George asks:
Point Man – I recently booked a trip using Marriott points and am looking to upgrade my room. I’ve offered to pay cash for the upgrade but they declined. Assuming there are vacancies, any ideas?
George, I recall a few instances when I was upgraded due to my Platinum status with the Marriott even when I used points to book the room. It’s always at the hotel’s discretion on whether they want to upgrade you if you haven’t actually paid for the top floor suite. I have not come across any way to pay additional money on top of points to get a better room. In my experience point-based airlines also follow the same rule - if you use frequent flyer points to book a flight, you cannot pay to get upgrade. You need to spend the points to get the first class seat. I don’t believe hotels are setup to handle that type of transaction.
I do recall staying at the W in Montreal and getting upgraded from an already amazing room to the "WOW" suite (and quickly understanding why it was given that title). The reason? Construction from the building next door kept me up all night. I politely explained the poor circumstances to the front desk manager and was quickly upgraded.
Your best bet is to be polite and friendly - perhaps pay the front desk manager a compliment while he/she is checking you in. If it isn’t a busy weekend, you might get a free upgrade since rooms are a fixed cost. I suppose you could complain about your room, but without proper justification that would be lying :-)
Any readers have better suggestions - feel free to comment. Great questions - keep them coming.
If you’re a Marriott Rewards member, you may have recently received an email titled "Introducing No Blackout Dates" with a link to this promotion. In mid-September, we posted an article referencing a leaked Marriott promotion that was the precursor to this promotion. It looks like most of the original promotion items are true, but there are a few additional changes which actually makes this bad news for Marriott Rewards members. Before you get all excited about new benefits like, "Redeem 4 nights and get the 5th night free!" and "Enjoy a 50% Platinum Elite Bonus" take a behind the scenes look at what they have done to the points required for stays.
TABLE 1: Changes in Required Points (Each cell represents the INCREASE or DECREASE in points required, NOT the total points)
| CATEGORY | 1 night | 2 nights | 3 nights | 4 nights | 5 nights | 6 nights | 7 nights |
| 1 | 0 | 1000 | 2500 | 5000 | 0 | 2500 | 12500 |
| 2 | 0 | 1000 | 3000 | 5000 | -3000 | 0 | 15000 |
| 3 | 0 | 2000 | 4000 | 8000 | -3000 | 2000 | 23000 |
| 4 | 0 | 2000 | 5000 | 10000 | -3000 | 5000 | 35000 |
| 5 | 0 | 4000 | 10000 | 20000 | 5000 | 20000 | 60000 |
| 6 | 0 | 5000 | 12000 | 25000 | 10000 | 30000 | 80000 |
| 7 | 0 | 5000 | 15000 | 30000 | 10000 | 35000 | 95000 |
As an example, you will now need 25,000 more points to stay 4 nights at a Category 6 hotel at an increase of 26% over the original required points of 95,000 points for a total of 120,000 points! To stay 7 nights at a Category 7 hotel will require an additional 95000 points - that’s an increase in required points of over 63%!!!
Looks like Marriott is going the airline route and devaluing their points as well. Shame on Marriott for trying to pull a fast one. MTP advises you to use those reward points this year if you can help it because on January 15th 2009, they will be worth a lot less.
All that gold is not glitter.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that airlines are now taking advantage of advanced scheduling systems to remove some of the best bargain flights and seat prices from their inventory. They use Southwest as the example of complexity in scheduling:
"No airline has a more complex schedule than Southwest. The low-cost carrier now has more daily flights than any other airline, and it runs a frenetic operation with planes hop-scotching across the country and spending only 20 or 30 minutes on the ground. With more than 500 airplanes and 60 cities to link together, there are literally billions of different ways to set the airline’s schedule.
Southwest’s November schedule was developed with an upgraded version of its in-house schedule-optimization system that reworked the airline’s entire 3,400 daily departures. The airline now flies a completely different schedule on Saturdays – in the past it just erased some flights here and there from the regular schedule on Saturdays. Now some cities like Omaha, Neb.; Salt Lake City; Oklahoma City; and Tulsa, Okla., get nonstop flights to Orlando only on Saturdays.
In January, Southwest will cut 190 flights, reducing its capacity by 6% in the slower winter travel season. That’s more schedule jockeying than the airline has ever done before. And next year, it will add Minneapolis-St. Paul to its route network without increasing its capacity. The scheduling system trimmed flights here and there and improved efficiency, freeing up airplanes to fly to and from Minneapolis."
The next step for the industry is to have different travel schedule for each day of the week. The downside for you the traveler: fewer bargain trips as the airlines maximize their revenue and optimize their resources. It appears that the powers of economics and supply/demand are starting to work against us.
USA Today has a good summary article highlighting some of the recent changes impacting frequent fliers of the major carriers.
A Few Choice Highlights
- Continental Airlines said Friday that it is reducing the number of miles it awards fliers on many short flights and lowering the bonus miles it gives to many of its most-frequent fliers.
- Last month, US Airways ended bonus miles for its most-frequent fliers.
- In August, Delta Air Lines began an "award travel fuel surcharge." SkyMiles members redeeming trips online now pay $25 for a domestic ticket; $50 for an international one.
- Starting Sept. 15, Northwest will begin charging $25 to redeem a domestic frequent-flier ticket, $50 for a trans-Atlantic ticket and $100 for a trans-Pacific ticket.
- Continental says that on March 1 bonus mileage will drop from 125% to 100% for Platinum Elite members and from 50% to 25% for Silver Elite members. Fliers who annually earn 75,000 miles achieve platinum status, and those who earn 25,000 miles reach silver status.
- Beginning Jan. 1, for tickets bought on or after Nov. 15, Continental will stop giving a minimum of 500 points on flights shorter than 500 miles. Fliers will instead earn the number of miles flown.
- Denver-based Frontier Airlines, too, will stop awarding a minimum 250 miles on most short routes on Sept. 15. Fliers will earn the number of miles flown. Exceptions: Flights between Denver and four Colorado cities — Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Durango and Aspen — will earn 250 miles.
- United Airlines also stopped giving a minimum of 500 miles in July, and US Airways eliminated its mileage minimum last year.
Airlines need to go back to business school and re-learn the concept of building customer loyalty and how it affects profitability.
I hate to make this into an "us" (frequent flier) versus "them" (airlines) but the airlines are making it very difficult for their best customers. The airlines would do well to take a few lessons on improving the customer experience and building customer loyalty. A frequent flyer program is not the answer to building customer loyalty and these days it highlights just how little they care about customer loyalty.
This Fortune Magazine article describes how one flyer, Mitchell Berns, had his original non-stop Delta flight canceled "due to weather" and found himself booked on another flight, with connections, for the next morning. After checking the National Weather Service, he discovered snow was forecast for 5am the next morning, hours after his flight was supposed to land. Other airlines were still scheduled to fly, but Delta refused to give him a refund so he could purchase a ticket on another airline. He paid for a JetBlue flight out of his own pocket and landed at his destination without incident.
Back at home, he filed a small-claims suit ($15 in NY) against Delta for the price of the JetBlue ticket and won when Delta failed to show up in court. Delta offered frequent-flier miles (yeah, right) and then attempted to negotiate a confidentiality agreement (I can see why Delta wouldn’t want this story to be picked up in the press). Berns counter-offered with $100 off if Delta paid within 2 weeks OR the confidentiality agreement - not both. Surprisingly (or not), Delta took the $100 off the original JetBlue ticket.
"The lesson is, Don’t let them bully you with bogus cancellations," says Berns. The whole thing took him about four hours, he recalls, resulting in earnings of less than half his hourly billing rate. "But I’d do it again," he says. "That’s how good it felt."
It’s always a good thing to stay positive, but don’t let the airlines take advantage of you, the customer.
We here at MTP usually focus on trends in the travel industry, rather than personal experience. However, a recent travel experience hits on an issue related to fuel economies and airline operations. I was recently traveling on a US Airways flight from Washington’s Reagan International (DCA) to Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL). The weather en route was generally fine, though we did hit some headwinds and had to be routed around Tropical Storm Fay in northern FL.
As we neared our destination in South Florida, the flight had to be "re-routed" to stop in West Palm Beach (PBI) to pick up additional fuel. For those not familiar with PBI and FLL, they are 42.6 miles apart (give or take). Pilot said we had to stop and get gas; this turned into an extra hour for the flight to go the additional 40 miles.
It begs the question of just how low our fuel level was that the pilot was unable to go the extra 40 miles (or so). I’ve read some recent complaints that US Air is reducing the excess fuel on board to cut operational costs. Here are a few articles about how the pilot’s union is responding to pressure from the airline
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/07/18/20080718biz-usairways0718.html
http://cbs2chicago.com/national/us.airways.pilots.2.772910.html
To collect more details, I posted this message to a forum on the FlyerTalk website; feel free to read the responses of your fellow road warriors. Out of this whole experience, we did find a very interesting website which allows travelers to see the actual flight path taken by their pilot called FlightAware. Here is the actual path of my flight.
And that was how my day went.
Delta, following the lead of its competitors, has announced plans to rollout wireless broadband internet access on all its domestic mainline fleet by mid-2009.
"Delta is joining with Aircell®, a 17-year leader in airborne communications for business and commercial aviation, to install the company’s Mobile Broadband Network on the carrier’s domestic fleet. The system, Gogo™, will enable Delta customers traveling with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, to access the Internet, corporate VPNs, corporate and personal e-mail accounts, as well as SMS texting and instant messaging services. Gogo will be available to customers for a flat fee of $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours.
“Delta remains committed to providing a travel experience that maximizes the time our customers spend with us onboard by offering them even more productivity options,” said Richard Anderson, Delta’s chief executive officer. ”Our customers asked for in-flight connectivity, and we’re responding by rolling out the most extensive Wi-Fi network in the sky. Beginning this fall, our passengers will have the ability to stay connected when they travel with us throughout the continental U.S.”Gogo will be offered initially on Delta’s fleet of 133 MD88/90 aircraft and will rapidly expand to the remaining domestic fleet of more than 200 Boeing 737, 757 and 767-300 aircraft throughout the first half of 2009. The airline expects to have more than 330 aircraft complete by summer 2009. The full fleet agreement between Aircell and Delta will provide a consistent, convenient experience for customers traveling on the airline who wish to use the Gogo Internet service."
Here is the original article from Delta’s News Room. By the way, American has already started this service on their 767-200 fleet; here is a review of the service by WSJ reporter Walt Mossberg.
A recently released Senate report estimates that flight delays in 2007 cost passengers, airlines and the broader US economy more than $40 Billion. Take a moment to absorb that figure. $40 Billion from lost productivity, added operational costs to support delays, increased jet fuel consumption, and impact to other industries.
Here are a few key findings from the Senate’s Joint Economic Committee Report
- The total cost of domestic air traffic delays to the U.S. economy was as much as $41 billion for 2007 including higher airline operating costs, lost passenger productivity and time, and losses to other industries.
- Delayed flights consumed about 740 million additional gallons of jet fuel totaling $1.6 billion extra in fuel bills.
- Passengers were delayed by a total of 320 million hours, when accounting for padding in airline schedules. Almost 20 percent of total domestic flight time in 2007 was wasted in delay.
- Flight delays were longest during summer vacation months. Flight delays during the months of June, July and August averaged approximately 414,000 total hours of delay per month. Flights during December – the height of holiday traveling – totaled almost 438,000 hours of delay.
- 78% of flight delays in 2007 occurred before take-off, with 58 percent at the gate, and 20 percent during the taxi to the runway.
- 94 percent of all flight delays were caused by other flights arriving late, national system delays, or air carrier delays (less than six percent of delays were due to security or extreme weather)
The three largest airports in the New York City area, JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark airports had a total of over 40 million passengers last year. The New York City area airports combine for more than 27 million hours of passenger delays.And the average per-passenger delay at these three airports is nearly 28 minutes – among the highest in the nation.
The full report and the technical appendix can be found here
In advance of your next trip, keep an eye on whether your connection takes you through any of ’America’s Most Time-Draining Airports’. Maybe you’ll seek a new route to your destination
Can you imagine what you’d do with that extra 20% of time spent currently in airport delays?
The Travel Industry Association commissioned a recent study on the state of the travel industry. Roger Dow, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based association, said the research "should be a wake-up call to America’s policy leaders that the time for meaningful air system reform is now." "The air travel crisis has hit a tipping point – more than 100,000 travelers each day are voting with their wallets by choosing to avoid trips," Dow said in a statement.
From this study, we gleaned some very interesting nuggets worth sharing
- Nearly half of American air travelers would fly more if it were easier, and more than one-fourth said they skipped at least one air trip in the past 12 months because of the hassles involved.
- The 41 million forgone trips cost the travel industry $18.1 billion – including $9.4 billion to airlines and $5.6 billion to hotels.
- The lost tax revenue to federal, state and local authorities equals $4.2 billion in the past 12 months.
- When 28% of air travelers avoided an average of 1.3 trips each, that resulted in 29 million leisure trips and 12 million business trips not being taken
- 44% of the air travelers surveyed said they would take more air trips each year if airport hassles could be reduced or eliminated
- People who flew more than five times in the past 12 months were more likely to describe air travel as frustrating, at 52 percent, compared with 33 percent of infrequent travelers, defined as people who flew one or two round trips in 12 months, according to the survey.
- More than half of respondents said either efficiency or reliability is getting worse, 60 percent said the system is deteriorating, and 56 percent said flying is the "bad" or "worst" part of travel – though 62 percent said air travel security is improving
I’m surprised that only half of flyers find air travel frustrating. When was the last time you ran into someone who enjoyed their flight?
In other words, they are reducing costs at your expense.
What This Means to You:
- Less planes
- Less airline staff
- First checked bag fee $15
- In-flight beverage "purchase" program
- No more bonus miles with Preferred status
“US Airways is also eliminating its bonus miles program for Preferred status Dividend Miles members. Preferred members currently receive mileage bonuses based on their status level. The Preferred bonus program will be discontinued for tickets purchased on/after Aug. 6, 2008.”
- Increased fees for booked at airport or through call centers
- "Redemption Processing Fee" for using Dividend Miles
I hate being the bearer of bad news.