Seth Godin makes a great point in a recent blog post titled, “We don’t compare ourselves to other airport restaurants”, but his quote, “Regardless, it’s better than we have been taught we should deserve” really stuck out for me as a road warrior. We have been trained to expect bad (and worsening) service in the frequent flyer world. Uncaring airline representatives, devaluation of frequent flyer points, additional service fees, more points to buy free nights, terrible customer service, bad airport food, more time away from home – we accept these things as “part of the job”. At one point frequent travelers felt free flights, free nights, and credit card points were the “benefits” which offset having to deal with all the crappy things about flying, but…
Is that still true anymore?
In most industries, bad customer service means you don’t last very long, but not for industries who serve frequent travelers. We are captive customers at airports and we pay more for bad food and bad service. We are limited to certain airlines by when and where we need to fly. We are limited to hotels by distance or cost to clients. We have limitations placed on our ability to choose. Then we get attached to “loyalty programs” and a currency which is controlled by folks who believe we are mindless point-addicts who only care about racking up enough miles to be treated with “ok” customer service (because a special 1-800 number is supposed to make us feel elite). We just suck it up. That is sad.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to change that? I don’t know the solution, but I bet it starts with us – the frequent travelers.
Here’s another promotion from a fellow roadwarrior for USAirways. After signing up for the promotion, you will receive Silver preferred status and all the associated benefits for a limited amount of time. If you meet the travel requirements, you will then get to keep the status going forward.
Here are the details:
Try Preferred status on for size. See how you like it. At the end of your 90-day trial, you may want to keep it! Once you register, you’ll be Preferred within 14 days. And, if you qualify during your 90-day trial, you’ll keep your Silver Preferred status for the program year*.
All you have to do is register and we’ll give you Silver Preferred status for 90 days (a $200 value!). You’ll travel Preferred and enjoy the best upgrades in the industry, waived baggage fees, bonus miles and more!
Just register between May 15 and August 31, 2009. Then, check your Dividend Miles profile to make sure we have your contact information so we can send you an email with your new status.
Not a Dividend Miles member already? Not a problem. Join now and then come back to register.
It doesn’t hurt to sign up if you are planning to fly USAirways for the first time.
Airlines are pulling out all the stops in this economy, but this is a new one. JetBlue has just rolled out the equivalent of a buffet. I’m not sure who can really take advantage of this offer, given the economy but it’s there if you fit the bill.
Here are the details:
Enjoy unlimited travel with our All-You-Can-Jet Pass! For just $599* you can take JetBlue anywhere you like, as often as you like, from September 8 to October 8, 2009. Use your All-You-Can-Jet Pass for business, for pleasure, to visit your favorite cities or to meet with a client. You might as well just do it all! With more than 50 cities to choose from, and for just $599, it’s a deal you can’t pass up.
About the Pass
- $599 for a month of unlimited travel, any available seat
- Domestic taxes and fees included
- International and Puerto Rico taxes and fees not included
- On sale through Friday, August 21, 2009, or while supplies last
- Travel Dates: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 through Thursday, October 8, 2009
- Each flight must be booked no later than 11:59 p.m. MDT three days prior to the flight’s scheduled departure.
- Nonrefundable/nontransferable/no name changes permitted
- Customers who already have a flight booked during the pass travel period can pay the difference to upgrade to the pass by calling 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583), prompt 4.
- Each All-You-Can-Jet Pass is eligible for 35 TrueBlue points. Flights booked on the pass are not available for additional TrueBlue points.
Go nuts! (the fine print says they can end the offer earlier at their discretion…)
Fellow road warrior, *josh*, received the following email from Delta, introducing a new status level above the current Platinum level:
As Delta and Northwest Airlines® merge into one airline, we are committed to delivering the best-in-class loyalty program in the industry. Over the next nine months, not only will we roll out an improved SkyMiles Medallion® program that retains all of the features of the existing program, but we will also introduce new features that no other airline offers.
We heard you loud and clear and have retained all of the Medallion benefits you have asked for, and made the Systemwide Upgrade Certificates redeemable on the day of departure. As a Medallion, you will continue to be offered:
- Unlimited complimentary upgrades
- The ability to earn one elite qualifying mile per mile flown regardless of booking channel
- A 100% mileage bonus
- Preferred security access, priority boarding and seating, and waived checked baggage fees for everyone in your itinerary
- A 500-mile minimum on all flights for all customers
- No co-pays on any mileage upgrades
In addition, we will roll out new industry-leading benefits for our very best and most valuable customers like you, including:
- A new Diamond Medallion tier - for those who earn 125,000 MQMs or 140 segments in a calendar year - that will provide the richest set of benefits of any airline, including a complimentary Delta Sky Club™ membership, an industry-leading 125% mileage bonus, and waivers for all Award and baggage fees. Should you achieve the Diamond threshold during 2009, you will be recognized as a Diamond Medallion when the program launches in early 2010
- "Rollover MQMs" - an industry-first that allows you to now roll over any Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs) above a Medallion threshold. For example, if you earn 150,000 MQMs this year - 25,000 MQMs higher than the Diamond Medallion requirement - those 25,000 MQMs will automatically roll over and count toward your 2010 MQM balance
- Choice Benefits - you will be able to choose from a selection of benefits to suit your needs, including new Systemwide Upgrade Certificates now redeemable on the day of departure, bonus miles, the ability to gift Medallion status and Delta Sky Club One-Day passes
- Unlimited complimentary upgrades on Award Tickets
- Waived direct ticketing charges when purchasing tickets or Award Tickets via our reservation or airport agents
This is a classic business school marketing strategy, whereby a new “premium” product is used differentiate without competing directly on price (or in this case, points). As josh noted in his email to me, it will be interesting to see if other airlines follow this strategy as this new level clearly provides benefits not available at the highest status level for other airlines.
For a limited time only you can save on award travel. The time frame is limited as you need to book between July 15 - July 24, 2009 and fly between August 18 - November 18, 2009. I played with a few options as I was looking at a flight to Barcelona in late August but wasn’t able to find anything available using award travel. These airline offerings are typically a mixed blessing. The airline hopes to get rid of excess seat inventory due to poor demand planning, but the popular routes are not available because…well they are popular. The promotion is structured to target as many folks as possible by giving the impression of high availability and big savings.
Unfortunately, the outcome usually results in potential customers NOT finding anything worth flying because the routes are terrible, the timing isn’t right, or the destination is undesirable. We end up wasting our time playing with arrival / departures dates. It’s like taking your garbage, wrapping it in a shiny box, and offering it to your best customers. It produces the opposite affect as we don’t feel like we’re getting a special promotion – we feel like United doesn’t really value us as a customer so much as just a revenue stream (i.e. dumping ground) with little intelligence. It should be painfully obvious the target demographic travels a lot, values their time, and doesn’t have much flexibility. This promotion totally ignores all those key factors. United needs to take a step back, look at their customers, then tailor their promotions for the right target audience.
Hey United, how about figuring a way to immediately communicate which routes have excess capacity in the time frame given so we don’t waste our time when you already know. Our time is just as important as yours.
Here’s hoping you’ll find the promotion plays into a trip you were planning anyways…
A fellow road warrior just received a promotion for the new Wi-Fi service American Airlines is introducing on all its 767-200 aircraft. You can try it out for free this summer using the promotion code listed below. Cheers!
The Promotional Email:
Our new onboard Internet connectivity is rolling out with more planes being completed every week. The service is now available on all Boeing 767-200 aircraft, and it’s currently being installed on select MD80 aircraft*. To celebrate our progress, we’re making the service available to you for free this summer!
If you fly on one of our Internet-equipped planes this summer, simply use your special promotion code to connect with your Wi-Fi enabled laptop or mobile device. Then kick back and check your email, use your VPN, send instant messages or just enjoy surfing the web.
This special offer is only valid from July 13, 2009, through August 23, 2009.
Promotion Code: AAWiFi76194A1
For more details about Wi-Fi on board, visit www.aa.com/gogo. Enjoy your summer. We look forward to seeing you on board soon.
Happy surfing.
(Complements of BillShrink)
Here’s a excellent picture illustrating the current fee structure of all major airlines based in the U.S. One airline definitely stands out (Hint: Starts with ‘South’ and ends with ‘west’):
With the economic downturn, airlines have been pretty aggressive with adding fees so this graph may not stay relevant very long.
It looks like the Clear program will close down operations due to financial difficulties. Here’s an email received by a fellow co-worker who was enrolled in the program:
Clear to Cease Operations
At 11:00 p.m. PST today, Clear will cease operations. Clear’s parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.
After today, Clear lanes will be unavailable.
Sincerely,
Clear Customer Support
I never saw any Clear lanes at the airports I traveled through so I guess they never got around to pushing it out everywhere.
As a frequent flier, I’m a big fan of Tumi. I recently received a great offer for 25% off anything from Tumi.com – sale or no sale. I haven’t seen a deal like this before. Must be the economy. I consider my readers, “friends and family”, so enjoy!
Every so often, I’ll introduce a new feature available through the More Than Points Personal Travel Assistant. This post introduces the flight status command. Using this command, you can see if you’ll be home on time. It also displays FAA-provided gate information in case you have an unexpected gate change. Since the MTP PTA lets you send commands through any jabber-compatible client (e.g. Google Talk) or any email client (like your BlackBerry), you can use it anywhere you have data service.
The flight command only requires the the two-digit airline code followed by the flight number:
Remember: To use the MTP PTA just send an instant message to morethanpoints@gmail.com OR send an email with NO SUBJECT and the command in the body of the email to the same email address. Why bother with pulling up a website when a simple email or IM will do the trick.
More Than Points is all about saving you time so you can spend it on yourself and your family. Enjoy the rest of your week.