With few exceptions, EQMs are earned primarily by flying, unlike the redeemable miles that can also be earned through credit card spending, rental cars, etc. So EQMs are a greater measure of loyalty to an airline (and its alliance partners) than redeemables.

The size of the EQM gift ranges from 5000 EQMs (20% of the way to entry-level status) all the way to 15,000, but according to reports on Flyertalk threads (here for Delta, here for Northwest), there’s no obvious rhyme or reason. A traveler with 140K miles under his belt for the year got a 5000 mile bonus (which doesnt’ really change anything) while a traveler with far fewer miles got more. I don’t get it.

Reader Cindy forwarded me a message she received from Northwest, quoted below:

A jump start can be the perfect beginning.

That’s why we’re excited to provide you with 10,000 complimentary Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) – which have already been deposited into your WorldPerks account – to help you requalify for Elite status in 2010.

We understand your ability to travel is more restricted this year, due to the economy and other factors, but we hope you’ll continue to fly with us and enjoy your elite status benefits while continuing to add even more Elite Qualification Miles to your balance. Take advantage of our vast new network, serving almost 400 destinations in more than 65 countries on six continents, including new routes to Johannesburg, Sydney, Saigon and beyond. Book a flight today.

You’re the reason we fly,

Jeff Robertson
Vice President – Loyalty Programs

This is bound to please many people who might have lost their status (and the commensurate perks) next year. On the flip side, it’s bound to annoy people who get fewer EQMs than they think they deserve, relative to others. It can equally annoy customers who earned their status through actual flying, instead of bonuses. But hey, it’s a business decision on the part of the airlines, and they think they’ll be able to keep more business this way.

Will other airlines follow suit?…

2 miles to upgrade an international roundtrip? Two?!!

Northwest and Delta both sent e-mails to their lists. Here’s a piece of a Delta e-mail, but the gist is the same for flights on Delta’s subsidiary, Northwest:

You can now upgrade to our award-winning BusinessElite cabin for one mile each way when you fly internationally on a paid Y, B or M Economy fare between June 30 and September 15, 2009.

[...]
Terms & Conditions
Eligible Fares/Booking: All taxes, fees and blackout dates are governed by the rules of the Y, B or M economy class fare purchased. Additional upgrade tax may apply. SkyMiles members can request a one-way upgrade Award for 1-mile for paid tickets purchased in Y, B, or M economy class between the continental United States, Alaska, and Canada and any international destination that offers J class fares (BusinessElite) where upgrade class of service is available on Delta or Northwest-operated flights only. SkyMiles members must call a Delta reservations representative for upgrades. Tickets: Must be purchased and upgrade requested no later than July 13, 2009. Travel Period: Travel must be completed by September 15, 2009. Restrictions: Availability of one-way upgrade inventory is limited and may not be available on all flights. Some markets may have more availability than others. Members may reissue existing tickets to be eligible for upgrade offer, but will need to pay applicable fees. Customers may combine this upgrade Award with other one-way upgrade Awards. Upgrades not available on Air France and KLM or any other SkyTeam® or codeshare partner operated flights. Tickets are nontransferable. SkyMiles accrual will be for class of service originally purchased. Miscellaneous: All SkyMiles program rules apply. To review the rules, please visit delta.com/memberguide. Fares, taxes, fees, rules, and offers are subject to change without notice. Other restrictions may apply. Please refer Delta reservations representative to 970222.

“Additional upgrade tax” ??! Be sure to get a full quote before you finalize anything.

Also, and very importantly: Note that the eligible fares — Y, B, and M — aren’t the rock-bottom cheapie bucket of fares, they’re at the top end — the most expensive range of economy fares.

You may in fact be able to find a cheaper fare confirmed in business class by looking for a business fare outright. (Most likely a fare with a “Z” an “I” or “S” fare code.) Shop around.

All told, though, spending 2 miles for a roundtrip international upgrade is fantastic value. The airlines are obviously having trouble filling seats. Summer months are typically slow for paid business class travel, and that’s on top of the recession’s crimp on high-fare spending.

Take advantage while you can.

Upgraded: Coffee on Southwest
Southwest Airlines is cranking out an improved brew on its flights. They are quick to remind customers that they’re still not charging a fee for the pleasure of arabica beans at 35,000 feet.

Downgraded: Coffee on Northwest
Back on the ground, a Northwest Airlines flight attendant charged with tending to an unaccompanied minor allegedly took an 8-year old to Starbucks. The flight attendant allegedly gave the girl a venti coffee loaded with cream and sugar, which made her sick. “I told her I was tired and she took me to Starbucks and said, ‘Go order a large coffee.’ She made me pay with my own money.” Why would anyone give an eight-year old, who is about to get into a plane, coffee? I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear that an airline employee had slipped the kid a Benadryl, frankly, but giving an 8-year old a giant coffee makes no sense. Northwest says the story “doesn’t match their records.”

Upgraded: Stories of irate passengers
Every time I think the latest story of a passenger gone wild on an aircraft is the winner, there’s a new story that takes the crown. And I quote: “A British woman allegedly had an in-flight meal of prescription drugs, wine and liquid soap — before trying to bite the crew of a London-bound jetliner. Galina Rusanova punched and kicked flight attendants on the Chicago-based United Airlines flight after downing two or three bottles of wine, prescription drugs and liquid soap from the jet’s lavatory, prosecutors said.”

Upgraded: Nonstops to see Yakov Smirnoff
Upgraded: Airline monopolies
Branson, Missouri! America’s low-rent Vegas! No, gambling or smut, but you can get Soviet Union jokes o’plenty! But this Ozark mecca of entertainment has-beens finally has its own airport. It apparently bears the distinction of being America’s first privately-owned airport with commercial service, and it was built without federal transportation funds. The flipside of this savings to the taxpayer: The airport can negotiate exclusivity on routes. If airlines have exclusive contracts for service for a delimited timeframe, “That’s a major incentive to an airline because they know they won’t have to duke it out over fares with anyone.” In English, we call that monopoly.

Downgraded: Willingness of friends and loved ones to give you a ride to the airport
Airports’ inventive enthusiasm for new fees rivals that of the airlines, as we’ve seen when airports try to add fees to previously free services like shuttle buses. The latest entry: A passenger dropoff fee. London-Luton Airport will charge a £1 toll to cars bringing passengers to the departures area, with a 10-minute time limit. Dropoff at a parking shuttle bus stop remains complimentary. Birmingham charges double the fee for a 15-minute time window. Great, now they’re not just charging the traveler, but also the family or friends. I realize that this is a way to manage traffic as well as raise money, but I honestly hope we don’t see this set of fees proliferate. (Thanks, Rick!)

Downgraded: Tort law remedies for trapped passengers
A passenger who sued American Airlines for being stuck on a plane on the tarmac for 9 and a half hours (ouch) had her case dismissed by the court. Her charge of false imprisonment didn’t stick.

Upgraded: Buses
Private jets are out. What’s in: Pimped out corporate buses.

Upgraded: Short-term discounts booking Delta or Northwest miles
Delta and Northwest are temporarily reducing the number of miles you need to book frequent flier tickets to international destinations on Delta, Northwest, or KLM. It’s only through April 20, and only for travel abroad, so move quickly. See here for Northwest, or here for Delta. Another sign that traffic across the oceans isn’t exactly brisk… (And remember, you can get bonus miles through April 15 — again, hurry! — for converting your Northwest WorldPerks miles to Delta SkyMiles.)

“Sir, your pants are cooing.”

Downgraded: Priorities
A new film being made with George Clooney in the lead role is apparently based on the premise of a man seeking to collect 1 million frequent flyer miles. I would rather see a film devoted a person seeking to spend 1 million frequent flyer miles…

Downgraded: “Good luck” cards for illegal immigrants
Staying on the customs-and-immigration theme… A Mexican man attempting to enter the UK, with the intention of overstaying his visa, was flagged as a probable immigrant, rather than a tourist, when a card was found in his luggage containing the sentiment, “Good luck in your new life in the UK!” The UK Border Agency trumpeted that they were sending him “back.” But the man flew to Manchester from Los Angeles… I wonder what his return ticket read.

Upgraded: Advantage Rent-a-Car revived, in death
Bankrupt Advantage Rent-a-Car’s assets are being bought by competitor Enterprise, assuming the courts approve. But with the ongoing slump in the rental market, I’m surprised Enterprise would even want more cars or offices!

Upgraded: Northwest and Delta mileage accounts
I realize I’ve been negligent in not mentioning this before: You can merge Northwest WorldPerks miles into an existing Delta SkyMiles account and receive a 500-mile bonus for doing so, if you do it by April 15, 2009. The miles will instantly transfer over, but the bonus will take a few weeks to post.

Downgraded: Spirit Airlines charging fees again for buying tickets on their own website
I have to say, part of me loves the gall that Spirit Airlines has. Last year, they instituted a “passenger usage fee” of $4.90 for buying tickets on their own website. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is: The airline tried this last summer, but retracted it within a few days. In the WSJ, Scott McCartney has this summary:

Spirit tried charging a $7.90 passenger usage fee last year, along with a $2.50 “natural occurrence interruption fee” (to cover storm-related costs) and an $8.50 “international service recovery fee” to pay for some taxes and fees the airline pays to foreign governments. But the DOT stepped in and ordered the airline to stop; federal rules require airlines to include airline-imposed charges that all customers must pay in advertised fares.

Spirit was fined $40,000 but remained undeterred. Since then, the airline has been negotiating with the DOT to find an acceptable way under department rules to charge the passenger booking fee. “We will be reintroducing it in a way the DOT is comfortable with,” Mr. Baldanza says.

Offended? Complain. Here and here.

Downgraded: Missing a flight
Downgraded as well: Airline staff who film passengers
A passenger who flipped out when she missed her flight to Hong Kong, and was caught on cameraphone throwing a huge tantrum, has received an apology from the airline that kept her off the plane. Not because she didn’t board, but because the embarrassing video was made by a Cathay Pacific employee. (Notably, they claim the employee wasn’t the one to have uploaded the video to YouTube, but that’s hardly a vital distinction at this point.) I didn’t post the original video when it started making the rounds, because it seemed to be everywhere at the time, but I’ll include it here for context.

Upgraded: Transatlantic deals on Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic has a great sale going on right now over the pond, with economy fares as low as $453 round trip including taxes, and premium economy for as low as $675. Best part: No advance purchase. Buy today, leave today! But fares aren’t just last-minute fares, either. But no summer fares. You’ll find the cheapest prices from Feb 11, 2009 – Mar 22, 2009 or Oct 22, 2009 – Nov 30, 2009.

Downgraded: $0 airfares
I’ve always felt that companies should honor the prices they publish. And in an era of airlines that pay you to fly them, why wouldn’t a passenger think that a $0 airfare (plus taxes) was legit? Alas, tickets booked on Northwest at that last Wednesday fare aren’t being honored, unless the passengers are already mid-trip.

Upgraded: Inflight wi-fi live on Southwest
If you’re flying Southwest today (Wednesday, Feb. 11), check to see if you’re flying on aircraft #901. It’s the first plane equipped with inflight wi-fi. The plane is routed OAK-ONT-PHX-SAN-OAK-SNA-PHX-OAK-PHX. And while the service is being tested, the wi-fi is free.

Downgraded: Reading, Geography, Responsibility
A Thomas Cook travel agent mistakenly booked a passenger to San Juan, Puerto Rico, instead of San Jose, Costa Rica. SJU instead of SJO. Bad mistake. But didn’t the traveler bear any responsibility to check the tickets — or heck, figure this out at the departure airport?? I love her quote, though: “I looked around the airport, saw posters of Puerto Rico everywhere, and thought: ‘What am I going to do? Where is Puerto Rico? Where am I?’” Yes, “where is Puerto Rico.”

Downgraded: Surprise
Headline: “Surprising number of companies cut travel spending.” Umm, “surprising”? Have USA Today’s editors been so insulated from the economic crisis that they’re shocked that travel spending is cut back?

I’m a silver medallion member of Delta Skymiles, and I’m wondering where things stand with the Northwest merger. The Delta website has pretty vague information. Nwa.com isn’t much better. When will they merge the programs? Will they cut back benefits? Any ideas?

Well, Steven, there is some new information, but we don’t have all the answers.

Delta/Northwest have announced that:

• Delta SkyMiles and Northwest WorldPerks will merge into one program, targeted for the end of 2009. Early 2010 may be more likely.
• By early 2009 (just a few months away!), you should be able to combine miles from the two programs.
• The three elite-status tiers will remain at 25,000, 50,000, and 75,000 qualification miles. Same for both.
• Northwest will follow Delta’s lead and offer international upgrade certificates to top-tier elites.
• The new program will feature three “pricing” tiers for mile redemption, in line with Delta’s watering down of their “SkyChoice” tier last year. Thumbs down here.
• The merged program will allow elite status to be accrued via segments, and not just miles. E.g., fly 30 short segments or fly 25,000 miles, get status. This was the norm for Northwest, but will be new for Delta.

Delta’s merger page is here, with frequent flyer information here. Northwest’s page is here. They are essentially identical, but don’t reflect the information in the post above (yet).

I’ll post updates as they roll out.

United was going to charge $50 for a second bag, but decided to curtail that and roll it back to $25. Good on ‘em.

Then there’s Delta, which recently merged with Northwest and is trying to align policies and procedures. In this case, they’re taking the lower road plowed by Northwest and imposing a fee for the first checked bag.

Readers may recall that I praised Delta’s logic in charging no fee for the first bag, but charging heftily for the second bag. The former policy kept the occasional checked bag part of the base fee, while heftily penalizing those who travel with the kitchen sink. Seemed reasonable then, still seems so now.

Delta suggests it didn’t see any increase in bookings as a result of the free-first-bag rule, so it deduces that customers weren’t “differentiating Delta as the only major airline not charging for a first checked bag,” according to their press release. (Ignore for the moment that they leave out Southwest, which doesn’t charge ANY baggage fees…) In any case, this is too bad.

Note also that paying a luggage fee doesn’t prevent your suitcase from being inspected by zoo animals: A Delta baggage handler recently opened the cargo doors to find a cheetah roaming around inside. The animal had escaped from its cage. No luggage was harmed, though it was almost certainly sniffed. Anyway…

Then there’s this change, governing carry-on bag size:

Carry-on rules also are changing. Continental recently reduced the allowable linear inches (length, plus height, plus width) from 51 to 45. That puts it in line with the linear inches allowed by American, Delta and Northwest. AirTran allows up to 55 linear inches, US Airways’ limit is 51 linear inches and Southwest’s limit is 50 linear inches. Many airlines also limit the weight of carry-ons to 40 pounds.

Expect these numbers to shrink, too, and expect airlines to start adding a fee for “oversize” carry-ons. They know that people are avoiding checked luggage because of the fee, and they’ll want their money one way or the other. That day is coming.

And just for the record, with oil trading around $60 per barrel today, the fuel-expense argument rings hollow for these luggage expenses.

Delta, following in the footsteps of Northwest Airlines, has taken another step in the continuing devaluation of frequent flyer miles.

For some time, customers have complained that cashing in frequent flyer miles for the so-called “saver” award tickets has been getting harder and harder. The airlines have countered that there are actually two classes of frequent flyer tickets: 1) the “limited seats available” saver awards that may be harder to get, and 2) the unrestricted-inventory awards which let you cash in miles anytime there is an open seat, but at a higher price: generally double the miles. “Where’s the problem?” the airlines quip, noting that the cheapest cash fares aren’t available on every flight, so why should the discounted frequent flyer tickets be?

But that argument — which is problematic in and of itself, given the way frequent flyer programs are marketed — falls apart when you take away the “any seat” availability of awards.

Gary Leff points to Delta’s latest tweak of the rules at his blog. Delta announced the policy on its website:

Also, effective December 1, 2007, SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will no longer be available on every Delta flight in which a seat is available for sale. SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will continue to be available on most Delta flights, but seats will be limited and possibly unavailable on some flights. Our SkySaver Award Ticket Reservations will remain unchanged.

In other words, “We will now restrict availability on all tickets, but we’ll restrict some more than others.” Great.

(As an added bonus, there’s this nugget of a policy change on the site, too: “Some airline partners impose a surcharge on Award Travel redemptions for travel on their airline. These charges will be collected at the time of booking.” No word on how much, which partners, or under what conditions. I’ll inquire and report back.)

Delta isn’t the first to devalue their double-mile awards like this. They’re actually following in fellow SkyTeam alliance member Northwest’s footsteps. Northwest made their change to the WorldPerks program recently, though I admit that this one got past me when it happened. The previously unrestricted PerkPass award now “waives Saturday-night stay requirement, blackout dates and most capacity controls.” Southwest, long a holdout against capacity controls, started that monkey business recently too.

The number of people directly affected by this will be slim at first. Most people try to cash in their miles for the “discounted” miles-fares (e.g., the industry standard of 25,000 miles for a domestic U.S. coach ticket, 35,000 from the lower 48 to Hawaii, or 50,000 between Europe and North America). They don’t even consider the “standard” or “choice” awards that cost double. These “full fare” miles-tickets are really only useful when you’ve got lots of miles to burn and you HAVE to go. But as Gary points out, this has been a valuable insurance policy to have on hand, should tragedy strike.

Even worse, this dumbing-down of the once-unrestricted awards gives the airlines leeway to add even more restrictions to their saver awards. After all, as long as the alternative still has better features, you can mess with the saver award as much as you like.

It’s probably a matter of time before other airlines follow suit. But thumbs down to Delta and Northwest for being ahead of the curve on this one.

(image)

When e-tickets first rolled out, they held the promise of paperless travel. For example, Alaska Airlines, the first domestic U.S. carrier to introduce wireless check-in back in early 2001, offered this nugget to the media when they rolled it out: “Once a passenger checks in via a cell phone or another wireless device, he or she can go directly to the appropriate gate, show a photo identification and board the plane.” Ha!

Ah, what could’ve been. I was reminded of the pre-9/11 predictions of how e-travel would be when I read how Northwest Airlines rolled out upgrades to their website, allowing you to perform a greater number of services via wireless devices. If you browse over to their site with your mobile, you’ll be able to buy tickets, change reservations, check in, etc. (Other airlines, such as Southwest, let you check in for your flights, but don’t let you buy tickets wirelessly.) But fully electronic travel, once promised, is a bust. It’s still a paper-trail world. The trees aren’t safe.

You can’t print a paper boarding pass from your smartphone, after all. Even in Europe, where you can use SMS text messaging to check in, you still need to stop at an airport kiosk and choose to “reprint” the pass.

After 9/11, it was no longer possible to go through security without a paper boarding pass. Mind you, the real security benefit of this requirement is highly questionable. Sure, it means that fewer people actually pass through security, but having a slip of paper with your name on it really doesn’t make you any more or less of a threat. (See, for example, the hoopla surrounding the fake boarding pass generator.)

At the end of the day, I’m glad to have Northwest and others on the wireless train. Being able to make changes via the wireless web really is an improvement. But it falls short of the predictions that we could skip the paper boarding passes altogether. Or that gate readers could scan a phone, or swipe a card, at the gate. That would really put the “e” back into e-tickets. Dare to dream.

(image)

Related:
- Forged boarding passes: Fraud, yes, but where is the security threat?

Hell freezes over: Southwest makes its fares more widely searchable
(corrected) It’s a bizarre reversal of their earlier strategy of keeping their fares out of the major online booking systems and travel agencies, and forcing you to go to their website to check their prices. But they’ve opened it up: Southwest Airlines has signed on for a ten-year pact with Galileo, one of the major computer networks used by travel agents and online booking companies to pull up fares. What does it mean for you? Easier comparison shopping. (Some background here, from when jetBlue similarly linked up other sites.) Until now, Southwest has never shown up in airfare searches outside of their own site, so it’s pro-consumer to see their fares head-to-head with other airlines’ offerings. But there’s a catch: They’re keeping some of their lowest fares out of Galileo. Baby steps. (Clarification: Travel agents who subscribed to the Sabre GDS were able to book Southwest flights for their clients previously. But the big online agencies — Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, etc. — couldn’t. It’s not clear if the new deal will integrate Southwest into those sites yet.)

Non-news: People aren’t happy with airlines
It should come as no surprise whatsoever that the general public is dissatisfied with the airlines in America. Only slightly more surprising is just how much some airlines’ ratings suck. United Airlines’ miserable showing is worst in the airline sector. But even more telling, the only company (in any industry) in the survey that out-awfuls UAL? Charter Communications. When you’re in a dead heat for last place with the cable guy, you know something is wrong. (As an aside, looking at the trendlines, I’m obviously not the only person who liked bankrupt United better…) Click here for the full ranking — for all companies, not just airlines.

Reason #7,619 to avoid checking luggage
The Today Show’s Peter Greenberg discovers the dark side of European low fare airlines when easyJet hits him with over $500 in excess luggage fees. Each way. He wasn’t transporting an entire apartment across the Channel, either. Flying on Air France, with those same suitcases, would have cost him less in the end. But Peter, why are you traveling low-rent on easyJet in the first place? (via Elliott)

Midwest and Northwest codeshare, but will it matter once AirTran buys Midwest?
Midwest Airlines and Northwest have started codesharing, which lets customers of both airlines earn miles on a lot more routes. Great, but considering that AirTran is launching a hostile takeover of Midwest, and already has nearly 57% of shares, will this deal survive the seemingly inevitable acquisition?

ID required, just not necessarily real ID
You may have to pull out identification in order to pass through airport security, but as a recent undercover investigation proves, the ID doesn’t need to be real. Just plausible enough to look real. That “Official Bikini Inspector” ID you got on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey in 1985 won’t cut it, tough guy.

(image)

Last week, Delta emerged from bankruptcy to much fanfare, including a new paint job for its planes and yet another iteration of its corporate logo. Many in the media are reporting this as wonderful news, and describing the celebrations of hopeful employees with words like “jubilee.”

Northwest will also soon emerge from chapter 11 protection, having obtained approval for their post-bankruptcy plan from 97% of their creditors.

But should passengers be celebrating?

On the one hand, yes. If you’re a longtime frequent flyer on one of these airlines, your miles aren’t being zeroed out in a corporate liquidation. If either of these airlines have been providing you with good connections to where you want to go, you can be happy, too, since these services are likely to continue.

But don’t pig out at those celebration jubilees and coming-out parties for the newly reborn corporations. Leave some room for some good old fashioned skepticism.

Why? Look at the history of how other airlines, perhaps ironically, have emerged from bankruptcy, only to cut their customer service.

This is probably because chapter 11 creditors somewhat perversely gives airlines more leeway than the stock market does.

The most recent example, of course, is United. During their seemingly interminable bankruptcy, they maintained “perks” like pillows and blankets. They actually introduced new premium service on transcontinental flights, with hot meals and Economy Plus legroom at every seat in coach. And while management dumbed down their fleet with the introduction of “Ted,” the majority of employees maintained a sense of optimism and hope during that time. There were several times that I flew United and got the impression that front-line workers seemed genuinely grateful for passengers’ business.

Not any more. After emerging from bankruptcy, United “reformed” its frequent flyer program, Mileage Plus, twice. The first change jacked up the number of miles required for tickets, and the second change retroactively added expiration dates to stagnant accounts. That “premium” service between the coasts? It got a whole lot less premium post-chapter 11, when the airline’s last domestic coach meals were cut.

Most importantly, the employees became disillusioned, and often downright surly. It became a crapshoot: Would you be flying happy United or surly United today? The optimism and hope that existed during bankruptcy were gone.

Can you blame them? Workers gave up pay, benefits, and their stock in what had been a largely employee-owned company. And they saw the management taking big bonuses and large equity stakes in the airline after bankruptcy. Pilots and flight attendants were even protesting and picketing this week.

As a customer, I liked bankrupt United better.

So when I see Delta and Northwest celebrating their coming emergence from bankruptcy, I hope for the best, but expect the worst. Competition from lower cost competitors is relentless. Employees who gave up pay and benefits to keep the company afloat are looking for payback. The dark clouds are already on the horizon, especially at Northwest, whose unions are already up in arms at the big payouts the executives are scheduled to get.

So congratulations on exiting bankruptcy, Delta and Northwest. Please prove me wrong.

(image)