View from the Wing

I don’t plan to blog again until June 18th. See you in a few weeks!

Canadians can get a Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum card from RBC Bank.

The annual fee is stiff at CA$150, but the card earns 1 AsiaMile per Canadian dollar spent — pretty good earning — on top of the 5000 AsiaMiles with first purchase.

The AsiaMiles program permits upgrading on British Airways and American in addition to Cathay Pacific, and some of its awards are incredible values. 60,000 AsiaMiles buys you a business class award of less than 5000 miles each way. That would yield a British Airways ticket from the U.S. East Coast to most destinations in Europe. American charges 50,000 miles in coach for that.

AsiaMiles is my program of choice for transferring eBay Anything Points, by the way, since 1 eBay point yields slightly more than 1 AsiaMile.

Gulf Air is offering triple miles through June 15 on several routes

The offer is valid for Economy Class travel from Abu Dhabi or Dubai to: Bahrain, Beirut, Frankfurt, Kuwait, London and Paris; from Bahrain to: Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Dubai, Frankfurt, Kuwait, London and Paris; from Doha to: Bahrain, Beirut, Dubai, Frankfurt, Kuwait, London and Paris, and from Muscat to: Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Beirut, Dubai, Frankfurt, Kuwait, London and Paris between 16 May and 15 June 2005.

Virgin Atlantic is offering double points and elite status matches, sensing an opportunity to poach frustrated Qantas flyers.

In the middle of the month, Starwood ran a promotion offering 25% off hotel night award redemption for platinum members.

They apparently had some bumps in notifying members (though readers of this blog were well-informed).

As a result, they’ve extended the offer. Via Starwood Lurker on Flyertalk:

[T]hrough midnight Eastern US time on Monday, May 30th, Platinum members can make their plans online at spg.com and then call the Platinum Concierge line to make use of the FRED redemption code for a 25% off savings. The same Terms and Conditions apply that were in effect previously. This is for award stays booked through Wednesday, August 31st only.

QUICK PATHS TO STATUS

• American Airlines elite challenges, where you can earn status with only a little bit of flying.
  

• 
  Delta Silver Status with a Single Flight
  

• 
  Instant Hilton Gold status
  

• 
  2 United Red Carpet Club passes and Starwood Gold status for $10

ADVICE

• Myths and Reality Obtaining Airline Upgrades
  

• 
  Upgrading at Hotels (by the way, here’s how to ask for the Presidential Suite).
  

• 
  Whose Miles are the Most Valuable?
  

• 
  Why you should spend all your miles now, and then earn more
  

• 
  Dealing with Jetlag
  

• Best Mileage Earning Credit Cards
  

• 
  How to find the best airfare deals
  

• 
  How to find the best hotel deals
  

• 
  Redeem your Priority Club points for the Presidential Suite at various Intercontinental hotels.

HUMOR

• Tips for fighting terrorism
  

• 
  You know you think about miles too much when…

MILEAGE BONUSES

• 30 United or Northwest miles per dollar at FTD
  

• 
  Receiving lucrative credit card signup bonuses over and over
  

• Earn miles for all your online shopping
  

• 
  Northwest Fly Free Faster 5
  

• 
  Triple United Miles for Dining
  

• 
  300 free Priority Club points

LINKS

• KVS Availability Tool, searches airline schedules and fare classes
  

• 
  DeskPort, tracks mileage balances in all your programs
  

• 
  Free Frequent Flyer Miles, a phenomenal repository of mileage offers
  

• FareAlert.net, an email list for error fares
  

• SeatGuru, always pick the best seat on the plane

Register by May 31 to earn 1000 bonus points on each of your next three Hilton stays between June 13 and September 30.

You need to be a National Car Rental Emerald Club member, you can join with the $50 fee waived here.

This actually sounds like a fascinating way to spend a few days

Card Forum is the largest event in the card industry, with nearly 1,000 card issuers, banks and service providers converging at the Omni Orlando Resort for three information-packed days of educational sessions and networking that focused on loyalty and multi-channel marketing, stored value/pre-paid, and credit and debit.

Back in November I reported that Qantas had gutted its frequent flyer award chart, with awards increasing in price as much as 92% (Sydney to New York-JFK in First class was going up to 392,000 points)!

It should come as no surprise that Qantas frequent flyer members reacted to this news by booking as many international awards as they possibly could before the new point requirements went into effect, and as a result there are reports of very limited award availability — that most of the international awards on Qantas have simply been snatched up.

It’s difficult to know the real numbers without a systematic award search, but the theory itself seems plausible.

Ripped from the FareAlert email list

A great way to start the weekend… $0 base fare + taxes on American Airlines from London Gatwick and Manchester to Cleveland. Valid for travel from August 22-31, 2005.



Bookable on Expedia and possibly other sites as well. Valid ONLY from the UK to the USA, not the other way around.



Please see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=434800 for more information.

The press release is here.

As expected, USAirways is essentially being acquired by America West, though the airline will operate with the USAirways name.

Significant cash will be added to the merged airline through the deal, including $75 million from Air Canada. This participation suggests to me that the combined airline will be a member of the Star Alliance.

Of particular interest to me,

$300 million in a signing bonus and a loan from prospective affinity credit card providers for the merged company. Negotiations with credit card companies are still in progress.

Bank of America currently issues the affinity cards for USAirways and America West both.

Now, this is the part of the press release that I simply don’t believe:

The $600 million in anticipated annual synergies are the result of route restructuring, revenue synergies and cost savings.

Heh. $600 million a year from synergies. What are they?

Route restructuring synergies of approximately $150-200 million are created by reducing aircraft and unprofitable flying, better matching aircraft size to consumer demand by route and incorporating Hawaii service into the network.

Why were they flying unprofitable routes to begin with, and how does the merger overcome the problem? In part, fuel and labor costs drove this, and in part low cost competition. The merger doesn’t really solve either of those. They can drop routes, but in many cases they choose not to because flying covers marginal costs but not the cost of capital. A merger doesn’t change that dynamic.

Props to Randy Petersen, though, who predicted new Hawaii service by the combined carrier.

Revenue synergies of $150-200 million are achieved by taking two largely regional airlines and creating one nationwide, low-cost carrier that can provide more choice for consumers when combined with improving connectivity across both airlines’ networks and by increasing aircraft and other asset utilization.

Maybe. This one has some chance — the bet is increasing returns to scale.

Lastly, the combined airline expects to realize cost synergies of $250-300 million annually by reducing administrative overhead, consolidating both airlines’ information technology systems and combining facilities.

Not bloody likely. Combining IT systems will probably be a hugely expensive proposition in the near and medium-term.

Gratis Internet, the people who brought you the free iPod and free digital camera, have a new promotion for a free X-box 360. These folks are seriously quick — it was only unveiled a week ago. This thing has wireless controllers, HD gaming, iPod compatibility and online features out of the box.

Now, it won’t ship for several months, but I’m hoping to be one of the first ones to get it through the Gratis free offer. After all, I’ve already finished all their other offers.

Randy Petersen has a new post up on his blog, imagining what an America West-USAirways tie-up would mean for integration of the two airlines’ frequent flyer programs.

He believes a merger or acquisition would be on the whole good for members

• miles would be far safer
  
• integration would happen over a couple of years with reciprocal space available upgrades for elites introduced quickly
  
• new redemption options would be introduced
  
• partners would be streamlined so some current relationships would disappear

Expedia is offering $100 off an American Airlines flight when you purchase a hotel together with it using coupon code SAVE100. Book by May 25 for travel through the end of the year.

Travelzoo has the Venetian from $100/night. That’s the best price I’ve seen for the property outside of Priceline.

Had some pretty good dim sum for lunch today at Mark’s Duck House. If you find yourself in Northern Virginia, it’s worth going. Got out of there at $20 for two people.

And if you’re in DC needing a hip place for dinner with good food and excellent service, recently I’ve been a big fan of IndeBleu. It’s Indian-French fusion, decor is straight out of a W Hotel, and the staff were brought in from European charm schools. Outstanding, though a bit pricey. The biggest driver of cost is that the menu is set up as four courses. I keep it affordable by ordering a couple of second courses, using one as my main.

For what it’s worth people seem to like my restaurant recommendations. A large contingent of my office came back from Miami raving about Las Culebrinas, a great little Cuban restaurant on the corner of 47th and Flagler. Clientele is mostly Cuban and the staff speaks mostly Spanish. Portions are huge and prices are low. Go to the one I recommend, not to their other location in Coral Gables.

Air Canada may be on the verge of spinning off its Aeroplan frequent flyer program with details being finalized as soon as the end of this week.

They tried this a couple years ago, but details of their bankruptcy and reorganization financing stood in the way.

Word is the program is being valued at about US$1.18 billion, down slightly from earlier estimates.

Northwest’s annual Fly Free Faster promotion is back. You can register now.

Fly Free Faster 5 offers 10,000 bonus miles for completing a qualifying activity and earning five partner credits between June 1 and September 30 (so hold your guns and don’t go flying Northwest yet!).

Qualifying activities include:

• taking two domestic roundtrips or one international roundtrip (or four or two one-ways, respectively) on Northwest or KLM
  
• signing up and paying the fee for a Northwest Visa
  
• purchasing a WorldClub membership

I’ve had the Northwest Visa and Northwest Business Visa in the past. I’m going to sign up for the Northwest Signature Visa, a new product, and earn the 15,000 bonus miles for the $90 annual fee.

You can earn two partner credits for each of:

• new service with MCI, EarthLink, Nextel, or T-Mobile
  
• real estate transaction with LendingTree
  
• purchasing 5,000 or more miles from the WorldPerks Buy & Gift Miles program.

You can earn a single partner credit for each of:

• stay at any qualifying hotel partner (and direct that stay to earn Northwest miles)
  
• Rent from any qualifying car rental partner (and direct the rental car to earn Northwest miles)
  
• Shop through the WorldPerks Mall (requires spending a minimum of $25 on a single item to qualify, you can earn one credit for each mall merchant)
  
• Earn Northwest miles at an iDine restaurant (up to 3 credits for separate dines)

There are other partner options as well, and it’s always best to check the actual terms and conditions of the offer first (and for that matter, print out a copy of your registration confirmation from Fly Free Faster Five as well).

I already know that I’ll earn partner credits by transferring 1000 Goldpoints into 125 Northwest miles, probably transferring 1000 Diners Club Club Rewards points into 1000 Northwest miles, and then registering my new Northwest Signature Visa to earn Northwest miles at iDine restaurants, where I’ll buy a beer or soda at three different establishments.

Christopher Elliott writes in the New York Times about rental car companies claiming to be out of the class of car a customer reserves and attempting to charge an upgrade fee for the next level vehicle.

This has never happened to me, and it shouldn’t happen to anyone.

After all, that’s the very idea of a reservation, a point hammered home in an episode of Seinfeld

Agent: I’m sorry, we have no mid-size available at the moment.



Jerry: I don’t understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?



Agent: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.



Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have the
reservation.



Agent: I know why we have reservations.



Jerry: I don’t think you do. If you did, I’d have a car. See, you know how to
take the reservation, you just don’t know how to *hold* the reservation and
that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody
can just take them.

This hasn’t ever happened to anyone that I know, but if it should happen to you, first insist on receiving the next higher car class at the same price — the company has committed to provide you with X car type or better for Y dollars, that’s well what they should deliver. Second, call the company’s 800 number for assistance, you may get better help from the central office. Finally, consider taking the car and disputing the higher charge in writing with the car company and then with your credit card company.

The best prophylactic measure, as Elliott suggests, is to be a member of the car company’s frequent renter program (e.g. Avis Preferred, Hertz #1 Gold) which is usually free. By having your membership number in the reservation, a car should be pre-assigned and you should be able to skip the checkin process altogether.

Avis Preferred is always free, and Preferred Select is available to anyone with an American Express Platinum card. I have one, though Avis didn’t verify that fact when I called to upgrade my membership. Hertz charges a nominal fee for membership, but waives it for just about everyone (see here and here).

Yesterday someone came to this website while searching for Singapore girls peeing.

Today someone found me looking for united airlines Stewardess strippers calendar.

At least in the latter case I help out. The website is down but here’s the Google cache. Here’s the news story:

[F]ive women, ranging in age from 55 to 64, posed for a 2006 calendar that depicts them in various states of undress in front of a vintage plane, on a park bench and on a plane’s wing, among other locations. Reflecting a mix of humor and anger, it was released to coincide with a bankruptcy court’s approval this week of United’s plan to terminate $9.8 billion in employee pension obligations.



While United is never named nor its airplanes shown, every photograph in “Stewardesses Stripped (Of Their Pension?)” is accompanied by a zinger related to the record pension default by the Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based airline.



“Coffee, tea, or me without a pension?” reads one. “Marry me, fly free - but don’t expect anything from my pension,” says another. And the cover shot: “Are your butts covered? We thought ours were too.”