter found ourselves in the rather Spartan gate area. This is, unfortunately, the one JetBlue focus city/hub where they do not offer free WiFi. Hopefully that gets fixed with the new terminal opening up. The good news is that we didn’t have long to spend in the terminal before we boarded our flight back to Newark.
A couple weeks ago JetBlue’s twitter account had mentioned a new feature beer in their service for the summer: Brooklyn Summer Ale. Given the opportunity to make friends with the flight attendants I rarely shy away and this seemed a perfect situation to play that game. While boarding was still happening I went back to the galley to see if they had actually stocked the new supply. It is a good thing I checked as they had it in the cart but it wasn’t cold. That could have been a disaster.
Seriously, though, it was a great ice breaker with the crew and we joked most of the trip back while I snacked away on cookies and beer – the sort of dinner that frequent fliers eventually come to know and love. Sure, I could have purchased one of the snack boxes for more sustenance, but they really don’t do much for me. I’ll stick with my empty calories, thank you very much.
Despite an evening arrival and weather in both San Juan and the Newark area the flight was, miraculously, on time. Shortly after wheels down I was in a car headed home; I was inside my Manhattan apartment only 45 minutes after we landed. Not bad at all.
For a few years now I’ve maintained that JetBlue offers the best coach class service. This trip further reinforced that notion for me. The product is simple but easy to deliver consistently and with a smile. The crew once again did that, making the few hours we spent together in the air fly by quite quickly and pleasantly once again. Yes, I gave up slightly more valuable points (though JetBlue is working on that to some extent with the upcoming partner opportunities) and I gave up the upgrade. I still had a great flight experience. Some days that’s really all that matters.
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Tags: Dining, elite status, Flying, frequent flier, frequent flyer, IFE, in flight, JetBlue, Newark, PaxEx, points, review, San Juan, United, United Airlines, upgrade
Posted by Seth on May 6, 2012 under frequent flyer, points, Wandering Aramean Travel Tools |
A couple partners have updated the earnings rates for flights operated by SAS this month. Most notable in the changes are the United Airlines‘ MileagePlus program and US Airways‘ Dividend Miles programs are now providing credit for nearly all discounted economy fares, and they are doing so at a 100% rate. Previously US Air wasn’t providing any credit for these fares while United was providing only 25%.
Additionally, United has updated the earning rates for premium cabin flights, offering 175% RDMs (in addition to the same 150% PQMs) for all business class tickets. Full-fare economy – namely Y, B and S fares – will earn 125% RDMs along with the 150% PQMs.
Actually an upgrade in the points earning game. Who knew such was still possible.
The miles calculators in the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools have been updated to reflect the new numbers.
Posted by Seth on May 5, 2012 under frequent flyer, points |
The analogies of points as a currency are not new. There are a few programs out there today that already have "pay with points" types of functionality available, but there are still a number of limits on those systems.In most cases they can be used only for specific purchases, mostly travel related, or via certain merchants. American Express Membership Rewards are one of the most easily spent on non-travel events, though the point valuation of that channel is not very attractive.
Listening to representatives from the loyalty programs and the companies who help them make the programs work at the Randy Petersen Executive Travel Summit a few days ago, however, it seems that the idea of defining a specific cash value to points and allowing full fungability of them is not too far away. Loylogic has partnered with Etihad to put their PointsPay product in the market, allowing points to be easily redeemed for value on a credit card, making points instantly spendable anywhere that credit card is accepted, for example.
Other companies at the event spoke of the shift from points to real currency with different levels of optimism and excitement. Some were lobbying for full transparency on the points, noting that many customers have already figured out what the values are anyways. Others suggested that the opacity of the specific value actually increased the perceived value, making the customers feel that they were getting a better deal and allowing the programs to remove the liabilities more quickly.
Still other companies suggested that the best way to increase the perceived value of the points is to offer up redemptions that are less utilitarian and more creative. Whether it is allowing customers to use points to redeem for space travel, a week on a private island or cashing in 386,000,000 points for a yacht, the options are, at least in theory, endless. That those awards generally are never redeemed makes it easier to offer them and the perceived high valuation since they are still too far out of reach for most to attain.
One concern voiced (by me, among others) regarding this apparent shift is the potential that it will erode or displace the travel award segment of the programs, effectively taking away some of the variable value of the programs and making them truly fixed rebate opportunities. Most present in the room and in the private conversations in the halls seem to think that this point hasn’t arrived. At least not yet. The cynic in me still sees great potential for that time to come, sooner than not. A few carriers are already very close; JetBlue, Southwest and Virgin America come to mind, though they are all still essentially only travel for the redemptions. Switching from that closed redemption network to an open, fixed-rate system actually wouldn’t be too huge a leap, at least on the conceptual side of things. The actual work to make it happen isn’t so trivial.
I’m not throwing in the towel quite yet; there are definitely still opportunities to play the game and come out ahead as a customer. But they are getting harder and harder to find. The market seems to be shifting in that direction, both on the supply and demand side of the programs. This is definitely an area to keep an eye on in the coming months.
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Posted by Seth on April 30, 2012 under frequent flyer, Mileage Run, points, Trip Reports |
Lots of folks have dinner in Portland, Oregon on any given night. Or course, most of them actually live in Portland and aren’t visiting from New York City for 3 hours, but that’s just part of the entertainment value to me. A couple weeks ago I found myself flying out for dinner, thanks to the $120ish fares United Airlines offered back in January.
I took a whole bunch of photos and videos over the 20 or so hours I was on the road, from snacks to planes to trains, and then edited them together into a roughly two minute time-lapse of the trip. I think it came out pretty well; I hope you agree.
The trip was, by nearly every standard, textbook. Upgrades cleared, flights were on time and I even managed to get home an hour early, albeit in the very last row of coach rather than my original upgraded seat. I slept a little bit, ate a little bit and drank a little bit (probably more of this last category than the other two).
I’m looking forward to the two more of this fare I’ve got booked, as well as a few other similar trips over the coming weeks. Really a pleasant way to spend a day.
Posted by Seth on April 29, 2012 under frequent flyer, News |
A last minute change to the schedule of an event is rarely a good thing; swapping out speakers and shuffling slots is a pain for everyone. But when given the opportunity to have an official from the United Airlines Customer Experience group come in and talk with 200+ frequent fliers about the changes over the past 6 weeks, including the challenges they faced and the troubles they’re still facing with the merger and the PSS integration progress, you accept the pains and make the changes. At this weekend’s Frequent Traveler University event a representative from United’s Customer Experience group stood up in front of the group with pretty much no restrictions on what could be asked. A potentially risky move.
Much of the discussion focused on upgrades and the policies and processes around upgrades. Not particularly surprising given that the upgrade processing has been probably the most visible and, for many passengers, the greatest pain point. Perhaps the best news is that the company knows the system still isn’t working correctly all the time. Among other useful things said:
Upgrades are clearing more reliably, but still not happening all the time
We’re really bad at transparency for upgrades right now.
We’re telling gate agents to "Please don’t police upgrades. If the person is on the list don’t worry about how they got there."
Some people love the companion upgrade policy and some hate it. Some like the Y/B/M-Up policy and some hate it. And, not surprisingly, many don’t understand how the policies are built and how they work. The issue of wait-listed upgrades not being cleared when the award inventory opens up was also brought up again. There are some theories on why it is happening but nothing solid yet. Overall, some hints were offered about how things in the future that are going to be better. But just hints. Nothing confirmed.
There was also a decent amount of discussion about the agents and the seemingly new party line of "we cannot do that in the new system." There are some things that actually cannot be done anymore, but many of the examples provided, such as protecting on a later flight without canceling the existing segments, turned out to actually not be true.
There was the usual (and well deserved) abuse of the Newark station. Nothing to report on anything potentially getting better there, but it was discussed.
There was also a ton of abuse piled on top of the social media strategy, namely the Twitter account. The UA rep was shocked when he asked how many folks in the room used Twitter and saw nearly everyone raise their hand. And based on my personal experience I agree that the approach has been quite passive and low-key, almost to the point of seemingly non-existent unless they’re hosting a chat or similar. Constantly referring customers to the "official" channels which are also horribly back-logged and unresponsive isn’t helping their case. This was, after upgrades, probably the most significant area the group felt the company was failing horribly in.
It wasn’t all questions from the crowd. In some cases it was just comments about how things have run the past 6 weeks and months. Particularly pointed and brutal was a simple line offered up from one attendee:
You’ve broken every rule of customer service since the merger
And all he could do was accept that one; not really much of a leg to stand on to dispute it.
Finally, a few minutes were devoted to discussion of things not entirely related to the post-integration issues. It was quite interesting to hear from someone focused on the Customer Experience part of the organization what about the carrier he thought was compelling for customers and where he actually wanted that experience to be. Things like the route network and the non-flying earning possibilities were big on his radar.
On the route network front, the 787 was a big focus. Among other telling comments,
The 787 is going to be unbelievable…going to be exciting what we’re doing with it and where we’re going with it.
That’s not new but knowing that he’s on the inside and can see more about the potential routes makes me excited, too.
To the point of loyalty and the future of the experience it was interesting to hear discussion of how they want loyalty to be not to the mileage program but actually to the carrier and the in-flight product. They want loyalty to be focused on actually doing right by customers rather than being focused on rules and policies. That came out explicitly in the discussion about the upgrades and not wanting agents to be policing why the upgrade should be processed or not, for example, and it came out explicitly in one of the closing comments offered up:
I want you to be loyal because you know United will use common sense to take care of me.
It is going to take a while to build that level of comfort with many customers. Whether due to issues with agent training on the new platform, inconsistent application of policies or just the typical variances in terms of in-flight crew experiences, it is never going to be perfect. But the company has quite an up-hill battle in front of them on the trust and common sense front. It will be interesting to see how that develops.
Posted by Seth on April 27, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Last night’s Freddies Awards ceremony was, as always, a lot of fun as an event. I’m not quite as focused on who won which awards as some of the other folks here on Boarding Area (read their reports here, here and here) but I was at the event and I did see a few interesting trends, at least with respect to how social media played in to the awards program.
Delta Airlines won an award at 9:42pm. Mere moments later they had a tweet out about the win:
Of all the programs which had a win, this was the only company at the event tweeting it live. Kudos to them for being involved at that level.
Next up was an entertaining response to a tweet I posted. I was (and remain) somewhat surprised that Hyatt didn’t see better popularity in the voting. I can certainly come up with theories as to why but that isn’t really my point. Within mere moment of sending a tweet mentioning Hyatt (no hash tag or @ mention) their main account was following me. Good, I suppose, in that they are staying on top of mentions of their brand, even at 9pm. Bad, I think, in that the value of that engagement isn’t particularly great.
Finally, I was quite impressed to see that Baltic Air won two awards in the night. I give them a lot of credit for getting out the vote, as a very small carrier based in a very small country, And I think that the bulk of the credit for those wins goes to their social media strategy. They have a strong recent history of being very involved in the social media sphere (read more here and here). This was clearly a case of the social media efforts working to bring in real rewards to the company through their vote drive efforts.
