Posted by Seth on April 6, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points | 
Now that the necessary government approvals have been received for the absorption of bmi into IAG, parent of British Airways, the company is confirming its exit date from Star Alliance. In just two weeks’ time – April 20th is the target date – bmi will withdraw from the global alliance group as it transitions into the IAG fold and the sale is completed. The company released a FAQ on its Facebook page with some information.
Nothing particularly surprising in the FAQ, really. They note that existing award reservations will be honored, which is only appropriate. They have also stated that they are working to extend some alliance benefits for members, even after they leave the group:
Q. After completion will I still be able to use my benefits on other Star Alliance carriers?
bmi is working with Star Alliance member carriers to ensure that once bmi begins to withdraw from Star Alliance there are opportunities for Diamond Club members to continue to receive certain benefits on the Star Alliance network for an agreed period of time. We will update you as soon as more information becomes available.
This would likely apply to lounge and baggage benefits for top-tier elites, a useful set of benefits to keep as existing tickets are cycled out of the system. Cutting those benefits when they existed at the time of ticketing would be most unfortunate for passengers.
Oh, and Virgin Atlantic is still considering an appeal of the approval, though it seems unlikely to have any impact.
Anyone have a suggestion for what to do with 58K Diamond Club points??
Posted by Seth on March 19, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points |
It was August 2010 when Virgin America announced their plans to offer reciprocal earning and redemption benefits with the other carriers in the Virgin brand. Alas, the frequent flier market works slowly in some cases and after more than a year there was no real news on the redemption side of the deal. That ends this week, with both Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia and Virgin America announcing redemption rates.
I’m focusing on the the rates for Virgin America here, mostly because I find the ranges they cover to be more intriguing than the numbers from the other two. Virgin America has published a calculator that displays the number of points required based on the city pairs that the two partners serve. Even more interesting to me, however, is that the underlying data is contained in a singe easy to download XML file. Drop that file into Excel and throw some filters on it and the data that comes back is quite interesting indeed.
First up, both one-way and round-trip redemptions will be offered. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, there is a penalty for one-way awards relative to return trips. The penalty is generally 5-10,000 points, based on the samples I saw, though one or two did go higher than that, especially in premium cabins.
As for the actual redemption rates, there are definitely some interesting sweet-spots on the chart. JFK to London return is only 35,000 points in Upper Class, for example, which is pretty nice. The down-side is that it also comes with $1100 in taxes and fees to be paid. Also, it is more than double the price of an economy award on the same route (15,000 points + $650 in fees). The fees do track directly with what Virgin Atlantic charges for a revenue booking (the APD and the YQ are both higher in business class) so that’s not completely ridiculous, but with base fares as low as $120ish round trip in economy dropping 15,000 points seems like a REALLY bad idea.
The real fleecing in the program, however, comes when you try to redeem for Business Class awards on Virgin Australia AND you add a connection in the United States. Los Angeles to Brisbane is a rather reasonable 80,000 points up front. Want to connect onward to Chicago? Tack on another 100,000 points. And if you want to go to JFK rather than Chicago it is an extra 50,000 on top of that. Yeah, it is that ridiculous.
And the taxes aren’t particularly great on those fares either. At least the transcon penalty on Virgin Atlantic is only 15,000 points.
Comparing the rates to the value via American Express Membership Rewards – one of the easier ways to accumulate Elevate Points – shows further examples of the limited value. Getting that JFK-London award is 35K Elevate points, which would mean 70K MR points. Redeeming via ANA would allow the same trip for 63K points and roughly the same fees. JFK-Capetown would be 190K MR points via Elevate or 115K via ANA.
Adding these partners is a great thing, in theory, for members of the Elevate program. With the redemption charts the way they look, however, the numbers are not particularly attractive. I’d stay far, far away.
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Tags: American Express, ANA, Australia, award, Chicago, frequent flier, frequent flyer, Los Angeles, Membership Rewards, New York City, points, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia
Posted by Seth on January 18, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points |
The frequent flyer partnership between United Airlines‘ Continental subsidiary and Virgin Atlantic is being terminated as of February 13, 2012. This date is the last for mileage earning or redemption ticket issuance on the partner, with award redemptions valid for one year from that date, assuming they are issued. This isn’t a particularly surprising move, though it is a bit of a downgrade in terms of the MileagePlus program.
The Continental/Virgin relationship made a lot of sense when it was originally launched. Continental had a minimal amount of traffic into London at all and none into Heathrow due to the Bermuda II restrictions. It allowed Continental to market flights into Heathrow under their own code and to sell onward connections using Heathrow as a transit point. Since the establishment of the Open Skies agreement between the US and the EU, however, Continental has had access to Heathrow and has steadily increased flights there. Add in the merger with United and there are only a few cities now where Virgin had nonstop service ex-LHR that the combined United doesn’t and those are less significant today.
The end of the partnership is rather unfortunate on the redemption side of the frequent flyer program in particular as Virgin has often had decent award availability, especially in their Upper Class business class product and especially close to the travel date. I’ve taken advantage of that a couple times and, though I’m not a huge fan of the product, it is still an option being lost which is unfortunate.
Also unfortunate is the timing of the announcement. The company provided barely 4 weeks’ notice of the change, one that they have likely known about for some time. It is a shame that the changes to partners and earning rates are trickling out so slowly as part of the merger process.
Posted by Seth on November 3, 2011 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Continental and Amtrak have been partners for many years, offering the ability to earn OnePass miles on certain routes in the Northeast Corridor as well as the ability to move points between both programs at a 1:1 rate. There are a number of incredibly attractive awards in the Amtrak Guest Rewards program and the fungibility of points between the two programs was a great benefit for members of both. That relationship is coming to an end at the end of the year.
The move is tied to the expiry of the OnePass program as the new United Airlines moves to their new MileagePlus program. Not too much of a surprise there as the partnership is with a program that will be dying. According to Amtrak, they are trying to keep the relationship alive with the new MileagePlus, but that deal has not yet been finalized so they are warning members now of the impending change according to UnRoadWarrior.
This announcement opens as many new questions as it provides answers.
Currently there is reciprocity between the Amtrak and Continental lounge memberships. But that is ending in February and there is not yet a finalized agreement to continue it. Amtrak’s top tier elites also get the lounge benefit and there have been many issues getting it honored in the newly re-branded United Clubs.
There’s also the relationship between Continental and Virgin Atlantic. Back when they didn’t have access to Heathrow the partnership was great for Continental. Now that they do have access to Heathrow – and flights from 6 US gateways – the value of that relationship is certainly lessened. And United has never had that partnership as they had the Heathrow slots. The two carriers both had arrangements with Emirates but both killed them. There’s also Eva on the Continental side (though they’ve applied to become a Star Alliance member) and Qatar on the United side.
Lots of open questions that still need answers. Perhaps this move with Amtrak is a hint. Or not. Nothing like the joys of speculation with minimal data to support a claim.
Posted by Seth on August 18, 2011 under Review, Trip Reports |
The Thai Airways lounges in Bangkok have been oft regaled. Their first class passengers, particularly, are well spoilt with hour-long massages and excellent dining options. Alas, my trip was only departing in business class so I was relegated to the lesser service. I know that the first class treatment must be nicer but the business class option was pretty darn impressive.
Check-in was handled well, with the added bonus of having seats at the check-in counters rather than having to stand while dealing with bag tags and seat assignments. I would have been happier if they tagged my bags all the way through to my final destination rather than just to Johannesburg, but that ended up not making a difference as I had to claim and drop the bags again anyways after clearing customs. And the private security and immigration facilities just for premium passengers was terrific, not in the least because I was the only one in line as I passed through.
Thai operates a bunch of lounges at Suvarnabhumi Airport covering First and Business Class passengers as well as Star Alliance Gold elite members. But they reserve access to the largest lounge for only premium cabin passengers. The services were, in my experience, nearly identical at the main lounge as in the others. Most notable was the presence of a duty free shop inside the biz lounge. And the dedicated lounge was much larger. None of the lounges were particularly crowded while I was there, but I attribute that mostly to my off-peak departure time (6pm) more than anything else. I can imagine that the *G lounges would get quite crowded at peak departure times.
All of the lounges offered up plenty of beverage options as well as various snack foods, ranging from soup to steamed buns to shumai to noodles. I’m drooling again just remembering them.
All the talk I’d previously heard about the first class departures spa and massages neglected to mention that business class passengers also get a complimentary treatment. No, it isn’t an hour long nor a full body work over, but you do get a choice of four half hour treatments. I didn’t realize this until I’d already spent an hour – and most of my preflight lounge time – sitting in the dedicated business class passenger lounge. Whoopsie. Fortunately there was just enough time for me to get my shoulder and neck massage prior to the flight. But shame on me for not doing the research I should have.
Following my massage it was time to meander out to the gate area – about 15 minutes away – and prepare for the flight itself. Thanks to the quality of the pre-flight pampering I was afforded in the lounge and the spa I wasn’t too worried about the in-flight experience.
I’ve been in the Lufthansa First Class Terminal and their dedicated First Class Lounges. I’ve been in the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class lounge. And I’ve been in any number of lounges operated by other carriers for elites and business class passengers. Putting aside the cool factor of the drive from the FCT to the airplane, I’m not sure that much out there beats the quality of the pre-flight pampering that Thai offers is pretty impressive. In the heat of the moment, relaxing following my massage with a glass of tea, I was convinced that it was the best ever. I’ve backed down from that a bit, mostly because the dining options that Lufthansa offers for the FCL/FCT are better by far than the business options that Thai has.
But I could quite reasonably argue that the Thai product is the best Business Class option I’ve experienced. Up against Virgin’s flagship Clubhouse in London‘s Heathrow I’d say that Thai does a quite respectable job. Less crowded, easier access to the spa treatments and better tasting food, if not quite the same variety. No waitress service but the open self-service bar didn’t suck.
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Tags: Bangkok, elite status, London, Lounge, Lufthansa, Photos, RTW2011, Star Alliance, Thai Air, Trip Report, Virgin Atlantic
Posted by Seth on March 22, 2011 under frequent flyer, News |
JetBlue continues to add international interline partners, expanding the number of destinations accessible on a single ticket. Today’s addition of Virgin Atlantic brings connectivity between four airports in the United Kingdom and four JetBlue hub airports in the United States, with onward connections available.
The Virgin Atlantic routes that are being linked are:
- Boston – London (Heathrow)
- New York (Kennedy) – London (Heathrow)
- Orlando – Glasgow
- Orlando – London (Gatwick)
- Orlando – Manchester
- Washington (Dulles) – London (Heathrow)
This is an interline agreement only; there is no frequent flyer program reciprocity yet. Still, always good to see more options appearing for such connections. Flights are only bookable through Virgin Atlantic or travel agents right now but that will likely change in the near future given that JetBlue has recently started offering interline booking directly on its own website for some partners.
One interesting competition note here is that interline connecting flights between Kennedy and Heathrow are now available on both Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines. The flights on American can earn TrueBlue points while the Virgin Atlantic flights cannot. It will be interesting to see if that skews the passenger traffic one direction or the other.
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Posted by Seth on January 3, 2011 under Trip Reports |
It is now the new year, with new goals and new milestones on the horizon. But not too late to take a quick look back at 2010 and the travel milestones I hit during the year. Not surprisingly, the more I travel the harder it is to reach new and different accomplishments. Indeed, 2010 had many fewer than 2009, though in a couple categories it surpassed the previous year.
Perhaps the most significant numbers of the year are the total amount of time in the air:
- 151 segments
- 208378 miles
- 18 days 13:31
Those numbers are “butt-in-seat” and based on the distances between the starting and ending airport as calculated on www.openflights.org. They do not include 500 mile minimums or the like. In most cases the durations are based on wheels up to wheels down as tracked by the appropriate authorities, not the block time of the flight or estimates. The 208K miles is the most ever for me in a calendar year as is the 151 segments.
Of the 151 segments flown, more than half (86, to be precise) were routes I had not flown previously. It is certainly becoming more and more difficult to find new ways to get to different places but I continue to try. New lines and new dots are still of value to me and I’m finding that I’m paying a bit more to get them.
I also passed through 77 airports during the year located in 18 different countries. I actually Immigrated 31 different times, including the various times I returned to the United States. On four of my trips there were multiple foreign countries involved.
I visited 15 distinct countries, plus the USA. Eight of those countries (St. Maarten, Sint Martin, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Togo, Guyana, Morocco and Tunisia) were new to me. Two of the crossings (into Togo and back into Ghana were on foot while the Sint Martin/St. Maarten crossing were by car; The others were all by plane. I also added a new state visited – Idaho – to my list even though I drove over from Spokane to get there rather than flying in.
My travels included flying on 24 different airlines (possibly a few more if regional/express carriers are included by I’m not great at tracking those). Of those 24, 13 were airlines I had not previously flown on (AC, AT, BA, BD, BE, HA, LC, RW, SN, TGY, VS, YV & YX). Again, it is getting much harder to find new ones at reasonable prices but I’m doing my best, including a couple booked for the early part of 2011.
None of my milestones north, south, east or west were new extremes for me this year. Nor was my longest flight (SYD-SFO) longer than previous records. I did get a new shortest flight for my list, one that will almost certainly never be broken.
Somewhat amazingly, of the 151 flights I only had three instances where I was struck by operations so irregular that they caused a missed flight. One of them – during my JetBlue AYCJ adventures wasn’t a big deal and I got back on track without really missing anything along the way. Two others – a US Airways delay out of Belgium and a Royal Air Maroc fiasco in Casablanca – caused me to overnight unexpectedly. The US Air incident wasn’t so bad but the Air Maroc one was pretty awful.
Finally, I managed to pick up five new aircraft types during the year. My favorite was probably the smallest, the Cessna 208 Caravan I, though the
| Saab SF340 was fun, too, and the Embraer 175LR was the best ride of them all.
And I got robbed once where the guy took money directly from my hands and probably a couple more times due to bad negotiating skills in markets. At least I robbed the guy who physically took the cash out of my hand back. |
And while I sit on the airplane now, enjoying a flight from Lufthansa into Frankfurt and on to Munich, I realize that I may only be three days into the new year but I’ve already got a new line for my map and tomorrow will bring another one, along with a rubber duckie souvenir. Not a bad way to start the year.
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Tags: Air Canada, bmi, British Airways, Brussels, Dominican Republic, Embraer, FlyBE, Flying, Ghana, Guyana, LoganAir, Lufthansa, Morocco, Togo, Tunisia, Virgin Atlantic
Posted by Seth on August 10, 2010 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Alas, the coupling isn’t nearly as sexy as it could have been.
Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic are slowly moving forward in their relationship, with the British half announcing today that customers flying on the American carrier’s flights will be able to credit their travel to the Flying Club frequent flyer program rather than Elevate if desired. This is a nice improvement, especially given the breadth of other partners that Flying Club has for good earning potential. Still, it is limited in several ways to the point of being less than great news.
For starters, flying on the less expensive fares will only earn half credit; only the most expensive fare classes like refundable Main Cabin fares or Main Cabin Select will earn full credit. That’s unfortunate but somewhat understandable, especially considering the similar limitations that Virgin Atlantic applies to their own flights and to other partners. Additionally, the partnership is only for earning: no redemption on Virgin America yet. Plus, it is only in one direction: no earning in Elevate for Virgin Atlantic flights. Turns out that you can earn in Elevate for flying on Virgin Atlantic, too. The rates are miserable – as low as 10% on some fares and maxing out at only 60% – but at least the option is there.
Still, for someone who doesn’t mind the fuel surcharges that Flying Club charges on redemptions and who has lots of Hertz rentals and Hilton stays, the ability to rack up points in Flying Club isn’t all that horrible. And being able to add the occasional Virgin America flight to that pool rather than abandoning it in Elevate is a nice option.
Growing partnerships are always nice to see, even if they are not perfect. This development certainly falls in to that category.
Posted by Seth on July 23, 2010 under News |
The rumors surrounding the cabin configuration for Virgin Atlantic’s new Airbus A330 deliveries have been swirling for some time now. Today the company has confirmed that they will take delivery of “the first batch” of the planes with only Premium Economy and Economy cabins. There will be no Upper Class on these planes.
The comment about later A330s including Upper Class is somewhat promising but it is not clear if the aircraft delivered without will be retrofit or if the carrier will be operating some aircraft without their premium cabin. Rumor has it that the Upper Class cabin will not be available because the carrier cannot get the seats they want in time for the initial deliveries. That would suggest that the aircraft will eventually be refit. Then again, the company has reduced the Upper Class capacity on a number of their Boeing 747-400 aircraft suggesting that they are seeing a decline in demand for the product in some markets. Either way, the introduction of aircraft without the premium cabin is not good for folks looking to enjoy the Virgin Upper Class experience.
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Posted by Seth on July 7, 2010 under Flying, Trip Reports |
The last of the ten flights on our vacation in Scotland was the late night Virgin Atlantic service from London’s Heathrow to Newark. This wasn’t our original plan – we had intended to come home on the Continental non-stop from Glasgow – but a couple last minute changes happened and the reward inventory was there so a quick call to Continental had our tickets changed and the new itinerary booked. We’ve done the same Virgin Atlantic flight before (on the same aircraft, it turns out) and it is pleasant enough but I’m struggling to figure out why some folks are so completely in love with it.
Don’t get me wrong. It is a decent business class product, perhaps even a very strong one, but this is my second experience and, well, it is really not THAT special. Okay, I’m typing this sitting at the bar on the plane after standing at the same said bar for well over two hours and chatting up a few other passengers and drinking my fair share of Grey Goose. Plus I was able to spend a couple hours in the Clubhouse in London. Truly it isn’t a bad experience. But there are a lot of little things that add up in the overall experience that detract from it.
As a well traveled friend of mine said to me that afternoon, “LHR Clubhouse is IMPRESSIVE yet somehow not SPECIAL” I couldn’t agree more. It is certainly a great place to spend a few hours on the way back to the United States and it is a great lounge, but I’m still not convinced that I should schedule travel based on transiting LHR and the Clubhouse.
Read more of this article »
Posted by Seth on July 5, 2010 under frequent flyer, points, Trip Reports |
So I’m somewhere vaguely south of Greenland right now. I’m sitting at the Upper Class bar of a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-300 on the late night flight from London to Newark. This isn’t the flight I originally booked and certainly not the flight I expected to be on tonight but, well, life is funny sometimes.
Still, I’ve taken ten flights in the past eleven days and this one is just fine. The good news is that I can still name all ten of the flights. The itinerary was EWR-LHR//LHR-ABZ-LSI//LSI-KOI-WRY-PPW//WRY-KOI//KOI-EDI//EDI-LHR-EWR.That last bit was supposed to be GLA-EWR but, well, life got in the way so there was a change of plans. It meant an extra flight and it also meant a visit to the Clubhouse and a flight on an extra new airline for me – bmi. Yes, I have over 300,000 points accrued in the bmi Diamond Club frequent flyer program but until today I had never flown with them. And I’m not alone in that aspect of my usage of the program.
In addition to bmi, I also go my first flights on FlyBE, British Airways and LoganAir during the trip. Six new airports, four new airlines and one trip on the world’s shortest commercial flight. Plus some awesome experiences in Scotland. Not bad at all.
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