Cranky Concierge is now a few months into its existence, and things are going very well. We’ve helped out on more than 100 trips and more people are signing up all the time. But with a few months of experience comes the time for tweaks to the model, as I expected. If this were an airline, I would say that we’re positioning ourselves for future financial growth and right-sizing the business to be able to better compete on the global stage.

But I’m not good at bullcrap.

The reality is that some things were priced too high while others were priced too low. Those have been fixed in this new plan. At the same time, we’ve rolled out prepay plans (Cranky Credits) for multiple trips and travel product discounts. Here are the details:

Pricing
The previous model of including both travel planning and assistance just wasn’t working out. Yes, that means it’s time for unbundling. The airlines would be proud. The good news is that it will now be less costly for assistance (starting at $25) but planning will cost more. The geographical areas have been redefined as well. Canada is now considered domestic for pricing purposes. Here’s the plan.

We have also gotten rid of the price hike within 7 days of departure. These prices will be good all the way up to one day prior to travel. At that point, when you need urgent help, this pricing will apply:

Prepaid Cranky Credits
You’ll notice that everything is now priced as a multiple of $25. That was done by design so that we could start offering prepaid Cranky Credits. You can now purchase books of $25 Cranky Credits at a discount. The more you buy, the more you save. You can then use those credits for whatever services you choose in the future. For example.

What kind of discount can you get? Let me show you.

Friends and Family Notification
Now when you’re traveling, we’ll be able to notify friends and family of your departure and arrival times. Have someone picking you up? Just tell us how to get in touch with them and we’ll let them know. All you have to worry about is getting on the airplane.

Travel Product Discounts
Cranky Concierge clients will now be able to get discounts on travel products. For our initial launch, we have discounts from KVS Tool, ExpertFlyer, and Frequent Flyer Master. We have a couple more in progress right now with more planned. Stay up to date with our current list of travel product discounts.

New Concierges
Last but not least, I’d like to introduce our new concierges. Andrew lives in Northern Virginia and is a proud airline dork. Patrick lives in Atlanta and he used to work for the world’s largest airline. Both Andrew and Patrick are now fully trained and have begun handling clients. The three of us are in constant communication to make sure that clients are well-served. This will allow us to handle more clients and expand the business more quickly.

So, that’s a fair bit of news here. Feel free to leave comments down below, and of course, we’ll look forward to helping you at Cranky Concierge some time soon.

Many of you guys asked for a story where Cranky Concierge couldn’t help someone escape a delay or cancellation. I’ve got a perfect example for you that just happened. Even though we weren’t able to help this client get to his destination in time for his meeting, he said he was still thrilled to have someone giving him updates and just being there to answer questions.

This client, let’s call him Long Duk Dong, was flying from Guayaquil, Ecuador to Beijing via Miami, San Francisco, and Hong Kong. Yeah, this was a heck of an itinerary. He had one ticket going Guayaquil to San Francisco on American and another going San Francisco to Beijing on Cathay Pacific/Dragonair. He didn’t have much time to connect in San Francisco, so he was concerned.

Things looked good leading up to the flight. The weather was good and the American 767 arrived in Guayaquil the night before, ready to go. Long Duk Dong had boarded the plane when I noticed that the flight had been delayed for 45 minutes and I sent an email. He replied that I had beaten the PA announcement with the email, but they said there was a brake problem that needed to be fixed. Um, 45 minute delay? This didn’t look good.

I started looking for alternate ways to get him to San Francisco just in case, and then the flight took another delay. A huge one. His flight was now delayed more than 12 hours. It seemed pretty clear to me that American was going to fly down a part on the regularly scheduled Miami flight. Then they could take off, but that meant he wasn’t getting to his San Francisco flight. I sprung into action.

FlightStats showed a flight to Miami on Martinair, but their reservations office was closed and Long Duk Dong said that flight wasn’t anywhere to be found. Maybe they weren’t taking local passengers. There wasn’t another Miami flight that would get him on to his connection to San Francisco.

Next up, I found an option on TACA that would go to San Jose (Costa Rica), then San Salvador, and then San Francisco just in time for his connection. Only one problem. That flight from Guayaquil had no seats left. Ugh. That was our only chance to get Long Duk Dong to San Francisco in time for his connection. Now we had to move on to damage control. Could we get him to Beijing in time for his meeting?

There was a flight on COPA via Panama City to LAX that could have connected to a flight on Air China, but again, there were no seats available out of Guayaquil on that flight. We looked at JFK, but it wasn’t going to work out. This just wasn’t going to happen.

Ultimately, Long Duk Dong was able to reschedule some of his meetings, so he spent the day in Guayaquil until his flight eventually made it to Miami and then on to San Francisco. Had Cranky Concierge failed? Well, no . . . and yes.

We weren’t able to get him to Beijing in time for his meeting. Unfortunately, we don’t have the option of chartering a plane when nothing else works (though we could do that for a much higher fee . . .). What we did, however, was keep Long Duk Dong fully updated on what was happening, and he had complete confidence that every effort had been made to get him out. In the end, he was a happy client despite the problems he had flying. I just wish we could have gotten him there in time.

Short Haul Air Travelers Aren’t Buying Premium Tickets, May Be a Permanent Change – BNET
Premium air traffic numbers are looking a bit better on long haul, but short haul travel is still feeling the pain.

Southwest Rings in the New Year with an Aggressive Denver Push – BNET
Southwest isn’t giving up on Denver – in fact, it’s kicking up its efforts there. People in Colorado are lucky.

a new year brings new air travel security rules – AntiBride.com
My first post for AntiBride in the new year talks about the newest security rules.

Allegiant’s Unique Aircraft Order Highlights A Different Model – BNET
Allegiant just ordered 18 new planes, 5 simply for parts, and they probably paid less for all these planes than you would for a single new 737-800. Oh yeah.

US Airways Nearly Achieves Unit Revenue Growth in December – BNET
Positive revenue growth? Not quite, but we’re almost there. It’s nice to see.

Getting “Cranky” Over the Parasite Blogger Myth – Starkman & Associates Blog
Eric Starkman has a very nice piece on the legitimacy of blogging vs traditional media, and Cranky features prominently.

Don’t Fly Cranky, Fly WITH Cranky Concierge! – AirlineReporter.com
I spoke with David Parker Brown about Cranky Concierge and he likes what he sees.

Airline Financials Should Get a Boost From Stellar Operational Performance – BNET
November was just a great month for airline operations, and that’s bound to result in a nice cost savings.

US and Japan Open Skies Good and Bad for US Airlines – BNET
Now that the US and Japan have signed an Open Skies treaty, is it good for bad for US airlines? Well, there is some good and some bad depending upon the airline here.

American Airlines and the OJ Incident PR Fail – BNET
First there was Mr X, and now we have the OJ incident. American once again is missing an opportunity.

how cranky concierge can help you get to your wedding on time – BNET
Antibride liked my Cranky Concierge story, so I repurposed it for them this week.

Recent US Airways Route Restructuring Opens Opportunities for New Flying – BNET
Looks like all the canceled European flying is opening up new opportunities here. US Airways will start Philly to Anchorage next summer.

Port Columbus Airports Turn to Profit Sharing to Woo Airlines – BNET
Will profit sharing get airlines to add more flights? We’re about to find out.

Southwest Loses Its Social Media Guru, All Eyes on the Transition -BNET
Paula Berg has left Southwest, and now the airline faces a social media transition. This is something that many companies will be watching closely.

The first true winter storm of the year rolled through the middle of the country yesterday, and that was the first big test for Cranky Concierge. I’m happy to report that we had success. Here’s the story of a client who was trying to get from Chicago to Dallas via snowy-Minneapolis . . . and made it early thanks to Cranky Concierge.

Our client (let’s call him Montezuma just because that name is awesome) was scheduled on Delta 2978 leaving Chicago/Midway at 245p and heading toward Minneapolis. He was connecting to Delta 3380 arriving Dallas/Ft Worth at 747p. We saw the storm coming and prepared Montezuma to be patient. He knew we’d be there ready for him, and sure enough, we got him there early thanks to some quick thinking and flight changes.

Yesterday morning, his flights were still showing on time, but earlier flights had been canceled and delayed thanks to the snow blanketing both Chicago and Minneapolis. He was lucky to be flying out of less-congested Midway, but there were still bound to be problems. Montezuma finished up his work early and headed toward Midway. He told us he would be arriving at about 1130a so he could take an earlier flight out if there was one.

Unfortunately, the 1150a flight had already been canceled while the 111p flight was already delayed 30 minutes (it would eventually depart more than two hours late). This was not a good sign, so we sprung into action.

The weather that had snarled Atlanta the day before had moved out, and Delta had a flight heading there from Midway at 1225p that was actually on time. We figured that was Montezuma’s best bet. He went up to the counter and they put him on that flight, as airlines will do during bad weather situations. They also confirmed him for an Atlanta connection that would have him arrive at 718p in Dallas. There was an earlier connection they wouldn’t put him on for some reason, but we resolved to get that fixed when he got to Atlanta. We just wanted to get him out of Chicago.

Sure enough, his flight left town 3 minutes early, and he even scored a first class seat thanks to his basic elite status. Even after deicing, it arrived Atlanta just a few minutes late. We sent an email that was awaiting Montezuma upon his arrival telling him where to go to try to get on the earlier connection that the agents in Chicago didn’t put him. We were seeing plenty of availability on that flight, and the plane was already there so it was going on time. No sense in waiting around.

Sure enough, Montezuma went to the gate and he walked right on the airplane and into first class once again. He ended up arriving Dallas at 621p, more than an hour earlier than his original schedule and more than two hours earlier than his original flights actually got there.

What happened to his original flights? Well, the 245p from Midway was eventually canceled, so they probably would have put him (assuming there was room) on the very delayed 111p which eventually left after a creeping delay at 330p. That flight arrived Minneapolis at 520p and Montezuma would have had to schlep across the airport mall from the D gates to the F gates where he would luckily find his delayed flight to DFW still hanging around. That flight left an hour late and would have had him in to DFW just shy of 9p.

That was just over an hour later than he would have arrived otherwise, but think of all the stress and hassle he avoided. Having to deal with canceled and delayed flights is a real pain and we bypassed that for him completely.

For more info on Cranky Concierge, go to crankyconcierge.com, send us a note at info@crankyconcierge.com, or call us at (707) 797-7474.