Upgraded: Hotel Honeybees
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Charlotte has a new amenity: Rooftop honeybees. The hotel restaurant will use approximately 70 lbs. of honey produced by the hive.

Upgraded: The Widespread Status Quo of Not Charging for Carry-On Bags
Five airlines have pledged not to start charging for carry-on bags: American, Delta, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines, and US Airways. Yay, status quo!

Downgraded: Recline on Spirit
Upgraded: Marketing spin!
Spirit Airlines, which never skips an opportunity to be passenger-unfriendly, is downgrading its seats, preventing you from reclining. The best part, calling them “pre-reclined.” Nice work, Spirit marketing team!

Upgraded and Downgraded: Fees on Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines is increasing the checked-bag fee for the first bag, by $5. But then they’re reducing the fee for the second bag, also by $5. The third bag’s fee drops by $30. And the fourth bag drops by $50. The new baggage fees apply to travel starting June 16 for tickets bought beginning May 1. At the same time, Alaska no longer lets you hold a reservation for 24 hours. Alas.

Upgraded, eventually: Ryanair Reimbursement
If you were stranded by the volcano and Ryanair was your airline of choice, you were likely cursing their name. They weren’t much in the way of reimbursing costs for stranded passengers: They covered the equivalent of the base cost of the ticket, which, given Ryanair’s revenue model, isn’t much. But it may have been illegal: “The European Union, which enforces consumer laws that hold airlines responsible for stranded passengers’ ‘reasonable costs,’ warned Ryanair it could face fines ranging from euro5,000 to euro150,000 ($6,750 to $202,500) per complaint.” Subsequently (and nearly a week late), Ryanair has agreed to cover the lodging and meal expenses of stranded passengers, as the EU law requires. But the company is challenging the law — and the airlines’ responsibility in situations like the recent volcano — with an appeal to the European Commission and the European Parliament.

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Alaska Airlines is taking a page from the Domino’s Pizza playbook and offering a delivery guarantee. But it’s not for pizza, it’s for checked bags:

Effective July 7th, if your baggage is not at the baggage claim within 25 minutes of your plane parking at the gate, you’re entitled to a certificate for either a discount code for $25 off a future Alaska or Horizon flight or 2,500 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan bonus miles. If we don’t meet our 25 minute guarantee, simply see an Alaska or Horizon Customer Service Agent and let them know. They’ll ensure that you receive your Baggage Service Guarantee certificate or Bonus Miles.

Vouchers? That’s a “guarantee,” but not a money-back guarantee. Especially since Alaska just launched a fee per bag. If they charge cash, then a guarantee should offer cash refunds. Seems pretty straightforward.

There’s another catch: The guarantee is only valid from July 7 through December 15, 2009. Expect an extra effort from the baggage handlers during this window.

But wait, there’s more! And as an added bonus, the guarantee can be nixed if conditions aren’t perfect:

Alaska and Horizon reserve the right to suspend the BSG in cases of airport baggage system malfunctions, severe weather events, or other conditions out of the airlines’ control that limit or prohibit timely baggage delivery.

Call me a cynic, but I’d expect the invocation of that clause on a regular basis. But points for marketing creativity. Maybe soon we’ll learn have an airline teach us to Avoid the Noid.

Boaz Shmueli of the excellent MileMaven.com website sends in this tip:

For those Alaska Airlines frequent flyers whose 2007 travels were insufficient to meet the threshold for MVP or MVP Gold, the airline’s elite status tiers, there’s a shortcut that can help you catch up.

If you want to requalify for MVP status, you can fly four paid segments on Alaska or Horizon between January 15 and March 15. Registration is necessary. Click here for full details.

To requalify for MVP Gold, you can fly eight paid segments during the same timeframe. Click here.

These links are “hidden” on the Alaska Airlines website, i.e., you won’t find them on the homepage or the MVP program promotions page. Completing the required flights will extend your status until December 2008.

Related:
- My mom is doing a mileage run
- Alaska Airlines (aff)

Downgraded: Alaska Airlines miles
Alaska Airlines is the latest to cut the lifespan of frequent flyer miles. “Effective April 1, 2008, accounts with no mileage activity for the previous 2 years will become inactive and the miles will be removed from the account. Any mileage earning or award redemption activity on your account will keep it active.” You’ve been warned. (Thanks, Boaz!)

Upgraded: Corporate excuses for illegal activity
Legal news: “The legal dispute between Hawaiian Airlines and Mesa Air Group took an unexpected turn this week when Mesa attorneys told a US Bankruptcy Court in Honolulu that CFO Peter Murnane mistakenly deleted files related to the case as he attempted to purge pornography from his computer.” What is this, the Homer Simpson defense?

Upgraded: The nanny state
Downgraded: Inflight entertainment for anyone over 12
Heath Shuler, Democrat of North Carolina, wants the federal government to regulate inflight movies, which he says have become too violent. I haven’t seen anything too violent on an overhead screen, so I don’t really know what he’s talking about. I have seen some saucy stuff on the in-seat TV’s. If he doesn’t like overhead movies, fly an airline that doesn’t have overhead movies. Like Southwest. But look at the upside: If this bill passes (which I don’t think it will) then the airlines might be incentivized to roll out more in-seat monitors. Maybe? Please? Fingers crossed?

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Is more efficient airport check-in design possible? Apparently Alaska Airlines has figured out a way to speed things up, by getting the passenger to drop their bag, rather than waiting for the gate agent to do it for them.

The system has been in use for some time now at the airline’s Anchorage hub. The Wall Street Journal profiles their patented (yes, patented) check-in area with a glowing report:

In Anchorage, the lobby is deep instead of shallow. But thanks to multiple windows, it is light and airy and provides a sweeping view of the Chugach Mountains to the east. The spacious hall is dotted with kiosks and roving customer-service agents to help passengers who aren’t familiar with the machines. Those without bags can go immediately to the security-screening lines around the corner. Those with luggage proceed to bag-drop stations where the passengers, not the agents, place the bags on conveyor belts while the clerk checks boarding passes and identification, tag the bags and give the fliers the baggage stubs.

Because the transactions are so swift at these stations — and because the passengers (or, in some cases, porters) do the heavy lifting — one agent can handle two lines of passengers, and the lines are rarely very long. Elite frequent fliers have dedicated bag-drop stations.

I’m honestly surprised at the speed improvements (surprised in a good way). The slowest part of self-check-in with bags is often the wait for the gate agent, who is working six counters at once. Until they check your id and tag you, you’re waiting, clogging the kiosk. The Alaska method moves you away from the kiosk, but it could still bottleneck at the bag drop, where the agent has to tag your bags, no?

The method will be rolled out in Seattle next year. But will it work elsewhere, in older terminal buildings where the width of the building exceeds its depth? Heck, even newer buildings are wide rather than deep.

Nonetheless, it sounds promising. It’s been 10 years, almost to the day, since I’ve passed through Anchorage Airport, so I have no first hand experience with Alaska’s new approach. Comments from those who have seen it in action are especially welcome.

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When free drinks aren’t welcome
Why would there be an uproar over an airline giving a customer a free bottle of wine? When that customer is a celebrity who just left rehab for alcoholism. A well-meaning Qantas flight attendant gave a bottle of red to singer Keith Urban, who apparently declined. But come on: give the flight attendant a break! Unless the airline is giving CIA-style background briefings about the passengers in the cabin, you can’t be expected to know the ins and outs of every celebrity’s (or every passenger’s) personal life. In fact, I was quite content to be blissfully unaware of Mr. Urban’s specific addiction before this imbroglio. (Thanks Dr. Vino!)

Group hug: Mergers and partnerships
JetBlue merging with Delta? Rumored, but unlikely. Brazil’s TAM and Germany’s Lufthansa? Not a merger, but a codesharing partnership. United is getting in on the hot codesharing action with TAM, too. Lufthansa also joined up with El Salvador’s TACA, already a United partner. Are the Star Alliance invitations far off? And keepin’ it Star, is Singapore Airlines buying China Eastern? They’re buying a piece, but how big will that piece be?…

Can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?
British Airways, apparently in a response to the all-business class service from startups like Eos, Silverjet, and Maxjet, is considering rolling out all-premium service between unnamed European and American cities. Premium economy in the back, business in the front. No straight-up economy, and no first. (Thanks, Benet!)

Countdown to 7/8/07
Boeing has started assembling its first 787 Dreamliner, a plane manufactured in prefab pieces around the world and bolted together at the Everett factory. The debut is scheduled for July 8. 7/8/07… 787… har har har.

American updates website, makes it more like Southwest
American Airlines revamped their website, giving you an overview of the different fares you can book. The layout will be familiar, if you’ve ever booked on Southwest. Or Air Canada. Or Qantas. Or Ted. (Does anyone ever actually book tickets at the Ted site?)

Yapta comes alive!
Yapta, the service that tracks fares after you’ve bought, mentioned here last week, is now live.

Alaska Airlines downgrades their upgrades
If you used miles to upgrade flights on Alaska Airlines, you’ll have to buy far more expensive tickets in order to do so. Thumbs down. Gary Leff has the full scoop.