View from the Wing

Ever since US Airways announced the end of elite bonus miles, I’ve been telling folks that they should keep earning miles in the Dividend Miles program… by every means except flying.

Sure, they’ve introduced new award redemption fees. Those are annoying, but they just make it impractical to redeem miles for domestic coach tickets. US Airways miles are still useful for redeeming Star Alliance awards, their award chart is almost as favorable as United’s (and better than most Star carriers), and unlike United they don’t generally filter out otherwise-available award seats their partners are offering. (United prevents members from redeeming seats that partners like Lufthansa and Thai are offering because they don’t want to pay for the seats, US Airways would probably do the same but my guess is their IT system is too primitive, they were too cheap to use a standard reservation system after all).

So earn those miles, but no elite should credit flown miles to the program. Every other major mileage program offers their elites bonuses for flying. US Airways will stop on August 6th. In my view, US Airways elites should add their frequent flyer number to their reservations if forced to fly US Airways… hopefully score an upgrade… and then change the account number at the airport once the upgraded boarding pass is safely in hand. Bail for another frequent flyer program. (Most will choose United, but for flights under 500 miles consider British Midland which still offers 600 miles minimum per coach segment).

My advice to give up on US Airways for crediting flight miles is not universally shared. There are some who care enough about the airline and the program to try to save it from themselves.

Enter… Save Dividend Miles.

A similar effort worked with Delta, which reversed damaging changes to its own program about 4 years ago.

The Save Dividend Miles folks want to get US Airways to reverse the changes which make it the worst program for frequent travelers in the United States. They want to keep flying US Airways and earning elite status. And they want to do other travelers a service — draw attention to the harm this change will cause before other programs follow suit in an industry that seems to mirror what other carriers are doing regardless of whether it’s beneficial for them or not.

US Airways members can sign a petition and have the number of miles in their account cumulatively represented by the project. And they offer some guerilla tactics for getting the attention of US Airways customers, such as handing out boarding cards in lounges, leaving them there, and even “leave these cards in Business/First lavatories, on tray tables, in seat pockets, and in inflight magazines.”

Delta was derided in 2003 for [D]riving [E]very [L]oyal [T]raveler [A]way. And they didn’t take away elite bonus miles…

Upgrade: Travel Better notes that Spirit has reversed one of the more absurd fees in a recent spate of absurd airline fees - a $10 (roundtrip) “web convenience fee” for booking online.

“It’s your cash register, stupid!” not some previously bundled service in need of unbundling (and even there, most airlines would do well to read a simple Tyler Cowen illustration on how bundling can be both profit maximizing and good for the consumer).

Oh, and as I’ve noted previously, I go out of my way not to fly Spirit.

Megan McArdle offers a trenchant observation about those who call for greater regulation of the airline industry (I hesitate to call it ‘re-regulation’ as commercial aviation is already among the most heavily regulated industries). 

Like everyone else, I hate the delays and various indignities of flying.  On the other hand, I like the fact that it’s costing me $100 to fly to Tampa to pick up my car in two weeks; absent deregulation, that trip would cost a lot more than twice that amount.  I think it’s telling that complaints about deregulation of the airlines come almost entirely from three groups of people:

1)  People who have no idea what they are talking about
2)  Affluent people
3)  People who fly a lot for work

The third group, especially, would like to basically cut the bottom out of the market, so that coach is a vastly more pleasant experience.  They don’t care that this will raise prices, because they aren’t paying for the tickets–most of them probably don’t particularly care if this means that they fly less.  But of course, the only way to raise the level of service is to raise the cost, which means a lot of people who don’t have jobs that send them hopping from city to city wouldn’t be able to fly at all.  Remember the Brady Bunch trip to the Grand Canyon?  You young people may not remember, but that’s what all family vacations used to look like.  You may climb into the back of a station wagon for a two day trek to Canada, but I’ll take flying,

Her number three is precisely what I called out Richard Posner on back in April.

And it’s little surprise that the “Business Travel Coalition” is calling for re-regulation, oddly because of how important commercial aviation is to the economy.

Meanwhile, for Matthew Yglesias, labor-management class warfare is Maslow’s hammer; and he seems to think that business travel is a nail. Folks who fly for work in less pleasant conditions than previously have ‘gotten a pay cut’ which somehow generates surplus profits that translate into more executive perks ‘like corporate jets and first class tickets.’

I suppose that if class warriors abandon consumers who couldn’t previously afford to fly in favor of fighting battles for capitalist middle managers and salespeople, that’s really a victory for proponents of markets. But it also displays a lack of understanding of the specific facts of air travel as it currently stands.

First, because the purchase of premium class tickets has taken a hit this year, Yglesias’ executives are buying fewer first class tickets rather than more.

And second, because domestically it’s more likely that those middle managers flying incessantly are the ones who will be sitting up front rather than their bosses, as roughly 90% of domestic first class seats are upgrades awarded to frequent flyers rather than paid first class tickets. And those frequent flyers can board first (thus securing overhead bin space) and sit in their choice of aisle or window at the front of coach if they can sit in front of the curtain (on those carriers that still separate the classes via a curtain).

Meanwhile, Yglesias draws no connection to the increased flying driven by lower prices and greater worker productivity that drives incomes. Strange, indeed.

(Both links via Economist’s View, which has an excellent overall post on why airline service isn’t as bad as you think, I don’t endorse all of the particulars but the post is 90% correct.)

Update: Kevin Mitchell writes in the comments that the Business Travel Coalition has not called for re-regulation.  I take him at his word that reports to the contrary mischaracterize his position.

Chase is still offering 30,000 Priority Club points and first year free for their Priority Club Visa. What’s new is that they are also offering 30,000 Priority Club points for their co-branded small business Visa as well.

Now, 30,000 points used to be enough for a free Intercontinental night. Alas, except when PointBreaks are available (at 5000 points per night!) this is no longer the case — the standard Intercontinental room night is now 40,000 points. But 30,000 is enough for two nights at most Holiday Inn properties, so the offer isn’t bad. And with no fee the first year (don’t keep the card past that point, it’s not a great place to put spending), and points generated for you after first purchase rather than after reaching a spending threshold as some of the airline cards now require, this is a pretty reasonable deal. 60,000 total Priority Club points for little effort, which also is enough to generate Platinum status to boot (quite useful when staying at Crowne Plaza properties, far less useful at the median Holiday Inn, most of which don’t have a lot of upgraded rooms so you may wind up with just a free cocktail or breakfast coupon).

Priority Club points also transfer to miles, 60,000 points will yield 12,000 miles in tons of different airline programs though this usually isn’t the best use of the points by any stretch.

Chase cards are generally no longer churnable, so you may not be able to get the bonus miles if you’ve already received them on a previous card of the same type. But you can get the small business card if you’ve only had a Priority Club personal card before. And if you’ve never had either, you can sign up for both. We all have small businesses after all in the modern world, we’re just temporary employees contracting for ourselves! Your Name & Associates or Your Name Consulting works quite well.

As reported on Flyertalk, Northwest is in the process of testing different award pricing options and various itineraries may show less than the usual published pricing for awards without capacity controls. When the usual domestic ‘PerkSaver’ 25,000 mile awards are unavailable, ‘PerkPass’ may price at 40,000 miles rather than 50,000 — or more precisely, 20,000 miles each way instead of 25,000. Similarly, there’s a report on unrestricted awards pricing at 70,000 miles to India instead of 90,000.

This is an improvement for those who would otherwise be in the position of booking an unrestricted award. My guess, though, is that they’re working on their systems towards the goal of aligning them with Delta, which currently offers three levels of awards at different mileage price points. The testing may have to do with preparing their systems for three pricing levels rather than two, and they may be collecting data on the level of bookings generated by the mileage ‘discount’ (relative to unrestricted pricing).

Ultimately harmonization with Delta Skymiles is bad. Very bad. But this one change may benefit some Worldperks members in the meantime.

Orbitz is offering discounts on qualifying hotel stays and vacation packages targeted towards the gay community but usable by anyone.

• three or four nights save $40 with promo code GAYPRIDE40

• five or more nights save $100 with promo code EQUALITY100.

Book by August 31 for travel through November 15.

United is getting a cash injection from the issuer of the United Visa to keep it going through to better times and lower fuel prices.

UAL Corporation (Nasdaq: UAUA), the holding company whose primary subsidiary is United Airlines, today announced that it reached an agreement in principle with its Mileage Plus co-branded bank card partner, Chase Bank U.S.A., N.A. (”Chase”), and Paymentech, one of its credit card processors, to extend the term of their respective agreements.

As part of the transaction, United will receive a payment of $600 million from Chase, which relates to the advance purchase of frequent flyer miles and the extension of the contract. The company also expects this transaction will improve cash flow by about $200 million in the next two years.

In addition, the level of reserve or holdback that United is required to maintain under its credit card processing agreement with Chase / Paymentech L.L.C. has been reduced to $25 million. This reduction will result in the release of approximately $350 million in previously restricted cash.

As a result of its agreement with Chase, the company expects to increase its cash position by approximately $1.2 billion

(Emphasis mine.)

Previously United’s co-branded credit card issuer provided debtor-in-possession financing and exit financing for the carrier’s bankruptcy. And Delta’s co-branded partner, American Express, provided half a billion dollars in prepurchase of miles in a vain attempt to keep the airline out of bankruptcy.

The Washington Post has a helpful up-to-date chart on current airline baggage policies.

Southwest stil doesn’t charge for the first or second checked bag. Airtran doesn’t charge for the first, and discounts the second if you prepay online. Delta, and Continental don’t charge for the first, but do for the second.

Personally I expect that Delta and Continental will eventually join the leaders. Unless they see significant bookings coming their way driven by the lack of fees — and the fees are sufficiently conoluted for most passengers to make sense of so I doubt it — they’re walking away from revenue if they don’t. I do see the opportunity for a clever ad campaign to differentiate their products, but in the end all the evidence I’ve ever seen on coach travel is that the driver of airline selection is price, nearly to the exclusion of everything else, so it’s a question mark whether such a campaign could ever succeed.

Elite status and flying in a premium cabin generally exempt flyers from these fees. The trick here is that any status gets you what you need, including alliance partner status. And companions on the same reservation usually get the waiver as well. United is the most generous: gifted Premier Associates benefit from the waiver, and all passengers on the same reservation benefit from that member’s status.

A week and a half or so ago Northwest announced fees for award redemption. They call them fuel surcharges, but fuel surcharges are really part of the cost of a ticket. And with awards they aren’t even tied to the fuel surcharge imposed on paid ticket, they’re made up fees imposed based on the region of travel for your award.

$25 for flights within North America, $50 transatlantic, $100 transpacific, $75 intra-Asia (unless travel originates in Hong Kong, in which case it’s $44), and $50 on all other itineraries.

The $44 fee for award travel beginning in Hong Kong struck me as strange. My hunch was correct, it is a bit of an anomaly. Turns out that there’s a law in Hong Kong which prevents them from imposing fuel surcharges on award tickets that are higher than that imposed on revenue tickets.

Kinda shows that the emporer has no clothes, if they’re adding higher fuel surcharges on awards than revenue tickets in other markets, doesn’t it? Nobody should call it a fuel surcharge. It’s an award redemption fee. It’s a cash co-pay. Mileage tickets are no longer free tickets on several US carriers, they now offer only ‘miles and money’.

The holdout carriers — such as United, Continental, and Alaska (I’ll even throw American in there, since their minimum fee is just $5) — should be applauded.

Last month I posted about a 20,000 mile signup bonus for the US Airways small business Mastercard. Looks like the 25,000 mile offer is still around, however. Not bad.

Though US Airways has made some pretty unfriendly changes to the Dividend MIles program recently (award redemption fees and ending bonus miles for elite flying), they are still a Star Alliance member — for how long, no one knows — and as such their miles can be redeemed throughout the world on some lovely carriers such as Singapore, ANA, and Asiana. And unlike United they do not generally filter out award seats those carriers are making available. Plus their award chart is closer to United in requiring fewer miles for awards than most Star Alliance carriers.

25,000 for the small business Mastercard, 15,000 for the personal Mastercard, and 25,000 for the Bank of America Visa and you’ve got 65,000 miles… well on your way to a premium class award ticket to Asia…

Continental is ending its iDine (err… Rewards Network aka dining for miles) participation as of October 31. That’s alright, the bonuses were never that great and you should be accruing your dining-induced points elsewhere (such as with American, or at least United) anyway.

Continental is making a bunch of changes effective August 17th (and no promises that more changes won’t follow… just not in the next 30 days).

• No more award holds. Even Delta lets you hold an award online, just not over the phone anymore. No holds at all with Continental, but they’ll refund your miles and taxes/fees if you cancel within 24 hours. The exception is if you don’t have enough miles in your account, then you get a three day hold so you can transfer miles in. (A pretty good reason not to keep any miles in your Continental account, you get more accomodation out of Onepass than if you have a large mileage balance.) There are no more holds on paid tickets, either, except group tickets and tickets purchased using Western Union, cash or eCertificates.

• Award change and redeposit fees go up to $150, with Platinums still exempt.

• There’s a $75 fee for all redemptions within 21 days of departure, except that Platinums continue to pay $35 for travel within 4 to 14 days, and $50 for travel within 3 days of booking.

• Upgrade co-pays increase $50 to $100. So now it costs $500 each way in addition to using miles to upgrade the least expensive international (and Hawaii) coach tickets

One MIle at a Time says ” it could be a lot worse.” Although, to me, increasing the upgrade co-pay is really, really bad. Intenrational upgrades now $200 more expensive roundtrip? Upgrades are what miles are for….

But the gift of the program doesn’t change. Continental is not the program for international upgrades. The only reason to bank with Continental is if you need elite status for the complimentary upgrades. And that really only makes sense if you can achieve top tier, and especially if you live in Houston…

Flyertalk is giving away tickets on OpenSkies — A pair of tickets a week for ten weeks, five pairs will be New York to Paris, and five pairs will be for a future OpenSkies destination. The tickets will be in Prem+, which is pretty similar to the international business class offerings on Delta and Continental (but not lay-flat, which British Airways and sibling OpenSkies offer in business class). The tickets will be open date, with travel to be complete by the end of November.

Write an email to randy@flyertalk.com and tell him what you think about FlyerTalk; how it has benefited (or disappointed) you, and how you would like to see it grow.

Every Friday - starting July 18 and ending Sept. 19 - there will be a drawing from among those that have submitted emails. Only one email is necessary to be entered in each remaining drawing. The only catch is — no new member accounts are eligible. You need to have registered on Flyertalk prior to July 16th.

Make your email subject ‘OpenSkies’ and include in the body your full name, contact phone number, and Flyertalk username, as well as what you think about Flyertalk…

Flyertalker (and Alaska employee) missydarlin shared the news that Alaska will not book Air France awards to Asia after August 31st. (Air France awards to Europe remain possible, as well as awards to Tahiti since those are booked via Los Angeles.)

Combined with this week’s news that Alaska will no longer book British Airways awards to Australia, clearly the changes are being driven by Alaska Airlines rather than their partners, and it’s a cost issue.

As with the British Airways news, the change won’t affect a whole lot of people, most Alaska members are on the U.S. West Coast and traveling to Asia or Australia via Europe is truly ‘the long way’ and of interest to only a few folks who really enjoy flying for flying’s sake. But for me they are sad losses.

You can still book awards using Alaska Mileage Plan miles for British Airways flights from the U.S. to Australia via London.  Yes, that’s the long way around!  At least twice as long from the West Coast of the US than going Qantas directly. 

But according to this Flyertalk thread (and confirmed on the Alaska Airlines website), the option will be going away August 31st. (You can redeem for travel past then, but August 31st will be the last day to book.)

Alaska’s partnership with British Airways continues, as far as I know, they just won’t allow you to book Australia awards. While it’s a lot of flying, it’s also quite a redemption value, spending 150,000 miles for all that first class flying. First class was just a 50% premium over coach (business class a mere 25% premium).

It’s never great to lose options, though I suspect this one won’t effect a ton of people. I lament its passing, though, because BA’s own members had to spend nearly 3 times as many miles in the Executive Club program if they wanted the same award….

Expedia is offering 1000 bonus Thank You Network points for booking a ’special rate’ hotel by July 31 for travel through August 31. Enter promotional code TY1000 on the rate details page. Valid once per account. This wouldn’t sway my hotel choice, but it’s a pretty good deal if you’re going to book a hotel via Expedia anyway.

As posted on Flyertalk, American Express will give you 1000 Starpoints per additional cardholder (up to 2) to your Starwood Amex. Points post within 12 weeks of first purchase on the new card.

I do suggest printing a copy of the offer page and each subsequent page, it’s useful in case points don’t post on their own.

Frugal Travey Guy points to a Rewards Network (I still call them iDine) offer of 1500 American Airlines miles just for signing up and making your first dine of $25 or more at a participating restaurant. You also have to opt in for their emails.

The bonus is only for new accounts, but that doesn’t mean you have ot be new to Rewards Network, just to their Aadvantage partnership. For example, if you have a United Mileage Plus membership you can also create an American membership and sign up a different credit card with that program. I do this with several, so I can take advantage of the different promotions they offer through each.

Over at the Perrin Post a reader asks the following question:

I’m not able to book a business- or first-class mileage award on AA/Cathay Pacific, even though I try for 335 days out, calling at different times of the day and night. Do the agents make a distinction between miles earned by flying vs. by spending money on the affinity credit card? Most of my miles are from credit card transactions. Please advise.

And I answer in the comments.

There’s no distinction between earning your miles via flying versus credit card spend. Some mileage programs allow an extra inventory of awards for their mid- or top-tier elites, but those are fairly limited in scope. In most cases, members all have the same access to award availability.

While most airlines load their schedules 330 days out, that doesn’t mean 330 days out is the best time to book an award. In fact it can be too soon.

Airlines want to make awards available for seats that they don’t actually expect to sell. So while some inventory may be opened up at the very beginning of the schedule, airlines will constantly adjust their inventory both for paid fares (whether the cheapest fare classes are available on a given flight) and for awards. And a year out it’s much more difficult to precit what a flight’s load will look like. But as things become more clear cut additional seats become available.

I’ve had great luck booking at 6 months out, and 3 months out, and within a week prior to travel. Actually, for flights that aren’t sold out, the very best awards can sometimes be found right before departure. Want that Singapore or ANA first class award? You’ll frequently see lots of them a few days prior to the flight as the airline sees the seats will go out unsold.

Cathay Pacific premium class awards are difficult to get regardless of when you’re looking to book them. And finding two premium class award seats on Cathay for the same flight is nearly a needle in a haystack.

The best thing to do is homework prior to talking to your frequent flyer program. If you’re using American Airlines miles, consider signing up for a Qantas frequent flyer account and also a British Airways account, and using their websites to search for the awards. You still have to call American to complete the booking, but both Qantas and BA allow you to search different members of the oneworld alliance partnership for awards. You’ll know in advance what flights can likely be booked and then you share those with the agent.

Although, of course, I pointed out recently one situation where butt-in-seat miles can make a difference, although it’s truly a long shot and won’t help most members. And United offers Global Services members the ability to upgrade award seats, meaning that such members can book awards out of upgrade inventory (which is frequently more generous for premium class awards) instead of award inventory, as long as there’s a lower class award available on the same flight. United also offers 100,000 mile flyers special coach award inventory, and several arilines in fact offer extra award seats for elites. But these are all differences at the margin.

For the most part members get the same access to awards regardless of the source of the miles. Though many airlines offer at least their top tier elites free changes to award tickets, which is a really valuable tool in grabbing whatever seats are available and continually revising and improving the itinerary over time as better options open up.

As a followup to my previous post about All Nippon Airways showing two first class award seats available on the same flights, when previously even grabbing one was next to impossible, here are some more dates and city pairs. This list isn’t comprehensive, I only checked April, 2009 and only Dulles - Tokyo and Chicago - Tokyo. But talk about wide open!

• 4/5 IAD-NRT
• 4/5 ORD-NRT
• 4/7 IAD-NRT
• 4/7 ORD-NRT
• 4/8 IAD-NRT
• 4/9 ORD-NRT
• 4/12 IAD-NRT
• 4/12 ORD-NRT
• 4/13 IAD-NRT
• 4/13 ORD-NRT
• 4/14 IAD-NRT
• 4/15 IAD-NRT
• 4/15 ORD-NRT
• 4/16 ORD-NRT
• 4/19 IAD-NRT
• 4/19 ORD-NRT
• 4/20 IAD-NRT
• 4/20 ORD-NRT
• 4/21 IAD-NRT
• 4/21 ORD-NRT
• 4/22 ORD-NRT

I’ve also been seeing tons of Asiana Seoul - Los Angeles flights with two award seats in first, and occsaional Seoul - Chicago flights as well.

And the good news for Mileage Plus members is that these are filtered out far less frequently by StarNet than Lufthansa first class awards (which are otherwise extemely available to Star Alliance members). Of course once the evil United programmers realize these opportunities they could very well get shut down, or these carriers could end their award seat generosity, so it’s best to grab these awards while you can.

For those without sufficient miles in a Star Alliance frequent flyer account, remember that American Express Membership Rewards points transfer to Air Canada, ANA, and Singapore (which all have different award charts of course, Air Canada being generally closest to United’s in terms of mileage requirements). Starwood transfers to several programs, perhaps the best option for these seats at the lowest mileage cost is US Airways (since United transfers are sadly 2:1).