Issue #64  --  October 21, 1999

< U P F R O N T >>

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Quiet Week...
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It was a quiet week in the world of frequent flyer programs. And for the first time in many months, there was no newly announced fare initiative worth mentioning. Most of the noise in the travel industry was on the financial front, as the airlines reported their operating results for the third quarter. US Airways and TWA had losses for the period, while Alaska Air had its best third quarter ever. The other U.S. majors reported respectable, if not stellar, results. Hurricane Floyd was blamed for canceled flights during September.

In this issue, we've included a personal plea from someone who needs award-ticket donations to assist with family medical travel. This is a first for us, and admittedly somewhat of a departure from our traditional editorial agenda. It is, however, consistent with our regular enjoinders that people include mileage donations among their charitable activities.

In the next week or so, look for a short review of Casio's E-105 PDA (personal digital assistant). This is a device which has a lot to offer the mobile professional, although it turned out to be a less-than-ideal solution for this mobile worker's needs.

During the first week of November, I'll be attending the Frequent Travel Marketing Association (FTMA) conference in San Antonio. FTMA is a gathering of representatives of all the major airline, hotel and rental car programs, and I hope to have a few program updates to share with you in the November 11 issue of The Crier.

(If you are a travel-industry marketer, or are a marketing agency with travel-industry clients, you should at least be aware of FTMA. Check out their website at http://ftma.cc/)

<< M I L E S >>

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Economy Plus in Place on UA B757's
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United Airlines this week finished reconfiguring its entire fleet of B757's with its new Economy Plus seating.

Economy Plus is United's sub-section of economy class, featuring seats with 36 inches of pitch (distance between seats) compared to the standard 31 inches.

United claims that it flies more than 363 daily flights -- more than 15 percent of its daily schedule -- with B757's. Key United B757 business routes include flights between Boston and Chicago O'Hare, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco; flights between Chicago O'Hare and New York LaGuardia, Los Angeles, Washington Reagan and Denver; and flights between Denver and Newark and San Francisco.

In early November, United will begin reconfiguring the airline's 75 Boeing 727 aircraft. The reconfiguration of the airline's entire domestic fleet is expected to be completed in April 2000. Seat pitch in Economy Plus will range from 34 to 36 inches.

Advance assignment of Economy Plus seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis to United's Mileage Plus members who have Premier status or above. Customers who are traveling on full fare economy can also receive a pre-assigned seat in Economy Plus. Also qualifying are all Star Alliance Gold and Star Alliance Silver travelers.

As we said when Economy Plus was announced: Wonderful... this is exactly the sort of added value an airline's best customers should expect to receive.

>> More <<
United

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Triple ClickMiles at eBags
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From now until November 12th, earn triple ClickMiles for purchases at eBags.

When you visit eBags through the link below, you'll earn 3 ClickMiles for every dollar spent on eBags merchandise. There's no maximum or minimum purchase. Plus, eBags is offering free shipping.

>> More <<
o ClickRewards
o eBags

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Marriott Upgrades for China Southern Pax
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China Southern Airlines and Marriott are offering China Southern customers free upgrades when staying at participating Marriott hotels.

Effective Oct. 20, 1999 through March 31, 2000, all China Southern Airlines passengers worldwide paying corporate rates will receive the following benefits when they present their original, same-day China Southern Airlines boarding pass (international or domestic) upon check-in:

--  an upgrade to the next higher room category;
--  a 10 percent discount on all hotel-operated food & beverage outlets (except meetings & banquets; 15 percent discount at the China Hotel, Guangzhou);
--  and, late check-out of 4 p.m.

A total of 17 Marriott properties are participating in this program, including:

-- Marriott Hotels, Resorts and Suites

     JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong
     Shenyang Marriott Hotel
     Chongqing Marriott Hotel (opening November 1999)

-- Renaissance Hotels and Resorts
     Renaissance Harbour View Hotel Hong Kong
     New World Renaissance Hotel, Kowloon

-- New World Hotels International
     Jing Guang New World Hotel, Beijing
     China Hotel, Guangzhou
     New World Bei Fang Hotel, Harbin
     Yantze New World Hotel, Shanghai
     Grand New World Hotel, Xian
     New World Emperor Hotel, Macau

-- Courtyard by Marriott
     New World Courtyard Beijing
     Courtyard by Marriott Kunming
     New World Courtyard Shenyang
     New World Courtyard Shunde
     New World Courtyard Wuhan
     New World Courtyard Wuxi

>> More <<
o China Southern
o Marriott

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Double SkyMiles for Swissair Flights
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On October 31, Swissair reintroduces first-class service between Washington DC and Zurich. SkyMiles members who fly Swissair on this route, in first or business class, earn double miles between October 31 and December 11, 1999.

In a related offer, Swissair and Delta are offering double SkyMiles in all classes of service on their code-shared flights between Miami and Zurich. This offer also ends December 12, 1999.

>> More <<
o Delta
o Swissair

<< I N D U S T R Y N E W S >>

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Continental, America West Link E-Tickets
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America West Airlines and Continental Airlines have become the first 2 U.S. airlines to implement interline e-ticketing with each other.

This technology allows customers to use electronic tickets when their itineraries include travel on both carriers. Perhaps more important, it allows the two airlines to accept e-ticketed passengers from each other more easily when, as the airline news release puts it, "customer travel plans change."

You've read our caveat here in the newsletter concerning e-tickets. To recap: In the event your flight is canceled (strike, weather, whatever) and you're holding an e-ticket, you will have to exchange the e-ticket for a paper ticket BEFORE you can use the ticket on an alternative carrier. In practice, that means you will wait in a long line with a few thousand similarly affected customers to complete the transaction. Now, at least if the carriers concerned are Continental and America West, insult will not be added to injury in the case of a canceled flight.

>> More <<
o America West
o Continental

<< R E Q U E S T F O R M I L E S >>

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Can You Help?
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You've read here and elsewhere about various airline-sponsored programs which help get frequent flyer miles into the hands of charitable organizations. The charitable organizations, in turn, use the miles to help people in need with their travel requirements.

It's a worthy effort, and we've commended the airlines for the part they've played in making it possible. Because of the scale of the airlines' business operations, however, they're not able to consider requests from smaller charities, or from individuals.

We received such a request recently, and we are reprinting it here in hopes that someone among our readers will be willing to lend a helping hand.

Hello -

My husband, Mark, was diagnosed last March with glioblastoma multiforme... one of the more aggessive forms of brain tumor/brain cancers. Traditional medicine offered no more than a death sentence so I began searching for the alternative treatments that are out there. One of the most promising is in Houston, TX, Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski's antineoplaston therapy (cancermed.com).

The FDA has finally allowed Dr. Burzynski FDA trials and studies since his treatment has proven incredibly effective on cancer, especially brain tumors, and Mark is in one of the trial programs. But the government won't fund Burzynski's FDA trials. He's having to absorb all the costs, therefore they get passed onto the patients.

Our insurance coverage turned out to be very inadequate and the savings I'm using to get Mark into this program and down to Houston, TX from Spokane, WA (2x so far since August) is almost gone. I'm needing to cut corners and ask for donations. Can you tell me how someone else with Frequent Flyer Miles through United Airlines can donate their miles to us? We have Frequent Flyer accounts set up with United now, but could sure use a lot more since we just set up the accounts in September, and are expected to go back to Houston every 4-6 weeks (an FDA requirment).

Some of the more standard programs, such as Corporate Angel Network, don't recognize the need since antineoplastons are considered experimental at this stage (although Burzynski's been using them with excellent results for almost 30 years and trying most of that time to get the FDA study approval....) and Mark is bound to a wheel chair at this time and can't walk up Corporate Angel's required airstairs.

Also, a friend told me that there's a clearing house where people with unwanted/unuseable frequent flyer miles can donate them to those that qualify as needing them. If this is so, how do we apply for eligibility and what's needed for qualification?

I sure hope you can help me out.

Sincerely,
Sheilah

[If you are in a position to donate one or more frequent flyer tickets to help Sheilah and her husband, please contact her directly at Blisspots@aol.com]

<< T R A V E L O N L I N E >>

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Strong Online Bookings at Airline Sites
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Two of the U.S. majors this week reported on strong performance in their online reservations efforts:

o Delta announced that it had completed the 1 millionth online booking at its website. Delta rewarded its millionth customer with a free upgrade on her flight to Europe.

o American, in its quarterly financial report, reported that online booking at its AA.com website totaled $133 million for the third quarter, an increase of 303% over the same period in 1998. Weekly gross revenue from AA.com was as much as $14.3 million in the third quarter.

>> More <<
o American
o Delta

<< R E A D E R R A N T S & R A V E S >>

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TWA
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I am a frequent flier with TWA, and wish to express my dissatisfaction with a flight the other day from Houston Intercontinental to St. Louis on flight 678. I find it unacceptable that a 2 hour flight leaving at 6:35PM serves a bag of pretzels as the only snack. How would any business traveler have time to even get a snack before getting to the airport assuming you had a regular business day in Houston? First class is supposed to mean something to the frequent flyer, but on TWA all it means is a larger seat. This is the only airline I fly that supplies coach service in what is supposed to be first class. Just do it right and don't try to save $2.00 on your best (many times Y fare) customers. You'll save yourself into Chapter 11 again.

 - Paul

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Hotel Phone Charges
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I have noticed that some hotels are now starting to charge for toll-free "800" phone calls. After 20 minutes, a charge of 10 cents/minute is charged to the room. I noticed this charge at a Westin Hotel I stayed in recently and I was told by a Marriott employee that this policy would be enforced company-wide at Marriott very soon. As someone who uses "800" calls constantly, for everything from accessing the internet to using a calling card to call family and friends, I think this policy is disgusting.

My only hope is that the backlash from business travelers will cause hotels to reverse this policy.

 - Steve

<< B A C K O F T H E B U S >>

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LUV Nicola
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An 8-year-old girl presented the following note (with drawings of an airplane) to a flight attendant on a Qantas flight:

dear Captain

My name is Nicola im 8 years old. this is my first flight but im not scared. I like to watch the clouds go by. My mum says the crew is nice. I think your plane is good. thanks for a nice flight dont f*** up the landing

LUV Nicola

 
Until next week...