Happy New Year, readers! I apologize for the lack of updates, but it's been crazy busy with the holidays. Let's start off 2012 with an infographic compliments of FlightStats.com on where the various airlines ranked across several key categories.
The interesting highlights:
- Southwest, the only airline where "Bags Fly Free" was 2nd to last in baggage handling, but also ranked the best with the lowest percentage of customer complaints.
- jetBlue had the most delays and lowest percentage of on-time arrivals.
- United didn't do so well in with customer complaints and bumping passengers - no doubt the high number of frequent flyers affecting the later
- American had the most cancellations, lost the most bags, and ranked the worst overall - part of this due to their aging fleet
Here's hoping you have a wonderful start to the 2012 new year!
Don’t pass up this Delta promotion if you’re a Silver Medallion Member:
- Fly six qualifying Delta segments* anytime between April 1 and June 30, 2011, and you’ll receive double flown miles. (That’s just three nonstop round-trip flights.)
- Then fly and enjoy a 75% mileage bonus on all
- Delta marketed/operated flights flown July 1 through December 31, 2011.
- As a Silver Medallion®, you already earn a 25% mileage bonus. Add that to the 75% mileage bonus and you’ll be earning a total bonus of 100%. That’s double flown miles on all paid Delta flights for six months.
- For this one-time bonus, register today and fly between April 1 and
- June 30, 2011.
Delta Airlines recently posted a blog article outlining their new baggage tracking technology. Here’s an update of their new changes in their words:
- Proactive notifications if your bag doesn’t travel with you. All you have to do is sign up for Last Minute Updates on delta.com or subscribe to have your contact info included in your reservation. We will text or email you if your bags don’t travel with you.
- Checked baggage tracking on delta.com. Now every checked bag has visibility if you wish to track its journey. For example, you’ll be able to see that your bags have been loaded off an aircraft.
- Self-service baggage kiosks in 18 of our busiest airports by year’s end. These look just like our check-in kiosks but they are near our airport baggage service offices and bag carrousels. You can use the kiosk to view a bag’s status, check which carousel bags will arrive on and file a delayed bag claim if necessary.
- All-online delayed bag claim process. Goodbye paper-based manual process. Hello easier, faster online process directly at delta.com!
- Rebates for bags delayed beyond 12 hours. For the rare occurrence when a bag is delayed more than 12 hours, you can apply on delta.com for a transportation credit voucher rebate for $25 for one bag or $50 for two bags.
Kodus to Delta Airlines for proactively addressing one of the biggest frustrations of flying.
Jaunted.com has put together a useful reference chart for Airline WiFi costs and availability. Check it out. Here’s a quick snap-shot but make sure you visit www.jaunted.com for the latest and greatest.
Today, British Airways announced it was planning to cut 3000 jobs by the end of the fiscal year due to falling passenger numbers and yields. I will guess that most airlines are going through similar challenges.
In an economy as bad as this one, customer service makes all the difference. Flyers may not have as many choices as we are a "semi-captive" audience due to the constraints of available flights and routes by airlines, but bad press is bad press. Don’t kid yourself as the next generation of frequent flyer will read stories like this and wonder what kind of business United is running.
The title of the article says it all:
Man denied first-class seat on United for wearing track suit
If you want to run your airlines into the ground what better way to do it that humiliate and embarass your best customers? The weak response in which United claims to have mistaken the passenger as a employee only adds insult to injury.
Nice try, United. How about admiting you have customer service problems and make amends. That’ll get you a lot farther than trying to tactically address every customer service blow-up that happens.
United, time to wake up and smell the coffee.
Like Southwest, US Airways is also holding a promotion for flyers interested in retaining or obtaining status.
Promotion Details:
Get ready for the fastest, easiest way ever to get (or keep) Preferred status. Just fly between October 1 and December 25, 2009 on any US Airways or US Airways Express flight, and you’ll earn Preferred status faster than ever before. The more you fly, the more you’ll earn. Think of it as an end-of-the-year shortcut.
Here’s how it works:
- Fly 7,500 miles or 10 segments and earn Silver Preferred status
- Fly 15,000 miles or 20 segments and earn Gold Preferred status
- Fly 22,500 miles or 30 segments and earn Platinum Preferred status
- Fly 30,000 miles or 40 segments and earn Chairman’s Preferred status
Don’t worry, the miles you fly will also count towards the total miles you flew for the year – you’ll be awarded the highest status between the two. So if you fly 55,000 Preferred miles for the year but only end up flying 8,000 Preferred miles during the promotion period, you’ll still earn Gold status for the year.
We’ll determine and award your Preferred status on January 10, 2010. You don’t need to register (we’ll keep track of your flights). We told you it was easy!
Something to think about if you live in a city where US Airways is a hub.
Southwest rarely jumps on the promotion bandwagon but it looks like they are interested in building some loyalty and bringing in some new customers. Register for the promotion here.
Promotion Details:
Fall in love with Rapid Rewards this fall! Take advantage of our Double Credit promotion - one bonus Rapid Rewards credit each time you buy and fly on Southwest Airlines between September 17 and October 31, 2009! That means you can get two credits for every one-way flight (four credits when you travel roundtrip) from any city that Southwest serves. Combine Business Select with this promotion, and your credits will add up even faster by receiving 2.25 credits for shorthaul flights and 3.0 credits for medium and longhaul flights! To take advantage of this special offer, simply follow these steps:
I have to admit I’m a big fan of Southwest because they are almost always on time. I gladly traded away my elite status on United for the security of getting home on time. Happy flying.
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.
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.