My head is still spinning from all the news that came out yesterday. JetBlue’s relaunch of its TrueBlue program is going to have to wait, because the news that Southwest was putting in a bid for Frontier certainly takes top billing. Let’s talk about what this will mean for customers if it’s successful.

Southwest has put out a non-binding bid for Frontier that was about $5 million more than Republic’s current bid of $108 million. Final bids are due on August 10 and an auction will happen during the following week. Southwest can still back out easily if they don’t like what they see, but I doubt that’ll happen. If we assume that Southwest does, in fact, win this fight (they keep saying they’re “in it to win it” so that’s a good bet), then here’s what would happen.

Initially, Frontier would operate as a separate subsidiary until Southwest could start to work its magic. Southwest said that it has no interest in the Airbus aircraft, so it would get rid of those as soon as it had enough 737s to take over. Frontier employees would slowly be brought over to Southwest, if they were up to the Southwest standards. In the end, Frontier would cease to exist and Southwest would just look bigger in Denver and have one less competitor.

From a route perspective, there are some cities where Frontier flies that Southwest currently does not. Here’s my handy dandy map:

Let’s talk about the red cities first, because those are the ones that are currently flown by mainline Frontier. If I were a betting man, I’d expect to see Dayton, Akron/Canton, and Anchorage disappear. I think there’s very little doubt that Atlanta would keep service, and they’ll be happy to scoop up a few more LaGuardia slots. I also imagine that Southwest would want to keep flying to Washington/National, but I don’t know that they have that choice.

Frontier has slots at National that allow them to fly beyond the 1,250 mile perimeter. When American bought TWA out of bankruptcy, they weren’t allowed to keep the Washington/National – LAX flight that TWA had flown, so I don’t see why this would be any different. If they can keep them, however, then I’m sure they’d be happy to jump in.

The rest of the mainline cities are in Mexico, and Southwest said on a call today that they would be interested in exploring those Mexico operations. It’s still unclear if they would do it – they still need to solve their IT issues before they could really ponder doing international flying.

The most interesting piece to me is Lynx, the regional airline that is owned by Frontier that operates Q400 aircraft. I said when ExpressJet launched their branded service that it could have been successful were it Southwest Express. Just think about all the markets Southwest could penetrate by adding Q400s to the mix. It would give them real growth opportunity, and I think it could be smart.

On a media call yesterday, Southwest said that they would have dismissed that thought outright before, but now that’s something they’ll actually consider. All is on the table, or so they say. To be honest, I wouldn’t keep my hopes up for that at all, but I would really like to see it.

Ultimately, however, I think this is just about one thing. Southwest can eliminate a competitor for just over $100 million. They must believe that they can benefit by more than that by simply getting rid of Frontier. I get into this in more detail over at BNET today. There really isn’t much room for three carriers over in Denver, and this is a cheap way to fix that problem.

Christmas is one of those times where I don’t like to play games with strategizing about the best time to book my flights. I think it’s generally safe to assume that fares will keep going up as it gets closer, at least on the prime days we need to travel. This year, despite all the gloom and doom around the industry, I don’t think it’s going to be much different. People are still going to travel to see their families for the holidays, and the cutbacks on capacity will probably help keep prices up on peak days.

We settled our Christmas plans this week, and as usual, it involves a trip back to the in-laws in Indianapolis. I booked it all yesterday, and I’m feeling pretty good about what we got. Here are some random thoughts.

On our outbound, we’re flying Midwest through Milwaukee on a redeye.

• Midwest already screwed us once last summer when they canceled LAX service – what’s the chance they screw us twice?




• I’m pretty excited about the cookies onboard




• I’m more excited that we’re on an Embraer 190 – no middle seat and that’s great for the redeye




• I’m most excited that it was only $158 one way per person – that’s way cheaper than anyone else (and not a good sign for Midwest)




• This is the first time I was prompted for my middle name on a booking – thanks TSA




• This will be my first time on the baby Embraer 135 – 37 seats makes it the smallest jet I’ve ever been on




• Think I can get a Miller Lite at 6 in the morning when I’m connecting through Milwaukee?

On the way back, we’re flying American via St Louis on miles.

• I love this new flexible one-way award structure – we might have flown United back home if they had that option but they don’t




• There were no coach saver awards but there were first class savers, so both cabins were the same price – guess which one we picked?




• I’m excited to fly on an ERJ-140 – this means I’ll now have been on every version of the ERJ family




• I’m also kind of pissed to fly the ERJ-140 – we’re using miles for first class but there’s no first class cabin on this flight




• I like connecting in St Louis – that place is empty these days and never has a traffic congestion delay




• If I get a Miller Lite in Milwaukee, I guess I’ll need a Bud Light in St Louis




• I’m particularly pumped for our MD-80 ride back home – I’ve never sat up front in an MD-80 before and I hear it’s a very nice, quiet ride




• It’s fantastic that American still lets you hold your reservations – made it less nerve-wracking to book since we were booking separately from our own stash of miles




• Why do I have to pay the $5 fees with a credit card that matches my wife’s name? Annoying




• The first class lines will really make travel easier during the holidays

Just a jumble of random thoughts, I know. But I’m pretty happy to have my Christmas travel booked with good flight times on peak days for a fair price. I’m really amused that three of my four flights are operated by Republic or one of its subsidiaries. It’s only the lonely MD-80 at the end that’s actually operated by the airline that has its name painted on the outside of the plane.

Anyone else making their plans yet?

US Airways has been talking about doing something for inflight entertainment onboard ever since they pulled movies several months ago. Last week, they finally made a move. They’re introducing wireless internet access onboard via AirCell, but it’s only on a small piece of the fleet.

The plan is to make WiFi available on all A321 aircraft. They say they have 50 in the fleet, but I think there are only 40 as of today. It is, however, a fleet that has been rapidly expanding – there have been a few deliveries so far this year. The A321 is meant to be the workhorse for transcontinental flying going forward. That’s why it makes sense to have that fleet receive WiFi over others. Here’s the current map of where the planes are flying, courtesy of US Airways:

As you can see, these aircraft fly mostly on long haul routes, so WiFi is most helpful on these planes. Oh, there is one problem. US Airways has disabled the power ports on its domestic fleet, so you’ll need to bring some extra batteries. It’s annoying when an airline has no power ports onboard, but it’s doubly annoying when they actually turn them off. (The newest deliveries are coming in without the powerports installed at all.)

This is the first onboard inflight entertainment enhancement from US Airways in a long time, unless you count the reinstatement of free sodas and water as entertainment. (I don’t.) They have been talking about trying to put in seat video on board their fleet (pay per use), but at last check, the financing still wasn’t there for a project like that. Lots of people have been talking about whether US Airways has enough cash to survive (this seems like an annual ritual, whether true or not), so isn’t it surprising that they’d be spending money on the internet? I’m guessing AirCell is making them an offer they can’t refuse.

If I had to guess, I’d imagine that US Airways is paying little or nothing to have this installed on the fleet, and that’s why they’ve moved forward. The name of the game is watching cash, and if US Airways had to shell out a lot, they just wouldn’t be doing this. They are smart about financial management over there, and any large cash outlay just isn’t going to happen without a good return. And I doubt this project would provide them with a good, tangible return. AirCell, on the other hand, wants to cement its status as the WiFi provider for the domestic world, so they might be willing to pay for this in exchange for collecting the revenues.

So, good news for those US Airways customers who have been bored by the lack of any sort of entertainment onboard those transcon flights. Now you’ll have internet. For now, it’ll probably be a crapshoot to find which flights have it and which don’t, but eventually they’ll have it displayed at usairways.com.

[Updated on 7/28 at 348p to fix wording around US Airways bringing back soda and water]

I’ve decided to put a very early Tuesday post out this week. In fact, it’s still Monday here on the west coast. But since Delta took the time to brief me about their 2010 SkyMiles changes, I figured I’d put my post out the second they lifted the embargo. So here we are.

Besides adding a new Diamond tier for super cool, awesome frequent fliers (comes with knee pads to give to customer service employees to use when kissing your butt), they’ve done something pretty interesting. They’ve become the AT&T of the airline industry by adding rollover elite qualifying miles.

So how does the rollover game work? Well, any miles you fly above and beyond the threshold for elite qualification, you get to use to qualify the following year. For example, let’s say you flew 40,000 miles in 2010 – not quite the 50,000 you need for Gold status, but far more than the 25,000 you’ll need for Silver. With other airlines, those 15,000 extra miles don’t do anything for your elite status, but now Delta’s program lets you start off your 2011 qualification efforts with 15,000 miles in the bank.

This only works if you reach that 25,000 level. In other words, if you had a total of 10,000 elite qualifying miles in 2010 (which gets you absolutely nothing), you can’t carry those over to 2011 with the hope that after a couple years you’ll eventually reach Silver. That’s smart for Delta to do that, because otherwise they’d end up with way too many Silver members and that dilutes the benefits for those who actually are frequent fliers.

This development makes for some interesting choices for frequent fliers. Currently, when frequent fliers hit the highest mileage threshold that they expect to be able to meet, they often shift their other travel to other airlines in order to try to qualify in other programs. Now, the higher mileage earning level and the ability to roll those miles over makes for a very compelling reason to keep flying Delta instead. Very interesting move on Delta’s part. I like it.

But these aren’t the only changes coming in 2010. Looking through the list that Delta sent me, SkyMiles members don’t seem to be losing anything this year. It’s still a 24 month mileage expiration policy, upgrades are still free for elites within North America and northern South America, and everyone still gets 500 miles minimum on every flight. There are, however, a few new things this year besides the rollover.

• Gold, Platinum, and Diamond elites will now get complimentary upgrades on award tickets as well as on paid tickets. (I believe Northwest already had this benefit.)




• Gold, Platinum, and Diamond elites will have fees waived to book through the phone reservations line. (Another Northwest benefit.)




• Platinum members get to choose one of the following – 4 systemwide upgrades (less than last year’s 6, but now redeemable on day of departure), 20,000 bonus miles, Gift of Silver elite status to a friend, 4 Sky Club day passes, Travel/retail gift cards




• Diamond members get to choose one of the following – 6 systemwide upgrades (now redeemable on day of departure), 25,000 bonus miles, Gift of Gold elite status to a friend, 6 Sky Club day passes (which would be a dumb choice since they get complimentary membership), Travel/retail gift cards

So, it’s another day of good news for frequent flier mileage junkies. I’m happy to see Delta incorporating some of the benefits Northwest frequent fliers were already enjoying, and I think this rollover idea is pretty cool. Nice work.

This week is looking like a good week for frequent fliers. I’ve got some big news from another program tomorrow, but today, United shocked the world by actually removing a fee. Now last minute booking fees from Mileage Plus awards are gone, and that’s certainly worthy of a gold star.

Most airlines have added these obnoxious fees in the last couple of years. With United, you had to pay $100 extra if you booked your award travel within a week of departure and $75 extra if you booked between one week and three weeks of your trip. Why did they implement these fees? It certainly had nothing to do with an extra cost incurred by last minute bookings. No, it was simply a way to screw people out of money and devalue awards further.

Though I wasn’t in on the conversation, I think I can figure out how these fees came to be in the first place. Everyone knows that last minute fares are more expensive, so they probably thought they could charge a last minute fee and not push people away from using their miles because it was still a lot cheaper than buying a ticket. They could get people to burn miles and they could make a little extra cash on the deal. Sounded great, but it was absolutely distasteful from a customer perspective.

I imagine this recent change was thanks to the wonders of ancillary revenue. United has now learned it can make a fair amount of money from just getting people onboard. Bag fees and buy-on-board are just a couple ways that they can make money on someone who is flying on a free ticket. And since demand has been severely depressed lately, they just want to get people to fill those empty seats.

My guess is that the reduction of last minute fares on many airlines has meant that people just weren’t using their miles very much for last minute travel. I helped some friends a couple weeks ago who needed to fly from LA to Indianapolis that afternoon for an emergency. They asked about using miles, but once I told them about the fee (which is actually higher on other airlines), they opted to buy a $250 one way fare on US Airways instead.

In that case, United had seats available but it lost out because of the fee. That meant no bag revenue, no chance to sell food, etc. So I think the gamble here is that the elimination of the fee will just get people onboard, and that’s great news for customers.

Let’s all celebrate the death of one of the more obnoxious fees out there, and for once, let’s give United some credit for doing something that’s customer friendly.