Posted by Seth on May 14, 2010 under frequent flyer, News, points | 
AirTran is no stranger to poking fun at other airlines and doing what they can to poach frequent flyers from those carriers. They basically have no shame in that regard. And why should they? Marketing is all about going after the customers, right? Being able to do so with a sense of humor is an added bonus. In the case of their latest promotion, they’re going after the Midwest/Frontier combination in Milwaukee, and once again they’re being creative about it.
For starters, they are offering a status match to anyone who holds Midwest Miles Aspire or Executive status. Those customers can become AirTran A+ Elite simply by submitting a request. Considering the reciprocity between the AirTran and Frontier programs that is now coming to an end this makes sense as an effort to hold on to those customers.
And then there is the creative part. AirTran is also offering Midwest Miles members the opportunity to earn AirTran A+ credits simply by redeeming their Midwest miles. Yes, there are some restrictions. Midwest Miles members must redeem their miles for a charity donation through the Midwest program. Credit in the A+ program will only be earned at the 50,000 and 100,000 levels of donations/redemptions. But if someone chooses to redeem their miles that way they essentially can convert the reward miles from one program to the other – causing a donation to be made in the process – and the devaluation of the points isn’t all that horrible.
Like I said, quite a creative way to gain customers. And now that the new Midwest/Frontier is no longer Milwaukee’s hometown airline there is decent motivation for those customers to go looking.
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Posted by Seth on April 10, 2010 under Trip Reports |
In addition to a phenomenal grilled cheese sandwich at the little kiosk at the T of the Midwest terminal in Milwaukee, there are some great views of the runways. During my 3ish hour layover I mostly just sat there watching the planes come and go. In addition to a whole bunch of Embraer ERJs and E-Jets there were a few 737s to be seen. There were also a C-130 and a KC-135 tanker from the Air Force and Air National Guard base that the airport shares a runway with. A bit of glare from the sun on the windows, but overall a great plane spotting opportunity from inside the terminal.
After getting my fill of plane spotting it was over to the gate to wait for the minor delay (only an hour) and then to hop on my flight over to Minneapolis. The flight was thoroughly uneventful and I had an empty seat next to me, so plenty of room. And they had enough cookies to serve a full plane so the flight attendant was pimping out the extras to anyone willing to listen. I may have had more than one.
A short flight over to Minneapolis and then some top-notch views of the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Into downtown on the light rail and met up with a friend for dinner at The Local. I even managed to score an elite upgrade at the Westin on an ineligible rate.
Good times all around, and a solid start to the week-long adventure.
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Posted by Seth on April 9, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Every trip is an adventure. There is always something a bit strange or exciting that happens along the way. Those are often moments of panic or disbelief at the time and are great stories later on. For this week’s mileage run I managed to have the first of what I imagine will be several of such events well before I even started the trip. Twenty-two hours prior, to be precise.
Early Thursday afternoon I started thinking about packing for the trip. Not actually packing – that would wait for the morning of departure – but at least I was thinking about it, mostly because i received the email from Midwest reminding me to check in online for my flights. So I clicked the link and dutifully filled out all the information: name, reservation number and departure city. The system spit back an error indicating that the reservation didn’t exist.
Ruh roh.
So I went back and made sure that I hadn’t misspelled my name and that I hadn’t made an error on the reservation number. Both were correct, but still no love from the website. No way I messed up the date of the reservation, right? After all, I di get the Online Check-in email and that only comes at 24 hours out. Something must not be right.
And something was very wrong. Me. I had the wrong departure airport in the form. I had no idea that I was flying from Newark rather than LaGuardia. At least I figured it out well before my initial departure time and was able to plan appropriately.
Coincidentally enough, riding on NJ Transit out to the airport this morning I was sitting next to a couple who were flying on Continental from New York City to Houston. We were just pul
ling in to the station at Newark when they realized that their flight was actually booked from LaGuardia. Apparently it was not just me having troubles with that.
All in all, not a terrible way to start the run. The flight was on-time getting out of Newark and karma managed to get me a decent seat on the plane in the end. I was originally assigned 6D – a window – on the Embraer ERJ-145 for the flight to Milwaukee. The mother/son pair boarding behind me asked the flight attendant if it was possible to move seats around so they could sit together. One of them had 6C. So I gave them my 6D and took 16C, way in the back and on the aisle. Not my ideal seat assignment but the family together is a good thing and no real trouble sitting back there for the couple hours in the air. I also happened to notice that 12D, the exit row, was still empty. Midwest charges extra for that seat and I’m not going to pay extra for it, but if I can convince the flight attendant that my trading seats at boarding is worth the “upgrade” then why not? She had, unfortunately, already promised the seat to someone else. Bummer. And then, just before closing the door, she came back to let me know that 4A was open and waiting for me. Aisle and window and up near the front of the plane. That’s about as close as one can get to an upgrade on the ERJ-145 once row 12 is gone so I’m calling it a win.
Oh, and cookies on the flight, too.
Overall, the initial experience on Midwest was about what I expected. Nothing special in Newark and just another flight on the ERJ, but the flight attendant is friendly enough and I got a cookie and a full can of soda just for asking. Not much to complain about there. There are cameras in the plane cabin. I don’t think I mind that too much, but it is strange to see them mounted on the bulkhead walls pointing back at the passengers.
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