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US Airways, dead-set on reminding Americans why they should dislike air travel with a passion, and insistent on making the movement from point A to point B just a smidge tackier, adopts Northwest’s 2006 “innovation” of charging a fee for aisle or window seats.

They’re even borrowing the name. Northwest called it “Coach Choice.” US Airways is calling it “Choice Seats”… in coach.

Sure, it’s not every aisle and every window, just the front rows. Sure, elite frequent flyers in the US Airways program get to reserve the seats for free. And sure, if the plane is full and there aren’t suckers willing to pay the extra fee ahead of time, anyone and everyone will get those seats anyway.

But let’s be clear: These aren’t perks. There’s no extra legroom. And these sure aren’t business or first class seats. They’re just regular seats.

For those who are shocked — shocked! — at this new policy, don’t forget that this isn’t a new idea. Sure, when Northwest did this two years ago I expressed my disdain. But that was two years ago. We’re all more jaded now, so I’ll just sigh in resignation.

The value of this program will honestly be minimal for most travelers. Sure, it’s nice to sit in front so you can get off the plane faster, but the front of US Airways economy is not a different seat, as it is on United, so you’re not getting much for your money. So instead of sitting in row 7, you can sit in row 14. Big deal.

The real losers here are other Star Alliance airlines’ elites, who might have gotten these seats for free earlier. But again, it’s not a free upgrade. It’s not a meaningful perk.

So if it’s a perk not worth caring about, why would it be a perk worth paying for?…

Simple. It’s not.

Related:
- Finding decent seats without paying the extra fee
- Northwest to elite members: Drop dead
- Yes sir, I’d just love to pay extra for an aisle seat with no extra legroom!

No surprises here, but US Airways copied its Star Alliance brethren United and started charging a fee for a second checked bag. United announced their change earlier this month. No surprises here, but it still sucks.

As Cranky notes, this isn’t just for domestic travel, either. International flights will be hit with the charge as well.

But as I’ve argued before, the really key point in the spread of “a la carte” pricing is that it’s becoming harder and harder to compare apples to apples. Comparing base fares is increasingly going to be meaningless, as individual customers’ final prices will vary greatly.

And right now, there’s no search engine that’s equipped to help. You’ll need a magic decoder ring to know which airline charges extra for bags, for seat assignments, etc. The Travelocitys, Expedias, and Orbitzes of the world can only quote you the base fare and taxes. Not the real cost.

That’s going to put pressure on other airlines to follow suit. And it’s going to make online fare search that much harder.

(image: gratuitous use of the Staples Copy Cat)

US Airways reduces the value of frequent flyer programs further with their latest policy change. Here’s the official statement of the changes to the US Airways Dividend Miles program:

Accrual
Tickets purchased on/after March 1, 2008 for travel on US Airways on/after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown and will no longer earn a minimum of 500 miles per segment.
Tickets flown on partner airlines after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown.
Tickets purchased prior to March 1, 2008 will continue to earn the 500 mile minimum for travel after May 1, 2008. Accrual on flight segments greater than 500 miles in length are not impacted by this change.

Redemption
Members redeeming miles for award travel online within 14-days of departure will be assessed a quick ticketing fee of $50 per ticket.
A quick ticketing fee of $75 per award ticket will continue to apply for award tickets purchased from US Airways Reservations. Chairman’s and Platinum Preferred members booking within 14-days (both online and by phone) are exempt from the fee.

The “quick-ticketing fee” is not an innovation. American has been doing it for years, and United followed suit just over a year ago. It’s obnoxious, and purely a cash-grab with no sensible justification, but it’s not a new idea.

What IS a new idea is the elimination of the minimum mileage for short flights. Until now, travelers on short hops were able to console themselves with the knowledge that they’d at least get a few miles for their trouble. This will make earning elite status harder, too. (Which might be a corporate goal.)

What remains to be seen is if when other airlines will follow suit and eliminate the minimum mileage earned.

Another unknown at this point: how US Airways’ partner airlines will credit US Airways flights. For example, US Airways flights can accrue miles in a United Mileage Plus account. As of this morning, this page on United’s website still lists a 500-mile minimum accrual rate for US Airways flights credit to Mileage Plus. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Yay. Aren’t these programs fun?

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Reader Bruce applied for a US Airways Visa card, issued by Bank of America, looking to get the promised 25,000-mile bonus. He got a card that only offered 5,000 bonus miles instead, and he’s not happy.

U.S. Airways is handing out Bank Of America credit card applications that promise 25,000 bonus miles after first purchase, with a $50 annual fee. The problem is that in fact they switch the card when it issued to a lower level card which pays only 5,000 bonus miles after first purchase. Bank of America refuses to refund their fifty dollar annual fee if you use the card one time. But you don’t know about the switch until after the first purchase. This is nothing more then a bait and switch scam.
[…]
I talked to the bank a second time, and was told the following: You did not qualify for a “signature card” so we issued a lower ranked card which only gave you five thousand miles.
[…]
I escalated my complaint about the switch as far as I could go, and was basically told, “Tough.” I have had no response from U.S. Airways as to the problem.

I might also add, that the airline attendants push these applications very hard during the flight saying that they need the fifty dollars they get in order to live. U.S. Air does not pay them enough according to their statements on the flight.

Obviously, I can’t speak to the credit decision, but the bank should have been more forthcoming about the alternate card option. The 5000-mile card is offered alongside the 25000-mile card on the US Airways website, but nothing in the literature suggests that customers will be automatically downgraded if they fail to qualify for the Signature card. Maybe the downgrade was in the fine print of the paper application handed out on board, but I can’t find it online. That needs to be clarified, or the bank and the airline will find a lot more angry customers like Bruce.

Bruce also mentions that, when he received the card in the mail, he wasn’t actually told that the card he received wasn’t the one he applied for. The card featured the US Airways Dividend Miles logo, after all, so the confusion is understandable.

But one thing doesn’t check out here: The Signature card has a pretty steep $90 fee, not $50. Miscommunication? Misprint?

Bottom line: You need to watch the application literature like a hawk, both at the time of application and the time of card receipt. It’s sad, but we live in a “gotcha!” society, and you need to play lawyer before signing your name to anything that involves your finances.

Before you activate a new card and start using it, make sure that the card is actually the one you signed up for. If it’s not, you might politely decline. If you’re not sure, call the bank and double check.

Related:
- Reader mail: What kind of point-earning credit card is best?

Upgraded: Crash landing with skill and aplomb
Bad news: A crash landing. Good news: No fatalities. Crash landings are no one’s idea of a good time, but when a Boeing 777 loses all power mid-air on final approach, and the plane crash-lands at London’s Heathrow, with no fatalities, that’s some fine aviating. Still way too early to know what happened, but hats off to the pilots for bringing a powerless hunk of metal to the ground without any lives lost. We can all be thankful for that.

Upgraded: Wine on US Airways
US Airways is rolling out new wine on board. The choice: Beringer. I guess it’s better than the private-labeled Chilean plonk they were pouring. (Thanks to Dr. Vino, unsurprisingly.)

Downgraded: Your tax dollars
You may have caught this a couple weeks ago, but there’s been an interesting discussion of the federal government’s “Essential Air Service” program. Bottom line: It’s not that essential, and it’s doubtful that communities are really benefiting much from this. See both Cranky and Evan Sparks for thoughtful critiques. Evan suggests that, if you’re going to subsidize air travel at all, you consider the Small Community Air Service Development program instead. “Huh?” you say? Go read the posts.

Upgraded: Air taxi and microjet life chances
The microjet concept, which I’ve been skeptical of (no bathrooms on board!), was on the rocks. Now, Eclipse Aviation, one of the leaders in this lagging field, got an infusion of fresh capital. We’ll have the microjet / very-light-jet (VLJ) concept to kick around for a few more years, it seems.

Upgraded: Merger odds
Sigh. It’s confirmed: Delta is in talks with United and Northwest, to discuss a possible merger. I continue to root against these mergers, as they’ll raise prices, create mayhem, and improve nothing except the CEO’s paycheck.

(Photo credit: Fair use is made here of a reduced-size crop from a larger unattributed image on bbc.co.uk.)

The appeal of booking on an airline’s homepage isn’t the swank digs of the site itself. It’s typically the savings, and maybe a few bonus miles (though those bonuses are all but extinct). Now US Airways manages to eliminate its home field advantage by actually charging $5 more than some other agencies.

The Cranky Flier is all over this, and he has every reason to be cranky. Why buy from US Airways directly when you can book for $5 less from Priceline or Hotwire, which don’t charge booking fees? (I mean their “regular” bookings, not the “name your own price” opaque fares.)

The fee that US Airways is charging appears to be a fuel-related charge. It’s not a credit card fee or such, as is common outside the US. (Airlines seem to prefer debit transfers…) But don’t think that U.S. airlines aren’t thinking about renegotiating their merchant agreements with credit card networks, so they can introduce that sort of upcharge here. The first moves were made this summer. It’s coming, just wait. But I digress…

Bottom line: If US Airways is your choice, shop around before clicking “buy.” Don’t just buy your ticket directly from them. If you do, you’ll just reward bad behavior.

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Over at the Consumerist, they posted a reader complaint that US Airways was sending out letters to Dividend Miles members with inactive accounts, “encouraging” them to pay up $25 to keep their accounts alive.

Expiration dates are unfortunately nothing new for US Airways. I mentioned it a year ago, and other airlines have similar policies. Most of those airlines with an expiration policy give you a chance to reclaim the expired miles — for a fee, of course — and US Airways is no exception. Their policy has a scale, from $50 to revive up to 4,999 miles, up to $400 if you need to resuscitate 100,000 miles or more.

But what’s notable here is that the notices were seemingly sent to those whose miles had not yet reached the expiration date.

A couple e-mails, a click or two, and here we have the original text of a lucky mileholder’s US Airways expiration upsell:

Dear **NAME REDACTED**:

US Airways introduced a policy last year that rewards our customers for staying active in the Dividend Miles program. In order to keep your account active, you must earn or redeem miles within a consecutive 18-month period.

Our records indicate that you have been inactive since 06-13-2006. We want to make sure you keep the miles you’ve earned. To keep your account active and hang on to your miles, you have several options:

* Contact Dividend Miles at 800-428-4322 and pay a $25 preservation fee with your credit card.
* Earn miles by flying on US Airways or any of our airline partners.
* Sign up and earn miles with one of our credit or debit cards.
* Use any of our other partners for everyday activities such as dining out, sending flowers and more.
* Redeem your miles.
* Shop with over 100 premium retailers for name-brand merchandise at the
Dividend Miles Shopping Mall, where you can reactivate your account for as little as 99 cents.

Take advantage of any of these options by 12-31-2007 and your account will remain active for another 18 months.

There are two ways to look at this. The optimist says that the airline is proactively warning its customers that they’re about to lose their miles, so that’s a good thing. And the $25 fee to keep miles alive is less than the $50 or more that it would cost after the fact.

The pessimist finds this “preservation fee” disturbing, and sees this as the first step toward an annual maintenance fee for loyalty accounts. But as the airline’s e-mail states, you don’t HAVE to pay money to the airline to stay in the miles game. You can reset the clock by earning or redeeming miles in any way. Redeem them if you can, or earn a few miles with something small if the balance is worth keeping alive.

So is the $25 preservation charge a great safety net or another twist of the screw? Personally, I think paying the money is rewarding bad behavior, and travelers should view this as another opportunity to re-evaluate their choice of airlines, or the utility of frequent flyer miles in their lives.

Southwest’s new seating plan
The experiments are over, and the San Antonio model has won out. Starting in November, the new system will be nationwide. Each boarding pass will have a letter (A, B, or C) and a number within that boarding group. Board in the order you checked in. The airline’s promo video (Windows Media) is here. Their “boarding school” is in session here. Bottom line: You won’t need to save your place in line within the A-group by putting your carry-on luggage into the corral. I guess that’s an improvement. But you’ll need to be even quicker to check in if you want your pick of the litter. Remember, check-in opens 24 hours before the flight. Do it online. See here for a list of services that provide automated web check-in. (Their business models might be slightly in flux now.)

Virgin Atlantic adds more premium seats
Virgin Atlantic must be selling its business class and premium economy seats pretty briskly. The airline is tearing out a quarter of its coach seats on Heathrow-based 747s and replacing them with the more spacious (and higher-yielding) premium seats.

Why can’t you use a foreign credit card on US booking sites?
Chris Elliott tackles this common complaint: You might get a better fare on a particular itinerary by booking via a website or agency outside your home country, but you can’t buy it, because the seller won’t accept your home country’s credit card. Why not? The travel companies are trying to slice and dice the market, so they can have greater control of fares, while minimizing the chance of fraud. Not every country has this problem. (I’ve used a Singaporean website or two to book US travel with my US card.) If you’ve ever been flummoxed by this, go read the whole post.

US Airways increases the cost of upgrades, but makes more fares upgradeable
Mileage upgrades on US Airways are more expensive, with each Lower-48/Canada/Alaska upgrade costing 15,000 instead of 10,000 miles as of October 3. On the flip side, they’re opening up ALL their domestic fares for upgradeability, so it’s no longer just the most expensive tickets that are eligible. That’s a plus. Similarly, on international flights, you’ll be able to use miles to upgrade any flight that cost you $600 or more each way. By my reading of the new rules, that $600 number includes taxes and fees. (via WebFlyer)

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I’ve been encountering US Airways a bit lately, and it hasn’t always been fun. A function of my recent move to North Carolina, perhaps. Hard to avoid US Airways in these parts. But having previously observed that United-US Airways codesharing and cooperation aren’t living up to their hype, I’m still convinced that these two Star Alliance partners aren’t working well together, and need to shape up their cooperation.

The breakdown of cooperation starts with the little things, right at the time of purchase: Why can’t the US Airways website allow me to enter my United frequent flyer number in the reservation? They’re both in Star Alliance, and other Star Alliance carriers let you choose from a range of different frequent flyer options.

Update: The option to add other airlines’ frequent flyer numbers is back on the US Airways site. Not sure what was missing when I booked, but it’s there now. Yay!

Admittedly, other sites have similar issues, especially third party booking sites — Orbitz, I’m looking at you. I bought a ticket on Orbitz recently when no one else would sell me that particular itinerary at a lower price. Again, no option to enter a partner airline’s frequent flyer account. I could enter a US Airways account number, or nothing at all. This limitation isn’t isolated to Star Alliance, either. If you, say, book a British Airways ticket, you can only enter a British Airways frequent flyer number, and not an American Airlines number. (Expedia is much more flexible with frequent flyer accounts.) Alliances and partnerships aren’t new, people! Give us the option!

The cooperation breakdown continues at check-in: My wife bought a United-coded ticket for an all-US Airways flight on United.com (the UA-coded ticket was cheaper) but when she got to the airport to check in, she was told that the ticket wasn’t paid for. Apparently, United hadn’t transmitted the funds to US Airways, and the ticket was still listed as reserved, not issued. Her United receipt (and credit card statement) showed that it was indeed paid, but until the ticket number was manually entered into the computer record, she wasn’t getting a boarding pass.

This is stupid. I know there are incredible complexities that arise when large organizations attempt to integrate or link their data systems, but if the increasing frequency of these kinks is any indication, the problems are getting worse with time, not better.

Related:
- Star Alliance out of alignment: Are United and US Airways fighting codeshare wars?
- Update: US Airways and United codeshare conundrums
- Confused by codeshares? Sue!

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Upgraded: US Airways elite status for non-elites
Downgraded: Existing US Airways elite member satisfaction
US Airways is letting those without status buy their way into the rank and file of the elite frequent flyer set, giving them access to the upgrade waiting list and a few bonus miles. Whoo. If I were a US Airways elite, I’d be peeved at their “Try Preferred Status on for size” promotion. Much like Tim Winship argues, it’s hard enough getting an upgrade; now the airline is willing to sell your loyalty down the river to make a quick buck, thereby making it even harder to snag that wider seat with the marginally better service. Classy.

Upgraded: Virgin America
Slow-going upstart Virgin America got its approvals all lined up, and they’re officially legal to sell tickets and fly around the USA. But they’re not selling tickets yet. Their website still promises the moon. What’s the holdup? Jeez, people! August, they say.

Downgraded: Airport scales
Surprise, surprise. The scales at airports are often wrong. How often? 90% of scales were off in a Phoenix television station’s investigative report. Problems limited to Phoenix? Probably not. Try to make sure your scale is at zero when you put down your bags, but that won’t necessary avoid trouble. (Via Consumerist)

Upgraded: The little guy
Jane Waun rocks. She took Spirit Airlines to small claims court for the additional expenses she incurred after Spirit summarily canceled her flight and left her high and dry. They refunded her money for the ticket (eventually) but didn’t cover her additional costs. So she sued. And she won, in part because Spirit never showed up to fight it. 90% of success is showing up, or something like that, right?
(Update: I see Chris Elliott picked up on this, too. And he goes a step further, suggesting that everyone take every travel company to small claims court. Sue them every time, and hope they don’t show, in order to force them to change their practices. Nice idea, but small claims cases still take time! That’s probably why Spirit blew the case off in the first place. But if you have the time, go for it.)

Upgraded: Price transparency in the European Union
The EU Parliament has passed a set of rules mandating that airlines have to quote full prices, not just base fares. (Take that, easyJet!) The law needs approval from member states before taking effect, but this is pro-consumer. Let’s hope the member states pass it.

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After posting about the difficulties in reserving a mixed US Airways-United itinerary on either airline’s website last week, I contacted the two airlines about their codesharing policies, looking for some clarification. I’m pleased to report that US Airways has replied with a detailed response.

I asked Valerie Wunder, Associate Manager of Media Relations, to clarify why United-operated flights that had a US-codeshare weren’t coming up on usairways.com. (I asked similar questions of United Airlines, but have not yet received a reply.) She responded with a great, detailed e-mail, the bulk of which is quoted below the jump.

Four things stand out for me:

1) My observation that codeshared flights were restricted from sale (and not simply sold out) is largely validated, though my suspicions for the cause of the restriction are in dispute. Two reasons for the failure to list all codeshares are cited: “System migration issues” and “minimum connect timetable issues.” The former reason makes some sense, considering the integration of America West with US Airways systems has been incremental and problematic. Why should codeshare sales be any different?

But the minimum connect times? Over an hour’s connect time at CLT shouldn’t be an issue, so either the computers are being overly aggressive in blocking out partner flights with “short” connects, or this is a red herring.

2) United isn’t codesharing on the US Airways flights that are technically still operated by America West. United also isn’t codesharing US Airways Express flights when the plane has a capacity greater than 69 people. In both cases, “commercial reasons” are cited. Hmm…

3) US can’t sell UA nonstops if they operate the same exact nonstop route. ORD-CLT and ORD-DCA might be such routes. But they can sell these flights if they’re part of a connection.

4) More codeshares might be hard to come by, because they’re running out of numbers to use.

The bottom line from the airline’s corporate HQ is that US Airways’ website and reservation center still have a few more kinks to iron out of their system. They admit as much. And they admit that other booking sites may come up with more options (which is somewhat like throwing in the towel…)

Read the complete official explanation after the jump…
(more…)

Downgraded: Odds of seeing pole-dancer art on London-Gatwick approach
First it was the Kentucky Fried Chicken ad featuring a Colonel Sanders image visible from space. Now, a website’s advertisement featuring a giant chalk outline of a poledancing stripper is causing controversy in the UK. The image, in a field below a common approach path for flights to London’s Gatwick Airport, is only visible from the air, but is still causing an affront. It’s likely to be removed soon. But thanks to news reports and posts like this one far more people will see it online than ever would see it from a plane. (Yes, I’m guilty of supporting their marketing machine… I know…)

Upgraded: Kayak.com introduces alliance-based search
Aggregator Kayak.com tweaked its search tools ever so slightly, allowing you to sort by alliance (Star, oneworld, Skyteam) and not just by airline. But you can only sort it that way AFTER you’ve the basic search. (You can search preferred airlines up front, so why not alliances? Meh.) Orbitz has allowed alliance search for some time, but this is the first aggregator that I’m aware of that’s doing this.

Upgraded: Hertz’s environmentalist credibility
Last September, Hertz rolled out its “Green Collection” of rental cars and I was thoroughly unimpressed. Buick LaCrosse? Come on. Where were the hybrids? Well, it took nine months, but Hertz finally got around to buying more genuinely eco-friendly vehicles, with a purchase of 3,400 Toyota Priuses (or is that Prii?). That’s more like it.

Upgraded: Wine in coach. Viva jetBlue!
JetBlue is serving up some slightly more interesting wines than usual the usual coach fare. Thanks to a partnership with Best Cellars, the airline is giving their all-economy class passengers a slightly better guzzle. Choosing wine for coach can be challenging, since it has to be a) cheap, b) in tiny ready-for-sale bottles, unlike in premium cabins, and c) pair-able with a wider range of foods. I hadn’t thought about that last one before: After all, the wine in business and first can presumably be paired with the menu (though that’s not always obvious). But in coach, a wine demands “versatility in pairing with a wide assortment of airport meals people bring on planes, including pan pizzas from Pizza Hut and Taco Bell burritos with chicken and mole sauce.” (Taco Bell has a mole sauce? Really?) Either way, good for jetBlue, and good for their wine-imbibing passengers. (Thanks Tyler!)

Downgraded: US Airways right to serve any wine
Unlike jetBlue… US Airways, which got into trouble for selling booze without a license in New Mexico a few months ago, and which has been serving the sauce with a temporary scrip since then, was denied an extension of its license this past week. Tough break. BYOB, anyone?

Upgraded: Marriott; Downgraded: Ian Schrager (or is it the other way around?)
Look, I happen to like Marriott hotels for what they are: Consistent, clean, competent, and overall comfortable spaces to spend the night. (4 C’s!) They usually don’t have too much bling or pizazz, though some of their big-city properties have that 1980s glitz that has an odd appeal to my mid-to-late-30s, graying-gracefully, receding-hairline self. So when I hear that they’re teaming up with Ian Schrager, king of the boutique hotel, to create a new boutique-y brand, I’m skeptical. It seems like a late-to-the-game attempt to create a “W” chain within a chain. If it adds a little funk to the Marriott decor, great. (Bye bye brass fixtures, please!) But it also smacks of desperation. And isn’t Ian Schrager past this? Seems like he’s here to cash in while the cashin’ in is good.

Upgraded: WestJet’s honesty; Downgraded: Little old ladies’ pensions
Canada’s WestJet (hearts) little old ladies. Not because they’re nice grandmas, but because they’re walking piggy banks, and the airline’s got a hammer. Consider this nugget from the airline’s president:

“There would be a little old lady coming up and she’d have a table and she’d have a chair and she’d have six or seven bags and we’d say ‘Yeah, take it on the plane. No problem.’ Now we’re actually going to charge a little bit of money for taking that table and chair and those extra bags on board. And that incremental revenue that we extract from that little old lady is very, very profitable to us. Some 85% goes to the bottom line.”

Good for him, for saying publicly what other airline executives discuss privately. So I guess the business traveler isn’t the company profit center; the rarely-traveled senior citizen is. Bank it.

Upgraded: Amputees and their TSA experience
Got a prosthetic? The TSA wants to make your security checkpoint experience kinder and gentler. Good! On the other hand…

Downgraded: Sippy cups, and TSA cinema verité
A former Secret Service agent reports that she was harassed when she accidentally carried her child’s sippy cup of water through security. Stupid enough, but it gets more absurd: The TSA actually released a silent security tape of the incident, labeled “Mythbusters,” in their own defense. Feel free to view the videos, read the incident report, review the embarrassed mother’s story, and decide for yourself.

Upgraded: Demolition
Let me make myself perfectly clear: I want to help destroy this hotel. I’ve never been to it, but I want to help Spanish hotel chain NH Hoteles wreck the Alcala Hotel in Madrid. The company is holding a contest to see who can take a sledgehammer to the joint. Only 30 lucky few will get to play rockstar-cum-wrecking ball. Let the spirit of Keith Moon guide you.