As of Friday, American Airlines and British Airways (and I suppose Iberia, too) finally made their membership in the oneworld alliance closer to equal footing: Prior to Friday, you couldn’t earn or spend AA miles on trans-Atlantic BA flights from the US. As of Friday, you can earn and burn AA on BA, which truly upgrades the alliance. But…

If you’re going to cash in your AA miles for a flight on BA, though, you’re going to pay through the nose. BA slaps fuel surcharges onto the base airfare, which are payable even on frequent flier tickets. Those fuel surcharges can run as high as $500 for a roundtrip ticket in a premium cabin, on top of the miles you cash in. What would cost you $150 cash or so on an AA flight will cost you 5 times as much if booked on BA metal. This is completely and utterly lame.

The logic (and legality) of these fees has always escaped me. When I buy a plane ticket, I’m buying transportation from point A to point B, and the on-ground and in-flight services associated with that transportation. Fuel is part of that transportation equation.

By backing out the “fuel surcharge,” airlines act as if the consumer is just renting space on the plane. But last time I checked, I wasn’t just renting a chair. I also paid for the the movement of that chair across the oceans.

AA has posted an FAQ page related to the changes. It’s worth reviewing. See also Gary’s Friday post on the issue.

Maybe I’m seeing the glass half empty here. I’ve spent much of the weekend (and all of today) in bed, sick as a dog, so I’ve had had plenty to time to get crabby. Yes, this is better than before. Yes, other airlines and airline alliances play similar games. But these discrepancies within an alliance defeat the spirit of cooperation. They insult and dispirit customers, and they embolden the critics who argue that miles are “worthless” because of airline shenanigans.

I am glad they did something to improve the alliance. But I still hoped for better.

Reader David sends in this post from the Atlantic, which contains an interesting chart (copied below), ranking dozens of airline frequent flier programs in terms of award availability.

I appreciate what these kinds of rankings are trying to do, but this is unfortunately not an exact science. Let’s look at the methodology of the survey (pdf):

IdeaWorks made 6,160 booking queries at the websites of 22 frequent flier programs during February and March 2010. Travel dates spanned June through October 2010; 10 long-haul routes and 10 city pairs under 2,500 miles were checked to assess reward seat availability.
[...]
Notes regarding reward query methodology: Booking queries for a party of 2 travelers were made at frequent flier program websites during February 2010 with minor follow-up work conducted during the first week of March 2010. Some airlines require a Saturday night stay for reward travel; all of the queries used date pairings that included a Saturday night stay. While the city pairs varied for each frequent flier program, the travel dates did not. Specific dates were selected for queries and only reward seat availability for travel on the date specified was recorded; any departure time was acceptable. Furthermore, reward travel had to be available on the outbound and return dates queried. Overly circuitous routings were not allowed. When offered, online reward availability for partner airlines was always requested.

(emphasis added)

A few problems here: If you’re not comparing the same city pair, you’re not comparing apples and oranges. A sub-2500 mile itinerary could be a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle, or a flight from Inyokern, California to Harlingen, Texas. These are very different routes, with very different levels of competition (and subsequently availability).

Another issue is the fact that the survey consisted entirely of website research. Frequent flier mile ticket redemption — if you want to get the good stuff, and not just a domestic flight form Chicago to New York — is going to require a call, 99 out of 100 times. (The good stuff means complex international travel, premium cabins, and partner airlines.) Just relying on the websites is not a fair test.

Finally, what are “reward” seats? Are they the capacity-controlled “saver” awards, or are they last-seat-availability awards that cost double the miles? I’m assuming that the survey involved the former, and not the latter, but there’s no reassurance in the survey release that this was the case.

As a result, I take these results with a grain of salt. But some things aren’t surprising: Southwest has easy redemptions. Delta doesn’t. US Airways coming in dead last is a little more of a surprise, but I don’t have personal experience with their program for domestic flying.

Nonetheless, the survey is an interesting conversation starter. And the conclusions of the consultants who put it together are quite dead-on: “The revenue … comes naturally when members become enthused (and not frustrated) by program participation.” Amen.

See the chart results below.

So United and Continental got an unconditional green light from the European Union to merge their operations. This was hardly a surprise — the antitrust review by the U.S. government is far more relevant, given the greater domestic competition between the currently-separate carriers.

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.

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United is once again “enhancing” its frequent flier program, Mileage Plus. My first thought was, “Oh no, here we go again.” I immediately flashed back to American’s rollout of one-way awards — which killed one of the best award ticket features, the free stopover.

With United, it’s actually a better proposition, on the whole. Don’t get me wrong: It’s a good news/bad news scenario. But on the whole, it’s better than AA’s offering.

The program changes actually incorporate two new policies: Cash+miles tickets, and one-way awards.

• Good: Cash+miles options
  United is offering a “Miles and Money” option, so a smaller mileage balance can be supplemented with cash. A nice option for flexibility.
• Not so good: Availability and fees
  However, it’s not available on every flight (“select flights”). I ran a few searches, and there was no cash-supplement option.

  Note also that you’ll be responsible for more fees (like airport passenger facility fees) which aren’t typically charged for tickets paid 100% with miles. So the cost for the Miles and Money option will be more than just the cash fare paid.

  The complete rules are here.

• Good: One-way awards
  One way awards are a great feature, especially if you’re traveling to a city that’s serviced by another airline that offers a similar award structure. (Say, fly one-way there on AA, and one-way back on UA.) United is making one-way awards available only via united.com, and you can only book flights operated by UA (no codeshares or partners). The one-way redemption chart is here. (pdf)
• Not so Good: The threat to stopovers
  Booking a ticket on entirely UA metal can no longer include a complimentary stopover. Each leg will need to be booked separately, as a one-way segment. This will drive the number of miles required higher. But this shouldn’t be a big concern for true stopover buffs. For example, if I were to fly from New York to Paris, spend a few days there, then fly on to Istanbul, and eventually return, that would have to be booked using a Star Alliance ticket. Those ticketing rules appear unchanged. But all-UA award itineraries — already less desirable than most Star Alliance partner flights — will be even less desirable. And I worry that Star Alliance tickets are next…

On the whole, this really does strike me as a program enhancement. Perfect? No. But I’m not going to complain.

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Upgraded: Knowing what to do when you’re traveling for the holidays
Before you head to the airport, consider this post on five ways to get an edge on other travelers during the holiday season. The TSA has also published an updated list of do’s and don’t's for bringing items through security, which includes references to the infamous issue of pies. Don’t let anyone say you weren’t warned.

Downgraded: Your health in the sky
Contracted H1N1 or another nasty contagion? Got travel plans? Unless you’ve got good travel insurance, be prepared to pay a fee if you want to change you flights if you’re sick. From several reports (see here and here), it’s clear that being contagious doesn’t make you any less desirable aboard America’s airlines. Medical waivers be damned! Give them your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to cough up a lung onto their seatmates. It guess that’s freedom.

Upgraded: Regulation of frequent flier miles?
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is pushing for an inquiry into frequent flier programs, with particular attention to the phenomenon of expiring miles. Airlines, of course, argue that an inquiry is unnecessary by the government in the affairs of private business. Much like Congress is looking to regulate credit card fees and other business practices of the banks, this could get interesting.

Downgraded: Lufthansa intra-European economy seating
Lufthansa is shrinking the legroom in its economy cabin on shorter flights within Europe, to jam in more people. Thankfully, they’re leaving the big birds that fly across the oceans as they are, for now.

Upgraded: Communing with animals while you travel
A man with 15 lizards strapped to his chest was caught at LAX. For those keeping score, it was two geckos, two monitor lizards (!) and 11 skinks.

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In October, United announced that they were moving to an “unlimited” upgrade system from their electronic certificate system. But as readers chimed in, one of the biggest complaints came from top-tier 1K members. The quarterly allotment of confirmed upgrades within North America was going away, and with that, a big perk of upgrade security.

United must have gotten a lot of complaints, as they’re reinstating the so-called “regional” upgrades:

1K® members will continue to earn Regional Upgrades
Sometimes no change is good news. After our last announcement, we heard from our 1K members how much they value their Regional Upgrades. To thank them for their ongoing loyalty, we’ve decided to continue issuing Regional Upgrades to 1Ks, even after the Unlimited Domestic Upgrades program launches.

That gives top-tier elites the best of both worlds: A reserved upgrade if booked in advance (and if United releases seats for upgrade early…) and the top of the free-upgrade list if they’re sweating it out at the gate.

And entry-level elites don’t really lose anything here. The 1Ks would be ahead of them in line, anyway.

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Separately, United and Continental announced that reciprocal “unlimited” upgrade privileges will roll out in mid-2010. No word yet on what the hierarchy will be; I assume that, in a tie, UA 1Ks will still outrank CO platinums…

And on the semi-upgrade front: Continental elites will also have free access to the Economy Plus section on United flights — a privilege which United hasn’t been extending to other Star Alliance partner travelers.