United has rolled out an enhancement to their Mileage Plus frequent flier program: You’ll now be able to book hotels, rental cars, or packaged hotel/car combos using your mileage balance.

United has tested this sort of thing in the past, but only for their elite-level Mileage Plus members. The new program allows all members to redeem miles this way.

On the surface, this is a good thing, which is how the majority of the media are bound to spin it. More redemption opportunities are a good thing, clearly. The selection of hotels and car companies isn’t seemingly limited by proprietary side-deals and exclusivity arrangements. And there aren’t blackouts, which is nice. But simply having another place to spend your miles isn’t a huge improvement if the cents-per-mile value proposition stinks.

And yes, the value proposition stinks.

The FAQ’s don’t list the conversion rates up front, but open up a few new browser windows, run a few parallel hotel and car searches, run the math, and we’ve got our answer: about 0.75 cents per mile.

The 0.75 cents per mile number assumes that the cash-booking would be done with the supplier directly, with full cancellation possible. Which isn’t fair, since the United bookings aren’t cancellable. Changes incur a $35 fee.

So not only do you have harsher terms, you even get LESS than 0.75 cents per mile if an agency or consolidator offers a lower price for the same dates. In one test, I found night at the Intercontinental Boston in October that goes for 42,725 miles on the United site. The hotel chain’s own site has a rate of $329 a night for a cancellable reservation (0.77 cents/mile). Prepaid costs $297 (0.70 cents/mile).

If you’ve got more miles than you know what to do with, or the last thing you want to do is cash in miles for more travel, then this might be for you. But if your mileage balance is more down-to-earth, you’ll probably want to try spending your miles on travel — particularly long-haul travel in premium cabins — before you empty the piggybank for a rental car.

Related:
- Is Starwood Preferred Guest’s “SPG Flights” a game-changer?
- Cashing in miles, but not on flights
- Reader mail: What kind of point-earning credit card is best?
- Reader mail: Can I cash in miles for magazines?

It didn’t make it into Gadling’s top-ten list of items not to attempt to carry through a TSA checkpoint, but Matt Daimler, founder of the invaluable SeatGuru.com, sent in this photo he snapped at LaGuardia Airport security:

That’s right, don’t bring a snowglobe in your carry-on this holiday season. Bah humbug and all that.

And remember, when TSA collects all those dangerous bottles of spring water, hair gel, and mouthwash — and snowglobes — they just throw it all into a big barrel that’s disposed of as trash. It’s not treated as a dangerous stew of explosives, to be handled with the kidgloves of a well-trained bomb squad. Because it’s not.

My parents are about to embark on a trip to Venice, and in their travel planning, they discovered that the Italian city has an online discount program for using public toilets.

Seriously, there is really such a thing as the toilet card, a daily or monthly pass to the city’s public loos, available through Venice Connected, the city’s official site.

Instead of paying the current 1 euro fee to get into a public bathroom, tourists who think ahead can get one week or day passes to the bathrooms online.

Visitors can pay 7 euros online for 10 toilet visits over 5 days in high season, and 5 euros in the low tourist season.

For a regular toilet card, bought at a bathroom or other site, the corresponding costs are 9 euros and 7 euros.

The online day rate for 2 visits is 1 euro in low season, 2 euros in the high season. Otherwise, the card costs 1.50 euros and 3 euros respectively.
[...]
The pass is another attempt by Venice, which hosts about 20 million visitors a year, to deal with tourists who use the streets as urinals.

The program has been available since February 1.

So: Is a toilet “subscription” a brilliant plan to manage public spaces? Or is it another way to bilk tourists of their hard-earned cash? (Notably, locals only pay 0.25 per use.) Hit the comments!

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“The last bastion of decent airline customer service begins its inexorable slide towards Ryan-ism.” So writes reader Hamish in response to British Airways’ announcement that they’ll be charging a fee for advanced seat reservation, beginning October 7. If you want to book an aisle, window, or God forbid, emergency exit seat, it’ll cost you. For ANY seat, not just the most desirable ones.

The rates vary by class and distance: £10 per person for European economy, £20 on long-haul economy or short flights in business class, emergency exit row will cost £50 (bookable between 10 and four days before departure), and £60 for long haul trips in business class. No charge for first-class cabins on three-class aircraft.

This isn’t just the “preferred seating” reservation charge that many US airlines offer. It’s indeed more in line with a discount carrier like Spirit or Easyjet.

Mind you, British Airways hasn’t been very friendly in the realm of seating assignments for some time. Back in 2006, I posted about how they limited the window when you could select seats to 24 hour hours before the flight. The new policy opens that window, but at a price.

In the LA Times’ blog, Jane Engle calls out the British Airways PR spin on the fee:

Here’s how British Airways described the new fees in their e-mail to agents: “Effective Oct. 7, 2009, your British Airways customers will have more control over their seating, with our new paid seating option.” I kid you not.

That’s not far from the same language they used in 2006: The ban at the time (of all seat pre-reservations) was “designed to simplify the process of choosing a seat and give all customers more transparency and control of the seating options available on their flight.” Simpler for whom?

British Airways tried to piss on you and tell you it was raining in 2006, and they’re doing it again now. Lufthansa is looking better and better.

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Upgraded: Business reasons for business travel
Take this with a grain of salt the size of a Rubik’s Cube, but the U.S. Travel Association announced that research they commissioned shows that “every dollar invested in business travel generates an average $12.50 in increased revenue and $3.80 in new profits.” Slightly more specifically, “Executives cited customer meetings as having the greatest returns, approximately $15-$19.99 per dollar invested, with conference and trade show participation returns ranging from $4-$5.99 per dollar invested.” The entire report — which is based on a survey of perceptions of the impact of travel — is available here.

Upgraded: Baggage allowances on Gulf Air
This isn’t something you’ll see in North America anytime soon: Gulf Air is raising the weight limits for passengers with (complimentary!) checked baggage, effective October 1, 2009. And the increases aren’t small: +10 kg (22 lbs), in each class. That raises the total weight limits for First, Business and Economy to 50 kg, 40 kg, and 30 kg, respectively. Silver-level frequent fliers in Gulf Air’s frequent flyer program get another 15 kg; gold members get another 20 kg. Individual bags are still limited to a whopping 32kg (70 lbs) each.

Upgraded: Virgin Atlantic’s website
Sure, airline websites have been selling hotel reservations and rental cars. But now Virgin Atlantic is trying to go further by offering “add-ons” like passports and visas. Services are provided by CIBT, either via the Virgin website or call center. (Or, perhaps more accurately, centre.)

Upgraded: Paperless boarding passes at US airports
The number of airlines and airports that permit scanning boarding passes from your mobile device keeps increasing. The TSA blog compiles the who/where. Here’s the bottom line, airlines and airport codes:

Continental: IAH, DCA, EWR, BOS, AUS, SAT, CLE, LGA, LAS, SFO, ORD, LAX, SAN, FLL, TPA, PDX, PHX, CLT, MSY, RDU, MCO
Delta/Northwest: ATL, LAS, MEM, MSP, DET, SLC, CVG
Delta only: LGA
Northwest only: IND
Alaska: SEA
American: ORD, SNA, LAX

Upgraded: Punishments for abusive passengers in-flight
The FAA is increasing the size of the penalties it levies against unruly passengers, like the man who “dropped his pants and exposed himself to the female passenger sitting next to him, then punched her, according to an FBI affidavit.” Good.

Qantas is running a promo for travel between the US and Australia: Around $970 all-in round trip (that’s $399 each way, including fuel surcharges, plus taxes) for flights from Los Angeles or San Francisco to major Australian hubs, and including a free stopover in New Zealand.

The free stopover is what really makes this a good deal.

Too bad the business class seats aren’t similarly discounted. ($15,260 for business class, for one person on the same dates. I don’t think so.)

Flights are only available at those rates for travel between May 1 and June 8, 2010. A narrow window of opportunity, but potentially worthwhile, especially with that free stopover thrown in.

Be careful when booking that you choose “red tail” flights, not Jetstar, their no-frill discount carrier. The flights are the same price, but the amenities are more generous on the mainline Qantas flights.

Maddening, though: Though you can tack on a domestic US flight to the fare for generally-reasonable rates (i.e., ~$220 additional for the roundtrip from Newark), the Qantas website makes it nearly impossible to book if you’re not leaving from a short list of cities. And that list is odd: Monterey is on the list, but Charlotte and Raleigh aren’t? Flagstaff is included, but Milwaukee isn’t? Seems like a webpage makeover is in order.

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It’s not Hannibal class seating, but it’s not going to evoke images of comfort: The British firm Design Q has proposed a military-transport style for (discount) airline seating.

Howard Guy, director of the UK company Design Q, acknowledges that some people will not be happy with the plan, but says they will be able to pay less for any inconvenience.

‘Having passengers face each other is not an ideal situation,’ he said. ‘But this will see increased revenue for the operator and more economical tickets for the passenger – so by keeping both happy, this concept makes an attractive alternative.

‘Sure the passenger can choose a flight facing forward in a traditional seating position, but he or she will have to pay more for the luxury.’

Mr Guy predicts that the design could see a 50 per cent increase in the number of passengers on board and a 30 per cent reduced cost per seat.

However, he did concede that the seats would not be comfortable for passengers on flights of more than two hours.

Yes, flying forward sure is “luxurious”… Remember that when you’re staring at a tray table. I don’t like the way this firm is thinking.

Then there’s the logistics of it: I’ve often wondered about the safety issues regarding sideways seating. Sure, the military does it. But even if you assume “crash position,” you’re going to get wrenched sideways in an impact (or even in a rough landing), which can’t be good.

Perhaps the design is sponsored by the UK Chiropracters’ Council? Good luck ever seeing this on board a commercial aircraft.

Related:
- The return of Hannibal Class: Standing seats on airliners make a comeback
- A step up for economy class seating
- Three people, six arms, four armrests: Can they coexist?
- Lufthansa considering bunk-bed style sleeper seating in economy class
- Looking backward: Airlines considering alternating forward and rear-facing seats

One small step for a website, one giant leap backward for transparency.

In an age when online travel agencies are taking steps to improve price transparency by increasingly quoting the total price for airfare, rather than the deceptively-low price prior to taxes and fees, United Airlines is going the other way. This is particularly frustrating because their site used to quote fares more honestly.

Last week, United’s fare display shifted from quoting fares with all-in pricing to the new pre-tax/fee rates. At left, you’ll see a screenshot of a fare as it’s now quoted on the first results page. Yes, there’s a mention of additional fees and taxes to be added, but these used to be included in that box.

(One improvement in that display is the number of seats available at that price. This is something the major online travel agencies like Orbitz and Expedia have been offering for a while now, but it’s nice to see United offering it, too.)

Below, you’ll see what happens when you click through to the next page, and taxes are added in.

This change is raising the hackles of a number of United frequent fliers. Here’s an excerpt from a letter forwarded to me by reader Antonio:

Dear United,

I must say, I’m shocked at how bad the new online booking system is. It has all of the telltale signs of a “cheap discount” carrier, and I mean that in the worst possible way. To quote the price not including taxes and fees is misleading, and leaves a really bad impression on United once a user clicks on an itinerary and sees the price jump by a significant amount. And saying “Hurry, purchase today” at the top of a potential itinerary is just tacky.

If United wants to become Allegiant, then by all means continue down this path. But if United want to retain the status of being America’s premium flying option, then please retain an elegant website that treats the customers with respect and doesn’t try to pull a fast one in terms if pricing.

Though I would question the use of the term “retain” in referring to United in the same breath as “America’s premium flying option,” Antonio is absolutely right on other counts: United should treat customers with dignity and show the public the full price, like it did just one week earlier.

Related:
- Hotels will be forced to disclose fees and charges up front… but not to US customers
- Will airlines start unbundling fuel entirely from the fare?

It had to happen, and I’m surprised it took this long.

A reader forwarded me an email he received from a spammer: The e-mail promised a large sum of frequent flier miles.

In a secured environment, I opened the attachment, which offered low! low! prices on male pharmaceuticals that Bob Dole used to endorse. Lovely.

But appealing to your desire for miles could be a new trend in spam. Unlike the normal phishing scam where someone tries to convince you to give up your e-mail or banking login information, spammers could start using a promise of free miles as a hook to get you to give up your frequent flier account data. Beware!

The forwarded e-mail follows, for your reference:

American Airlines

Hello [******] [*] [*******]

American Airlines has awarded your account 50,000 air travel miles.
To claim the miles, you must open the attached pdf and fill out the
questionnaire.

Many Thanks,
American Airlines
Consumer Rewards Director

Attachment: “Bonus Miles Award.pdf”

Budget and Avis (which are the same company, though operated as separate brands) announced that they were banning smoking in all their rental cars in North America.

Effective October 1, 2009, smoking will be off limits. If you do smoke in the car, there will be a $250 cleaning fee. The ban also applies to employees, who typically get to use a car for their personal transportation as a perk of the job.

To be honest, I haven’t noticed many smoky rental cars lately. They’ve been so rare (either because people aren’t smoking in rentals, or the cleaning process is so much better) that I’ve gotten to the point where I haven’t even thought to request a non-smoking car anymore. I can’t even remember the last time I made such a request.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see other companies follow suit. But there will almost assuredly be a company that doesn’t ban smoking, much like hotels, where some chains (e.g., Marriott, Westin) have gone smoke free, but most others have retained a mix of smoking and non-smoking offerings. (Will there be surcharges for renting a car that permits smoking, going forward?)