One of the big questions of the United-Continental merger is whether the domestic premium cabin will be sold as first class, as is currently the case with United, or business class, which is what Continental does. For customers’ sake, that cabin should be sold as business class.
This is not just about a name — it affects booking classes and flight inventory, and the present discrepancies between domestic and international flights can be very confusing for passengers, and sometimes even for agents.
The domestic first-class designation is a tradition started decades ago, when all commercial planes had two cabins of service. But then along came business class, and the major network carriers ended up with three cabins on international flights. Currently, only United and American Airlines offer three-cabin service.
However, even carriers with two-cabin international flights call the premium cabin business class, while continuing to label the same cabin as first class on domestic flights. That’s the case with Delta Airlines and US Airways. Continental’s policy is confusing in a different way — it calls the front cabin first class, but if you look at its inventory, you’ll see that it uses business-class booking codes for it.
On United’s two-cabin narrow-body aircraft, the same cabin that is sold as first class on domestic flights is sold as business class on flights to Central America. For example, here is the inventory for Flight 209 from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles on Sept. 3, operated on a two-cabin Airbus 319 (the bolding of the premium codes is mine):
F2 A1 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S6 T6 L5 K5 G1
As many of you know, the letters F and A signify first class. Compare that to Flight 823 from Washington Dulles to Mexico City on the same day, also operated on a two-cabin Airbus 319. The letters J, C, D and Z signify business class:
J4 C4 D4 Z0 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T9 L9 K9 G0
Now let’s look at an intercontinental flight, United 916, from Washington to Frankfurt, again on Sept. 3. We see both first and business-class inventory, as the flight is operated on a three-cabin Boeing 777:
F4 A4 J9 C9 D9 Z9 Y9 B9 M9 E0 U0 H9 Q6 V3 W0 S0 T0 K0 L0 G0
Things are about to get much more confusing. As I’ve written before, United is one of the biggest champions of what I call fake “direct” flights. Those are two separate flights that have nothing in common but a number. In this case, United sells its morning flight from Seattle to Washington with the same number 916. Why? Because that allows it to market it as a “direct” Seattle-Frankfurt flight, deliberately misleading customers, most of whom make no differentiation between a direct and nonstop flight.
Seattle-Washington is operated on a two-cabin Boeing 757 — yet, if you look at the inventory, you’ll see that United is selling it as a three-cabin flight, because in theory it’s the domestic connection to the truly three-cabin Washington-Frankfurt flight:
F7 A7 J7 C7 D7 Z7 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H0 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 K0 L0 G0
So what happens if you want to upgrade on this flight? Do you upgrade to business or first class? The rule is that you can upgrade to the next higher class of service — according to the inventory, that’s business, but according to the aircraft, it’s first. What if upgrade space is not available in business, but is open in first? Are you allowed to jump over business into first and, in effect, get a double upgrade? Well, it’s not really a double upgrade because there is just one premium cabin.
United’s inventory management tries to align the seat availability in business and first class on those fake three-cabin flights, but sometimes they fail to do so. Perhaps they are confused, too. I’ve had occasions when I was waitlisted for an upgrade on one of those flights, and there was an upgrade seat available in the business-class inventory (the code United uses for that is NC), but not in first (code NF).
Once, I was on a two-cabin flight from Portland, Ore., to Chicago, which had the same number as a flight from Chicago to London. There was NC space, but not NF. My upgrade wasn’t clearing, so I called United and asked for a supervisor. She explained that, because this was a domestic flight, I needed NF space to get the upgrade — but it would have cleared had that been an international flight. I was furious, of course — it’s the same freaking cabin; why are we arguing about NC and NF codes? The upgrade did clear the next day.
More recently, I was on a two-cabin Washington-San Francisco flight that was sold as a three-cabin, because United markets it as the “continuation” of its Dubai-Washington flight. Guess where my upgrade was booked? That’s right, NC. So was that supervisor earlier wrong? Who knows…
Wouldn’t it be much easier for everyone if the domestic premium cabin was called business class? The only argument I’ve heard in favor of keeping the status quo is that passengers are used to domestic first class. I wouldn’t worry about that — they weren’t used to paying baggage fees, either.
The United-Continental merger, which received a green light from the Department of Justice last week, is a good opportunity to do something that should have been done years ago, when the rest of the world changed with the times.
Of course, it would be even better if United got rid of those fake “direct” flights — a practice Continental doesn’t use as widely as United — but more about that next week.
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Continue reading about Why new United should have domestic business — not first — class
If you check in to a smoke-free hotel, you are usually warned that you’d be fined for smoking in your room and even required to initial a written warning. It turns out, however, that you can easily get away with no charge unless a hotel employee catches you while smoking.
I stayed at one of those smoke-free hotels in Wichita, Kan., this week and initialed one of those pieces of paper saying the fine would be $250 if the smoking ban wasn’t observed. I’ve never smoked and am, in fact, allergic to smoke, so I was very happy with the policy. But as soon as I opened the door to my assigned room, the unpleasant smell hit me.
The only other available room was a penthouse-style suite, so I was of course happy to move. My first night was, indeed, smoke-free, but the following night things changed. I smelled cigarette smoke on the suite’s lower level, but the bedroom on the upper level seemed fine, so I didn’t complain to the hotel staff.
Big mistake. Early in the morning, I was awoken by that smell. I asked housekeeping to come and figure out the source of the smell, so I wouldn’t be charged the fine. They reported that the guest in the room below mine had been smoking. I said I hoped he’d be fined — only to be told that he’d just checked out, and they couldn’t fine him unless they had caught him in the act. “It’s my word against his,” the housekeeping supervisor said.
Had I complained the night before while he was smoking, things would have been different. That was the last time I hesitate before complaining in a hotel.
Continue reading about Hotels find smoking fines hard to charge
It has been more than seven months since the new U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) has been mandatory for airlines that fly citizens of visa-waiver countries to the United States. Yet some carriers’ computer systems are reportedly experiencing serious problems, resulting in denied boarding for travelers with valid ESTAs.
Last week, I received a disturbing e-mail message from an Austrian citizen who had read my previous coverage of ESTA issues. On July 5, she wasn’t allowed on a Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) flight from Stockholm to Chicago, for which the carrier blamed problems with the passenger’s ESTA.
In fact, the customer, who asked that her name not be used because she hasn’t yet resolved the matter with SAS, had a valid ESTA on which she had previously traveled to the United States. The validity was confirmed by my sources at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the federal agency in Washington that administers ESTA.
There were no signs of any problems when the passenger checked in at the SAS counter in Stockholm, according to her account. Her boarding pass, a copy of which she sent me, clearly shows “API OK,” which means that all necessary documentation was in order. However, when the boarding pass was scanned at the gate, it produced a sound indicating that not everything was actually in order.
She was then sent to a customer-service counter, where only one agent was equipped to handle ESTA issues, and she had to wait in line — with her flight already boarding. A German citizen in front of her in the queue had the same problem, but the agent was able to request a new ESTA for him that was instantly approved, and the SAS system was able to establish a link with the ESTA system and issue a boarding pass.
But the Austrian traveler had no such luck. No fewer than six new ESTA requests were approved as soon as the agent submitted them, but the SAS computer was never able to link them to the airline’s boarding system.
The passenger missed her flight and was told that no seats were available to the United States for the next two weeks. Her “dream vacation,” as she called it, which had taken weeks to plan, never happened. SAS refunded the miles she had used for the award ticket, as well as the money paid for taxes, but she claims she lost about $2,500 in non-refundable domestic U.S. airline tickets, and hotel, rental car and tour reservations.
SAS has yet to respond to her letters, but that’s not what she’s most worried about.
“What makes me angry is that they are obviously having problems with passengers traveling on [non-Scandinavian] passports and have not bothered to do anything about it — not even a simple measure, such as asking these people to show up at the boarding gate a little earlier to settle things,” the Austrian passenger said.
I e-mailed SAS spokeswoman Elisabeth Manzi in Stockholm asking whether the carrier was aware of the problem and if it’s doing anything to fix it. Instead of responding, Manzi forwarded my message to Martina Vercellini, a customer-relations representative in Frankfurt, who wrote me that she would contact the Austrian traveler directly. It’s not clear why SAS hasn’t done so seven weeks after the incident.
Still, as the passenger suggested, the problem is bigger than her. “Now I’m wondering how to avoid similar problems in the future,” she said. “For my next trip to the U.S., I’m very much leaning towards getting a visa beforehand, whether it is necessary or not” — and despite the $140 visa application fee.
On Sept. 8, DHS will start charging ESTA applicants $14 — $10 for the new Congress-mandated U.S. “travel promotion” initiative, and $4 to “recover the costs incurred [for] providing and administering the ESTA system.” Perhaps DHS could make sure that airlines are capable of verifying the validity and authenticity of an ESTA, so fee-paying travelers aren’t denied boarding for no good reason.
It’s important for passengers to know that each ESTA is linked to the passport for which the ESTA was originally requested, so if you get a new passport, you also need to apply for a new ESTA. That wasn’t the case with the Austrian citizen — she has had the same and only passport since 2002.
My DHS sources also told me that tens of thousands of people are applying for an ESTA every day. If you want to beat the $14 fee, make sure you apply before Sept. 8 — an ESTA is valid for two years, so it makes sense to do it if you plan at least one U.S. visit in that period.
Many travelers consider ESTA a de facto visa — except that it’s much cheaper and faster to get than a regular visa, for which you have to be interviewed by a U.S. consular officer, wait in long lines and sometimes travel long distances from your hometown.
Currently, 36 countries participate in the visa-waiver program, but that number can change at any time, as their qualification is reviewed periodically. To be eligible for an ESTA, you must stay in the U.S. no longer than 90 days and possess a machine-readable passport. Other passport security features also apply, depending on the issuing country.
Just like with a visa stamped in your passport, holding a valid ESTA doesn’t guarantee you admission to the United States, which is at the discretion of the immigration officers at the point of entry.
However, if you have a valid ESTA linked to the passport you are traveling on, and no warning has been issued by the U.S. authorities against you, airlines should be able to verify that and let you on the flight you’ve paid for.
Related stories:
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U.S. visa-free travel comes with strings
Readers’ interest in United Airlines’ practice of massively blocking award seats otherwise made available for mileage redemption by United’s partners in the global Star Alliance doesn’t seem to subside, judging by the feedback I get and the web traffic on this site’s pages dedicated to the issue. So it’s time to clarify some misconceptions about the infamous StarNet blocking.
Earlier this week, I received a complaint from Norma Brandsberg, a reader from Virginia, that United is “blocking an award through Continental” Airlines. “United’s own site is showing availability,” but “Continental is not seeing the open seats in their system,” she wrote.
Brandsberg mistakenly thought that what she discovered was part of StarNet blocking. However, the controversial practice doesn’t involve seats on United flights — only seats on flights operated by other Star carriers, such as Lufthansa, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines and others. United denies members of its Mileage Plus program access to those seats to avoid paying its partners for them.
What Brandsberg is comparing are two completely different things. First, she looked at award seats United has made available to book with United miles — inventory reserved only for Mileage Plus members. But then she tried to use Continental miles to book those same seats, only to find out that they are not available to members of Continental’s OnePass or any other Star Alliance program.
Every airline in the alliance has the right to set aside certain award inventory only for its own frequent fliers, and it has no obligation to offer that inventory to its Star partners. The seats it decides to provide to partners are published on the common IT platform known as StarNet. So contrary to Brandsberg’s understanding, United wasn’t “blocking an award through Continental” — rather, United wasn’t offering those seats on StarNet to any of its Star partners.
In a related misunderstanding, many travelers wrongly accuse United of blocking partner seats. For example, they call Swiss International Airlines and are told that seats are available on a certain Swiss flight — they can also see those seats on ExpertFlyer. Then they call United, which is not seeing availability, and conclude that “StarNet blocking” is in force.
That conclusion would be correct only if you confirm that Swiss is offering the seats in question on StarNet. The best way to do that is to consult the All Nippon Airways (ANA) website, which has the most comprehensive free online StarNet tool but requires that you have an ANA account with miles in it. The paid KVS tool is another option, and the Continental and Air Canada websites show limited partner inventory. ExpertFlyer tends to display seats offered by an airline only to its own customers and not to partners.
There have been recent reports from United customers that United is less aggressive with StarNet blocking these days, and of course we all hope that the practice will be discontinued after the merger with Continental.
Related stories:
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United executive breaks old barriers
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Captain Dennis Flanagan, the United Airlines pilot I profiled last year, just reminded me about the upcoming anniversary of the September 11 attacks and the scholarship fund in the name of his former colleague, Captain Jason Dahl, who was at the controls of United Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
The charity, whose official name is the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund, was established soon after the pilot’s death by his wife Sandy. Each year, two aviation students — one at Dahl’s Alma Mater, San Jose State University, and one at Metro State University in Denver, where Dahl lived — are awarded $5,000 grants. There have been 16 recipients so far.
The fund’s ambition is to expand and offer scholarships nationally, and it uses this time of year to do fund-raising, said Flanagan, who is better known as Captain Denny. “It seems the farther we get away from that tragic day, the less people remember. Our goal is to keep Jason’s memory alive and not let anyone forget,” Flanagan said.
You can learn more about the fund, its board of directors and past scholarship winners on its website, where you can also make a contribution.
“Jason Dahl represented the best in the American aviation community, always providing assistance to others in both his chosen vocation and his community,” the site says. “The family and friends of Captain Jason Dahl strive to be more like him.”
As has been well documented in press reports, Dahl, who was 43, wasn’t originally scheduled to work that fatal flight on Sept. 11, 2001. He traded trips with a colleague so he can take time off for his wedding anniversary on Sept. 14. Still, he seems to have had second thoughts, as he later sent out an e-mail message looking for another pilot to replace him on Flight 93.
The hijacked flight, a scheduled service from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco and the subject of the film “United 93,” is believed to have been headed to Washington. The Boeing 757 aircraft was ultimately brought down by passengers who apparently stormed the cockpit and attacked the hijackers. The plane crashed in a field in Stonycreek Township, near Shanksville, Pa.
Most of us remember where we were and what we were doing when we first heard of or saw those planes smashing into the World Trade Center. Each year on Sept. 11, commemorative ceremonies take place in New York, Washington and in that Pennsylvania field.
As it happens, this year I’ll be teaching an “On the Fly” Seminar in New York on that day, and two weeks later in Boston, from where the two planes that hit the Twin Towers departed. We have our own ways of remembering and paying respects, and mine is helping travelers make their journey less stressful and more enjoyable.
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Continue reading about 9/11 pilot scholarship plans expansion
