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Shop-a-rama: Get more miles
Airlines have long offered their own “shopping mall” websites to give you frequent flyer mile kickbacks when you place your online orders through their links. There’s a competitor, though: Shop4Miles lets you search for specific products across a range of sellers, and then earn miles on either Alaska, Delta, or United. It’s a hybrid of a comparison shopping site and a mileage mall. Bring on the bonus miles!

The guru defeats the scorecard
The field of websites devoted to choosing the best airline seats just got smaller, as two controversial seat selection websites are now defunct. It appears that SeatGuru won its lawsuit against the people behind LoveMySeat and SeatScorecard. The suit, filed last year, argued that the newer sites stole SeatGuru’s copyrighted content and represented it as their own. Looks like crime doesn’t pay: LoveMySeat.com and its duplicate site SeatScorecard.com now both auto-forward to SeatGuru.com. (For what it’s worth, I reviewed the different seat selection sites nearly a year ago, before any of the legal fracas had started.)

Transit and Taxis, mapped
I was peeking around the Google Labs and found a pair of interesting travel related sites in a beta-test. (They’re not new, per se, but if I may borrow from NBC’s simultaneously obnoxious and brilliant tagline for airing reruns, if I haven’t seen it, it’s new to me!) First is Google Transit, a site that helps you plan trips on mass transit systems. Much like driving directions, the system guides you from point A to point B. Many cities’ transit systems have a similar system in place already (for example, here’s Chicago’s trip planner), but Google is trying to become a one-stop shop for multiple transit systems. In the future, it will apparently offer a price comparison between driving and using mass transit. (Fare information is missing completely at this point — that’s a major gap.) The number of cities included at this point is fairly limited, but if your travels take you to Portland, Oregan, Honolulu, Seattle, or (wait for it) Duluth, Minnesota, you’re in luck.

Second, Google Ride Finder, which tracks taxis in major cities. Only large cab companies are included, seemingly, and I assume they’re tracking GPS locations. I’m not sure of the lag time between the info on the site and the actual physical location of the taxi. I saw a cab indicated on my street, so I looked out the window. No dice. Still, a neat idea.

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JetBlue’s passengers haven’t gotten much of a break since the debacle at JFK last week.

Every day this weekend, a quarter of flights were cancelled. Monday’s flights are similarly hard-hit: 139 out of 600 flights are cut.

There were some bright spots: One crew went above and beyond the call of duty by taking the initiative and hiring a taxi from JFK to Newburgh-Stewart to fly an unused (!?) plane to Sarasota. Good for them, and for the passengers who were stuck on the ground in Sarasota. That’s good customer service. But… why were the airline’s assets stuck on the ground in the first place? Why weren’t pilots dispatched to Newburgh in the first place? Anyway…

Other than the taxi hirin’ pilots, it’s been nothing but bad news. So it’s time for damage control.

Today, jetBlue is promising to penalize itself if it screws up again:

[CEO David] Neeleman said he would enact what he called a customer bill of rights that would financially penalize JetBlue — and reward passengers — for any repeat of the current upheaval. He said he would propose a plan to pay customers, after some amount of time, by the hour for being stranded on a plane. (my emphasis)

First off, hats off to jetBlue for admitting that they screwed up, and that this wasn’t just the weather’s fault. As I’ve argued ad nauseam, this was a problem of logistics and customer service, not snow. Neeleman even went further, and said “his company’s management lacked depth in operations.” Ouch. Someone’s getting schooled. Or fired. Maybe both.

Paying customers for the airline’s failures is interesting. We’ll see if it’s cash, or the dreaded voucher.

Just like American Airlines tried to pre-empt regulation by promising to change its policies, jetBlue is trying to avoid oversight by instituting a new policy. The airline is smart to put money where its mouth is, and this proposed penalty scheme sounds stronger (and more explicit) than any of the customer service plans that airlines created back in 1999. But it remains to be seen if this promise will be legally incorporated into the contract of carriage or not. If it’s not in the contract, then it’s not binding.

That said, this is smart politics by jetBlue. If they can come out of this looking like a customer-service oriented airline again, then they’ve made lemonade out of lemons.

Related:
- Poll: Will a Passengers’ Bill of Rights become law?
- Instant replay? JetBlue passengers stuck on planes for over 9 hours
- Should we trust airlines to improve passenger rights?

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Nicotine addicts, be warned. Your hotel options are decreasing again.

First Westin went 100% nonsmoking worldwide in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Scotland, Australia, and Fiji. Then Marriott went smoke-free across all its brands in North America. Now, Comfort Suites, part of the Choice Hotels group, is going smoke-free as well.

Already 10% of the chain’s hotels are non-smoking. The remainder of the properties will ban smoking by the end of April.

Comfort Suites will still offer a designated smoking area somewhere on the property, so smokers won’t be as shut out as they might be at other hotel chains.

It’s interesting that Choice Hotels is opting to go non-smoking in this particular brand alone. (Econolodge might have been an even bigger surprise…) Comfort isn’t their top tier, and it’s not a newly launched brand like Cambria, where they’d be starting from scratch.

Update 2/21/07: Reader Alex writes in to correct a small but important error in the description of Westin’s smoke-free policy. It’s not worldwide: “Westin did not go smoke-free worldwide. I know this is true since I’m currently in the Westin Bangkok and enjoying a quick puff in the bar. (sorry ;))” Heh. You’re right, Alex. I’ve corrected the post above to reflect the policy, as stated on Westin’s website: No smoking at hotels in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Scotland (not even all of the UK!), Australia, and Fiji.

Related:
- Marriott hotels to eliminate smoking in all its North American brands
- Smoking prohibitions: Hurdles and tradeoffs
- The captain has turned on the smoke-’em-if-you-got-’em sign…
- Smoking chimpanzee can’t kick cigarette habit (CBS News)
- Comfort Suites (aff)

The passengers’ bill of rights is gaining more steam, in light of jetBlue’s latest gaffe. But will it become law? Will this provide the impetus to turn a bill into law? Sound off.

The American Airlines passengers stranded back in December have their blog, pushing for a bill, and now the jetBlue passengers have their own site as well.

As Chris Elliott points out, the blogosphere is largely calling for passage of such legislation. Not everyone agrees, though. For example, the Cranky Flier argues against the bill.

My view is that we do indeed need a bill, since we can’t trust the airlines to adequately police themselves. And while I accept arguments like Cranky’s that airlines don’t WANT to keep passengers hostage onboard their planes, there aren’t sufficient incentives (or punishments) in place to make airlines do the right thing.

In both the American Airlines and jetBlue cases, there were opportunities to bring a plane back to the terminal, to let the passengers out. For various reasons, not limited to weather, the airlines chose not to do so. That’s unacceptable. In my view, passengers should have the legally codified right to not sit on a plane for an open-ended stretch of time. That’s the key. If the only way to give teeth to such a rule is to mandate fines for violations, then fine.

Naturally, the airlines will resist this, tooth and nail. They have lobbyists and can make contributions to the senators and representatives whose committees oversee transportation issues. But public outrage is pretty loud here.

So I put the question to you.

Will a Passengers’ Bill of Rights become law? I’ve (hastily) thrown together a short survey. Take the poll. Results next week.

Some shameless self-promotion:
I have a piece published in the March 2007 issue of FastCompany on new and forthcoming improvements to the car rental experience.

While you’ll obviously want to buy dozens of copies of the magazine to share with your friends and family, you can also read the text online here. You’ll miss out on the snappy layout and artwork by reading it online, though!

Upgraded: Hotel lobbies
Luxury lockdown! “Why should they be leaving the hotel and hanging out at the nearby Starbucks?” So Starwood and others hope to tempt you to stay within the compound by creating “internet lobby lounges.”

Upgraded: Japanese wine; Downgraded?: JAL wine lists
JAL, aka Japan Air Lines, is bringing a Japanese wine to the sky. Aruga Branca Clareza 2005, made from the indigenous Japanese Koshu grape, will be available in business class. Interesting, to be sure, but has anyone ever had it? Is it any good? Reviews are pretty sparse.

Upgraded: Flying Squirrels
Paging Rocky and Bullwinkle! Stowaway squirrel causes emergency landing on an American Airlines 777 bound from Tokyo to Dallas.

Upgraded: Ease of booking a private jet
Paging Charles Dickens! It may be the worst of times for many coach travelers, but it’s never been easier to book a private jet. There have been discounted (but not cheap) private jet repositioning flights for some time, but aggregator SideStep is now offering a search function for private jets.

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Here we go again. Just weeks ago, American Airlines was criticized for leaving hundreds of passengers sitting onboard their planes for hours and hours, instead of letting them disembark and return to the terminal. Now, jetBlue repeated the mistake. At least three planes — flights 751, 351, and 850 — were kept on the tarmac for as long as nine hours.

In a statement, the airline admitted that it was not solely due to snowy weather, but also because of “arrivals that we were unable to move to a gate within a reasonable amount of time, due to all gates being occupied.”

Again: Why can’t they call for a bus to bring passengers back to the terminal?

Anyone affected directly by these delays by sitting on the tarmac for more than three hours will at least receive an apology, a full refund, and a voucher for a free flight. (Clearly, jetBlue’s public relations staff learned from the American Airlines debacle recently.)

Though this was awful for the passengers on board these flights, the fact that another incident like this has happened so soon after the last one potentially gives a bit of momentum to the Passengers’ Bill of Rights. (Petition here.)

Related:
- Recent posts on the proposed passengers’ bill of rights

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If you thought the paranoid culture of fear that pervades airports nowadays was bad, just wait. It’s about to get worse. British researchers recently field-tested a system for radio-tagging individual passengers to track their movements in airport terminals. The test could be a preview for future airport “security” plans, while in reality serving as a way for airlines to promote on-time departures and for airport stores to sell you more crap.

Melissa Petri points to an October 2006 article at silicon.com that lays out some of the details of the EU-funded “OpTag” system. The system was tested at the Debrecen Airport in Hungary late last year. How it works: RFID tags are issued at the time of check-in and can be tracked throughout the terminal, through a series of receivers and cameras, targeting individuals to within 1 meter.

The project’s leaders argue that the program provides benefits to both airport security and efficiency. How this helps security isn’t exactly clear to me. The RFID tag is issued at the time of check-in, presumably in a boarding pass. (So much for online check-in!) But once you’ve been given a radio tag, what’s to stop you from removing it, destroying it, or handing it off to someone else? And besides, how does knowledge of your presence in the airport actually improve security in the first place? Presumably you’ve been scanned, and restricted areas are locked off. If these latter conditions aren’t the case, then we should be working on those things, rather than installing new systems to track our every move.

Airlines might have a stronger argument for issuing RFIDs to every passenger, but even there, the breadth of this benefit seems pretty minimal. Presumably gate agents would no longer need to page a missing passenger who is holding up an on-time departure; they could simply trace that person’s RFID tag and locate them in the terminal. If that’s the key benefit, then give everyone a pager, like you receive at a suburban chain restaurant when you’re waiting for a table.

But the real benefit might be for the duty free shops and other stores. By tracking passenger movements and behavior, marketers can more readily track consumer preferences and pedestrian flow. In the end, they’ll just try to find better ways to sell you crap you don’t need.

All in the name of security.

Related:
- Debunking the threat, but maintaining the hysteria
- The future of airport security: Predictions and wish-lists
- Yes, you need ID at U.S. airports. Why? It’s a secret!
- Security update: Shorter no-fly lists; air cargo won’t be screened, “for your safety”

It’s bad enough that miles can expire. Now your money can, too.
Traveling to Germany? Beware the local currencies. There are sixteen of them, in addition to the euro. For example, the BBC reports that stores in Magdeburg, the capital of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, are now accepting a newly-invented local currency in addition to the euro. The new currency, the Urstromtaler, equals one euro, but is a purely regional currency. Even worse, it expires (sorta like frequent flyer miles…), and is potentially illegal. In fact, the mastermind behind the urstromtaler explicitly references Lufthansa’s mileage scheme as a similar “legal gray area.” But this local currency isn’t a loyalty program. It’s designed to promote consumer spending in the regional economy. (Thanks Dr. Vino!)

German WhaleJet to beach on American shores
The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger airplane, will make its American debut on March 17. Lufthansa is flying the plane from Frankfurt to New York’s JFK, in part to test the plane on long-haul routes, and also to show the behemoth off to VIPs. The plane flies onward to Hong Kong as well.

I hope he wasn’t riding commando
Hans Jurgen Oskar von Naguschewski, a German (obviously) traveler, going through the security checkpoint at Manila airport, took off his pants, seemingly in protest. He was arrested, and could face jail time of six months to six years. Maybe he’s accustomed to flying Naked Air.

‘Tis the season for blog awards
The Travvies aren’t the only web awards going on right now. In the wide world of wine blogs, they’re picking their faves right now, too. Lots of good blogs to consider, but I personally cast my ballot for the aforementioned Dr. Vino, friend-of-the-blog. (Ok, admittedly, this last item isn’t about Germany or Germans, but sometimes these blogs might debate German wine…)

Reader Larry H. writes:

I know I’m heading to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in September. How far in advance should I reserve my rental car?

Larry, it’s never too soon to start. Find the lowest rate you can, make a reservation now, and keep checking back for lower rates. I’m assuming you don’t have a preference as to rental car provider.

Unlike buying airline tickets, you’re generally not paying any money up front when you reserve a rental car. And if prices go down, you can always make a new reservation and then cancel the old one. (Note, on some airlines, you can get a refund on your airfare when the price drops, too, but unless you’re buying higher-priced refundable fares, you can’t just cancel your old reservations and make fresh ones willy-nilly without paying fees.)

So you should always revisit your old reservations and try to whittle that price down. As the date creeps closer, you’d also do well to check with Hotwire or Priceline, to try to beat the rate you’ve got reserved. Remember, though, that Hotwire and Priceline reservations are fully prepaid and nonrefundable. They don’t earn any points, either.

Related:
- Hotwire rental cars (affiliate)
- Priceline rental cars (affiliate)

As reported a few days ago, American Airlines is trying to undermine the proposed Passengers’ Bill of Rights by announcing policy changes that promise service improvements, such as limits on the time passengers spend sitting in aircraft while parked on the tarmac. But should we trust this new policy?

Over the weekend, Joe Brancatelli wrote in to give the issue some historical context. The last time there was a real effort to legislate passenger rights, in 1999, airlines responded with “customer commitments” or “customer service plans,” which are still alive and well on various carriers’ websites.

These plans amount to a list of promises and goals, to which each company vows to adhere. Notably, however, these plans are NOT incorporated into the contract of carriage, and therefore carry no legal weight. They’re a voluntary set of promises, but promises are made to be broken. (Much like Delta’s promise to never put expiration dates on their frequent flyer miles, a promise they went back on recently… but I digress.)

In a 1999 column, Joe argued that the customer service plans were a sham. To this day, American Airlines’ customer service plan still includes this final paragraph:

We take the customer service goals in this plan very seriously. We know that you expect nothing less. However, the Customer Service Plan does not create contractual or legal rights. Rather, our contractual rights and obligations are set out in our conditions of carriage, applicable tariffs, and ticket jacket, all of which provide additional details on the matters discussed and must be consulted to fully understand your rights and our obligations. For example, we are not responsible for any special, incidental, or consequential damages for delays, cancellations, lost baggage, late refunds, or instances in which we do not meet our service goals.

So I share Joe’s pessimism. It’s nice that the airlines would acknowledge that a problem exists, but if the industry doesn’t put any legal meat on these customer service bones by incorporating them into the contract of carriage, then it’s really not worth celebrating. The proposed policies are probably just a cheap imitation of a real set of passengers’ rights. They’re a cynical effort to head off legislation. Keep up the fight.

Related:
- Earlier posts on Passengers’ Bill of Rights

The March of Dimes Foundation is raising money by auctioning off a first-class travel package on Continental Airlines, with all proceeds benefiting the charity. The 10-day auction starts today on eBay.

The winner of the auction gets “round trip, first-class transportation, dinner for two with executives from Continental and Boeing, a night at the Renaissance in Seattle, a tour of the Boeing plant and two seats aboard the Ferry Flight of their newest 777. All proceeds from the winning bid will go directly to the March of Dimes Foundation.”

Mmm… that new plane smell…

For more details on how to bid, click here.