George is in the middle of a holiday trip where the flight out was on United and the return on US Airways. It was booked on Orbitz, but he had two problems. The first was that his United Mileage Plus numbers weren’t showing up right with US Airways, and second was that after his upgrade cleared on United, that flight disappeared from the Orbitz reservation.

For the Mileage Plus numbers, I called US Airways directly and the airline had them showing up as Dividend Miles numbers. They fixed how Orbitz had inputted it and everything was fine. For the upgrade problem, this has happened a lot with United lately. It shows up fine in United’s system, and that’s all that matters. In other words, George’s reservation was fine all the way through. But the lack of good communication from Orbitz just made things worse.

Again, a straightforward email. But this time, he gets a personalized response from someone different.

Holy crap. Other than a passing mention of the real problem here, it’s not addressed. Instead, she gets distracted by the now-resolved Mileage Plus issue incorrectly saying that there are US Airways Dividend Miles numbers in the reservation. Not true.

Really, all he needed was that last paragraph, but at least there was finally an end here. The good news is that United had everything looking right for his United reservation (he had no troubles on the flight out) and US Airways has everything set for his US Airways reservation, so it’s all good.

But what a frustrating customer service experience.

According to Leahy, an order isn’t coming anytime soon, but “United understands that if it wants to have a major presence in Asia it needs the A380.” He also says that with demand predicted to double in the US in the next 15 years, growth can’t happen through frequency increases at every airport. That leaves the A380 in his mind as the option of choice.

I certainly don’t have any inside knowledge on this, but it would surprise me to see United pick up A380s in the near or even distant future. Why? Because it doesn’t really need the airplane.

Yes, there are some airports that are capacity-constrained that will have a hard time keeping up with increases in demand, but that doesn’t mean United needs a huge airplane. How many routes are there that United even wants to use its biggest 747s on? Not a ton. Leahy might be concerned about New York, but many of those European markets aren’t big enough to support more than a 757 or 767. If demand grows, then United has plenty of airplanes that it can use that are larger. It doesn’t require an A380-sized airplane by any stretch.

Are there some routes that might benefit from an A380? Potentially. There are some capacity constrained airports in the world – notably places like London and Tokyo. But is that enough reason to order the A380? So far, no US carrier (and very few worldwide) has seen a reason. There are so few routes that these airlines would like to have an A380 for that it’s not even worth considering.

So has something changed with United’s thinking? I don’t know, but this sounds to me like an overly optimistic thought on the part of Airbus.

American
In the last month, there has been a ton of momentum for American to finally come to an agreement with its pilots. This comes from a combination of two things. American pilots elected a far more rational leader awhile back in Dave Bates, so that right away makes a deal more likely than under the old regime. From the other side, American is feeling pressure for a few reasons.

Probably most pressing is the fact that American has seen a large number of pilots retire in the last few months, far more than normal. That means that American needs to do a lot of shifting and training to fly its airplanes, and it’s trying to get relief from the pilots to be a little more flexible during the transition. The pilots, however, said that no relief will be given unless it’s part of a full contract. This is where the potential for disruption lies. If American doesn’t have enough pilots, then some flights could cancel. American should know this in advance, however, so I wouldn’t look for any last minute issues.

The other big issue for American is that investors are getting antsy. Without a new contract in place, there’s a higher concern that American could file bankruptcy. The stock has been beaten up, losing half its value in the last three months. We all know that American’s leaders don’t like when that happens, so the pilots have some leverage here.

There seemed to be some progress on the negotiations until American put out its last, best offer. The airline decided to negotiate in public by putting this out on its website. The pilots were not happy with either of the two options. While I always expect union leaders to complain, it sounds like the rank and file doesn’t like it either. And that means we’re probably back where we started.

I still don’t expect bankruptcy any time soon, but if it happens eventually, this would undoubtedly be like many of the other bankruptcies over the last several years where operations aren’t impacted. So don’t worry.

Delta
Delta is the good news “meat” in between the two slices of “bad news” bread here. After a long, drawn-out process, there is finally labor peace with the flight attendants. See, pre-merger Delta flight attendants were non-union but pre-merger Northwest flight attendants were union. There was an election a year ago to see which path would win, and the votes went in favor of doing away with the union by a clear amount.

The union, however, challenged the results, saying that Delta had interfered with the election. This is generally standard operating procedure any time a union loses, but this time, the union was told to stuff it. The National Mediation Board says that there wasn’t enough interference to influence the outcome, so the vote stands. Delta’s flight attendants will remain non-union.

While some flight attendants will be unhappy with this outcome, it’s a done deal and the integration can continue.

United
Then there’s United. The negotiations with pilots are ongoing, and really I haven’t heard about much progress. But the bigger, more important short term issue is with training.

Continental and United both have different procedures in the cockpit, but they need to be harmonized before the airline can become one under a single operating certificate. According to the pilots, it sounds like on the 757, 767, and 777 fleets, there are a lot of changes being made and most of them are standardizing with Continental procedures. So, the United pilots have a lot of learning to do.

The airline has decided to do all this new training via computer instead of in a simulator or in a classroom. The union thinks this is inadequate considering how big of a change it is, and I get the feeling after talking to some folks about this that very well might be the case. This is far from my area of expertise, so maybe some pilots can chime in below. (You can read the full report from the union.)

The airline keeps pushing on, however, and CEO Jeff Smisek had some harsh words, saying that union leaders “are crossing a line that is shameful and inappropriate between safety and industrial relations.” The FAA won’t step in, so it looks it’s a go. The new target date is, I believe, November 30.

What’s the hurry to get this done? According to the union, there are financial incentives for execs at the airline to get a single operating certificate by a certain time. It always comes down to money, doesn’t it?

So will this cause any disruption? I’m not sure. It would seem that if a pilot is scheduled to fly and doesn’t feel comfortable with the new procedures, then he might refuse the trip. I can’t imagine a pilot agreeing to fly if he thinks he’s not prepared. I haven’t heard a word about any real disruption, but I would think some mineor ones are always possible depending upon how this proceeds.

—
To sum things up, there shouldn’t be any labor issues that disrupt flights during the holidays, but some of these related issues could have some sort of tiny impact. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it. Just worry about the potential for snowstorms to snarl your plans. That’s the bigger potential problem.

Wi-Fi coming to international flights – CNN Out of the Office
More talk about what’s happening with United’s decision to put wifi on its international fleet.

First Fine for Tarmac Delays May Not Actually Help You – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
I didn’t write about the tarmac delay fine here, but over on Conde Nast I talked about how it’s not necessarily good news. (Regular readers here won’t be surprised by my stance.)

In the Trenches: Recovering From a Crash – Intuit Small Business Blog
Our web host crashed last week, and that meant we had to revert to a back up plane to keep our clients happy.

United and Continental Merger Will Make Flying to Europe Easier – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
United is doing some interesting things with its new combined fleet, and that means new destinations from Dulles that couldn’t be served before.

The plan is this. United will install wifi from Panasonic on “more than 300″ aircraft in the domestic AND international fleet. That’s really the big news here. United will be the first American airline to put wifi on long haul international flights as well as domestic.

Today, United sadly has wifi only on its tiny fleet of p.s. airplanes that go back and forth between New York and both LA and San Francisco. Oh, and there might be that one 757 still roaming around testing Row 44′s system but I’d be surprised if that was still in service. Starting next year, United will finally play catch up.

You’ll remember that United said it would put wifi on the Continental pre-merger fleet that has LiveTV onboard. That’s not changing, and LiveTV will still be doing it. But the rest of the fleet is going a different way, with Panasonic.

The LiveTV deal uses a Ka band satellite which was just recently put into orbit to cover the US. Ka is notable in that it should be faster and significantly less expensive, but it hasn’t exactly been put into heavy use yet. I believe it also doesn’t have coverage as far-reaching as Ku at this point. Ku band is what Panasonic is going to be installing on the United fleet. I will be very curious to see how pricing comes out. Ku band isn’t very cheap.

We can look across the Pond to United’s partner Lufthansa to see how this might turn out. Lufthansa has been installing what it calls FlyNet on its airplanes where the rate is €10.95 (~$15) for one hour or €19.95 (~$27.50) for 24 hours. Could there be a joint subscription offering that would work on both airlines? That would make sense since people are supposed to be able to interchangeably use Lufthansa and United across the Atlantic, and it would be very welcome. But I’m not holding my breath for that just yet. I will be very curious to see how similar United’s pricing is.

One other piece that’s not exactly clearly is that we don’t know exactly how this is going to work out in terms of which airplanes will get this. The airline says more than 300 aircraft including the A319, A320, 747, 757, 767, 777, and 787 will get the service. Right now, there are 150 A319/A320 aircraft alone and another 140 or so 757s. Add in the 150 747/767/777 aircraft plus whatever 787s will come in the door and you have WAY more than 300 airplanes.

My guess here is that we’ll see a lot of pre-merger United 757s disappear as they get retired. Maybe some of the A319/A320 aircraft will be pushed out when leases expire as well. All we know is that by the end of 2015, the entire mainline fleet will have wifi, but I imagine that means the mainline fleet is going to either a) be smaller than it is today or b) have more 737s come in equipped with LiveTV to even this out. Lots to ponder here.

So is this good? Well sure, in theory. But as I mentioned, Ku band isn’t cheap so I will reserve judgment until I see how it’s going to be priced. Wifi is great, but super-expensive wifi isn’t going to win any friends. I asked Panasonic about the Ku vs Ka decision. The response was that the company “will offer an upgrade that will optimize our existing eXConnect solution for Ka.” I asked a follow-up question to better understand if it was an easy and painless upgrade or not and I received no response.

One last nugge of interest. United was quick to note that “The system will also enable wireless streaming of video content.” Remember that United announced that instead of putting in seat video into the 747s, it would just offer streaming of content. Makes you wonder if the plan for the 787 might be the same. That would be a radical change, especially this early in the game since there are still plenty of travelers without their own devices.

In the end, this means that everyone will get wifi onboard a United mainline aircraft, but that doesn’t mean the offering will be standardized. The domestic Continental airplanes, as with Delta’s fleet, will have LiveTV, movies, wifi, etc. The United domestic fleet, as with Northwest’s fleet, will just have wifi.

All in all, this is good news, but there are plenty of unanswered questions.

4 trip-planning services often overlooked – Overhead Bin on MSNBC
Cranky Concierge was lucky enough to be mentioned here as a planning service worth considering. I agree.

In the Trenches: Handling Sensitive Customer Data – Intuit Small Business Blog
Handling sensitive customer data is a huge issue in general, and it’s a nerve-wracking one for many a small business owner.

United, Continental to roll out combined frequent-flier program next year – Chicago Tribune
I was asked to comment on the new MileagePlus, but of course, as readers of this blog, you already know my thoughts.

Sure, there have been a bunch of tweaks here and there, but this was far from the major dollar-based changes that had been circulated around recently. In those rumors, it was expected that United would make people spend a minimum amount of money with the airline instead of just flying miles to earn status. That might have been a smart move for the airline, but it isn’t happening. . . at least not now. You will, however, have to fly four flights on United (or Continental or COPA) during the year instead of just earning status by flying partners.

The reaction on FlyerTalk has been largely positive, and that probably means the program is being too generous. That is one group that’s not shy about complaining when things don’t come out favorably. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some negatives in the program here. There are. But really it’s the entry level elite members who will be the least happy. The higher up you go, the happier people will be. That’s probably how it should work. You can get the full details anywhere, so let’s just give a broad brush to see what’s going on in general.

If you’re a regular MileagePlus program member, then you won’t notice a difference. That’s the biggest takeaway here for the general traveling public. The changes are really focused around the elite levels in the program – for the truly frequent fliers.

The first level of elite status is Premier Silver, which awkwardly combines United’s Premier with Continental’s Silver moniker. To get to this base level, you need to earn 25,000 miles or fly 30 flight segments. There are a lot of people who fall into this group, many barely qualifying. The benefits really aren’t huge, but they’re getting smaller in this change. In fact, the Silver level is taking the biggest hit.

United offers free upgrades to elite members on domestic flights, but it’s already nearly impossible to get an upgrade as an entry level Premier because of the sheer volume of people trying. Those people could, however, always fall back on the fact that they could reserve a seat in Economy Plus without additional charge. That perk is gone. Now, Premier Silver members can only get Economy Plus without charge at the time of check-in. Otherwise, they’ll have to pay in advance like everyone else.

That’s a big hit to Silvers since that perk was a big selling point for flying United, but I can absolutely understand why United’s doing it. You get a lot of people in that Silver level, even more with the combined United and Continental pool of people, and that means that your more frequent fliers might not be able to get that Economy Plus seat they wanted. This way, United culls the demand until travel time and the “more important” elites get their pick of seats in advance. Still, Premier Silvers won’t be happy. (In general, I’ve found it’s harder to make an entry level elite happy than anyone else so this might have been a lost cause anyway.)

But that’s not the only reduction for Silvers. Today, you can check two bags for free. That goes down to one. Not a big deal for many people, but it’s still something that Silvers will undoubtedly be unhappy about.

The next tier up is Premier Gold at 50,000 miles, followed by a new Premier Platinum tier at 75,000 miles, and then Premier 1K at 100,000 miles. In case you were wondering, yes, 1K is really a misnomer. 1K still means 1,000 and not 100,000 in the real world, so why is United using this nomenclature? My understanding is that back in the day, this was an internal code for the top status level. It stuck and made it in the public lexicon. Now it’s a name so synonymous with top status that United is keeping it around even though it sticks out in the new naming convention like a sore thumb.

On top of that, there will still be the Global Services program which is based on the amount of money you spend when you fly. There is no public qualification threshold for this program, but if you’re awesome, you’ll be invited.

As you go up the ladder, the benefits generally get better. But much of the real benefit is just where you sit in the pecking order and not necessarily a different benefit. In other words, a 1K gets upgraded before the other elites. So the benefit is technically the same, but 1Ks get first crack.

The higher up you are on the food chain, then the more goodies you get. Silver members get 25 percent bonus miles when they fly while 1K members get 100 percent bonuses. There are also bonuses for buying more expensive tickets in order to give some sort of additional incentive to pay up.

There’s a new enhanced million miler program as well. Basically, if you’ve had the unfortunate need to fly over a million miles in your life, then United rewards you with permanent elite status. Each additional million miles gets you higher up the ladder with more goodies along the way. I guess if you’ve truly flown that much, then you deserve something to keep you from wanting to jump off a cliff. That’s a LOT of flying.

So those are the basics. In the end, this isn’t a huge change, and it’s not really a bad change either . . . unless you’re a Silver. Then you aren’t happy, but you can probably understand why these changes are being made, right?

There are a few good nuggets of info in here, but there’s also a lot of repeat announcements. One you get through the noise, the announcements are mostly great news. The team is finally fixing up the United fleet while bringing over some old favorites to Continental. Let’s go over them. (I’ve saved my favorite for last.)

• New: United Will Convert Interiors on 14 Previously-Domestic 767s
  United has long had a sizable fleet of 767-300s that it split in two. Some were outfitted with three-cabins and flew internationally while the others were domestic birds with a domestic-style first class and a sea of coach. Now the 14 previously domestic birds will get a hybrid international configuration with only two classes (actually 30 in biz, 49 in Economy Plus, and 135 in coach), but they’ll get the well-liked Continental flat bed up front. New seats will be put in, but it’s unclear if the old, tiny overhead bins will be replaced. I like this – gives some flexibility to the United fleet, but it will be interesting to see what airplanes replace that capacity on the domestic runs.
• Old: United Will Put Flat Beds on Continental 767-400 Fleet
  This was supposed to be done by next summer anyway, and now it’s apparently being reaffirmed. The twelve 767-400s in the Continental fleet will get flat beds. No surprise there. Here’s the chart of what the fleet does and will look like. United says it will have 185 birds with flat beds, but I count 193. Are there some retirements that I’m missing?

  Aircraft	Flat Beds Current	Flat Beds Planned	Pct Complete
  CO 757-200	41	41	100%
  CO 767-200	0	0	100%
  CO 767-400	0	12	0%
  CO 777-200	22	22	100%
  UA 757-200 p.s.	0	13	0%
  UA 767-300	21	35	60%
  UA 777-200	17	46	37%
  UA 747-400	24	24	100%

• Old: United 777s Will Keep Getting Flat Beds
  United was painfully slow at putting flat beds on its 777s, and now it’s only at 17 of the 46 in the international fleet. Sounds like the process is starting up again, and I’ve confirmed that these airplanes will all get the current United flat bed, not the Continental one.
• Old: Continental Fleet Will Get Economy Plus
  This is old news, but I guess it gives a little more color on the timing. Economy Plus will start being installed on Continental airplanes this fall with 38 done by year-end and 100 by the end of March next year. Economy Plus seats will come from current coach seating while premium cabins will remain unchanged in size. It’s not just mainline but also any aircraft with more than 50 seats, per the United standard. That means the Q400 props will get Economy Plus and First Class. We had a Twitter discussion on this awhile ago trying to remember the last prop that had First Class. It’s been awhile.
• New: United Will Expand Overhead Bins and “Refresh” Interiors on the Airbus Fleet
  Try boarding a United A319 and you’ll probably run out of bin space before general boarding even begins. So, the new United is nearly doubling the size of the bins to make them more functional. This will help the onboard experience, probably to the dismay of those who thought that problem was bad enough that it would convince United not to keep charging bag fees. Plus, the new United will “refresh” the interiors to give them a better appearance. This is long overdue on much of that fleet.
• New: Streaming Movies on 747-400s
  It wasn’t long ago that CEO Jeff Smisek said the product on the 747s wasn’t acceptable. To fix it, he’s committing to put a wireless streaming offering on the airplane. It’s like what American is doing on its 767-200s today with Gogo. You can log on and pay to watch movies or TV shows, etc on your own device. That’s great, but there’s one problem. This wasn’t accompanied by an announcement about putting power outlets in coach. Considering the long haul flights that the 747s operate, without power, this is useless. Let’s hope that announcement comes soon.
• Old: United Will Put Wifi on the Legacy Continental Fleet
  Those airplanes that have LiveTV on them (old Continental domestic planes) will also get wifi eventually. The timeline says next year, but I’ll believe it when I see it. This is old news.
• Old and New: United Will Redo p.s. Airplanes
  Jeff said before that United’s p.s. fleet that flies between LA/SF and JFK will get flat beds. This repeats that claim, but there’s more. p.s. will have 26 of the current Continental flat beds installed along with 70 Economy Plus seats, 44 in coach, power in every row, on demand audio/video and wifi. That means it won’t be the same configuration that Continental has on its 757s today. Continental today has only 16 beds on its 757s, so this will continue to be a separate fleet.
• New: Channel 9 Will Be Offered on Continental Aircraft
  I saved my favorite piece of news for last. Channel 9 will not only be kept on the United fleet, as previously stated, but it will be expanded to the Continental fleet. This is great news for those of us who like to listen to the conversation between the cockpit and air traffic control.

That’s it for now. As you can see, it was an announcement full of a lot of things we’ve heard before, but there are some encouraging nuggets of awesomeness (like Channel 9) in there as well. In short, Continental is fixing up the neglected United fleet while bringing over some old favorites to the Continental fleet. These are all great things, and the direction of the announcements is quite promising. It’s good to see some real investment in the passenger experience for everyone instead of just the premium travelers as had been United’s sole focus before the merger.

]]> http://crankyflier.com/2011/08/22/united-releases-a-few-product-enhancements-amidst-a-lot-of-old-news/feed/ 42 http://crankyflier.com/2011/07/07/why-i-chose-delta-for-an-upcoming-flight/ http://crankyflier.com/2011/07/07/why-i-chose-delta-for-an-upcoming-flight/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:45:11 +0000 CF http://crankyflier.com/?p=7576 I have a wedding coming up in September, and I was faced with a unique situation on the way back. Five different airlines were similarly priced, all requiring a single stop. I know that what’s important varies from person to person, but I thought this would be a fun look at what makes me tick and what I imagine others might consider as well.


First of all, I should note that my wife and I will be meeting in NYC a few days beforehand coming from different places, so we booked those separately. This was just a look at the return flight, and we only wanted White Plains. As long-time readers know, we always prefer Long Beach over LAX, but Long Beach required two stops coming back from White Plains and the times weren’t great, so we opted for LAX. One last caveat – for some, the frequent flier program is what matters, but I couldn’t care less. I mean, I’ll earn miles when I fly, but I don’t ever make a decision based on the program.

With that out of the way, we found flights ranging from $141 to $190 on these five different airlines. The price difference in that range didn’t matter to me, so we just focused on what would work best. Here’s how our thinking went from least interesting to most.

5. AirTran via Atlanta, leave 629p, arrive 1159p
   In my mind, AirTran is (or should I say “was” since it’ll be Southwest soon enough) never a serious contender for my business. I like the XM radio and the wifi, and I love the 717 (or any Douglas-built airplane). But the knee-crunching legroom on the 717 (which would take us to Atlanta) is just too much. Last time I flew AirTran was in December 2005 from Indianapolis to Ft Lauderdale, and my legs were angry. I’m not a tall man, but even on that 2 hour flight it was painful. Plus, the very late arrival time in LA just wasn’t going to work well for us.
4. United via Chicago, leave 1202p, arrive 436p
   I’ll admit that this one started out strong. With the shortest total duration of any flight, it seemed attractive, but then I looked under the surface. That first flight is on a Bombardier CRJ. That’s not comfy for 2+ hours either. Then it was on to an A319 with no internet and only overhead screens. But beyond that, the short 53 minute connection time made me anxious, especially going from Express to mainline. If you land on the F concourse and have to fly out of C in Chicago, that’s a hike. And if there’s a delay, there’s no room for error. Not worth it, even though this was the cheapest at $141.
3. American via Chicago, leave 1240p, arrive 525p
   On the surface, this looks good. It’s a short (but not too short) 1h10m layover in Chicago and we get to ride on a 767 to LA. It’s hard to turn down a widebody on a domestic flight, unless the widebody provides a substandard experience. First off, we would have had 2 hours on an Embraer Regional Jet to get to Chicago. That airplane is somewhat tolerable for a single traveler on the side but not for two people sitting together. I mean, not for that long of a flight. And then we’d be rewarded with one of American’s old 767s which have no internet and just overhead screens showing movies. Why would I want to subject myself to that if I had other options?
2. US Airways via Philadelphia, leave 305p, arrive 845p
   It may sound strange to some, but US Airways provided a compelling option. First of all, it was a short hop down to Philly on a Dash-8 prop. If the weather was good, that would be a beautiful ride. Then we’d ride a nice A321 home with wifi onboard to keep us busy. A 1h45m layover sounded good for notoriously crowded Philly, and this almost made the cut. The holdback? The 845p arrival was later than either one of us liked. Also, we would be ready to go earlier in the day and it would have just been a waste of time stick around until 305p. Otherwise, this was a good option.
1. Delta via Atlanta, leave 1030a, arrive 454p
   This may seem like an odd choice since Atlanta isn’t exactly on the way to LA and the 2+ hour layover may not be ideal, but for us, this was the best option. A longer layover never bothers me if I’m not in a time crunch, because it just builds in some nice slack to the process in case something goes wrong. The flight to Atlanta is also on an regional jet, but it’s the more comfortable CRJ-700. And the flight back from Atlanta will have wifi and live TV onboard. That will make this trip go much quicker. I’ve said in the past that I prefer to be unplugged, and that’s true. But the concierge business means that I need to be in touch at all times just in case something goes wrong. Wifi becomes more and more important.

So that’s that. It’s funny that the decision-making process is so different than it would have been just a few years ago. The thought that internet would even be a factor is new, but it’s becoming more important. Usage is still low, but I have to assume it’s going to change over time.

I know everyone has different criteria for choosing flights, so what would you have picked?

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