The Wandering Aramean

Buzzing the Toulouse tower

2009-11-10T11:05:00.001-05:00

As part of the Star Alliance Mega Do event last week just over 200 of us chartered a 757-300 to fly around Europe for the day. One of the stops was a visit to the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France. Yup, we showed up at Airbus in a Boeing. It was all we could get our hands on that would have enough seats and be at the right price.

And what an arrival it was. Rather than just show up and land like most folks would, our cabin crew decided to buzz the tower. Call it a missed approach, a fly-by or whatever else you want. We were 20 feet off the ground for the full length of runway 32L – several thousand feet. The atmosphere in the cabin was downright euphoric. Hoots and hollers of excitement.

And the view from the cockpit was amazing. Fortunately a friend was sitting there and had the foresight to take a video of the pass. It is awesome!

The A380 assembly line

2009-11-09T22:57:00.001-05:00

Damn, that plane is big. Huge. Just plain (plane??) enormous. And going to the facility where they assemble such planes means several of them around in all their enormity. As one of the main events of the Star Alliance Mega Do event last week we visited the assembly facility in Toulouse and got to see the planes up close. And I was part of the press crew working the event which meant that I got to bring my cameras in. Yeah, I’m still experiencing a bit of a high from that.

We walked through the facility with representatives of Lufthansa and Airbus, with access that most don’t have. They were quite happy to speak with us about the planes and some of the plans that are in place. Things like how long it takes them to perform final assembly once all the parts come in to Toulouse (about 95 business days) and how they are seeing demand for travel on the A380 (very high).

We wandered among the planes for about an hour and it was truly an amazing experience.

Getting a sense for just how huge everything is on the A380 can be difficult from the photographs. Getting a person in the picture was hard enough because there were not too many folks actually working on the floor while we were there. And then to get it so that you can realize that the speck is actually a person in the photo AND that you can see just how small they are against the backdrop of the plane was just amazingly hard. Here’s one shot of a couple engineers up in the wheel well of the nose gear. There is plenty of room for both of them (and probably a few more) up in there. It is really a big plane.

Or check out how big the tires are compared to the normal sized forklift. Yeah. Big.

After the factory tour we headed over to their cabin demonstration facility. This is a building filled with fuselages of each Airbus series (A318/219/320/321, A330/340, A380 and a mock-up of the A350). Each model is configured with a variety of seat types from different manufacturers. This allows the airlines (and special guests on tours) to walk through and see how the plane would look with various seating arrangements. Sadly, no photographs permitted on this tour, but the variety of cabin layouts was quite impressive. While a typical airplane has three or four seating types in it those in the tour had as many as twelve (in the A380) to show off just how varied the options are. The first class lounge demonstrated on the A380 at the facility was ridiculously nice. I’m pretty sure that the space was larger and better appointed than my apartment. The “living room” space in the middle had a wrap-around couch that could seat six.

If you happen to find yourself anywhere near Toulouse, France and a fan of airplanes, I highly recommend that you try to get a tour of the assembly line. I’m pretty sure that they are generally open to the public. It is an amazing experience.

TrueBlue 2 is alive!

2009-11-08T18:09:00.001-05:00

Although initially announced to be launching on Monday, TrueBlue 2 – the new loyalty program from jetBlue – is now alive and well on the jetBlue homepage. The details are all there and most of them appear to match exactly what was previously suggested so no real big surprises there.

Among the new program features, there are no more black-out dates on reward travel. Not only that, but there are no inventory restrictions either. This means that every seat on every flight can be booked as a mileage redemption. It will likely cost a ton of points (one example is below), but it is possible.

The points also no longer expire, but again with a small catch. All the points in the account will stay active as long as there is some activity in the past 12 months. The 12 month window is at the shorter end of the scale compared to other carriers’ programs, but it is a significant improvement over the old program that expired the points even if you did have activity.

jetBlue also continues to offer double points earning for all flights booked on their website, www.jetblue.com. This again sets them apart from many in the industry and it is a nice touch that they are keeping the bonus in place.

Dollar-Based Earning

The most significant way that jetBlue is changing the program is that points earned are now directly tied to the fare price rather than miles flown. Some folks will love this change and some will hate it. For the business traveler it almost always comes out better this way, especially with jetBlue’s route network being the way that it is. For leisure travelers who are more price-sensitive in their purchasing behavior it will probably reduce their earning potential. That being said, there is a bit of hope that the other improvements will offset those changes.

The redemption process is also shifting to be more dollar-value based, though not specifically such. As noted above, every seat on a flight can be redeemed using points but the number of points required shifts based on advance purchase, demand, etc., just like the actual fare price changes. Even more interesting is that the value of the points is not linear; each point does not just have a set dollar value. A quick sampling of the reward costs this evening (more details analysis to come) shows that the points can range from 0.87 cents per point up to over 1.3 cents per point. Again, more detailed analysis is needed and will be forthcoming, but this is a good starting point for consideration. With an earning potential of 6 points/dollar spent (plus the bonuses detailed below) and an average redemption value of about one cent per point TrueBlue 2 members are looking at about a 6% return on their travel investment. That’s not bad at all, and it only gets better from there.

Bonus Points

jetBlue also is offering a couple different means to earn bonus points either for miles traveled or overall spending. There are bonus thresholds at every $500 threshold (assuming all purchases happen at jetblue.com) and the number of bonus points awarded increases as the spend does:

3,000 points ($500x6 points/dollar on jetblue.com) earned = 500 bonus points
6,000 points earned = 1,000 bonus points
9,000 points earned = 2,000 bonus points
Each additional 3,000 points earned = 4,000 bonus points

It is important to note that ONLY points earned from buying tickets – excluding baggage fees, credit card spending or any other points earned – count against the threshold levels.

The bonus scheme for folks who fly long distances is also new, with every ten “long” one-way flights (>2000 miles; listing here) earning 10,000 bonus points. That can add up in a hurry for folks who fly a lot of transcons, even if they are on cheap fares.

Both of these bonus programs are calculated on a 12-month cycle, with the earning starting from a member’s first earning event. This is unlike the traditional calendar year qualification that many legacy carriers use and is much more similar to bmi’s Diamond Club scheme in the timing. One minor difference is that after the 12-month window expires the next window does not start until the next flight event.

Taking the bonus schemes into play, a member who spends $3,000 in a year to fly ten transcon round trips (~$350 for each trip, considering taxes and all) should bank about 48,000 TB2 points. That’s a 16% return on the trip investment. Not too shabby at all. A short-haul flier with the same spend would net only 28,000 points (no Go Long earnings) but that’s still over 9%.

One other bonus offer out there is for 100 bonus points on every Even More Legroom seat purchased. Not too shabby at all.

Summary

There is a lot of information to still digest (and a big thanks to Dave Canty over at jetBlue for answering my questions about the program on a Sunday evening). A lot more is coming in the spring when the Sabre conversion happens. But the new program looks to be rather revolutionary in the industry and also to be a very strong value proposition.

I just worked beverage service for a 90 minute flight

2009-11-05T13:19:00.001-05:00

And I’m exhausted. Seriously.

Sure, I’ve never actually had to do it before so remembering things like the stirrer sticks for the coffee service or making sure I actually served everyone who asked for a drink – sorry again, guys – were things that I really think that I’d do better with a bit of practice. Still, it was a bit of a humbling experience realizing that it was actually a bit of a challenge to sling a few drinks out to the 50 passengers I was responsible for. And the real flight attendants were working at least 50% of the cabin, plus doing the actual meal service.

I’m sure I’ll being seeing pictures galore in the coming days and weeks of me working as a flight attendant and drinking on the job. After all, I had well more than my fare share of Sect on the fight, and a bit of vodka, too. So it wasn’t really a truly honest effort as to what it would take to serve the cabin. But it was close, and it was definitely more work than I expected.

But it was also a TON of fun. I was walking the aisle clearing glasses from the business class cabin while we were on the active taxi-way. I was trying to figure out which pedal locked the cart and which released it. I was walking the aisle closing the overhead bins and turning off the call button lights and I was actually supposed to be doing it. I really enjoyed myself.

Oh, we did do the safety demo work, too. That was fun. It was harder in that I didn’t have a demo seatbelt to use – I just took the belt off of the seat I was standing next to at the time – and the announcements were done in German, which made it even more challenging. Still, we all managed to do the demos and arrive safely so no real harm there.

We were also fortunate to have with us some coffee brought along specially by a member of the tour. Vince Mills runs Kena coffee in Hawaii and produced a special Star Mega Do reserve blend for our flights. As I understand it the coffee was delicious. So, again, sorry to the few guys who I never made it back to with the cups of coffee. My bad. If you’re interested, check our Kena Coffee. I’m pretty sure he’s got plenty to share with the community.

Note: I also posted this report on the main blog site for this event, www.StarMegaDo.com.

Getting ready for the biggest day of the week

2009-11-04T21:57:00.001-05:00

It is just before 4am local time in Frankfurt, Germany and I’m wide awake. I’ve been up for almost two hours working on blog posts (check out www.starmegado.com) and sorting photos from the previous couple days’ events and all I can say is WOW!

Me, helping out the Flight Attendants on one of the flights

From the welcome we received at United’s operations in Chicago to tours offered by Continental in Newark to actually beating the VanWyck on our way from Newark to JFK, the first day was great. We were hosted by Lufthansa in their flagship lounge at JFK and the service we had on the (entirely too short) flight from NYC to Frankfurt we we treated to the professional and proper service that Lufthansa is known for.

We overwhelmed another lounge (they aren’t used to having 60 folks arrive all at once, it turns out) on arrival and then got to partake in a variety of events, from sleeping to tours to a photo shoot for an article in a national magazine (I’ll share details of that when I get the clearance, but it is going to be AWESOME!).

Hanging out in the lounge upon arrival in Frankfurt

Suffice it to say that everything has been just fantastic thus far, and we’re just getting started. This morning the “official” part of the tour begins. In just about 2 hours Condor flight DE 9254 will depart Frankfurt for Oslo where we’ll be picking up more of our crowd and then heading on to Toulouse for the Airbus A380 factory tour. I’m so excited I literally can’t sleep.

Inside the Lufthansa HQ building

Getting ready for the dinner party on Wednesday night

The dinner party on Wednesday night was top notch, sponsored by Lufthansa and Star Alliance. The CEO of the alliance was there and he happily interacted with us, acknowledging that the FlyerTalk community knows their products better than they do and that they have a lot they could learn from us about where there are failings in the system. That was a pretty humble thing to say in front of a group like ours and quite well received.

I only broke one champagne glass during the day so I think I’m still ahead of the curve in terms of potential or expected damage. I’m rather proud of that.

OK…enough of the typing. I’ve gotta go get showered and ready to go. I’m working as a flight attendant on this morning’s first flight and I want to make sure I’m ready.

A week-long Frequent Flyer party

2009-11-02T17:08:00.001-05:00

GoJet CRJ-700 N153GJ operating as United Express, my ride to Chicago, with a Continental 737 in the background

When the concept of the “Star Alliance Mega Do” was first proposed I was immediately enamored with it. I also thought that there was no way the organizers were going to be able to pull it off. Private tours for 200+ people with behind the scenes access to airlines, airplane manufacturers and airports seem pretty ridiculous to arrange. Add into the mix a privately chartered Boeing 757-300 and traversing six different airports over 4 days and the whole thing seemed like a pipe dream. Yet here I am, flying to Chicago to meet up with many of those 200 to start this week long event. It is really happening.

The itinerary is somewhat crazy. Day one includes a tour with United Airlines at O’Hare in the morning followed by a flight to Newark to meet up with Continental and more tours. Then a bus ride to JFK and more celebrating before approximately 100 folks climb aboard Lufthansa’s flight 405 with service to Frankfurt. Day two is a tour of Lufthansa facilities for many and a select few – including me!! – get to participate in some of the training activities that the Lufthansa flight attendants go through. Oh, and dinner with executives from Star Alliance and Lufthansa. Day three has the whole group flying on the chartered 757-300 to Oslo to meet with SAS and pick up more aerophiles joining the fun. Then onward to Toulouse for the main event: a tour of the Airbus facilities where the A380 is manufactured. Day four is more tours of Lufthansa in Frankfurt.

It is exhausting just describing the schedule.

There were two different contests held to give away seats on the flights, generating over 100,000 entries. Yeah, people are really excited by this event. And I cannot blame them at all. Flying on specially chartered planes with custom catering, special themes and access to facilities and people that normally don’t open their doors up to some crazy guy who loves flying, much less me AND 200 of my friends. This is going to be one crazy week.

I’ll be posting more about it here throughout the week as well as on my Twitter @WanderngAramean. You can also follow along at www.StarMegaDo.com or at twitter.com/StarMegaDo to share in the experience.

Article on Continental’s move to Star Alliance, featuring me!

2009-11-02T08:45:00.001-05:00

Nicholas Kralev’s On the Fly column this week addresses Continental’s move into Star Alliance from a slightly different perspective. Not only does it talk about the value that the move brings to members of Continental’s OnePass program; he also talks about the significant transparency that the carrier has brought to the world of frequent flier redemption. How? By offering up rewards covering more than a dozen partners on their own web site. That move puts Continental very quickly towards the front of the pack in terms of providing such access online.

Of course, there are a few kinks that still need to be worked out. Not all the carriers are showing all their inventory correctly; many still require a connection to a Continental flight or only show coach rewards rather than the premium cabin seats, but they are aware of the bugs and are working towards resolutions. They’re also working on bringing the rest of their partners into the online booking engine. All good news.

The best part about the article is that I’m quoted in it. OK…maybe not the best part, but certainly fun for me.

Read all about it here: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/02/kralev-continental-shows-new-transparency/

APLA sticks up for pilots who missed the airport

2009-10-31T17:40:00.001-04:00

It is hardly a surprise to hear that ALPA, the union representing the pilots that overflew Minneapolis last week on a flight from San Diego, has issued a release defending the pilots. After all, that is one of the main roles that the union serves. What is (mildly) surprising, however, is just how bad the release is.

For starters, they say this:

"To date, all crew statements related to this case have been voluntary," said Lee Moak, chairman of the Delta branch. "We are disappointed that these voluntary statements are being used without regard for the breach of trust and confidence their use will cause." Taking disciplinary action against the crew, Moak said, could cause pilots to question the integrity of voluntary safety programs. "The continued viability of these programs themselves will be placed at risk. That will, in turn, cause irreparable harm to the safety of our nation's aviation system," Moak said.

OK…the statements made were voluntary. But they’re still pretty damning.

"In any aircraft incident, there is always more to the story than first appears in the press," he added. "We do not condone the abandonment of due process that will result from a rush to judgment; instead we implore all interested parties to move with deliberate and unemotional professionalism as the events surrounding this incident are investigated." At no time during the incident were the passengers, crew or aircraft in danger, the union said.

The facts that can be seen thus far are that the pilots stopped paying attention to ATC and to their route. Even without knowing what they were actually doing in the cockpit, we know that they were not actually paying attention the way they are supposed to. Otherwise they wouldn’t have missed the airport. It is quite hard to believe that the plane was never in any danger. After all, if they aren’t paying enough attention to know where they are how can we believe that they are paying attention to other things, like fuel gauges or other alert systems? Maybe there is more to the situation than first reported. But when final approach looks like this the pilots definitely did something wrong.

Seriously, these guys screwed up. I don’t really care why so much. They made a huge mistake and did, in some ways, put the safety of their passengers at risk. That is inexcusable. I don’t expect the union to stand by silently while their members are under attack, but they should avoid pretending that everything that happened was acceptable. It was far from it.

Image from FlightAware.com

Air France joins the A380 Club

2009-10-30T18:21:00.001-04:00

Air France took delivery of their first Airbus A380 this morning with an inaugural flight from Hamburg to Paris. The carrier is the first European operator of the type and the fourth globally. The promo photos certainly make it look pretty, but there are some scary realities that come with it. The plane is expected to begin transatlantic operations at the end of November on the New York – Paris route.

The Air France configuration is, by about 15%, the most densely packed of the seating layouts seen to date. Sure, it could be worse – Emirates has suggested an all-coach configuration for some regional flights – but this is the most packed the plane has shown up thus far. And despite claims that Premium Economy is the best money maker for airlines Air France has chosen to not add that cabin of service to the plane. It is hard to tell if that is a comment on the value of that cabin on flights or something else, but it is an interesting development, especially considering that they already have a similar product, Alize, on several of their aircraft.

Either way it is always nice to see new planes entering service. One of these days I’ll manage to fly on one of the A380s. And next week I get to visit the assembly line and see where they’re made!

(Photo from FlightGlobal/TwitPic)

jetBlue expands domination of Boston

2009-10-29T13:21:00.001-04:00

jetBlue, already the largest carrier at Boston’s Logan airport, announced today that they are looking to expand that lead in a big way. The New York City-based carrier is adding about 20 flights to their schedule in Boston, expecting a total of 78 daily flights to be operating by summer 2010. Only one new destination in the mix – a once-weekly flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica – but a whole slew of cities will be seeing additional frequencies. Among them:

Two additional daily flights to Chicago/O'Hare (for a total of three)
Two additional daily flights to Raleigh/Durham (for a total of three)
One additional daily flight to Baltimore/Washington (for a total of five)
One additional daily flight to Charlotte (for a total of three)
One additional daily flight to Denver (for a total of two)
One additional daily flight to Fort Lauderdale (for a total of four)
One additional daily flight to San Diego (for a total of two)
One additional daily flight to San Francisco (for a total of two)
One additional daily flight to Washington/Dulles (for a total of seven)
Four additional weekly flights to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (for a total of one daily)
One weekly flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica (for a total of one weekly) (a)
And more to come!

All this expansion comes in the face of some competition showing up at Logan, specifically in the form of Southwest. Actually they seem do be doing it in order to directly challenge the folks from Dallas. Noted Robin Hayes, Chief Commercial Officer for JetBlue, “JetBlue has a great fare and 78 great flights for you in Boston -- that's no small peanuts!” The “peanuts” reference seems to be a repeated reference at Southwest, with jetBlue differentiating themselves by providing up to 6 snack choices on flights, not just peanuts. A similar comment was made when jetBlue joined the Boston – Baltimore fray just a couple months ago.

It is worth noting that jetBlue has no additional aircraft deliveries scheduled for at least the next 15 months. That means that all these additions will have to come from a combination of increased utilization and cuts from existing routes. No real idea yet on which flights are potential losers, but it seems likely that a few frequencies will disappear elsewhere on the schedule to accommodate this.

Between New York and Boston jetBlue has done a pretty impressive job of establishing their presence in the markets. Combine that with the fact that they are actually making money these days and things are looking might fine for them right now.

US Airways announces significant cuts

2009-10-28T15:51:00.001-04:00

Calling it a “Strategic Plan to Strengthen Core Network,” US Airways announced a series of cuts today that will significantly change the way the airline operates. They are dropping several destinations and closing a few crew bases. As part of these changes they expect to remove about 1,000 employee positions.

On the Domestic US service front the most significant change comes with the cuts as Las Vegas. US Air will be reducing service there to 36 daily departures in the next 3 months. As recently as April 2007 the airline operated 131 daily departures. In April 2008 that number dropped to about 100. Today they’re at 64 and in February only 36. They’ve apparently decided that there is no more money to be made in Las Vegas so they’re cutting to the bone. The Las Vegas hub used to be a cornerstone of the America West network. It has fallen mighty far mighty quickly under the US Air brand name.

On the international service front the cuts are equally dramatic. US Air never was a big player in the trans-Atlantic market but they’re basically giving up completely now. They’re cutting service between Philadelphia and Birmingham, UK; London-Gatwick; Milan;Shannon, Ireland and Stockholm, Sweden. In addition they are formally returning the slots for the Philadelphia-Beijing service that the DOT awarded them and which were never actually operated.

With these cuts there are now a few wide-body aircraft sitting around with nothing to do. US Air announced just over a month ago their intention to refit their long-haul aircraft with a new premium cabin. One has to wonder now if those plans are still going forward, especially if they no longer will be operating the routes where the premium cabin can generate the revenue to justify the costs of that seating layout.

The one bit of good news coming out of the announcement is that the Shuttle service amongst New York’s LaGuardia, Boston and Washington’s National airports will remain in place. The Boston-New York route will be switching over to the Embrear E190 aircraft, as will Boston-Philadelphia service.

These cuts are huge. Just a few weeks ago there were discussions going on about how well US Air seems to have weathered the storm and how they might turn the corner back to profit. Apparently that simply isn’t in the cards and these drastic cuts are necessary. It does explain a bit why CEO Doug Parker looked so glum during the press conference yesterday announcing Continental Airlines joining Star Alliance. This sort of thing would weigh on my mind, too.

Random notes from the Star Alliance/Continental press conference

2009-10-27T11:55:00.001-04:00

The show is over now and it was, for the most part, a show. It was fun to see representatives from all the airlines – both executives and flight attendants – up there to welcome Continental to Star Alliance and it was interesting to listen to the questions and answers.

Among the bits I found interesting, questions were posed by folks from the NJ Star Ledger, Bloomberg, and news outlets based in Guam, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Trinidad & Tobago and Switzerland. Quite a mix there. The questions were typical of such an event – mostly about how the change will affect and benefit whichever region was represented by the person asking the question. The answers were fun, too. Among them:

“Everyone here flies. Sometimes in coach. What does everyone in coach want? An upgrade to first class. That is what Continental just got with our move to Star Alliance.” - Jeff Smisek, CO President and COO. That’s a pretty big swing at SkyTeam there.
“We don’t really compete too much with Continental in New York and what is good for Star Alliance is good for US Airways.” US CEO Doug Parker, looking very uncomfortable on stage when asked about the future that US has in the alliance.
The Japanese partners along with open skies coming to Japan are “robust opportunities” for Continental in the Asian markets. CO CEO Larry Kellner on potential expansion from Guam.
“We’ll always win in a competitive front.” Kellner again, this time when asked about the ATIs and JVs.
“Investment bankers are finally exercising their god-given right to fly in business class again.” Smisek, discussing booking trends and potential economic recovery.

Apparently Continental decided about 5 years ago that they made a mistake in not pursuing ATI/JV opportunities for transatlantic traffic. For some reason, however, they were not able to rectify that and remain in SkyTeam. It is hard to know if the other carriers (DL/NW/KL/AF) simply didn’t want to share or if it was something else. But the good news is that they’ve addressed the issue now.

Lots more to come as news continues to roll in.

Continental’s 757 in Star Alliance livery unveiled

2009-10-27T11:19:00.002-04:00

And it is a beauty. Cruddy screen capture from the webcast going on right now, but it is something.

A nod to Hartmann for actually getting the capture; I couldn’t make it work on my computer.

ETA: Here's another photo from Continental...

Continental Airlines – A Star Alliance Member

2009-10-27T08:30:00.001-04:00

As expected, lots of updates hit Continental’s website at midnight CDT this morning, and the Star Alliance details are all over the place. From the hundreds of lounges now accessible for Presidents Club and Star Gold members to an interactive travel reward chart that is actually comprehensive and accurate to many details on upgrades available for travel on other Star Alliance carriers, there is lots of information there to digest.

The Star Alliance upgrades are a nice feature but ridiculously expensive in most cases, charged per segment and require a full-fare (Y or B) ticket to begin with. Not a great value, but it is always nice to have more options.

The reward search online is also quite nice, with more than 10 carriers available immediately. A couple test searches this morning show availability in line with what other Star Alliance carriers are seeing which is quite nice. Of course the three carriers that are delayed in reward integration – Swiss, EgyptAir and Shanghai Airlines – affect me personally (I need a reward on EgyptAir) but I’ll get over it eventually.

The move also means an end to the Continental partnership with Qantas. Hardly a surprise as Continental now has United Airlines and Air New Zealand as partners offering service to Australia. The relationship officially ends on December 17, 2009. Tickets for reward travel after that date will be honored but no new tickets will be issued and no miles will be accrued on revenue tickets.

The lounge access benefit is ridiculously good at this point. There are over 800 lounges available for Star Gold members, a group that now includes Continental Platinum and Gold elites, not just Platinum elites. That’s a lot more lounges for a lot more people. Many of the lounges are now also accessible for Presidents Club members. It might actually be enough to tempt me to join, though with the Star Gold access maybe not.

Partner earning rates were also announced and no major surprises there. The bad news is that the lowest fares on many carriers don’t actually earn miles. Plus most partner carriers will no longer earn bonus miles for elites; only United, US Airways and Lufthansa earn elite bonuses. On the plus side, there are not too many 50% earning fare classes. So it is all or nothing, with plenty of nothing on the cheapest fares. Combined with the new reward chart announced a few weeks ago, rewards are going to be a little more expensive and the miles are a bit harder to earn. That’s not great at all. But the interactive reward chart – more than a year in the works – is accurate and mostly functional (I’ve found one bug). That is a major improvement.

Considering the amount of work required to make the leap from SkyTeam to Star Alliance in a 48-hour span I’m quite impressed at just how much of things are functional. And more will get better over the coming weeks. This change is good on the whole for most OnePass members and Continental customers (with few exceptions). I’m off to book some reward travel now!

Good, cheap eats in Waikiki

2009-10-26T18:07:00.001-04:00

Coming off another 48 hours in Waikiki I’m finally getting to the point where I don’t hate the place. When the sales come up the flights are a great price for the number of miles earned so it is really hard to resist them. But I’m generally not all that happy in Waikiki. The beach is fake and not particularly soft. Plus it is incredibly crowded and loud. The shopping is the same as many places on the mainland (though more expensive) and the food is mostly chain restaurants that are overpriced and not particularly good. The ones that aren’t chains are just overpriced for the most part. It certainly takes away from my enjoyment of a quick weekend away.

But since I’ve actually done this trip a couple times now I’m starting to find some of the less touristy dining choices. Delicious food at reasonable prices and all right in Waikiki Beach (or very close by). All of them are located towards the Diamond Head end of the beach, a bit out of the fray but not too much so.

Me B-B-Q
808.926.9717

Great Korean BBQ shop with breakfast, lunch and dinner every day but Sunday. Meat, rice and a side range from $6-12 and is way more than enough food even after a long day of surfing or diving.
Morio's Sushi

Mmmm...brains. Enjoying sweet shrimp at Morio's.

808.741.5121

Housed in a natural foods market, at night Morio's transforms into one of the better sushi shops along Waikiki Beach. Morio works the sushi bar himself while a couple of waiters scurry around the small kitchen to help serve guests at the 5 tables on the adjoining patio. There are only about 8 seats at the counter and getting one can be tough - especially on a Saturday night. Morio's regulars are loyal and keep coming back, with good reason. When in doubt, ask Morio for a recommendation. It is sure to please.

Morio's is also a BYOB shop and there are at least three convenience stores on the block. More than one guest headed back out mid-meal for more as the drinks kept flowing. Some of the regulars were even sharing their stash with the staff. Watching a guy move his hands that quickly with such sharp knives is one thing. Watching him do it after he chugs a beer is whole different level of amazing.
Rainbow Drive-In

Eggs over a giant mound of fried rice for breakfast at Rainbow. Huge portions at great prices.

808.737.0177

I certainly didn't discover this place - it has been around for over 40 years - but it is top notch. Located just far enough off the beach (about a mile) to keep the casual observers away, the grub is top notch. Breakfast is served until 10:30am and lunch/dinner after that. Huge plate lunch helpings for around $7 each. Hard to go wrong at that point.

View Local Waikiki Dining in a larger map

Continental and Copa now out of SkyTeam

2009-10-25T02:59:00.000-04:00

As of 11:59pm PDT tonight, with the departure of Continental flight #767 from Seattle to Houston, Continental and Copa will officially be out of SkyTeam. On Tuesday they’ll officially join Star Alliance. In the meantime, a major airline out of a global alliance. There aren’t too many of those.

This is a huge plus for Continental and its customers. There are many more carriers and options available to them with the new alliance. And it is a bit of a hit for SkyTeam, though they don’t lose too many destinations served with the loss, just frequencies and connection options.

It is going to be a fun week of news and announcements as the details of the new Star Alliance move are finally announced. I can’t wait!

In-flight reading for the morbid or insane

2009-10-24T20:54:00.000-04:00

This week’s flights had me reading Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. The book examines the various ways in which cadavers have been used throughout history to help forward medicine, engineering and a few other disciplines as well. With a background as a travel writer Roach has a certain travelogue style of writing, one that intersperses narrative with random personal asides and insight. When dead bodies get involved that becomes interesting, as she intertwines stories of watching her parents pass away and also some of the fun bits about the smells and sights she experiences as she works with various groups to get a feel for how the human body behaves after death in the various states it may find itself – evidence, medical school training tool, crash test dummy and more.

The tales of cadaver use in medical school training – gross anatomy courses – are somewhat interesting. The students bond with their cadavers somewhat and many actually hold funerals for them at the end of the semester. But this isn’t the most interesting thing that Roach explores in terms of how bodies are used in science. Want to learn about grave diggers from the 18th century and how some mysteriously fresh cadavers seemed to appear regularly at certain doctors’ offices? A couple chapters of the book cover that.

But the best part - in my mind - is the section on the folks who research dead bodies for the sake of forensic science. A group of researchers in Knoxville, Tennessee seem to have cornered the market on this aspect of forensic science and they quite a facility. They literally take cadaver bodies out into woods and “prepare” them as though they were being dumped by murderers. Wrapped in plastic bags or carpets or just hidden under piles of leaves, the bodies are left to decompose. They are inspected frequently to document the effects of time on the bodies. This data is then used in homicide investigations to help pinpoint time of death well after liver temperature becomes irrelevant.

The author spends a bit of the book discussing the crash of TWA 800 with Dennis Shanahan, an expert in injury analysis. He can look at the patterns of injuries from an event and glean from them the likely cause. Most of his work is with insurance companies and reviewing injuries of the living who are making specious claims. But he has also worked on analyzing the deceased following airplane crashes. Things like mapping seat assignments to burn patterns or fragmentation within the bodies to determine where exactly an explosion came from on the plane. The analysis is rather interesting and certainly entertaining. Most heartening is that Shanahan doesn’t believe that there is a prefect seat on the plane for surviving a crash.

…I ask Shanahan the question he gets asked at every cocktail party he’s been to in the past twenty years: Are your chances of surviving a crash better near the front or the back? “That depends,” he say patiently, “on what kind of crash it’s going to be.” I rephrase the question. Given his choice of anywhere on the plane, where does he prefer to sit?

“First class.”

At least the guy has some taste when it comes to travel. It is worth noting that in the earlier era of aviation the first class cabin frequently was at the rear of the plane but that was attributable to things like rear boarding entrances and a smoother and quieter ride well behind the engines. He also seems rather realistic about the fact that, while planes could be made even safer than they are today, it probably isn’t worthwhile from a cost perspective, a view that I share.

There are a number of additional chapters about the spiritual and philosophical aspects of medical research. People who want to study crucifixion or be crucified, people attempting head transplants and just how the armed forces justify using cadavers to test the mortality levels of various weapons are all covered.

And it is all quite fascinating to read, even if you aren’t really all that morbid or insane. But having a bit of those in you will help.

jetBlue posts strong numbers in Q3

2009-10-24T11:47:00.001-04:00

It is earnings season again for airlines with most reporting their quarterly results this past week. As has been typical for the past several quarters, most airlines are showing up with less money than they had three months ago. In many cases the loses are staggering, though not nearly as bad as a year ago when fuel costs were roughly double today’s prices.

Still, there are a few airlines that showed up reporting profits. In the case of jetBlue the profits were actually a decent size. More importantly, however, is that they were stacked on top of profits from previous quarters. It seems that they’re really doing something right there and the numbers are reflecting that. Unlike other carriers that are shrinking their route maps and capacity, jetBlue is growing. Capacity in 2009 will be roughly level with that of 2008 and will actually be up significantly - about 35% over 2008 – in the Caribbean. Apparently that’s where the money is these days and jetBlue is going after it with great gusto.

One of the numbers that jumped out as I listened to the quarterly earnings report was the ancillary revenue reported per passenger. With the unbundling of services and a shift towards incremental charges for everything from pillows to pets in the cabin the ancillary revenue number is one that can make or break an airline these days. For the past quarter jetBlue reported an average of $17.50 in ancillary revenue per customer enplanement. Not too shabby but lower than expected. Why? Because there are fewer change fees coming in. The advance booking curve is shrinking so it is more likely that customers know when they are going to travel, not just booking early, hoping for the best and changing when the actual date gets closer.

There were a couple other interesting bits that came out of the earnings call. One is that jetBlue still appears to be operating like a feisty startup, not like a staid legacy carrier. They’ve got growth on their mind, with lots of planes scheduled for delivery in 2011 and beyond. And they actually seem a bit excited by the prospect of competition with other carriers. CEO Dave Barger had this to say on the topic:

Where there are competitive skirmishes we're certainly going to defend our turf.

That sort of attitude definitely explains adding additional frequencies on the new and highly contested Boston – Baltimore route, for example.

And there were a number of “never say never” types of things that the carrier was asked about, including charging for the first checked bag. It is not going to happen now but reading between the lines I wouldn’t be surprised to see it come about shortly after the Sabre system goes live in Q1 2010, along with exceptions for full-fare and other similar things that can only be logistically managed with a complex booking system like Sabre offers.

And the best news of all, at least to me, is that the All You Can Jet promotion was wildly successful – and profitable – for the airline. So much so that they’re quite keen to repeat it in the future. It was actually revenue positive and the marketing buzz was huge. It was, quite simply, “[T]he most successful promotion in our history,” according to Barger. Sign me up for the next round; I’m ready to go!

Free in-flight wifi on American Airlines

2009-10-21T18:59:00.001-04:00

In a move that hasn’t garnered nearly the same publicity as Virgin America’s announcement that they’re teaming up with Google, American Airlines has announced that they are teaming up with Lexus to provide free wifi to users of the gogo system on their flights. The AA promo is much more limited – only 7 days – and requires one to know a special promo code – 2010LexusLS – so it isn’t nearly as good as the Virgin America deal. But something is better than nothing.

Full details on the promo are here.

A pretty awesome movie about frequent fliers

2009-10-21T16:01:00.001-04:00

I don’t know Gabriel Leigh, the guy who put this together, but I do know a number of the folks being interviewed. And I have to say it is pretty much dead on accurate. It is about 20 minutes long and tells the story of people searching out the ever more tempting search for miles, travel and discovery of new places. But mostly just about the miles.

Frequent Flyer from Gabriel Leigh on Vimeo.

The bit around minute 15 regarding the Baht run is particularly funny. Apparently being a frequent flier isn’t all that far away from being the world’s stupidest drug mule. Having been called such at one point, I can relate.

Great news for in-flight Internet

2009-10-19T13:17:00.001-04:00

Two big stories out today about in-flight connectivity, both of which have me very excited.

The first is an announcement from Virgin America and Google that the latter is going to be sponsoring the gogo service for a two month period – November 10 – January 15. No credit card, no restrictions. Just an email address and accept the Terms of Service and you’re online. Considering that I have a flight booked my first on Virgin America) for November 11 from Los Angeles to JFK I’m pretty happy about that for very selfish reasons.

The second story comes from The Runway Girl, one of my favorite reads for in-flight entertainment news. She’s at the NBAA conference this week and has been reporting all sorts of cool stuff. The coolest, however, is an announcement from LiveTV, the jetBlue subsidiary that operates the in-flight TV systems for that carrier and Continental, among other things. LiveTV has been suggesting that there is a good chance additional in-flight internet connectivity will be coming online in 2010 and the latest news is that they’ve got an antenna ready to go for providing the service. Even better, the cost of operating the service is so low that they expect airlines to be able to offer it on a complimentary basis to passengers. Oh, and did I mention that the service would be available absolutely anywhere on the globe – including the polar regions – thanks to the fact that it uses the Iridium satellite network? This is nothing short of huge in terms of in-flight connectivity.

Now we just need LiveTV to finish up the R&D part of the project and get to the implementation phase so that I can have my emails for free in flight.

It is pretty clear that there is a demand for internet connectivity in-flight. And the fact that companies are continuing to find ways to reduce the costs to the end-user – something that will be critical to actually seeing high adoption rates – is a wonderful thing. Free is always better, right?

My $20 worth of fun with British Airways

2009-10-19T12:20:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago British Airways published what appeared to be a great sale fare for flights from the USA to India. I want to go back to visit India, as does my wife. So I bought a couple tickets and we started planning. Just about 72 hours later, however, BA decided that they actually didn’t want to sell the seats at that fare. Three days after I bought our tickets, the airline cancelled them. Sure, I got a nice email claiming that the sale was a mistake. But that was it. Eventually a relatively worthless $300 coupon also showed up but, well, it is relatively useless.

I tried to talk to them about the situation but they really don’t like taking phone calls. I actually managed to defeat their auto attendant system and got to a human. Their customer service rep told me that if I didn’t like the decision I should “fly another airline” or speak to their legal department. But there was no phone number available to contact said group. Well a bit more ingenuity and a week of trying yielded some results. I got a phone number for the legal departments and played phone tag (mostly me tagging them for a while) with the crew there. Eventually I managed to speak with someone in their legal department. Jim wasn’t particularly interested in having a conversation, however, essentially telling me that I’d get nothing and I’d like it.

And that brings me to my $20 worth of fun. It is amazing what $20 will get you at the Clerk of the Court’s office. In my case, it is a trial date in Small Claims Court for Manhattan. Just fill out one short form and hand the clerk $20 and you get a trial date. Mine is December 3, 2009. I’m very much looking forward to it!

And I didn’t even have to take the $20 from Mother’s wallet (very obscure movie reference – UA or CO drink chit in the mail to the first to get it right).

jetBlue unveils new plane livery

2009-10-13T21:28:00.001-04:00

As it approaches its tenth birthday, jetBlue has unveiled a new livery tonight. And I have to say that it is rather nice. The name of the carrier is much larger on the body:

And they’ve got a tail fin that is curves rather than the linear patterns of previous versions:

Lots more pictures from the release party happening tonight in Orlando can be found on jetBlue’s Flickr page here.

Details on the new United unlimited upgrades scheme

2009-10-13T13:21:00.002-04:00

As reported yesterday, United Airlines has made some significant changes to their elite upgrade program. They’re getting rid of certificate-based upgrades for the most part and switching to a status-based upgrade solution instead. This brings them in line with Continental, their new partner, and also makes their program operate similarly to several other legacy carriers in the USA. As with any change there will be winners and losers. In this case, however, it seems that the number of losers might outweigh the winners.

Here are some of the details as announced:

Upgrades will be processed starting at 120 hours for GS, 100 hours for 1K, 72 hours for a 1P and 48 hours for a 2P
Upgrades are for the ticketed passenger and up to one companion on the same PNR
Upgrades will be prioritized by status, fare bucket and time of ticketing (earlier is better)
Upgrades will apply to domestic segments on international itineraries
No double upgrades (Y –> F on 3 cabin planes)
No upgrades on p.s. transcon routes
CR-1s will be issued for the last time in Q1 2010
e500s will no longer be issued starting in 2010 and cannot be purchased
SWUs will remain

So who wins and who loses?

The top tier elites – GS and 1Ks win for the most part. They’re much more likely to get their upgrades and they don’t have to worry about managing their certs or buying extra e500s if they are running low. The lower tier elites are definitely losing in many cases. Because there is no longer a need to manage certs upgrades on shorter and less desirable flights will no longer be available for lower tier elites. And everyone loses on the lack of upgrades for p.s. flights.

Everyone who enjoys confirming upgrades in advance also loses, as they are not going to have CR-1s available in any reasonable quantity as 2010 comes to a close. That means advance upgrades will only happen if SWUs or miles are redeemed. Ditto for folks who like to upgrade a companion. It depends on how United programs the system, but limiting upgrades to only one companion and only if they are on the same reservation is quite a change from the existing policies.

Losing out on the CR-1 upgrade certificates is also a major pain point for United elites. The certs are pretty easy to earn and are incredibly valuable. And they are going away. Sure, there is a cooling off period where they'll still be earned (into early 2010) and redeemable. But no more new ones hurts. It slightly increases the value of the points earned since they'll be the best way to upgrade going forward.

Another interesting factor is that United has quite a few planes with very small forward cabins. Their A319s only have 8 F seats. Lower tier elites can pretty much kiss those upgrades goodbye. And while Continental also has a few planes with small cabins, they are generally only used on shorter flights; United uses their A319s on transcons. That is going to hurt.

Free upgrades on domestic segments of international itineraries is nice, but those were always upgradable under the old cert system, too, so no huge change there. It will make it a bit less fun to use one e500 for an upgrade from LAX-HNL-SFO (yes. that works), but if the upgrade happens anyways who cares.

This move brings United incredibly close to Continental in terms of their upgrade schemes. The only substantial difference is the timings of the upgrade windows. Pretty much everything else matches. That means there is a VERY good chance that Continental and United can start offering reciprocal upgrades as they align their programs. Of course, further details on that won’t come out until after Continental officially moves into Star Alliance and is able to officially start tying systems and programs in with United. Lots more fun to come.

International in-flight internet is back!

2009-10-13T07:29:00.000-04:00

After a lot of speculation over the past couple weeks, Lufthansa has made it official: they’re bringing in-flight internet connectivity back to their long-haul fleet. And this isn’t just the old Connexion service pressed back into service. It is going to be bigger and better than that.

The new service will offer a 1 megabit internet connection to be shared by the passengers (slower than that provided by Aircell’s gogo service). It will also provide access to GSM/GRPS data streams, facilitating SMS and MMS messaging as well as internet browsing on mobile phones. From the announcement:

FlyNet is impressively user-friendly. Passengers with a WLAN or GSM/GPRS-compatible device can log on from any point in the aircraft cabin, just like at any public hotspot. Depending on the device they are using (i.e. a laptop, mobile phone or a smart phone), passengers can choose to be billed via a mobile service provider or pay by credit card. Various different price models are planned – ranging from a rate by the hour to a monthly flat rate. Passengers should also be able to redeem Miles & More award miles for the use of WLAN Internet connections. The exact price for specific products will be announced at a later date. The service will gradually become available on all Lufthansa's long-haul flights worldwide.

So it’ll be the middle of next year before it is readily available, but the service is definitely coming. Now it just remains to be seen if they can offer it at a price point that allows it to survive. The terrestrial services seem to be suffering there and it isn’t clear that the satellite services are going to fare any better. But we can hope.

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