U P F R O N T
Flight AS261
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For all the round-the-clock coverage and endless speculation and finger-pointing, what we know for certain is that Alaska Airlines' flight AS261 crashed into the Pacific Ocean on emergency approach to Los Angeles International Airport. Onboard the MD-83 were 88 people, none of whom survived.
Our heartfelt condolences go out to anyone touched by this tragedy.
M I L E S
American, AOL Launch Joint Program
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In Spring 2000, American and AOL will roll out a new joint mileage program, AOL AAdvantage.
The new program will be similar but not identical to the current AAdvantage program. While AOL AAdvantage will offer miles and awards on American flights, and flights of American's airline partners, the 2 programs will differ in their partner lineups. Current AAdvantage non-airline partners (as well as partners in AOL's Rewards program) have the option of partnering with either AAdvantage or AOL AAdvantage, but not both. It's too soon to tell which partners will cast their lot with which program, but it's logical to expect that retailers with a substantial online presence will opt for the new program, and offline retailers will partner with AAdvantage. And of course, the AOL program will feature AOL and its online brands.
Which one's for you? Since the partner details have yet to be firmed up, it's too soon to say with any certainty. But the decision is likely to turn on your addiction (or not) to the Internet. Although both programs will have both on- and offline components, AOL AAdvantage will skew digital, offering more online earning and burning opportunities than AAdvantage.
For now, sit back and wait for further details. You can sign up to receive e-mail updates from the program's interim website at the below address.
>> More <<
AOL AAdvantage
Double Legend Miles... for Life
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We mentioned Dallas-based startup Legend Airlines in a previous issue of The Crier, favorably impressed by the pre-launch buzz generally, and particularly by a promotion offering early customers lifetime exemptions from several ticketing restrictions. They've now expanded on that idea, offering start-up customers a significant frequent flyer program benefit... again, for life.
Sign up for Legend's Travel Award Program and fly one roundtrip before May 31, 2000 to become a member of their Legend Founders' Society. And founding members earn double base Legend miles for life.
The Legend Travel Award program has partnership agreements with:
- Delta - Redeem miles for Delta worldwide flights
- Hertz - Earn 50 miles for every qualifying Hertz rental
- Avis - Earn 50 miles for every qualifying Avis rental
- BostonCoach - Earn 250 miles per BostonCoach ride
- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts - Earn 500 miles per qualifying Wyndham Hotels & Resorts stay
- Citicorp Diners Club Inc. - Earn 1,000 Legend miles for every 2,000 Diners Club Rewards points
Legend plans to begin scheduled service on February 29, 2000 from Dallas to Los Angeles and Washington/Dulles. Las Vegas is slated to begin on March 9.
>> More <<
Legend
Delta Adds Rotating Miles-for-Charity Recipient
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Delta's SkyMiles celebrates the fifth anniversary of SkyWish by launching the "Charity of the Quarter" miles donation program. The program features The American Red Cross as the first "Charity of the Quarter."
SkyWish enables members of the SkyMiles program to donate miles to their choice of five core charities, including CARE, Make-A-Wish Foundation of America, Make-A-Wish Foundation International, The United Way of America, United Way International and now a rotating charity that will change every quarter. SkyMiles donations designated for The American Red Cross will be accepted from now until March 31, 2000.
All SkyMiles members who donate miles to the American Red Cross from January through March will be eligible to win a family vacation package including a chance to meet the Power Rangers and view a taping of the show; a tour of the Fox Kids Animation Studios; certificates to a 20th Century Fox movie premiere and tickets to a Dodgers game. Airfare, hotel accommodations and car rental are also included.
Members may donate any number of miles above a 5,000-mile minimum. Delta adds 1,000 miles for every 5,000 miles donated.
>> More <<
Delta
Miles-for-Cornflakes
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Many remember last year's Healthy Choice promotion, offering AAdvantage miles for purchases of Healthy Choice products.
This year, there's yet another opportunity to earn AAdvantage miles for supermarket transactions--this time, for purchases of Kellogg's cereals. AAdvantage members earn 100 miles when they buy specially marked packages of Healthy Choice, Kellogg's All Bran, Complete Wheat Bran Flakes, Complete Oat Bran Flakes, Just Right, Mini Wheats, Cracklin' Oat Bran and Product 19. Look for packages with 100 mile certificates.
To receive miles, members must clip the package certificates and mail them to Kellogg's American Dream, P.O. Box 185595, Battle Creek, MI 49018-5595 before Nov. 30, 2001. While there is no limit to how many miles members can earn, don't buy any fewer than 5 boxes as miles may only be earned in 500-mile increments.
[Editor's note. My local supermarket in Los Angeles does not yet have the "specially marked" boxes on the shelves.]
>> More <<
American
Bonus Miles for NW China Flights
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China flights on Northwest earn WorldPerks members free domestic tickets.
When customers fly roundtrip to Shanghai or Beijing via Los Angeles or San Francisco through March 31, they can earn 8,888 WorldPerks bonus miles. Combined with the WorldPerks miles they normally earn for the flight length, travelers will earn enough miles for a 20,000 domestic award ticket.
To qualify for the China 8,888 WorldPerks Bonus Miles Promotion, travelers must be WorldPerks members residing in the 48 contiguous United States. They must also register in the promotion before they fly and no later than February 29, 2000. To register, call 800-508-2000, Ext. 8118; or register online at the below website address.
The trans-Pacific portion of travel must be on Northwest-coded flights operated by Northwest Airlines or Air China between Los Angeles or San Francisco and Beijing or Shanghai.
>> More <<
Northwest
National Joins LatinPass
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LatinPass members traveling on National Airlines can include their LatinPass account numbers in their reservations and receive mileage credit in their LatinPass accounts. And by mid-February, members of National Airlines' frequent flyer program, National Comps, will be able to redeem their account points for travel on any of the Latin American carriers belonging to LatinPass. In addition, LatinPass members may redeem their LatinPass mileage for travel on National Airlines.
With the initiation of service between Miami and Las Vegas on January 27, National Airlines now offers daily nonstop service to its Las Vegas hub from Chicago Midway, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York JFK, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
>> More <<
New ClickRewards Partners
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ClickRewards has added 2 new partners in its network of retailers offering ClickMiles for purchases--Banana Republic and PC World magazine.
ClickRewards members who shop at BananaRepublic.com earn double ClickMiles through February 15, 2000. And members who subscribe to PC World magazine earn 250 ClickMiles.
>> More <<
ClickRewards
S T E A L S & D E A L S
Deal Alert from SmarterLiving.com
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Two hot deals from SmarterLiving com...
Earn A $99 Companion Ticket From Northwest
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Purchase a qualifying round-trip ticket ($100 minimum) on-line by February 11, finish travel by February 29 and Northwest Airlines will give you a $99 companion ticket with your next ticket purchase.
For more details, please visit SmarterLiving.com.
Two-For-One To Europe, Plus A Free Festina Watch
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Fly to Europe with Lufthansa's Two-for-One deal and receive a free Festina Watch. Tickets must be purchased by February 15 and travel must be completed by March 31.
Sample, round-trip fares for two include $586 from New York (JFK and Newark) to Dusseldorf, $698 from Chicago (O'Hare) to Milan, and $791 from San Francisco to Vienna.
For more details, please visit SmarterLiving.com.
Bid On Virgin Atlantic Tickets
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Bid on tickets to London from any of Virgin Atlantic's nine U.S. gateways.
Auctions take place between February 1 and 8, for travel between February 29, and March 20, 2000. Gateways include New York's JFK & Newark; Boston; Dulles; Orlando; Miami; Chicago; Los Angeles; and San Francisco.
>> More <<
Virgin Auction
I N D U S T R Y U P D A T E
American Increases Legroom in Economy
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In what they dubbed "a move that will change the face of domestic and international coach travel," American today announced they will increase legroom in economy-class cabins by removing approximately 7,200 seats -- 6.4% of the airline's coach capacity.
The conversion will cost $70 million, and increase the pitch (distance between seats) from the present industry standard of 31 - 32 inches to an average of 34 - 35 inches. On the Super 80, which comprises 37% of American's fleet, pitch will increase by as much as 35%.
When the project is complete, about 58% of American's coach seats will have a seat pitch of 34 inches or more -- and about 98% of coach seats will have seat room greater than today's industry standard, according to American's calculations.
American launched the conversion work last week and expects to have half of its 609 domestic two-class jet fleet completed this summer. The entire two-class fleet will be converted by November, and the 98 three-class international fleet conversion will finish next year.
The number of seats being removed from each airplane varies, depending on aircraft size and cabin design. In the case of American's MD80s, 2 rows totaling 10 seats will be eliminated from each aircraft. The first aircraft with the roomier coach cabin, a 129-seat MD80, goes into scheduled service on Saturday, Feb. 12.
We applaud American's move, and hope that it presages the mother of all battles in the area of customer service. But at the same time, we can't help but wonder what effect taking 6% of the carrier's inventory out of circulation will have on availability of frequent flyer award seats, and of discounted tickets.
Time will tell...
>> More <<
American
BA Spends Big on Inflight Upgrades
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Coincidentally (?), British Airways this week announced what it claims is the largest expenditure of its kind in the history of commercial aviation--$970 million in new products and upgrades to be introduced over the next two years. The improvements include:
- A new cabin (World Traveller Plus) offering more space and facilities than other economy products, as well as a doubled hand baggage allowance
- 'Lounge in the Sky' featuring the world's first fully flat bed for business class travelers
- A totally refurbished Concorde cabin
- Revamped first class cabins
- Rollout of the new Club Europe
- Upgrades to airport terminals, check-in and lounges, including a completely new terminal at New York JFK
The most interesting aspect of these changes is the introduction of World Traveller Plus. This is a fourth class of service, between economy and business. Presumably, the Plus seats will be reserved for those purchasing full-fare economy tickets, typically business travelers.
Lest the public assume that they would increase fares to underwrite the upgrades, BA pledged to fund the improvements out of "existing budgets."
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British Airways
Travel Complaints Increased During 1999
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DOT this week released its Air Travel Consumer Report with complaint data for the full calendar year 1999.
Among the findings: complaints directed at U.S. airlines more than doubled, from 7890 in 1998 to 17,381 in 1999. The report shows frequent flyer complaints overall (up 58%, from 241 in 1998 to 382 in 1999), but unfortunately doesn't include a breakout for individual airlines.
DOT rolls its complaint data into a consolidated rating reflecting complaints per 100,000 passenger boardings. So ranked, the U.S. majors fared as follows, from best to worst:
1. Southwest
2. Alaska
3. Delta
4. Continental
5. United
6. Northwest
7. US Airways
8. TWA
9. American
10. America West
>> More <<
The full report is available in .pdf format on DOT's site.
B U S I N E S S T R A V E L T I P S
Things to Know Before You Go
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The following is part of a continuing series of business travel tips from Chris McGinnis's "The Unofficial Business Traveler's Pocket Guide--165 Tips Even the Best Business Travelers May Not Know."
>> Use Frequent Flier Miles to "Buy" High-Priced Tickets
Using your frequent flier miles to around high fares is getting more difficult. For example, Continental now requires a Saturday night stayover when redeeming the basic 25,000-mile reward for a free round trip. If you want to travel in midweek or during a "blackout" period, you'll have to redeem closer to 40,000 miles. With frequent flier miles roughly valued at about 2 cents each, it only makes sense to redeem 40,000 miles if the fare you would otherwise pay exceeds about $800.
Chris McGinnis
Travel Skills Group
PO Box 52927
Atlanta, GA 30355
http://www.travelskills.com
R E A D E R R A N T S & R A V E S
Fast Food Inflight?
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I am a graduate student in Hospitality Management at the University of North Texas. I am currently working on completing my thesis requirement which focuses on the offering of fast-food items on in-flight meal service. The results of this study will help to ascertain if the inclusion of fast-food menu items on airlines would be more desirable than the foods currently being served.
Would it be possible for you to link to the following URL http://courses.unt.edu/jmills/survey.html on your site for a short period of time to assist me with the data collection phase of this study?
Any assistance given will be highly appreciated.
Juline
Graduate Student/ Teaching Fellow
University of North Texas
T R A V E L O N L I N E
Online Travel Agents Post Results
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Expedia this week announced financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2000, ending December 31, 1999.
Total revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2000 were $17.8 million, up 127% from $7.9 million in the second quarter of fiscal 1999, and up 17% from $15.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2000. Transaction revenues, which consist of transaction commissions and fees on the Expedia.com site, were $11.9 million, up 145% from the second quarter of fiscal 1999. Revenues from all other sources, including advertising, international, platform licensing and the company's Hotel and Flight Price Matcher services, were $5.9 million, up 97% from the second quarter of fiscal 1999.
Separately, Expedia announced that it is acquiring two separate companies, Travelscape.com, Inc. and VacationSpot.com. The acquisitions continue the company's build-out of the Expedia Global Travel Marketplace.
Meanwhile, Expedia's primary competitors--soon-to-merge Travelocity.com and Preview Travel--announced that their 1999 combined gross bookings totaled $1.19 billion, putting the combo in ranks of the top 10 travel agents, online or off.
>> More <<
Until next week...
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