Even more penny pinching? Award travel price hikes!

I am afraid that my favorite airline, Delta, has blotted its copybook. This concerns the 'junk' fees that are charged for the so-called free, award travel. I happened to be looking for flights to Europe, using Delta's excellent award travel calendar. Having found some flights I noticed a major discrepancy in the extra fees, depending on whether the flights were actually booked on Delta, or one of the SkyTeam partners, Northwest or Continental. In the past I remember paying about $50-70 per ticket to Europe, so I was very surprised to see that DL is now charging over $200 in extra fees. NW and CO flights were still at the $50-70 level, for the same itinerary.
So, is this an underhand way to reduce the cost to the airline of award travel? Come on, DL, not the way to treat your hard travelling supporters.

The dreaded PHL curse strikes yet again

This evening, as I drove through the airport to the car rental returns, I noticed that there was a major backup of traffic approaching the terminal. Not wanting to spend 20-30 minutes in the shuttle bus to the terminal, I decided to use shanks pony (foot power). The Avis lot is just across the road from the Marriott and I had seen signs in the terminal pointing to the Marriott. So I figured that would be the way to go. I should have known better! Still, I did get a good exercise session out of it. It turned out to be quite an odyssey, with not real route and very little in the way of signage. The few signs which I saw were also pretty confusing. So 15 minutes later I finally arrived at one of the terminal A security checkpoints. The silver lining to this cloud was that I had found such a little used route that the checkpoint had absolutely no line at all; it was hidden away in a corridor.

The, further to the JD Power survey, boarding through Delta's gate A13 was a total disaster in terms of layout to accommodate anxious passengers and a very poor PA system, which made almost all announcements virtually unintelligible.

Sorry JD Power you got it wrong

Nifty site for mobile data users (kudos to CO)

Hats off to Continental for their mobile web site pda.continental.com . In addition to all the usual things you would expect, you can also check on the status of the standby and upgrade lists, as well as taking a look at the seat plan, to check if that seat next to you has stayed empty. I have always been please with Delta's policy of displyaing the upgrade and standby lists at the gate, if they have the plasma screens installed. But not every Delta station has this equipment. The Continental site means that you can get that information at any airport.

Of course CO is also at the forefront of switching to paperless check-in. In IAH, DCA and soon EWR you can check in on your mobile, receive a barcode on your phone and then have TSA check your details through a scan of the barcode. The gate scanners also read the barcode, so ...no paper. Of course there is now a very strong argument for making sure that you keep your phone well charged.

Well done Continental, you are well tuned to the busy, mobile traveller.

More penny pinching

AA have just announced that they will be charging $15 to check the first suitcase. This is in addition to the $25 that was already in place for the second bag. So now the "full-service" airlines are beginning to act like the discount airlines like RyanAir, who charge extra for about everything except the air in the plane. I know that the current fuel prices are causing a crisis in the airlines, but why not just bite the bullet and increase ticket prices. Instead AA is trying to collect more money via a sneaky backdoor because so many people check bags nowadays, due to TSA security.

So it will not be long before there will be charges for: carry on bags, soft drinks, peanuts, window seats, aisle seats, exit seats....seat belts?

Who did they ask?

The local Philadelphia radio and TV stations were crowing this week about a JD Power report that placed PHL as the number 1 airport in customer satisfaction. Who did they ask? Or were they handing out cannabis cookies? While the new terminals are a major improvement over the old concourses, there are still many problems, e.g. traffic and the disorganized car rental lots. So #1 seems a little strange.

Further erosion of frequent flyer rights (UAL)

United has decided to remove the 500 mile minimum for mileage and elite qualification mileage. This means that only actual mileage will be accrued. AA also has the same rule, probably for longer that UA. This will be interesting to see whether my favorite airline, Delta, decides to follow suit. It will actually be difficult for them to do so, since UA and AA both use miles or segments for elite qualification. Delta got rid of segment qualification when they introduced MQM, and if they try to follow UAL's lead, there will be a lot of very unhappy campers, who used to make elite status on short flights, that will now miss that privilege.

Change to FAA rules, or safety violation?

I have been flying Continental recently, as this gives me a direct flight to NJ for my current project. As I am not eligible for upgrades, I was glad that I could get my second favorite seat, in the exit row. I was surprised to notice on both the flight up, as well as the return flight, that not of the cabin crew came to the exit rows to give the usual (FAA mandated?) exit row pep talk. On one flight this would have been useful as it would have alerted the crew to the fact that the passenger next to me, luckily only two of us on this side of the plane, did not have her seat in a fully upright position during take-off.
Kind of makes you uncomfortable when you see that the crew are a little slipshod in their attitude.

Scheduling Inflexibility

The dreaded PHL curse strikes again. On my first return flight from my new project I arrived at PHL about an hour before my flight. Hoping to relax for a few minutes I went off to find the Crown Room. To my surprise I discovered that the club was about to close, even though there were still 60 minutes until the departure of the last Delta flight.
You would think that Delta could have adjusted their opening times to close 30 minutes later, in order to incorporate the passengers of that last flight.

Sorry Delta, time for another 'soduk'

A week later I managed to arrive 20 minutes earlier, so did make it into the Crown Room. Once inside though, the food and beverage service had already been closed down, although one of the agents kindly went into the closed kitchen and brought me a soft drink. I also found out that the opening hours have not been chaanged because effective July 1st the last flight will be leaving at 7 p.m. Still showing you inflexibility DL-PHL.

Blowing My Own Trumpet?

A while back I blogged about the free WiFi available at airline clubs, decrying the lack of free access at the Delta Crown Rooms. You will also see that I did have to eat crow, after getting a reply from Delta to my email to Customer Service. In this reply, they indicated that free access had been available on request since some time last year. I thought that I must have missed a communication from Delta somewhere, but a week or two ago I received a general marketing email, highlighting....free WiFi at the crown Rooms.

Did my email to Customer Service (including the link I put in it to this blog) cause Delta to realize that they needed to publicize this benefit?

TomTom Traffic Rocks

When I switched to my Treo750m I treated myself to Palm's GPS solution. this includes a matchbox sized (for those of you who can remember matchboxesu BlueTooth GPS receiver and TomTom software. As consultant who often visits different clients, travels to different client locations, having a tool that helps me find my way is indispensable. The small GPS receiver does have one disadvantage, it is so small that it is easy to fforget about it. I did in fact leave it in a cab on one occasion; luckily was able to reach the driver who brought it back. All it cost me was a big, fat tip.
In addition to the standard voices, I have downloaded, for a nominal sum, driving instructions read by John Cleese. So my journeys now have Fawlty Towers touch.
Recently I noticed a new bar and icon on the side. On tapping it, I discovered that it controls TomTom Traffic. This week I was using the GPS on my way back to the airport, and was surprised to be directed along a different route than I had seen when checking directioms back to the airport earlier in the week. Pleasantly surprised, ecause it was taking me along the road recommended by locals in the office to avoid traffic jams. Initially I though that this was just coincidental, and that the new route was shorter. However, as I approached the airport, I was warned that there was a traffic jam ahead. The instructions showed that I should take the next exit off the highway, to follow an alternate route to the airport. As it was, I was coming off a bridge and could see that the traffic jam had resolved itself. But it is nice to know that the navigation program is looking out for you. In that not what technolgy is all about?