One of the things that bothers me the most about United is its widely varying international travel experience in coach depending upon the airplane. The ultimate insult is coach on the 747, and new CEO Jeff Smisek knows it. He is apparently committing to fixing the product and bringing it up to this century’s standards.

The best international experience you can have in coach on United is if you get on one of the handful of 777s that have been reconfigured. These airplanes have brand new seats with full audio/video on demand for each person. It’s probably not much different than what you would expect on most airlines today. The old 777s and the 767s are a step down. The older seats do have personal screens but the movies are just looping and not on-demand. That’s not great and certainly not up to current standards, but it’s not awful either.

Then there’s the 747.

It’s probably not fair to use this picture from my 747 flight a couple weeks ago because even that old interior is outdated compared to what United has done on all its other 747s. (This particular airplane just made its last flight for United back to the desert.) But things aren’t that much better. United still only has overhead screens on this airplane, which it uses on some of the longest routes in its network. Want to fly for 14 hours to Sydney from LA? This is what you’ll get. It’s barebones, and it’s really the kind of product you would expect on a third world airline and nobody else these days. So how is it still flying?

United likes to put the 747 on its longest routes that have a lot of low fare demand. If you’re flying in a premium cabin, you’ll get a nice new flat bed, but it’s the back of the bus where United packs people in for cheap. The result is that coach passengers are rarely pleased with the product and it makes the airline a choice of last resort for people flying somewhere United uses a 747, if they know better.

Fortunately, Smisek knows this is true and he’s going to fix it. He told Australian Business Traveller that United would upgrade its 747s one way or another.

The back of the product on the 747 that United flies to Australia is not an acceptable level of product. And I know that, I recognise that. But United on its own didn’t have the money to invest in that product. Now (with the United-Continental merger) it does, and we will.

Oh man, that’s good to hear. Maybe we’ll finally get a consistently good hard product in the back of the bus on United’s international flights. That would be excellent, though I guess I should wait until I actually see it before giving too much praise. At least they’re talking the talk finally. It’s good to see that someone understands the importance of consistency over there. (And not consistently bad.)

Expedia Drops American Airlines — Right After Orbitz Battle – BNET Headwinds
Expedia has now joined the fight against American, which seems ironic since it just gained an advantage after AA pulled out of Orbitz. This is much bigger than that, however.

Continental-United Merger: How the Airline Emboldened Its Pilots – BNET Headwinds
United lost its bid to put a Continental code on 70 seat jets in Continental hubs. That’s good news for pilots.

Southwest’s Muddled Attack on Change Fees May Backfire – BNET Headwinds
Southwest has released its new change fee ads, and the message isn’t nearly as clear as “Bags Fly Free.” In fact, this could backfire.

In the Trenches: Learning in the Aftermath – Intuit Small Business Blog
Now that the big winter storms during the holidays have passed, it’s time to revisit what worked and what didn’t. We do need to make some changes.

As Sabre Enters War Over Flight Bookings, American Has to Find New Strategies – BNET Headwinds
The distribution war that American started is reaching a boiling point, and now the question is whether American will be able to find a way to survive without the GDSes.

Sabre Makes the Wrong Choice By Removing American Airlines – BNET Headwinds
Now looking at it from the other side, Sabre is not making the right choice here.

When I first dropped down to 3 posts a week, I said I’d revisit it after the end of the year. Well here we are, and I’ve decided that I’m sticking with the change. I would love to write Cranky more often, but after looking through the surveys (thanks for filling those out) and talking to a bunch of people, I’ve come to the point where I just don’t see how I can really increase revenue enough to justify me taking time away from other projects that can pay. I’ve got to make a living, so I’m sticking with the 3 day a week Cranky schedule.

I am still writing daily over on BNET (http://bnet.com/blog/airline-business) so if you’re really missing Cranky on Wednesday and Friday, you can come over there as well. I try to get those up in the mornings but sometimes it can take a lot longer to go through the edit process.

I’ll keep putting discussion topics up on Fridays, and I hope that in the future I’ll have things in order to the point where I can ramp back up here to go daily on Cranky. Until then, I’ll stick with Monday/Tuesday/Thursday and I hope you keep reading.

I never thought this day would come. Southwest has been talking about rolling out a new Rapid Rewards program since, I believe, the airline first took flight in the 70′s. And today, the airline is finally doing it, effective March 1. It’s a dollar-based program that is very straightforward. That part I like . . . a lot. It also, however, has a lot more tiers than I would expect for an airline that likes to say it’s an airline for everyone. And there’s also little thing about the Southwest credit card that really bugs me. But overall, it’s a good move.

Let’s start with the basics:

Southwest is leveraging its three different fare categories by assigning different earn rates depending upon the category. That’s perfect. Without this, someone who spends $300 on a 500 mile flight will get the same number of points as on a 2,000 mile flight. But now, that $300 fare will be in a higher category for the short haul so it will earn more points. It also gives more reason for people to buy up to the higher fare categories, depending upon the difference in fare.

But where this is really differentiated is in the redemption. We’ve seen Virgin America and JetBlue put out similar programs but they’ve never been so clear on how they calculate redemption points. In this case, it’s 10 times the earn rate in each category. Makes sense. Let’s do some math.

Let’s say I was thinking about buying a $99 Wanna Get Away fare from LA to Denver. If I pay for it, I’ll earn six times that amount, or 594 points, when I fly. Let’s, however, now say that I want to redeem points instead. It will cost sixty times that, or 5,940 points. So far so good. If I decided to buy an Anytime fare for $251, it would earn me 10 times the points. You get more when you buy a higher fare. But the same thing goes for redemption. It would cost 100 times for that.

Why would you redeem for an Anytime fare? Well, when you redeem points, it’s treated like a fare in that category. Let’s say two weeks later you need to change your flight. If it’s more expensive, you’ll have to pay the “fare” difference in points. If only Anytime fares are available, that means the flight is probably pretty full or it’s last minute, so it makes sense to charge a point premium for that as well.

What if you don’t have enough points? While you can’t pay with cash plus points, you can buy points for $50 for 2,000 points and then $25 for each additional 1,000. So you can use your award whenever you want on any fare, as long as you’re willing to buy those additional points (which admittedly, cost more than the value you’ll receive but are good for top-ups).

So what don’t I like about this? This is an airline that has long been proud of its egalitarian model. But it has moved away from that significantly over the last few years, and this continues that trend. Southwest has long had its companion pass for its most frequent fliers and that will stay. A couple years ago it introduced the A-List and now there’s another tier, A-List Preferred. Here’s what you get:

I’m not really sure why the A-List Preferred matters here. Yeah you get bonus points and free wifi, but that’s a pretty small recognition of so much flying. (I do love free wifi as a benefit in general, however.) It seems like they need to beef this up further if they really want to make it relevant, but that gets further into this tiered structure that Southwest has always eschewed. Also, not sure why they didn’t try to fold the companion pass earning into the standard format here instead of just keeping it as a legacy standalone. But it does seem that Southwest is convinced it needs elite tiers and is strengthening them over previous offers. The old A-List only gave priority check-in/security and an earning bonus. That’s not bad, just different.

The only part that really does bother me is the new redemption options beyond Southwest flights. You can now redeem points to fly on a bunch of other airlines internationally as well as car rentals, hotels, etc. Only one problem. Southwest will only let you do this if you have a Southwest credit card from Chase. The technology for this is being outsourced, so I assume it’s just the same thing Chase offers its own reward cardholders. My assumption is that Southwest had to make this work economically to make it possible, and that meant giving Chase this sweet deal which will only encourage new signups. But I still don’t like it. Forget about the people who don’t want a Southwest credit card, but what about those who simply can’t qualify for a card? This is not very egalitarian at all.

Now let’s talk transition. The new program starts on March 1. If you have award tickets already earned, you can still use those with no change in the program. If you have credits, you’ll be able to convert points from the new system to old credits to finish it off and earn one last award. The price is 1,200 points per credit. Also, Southwest is now changing from earning during a rolling 12 month period to a calendar year instead. So if you have a companion pass or an A-List membership that expires before the end of the year, it will now be extended to the end of 2011. If it expires in 2012, it will now be good through the end of that year.

Overall, I like what they’ve done here. The earning and redeeming is very simple and sensible. The increased tiering of the program bugs me as someone who has been flying Southwest since Rapid Rewards was the Company Club, but I understand why they’re doing it. It’s all about catering to the top travelers, even though that’s historically a very un-Southwesty thing to do. The only thing I don’t like is the credit card requirement for non-Southwest redemption, but overall, they’ve done a really good job here.

Just before Christmas, Air New Zealand took delivery of its very first 777-300ER. These airplanes are meant to replace the 747-400s that do the long haul flying for the airline, and Air NZ has really done a fantastic job making the experience much better than the airline’s already high quality experience out there today. While the airplane may look like any other 777 on the outside, what Air New Zealand has done on the inside makes it one of the best products I’ve seen. And this isn’t just from pictures. I was able to take a tour of the airplane when it stopped in LA on its delivery flight.

When I went down to New Zealand for the interior unveiling last January, it looked like a very ambitious effort. I liked what I saw, but it was just a prototype in a nondescript space in Auckland. Seeing it all on the airplane in full force really hammers home how great this is. And it’s not just the seats. It’s really the entire experience. That’s something that only rarely gets enough attention. Below, I have six videos that take a tour through several parts of the onboard experience. Take a look and then come back for more discussion.

Having been on the airplane, I have to say that it’s different, and even better, in person. The airline really has set a standard for travel, actually making its seats white and “ink” (um, black) with mood-lighting to make it feel more like a private jet experience. Being onboard, you really get that sensation more than on any other commercial airline I’ve been on. (And no, I haven’t been on the Singapore A340-500 with 100 biz class seats.)

The seats are innovative in all three cabins and they all appear to be contenders for best-in-class. But I’ve already talked about those when I visited Auckland last year. What really grabbed me was the soft product and the way that it caters to the customer in ways that I don’t think we often see from airlines. It also adds some of that Kiwi humor into the mix to prevent people from taking themselves too seriously.

For example, the lavs have wallpaper on the side with different designs. One has a bookshelf with a bunch of books (including the “Kiwis Have Big Noses” tome which is apparently highly respected in academic circles). Another has a chandelier one one side with what looks like the reflection on the adjacent wall. The reflection, however, has knives, spoons, and yes, forks in it. My favorite might be the lav which actually has a window inside. Across from the window, you see this:

I also like that the amenity kits in business class have eyeshades with different designs on them. Some have old-time aviator goggles, others have bird eyes. The idea being that seeing some of the high-powered Kiwi businesspeople walking around in their pajamas wearing these things will help to lighten the mood a little. I agree, and it’s very New Zealand-appropriate.

Another thing that Air New Zealand has figured out is that if you make kids happy, their parents will be happy. And since Air New Zealand carries a ton of family leisure travelers, that’s really important. If the airline knows a kid is traveling, the headrest will be given the kids’ cover to make it special. Also, when the kid arrives at the seat, there will be a snackbox waiting. Kids don’t always wait for mealtime, so this will be a welcome way to start the flight. The kids will also get a bag with a bunch of goodies and there’s an extensive kid section on the inflight entertainment. That’s just smart.

Possibly one of the more interesting moves is the use of common space. Virgin Atlantic certainly has done this well with the bar for premium passengers, and Air New Zealand will do the same thing with a twist. In the front galley, they will be able to hold wine tastings with its Kiwi wines for business class customers. It’s a good move because it fits with the Kiwi wine culture, just as Virgin Atlantic’s cool bar fits with its image.

In the back galley, the crew expects to have story time for kids. They can read to the kids or they have a 23 inch LCD screen that can have movies shown. Getting the kids together and relieving the parents from duty for a little while is going to pay dividends.

In the end, Air New Zealand has really created a special atmosphere on the airplane and that’s something very few airlines have been able to do. The airplane starts flying some days between LA and Auckland on January 16. By April, flights 1 and 2, the ones that go between Auckland, LA, and London will have the new product.