Posted by Seth on June 10, 2010 under News, frequent flyer, points | 
Delta has announced a triple miles promotion for the summer. The promotion covers three routes – all the Delta Shuttle operations – and offers the bonus on both reward miles and Medallion Qualifying Miles. Registration is required (you can do so here).
The promo is valid for all travel between New York City’s LaGuardia and Boston (BOS), Washington, DC (DCA) and the new service to Chicago’s O’Hare (ORD). The new Shuttle service to O’Hare includes 11 daily round-trip flights on weekdays. The promotion is valid from June 14th – the launch date of the LGA-ORD service – through August 31, 2010.
In order to qualify the flights must be operated by Delta or a Delta Connection carrier and must be on the non-stops between the cities in question. Also, the 3x calculation is based on the actual miles, not the 500 mile minimum for elites.
More details on the promotion can be found here.
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Posted by Seth on May 4, 2010 under News |
The Department of Transportation (DoT) issued a ruling this afternoon denying the attempt by Delta and US Airways to dictate the terms of landing slot divestitures as part of a mega deal between the two carriers. The initial deal was announced last August, with Delta to gain over 120 slot pairs at LaGuardia and US Airways to gain more than 40 at National Airport in Washington, DC. The DoT had issues with that plan and suggested that the two carriers would need to divest some of those slots to offer other airlines the ability to become more competitive in the NYC and DC markets.
So then, in late March, the two carriers announced a plan to offer a number of slots to competitors. No, they didn’t offer quite as many as the DoT initially requested, but it was pretty close. And the swaps announced did offer a lot of competition. Most notable was the US Airways deal with JetBlue, bringing that carrier into National for the first time. But, in a ruling today, the DoT has stated that the plans drawn up by Delta, US Airways and the other five carriers are insufficient.
Why? Because the slot divestiture was not conducted as a blind auction. In other words, the two carriers should not have been permitted to negotiate with other airlines to get the best deal possible for the slots they are being forced to give up. They must, instead, simply place them up for grabs and hope that the revenue they realize is good enough. Odds are the prices will be similar enough, but it is hard to know for sure.
The other objection, one raised most vocally by Southwest, is that the airlines should not be allowed to choose their competitors. This makes a bit of sense coming from Southwest; they are not shy about their desire to acquire more slots at LaGuardia. But there is also nothing stopping them from pursuing those slots on the open market. If the price is right someone will be willing to sell the slots, right?
And so it is back to the drawing board, and the courthouse. Delta and US Airways have announced their intentions to appeal the ruling.
There are no winners in this decision – consumers lost, communities lost and our employees lost. Even our competitors lost.
Yeah, they’re not too happy about this at all. And I’m guessing that a few others are pretty annoyed, too, including JetBlue. The good news is that JetBlue still has eight slot pairs that it acquired in a deal with American Airlines. But those extra five would have been pretty nice to have.
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Posted by Seth on April 28, 2010 under News |
Just announced on the quarterly earnings conference call:
- 7x daily DCA-BOS
- 1x daily DCA-FLL
- 1x daily DCA-MCO
That makes a lot more sense than trying to get Charlotte or JFK on the schedule. There is competition on all these routes, most notably from US Airways on all three routes, but also from Delta, American Airlines, Spirit Air and AirTran.
The new flights put JetBlue in the drivers seat on traffic between Boston and the DC area, with 18 daily departures amongst the three airports. The fight for Boston is going to be fun to watch…
The new flights are bookable now at jetblue.com, with some good sales out there for travel prior to December 15, 2010.
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Posted by Seth on April 27, 2010 under News |
As the expected recipient of a number of slots at Washington, DC’s National Airport (DCA), there has been much speculation about which routes JetBlue would launch service on. A hint may have been received this evening as fares were loaded into the Global Distribution Systems that are used to feed data to all the booking engines world-wide. Specifically, fares were loaded for service between DCA and New York City’s JFK, Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and Charlotte.
Searches for fares to a number of other cities return no results. This certainly is not conclusive evidence of their route planning strategy, but it does yield some ideas. None of these flights are loaded into any schedules yet, at least not those that are publicly available.
Want to be able to search for fares and schedules like those above? Check out The Wandering Aramean Travel Tools. Pretty good stuff, really.
Posted by Seth on March 31, 2010 under News, frequent flyer |
American Airlines and jetBlue announced an agreement today that will see the carriers begin to sell flights on each other’s metal and also shift a number of landing slots around. American will cede eight slot pairs at Washington, DC’s National Airport to jetBlue in exchange for twelve slot pairs at New York City’s JFK airport. jetBlue will remain the leading carrier at JFK measured by frequencies even after this swap. At the same time, in conjunction with the five slot pairs at National that they are expected to acquire from US Airways, jetBlue will be able to build a significant operation up very quickly at the airport starting late this year.
In addition to the slot swap the two carriers have announced plans to offer interline connections to each others’ flights at JFK and in Boston. American Airlines’ customers will be able to leverage jetBlue’s position as the leading domestic carrier at both of these airports by booking single tickets through for routes where AA doesn’t offer service but jetBlue does. At the same time, jetBlue customers will be able to book connections onto AA’s international flights through the two airports. American is second only to Delta in international operations at JFK, offering connections to London, deep South America, Tokyo and a number of destinations in continental Europe. AA is also a leader in the transatlantic market in Boston.
It should be noted that, at this time, the agreement does not specify code-sharing between the two carriers or interline ticketing beyond the very specific destinations. It is a very limited partnership, at least for now. Mostly it means a single ticket can be issued for the connections and that luggage can be checked at the originating jetBlue station for outbound long-haul international travel.
Of course, any discussion such as this one leads to questions about additional tie-ups in operations and in the loyalty programs. And, this announcement still leaves plenty of opportunities and options, but no definitive answers on most of those issues. Will jetBlue be joining up with OneWorld, the global alliance that AA is a major player in? Not right now but the future is wide open? What about jetBlue’s interline agreements with partial owner Lufthansa and with Aer Lingus? Both of those will continue as they have been operating previously. Oh, and still no details on how the frequent flyer loyalty programs will integrate in terms of earning points or other benefits across the new partnership.
For American this seems to be a move to retain market share in the transatlantic market. They currently offer very few onward destinations for passengers connecting through JFK who aren’t staying in New York City. The move will allow them to increase that coverage significantly with a minimal investment. For jetBlue the ability to attract customers who are keen to travel more outside the Americas is a significant hole in their route network that they will be able to better fill now.
In many ways this partnership seems to be placing jetBlue into a role similar to that of Alaska Airlines. They provide a broad regional coverage and partner with a number of different airlines from a variety of alliances. They don’t have to declare loyalty to just one alliance and they don’t have to fully integrate their loyalty scheme with those programs. They forge alliances of convenience and partner to fill strategic gaps. Customers from both sides win and the airlines are able to grow without significant capital outlay.
At this point it probably doesn’t make too much sense for jetBlue to join one of the global alliances, particularly given their strong position at JFK and Boston and their ability to strike opportune partnerships to improve their route footprint with whichever partner presents that opportunity to them at a particular connection point.
Tags: Aer Lingus, Alaska Air, American Airlines, Delta, frequent flyer, JetBlue, London, Lufthansa, New York City, OneWorld, Tokyo, Washington DC
Posted by Seth on March 23, 2010 under News |
When last we met, Delta and US Airways were in the middle of negotiations on one of the largest airline operations reallocations in recent memory. The two carriers were going to be trading over 150 slot pairs at New York City’s La Guardia and Washington, DC’s National airports. But that was seven months ago and since then both the US Air pilots’ union and the FAA have had some comments about the proposed move. The FAA was insistent that some of the slots be given over to limited incumbent carriers or to new entrants at the two airports. As of yesterday it appears that some agreements have been reached to make the swaps happen.
Delta will be giving up 15 of its 125 new slot pairs at LaGuardia, selling five each to AirTran, Spirit Air and WestJet. WestJet would be a new entrant at LaGuardia while AirTran and Spirit are considered limited incumbents based on their relatively minimal operations there. Spirit currently operates 11 daily departures, mostly to their hub in Ft. Lauderdale; AirTrain operates 18 daily flights to five destinations, 9 of them are to their Atlanta Hub. WestJet currently serves the New York City area with service to Newark airport and it is not clear whether they intend to move that service to LaGuardia or operate to both facilities going forward.
In Washington, US Airways will receive 42 new slot pairs, of which five will be ceded to jetBlue as a new entrant to the market. jetBlue currently has significant operations at Dulles airport but no service into National and has previously expressed interest in starting service there should slots become available. That opportunity appears to be on the horizon for them.
This deal is still subject to approval from the FAA and such approval should not be assumed. Previously the FAA suggested that 20 of the LaGuardia slots and 14 of the National slots would need to be shed. The proposal from the airlines doesn’t quite meet those targets. Still, with the number of other carriers involved it does seem likely that the deal will be approved. Of course, the pilots might still find a way to interfere.
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Posted by Seth on February 26, 2010 under Trip Reports |
And it sucks. Mostly because I found alternate flight options and the folks at Continental were unwilling to rebook them and then when I finally found someone who would the flights were sold out. But that’s just part of the fun.
Trying to get to Las Vegas out of anywhere in the Washington, DC – Boston area and not having much luck at all. Sure, I found options. The first couple were even codeshare partners with Continental. But the first call got disconnected after 30 minutes and the second was a rather unhelpful agent. The third got me a helpful agent but in the intervening 90 minutes all the flight options had disappeared. Not good at all.
Still trying to find other options but the well appears to have gone dry. I’m not happy about it at all.
At least I got to watch the cool snow melting machine in operation here at Newark:
UPDATE (11:07am): My original flight was reinstated and I got a better seat out of the deal. Now just delayed 4 hours. Here’s hoping it actually flies…
Posted by Seth on February 9, 2010 under News |
There is serious snow due in the mid-Atlantic – stretching from Washington, DC to New York City – between this evening and tomorrow. Depending on which forecast you believe the accumulations will range up to 18” in various areas. And the airlines are pretty much just giving up. The realize that odds are they won’t actually be able to operate anywhere close to on schedule so they simply aren’t bothering to try. Here are some of the highlights from a couple carriers.
Continental: (details)
- LGA – All flights canceled effective 8am Wednesday, February 10
- EWR – All flights canceled for February 10 except for the three long-haul arrivals already in the air (TLV, DEL, BOM) when the decision was made this afternoon
- PHL – All flights canceled until at least Wednesday night
- PIT, BWI, DCA, IAD – All service canceled until 11am Thursday, February 11
- PVD – Likely cancelation of service to CLE on the afternoon of February 10
jetBlue:
will suspend the majority of operations to and from the following cities for Wednesday, Feb. 10 due to a forecasted severe winter snowstorm:
- John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia in New York City
- White Plains/Westchester County Airport
- Newark Liberty Airport
It seems that only one runway is expected to be in operation at Dulles and nothing at National. Newark is going to be pretty much shut down. LaGuardia and Philly, too. I’m really glad that I’m not flying during this mess. I just hope that the system is functional enough by Sunday that my flights are operating.
Posted by Seth on January 13, 2010 under News |
Amtrak has announced that they are joining the ranks of the various other commercial transit means – namely planes and buses – and adding wifi connectivity to the Acela Express line plying routes between Washington, DC and Boston. The service is being rolled out as part of the 2010 cabin upgrades on the Acela Express fleet and is expected to be complete in March. The service will be “initially free” though there is no indication what the duration of that free service will be or what the pricing will be when that expires.
Nice to see that Amtrak is signing on for such an endeavor, though the lack of details makes the value of this offering a bit uncertain right now. Then again, paying for a day’s worth of access for the trip on Acela almost certainly means getting more time online for your money than a similar charge on a flight or in an airport. It will be interesting to see if Acela can team with the providers in the major stations along the route which also offer internet service to put together a package deal for customers or if it will still be a la carte throughout the journey.
Posted by Seth on January 8, 2010 under points |
Amtrak is pretty good at keeping promos alive for their Guest Rewards program. They expire every few months but there is always another promo right behind it. This winter is no exception and there are two promos out there now for folks who ride in the northeast corridor (Washington, DC – Boston).
Promo number 1 is for Acela riders, a/k/a folks on expense accounts who don’t mind paying double to save minimal amounts of time. And, yes, I’ve done it, too. The promo is for one free round-trip Acela ride for three paid trips (or six paid one-ways). Not too terrible a deal as you also earn the regular AGR points on the rides. The freebie will be valid from June 1 – August 31, 2010 and is not valid for peak weekday trains. A minimum spend of $85 each way applies, a maximum of two one-ways can be credited per day and a maximum of 8 reward can be earned so there isn’t a huge arbitrage opportunity here, but for folks who are regularly riding on Acela the deal is pretty decent. Registration is here.
Promo number 2 is for non-Acela riders in the northeast corridor. The details are reasonably similar though the spend minimum is lower. Thanks to Gary for sharing the details on that one.
I do find it somewhat interesting that I got the Acela promo rather than the regional trains one. I guess they are mining their data pretty well to figure out who does what more often. I appreciate that.
Posted by Seth on December 23, 2009 under Flying, News |
The weather last weekend from Washington, DC to Boston was pretty miserable for folks looking to fly. I had a blast watching the almost foot of snow pile up on the back deck and then wandering through Manhattan the following morning but I know that the airports, airlines and passengers didn’t fare so well. Just how badly they fared, however, is interesting to look at.
In Washington, DC, both United and Delta cancelled all of their flights in and out for the duration of the storm. They didn’t have much choice as the airports were shut down for several hours. United got back up and running pretty quickly while Delta was a bit slower to get started. It makes sense as Dulles is a major hub for United. Plus, Delta did send in a few extra planes late on Sunday to help move passengers around.
In New York City there were also a large number of flights canceled. Delta, United, jetBlue and Continental all had to cancel a number of flights. jetBlue seemed to keep operating the longest, running flights into JFK well after the others had stopped on Saturday night. Yes, it was still snowing, but the airport had their ground operations crews working hard to make sure that the runways were safe and jetBlue had just a few extra planeloads of passengers that they didn’t end up stranding. Again, it is a hub operation so it makes sense that they were focused on keeping things operating as much as possible.
JFK is also a hub for Delta, however, and they didn’t come out of the snow too well there. They canceled the vast majority of their transcontinental flights out of JFK on Sunday (only 2/11 flew) while the other carriers operated about 80% of their transcon routes. Delta didn’t send one single plane from JFK to Florida on Sunday. After the snow had stopped. They should have had crew available since those folks didn’t fly on Saturday. Ditto for aircraft. Yet they didn’t. Why not?
The icing on the cake for Delta, of course, is that with all the cancelations and the increased load factors in play right now – a function of the holiday travel season and significant capacity cuts in the industry – they aren’t able to get passengers rebooked very easily. This came to a head yesterday when police were called to handle passengers delayed 3 days trying to get back to Haiti. When the folks think that Haiti is better than the service and facilities you’re providing you know there are some serious issues. At least Delta finally stepped up and added a special flight for today to get those folks home.
Continental seemed to come out of the mess relatively unscathed. Sure, they canceled a bunch of flights just like everyone else, but they didn’t seem to have too many crises come out of the efforts. And they were able to get up and running on Sunday morning with a pretty full schedule operating.
US Airways proved true to form from a customer service perspective. They were boarding and upgrading non-revenue passengers rather than paying customers. They told standby passengers that flights were full and then sent the flights out with empty seats. Bad form.
And lest anyone think the troubles were isolated to the United States, folks over in Europe didn’t fare much better. Combining two package tour companies going out of business in the past week and some storms there and things are not good. Brussels was closed for several hours as were the London airports. Fortunately British Airways had some spare wide-body aircraft around to help cover for the cancellations but things aren’t pretty there either.
With predictions of a White Christmas in NYC this year we could be looking at a repeat performance again this weekend. I’m glad to be flying out on Thursday evening before the fun really starts.
