The Flying Critic

Mileage Award Changes at Alaska, Continental, and Delta

This week Alaska, Continental, and Delta announced changes to their mileage awards.  Gary from View from the Wing posts about the changes:

Alaska Increases Award Prices and Introduces Partner Fees.

More on Delta’s 3-Tiered Award Pricing.

Continental to Restrict “EasyPass” (aka RuleBuster/Standard) Awards for Non-Elites.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air adds $25 fee for 2nd checked bag

Starting July 1, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air will start charging $25 to check a 2nd bag.  Follow the link to their website for a list of exceptions (first class, elites, international, etc.). 

How to sit in first class on Alaska Airlines with a companion for coach prices

Gary from the View from the Wing blog posted an excellent article on how to sit in first class on Alaska Airlines with a companion for about the same as the regular coach fare:

...one of the great values in airline travel is, in my view, the Bank of America companion ticket used to purchase Alaska Airlines first class travel for two.

Gary details how complimentary and paid-with-miles upgrades used to work on Alaska and points out how difficult they can be to use these days because of Alaska's small first class cabin and lower first class prices. 

His tip is the Alaska Airlines branded Bank of America credit card that gets you a $50 companion ticket every year.   These companion tickets can be used without capacity restrictions for first class tickets. 

Alaska Airlines normally prices their first class tickets about double their regular coach prices.  So if you are are traveling with a companion you can use these companion tickets to get in first class for almost no extra cost. 

Great tip Gary! Thanks for sharing.

Alaska Air Group reports 1Q results: loses $35.9 million - respond with fleet changes and more fees

Alaska Air Group Reports First Quarter 2008 Results: They lost $35.9 million.  Fuel costs strike again.

Two big announcements in their earnings report:

First, Horizon Air is going to get rid of their 20 CR7s regional jets over the next two years (in addition to losing their 12 Q200s that they already announced are going bye bye).  They are going to switch to a single aircraft fleet of Bombardier Q400 turboprops.  The Q400s seat 76 and burn 30 percent less fuel than the CR7s.  Having a single aircraft type also saves money on spare parts, training, and maintenance.  Horizon will have to reduce some flight frequencies because of fewer planes.

The second big announcement is a marathon of fee increases:

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air plan to raise certain fees to better align them with the current costs of providing added services. These include increasing the charge for booking through reservations and airport sales agents from $10 to $15, raising the fee for overweight baggage from $25 to $50, increasing the charge for transporting pets in the cabin from $75 to $100 one-way, and raising the unaccompanied minor fee from $30 to $75 for one-way nonstop flights and from $60 to $75 for connecting flights. The increases are effective May 21, 2008.

By summer, the airlines also will begin charging $25 for a second checked bag. First class and top-tier Mileage Plan members and customers on flights within the state of Alaska will be exempt from the new fee.

Inflight WiFi? Several airlines have announced plans to start testing

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article today on the status the testing of inflight WiFi on airplanes in the USA.  It's an interesting read.   Here is their list of the status of WiFi testing by US domestic airlines:

-- Alaska Airlines: Testing wireless Internet access this summer

-- American Airlines: Testing service on 15 planes by mid-year

-- Continental: Testing limited wireless next year

-- JetBlue: Currently testing one plane offering limited Yahoo e-mail, IM chat and BlackBerry e-mail service

-- Southwest Airlines: Testing service on four planes in late summer

-- Virgin America: Testing service late this year

I question the reality of AirCell's claim regarding speed and network capacity:

The company said the setup can deliver 3 Mbps to the plane, which is compressed and allows travelers to share the equivalent of a 15 Mbps connection.

I have a hard time believing that they can deliver network capacity that is equivalent to a 15Mbps connection when the plane only will have 3Mbps of bandwidth.  Most pictures and other components of web pages are already highly compressed.  Compressing an already compressed file doesn't generally make it any smaller.

This service will work great when there are only a couple of people using it - but the more popular it becomes the worse it will be.  Don't get me wrong, I think inflight WiFi is a great idea and should be pursued.  I just don't like vendors who make promises they can't keep.

Horizon/Alaska announce new non-stop service between Los Angeles, CA (LAX) and Flagstaff, AZ (FLG)

Horizon Air/Alaska Airlines announced on March 31st that on June 23 they will begin twice daily non-stop service between Los Angeles, CA and Flagstaff, Az. 

Horizon/Alaska will fly their 74 seat Bombardier Q400s on the new route. 

This will hopefully bring some competition to the Flagstaff market, which has been dominated by US Airways/Mesa with their 5-6 daily flights to/from Phoenix.

The flight will earn 500 miles on Horizon/Alaska's Mileage Plan and flights before September 1 will earn double miles.

Here is the flight schedule:

Flight Number	Depart Flagstaff	Arrive Los Angeles
2497	6:40 a.m.	8:20 a.m.
2499	4:10 p.m.	5:50 p.m.
	Depart Los Angeles	Arrive Flagstaff
2316	1:55 p.m.	3:35 p.m.
2318	7:40 p.m.	9:20 p.m.