Rejoice, Continental frequent fliers. You’re getting Economy Plus!

After United merged with Continental a few months ago, and Continental’s management effectively took the helm, travelers had every right to fear that the extra legroom in the Economy Plus section might go the way of Continental Lite.

So it comes as some relief that the merged United-Continental announced their retention/expansion of the extra-legroom zone in economy today:

Today, United offers Economy Plus on all 359 mainline aircraft and more than 150 larger regional jets operated by United Express(R) carriers. When the multi-year conversion process is complete, the company plans to offer Economy Plus on more than 700 mainline aircraft, including all Continental mainline aircraft, as well as larger regional aircraft. When fully deployed, the new United’s fleet will include more than 40,000 Economy Plus seats, providing more than 122,000 Economy Plus seats each day, the largest amount of extra legroom economy seating available to customers of any airline in the world.

Details on where that extra space is coming from, and a specific timetable for the changes, are still forthcoming, but if you’re even an entry-level traveler with either United or Continental, this is good news. Not everyone upgrades to first, so at least you’ve got a fallback position with extra legroom.

It’s a win.

Upgraded: Flights from NYC to Tokyo
American Airlines is launching flights from New York JFK to Tokyo Haneda Airport. Haneda, which is closer to downtown Tokyo, not Narita, the primary international airport.

Downgraded, then Upgraded: United grounds, then fixes, its 757s
United grounded all 96 of its Boeing 757s yesterday, to perform required emergency updates to all the planes’ air data computers. A day later, the airline reported that only 15 flights were nixed, and that all planes were back online.

Upgraded: One-way rentals out of Florida
If you’re in Florida and looking to leave the state between April and June, Hertz is serving up one-way out-of-Florida rentals for merely $5 a day. Rates are good for a limited range of destination states, and for a max of 14 days, but $5 is cheap. No one-way drop-off fees, either. Snowbirds bring the car in, you bring it out. This isn’t necessarily something for everyone, but if it meets your needs, go for it. (via)

Downgraded: Hot cheese
Beware of hot cheese when you travel. Seriously. The headline: “Disney in Hot Cheese Lawsuit.” It’s quite sad, actually, for the kid who got hurt. Poor child, but wow, what a sentence: “[Walt Disney Parks and Resorts] has just received the lawsuit from a Californian couple who say their four-year-old Isaiah Harris was injured at Cosmic Ray’s Starlite Café [at Orlando's Magic Kingdom] when he toppled into a scalding hot cup of cheese that had been prepared for pouring over nachos.”

(image)

The concept is essentially the same as their e-fares: For last-minute reservations on flights from their hub cities, you pay less than the normal walkup rate. Your travel dates are limited, and you never know more than a week or two in advance which cities will be in the mix. It’s all determined by supply and demand.

For cash fares, this can be a good deal if your travel plans align with the e-fare rules (typically a Saturday departure and a Monday or Tuesday return). But for fares “paid” with miles, the discount isn’t as enthralling. You’re getting a discount on the mileage cost, but the product you’re buying is already discounted.

For example, the e-fare for Chicago to Los Angeles this coming weekend is $135 each way, plus taxes. (That comes to $291.40) The Weekend Saver fare: 19,000 miles, instead of the typical “saver” rate of 25,000 miles. That comes to about 1.5 cents per mile. That’s better than the 1.1 cents per mile you’d be getting if paying 25k miles, but it’s still not great value. But if you’re in a gotta-go, low-on-cash but miles-rich state, this could come in handy.

Nonetheless, it’s nice to see an airline offering discounts.

But much as merging airlines face internal strife over the seniority lists of pilots and flight attendants, who has the “seniority” among customers with similarly-fat elite-qualifying mileage balances? As of late yesterday, that’s been clarified.

For travel on Continental:

When seats are available, upgrades are automatically confirmed by elite level*. The chart below details when an upgrade may be confirmed, and if your benefit can be shared with one guest traveling with you on the same reservation.

* Premier Associate® members are not eligible for Elite upgrades on Continental.

For travel on United:

This is an adaptation of what I’ve been able to glean from the United and Continental sites:

It’s interesting that United is lumping all Continental elites with Star Alliance Gold status together in the same basket, while Continental is differentiating within the United-internal hierarchy. I suppose this indicates that Continental’s IT systems are more nimble than United’s which comes as no surprise. The end effect: Those on the very top of the United food chain come out slightly ahead of those on the Continental scheme.

In any case, United elites will still be favored on United aircraft, and Continental elites will be favored on Continental aircraft.

And best of luck clearing those upgrades, regardless of the color and design of your card…

Bringing Southwest into Newark is a big deal. Southwest hasn’t flown to a New York airport yet (correction: they have had flights from LGA to Chicago and Baltimore since June 2009… sorry about that!) — and no, their flights to Islip, NY are not New York City. It’s a major move into a huge market, and it’s to Newark, which is arguably the easiest and most convenient airport to access from Manhattan, despite being in New Jersey.

Especially if it goes above and beyond these initial slots, Southwest’s presence will mean lower fares at all the NYC airports, so New Yorkers can look forward to the greater competition.

No word yet on the specific routes Southwest will fly out of Newark, once it starts up.

Update: Just hours after the announcement related to Newark slots, United and Continental received clearance from the US Dept of Justice, paving the way for the finalization of their merger. Stockholder approval is still required, but the two airlines are expected to be merged into one company by October 1, 2010. Ta-daaaa.

It’s not clear if it’s coincidence or providence, but United is “celebrating” by offering a free alcoholic beverage to each passenger in Economy Plus from August 6 to 16.

But don’t let the free drinks distract you. The real issue is the merger going forward, and what that means for customers. And while there are no concrete changes being announced, there are telegraphed changes through the shifts in the management lineup.

While the Continental CEO will be at the helm of the combined firm, the frequent flier program will be managed by a United executive. United execs also take the COO and CIO position. (I just hope that the CIO adopts more of continental.com than united.com…)

So, in all likelihood, the mileage program will look more like MileagePlus than OnePass. Gary Leff has speculated some on the direction that the program will take under the merged airline, and I agree fully with his assessments. Most importantly, during a transition period immediately following merger, the two programs will likely feature the best of both worlds.

Check out Gary’s comments for a glimpse into what will likely happen on the mileage front.

(image)

Assuming that federal regulators don’t put a stop to this, the newly combined airline (“Continited”?) will drop the Continental name and operate under the United banner. However, Continental’s CEO Jeff Smisek, will take the reins, with United CEO Glenn Tilton stepping back to the salutary title of “non-executive chairman” for two years. In other words, it’s Continental’s executive team, with United’s name, in United’s headquarters building. Assuming that current market shares simply transfer over to the combined entity, the merged United would have 21% of domestic ASM (available seat miles, i.e., market share) and 7% of global ASM, making it the biggest American player.

(Will this put an end to the on-again-off-again wooing of US Airways by United, in a seasonal display reminiscent of a National Geographic wildlife special? I sure hope so. It was growing tiresome.)

As I have argued several times over the years, these airline mergers are anti-consumer. True, there is no overlap between the United and Continental operating hubs, but a merger will give “Continited” a great deal of pricing power. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, here’s something I wrote in January 2007, that still holds true today:

Sure, you might get a few more potential destinations or routings for your flights, but the total number of flights is bound to be cut, and prices in turn are bound to rise. With less competition, it’ll be easier than ever to raise fares and make them stick.

The caveat to the “mergers mean higher prices” argument is that cuts in capacity (and increases in prices) eventually are met with new market entrants. Relatively constant demand is met with entrepreneurs wielding fresh supply. (The rise of JetBlue can, at least in part, be seen in the context of the disappearance of TWA and PanAm, through merger and bankruptcy, respectively.) The benefits to the merger participants are short-lived, and it’s debatable whether they actually pay off. Think back to past mergers: Is American really eating everyone else’s lunch since they bought TWA?…

In fact, the merged airlines’ competitors may benefit more. As fares rise, the companies that aren’t part of the merger arguably benefit more than the merger participants, because they get to raise their prices, without having paid the price of the merger…

So if consumers lose, and merging airlines don’t really win for very long, then who is the real winner in all this?

The answer: the CEOs, and the Wall Street investment banks advising them.

As the folks at Morningstar’s Footnoted.org blog noted earlier last week, the real motivator for a deal here isn’t “synergy” but “payday”:

We’re sure there are plenty of operational reasons United’s management might be looking for a deal. But we also couldn’t help noticing that the company has made it substantially more attractive for the top officers themselves to seal a deal — in the case of Chairman and Chief Executive Glenn Tilton, more than three times as attractive as in prior years.

According to the proxy that UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, filed at 5:25 p.m. on Tuesday, Tilton’s payout if there’s a change of control rose to $9 million last year — up nearly fourfold from the $2.4 million listed in last year’s proxy. If he loses his job within two years after a deal, his payout would be $14.3 million, up 78% from $8 million last year.

Loses his job within two years? Why yes, that’s exactly what’s planned. What a coincidence!

It’s not just United’s current CEO who’s getting the big payday, either:

Other executives have seen similar jumps. Executive Vice President John Tague, also president of United Airlines, would see his payout in a change-of-control rise to $3.7 million, from $1.1 million. Total cost for the top five officers under a change in control scenario, even if none of them are fired: $17.6 million.

Footnoted’s post on the subject is worth reading in its entirety.

FYI: I am unable to get search results from the SEC’s EDGAR database right now, so I can’t see if there’s a merger bonus in the cards for Continental’s Smisek or not. (Try searching for yourself, using Continental’s stock symbol “CAL.”)

In coming days, you can expect the usual parade of executives touting the benefits and synergies of the merger. Don’t believe them. This merger is about them, not you.

Related posts from yesteryear:
- What will airline mergers mean to consumers?
- (Flashback to 2006) What’s in the cards for a United-Continental merger?
- (Flashback to 2008) Merger do-si-do: Continental spurns United, but other partners are ready to dance

Downgraded: Smoking in hotels
I didn’t realize that twelve states already had laws on the books banning smoking in hotels. Wisconsin is the latest, with the law taking effect this summer. Should be welcome news to the folks at FreshStay, the directory of smoke-free hotels.

Downgraded: Body scanner checkers
Well, it had to happen: An airport worker at Heathrow has had his wrists slapped for taking a picture of a colleague as she passed through the full-body scanner. Start the countdown for someone’s clandestinely-taken body scanner image appearing on the internet…

Upgraded, or is it Downgraded?: United Airlines 777s
United’s seating configuration in economy onboard its Boeing 777s has long been rather unusual. Instead of the usual 3-3-3 seat arrangement, they’ve had seats in a 2-5-2 setup. The logic of the 2-5-2 was that it minimized the number of passengers who had to climb over two people to get to the aisle — just the one person in the middle of the 5. But now they’re shifting to the more common 3-3-3 after all. (Personally, while it’s been a couple years since I’ve sat on a UA 777, I always liked the pair of seats on the windows. 17A or 21J, baby.) If you’re flying on a UA 777, be sure to check your seatmap as you get closer to flight date: your aisle seat might now be a middle.

(image)

From their press release (emphasis added):

For the low price of $25 per item each way, customers can send their bags, golf clubs and skis ahead to their final destination via FedEx standard overnight delivery.
[...]
Customers booked for travel between March 18 and March 29 within the continental United States on at least one United-operated or United-marketed flight are eligible. Sale prices are limited and available until 5 p.m. EDT on March 19 or while supplies last. Travelers may purchase the Door-to-Door Baggage option up to 10 days before departure.
[...]
A customer may ship up to nine bags at the limited $25 price, per bag. Weight, size and other restrictions apply.

Nine bags at that rate??! Wow. Cheap. If you’re moving cross-country, this deal is for you.

But… you have to reserve this by Friday the 19th. Which is a stupidly narrow window of opportunity if they really wanted people to take advantage. Needless to say, this won’t help a lot of people. But someone may benefit.

American’s announcement brings their count of cities to 27 airports. United’s count is thirteen. Continental is still the leader, with 48 airports (including 2 overseas, in London and Frankfurt.) The TSA’s website lags reality, it seems, listing 43 airports in the US currently participate, across all airlines.

The expanded service is being pitched as a convenience to customers. And it is convenient, if you’re not able to print your passes. But be sure to save that e-mail or text message on the phone: If your miles don’t post, you’ll need to find a way to print that message to prove you actually took the flight.

This is only available at those airports where both the airlines and the TSA are linked up and able to scan the boarding pass. That’s what’s really holding this up from more widespread adoption nationwide.

Taking the convenience equation out of the picture for a moment: For you to move through security with one of those mobile boarding passes, you need to have it scanned by TSA first. What bugs me about this is the TSA’s involvement in the equation makes “revenue protection” the U.S. government agency’s job, in the name of security. (As I’ve argued ad nauseam, checking ID’s and passes does nothing to make you safer; true airport security does not hinge on holding a boarding pass or having an ID.)

This will be more and more widespread, going forward. But it’s still not truly widespread in its adoption — yet. In a reader poll back in November, 38% of readers had used a paperless boarding pass. That’s pretty high, but let’s face it, the readers of this site are highly travel-savvy, frequent-fliers. The general flying public is far less likely to have gone paperless. But not to worry, that will change.