DansDeals.com

Note: Continental has posted via their twitter account that they are giving away free flights through “Go Cards” being given away at Columbus Circle during the marathon today…not sure what that means but if you’re in the city anyway it may be worth checking out!

Interactive BusinessFirst Flat Bed Linky

The first Flat Bed 777 flies today (11/01) from Hong Kong-Newark (CO98) and then Newark-Tel Aviv (CO84).  Tomorrow it will run from Tel Aviv-Newark (CO85) and then Newark-London (CO28).  On the 3rd it will run from London-Houston (CO35) and on the 4th from Houston-Tokyo (CO07).

If you’re on one of these flights in BusinessFirst it looks like you’re in for a real treat!

Continental doesn’t maintain specific planes on routes, so for the foreseeable future it will just be luck of the draw if you get the new BusinessFirst 180 degree flat beds or the old BusinessFirst seats.

As you probably know Continental is about to become the largest airline ever to change alliances when they go from 9 member Skyteam to 24 member Star.

They leave Skyteam on 10/24.  If you want to redeem Continental miles for Skyteam partner flights or partner Skyteam miles for Continental flights don’t forget to do it by 10/24!

Continental joins Star Alliance on 10/27.

Here are the major changes:

Current Continental Skyteam Mileage Chart

New Continental Star Alliance Mileage Chart, Effective 10/27

The nice thing is that for the most part with the new Star Alliance chart the rates are the same no matter which airline you fly on. Under the old charts the rates varied according to the airline. Also the premium cabin on any flight without a true business and first class is only considered business class!

The new Continental chart is basically the same as United’s chart except that a round-the-world trip is much cheaper with Continental miles (160,000 in coach, 220,000 in business, 280,000 in first) than with United miles (200,000 in coach, 300,000 in business, 400,000 in first) and Continental has promised not to block partner award availability when using Onepass miles on Star Alliance carriers, while United severely blocks partner award availability when using their miles.

Here are the rate differences when redeeming Continental miles on sample routes between the: Current Rate/New Rate.

(Most surprising is the drop in mileage for TLV flights, which were the only flights to go up for 2009, and are now amongst the only flights to go down!)

Newark-Chicago in coach with Saturday night stay: 20,000/20,000.

Newark-Los Angeles in coach without Saturday night stay: 50,000/25,000.

Newark-Honolulu in coach: 35,000/40,000.

Newark-Honolulu in BusinessFirst: 75,000/80,000.

Newark-Tel Aviv in Coach: 90,000/75,000.

Newark-Tel Aviv in BusinessFirst: 120,000/115,000.

Tel Aviv-Honolulu in Coach: 110,000/80,000.

Tel Aviv-Honolulu in BusinessFirst: 140,000/120,000.

Newark-Buenos Aires in Coach: 50,000/55,000.

Newark-Buenos Aires in BusinessFirst: 90,000/100,000.

Newark-London in Coach: 50,000/55,000.

Newark-London in BusinessFirst: 100,000/105,000.

Newark-Shanghai in Coach: 60,000/65,000.

Newark-Shanghai in BusinessFirst: 120,000/125,000.

Other integration news:

-Saturday night stays are no longer required for a domestic saverpass reward flight. (Eff: 10/27)

-Award redeposit, change, and expedite fees are $75 per passenger for non-elites, $50 for silver elites, $25 for gold elites, and free for platinum elites.  The fees are contingent on the status of the member redeeming the miles, not the status of the flying member. Date changes more than 21 days before the flight are still free. (Eff: 12/15)

-Continental Silver=Star Alliance Silver. (Eff: 10/27)

-Continental Gold and Platinum=Star Alliance Gold for international lounge access and 3 free checked bags. (Eff: 10/27)

-Continental Platinum members get free same day confirmed changes. (Eff: 10/01)

-All fares (even those not purchased on continental.com) will earn full elite miles.  Finally every domestic carrier offers full redeemable and elite miles regardless of where you purchase your ticket. (Eff: 10/27)

-Elites will earn their 25%-100% bonus miles based on 500 mile minimum segment miles even on flights under 500 miles.  Previously the bonus was based on the actual flight miles. (Eff: 10/27)

-

Clear, the “ezpass” for airport security, is closing down effective immediately.

Many readers have gotten free memberships from them via various offers in the past.  If you’ve paid for a membership be sure to open a dispute with your credit card asap!

I personally never signed up for Clear as it was never offered in my home airport, but I’d love to hear from others that did have Clear memberships if it actually saved you any time at the airport.

www.jetamerica.com

I’m still angry at Skybus.  By the time I finally had bought $9 tickets from Columbus to LA they went out of business…

Anyway John Weikle is apparently not so great at coming up with new ideas so he’s doing Skybus again. The first 9 seats on every flight will once again be $9.  And he’s still primarily going after secondary airports:

-Lansing, MI
-Melbourne, FL
-Minneapolis
-Newark
-South Bend, IN
-Toledo, OH

-Bags are $20 each way for each piece.
-Assigned seats are $10 each way.

Southwest Airlines flight 519 from New Orleans-Houston caught fire as it landed on Wednesday.  I find 2 things shocking from the incredible video that a helicopter caught of the incident.

1-The amount of time it took to begin evacuating the plane. Over 2 minutes to get the first people out?

2-The guy who throws down his briefcase before sliding down and then proceeds to gather all of his belongings that fell out of the briefcase at the bottom of the slide!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUrw9vpKHIU[/youtube]

Timeline:

0:05: Plane touches down.

0:45: Plane comes to a complete stop.

3:02: Slides are deployed. (you can see them inflating at the very left side)

3:16: First look at people sliding down

3:50-4:02: The incredibly selfish person blocking the exit of the slide while he gathers his papers…

Note:  Need AA Miles? You can transfer 20K Starwood Starpoints that you’ve earned from your Starwood AMEX into 25K AA miles. Or you can easily churn AA’s credit card from Citibank.

Effective immediately you can now book one-way awards on American Airlines for half of the round-trip mileage required!

AA is the first major US based carrier to allow for one-way awards.

Besides for the obvious benefit of being able to book a one-way flight when you only need to travel one-way, there are even benefits from this new policy if you are traveling round-trip.

Previously if you were flying JFK-LAX and there was a 25K MileSAAver on the outbound, but only a 50K AAnytime on the return, the ticket would cost 50K.  With the new one-way ticket pricing that trip would only be 37.5K.  Or you could just book the outbound for 12.5K and keep checking for a 12.5K return flight to open up.

Additionally AA has a number of off-peak awards to international destinations.  Previously if your trip spanned from off-peak into peak pricing the entire trip was priced at peak.  Now you will be able to mix peak and off-peak pricing.

The only casualty of this new policy is the loss of a free stopover in an international city, which will now be priced as an additional one-way flight.  Seems like a very worthwhile trade-off in my book though…

Between this very customer friendly policy change, the counting of all AA miles towards lifetime elite status, and the ongoing amazing availbility of AA awards at MileSAAver rates, AAdvantage miles are by far the most valuable domestic mileage currency today.

Update: Northwest has added the same charge for tickets bought on or after 04/22 for travel on or after 07/01.

Delta will now charge $50 for checking a 2nd bag on all international tickets bought on or after 04/21 for travel on or after 07/01.

Last February United started charging $25 to check a 2nd bag on domestic tickets which was matched by all major carriers. Last May AA started charging $15 to check even 1 bag on domestic tickets which was also matched by all the major carriers.

I’m sure it won’t be long for the others to catch up and start charging for all checked bags even on international tickets…

As usual, Elite members and their companions are exempted from this fee.

Update: The terms seem to exclude US residents…as to why this shows up on the US version of Continental.com is anyone’s guess…

Effective today Continental has brought back the 500 mile bonus when you buy tickets directly from Continental.com!

Offer Linky

The offer is valid for tickets bought between 03/29/09 and 12/31/09.

Only the first traveler listed on the reservation will earn the bonus, so if you have multiple travelers you may want to book everyone separately so that they can each earn the bonus miles…

So which airline will be the first to match?

Continental has spelled out their new reduced award ticket fees…if only all the other carriers would follow!

For award tickets booked beginning 02/19 the award date change is reduced from $150 to:

-Free for changes made 21 or more days in advance of booked award travel.

-$75 for changes made within 21 days of booked award travel.

A unique aspect of the new policy is that this even applies to changes made to the carriers and connecting flights as long as the origin and destination cities remain the same.  Continental is the only airline that lets you change the carrier for free and only Continental and AA allow you to change connecting flights for free.

For those of you keeping score at home, here is a roundup of the award ticket change policies of the legacy US carriers:

I’ve long considered Continental to be the best airline on which to earn elite status with.  While AA’s EXP status is arguably the finest example of elite status that can be earned with miles flown, that status requires 100,000 elite qualifying miles in a calendar year to attain. For anything less than that you’re probably best off with Continental.  At any rate here are some interesting tidbits from them, much of it courtesy of Flyertalk user “sbm12.”

-All elites can now get upgraded to first class at the time of purchase on Y (full-fare) and B (discount full-fare) tickets.

-Date changes on award tickets will go from being $150 to being free as long as the origin and destination cities remain the same and it is done over 21 days in advance of the flight.  Changes within 21 days will now be $75.

-Effective in March confirmed changes at the connection city will be go from $50 to being free.

-LiveTV will begin being launched next month and will cost $6 in coach and free in first. Limited Wi-fi will be launched later this year and will be free for all passengers.

-Lie-flat seats in BusinessFirst will begin being installed on 777 aircraft in September, on 757 aircraft in November, and on 767 aircraft next January.  The process will take about 20 months for the fleet to be converted over.

-Non-elites can now purchase first class upgrades for $50-$250 at the check-in kiosk but will be prioritized after all elites and their companions have been given complimentary upgrades.

-Northwest and Delta elites will no longer receive free checked luggage when flying on Continental as those airlines do not let Continental passengers receive free checked luggage when flying Northwest/Delta.

-Continental will leave the Skyteam alliance on 10/24/09. No Skyteam flights after 10/24/09 will earn miles on Continental.  Tickets booked on Skyteam partners before 10/24 for travel after 10/24 will be honored. There will likely be a short period of time of Continental not belonging to any alliance before being integrated into the Star Alliance.

-Integrating a deep relationship with United will be the main point of concern during the transition in order to get the benefits of what a merger would’ve brought without the risks. Expect full club reciprocity with the relationship.

-Continental Silver (25K EQM’s) will be Star Alliance Silver. Continental Gold and Platinum (50K and 75K EQM’s respectively) will be Star Alliance Gold.

-Continental will not follow United’s lead in intentionally blocking alliance airline’s award availability (Starnet blocking).

-ETA on the 787 dreamliner is Q2 2011.

Related:
Jetblue Will Serve LAX! (02/12/08)
Jet Fuel Costs Force Jetblue Out Of…LAX? (05/06/08)

Jetblue will try again to make LAX work, service between LAX to/from Boston and JFK will begin 06/17/09.

Last year Jetblue canceled the service before the scheduled start date due to rising fuel costs.

Jetblue is the 6th carrier to offer nonstop service between LAX and the NYC market, (the incumbents are AA, Continental, Delta, United, and Virgin America) and is the only to fly the route without a first class.

The introductory price is $105+ each way, and with tax should be about $230 round trip, a great fare for the peak summer travel season!

It’s always a good thing when an airline begins new service on a competitive route.  It eases pressure on fares and on limited award seats.  Also when they first load mileage availability there can be a good opportunity to grab some seats!  Not all of the routes below have had their mileage seats loaded yet, but get ready to redeem!

-As previously announced USAirways will begin flying from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv on July 1st.

-Delta will start flying nonstop between Los Angeles and Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 22nd.

-Delta will become the only US based carrier to serve 6 continents with their new nonstop between Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia on July 1st.

-Continental is launching seasonal nonstop service between Cleveland and London Heathrow on May 2nd.

Update: The merger has closed, so contractually Continental can bolt from the Skyteam alliance as early as 07/29/09.

The DOJ has just approved the Delta-Northwest merger, which will create the world’s largest airline, leapfrogging United and AA.

What’s this mean for you?

-Northwest miles will be merged into Delta Skymiles accounts.

-Superfluous hubs such as Delta’s Cincinnati and Northwest’s Memphis will in all likelihood lose their hub status.

-Continental is now guaranteed the right to leave Skyteam.  Their entrance to Star Alliance will happen in late 2009.

-Elites on Delta and Northwest will now have reciprocal upgrade rights.

-If you want to use Continental miles for Skyteam travel or Skyteam miles for Continental travel, the time to do so is now.

-The Continental/Northwest reciprocal upgrade system will come to end very soon, perhaps by the end of 2008.

-Airfares will have less competitive pressure to come down.

-Skyteam mileage tickets, already the most difficult of all alliances, will get even harder with the loss of 2 airlines.

-Open battles between Delta and Northwest employees fighting for seniority.

-Glitches merging both of their subpar websites.

With little fanfare or announcment AA has done away with their $5 fee on frequent flyer tickets that they instituted in June.  Hopefully in this time of $65 oil and $1.97 gas (at least here in Cleveland!) the other 3 US airlines that instituted far harsher fees on frequent flyer tickets (Delta, Northwest, and USAir) will begin to rescind those as well!

Related: The key to being able to use your miles: Alliances!

Continental has announced that its transition from Skyteam to Star will take place in the 4th quarter of 2009. In addition their new lie-flat Business seats will be implemented at that time as well.

The move adds significant value to banked Continental miles as the Star Alliance is easily superior to Skyteam with regards to mileage ticket availability and breadth of airlines.

“American Airlines plans to use a la carte pricing” 10/06/08-Cnn.com

“Is “A La Carte” Airline Pricing Inevitable?” 03/07/07-Dansdeals.com

United kicked off round 3 this morning by adding a $50 charge for a 2nd checked bag each way.  (They were the first to implement a second bag fee and were deeply embarrassed by being upstaged by AA in adding a first bag fee.)

For those keeping score it will now cost a family of 4 an additional $520 round-trip to each bring 2 suitcases with them.

Did somebody forget to tell these guys that oil is under $100 now???

United and Star Alliance elite members and all of their travel companions continue to get 2 free checked bags.

(Pretty soon I’ll be able to rent myself out just so that families can check in 2 free bags each-it pays to be elite on every alliance!)

The fee applies to tickets bought starting tomorrow, 09/16, for travel on or after 11/10.

I’m sure it won’t be long before the other sheep follow and United will be able to up the ante on the first checked bag.

The real question is how long can Southwest continue to give 2 free bags and free flight changes and cancellations.  I’m sure that the drive out to Islip is no longer looking too shabby for many NY’ers…

Update: See the comments for basic info on Alitalia and the start of the new rates to Israel.

Continental Airlines is in the lengthy process of switching airline alliances.  It is the biggest airline to ever switch alliances.

Star Alliance is a much larger alliance than Skyteam or OneWorld, and has many extremely attractive partners to redeem miles on.

Unfortunately the switch doesn’t bode too well for fans of the only domestic airline to still offer free food on domestic flights, here are some of the changes Continental will be implementing to prepare for a closer relationship with the dirt of the domestic aviation industry, United and USAirways.

-Elimination of the 500 mile minimum flight earnings.  Continental joins United and USAir, the domestic Star Alliance carriers, in eliminating the minimum mileage earnings on short flights.  This takes effect for tickets  booked on or after 11/15/08 for travel on or after 01/01/09.

-Reduction of elite bonus miles in line with United starting for travel on 03/01/09 (USAirways was recently the first and only airline to completely eliminate elite bonus miles). Platinum members will now earn 200% of flown base miles instead of 225%. Gold members continue to earn 200%. Silver members will now earn 125% instead of 150%.

-First checked bag will go from being free to matching the new industry standard $15/each way for tickets booked on or after 09/05/08 for travel on or after 10/07/08.  Elite members and their companions will continue to get 2 free checked bags per person.

-Mileage tickets to/from the US and Tel Aviv will go from 70,000 in coach and 100,000 in businessfirst to 90,000 in coach and 120,000 in businessfirst. (Yay for Starwood and the Alitalia /Continental workaround!)

I remember back in my high school days in Pittsburgh around the turn of the century when the options for flights into Pittsburgh was USAirways, USAirways, or USAirways.

When Airtran started flights from Pittsburgh to LGA in 2001 USAir put up a massive fight causing fares to drop to $29, which of course drove Airtran out and Airtran smartly relocated their precious LGA slots to Akron/Canton, OH, about 45 minutes out of Cleveland, where they still operate 3 successful daily flights.

I was shocked to see that of USAirways’ 600+ daily flights out of Pittsburgh they are now down to under 60 daily flights (and of that under 2 dozen on are mainline USAirways flights, the rest are on barbie’s dream jets…) I guess there’s only so many resources an airline can devote to protecting a fortress hub before throwing in the towel.

I suppose this means that the PIT hub can now be called officially killed, but it’s only the latest in a string of mid-size market city’s hubs that have closed over the past 10 years or so.

USAir closed Baltimore/BWI after 9/11, AA shuttered Nashville and Raleigh/Durham. Delta ended hub service to Dallas/DFW,  America West (Now USAir) used to have a hub in Columbus…

So, care to guess what the next mid-size market hub to close will be?  Each of these hubs have seen massive cuts or are threatened by pending mergers with overlapping hubs.

It’s not often that we see an airline reversing a bad decision with it’s tail between it’s legs, but it’s refreshing that they did!  With this reversal hot kosher meals will continue to be available on international flights, although it won’t be available for domestic business class passengers.

Here’s the email I got from United earlier today:

Dear Mr. Daniel Eleff,

Thank you for your direct, candid feedback on the test we
had planned to launch in the fourth quarter for food choices
on some of our flights. We heard you and have decided not to
move forward with the test of offering customers
buy-on-board options in United Economy on certain
trans-Atlantic flights. We will continue to offer
complimentary hot meals on those flights.

The response from you and many of our corporate customers,
even before we launched the test, told us what we would
have undoubtedly learned had we proceeded – you value our
hot meal service in economy class for international flights.

In this environment, where higher costs driven by volatile
fuel prices are now the norm, we must continue to tailor
products and services so that we provide you with choices
and competitive fares. As such, we will continue to be
proactive in testing new ideas.

On October 1, we will proceed with the test of new,
complimentary options for United Business customers on
three-cabin aircraft used for domestic routes, which
represents 16 daily flights. Customers on these flights will
receive complimentary fresh sandwiches, salads, breakfast,
snack boxes or snacks, depending on the length of flight
and time of departure. They will also continue to enjoy
complimentary beverages, including beer, wine and cocktails.
We will evaluate the results and determine next steps by the
end of the year.

It’s also important to note that full meals will still be
served on our p.s. transcontinental flights.

Thank you again for your feedback. We will continue to
listen and make changes that enable us in this environment
to provide you with the choices you value.

Sincerely,

Graham Atkinson
Chief Customer Officer

Continental:

Effective 09/03, Easypass mileage awards will be capacity controlled for all non-elite members.  Coach rewards will be based on “M” availability and Business/First rewards will be based on “R” availability.  Onepass elite members will continue to have expanded Saverpass mileage availability and non-capacity controlled Easypass mileage availability.

Delta:

Effective immediately award expedite fees go from $75 for 0-20 days before the flight to $75 for 8-20 days, $100 for 4-7 days, and a whopping $150 for 3 days or less.

United:

Effective 10/01 United will charge for meals on international transatlantic flights to/from their Washington DC hub.  There will be no longer be a kosher meal option.  In addition United will be charging for meals in business class on all intra-North America flights. (This last part has been open to interpretation, according to USAToday there will be a charge for the meals in business class, while others have said that the buy on board meals for sale in economy will be provided free to business class customers.)

USAir:

USAir will become the 3rd US-based airline flying to Israel with their just announced Philadelphia-Tel Aviv service, scheduled to begin next July.

British Airways has just announced that there will be an official announcement within the next 2 weeks or so about frequent flyer reciprocity with American Airlines.

Currently both AA and BA are members of OneWorld, but are unique in the fact that you cannot credit miles flown for transatlantic flights on one carrier to the other carrier. You also cannot redeem miles on one carrier for transatlantic travel on the other.

BA, which operates with 4 top-notch classes of service, generally has very good transatlantic mileage availability, especially in the 3 premium classes of service. This is due in large part to the difficulty of earning BA miles and the massive fuel surcharges that they levy on award tickets.

With AA miles being a whole lot easier to accumulate and due to AA not (yet) charging a fuel surcharge on award tickets, expect BA award availability to go way down once the official announcement is made…so make your plans now if you’d like to burn your AA miles on BA travel!

Here are the current standby policies of the major carriers as of 07/31 and incorporates the policy changes by AA, Frontier and USAirways that have occurred during July.

Prediction: Traditional free unconfirmed standby will be the next victim of $150 oil.

AA:
-Confirmed standby is available for flights departing the same day as your original flight for $35 $50. This can be confirmed within 12 hours of the departure of the new flight. Confirmed standby requires special inventory (”E”) to be available on the new flight which will require a phone call to AA to check on and confirm.

-Regular unconfirmed standby is still available for free for flights departing on the same day as the original flight.

-Standby is only available for travel within the U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada and the Caribbean.

Airtran:
-Confirmed standby is available only at the airport for flights on the same day as your original flight for $25.

-Regular unconfirmed standby is still available for free for flights departing on the same day as the original flight.

-Standby is available systemwide.

Continental:
-Confirmed standby is available for flights departing within 24 hours of your original flight for $50. However, this can only be confirmed within 12 hours of the departure of the new flight. Confirmed standby requires inventory available in the fare class that you are currently booked into. As long as any seats are available, Continental will open up availability in all fare classes at exactly 12 hours before their flights to allow for confirmed standby changes.

-Confirmed standby is $25 for Continental Gold and Platinum elites.

-It is free to be added to a regular unconfirmed standby list, but you will be charged $50 if you clear the list ($25 for Continental Gold and Platinum elites.)

-Standby is available systemwide.

Delta:
-Confirmed standby is available for flights departing the same day as your original flight for $50. This can only be confirmed within 3 hours of the departure of the new flight. Confirmed standby required special inventory to be available on the new flight which will require a phone call to Delta.

-Confirmed standby is free for Delta Gold and Platinum elites.

-Delta has completely eliminated unconfirmed standby except for Delta Gold and Platinum elites.

-Standby is only available for travel within the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Frontier:

-Confirmed and unconfirmed standby is now only available for Summit level elite members.

-Changes may only be made for flights departing the same day as your original flight by paying the difference between the fare paid and the walk-up fare for the new flight. The $150 change fee will be waived for same day flight changes.

-Confirmed standby is available for flights departing the same day as your original flight for $50 at the airport within 4 hours of the departure of the new flight.

-Regular unconfirmed standby is free for flights departing the same day as your original flight.

-Standby is available systemwide.

Jetblue:
-Confirmed standby is available beginning at midnight in the time zone of your original flight to change to any other flight on the same day for $40.

-Regular unconfirmed standby is available for the flight prior to your original flight for free. If you are flying on the first flight of the day then you may use unconfirmed standby to go on the flight right after your original flight for free. If there is only one flight between your city pairs then you may use unconfirmed standby to go on the flight the day before your original flight for free.

-Standby is available systemwide.

Midwest:

-Confirmed standby is available for flights departing the same day as the original flight for $35 at the airport within 3 hours of the departure of the new flight.

-Regular unconfirmed standby is free for flights departing the same day as the original flight.

-Standby is available systemwide.

Northwest:
-Confirmed standby may or may not be available for select flights only when you initially checkin online, for the same day as the original flight for $25. The program is called FlyNow and nobody at Northwest really knows what it’s all about or how it works. Good luck with that one.

-Regular unconfirmed standby is $25 for flights departing earlier on the same day as your original flight.

-Regular unconfirmed standby is free for all Skyteam elites.

-Standby is only available within the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Southwest:

-Southwest does not have Standby. Southwest never charges a fee for ticket changes, but you will have to pay the difference in fare.

United:

-Confirmed standby is available for flights departing the same day as your original flight for $75. This can only be confirmed within 3 hours of the departure of the new flight. It can be confirmed over the phone or at the airport. Confirmed standby requires inventory to be available in your original booking class or in “H.”

-Regular unconfirmed standby is still available for free for flights departing on the same day as the original flight.

-Standby is only available within the U.S.

Regular unconfirmed standby is still available for free for flights departing on the same day as the original flight.

USAirways:

-Confirmed standby is available only at the airport for flights departing the same day as the original flight for $25 $50 within the US48, Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada and Alaska.

-Regular unconfirmed standby is free, but is only available if confirmed standby is not available.

-Standby is not available to Hawaii or Europe.

Virgin America:

-Confirmed standby is available for flights departing the same day as the original flight for $25 at the airport only.

-Regular unconfirmed standby is free for flights departing the same day as the original flight, but must be requested at the airport before the departure of your original flight.

©2008 Dansdeals.com Research.
Please do not post this entire article on any other website without explicit prior permission. Thank You!

Citing fuel costs, Israir will discontinue their JFK-Tel Aviv service after this summer.

With the low-cost carrier out of the market, expect airfares to be on the rise…

The move leaves Continental, Delta, and El Al as the only airlines flying nonstop between the US and Israel.

Haaretz News Article Linky (Hebrew)

For a short period of time Continental had information on their new BusinessFirst seat up on their website.  This was confirmed by Continental to have gone up too early…but they can’t take back what’s already been saved!

BusinessFirst is arguably the best class of service available between the US and Israel.

The rumor is that the new seats will be in a 2-2-1 configuration on the widebodies and a 2-1 configuration on the narrowbodies.

The seats will be completely lie-flat.

Looking to use miles to fly in Continental’s BusinessFirst class to Israel? It’s 100K directly from Continental, but just 80K if booked via Alitalia, which is a Starwood transfer partner at 20,000 Starwood=25,000 Alitalia.

Here are links where you can read from the now taken down articles.

Article part 1

Article part 2

Article part 3

Article part 4

Article part 5

Just a month ago I noted that while most foreign carriers charge a fuel surcharge on award tickets, none of the US carriers charge one.

What a difference a month makes…

4 US carriers now charge a fuel surcharge on award tickets, although at the present the time the surcharge is significantly less than the hundreds of dollars that foreign carriers charge.

The airlines claim that miles are now worth significantly more now than they were a year ago because tickets cost much more now.  While this is true, the fact remains that people are paying more money now for the tickets to earn those miles, so it’s not a valid argument.  This is plain and simple a new way to devalue what was once pitched as free travel.

(Side note: Is this really legal? When flying the flight attendants still announce that you can be earning “free travel” by signing up for the airline’s mileage program. How can they promise free travel and then charge for it?)

At any rate, here are the latest fees:

AA: Effective 06/21: $5 fee on all award tickets.

Delta: Effective 08/15: $25 fee for US and Canada travel, $50 fee for international travel. Up to $400 fee for flights originating in Europe.

Northwest: Effective 09/15: $25 fee for intra-North America travel, $50 fee for Trans-Atlantic travel, $100 fee for Trans-Pacific travel, $50 fee for most other itineraries.

USAirways: Effective 08/06: $25 fee for US and Canada travel, $35 fee for Latin America and Carribean travel, $50 fee for Hawaii and Europe travel.

Remaining carriers with no fuel surcharge on award tickets:
Air China
Airtran
Alitalia
Alaska
Continental
Emirates
Jetblue
LAN
SAS
Southwest
United

I’m in awe of what USAir has just announced. Sure, times are desperate, but there’s only so much your frequent flyers will put up with before jumping ship.

In February USAir angered its frequent flyers by eliminating the industry standard 500-mile minimum mileage accrual in a move that was only matched by equally pathetic alliance partner United (as was predicted in that dansdeals.com posting)

Blessedly I have exactly 0 miles in my USAir mileage account-if you have any miles there the time to burn them is now!

Here is what has just been announced:

-Elimination of free beverages effective 08/01. Soda, juice, water, and coffee will now cost $2. Alcoholic beverages go from $5 to $7.

-Elimination of free checked luggage for tickets booked on or after 07/09. USAir/Star Alliance elites and their companions are exempt. 1st bag will be $15 each way, 2nd bag is $25 each way.

-Call center booking fees go from $15 to $25 (domestic) and $35 (international).

-Airport/ticket office booking fees go from $20 to $35 (domestic) and $45 (international).

-Award redemption fee effective 08/06 of $25 (domestic/Canada), $35 (Mexico/Carribean), and $50 (Hawaii/International)

-Elimination of the elite mileage bonus. Elite members on all airlines receive between a 25%-300% mileage bonus for flown miles depending on the airline and elite status. USAir is the 1st airline to eliminate this bonus.

In addition they will for all intents and purposes be eliminating their hub in Las Vegas, which joins Pittsburgh as the 2nd post-America West merger hub to close.  Let that be a lesson for anyone who believes that mergers don’t lead to the elimination of hubs…

Related:
United Airlines: We Really, Really Don’t Want Your Business. (Honest!)
Airline Ticket Change Fees Are On The Rise…
2nd Checked Bag Fee Roundup…
United Airlines Continues On Its Downward Spiral Into Oblivion…
AA: No More Free Domestic Checked Luggage For Non-Elites

United just announced that they will start charging for all checked luggage starting with tickets bought on 06/13 for travel on 08/13 or later.

This affects coach travel within Canada/US/Puerto Rico/USVI.

The first checked bag will be $15 each way, the 2nd checked bag is $25 each way.

Additionally, checking a 3rd bag or an overweight or oversized bag will now set you back $125!

United and Star Alliance elite members, along with anyone traveling on the same itinerary as an elite member, will continue to be able to check 2 bags for free.

In other news, United has won the title of Worst. Airline. Ever. Congrats UA!

Continental is finally launching a million miler program. They join AA, Delta, and United in offering lifetime perks for people who have flown 1,000,000 miles.

Elite status is typically earned by earning at least 25,000 elite qualifying miles in a year. There are however many other ways of becoming elite, such as via a challenge, a status match, or via a million miler program.

Continental’s million miler program is similar to Delta’s and United’s in that it only counts flight miles, and not other miles. AA is by far the most generous in counting all miles earned for million-miler status.

Unfortunately only elite qualfying miles count for Continental’s lifetime elite status-so award flights taken don’t count ;(

The most unique and intriguing part about Continental’s program is that it will give you the ability to grant million-miler status to a companion. I can only imagine what that status will fetch on ebay!

I came across Continental’s new million miler program while beta-testing the latest version of their website, scheduled to be deployed on the 14th. Here are some pictures showing the new program from the beta site.  As you can see, I’m not even in the ballpark…but if anyone who is needs a companion, just send me an email!

Another positive change coming on the 14th is the ability to see exit-row seat availability while searching for a flight, which on the current site is not possible:

With all of the bad news in the aviation industry I’d like to talk about something positive.  Continental recently launched one of the most impressive mobile sites ever: pda.continental.com

Here is the scoop on some of it’s groundbreaking features:

-Flight status that tells you the flight number of your inbound aircraft.  With the inbound flight number you can have a much better idea about the chance/time of delay for your flight.

-Real-time Battlefield upgrade standby list with passenger names.  This list tells you your upgrade priority rank versus every other elite member on the plane.  It also tells you how many elite members have received a complimentary upgrade, and even which seat they are in.  Additionally it says how many people are booked and checked into first class.  It maintains privacy by only listing your first initial and the first 3 letters of your last name.

-Real-time flight standby list: What your rank is for clearing standby on a flight, and how many passengers have already cleared standby or are still on the list.

-Real-time seating maps showing the availability of every seat on the plane, including blocked seats that only a gate agent can assign.

-Online check-in.

-Boarding pass display so that you don’t need to print a boarding pass to clear security (Limited airports only at the current time)

-And many, many more features.

To illustrate how I was able to use it to my benefit:

Continental offers unlimited complementary first class upgrades for their elite members in two manners.   The first is the EUA, which is an automated system that upgrades platinum members at 5 days out, gold members at 3 days out, and silver members at 1 day out.

The EUA only works if the elite member is on their own itinerary without any other passengers and only if their is availbility in “F” class at the time that the EUA runs its course.

The 2nd upgrade manner is the battlefield upgrade in which the gate agent manually processes upgrades by elite status ranking and fare purchased.  On Continental the gate agent will actually get disciplined if they send out a flight with empty first class seats if there were elite members in coach!

When I flew from Ontario, CA to Cleveland after Pesach I knew from Continental’s new mobile site that “ELE. D.” I was #1 on the battlefield upgrade list.  I also saw that first class was fully booked, but that one passenger hadn’t yet checked in.  After I settled into my exit-row seat I took a look at the pda site and noticed that I had been upgraded to seat 1F.  I waited until boarding was complete expecting to be pulled up to first class, but noone came.  So, I got a flight attendant’s attention and asked to please double-check with the gate agent who should be sitting in 1F.  I was settled in the comfy leather seat within 60 seconds!

It’s nice to see an airline truly empower the customer with such proprietary information in today’s day and age, and it’s one example of why Continental will survive the impending airline blood-bath…

AA has started off the next round of airline fees with a new $15 (each way) fee for the first checked bag in addition to the $25 (each way) fee for the 2nd checked bag.

AA/OneWorld elite members, full fare passengers, AAnytime AAward passengers, business/first class passengers, passengers on an international itinerary, and all traveling companions of any of these exempted members will continue to be allowed to check 2 free bags.

The new bag fee applies to tickets purchased on or after 06/15, regardless of the date of travel. In other words:
-If you bought an AA ticket before 05/12 you will get 2 free checked bags.
-If you buy an AA ticket on or after 05/12 but before 06/15 you will get 1 free checked bag.
-If you buy an AA ticket on or after 06/12 you will not get any free checked bags.

-Effective for tickets bought 05/21, AA also has matched the new, soon-to-be industry standard $150 domestic change fee.

-International change fees will now range from $150-$300, depending on the market.

-Phone reservation fees (for revenue and mileage tickets) are now $20.

-Airport reservation fees are now $30.

-Mileage ticket city changes and cancellations are now $150.

-Date changes on mileage tickets continue to be free.

Finally, AA said that they will retire 75 aircraft while reducing domestic capacity by 12%. Although AA currently has the industry’s best mileage ticket availability, these cuts may well change that.

Effective 07/01:

• Matching USeless Airways policy of the elimination of the 500 mile minimum mileage earned+minimum elite mileage earned for flights under 500 miles. Accrual will now be at actual rates.

Effective 05/15: United’s top tier 1K/GS members are exempt. No exemption for 1P/2P/3P elite members.

• Change in origin/destination city on an award ticket goes from $100 to $150.

• Change in connection points on an award ticket goes from $100 to $150.

• Cancellation of an award ticket (Mileage redeposit) goes from $100 to $150.

• Award handling fee goes from $15 to $25 over the phone and $30 at the counter. (The industry’s worst website, nicknamed “united.bomb,” is still free)

• Date change on an award ticket to fly within 7 days was $75, now $100.

• Date change on an award ticket to fly within 14 days was $50, now $75.

• Date change on an award ticket to fly within 21 days was free, now $75.

• Expedite fee on an award ticket to fly within 7 days was $75, now $100.

• Expedite fee on an award ticket to fly within 14 days was $50, now $75.

• Expedite fee on an award ticket to fly within 21 days was free, now $75

Jetblue canceled its new LAX service that was schduled to start flying later this month.

While the media has said that small cities would be the biggest losers of rising jet fuel prices, this may be the highest profile route cancellation blamed on jet fuel ever.

Jetblue’s LAX-JFK service on their 150 passenger Airbus A320’s was planned at under $10,000 in fuel costs per flight, but would now cost over $15,000 per flight. In other words over $100 of every passenger’s one-way, pre-tax fare would be going just to pay the gas bill.

No wonder they’ve added a $100 change fee and 2nd checked bag fee!

With 5 carriers offering nonstop service between LAX and NYC (AA, Continental, Delta, United, and Virgin America) which all offer first class seating to subsidize net loss customers, the competition for the route was deemed too strong to start up with at the current time.

Jetblue will continue to operate nonstop service between its 3 current LA area airports (Burbank, Long Beach, and Ontario) and NYC.  None of those routes have any current competitors, and all of those airports charge less than LAX for takeoff, landing, and airport facility fees.

Yet again, United started off the party about 2 weeks ago and the rest of the changes have all occurred since then.

This list will be updated as other airlines raise their change fees.

These fees apply only to tickets made after the respective airline’s change in policy.

Domestic restricted coach change fee, by airline: (Fee does not include charge/refund for difference in fare)

(Bold font indicates that the airline has raised their change fee within the past 2 weeks:)

AA-$100

Airtran-$75

Continental-$150 (Was $100)

Delta-$100

Jetblue-$100 (Was $40)

Northwest-$100

Southwest- No charge.

United-$150 (Was $100)

USAirways-$150 (Was $100)

Update-5:25pm: DEAD!

www.continental.com

Use code: ZB5HBFJEBT

Speaking of Continental, 2 thumbs way way up for having the courage to tell United to go take their sorry airline and find a different partner! (Have I mentioned yet how much I love Continental? Full disclosure: Continental gave me complimentary transcontinental upgrades into first both ways on my recent $98+ RT flight.)

Here’s hoping that CO will now hop on over to OneWorld and spurn DeltaNorthworst’s Skyteam…(I’ve got over 2.4 million reasons for rooting for this development!)

Update: AA has joined the party and United has extended the elite exemption to anyone traveling with an elite member.

Originally posted on 04/23:

Here is my shot at providing some sanity to the new baggage fee. While most airlines have adopted it, they don’t share the same exemptions. The airlines are still tinkering with these new fees, so thay are all subject to change. While I hope these are all accurate, mistakes happen, so please feel free to comment if you think you’ve found one.

Here’s where it gets interesting. According to the contract of carriage of nearly every airline, if they change policies after you buy the ticket and don’t grandfather the old rules you have the right to demand a refund of your ticket. As of the time of this posting Airtran and Delta are not planning on offering a free 2nd bag to people who bought tickets before they announced their respective rule changes, and therefore should have to give out full refunds to people affected if they demand it…

The following chart is for economy class travel only:

©2008 Dansdeals.com Research.
Please do not post this entire article on any other website without explicit prior permission. Thank You!

United will now charge a shocking $150 (plus fare difference) to change a non-refundable domestic ticket. In addition in order to get the cheapest fares they now require a Saturday night stay for all markets in which they don’t compete with a LCC (low-cost carrier).

Now we play the waiting game to see if the other majors match…
United sparked the industry to move from 2 to 1 free checked domestic bag back in February. Over the past few months US Airways, Delta, Northwest, and Continental (in that order) have all matched that policy.

United has also added their own double elite miles promotion.

www.newglobalairline.com

In what will be looked back upon as the beginning of the end for true US airline competition, Delta and Northwest have agreed to be the first in what is sure to be a wave of merger activity.

They are currently the nation’s 3rd and 5th largest carriers respectively by passenger enplanements, but if the DoJ approves the merger the new Delta will be the world’s largest airline.

Continental, the nation’s 4th largest carrier, is now finally free to buy back its golden share from NWA and find its own merger partner. It will undoubtedly leave the Skyteam alliance, from which it was for all intents and purposes snubbed from just last week.

I’d be extremely (and quite pleasantly) surprised if Continental and United don’t announce their own merger plans by the end of this month. I would venture to say that Continental and its more adept management team would be the one acquiring the much larger United, but will move to the Star Alliance and probably keep the United branding as well.

The funniest thing (well, besides for the idea that Delta and Northwest could possibly become America’s “premier carrier”) about the Delta/NWA merger press release is the notion that all hubs for both carriers will continue to be hubs under the new Delta Airlines.

I don’t think that there’s ever been a major merger in the history of aviation in which all exiting hubs survived.

Sure some hubs may remain as so-called focus cities, but that’s not much to brag about. Just ask Pittsburgh what happened when America West bought USAirways.

There’s simply no way that 2 carriers that are merging in order to have improve their operational efficiencies would operate 7 domestic hubs. Memphis and Atlanta? Cincinnati and Detroit? No way that’s happening.

At any rate, I predict that the next month will hold some very interesting M&A activity in the domestic aviation industry…

I haven’t reported on all the merger stuff for a while because honestly without the backing of the pilots I felt there was little chance of it happening.

Delta’s pilots are apparently now behind the deal, so it’s only a matter of time before the announcement is made.

What can we expect now?

Higher fares, less available mileage seats, closed hubs (Cincinnati and Memphis have little chance for survival), and more merger activity.

Worse yet, this will allow Continental, arguably the best domestic network carrier, to buy back their golden share from Northwest and pursue their own merger opportunities…

Related: “Aloha, Aloha”
“Another One (ATA) Bites The Dust”

“How do you become a millionaire? Begin as a billionaire, then go into the airline business.”
-Richard Branson (You can find many variations of this truism online)

Skybus ceased operations on Saturday, finishing an unglorious week for aviation in which an unprecedented 3 US airlines with published schedules went out of business.

With fares like this, it’s easy to see how they burned through $160 million in startup funding in under a year of flying:

I was quite proud of myself when I nailed 7 RT tickets at that price for my pittsburgh cousins. (C’mon you would also drive a couple hours to save that kind of money!) Unfortunately it doesn’t help much when they close down less than 2 weeks before the flight…At least it was bought on a Starwood AMEX, looks like it’s time for a chargeback! (Little consolation at that price…)

Free advice to new airline startups:

1. Don’t name your airline after something with as negative a connotation as “bus.” The last thing air travelers want to fly on is something related to Greyhound; Stay classy. (What’s next SkySubway?)

2. Don’t form your business plan based on $40 oil, because those days aren’t coming back anytime in the near-future.

Coming soon: $100+ oil means bad times for US aviation, but especially for LCC’s (low-cost carriers) -so who’s next to go bust?