Posted by Seth on March 16, 2010 under frequent flyer, points | 
You never know when frequent flyer miles are going to take center stage in a conversation. I’m sure that it is more often than it should when I’m around, though I have been better lately about trying not to always talk about travel. Still, when I sat down at the dentist a few months back and started chatting with my new hygienist the conversation turned to travel. She mentioned her recent engagement and honeymoon planning and my brain went into overdrive. I couldn’t resist.
We started talking about all the options available, which programs made sense (she was already pretty tied to Continental’s OnePass program and Hilton’s HHonors program) and which destinations offered the best bang for the spend. I don’t actually remember the cleaning that day so much or even if it happened (though I have the bill to suggest that it did). We talked about sign-up bonuses for credit cards and bank accounts. We talked about buying points through the US Mint dollar coin program. So much fun for me because she actually wanted to hear it all as opposed to my of my victims.
Six or so months later and I’m back in the office for another cleaning. The first thing out of her mouth was a huge thanks for all the help I provided. We spent the next ten minutes or so going through the itinerary (Hawaii and Fiji) and discussing how they got to use all the points that they earned from the last round of promotions (upgrades all the way through the trip). We chatted about hotels on Waikiki beach (Hyatt being MUCH better than the Hilton Hawaiian Village), a few of my favorite off-the-beach restaurants and things to do other than sitting on the fake beach there.
Finally, when scheduling my next appointment the receptionist mentioned that it will be just after the hygienist returns from the honeymoon, meaning I’ll get the follow-up report, too. It is always fun to have the conversation when the other person in them actually is interested in the information being shared, and hearing about the successful bookings makes it even better. I’m looking forward to hearing about the trip in a few months.
Related Posts
Posted by Seth on March 8, 2010 under Flying, News |
As part of their efforts to monetize the extra leg room provided in certain exit and bulkhead seats, Continental Airlines has introduced new seat maps for their online booking engine. The new maps are prettier than the old ones and they have the added bonus of identifying the extra leg room seats on the maps so folks booking will know which seats they won’t have access to until check-in, at which point they’ll have to pay more money for the pleasure of sitting there.
Which seats are “special” on the continental fleet? It depends on the plane type (the unlabeled plane in a 757-300):
Not a whole lot of special seats in the fleet (16DEF are special on the 752 but are blocked from booking for all customers until close to departure).
The new seat maps are currently in testing and will go live on the continental.com website on the 17th of March, along with the new seating policy.
Related Posts
Posted by Seth on March 3, 2010 under News, frequent flyer |
Continental’s announcement this morning that they will begin charging non-elite members for the seats with the most legroom has raised a number of questions. The company released an internal memo to all employees explaining some of the details behind the program. Here’s what it had to say:
Questions and Answers about CO’s Premium Seat Program
Why not just continue giving the better seats away for free? It has worked for years.
CO is focused on making money, and we aren’t going to be able to do that by doing the same things we have done in the past. There is additional revenue from new products, like extra legroom seats that are already in our coach cabin, that we have not effectively unlocked in the past. It makes no sense to give away the best seats in coach to non-Elites for free. So we are changing that, and will bring in new sources of revenue we’ve not tapped in the past.
Will our customers be willing to pay for extra legroom on the aircraft?
Yes. Certain customers strongly value having more space on the aircraft. On the other hand, some customers don’t value extra space. Customers will pay for the things that they value, and extra legroom is one of those things. Many other airlines like United, Virgin America, Singapore and British Airways have successful programs selling extra legroom.
Which seats on our aircraft are classified as premium seats with extra legroom?
Initially this program is focused on selling seat assignments for exit row seats that have extra legroom. We expect to start selling bulkhead seat assignments in the future. The exact seats that will be available for sale will vary by aircraft type. For example, not every exit row seat has extra legroom, and those seats would not be included in the program.
How much will the premium seats with extra legroom cost?
Pricing will vary based on numerous market characteristics, including length of the flight. We’ll experiment with various prices, and that will give us solid data upon which to base future pricing decisions. For example, extra legroom seats between IAH and EWR might be offered at $59. Certain days like holidays or weekends might get discounted pricing. All check-in applications like continental.com and kiosks will have the prices of seats at check-in.
If the only seats left on the aircraft are premium seats, will we force passengers to pay extra for them?
This is a pretty unlikely scenario, but if it happens, we won’t require a passenger to pay extra to obtain a seat assignment.
Will pass riders have to pay in order to obtain a seat with extra legroom?
No. Pass riders will be given these seats for free when they are available. Charging non-Elite revenue passengers for these seats should increase their availability to pass riders, as there will be customers who don’t value the extra legroom enough to pay for it.
None of the answers are particularly surprising – except for where they expect folks to pay $59 for an exit row from Houston to Newark – but the tone of the email definitely is. Continental’s inclusion of British Airways and Singapore Air in the list of companies that sell extra legroom is also quite interesting considering that those airlines actually have a wholly separate product that they are selling, not just a couple seats on the plane, and their Premium Economy product comes with other benefits as well. And while the bulkhead seats generally offer extra legroom there are also compliance issues with selling those seats. Continental will need to be very careful about that while ensuring that they can meet their obligations for passengers with limited mobility.
Also of note is the comment about bringing in “new sources of revenue” that have not been previously tapped. This leaves the door wide open for the airline to start charging for even more individual benefits than they do today. From the complimentary “meals at mealtime” to carry-on baggage, it is hard to take anything off the table at this point.
Related Posts
Posted by Seth on March 3, 2010 under News, frequent flyer |
Continental Airlines announced today a new plan to charge for some of their most coveted seats – those with extra legroom. The seats will remain available for top-tier elites to assign in advance with no charge. Non-elite customers who want to sit in them will have to pay during the check-in process to have access to the seats. Pricing has not been announced but it will vary based on the amount of extra legroom, seat recline and flight duration, among other things.
Most interesting in the announcement was this bit:
Extra legroom really means extra legroom. The seats that we’ll be selling have at least 7 inches of extra legroom. Specifically, our mainline aircraft will offer 10-12 extra inches on average, whereas our Continental Express aircraft will be closer to 7 extra inches
There are only two on the 737-700s, three on the 757-200s and 9 on the 757-300s. The 737-800 and 737-900 planes will have 12 seats each in this configuration. Not too bad, though most of these seats are likely to be filled with OnePass elite members. Plus, I’m not really convinced that the exit row seats on the 737-800 and 737-900 planes really have 10″ of extra legroom. I’ll be bringing my tape measure next time I’m on board.
The seats will be available for purchase starting on March 17, 2010 and will only be available at check-in, not in advance.
Of course, this does open the window for an Economy+ style operation similar to what United Airlines offers. United’s E+ does not offer as much extra legroom as Continental is suggesting and it will be difficult for Continental to maintain this offering while increasing the number of seats available in this setup; their 10-12 inches minimum extra space would be very difficult to accomplish without removing a lot of other seats. Still, the opportunity – and the billing infrastructure – will be in place.
Posted by Seth on February 21, 2010 under frequent flyer |
I’ve not spent very much money to maintain hotel status over the past several years. Since I switched my travel to all personal from a mix of personal and business my total hotel spend has decreased significantly while the number of nights I’m in hotels has stayed the same or increased. That raises a tough issue: Is it worthwhile to pay extra to have the status that loyalty programs bring?
The question has been brought to the forefront for me this week with an email I received from Marriott. They are offering the opportunity to buy back elite status for their Marriott Rewards members and they’re discounting the number of points required for that renewal right now. As Gary has reported, Gold buy-back can be had for 25,000 points, a discount of 15,000 points off the regular price. In my case, the offer is to buy back Silver status for 7,500 points, a 12,500-point savings.
And I still think that both offers are a pretty cruddy deal. The 7,500 points for Silver is the equivalent of one night in a Category 1 level hotel. That’s not all that much money in spend but the value for the spend is pretty much nothing. The value for Gold status is somewhat higher but it still doesn’t make much sense to me. If you’re not actually staying enough to use the benefits why pay extra to have them? Maybe if the interruption in travel was a one-time thing due to a change in travel patterns or something like that, but for me it makes no sense at all. I’m not going to get the value and I know it. No need to spend extra for it.
Posted by Seth on February 16, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Four flights covering 7,400 miles is not really all that much for a weekend of travel. Nothing to sneer at, to be sure, but not a ton of miles covered. The fact that I’m earning 150% credit thanks to the booking class helps to justify the trip, as does the rather great sale fare that I got the tickets at. Plus, there is the fun of flying on Copa Air, a/k/a bizarro-world Continental.
Continental and Copa share a lot of similarities in their operations. That makes sense considering that Continental used to own a decent chunk of the Panamanian carrier. And even now that Continental has divested their ownership share Copa still seems to behave a lot like Continental. They share a frequent flyer program – OnePass – and the Copa flight attendant uniforms strongly represent the last generation of Continental’s, for example. And then there is the fact that their logos are significantly similar and that the two carriers operate with immunity from the United States to Panama and connections beyond. Looking around in the galley on one of the flights I noticed that a couple of the bins are labeled as Continental rather than Copa. Yeah, they are very tight.
But not everything is exactly the same. There are just enough differences to make flying on Copa a somewhat jarring experience. Sure, the upgrades still come through generally (I got all 4 this weekend) but Copa serves real meals on all their flights and serves booze from real bottles rather than minis. As it would be described in India, “Same same, but different.”
I was conscious for three of the four flights this weekend. The first – a 5:07am departure from New York City – I slept through entirely. The others, however, were rather pleasant experiences. We had printed menus on one of the three and the meals were consistent enough that I got to try one of everything that they are serving these days, I think. There were ice cream sundaes at the end of each meal, and that goes a long way towards making a flight a success. Of course, unlike Continental Copa doesn’t serve Grand Marnier on their flights. Instead they offer a “Rum of the Month” program in Classe Ejecutiva and I took full advantage of that. Sortof.
It turns out that this month the catering folks only put the good rum in the carts in the back of the plane. So the first two times I ordered the ron especial I was actually drinking Bacardi. I knew that it wasn’t that good but I just assumed I didn’t like the special rum. It was only on my last fight, flight from Panama City back to New York, that I was able to have the conversation with the flight attendant and understand what was being served and solve that problem. Thank goodness, as the special this month – Abuelo Añejo 12 year – was much, much, much better than the Bacardi. I’m no longer wondering why I have to use so much ginger ale to cut it to provide decent flavor, for example.
Beyond the rum there are a number of other nice things about the Copa experience. Full meals on all the flights, for example. It isn’t gourmet by any stretch but the food is pretty decent. I had steak, chicken and different chicken as my three meals and all were completely tolerable. Sure, there was a strange double salad first course on one of the flights but, well, it didn’t kill me.
Oh, and they serve ice cream sundaes on all the lunch and dinner flights. Yummy!
The food service was also much slower than I’m used to. On one of the flights it was 45 minutes before the flight attendant showed up to ask what we wanted and another 30 minutes before drinks showed up. Certainly not the end of the world, but less attentive than I would expect from most airlines in the forward cabin. There’s a decent enough explanation for the slow service. There is only one flight attendant working in the front cabin, expected to serve 14-16 passengers. It simply isn’t possible for that to play out well. But that’s the way they roll. Maybe they have to since they serve a full meal in coach to the 150+ folks back there and that needs the extra body but it does diminish the service up front a bit.
Beyond the food and booze the flights were a great opportunity to meet people. I was wearing my jetBlue shirt on the outbound flights and that was enough for the guy across the aisle on the JFK-Panama segment to start up a conversation. Turns out that he used to work for jetBlue and now works for Copa in their airport operations group. He commutes between Panama and New York most weekends. We had an interesting conversation about impending expansion of the terminal in Panama City, the needs of the terminal (showers in the Presidents Club!) and how incredibly convenient it is as a connection point heading to Central or South America.
I met Tony, a guy who works in the elevator business. We talked about our shared inability to speak Spanish, random visits to various Central American cities and how to better take advantage of the miles he’s been earning all these years. I truly hope he does better than he has with them because he has never redeemed any and, quite frankly, that is a shame. On the plus side, I think I’ve started the education process for him and explained some of the better options he has with all those points.
And then, sitting in the Presidents Club in Panama City, I saw a guy who was obviously from New York (the Duane Reade bags give it away) and who looked pretty familiar. I introduced myself and it turns out that we had met a while back at a FlyerTalk event. We chatted for a bit in the lounge and then ended up sitting next to each other on the flight back to New York. He was wrapping up a weekend in Buenos Aires and me from Mexico City. Similar stories and adventures though also completely different.
Such is the life of the frequent fliers.
Posted by Seth on February 14, 2010 under Trip Reports |
It seemed like a good idea at the time. I swear. Well, at least sortof.
The price was right and the routing – from JFK to Mexico City, via Panama – was plenty fun, with a decent amount of time in both Panama and Mexico. Plus, the flights earn 150% credit in Continental’s OnePass program, bringing me that much closer to requalification for next year, the 100K EQMs I need for the SWUs and to finally hitting my lifetime million miles status.
Yet, as I left my apartment at 1am to head over to the E train and make my way to the airport I was most definitely questioning my sanity. Sitting on the floor outside the lounge – it is closed until 4am – that questioning is getting stronger. The flight is scheduled to depart at 5:07 am. That would mean a 3:30ish cab at the latest or a 3am subway ride. That’s not much time to sleep which meant that pushing up my departure from home a couple hours didn’t seem all that crazy, even though it did mean no sleep tonight.
Sure, I should get the upgrade so I’ll have a comfortable sleep to curl up in when I get on the plane. And the flight is pretty long so I have an opportunity for several consecutive hours of sleep. That should be nice. And I will be plenty exhausted by the time I get on board so falling asleep shouldn’t be a problem.
But planning a trip that requires heading to the airport at 1am seems quite foolish in retrospect. Of course, I have another trip on the same flight scheduled for the end of March. At least that one will be with a bunch of friends but it is still crazy.
Posted by Seth on February 5, 2010 under Trip Reports, points |
For a guy who doesn’t really love Hawai’i I seem to go there an awful lot. It is hard to complain too much when the airlines offer up a $250ish fare from the New York City area as it is a trip worth a bunch of miles, but I generally don’t really enjoy being there. Of course, I blame that on having stayed in Oahu, specifically in Waikiki Beach, when I get there. I know that there are supposed to be better bits to see and this time around I’m finally going to give that a try. I’m headed to the Big Island.
Today’s trip is a four flight affair, starting with a departure from Newark at 6am and finishing with a puddle-jumper flight from Honolulu to Hilo scheduled to arrive at 8:30pm tonight. Just enough time at each connection to hop into a lounge or two for a snack and then on to the next flight. Assuming everything connects OK (which seems pretty likely so far) I shouldn’t have any troubles other than the fact that it is about 20 hours in transit from my apartment to the bed at the other end.
Map from the totaly awesome Great Circle Mapper tool
Perhaps the best part about the first flight today (EWR-SFO) is that the plane is mostly empty. Normally when flying on United Airlines I’d perform some sort of “upgrade flirt” at the counter or in the lounge to try to get a seat in the Economy Plus section for free (I know it is coming soon enough with Continental OnePass reciprocity but I’m impatient) but this morning I didn’t even bother. The First Class cabin may be booked full on this A319 but the back is wide open. There are at least 10 half rows that have one or zero customers seated there. I traded my seat up near the exit row for 22E, a middle seat in the back.
Just after takeoff I was happily asleep in my lie-flat coach seat, trying to imagine if it would really work with a second passenger cuddled up next to me as Air New Zealand thinks they’ll be able to sell with their new SkyCouch seats. And I still don’t see it working, at least not for customers over 5’ 6” tall.
I awoke from my 3+ hour snooze to one of the more disgusting views I’ve seen on a plane. This:
Seriously, it isn’t your house. I know that it isn’t particularly crowded on board this morning but keep your feet down. Yuck!
Only 15 hours yet to go on this trip. Plenty more nap time and writing time to come.
Related Posts
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 29, 2010 under frequent flyer |
Nearly a year ago American Airlines sent a letter to the IRS defining about 40 different “services” that the carrier offers to its customers. They asked for specific rulings on each of the 40 with respect to § 4261 of the IRS code, the section that covers the specific activities for which the airlines are required to collect and remit taxes. In general such a document wouldn’t be all that interesting, but there are a couple things that this particular one has in it that are worth noting. The impact on taxes for baggage fees has already been covered, and that is reasonably interesting, but there are two specific entries in the services list that describe potential future offerings. These are the two bits that piqued my interests most.
- Service P allows Members to purchase “bonus” Miles (i.e., double or triple miles) on certain flights to be credited to the Member’s Account. Currently, this service is occasionally offered to members free of charge on a limited-time basis. However, Taxpayer is preparing to offer Service P for a fee.
United Airlines currently offers a program similar to that identified as “Service P” above. They call it their Award Accelerator and it is generally a pretty bad deal; the points are too expensive. Continental also offfers something similar with their “Extra Mile” promo every year. So American wouldn’t be breaking new ground with such a more. Still, it would be an interesting move to see American attempt to further monetize their frequent flyer program and cash in on the obsession with points.
- Service CC allows Members to redeem Miles for the purchase of air transportation on Taxpayer’s website. At the time this letter ruling request was issued, Taxpayer was not charging a fee for Service CC. Taxpayer is, however, contemplating implementation of a fee for this service. The fee would be charged at the time of ticketing.
This one is a bit more worrisome from the consumer perspective. It suggests that AA is considering adding a booking fee for reward ticket reservations made through the website. Currently most airlines charge for such reservations when they are booked through the call center. Extending that out to bookings made online would be quite a leap. Currently there are a couple airlines that have such “convenience fees” for bookings but it would be quite a shock for a legacy carrier to start down that route. The verbiage is sufficiently different – “contemplating implementation” versus “preparing to offer” – that it doesn’t seem likely such charges are imminent, but it is out there now and intriguing enough to raise an eyebrow or two.
Related Posts
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.
Related Posts
