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Beginning today, Northwest Airlines will start selling the exit row seats and “select” aisle seats for $15. This charge will apparently also apply to WorldPerks Elite members.

The fact that the airline, struggling in bankruptcy, is trying to monetize its better seats is hardly surprising. United has been selling upgrades to Economy Plus for some time, and other airlines around the world are charging fees for everything from cold beverages to pillows.

But the fact that Northwest is charging this fee to its elite members is a slap in the face to those flyers who have shown loyalty to the airline. Thanks for flying, now give us more money.

The recent proposal by the U.S. department of Transportation to allow domestic airlines to keep base fares low and then tack on innumerable surcharges is seeing opposition in the Senate. (See earlier posts on the subject here and here.)

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) wrote a letter to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, calling the proposed rule change “deceptive.”

I’m glad to see the senator taking a stand, and writing a letter is a good first step, but it’s just a letter, not a bill. I’d really like to see the rules legally codified to prohibit what amounts to false advertising.

If you’re a resident of the U.S., consider writing an e-mail to your Senator and Representative, encouraging them to pressure the DOT not to allow this surcharge silliness.

(Image: WABC)
tags: travel | air travel | regulation

You buy an airline ticket for $300. Three days later, the fare drops to $200. What do you do?

Don’t just grumble about it. Get credit for the difference.

This is actually a semi-secret policy which many travelers, even seasoned ones, don’t know much about. And not every airline does it.

The way it works is simple, in theory: You buy a ticket, and the price for the identical itinerary drops days or weeks later. You contact the airline, either over the phone or via their website, and request the difference. If you are willing to accept vouchers for future travel on that airline, then there is no charge. If you want a cash refund instead, they’ll deduct a fee, usually $100, often wiping out the savings.

When you think about it, it’s kind of amazing that anyone offers this. If you buy a computer in January, and the price drops in March, you don’t call up the dealer and ask for the difference. (Or maybe someone out there does, who knows… but does it work?)

Of course, if you bought a fully-refundable ticket, you can always just refund the earlier ticket and buy a new one at the lower price. But most people are buying restricted tickets. So the airlines that offer this are giving a very nice benefit.

Note also that this is not the same as the “low fare guarantees” that you’ll see on airline websites. Those guarantees apply to a narrow timeframe — usually 24 hours — within which you can get a refund if you find the exact same flights for sale on another site for less money.

Also, the airline won’t call you, begging you to re-fare the ticket. You have to know that the price has dropped. If you see a fare sale advertised, that may be a clue to check the price.

The bigger hurdles are 1) figuring out which airlines allow for re-faring, and 2) finding the actual means to get that refund. They don’t make it easy for you.

As far as I know, in the United States, USAirways and United allow repricing. American, Delta, and Northwest don’t, at least not without imposing hefty fees.

So how does it work? Call the reservations number, and ask to reprice or re-fare the existing itinerary you have. Ask them to check the price, and ask what your options are — cash vs. voucher. That’s it!

You can do it yourself via the web, but it’s fairly hidden. Let’s walk through it, using the United website as an example of how it’s buried.
Let’s assume the fare for your EXACT itinerary has dropped $100 since you bought it. So you go to united.com and click on “my itineraries” in the box on the left. Log in, and the list of itineraries appears. Choose your itinerary and then click the “Change Itinerary” button. Don’t worry, it’s not actually changing anything yet. The itinerary appears. Click on “More options” — a small, subtle link below the list of flights. On the next (similar looking) screen, more buttons appear below the itinerary. And also the text: “You can also check the price of the itinerary.” Click that. If the price is lower, the site will offer a refund in the form of vouchers. Verify your mailing address, and it’s done. Print out the new receipt for your records. If the original price is the best, the site will let you know. Remember, it has to be the EXACT same itinerary, flight for flight.

Three final warnings:
1) If you re-fare, print out the confirmation page, and keep tabs on the mail. If the vouchers don’t show up within 6 weeks, call the airline and ask them to resend them. (I did this last summer, and they doubled the value of the vouchers, as a token of apology.)
2) If you wanted a particular fare booking class, say, because you wanted the flights to qualify for a specific promotion, or because you wanted refundable tickets, you are better off trying to re-fare over the phone. The website option tends to choose the cheapest, most restrictive options for your itinerary.
3) If you have upgrades pending, you may lose them if you use the website. Skip the web. Call it in.

This is a great way to protect yourself against future price fluctuations.

Any other airlines that I’m missing? Let me know.

tags: travel | air travel

Say goodbye to the in-room $4 Twix bar and the $7 mini-bottle of Absolut during your next hotel stay. USA Today reports that minibars are being removed from luxury hotels across the United States. The reason: people aren’t using them, and the labor costs of checking the minibar contents every day are outweighing the profits.

But don’t say goodbye to the soft sounds of the refrigerator’s compressor just yet. In place of the minibar, hotels are installing small, empty refrigerators.

Some people may miss the old minibars. Members of InterContinental Hotels’ Royal Ambassador program receive complimentary beverages from the minibar, and they may be worried that their elite status is being diluted. (My wife and I also enjoyed one memorable complimentary minibar during our honeymoon in Barbados: We were upgraded — of course — to The House, where the bottle of Bollinger waiting in the fridge was particularly nice…)

But the rebirth of the minibar as a simple refrigerator is good news for most travelers, who now have room to store items of their own choosing. While it’s nice to eat out, restaurant food can become tiresome during longer travels, especially at breakfast. Being able to have a simple bowl of cereal, with the milk of my choice, in my hotel room in the morning is hardly glamorous, but it makes travel more comfortable. Having a fridge in the room is a big plus in my book.

Alternatively, some hotels are spicing their ‘bars up a bit:

Some hotels including the Thompson in New York and James in Arizona are stocking their minibars with Intimacy Kits which, in case you need to ask, contain condoms, cinnamon mints, scented cloths, and even personal lubricants and feather ticklers.

Sassy! But I hope they don’t keep these things too cold…

(image)

I admit that I have always felt a little guilty about the environmental impact of air travel. For the most part, I consider myself eco-friendly: I recycle, I keep the heat low, I avoid unnecessary driving, I have a very fuel efficient car, I contribute to environmental causes, I buy local produce when it’s in season, and I turn the lights off when I leave the room. My two biggest eco-sins: long, hot showers, and travel.

Suggesting that people fly less is not at all common in the United States. In fact, the ecological impact of aircraft is conspicuous by its very absence in the recent coverage of microjets or air-commuting. (Whether this reflects geography, awareness, or policy is a matter for debate.) Across the pond, though, the United Kingdom seems to be engaged in a vigorous debate over the morality of airplane travel. Organizations like Plane Stupid and FlightPledge seek to raise awareness of the environmental effects of all those miles.

In the context of the recent debate over “open skies” treaties, George Monbiot makes the most forceful case against air travel. (Apparently, his editors felt his original title “We are all killers” was too inflammatory, though…) Monbiot’s argument is a powerful one, especially when you mull over the numbers. (The version of the article republished on his personal site contains footnotes to back up the data he presents.) Read the whole thing.

Of course, not everyone agrees. The counterpoint by Jowett and Wiltshire (who represent the airport and airline industries, respectively) suggests that carbon trading may be a solution. In such a scenario, pollutive industries (like airlines) would buy credits from cleaner industries; logic suggests that this would spur innovation on both sides. Companies seeking to sell credits to dirtier counterparts would have incentives to build up “clean” credits, and smog-belchers would replace old equipment and seek greater efficiency in order to lower their costs.

I admit arguments advanced by Monbiot and others give me pause. Yet I’m one of the hypocrites he mentions — willing to concede that air travel is bad for the environment, but not yet willing to stop traveling. I try to appease myself with arguments based on fuel economy, like this:
The distance between Los Angeles and Auckland is approximately 13,000 miles round trip. Boeing estimates that the average 747 will burn 5 gallons of fuel per mile, so the round trip would burn 65,000 gallons. An Air New Zealand 747 carries just under 400 people when completely full. Let’s assume that the plane is only 80% full, though – 320 people on board. (They don’t sell out every flight, after all.) Therefore, the roundtrip fuel burn is approximately 203 gallons per person, or 64 miles per gallon per person (mpg/p). If the plane is full, then that number rises to 80 mpg/p. Fairly efficient transportation, right? Right?…

Maybe the “enemy” shouldn’t be air travel in general, but short hops on small, inefficient (and often uncomfortable) planes. Smaller regional jets are less eco-friendly on a per-person basis. The fuel burn at full capacity for a Canadair Regional Jet is approximately 34 mpg/p — a big drop in fuel economy from the 747. Larger, modern planes (especially Boeing’s forthcoming 787) burn less fuel per passenger, and should be favored, at least until planes start flying on solar power… A viable carbon trading system could help reduce emissions, but even then, long distance travel would mean negatively impacting the environment.

tags: travel | air travel | environmentalism | carbon trading

As predicted, other airlines are jumping in on the summer business class fare sale from North America to Europe. The latest entrant is United. Eligible travel begins July 1, and a 60-day advance purchase is required. United’s website stinks, so you may be better off phoning this in.

(photo: United)
tags: travel | air travel | United Airlines | business class

Both Keith Alexander and Tim Winship chime in on airlines offering ways to spend frequent flyer miles on non-travel items.

For some people, with enormous mileage balances, this may be worthwhile. But for most people, it’s a lousy way to spend the miles.

Take the Samsung 42″ plasma HDTV that United is willing to “sell” you for a mere 350,000 miles. The value of these miles, in my book, should be at least $5950 (at 1.7 cents per mile). At the preferred redemption rate of 2 cents per mile, that TV had better cost $7000.

It doesn’t. It’s probably worth less than half that. But I say “probably” because the United site doesn’t actually tell you the model number of the television. You can’t even make a fair miles-to-cash comparison.

Besides, if you bought that TV with a mileage-earning credit card, instead of paying for it with miles, you’d be well on your way to earning a better value for award redemption, such as business class tickets or upgrades.

tags: travel | air travel | frequent flyer miles | shopping

Yesterday, the New York Times editorialized on the DOT’s potential relaxation of airfare advertising regulations.

The editorial builds on the recent article by Jeff Bailey and Christopher Elliott on the subject (and which I addressed here. This recent (uniformly negative) attention to the proposed regulation change will hopefully make the change less likely.

As the Global Traveller points out, the potential reversal in regulation is against a rising trend of consumer-friendly regulation on this issue. If Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland are making airfares more transparent, why is the United States making them less so? (Europe, though, lags behind on this issue.)

I went and re-read the original NYT article (subscription required, or quoted here) and found this line intriguing:

Southwest sees the proposed changes as a way to blunt apples-to-apples price comparisons.

Hypocrisy! Southwest’s business model is based in large part on making apples-to-apples comparisons with other airlines impossible! Southwest’s fares are not searchable on the global reservation systems, or on the major online booking sites, BECAUSE that would make the fares easier to compare. Southwest wants its customers to assume that its fares are the lowest, and to avoid comparison shopping. (JetBlue does this, too, though there is a workaround.)

While I applaud Southwest for countering the advance of fuel surcharges and other fees, they would be more credible if they actually allowed for real comparisons with other airlines.

Apples-to-apples comparisons are indeed desirable. But Southwest isn’t even in the produce aisle. So to speak.

tags: travel | air travel

As posted here, business class fares from North America to Europe are often on sale in the summer.

That sale begins today: Continental Airlines has opened what could be a business class fare war over the Atlantic.

One thing to keep in mind is the 60-day (!) advance purchase requirement for these “Z” fares. No last minute trips here…

Prices are particularly good out of Newark. Other airlines may be matching or beating these fares in coming days.

(photo: Continental)
tags: travel | air travel | Continental Airlines | business class

A quarter million dollars for a suitcase?

The Dutch airline KLM has appealed a $238,000 fine imposed by a Philippines court for losing a passenger’s bag, a spokesman for the company said Friday. The court awarded the damages last month to a man who lost his suitcase eight years ago en route from Manila to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he was giving a lecture at a World Health Organization conference. The passenger, identified as Jose Tiongco, claimed his reputation had suffered when he stood before his audience in jeans, T-shirt and sneakers.

Wow. Note to self: Don’t mess with Jose Tiongco.

That must be an expensive, sharp-looking suit that he was going to wear to the conference.

Nonetheless, I wonder if the whole affair could have been avoided early on. Most airlines have a policy to share the cost of necessary interim expenses if your luggage is delayed. So, for example, if you need to buy a suit at your destination, they might pick up half the cost. (They assume that you will use that suit again someday, after the trip is over, so they don’t pay 100%.) Policies vary slightly, though (see, for example, American and United). Notably, KLM doesn’t mention replacements for lost items on their site.

If your luggage is ever delayed, ask immediately at the airport for authorization to buy replacements for essential items (the agents will want you to itemize them).

Once luggage is officially lost, the airlines’ liability depends on where you’re flying. You may only get US$20 per kilogram of checked luggage on international itineraries, for example. Domestic U.S. itineraries are often, ironically, more generously reimbursed.

Beyond the airlines’ liability, consider the coverage that your credit card might provide. Visa Signature cards (pdf), for example, offer supplemental Lost Luggage Reimbursement of up to $3000 over and above the airlines’ payment. A nice cushion.

Though not as nice as Jose Tiongco’s. That is, if he gets to keep it…

tags: travel | air travel | lost baggage | KLM | Jose Tiongco

Question in the reader mailbag:

Why is that that whenever I’m flying, no matter where I’m going, what airline I’m on, or who paid for the ticket, I always end up designated in the very last group to board the plane? It never fails that I’m in the last group called, no matter how many groups there may be. What does this say about either my worth as a customer or as a human being? What are the arcane logarithms that determine who ends up in what boarding group?
– Completely Reamed And Manipulated Passenger in Seattle

Dear C.R.A.M.P. in Seattle, (intentional or coincidental anagram, by the way?)

I feel your pain. While boarding early and spending an extra 20 minutes in a narrow seat is no picnic, boarding late is even worse, especially if you are carrying on rather than checking in your luggage. The earlier you board, the earlier you are able to stow your stuff near your seat in the precious overhead bins.

It used to be that passengers were boarded by row, but nowadays, “seating areas,” “boarding groups,” or “zones” are more common. However, each airline has its own rules regarding boarding, as well as its own seating area numbering logic. In general, the first zone to be called consists of elite-level frequent flyers. Early boarding is generally a published benefit of the status.

For example, USAirways seats their top frequent flyers, along with Star Alliance Gold elites from partner airlines, in seating area 1. Star Alliance Silver elites are relegated to seating area 2. The masses are relegated to seating areas 3 through 5.

United puts all the eligible elite flyers in seating area 1. Thereafter, window seats are designated seating area 2, middle seats are 3, and aisles are 4. Flying on United, like the aisle seat, and not an elite? You’ll be the last group to board. This process (called “WilMA,” presumably for Window Middle Aisle) is meant to speed up boarding so the people at the window move right in to their seats and unblock the aisle. Delta is supposedly instituting a similar policy soon. Does it work? Opinions vary.

Southwest is notable for its open seating policy, but they too have seating areas, designated by the letters. Since there are no assigned seats, it’s even more important to get the coveted seating area A. The earlier you check in, the better your seating area. Therefore, check in online as early as you can, 24 hours before takeoff if possible, to assure a boarding pass in “A.”

Jetstar of Australia similarly offers three zones — orange for passengers requiring assistance, blue for the early check-ins, and silver for the rest. I like how “silver,” which sounds more prestigious than “orange,” is actually last to board…

Other airlines print a seating area on the boarding pass and then proceed to ignore it. Lufthansa has “zones” on their boarding passes, but I have yet to see a boarding call by zone.

In any case, the bottom line is, if you want to board earlier consistently, the only guarantee is to attain elite status within an alliance. Failing that, check in as early as possible. It’s no guarantee, but it improves your odds.

tags: travel | air travel

Microjets, a.k.a. very light jets or VLJs, are on the rise. Their proposed use: air taxi service between airports that don’t see much commercial traffic.

NYT columnist Joe Sharkey offers an example of how a business traveler might be interested:

Say you are a business traveler who works in the White Plains high-tech corridor and you have a meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Flying commercial, you would leave a day early. “The next day, you have your meeting, but chances are you won’t be able to get back that day,” said Rick Adam, the chief executive of Adam Aircraft. “So that’s a three-day trip.”

As CEO of a company that makes the small planes, Mr. Adam clearly has an interest in making the connections sound particularly awful. But what’s the truth? How hard is it to get between these cities? And how much does it cost?

How about a last minute fare, leaving tomorrow?
Delta leave White Plains at 5:50am and gets you to Columbus at 9:33am (there’s a change of planes in Cincinnati). Total trip time: 3:43.
Coming back, Continental leaves Columbus at 5:00pm and gets to White Plains at 8:18pm (with a change of planes in Cleveland). Total trip time: 3:18.

The cost for this ticket, purchased less than 24 hours before departure: $535.20. Plus, you can earn miles on either Delta or Continental, since they are both in the SkyTeam alliance and allow for reciprocal earning.

Granted, all flights are on all-coach class regional jets, which are not the pinnacle of comfort. And if the meeting lasts longer, or starts earlier, then you’re stuck overnighting in Columbus. But will an air taxi always be ready and waiting for you to “hail”? How comfortable are these planes, considering they’re even smaller than RJs? And will you earn miles??

So how big is the market for microjet service? And at what price?

Adam Aircraft suggests that fares would be double or triple the cost of a commercial flight. From the operator’s perspective, the company estimates that the cost per seat per mile flown ranges between 46 and 69 cents (55 cents for the standard 7-person configuration), but they don’t indicate what they’re assuming fuel will cost. White Plains to Columbus is 489 miles each way — call it 1000 miles roundtrip. That means that the air taxi ticket would need to charge at least $550 for the operator to break even — assuming a full load of 7 passengers. If the plane isn’t full, then the fare has to be much, much higher.

The FAA is taking the planes seriously, but it’s not clear if they’re buying into the air taxi business model. Microjets could still end up widely adopted by recreational avation enthusiasts, and thus a concern for air traffic controllers, but the jury is out if they will be a viable business.

If air taxi service proves successful, we might someday see a major airline buy into the industry, perhaps complementing their regional/commuter service with a taxi service. Then, you might be able to earn some miles while you’re at it.

(photo: Adam Aircraft)
tags: travel | air travel | business travel | air taxi | microjets | very light jets