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In a time when in-flight meals are declining or disappearing, Gadling points to an interesting challenge that Conde Nast Traveler posed to Gene Kato, chef at Chicago’s Japonais restaurant. The goal: Create the perfect in-flight meal.

The dish had to be spoilproof for at least three hours, leakproof, and non-odiferous.

Fair enough. Now, admittedly, the rules called for this to be an in-flight meal, not an in-flight meal you prepare on your own. If ever there was a need for a personal assistant/chef, this is it.

The recipe for Miso-Glazed Fried Chicken with Japanese Truffled Soybean Salad sounds delicious, but it involves an impressive list of ingredients and steps, even for seasoned home cooks. I don’t foresee too many business travelers whipping this one up in their down time.

More realistically, the magazine should check out hotels’ takeout options. In an effort to attract or retain business travelers, upscale hotels like the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City offer takeout lunchboxes designed with air travel in mind. The offerings, sometimes sold under labels like “Flight Bites,” sound good, and certainly beat the fare available at most airports:

Pistachio-crusted blue fin tuna topped with shaved fennel and blood oranges. Prosciutto and burratta mozzarella on bone bread, garnished with arugula. Grilled chicken with avocado and chipotle aioli.

Yum. (Although I’m not sure what “bone bread” entails.)

(image: cherylladd.com. Really.)

Ugly Americans?
So yesterday… Up and coming tourists in need of cultural sensitivity training: the Chinese! “The would-be tourists are being told that while spitting, slurping food and cutting in line may merely disgust people at home, they are sometimes not tolerated at all abroad.” My favorite complaint: spitting in the hotel room. (photo: Reuters)

Inflation
It’s not just the airlines tinkering with their frequent flyer programs. Hotel loyalty programs are in flux, too. Hilton recently raised their redemption rates, and Starwood is now apparently considering following suit. (via View from the Wing)

The exciting world of risk analysis
Travel to dangerous places? Good luck getting life insurance.

“World’s Wackiest Museums”
Make this your global museum checklist. I have only hit one — the Museum of Bad Art. The pointillist rendering of a man on a toilet is truly sensational. (via Gadling)

Identity theft a-go-go
After a trip, once your miles post to your account, shred your boarding passes to avoid identity theft. A shocking account of how wide open British Airways’ (and potentially other airlines’) passenger information is.

Relaxation and rejuvenation
Mobil Travel Guide ranks the world’s best spas. Need something closer to home? Check the Spa Finder Spa Guide.

Packing your bags this summer? Some things to worry about:

Loads on domestic U.S. flights? Up! Percentage of lost or delayed luggage? Up!

Maybe the people who lost luggage should try the courts: In the UK, heroic everyman Nick Gilbert sues Ryanair for lost pair of glasses, wins, lives to tell the tale in the Sunday Times. (via Consumerist)

Carrying that luggage on-board may not be the solution for international travelers, either. Things may get more difficult if you travel via the UK. The Global Traveller reports that BAA, the folks who run Heathrow, etc., are going to enforce carry-on weight and size restrictions more aggressively. These rules differ, both by airline and by region.

If you’re flying within Europe, the carry-on sizes are much smaller and lighter than if you’re traveling to/from the United States. But what if you’re flying from, say, Houston to Krakow, via London; your carry-on may have been legal for the trans-Atlantic flight, but it went illegal when you touched down in London. If BAA requires gate-checking for hundreds of connecting passengers daily, there will be an uproar. Stay tuned.

United giveth, and United taketh away. Well, taketh away mostly. Two weeks ago, on Good Friday, United Airlines sent an e-mail to its members announcing changes to its Mileage Plus program. (I was on vacation, and didn’t see the e-mail until over a week later.) The response, both in the print media and in the blogosphere, was resoundingly negative, accusing United of devaluing its members’ miles by 20%. The message boards lit up with disillusioned travelers demanding vengeance.

Then, as if to dampen the blow, United announced a confusing new sub-program of Mileage Plus, called “Choices,” which is tied directly (and solely) to one’s use of the Chase-issued United credit credit — assuming you have one, of course. Clearly, this is designed to lock you into their credit card, as well as their mileage program. More on Choices below.

But are these changes to the world’s second-largest frequent flyer program a “Friday Night Massacre,” a tweaking at the margins, or a silver-lined cloud? Let’s break it down.

There are three categories of changes: Saver Awards (the awards with limited seats available), Standard Awards (which can “buy” a seat on any flight), and new fees. Note that there are no changes to upgrade awards. Also, these changes don’t take effect until October 16, 2006. Until then, the old rules apply.

Most people care primarily about Saver Awards, so let’s look at those first, and in detail:

Economy Class Saver Awards
The redemption rates for Economy Class Saver Awards — the most commonly requested awards, and the ones that are limited in their supply — are largely unchanged. However, there are two notable changes for coach-level awards:

- between the Hawaiian islands (+5K / +100%)
- to/from Australia/New Zealand to the Americas (+20K / +33%)
- the (seldom-used?) award between the Middle East and the Caribbean (-5K / -6%) Yes, decreased 5K. Whoo.
- 15K short-haul award: Fly less than 700 miles each way within North America, it’ll cost 15K instead of 25K (-40%). The downside: When this was an occasional promo, the distance was 750 miles. Those 50 miles matter, since popular routes like Chicago-New York (733 mi) are excluded. Update April 2007: While United made it sound like a permanent feature, short-haul awards ended on February 28, 2007. Bad form, United!
- All other economy-class saver awards remain the same.

The good news is that domestic tickets over 700 miles are still 25K, mainland to Hawaii or the Caribbean is still 35K, North America to Europe is still 50K, etc. etc. Most travelers can already breathe easier. The changes to intra-Hawaiian and Australia/New Zealand-bound tickets were widely expected. Both these awards were well below the competition’s redemption rates. I’m sad to see these change, but I’m not surprised.

North American First Class / International Business Class Saver Awards
Saver Awards for business class (on 3-class planes) or first class (on 2-class planes) are going up in several markets:

- within North America (+5K / +12.5%)
- between North America and Hawaii (+15K / +25%)
- within Hawaii (+5K / +50%)
- from Hawaii to the Caribbean or Central America (+15K / +25%)
- to/from Australia/New Zealand (+20K, like economy class / +22%)

The North America-Hawaii increase is probably the most obnoxious, and makes this award a so-so value. Clearly, they’re out to bilk the honeymooners. The service up front in a 2-class plane to the islands will now only cost 5,000 fewer miles than a far superior business class flight between North America and Europe in a 3-class plane (with better food, entertainment, legroom, etc.) The Australia/New Zealand increase stinks, too, but is perhaps more palatable given the duration of the flight; it’s also not a surprise, given how comparably cheap this award has been, compared to the competition, for years.

International First Class Saver Awards
For international travel on three class aircraft, first class is of course the cream of the crop. And this is where some of the most marked saver award increases are found.

- Australia/New Zealand to/from the Americas (+20K / +16.7%)
- Europe to/from the Americas (+25K / +25%)
- North America to/from South America (+10K / +10%)

Again, no surprise on Australia/New Zealand. The real shocker is the Europe fare. It’s absurd, actually, since Asia-North America flights (unchanged) are now cheaper. More miles for a shorter flight. What’s the sense in that??

Standard Awards
Standard Awards allow you to use miles to buy a seat on any flight that is still for sale. It’s like buying a full-fare ticket: If there is a seat left, you can buy it. But it costs more. Now, it costs even more. Unlike Saver Awards, where many regions were spared, there are increases in 80% or so of the routes, too many to mention. The smallest increase is 10K miles (for example, within North America), while the largest jump is a whopping 70K miles (bringing a North America to Australia ticket from 200K to 270K). Ouch.

Short Term Redemption Fees
This is where I get cranky. Charging money to cash in your miles is purely punitive, but main competitor American Airlines has been charging fees for short-term redemptions for some time. Join the crowd, eh? At least the fees aren’t as high as American’s: United will charge $50 for redemptions 7 to 13 days prior to travel, and $75 within 6 days of travel. (American charges $50 for redemptions within 6 days, and $100 for redemptions 7 to 20 days prior to travel.) If you book two weeks in advance, you avoid the fees. Top-tier elites (1K and UGS) are exempt from the fees as well. Granted, I plan my award travel well ahead of time, but this new fee leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

“Choices”
Finally, Choices. Perhaps to make up for the increase in redemption rates and fees, holders of the Mileage Plus credit card from Chase can now add another layer to the mileage redemption onion. Miles earned through credit card activity are now tracked separately in the Mileage Plus account, and labeled as “choices.” The choice? You now have the option of using the miles labeled “choices” to retroactively refund the cost of travel booked on united.com. (For air travel, the rate is 1 cent per mile. For hotel and car bookings, it’s less.) The retroactive credit is an interesting twist. Of course, you don’t have to use the miles this way: You can use them as normal redeemable miles, as always. Thus “Choices.”

Since JPMorgan Chase is a major creditor to the new UAL Corp., it’s not surprising to see a credit-related gimmick being rolled out. But frankly, this seems like a non-event to me. It’s nice to have an option, I guess, but the 1 cent-per-mile rate stinks. The upside: You can EARN miles on tickets you buy using your “choices.” But you’re still better off, value-wise, going for traditional redemptions.

Three final pieces of advice, regarding these changes: 1) If you are looking to redeem miles, don’t rely on United’s website for availability, especially if your destination is served by a partner airline. Call. The phone agents can work magic and find availability you can’t. 2) If economy class saver awards are sold out, and if you are considering a standard award instead, be sure to check for saver award availability in first or business class before you book. It may be available, and cheaper than the standard award. People often neglect to check the premium cabins. 3) Try to maximize the value of your miles. Even with the heightened redemption rates, there are still good deals to be found. Unsure whether to use your miles or pay with cash, or looking for more redemption advice? Run it through Miles or Buy.

Bottom line: The awards that did change were hit pretty hard. Am I disappointed at these changes? Absolutely. But the majority of awards are unchanged, and the “price” still seems reasonable. Do I think the short-term redemption fees are obnoxious? You bet. Am I running to the barricades and threatening to kick United to the curb? Not yet.

(image)

If the airlines are going to charge for meals, drinks, headphones, and what-not, then it’s high time they made it easier to pay for the stuff, rather than having the flight attendants state that “exact change is appreciated.” Finally, in a country where everyone seems to use credit cards for everything, onboard use of credit cards is finally hitting the airline mainstream. American Airlines began accepting plastic on board many of its planes this week, with a promise to accept cards on all flights by June.

While credit cards have been accepted on international flights for some time (for duty free purchases), domestic U.S. flights have been oddly credit-card-free.

American Express Co. will provide the airline with portable electronic terminals. We’ve seen similar machines before — if memory serves correctly, United had them briefly a few years ago, but they were unreliable and were pulled after a few weeks. Alternatively, Continental has made it possible to buy “Continental Currency” using credit or debit cards at the self-check-in kiosks. These certificates could be exchanged onboard for alcoholic beverages or headsets. A good start, but still an additional layer of planning for the customer.

Making it easier to buy stuff onboard is in the interest of both the airlines and the flying public. For business travelers on an expense account, having a receipt or charging it to the company card reduces hassle tremendously.

Of course, I’d rather not have to pay for every little thing in the first place, but if I am shelling out the cash, I’d like the option of using my card. Which earns me more frequent flyer miles, after all…

(Update: ATA has also begun accepting credit cards in flight, but goes a step further: not accepting cash. Via USAT.)

tags: travel | air travel | credit+cards | American Express | American Airlines | Continental Airlines

(Updated August 6, 2006; original text is crossed out, corrections follow in text. Reason for update is here.)

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (republished here) advises travelers to look for discounted first class fares: Q-UP, Y-UP, and Z fares. Some of these are technically coach fares, with an automatic upgrade. Though these fares often look like a coach fare, based on the booking codes, they actually book into first (or business, on three-class planes). This is a subject we’ve addressed before, with regard to international travel.

A few observations:

Finding a coach-with-automatic-upgrade discounted first class fare is nice, but it’s not generally rockbottom cheap, so don’t plan on paying $225 for a first class ticket from New York to San Francisco. These tickets are cheaper than last-minute full-fare economy fare, and certainly cheaper than full-fare first class, so undoubtedly preferable, but not cheaper than long-term advance economy purchases.

For example: Chicago-Los Angeles and back, May 16-23 on United. A search for first class fares on united.com automatically yields an itinerary with fare basis code QUAUP. This is one of the fares the WSJ is talking about. The price? $1418.59 round trip. The cheapest upgradable coach fare? $280.60. Sure, that doesn’t mean that the upgrade is guaranteed, but that’s still a big spread between “discounted” first and coach.

The lesson: See if you can upgrade a cheaper fare before you buy one of these fares. They may be less than full-fare first, but if you have upgrades, and the spots are available, use ‘em on a cheap fare. Call your airline first to check upgrade availability.

The article is also a bit glib on how to find these fares. They’re not available for every route, for every date, or every airline. Searching for first class tickets should bring them up, if they’re available. Otherwise, try using this tool from Travelocity, which lists all available fare classes for selected airlines on your chosen date. You’ll see the list of fares, ranked by price. Some of them may read Q***UP or Q***UPN, for example. These are your auto-upgrade discounted first class fares. Once you’ve found the fare you want, (try to) book wherever you like.

Finally, not all Q-UPs, etc. are created equal, and these fares are more restricted than full-fare first (”F” fares). F or A fares are most likely refundable; Q-UPs, etc., may not be. For example, on United, if there is an “N” at the end of the fare basis code, it’s not refundable. Read the rules before you buy.

The story that won’t go away: Standing seats, re-re-redux
Christopher Elliott, who wrote the now-controversial article for the NYT, publishes the proof that these seats actually existed on his blog. His photo republished here. Semi-retraction or not, I still think this was a trial balloon. The reaction being negative, we won’t see stand-up seats. Yet…

Standing inflight would keep your attire looking sharp. But if you’re crumpled and sweaty, earn some miles. Delta introduces SkyMiles Drycleaning. I’m not kidding. (Well, technically they call it SkyMiles Clothing Care, but still.)

Delta, and clothing, again
New uniforms for frontline staff. And why not: This is the airline that had Kate Spade-designed uniforms for their Song subsidiary. But is bankruptcy the best time to be shelling out the moolah for new threads?

Airport advertising
Taking a cue from the film “Minority Report,” Accenture has installed a giant touchscreen billboard at Chicago O’Hare’s terminal 3. Pretty cool, but when it comes to ads at O’Hare, I’ll always look back fondly on the billboards that read “Get Veal Satisfaction.”

Onboard wireless
Nine companies are bidding for a segment of the radio spectrum which could be used for inflight wireless — phone, internet, whatever. The two latest entrants: JetBlue, and the original holder of the spectrum, Verizon AirFone. It sounds like there will be some competition for Boeing’s Connexion and Inmarsat’s less well-known SwiftBroadband.

Collect them all!
Conde Nast Traveler’s Top 130 new hotels. A new hotel every three days. (The cheaper rooms on the list — sub-$200 — are listed here.)

Numerous airlines have made promises regarding upgrades to their business or first class products, especially to introduce lie-flat seating. But what about coach? Sure, we had the furor over standing-room-seats last week — a report which Airbus has disputed, saying they’ve abandoned the concept, and which the New York Times partially corrected today.

More realistically, the Telegraph reports that a new generation of economy-class seats may resemble movie theater seats. The new “flip-seats,” designed by Aida Development GmbH of Germany and pictured above, would allow passengers to stand up during the flight without moving to the aisle, thereby reducing the risk of potentially life-threatening blood clots from Deep Vein Thrombosis (a.k.a. DVT or “economy class syndrome”).

DVT is an increasingly common concern for travelers, especially on long and ultra-long haul flights. And where there is concern, there is insurance: One provider is even offering DVT insurance in the UK, with a £10,000 payment if death occurs 72 hours after a flight. This sounds like a moneymaker for the insurance industry: existing fear/demand, limited window for the event, low risk of payout, relatively low payment.

Besides reducing the risk of DVT, the flip-seats promise faster boarding, since passengers can more quickly move into the aisle to stow carry-ons under the seat. The speedy boarding claims may be overstated (people using the overhead bins are the real slow-down) but, assuming the seats don’t sacrifice comfort for foldability, this seems like a good move. I reserve the right to change my mind if the passenger next to me spends the duration of the flight standing up next to me, though…

(images: Aida)

AMR Corp.’s American Airlines and UAL Corp.’s United Airlines have several things in common, besides TLA (three-letter-acronym) corporate names. They’re both celebrating 25 years of their frequent flyer mileage programs, which should be painfully obvious to anyone who opted in to the programs’ e-mail communications. But United’s million mile giveaway may have just been bested by AA’s more atttainable benefits:

Yesterday, American kicked off a 25-day celebration of sorts, which thusfar includes some freebie giveaways and some sales. Most notably, certain award travel for North American routes is reduced for the rest of the month. For example, domestic U.S. trips, normally 25,000 miles, are on sale for 18,750. (Book by May 31, travel between August 22 and November 8. Full rules here.)

Check the AAdvantage celebration page for the daily offer. Today’s offer is a cruise special and sweepstakes.

Other benefits may accrue to AA flyers this month as well. On 10 flights yesterday, every passenger was surprised with a gift of 25,000 bonus miles, a move which may have cost the airline 42 million miles. I’d be surprised if they did anything similar soon, but you never know.

(image: caribb on flickr)
tags: travel | air travel | frequent flyer miles | American Airlines | AMR | AAdvantage

Washington to London for $499 roundtrip in business class??! It’s true. If you can leave Washington-Dulles on May 6, and return from London-Stansted May 7, 8, or 10, all-business class Maxjet will take you. Apparently valid on these dates only. I just checked, and seats ARE available. Go to the Maxjet homepage, and be sure to enter the promotional code “MADMAX” before clicking “next.” But hurry, these fares are likely to sell out faster than you can say “Independence Air.”

via FT

For those who read the blog feed instead of visiting the site directly, you may be experiencing some oddities (abbreviated posts and the reappearance of old posts, especially) lately. Sorry for the mess, but I have not yet been able to figure out why this is happening. Looking into it.

Two weeks ago, I offered this assessment of airfare aggregators — sites that perform an identical search across multiple travel sites and report the results to you. But most of these sites can be used for hotel searches as well. How do the aggregators stack up for lodging?

Hotel searches are trickier than airfares, for the most part, because not all rooms are created equal, and hotel location is less standardized than air travel routes. Finding a low rate isn’t helpful if you have strong preferences for two queen beds vs. one king bed, or smoking vs nonsmoking, or if you need to be within walking distance of a particular location.

(Note also: For many large chains’ loyalty programs, you now are required to reserve the room through their own sites in order to collect the points. The aggregators may be helpful in finding a lower rate booked through another site, but be sure you’re aware of point accrual rules before committing to anything.)

In contention here are Kayak, SideStep, FareChase, Mobissimo, Qixo, Bezurk, PriceGrabber, and the newly-launched hotel-only SearchParty.

I ran three separate searches on all engines: one stay in San Francisco, one in Paris, and one in Moab, Utah. The idea was to test large and small U.S. destinations, as well as an international location. I also ran the same searches on Travelocity and Orbitz to see how the traditional sites compared.

Once again, Kayak comes out on top. But this time the competition is closer on its heels. Farechase comes in a close second for North American searches, with Sidestep and Bezurk coming close for international. Worst performer of the bunch, by far, is Qixo — when its servers were working at all. SearchParty is unique in showing the cancellation policies, but its prices are still too unreliable for me to recommend the site; in time, it may improve.

The breakdown:

Kayak
Kayak offered a comprehensive mix of independent and chain hotels, including hotels you couldn’t book online. Their goal — to catalog every hotel on earth — is not quite reached, but they do an admirable job. They even include small, independent hotels that can’t be booked anywhere online (they give you a phone number in such cases, but these offline hotels may be listed without rates). Kayak’s controls are also the best. The difference: More options to let you narrow the search, and not just sort results. For example: While others, such as Farechase and Sidestep, let you narrow down results by neighborhood, and Farechase lets you sort results by distance from a given point, only Kayak lets you narrow the search by a geographic radius — without sacrificing the other variables you want to control. It’s a subtle difference, but this level of output control makes filtered results far more relevant. They include a small map as well (powered by Google), which is helpful. Downsides: No reviews or photos (minor quibbles), and they could offer more room amenity options to filter results.

Farechase
Yahoo’s Farechase responded more quickly than the other sites — the fastest response in the group. Controls to narrow results include price range, class (stars), neighborhoods, bed type, and an amenity list. The results can be sorted by popularity (default), price, name, or distance from the search term. Results include a small photo of the hotel, if available, but I’m really not sure how useful this is. Sometimes the quality is poor, sometimes it’s just a photo of a bed. You can’t garner much from the photos. The map is huge — maybe too big, even. One nice feature is the consumer reviews, garnered from Yahoo and Travelocity. TripAdvisor is still a far richer resource for reviews, but having user reviews is a positive, nonetheless. Major downside to FareChase: Searches are possible for US and Canada hotels only. Get a passport, guys!

SideStep
Sidestep’s output is similar to Farechase, but without a map, and without a way to limit bed types. Like Kayak and Farechase, sponsored results get top ranking. Photos are the same size and quality as Farechase. A small number of Sidestep-user-generated reviews. Prices were good for international searches. A solid performer.

Mobissimo
Mobissimo has fewer controls than the others. Default ranking is by price, without regard for location or class. You can sort results by stars, price, name, or provider, but it doesn’t give you any choices over the location of the hotel or the kind of room you’re searching. International search results were good, but the results are so hard to wade through, it’s still an inferior search.

Qixo
Like Mobissimo, Qixo doesn’t offer many controls over the output. For some reason, the site had trouble loading on one computer I was using, but worked fine on another computer in the same network. (Qixo shifts from qixo.com to res99.com for search results, which may have something to do with it.) But regardless of the networking issues, it was still an inferior product. The highest prices, by far. The least control over the output. Don’t bother with this site.

Bezurk
Bezurk found the lowest prices for the Paris search, but it was far less effective for US-based searches. (Their best deals seem to come from HotelClub.com, which I did not see listed in any of the other aggregators.) Not as many controls as the others, but the deals are good.

Pricegrabber
Update: PriceGrabber has thrown in the towel, shutting down their travel search feature. The rest of their site is still up and running. This review stays up, though the travel service is defunct.
PriceGrabber grabbed some pretty high prices in Paris and San Francisco. Its rates were par for the course in Moab. Their initial search has limited options, but the results can be filtered further (star rating, price, features, etc., but not distance from a particular point). Still, other sites offer better controls. PriceGrabber isn’t bad, but you can do better.

SearchParty
SearchParty, a new entrant specializing entirely in hotel searches, needs to work some kinks out. The site is attractive in its presentation: For each hotel, they show the prices of the three least expensive providers. When you click through to compare the booking options, you see the cancellation policies and fees, which is a VERY nice feature. But the prices that come up in the search are simply unreliable. Click on that $69 rate at the Sleep Inn, and the very next screen tells you it’s actually $99. What good is an aggregator that can’t get its prices right? Further, its searches are limited to the United States only. Finally, there’s no way to limit searches by bed/room type. SearchParty has potential, but it has a way to go.

The “Control Group” in the experiment: Neither Orbitz nor Travelocity found as many options as the aggregators. Orbitz was easier to narrow down and control. But price-wise, the aggregators found lower base rates.

(image: Intercontinental Amstel Hotel, Amsterdam, photo via larscapes.com)