Oneworld
Should the new United Airlines have international first class, like the old United, or not, like the old Continental Airlines? Most frequent fliers expect a decision in favor of one of the two models, but why not go with a mixed model? Why not keep first class on routes where it makes business sense, and fly two-cabin planes where it doesn’t?
Since the two carriers’ merger was announced in May, there have been many opinions in online travel forums advocating just coach and business class, but it’s hard to see the world’s largest airline without long-haul first class at all. Continental may call its premium cabin BusinessFirst, but it’s business class.
In addition, United has already installed new first- and business class seats on more than half of its wide-body fleet, and it makes little sense to now remove first class and expand business class.
Regardless of the mechanics, there are routes that can sustain first class and actually make money, especially now that business travel has recovered from the slump during the global recession. Wouldn’t it be a luxury for United to pick and choose the routes on which it operates three-cabin planes and even change them seasonally?
Many foreign airlines have flown both two- and three-cabin aircraft on long-haul international routes for years, including United partners in the global Star Alliance, such as Lufthansa, Thai Airways and Asiana Airlines. In fact, Asiana currently flies one two-cabin and one three-cabin plane daily between Seoul and Los Angeles. In the Oneworld alliance, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas use a mixed model.
If you look at the loads in both first and business class on all those carriers, you will discover that they are selling extremely well — many flights in the next few weeks are actually sold out. As I reported last year, the recession forced some airlines to cut back on first-class service temporarily, but things now are very different.
So let’s not count United’s first class out quite yet.
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Three major travel-industry organizations begin a campaign on Tuesday to compel the airlines to disclose all fees not included in the ticket price at the same time as the actual fare — and before the ticket is issued. But will such a campaign succeed?
The groups — the Business Travel Coalition (BTC), the American Society of Travel Agents and the Consumer Travel Alliance — want consumers to sign a petition to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The text urges him “to require airlines to fully disclose their fees, whether airfares are purchased on an airline’s website or through an online or brick-and-mortar travel agency.”
The organizations plan to deliver the petition to LaHood on Sept. 23, which they have designated as “Mad As Hell Day.” They have created a special website and a YouTube channel.
“It is imperative that we, as consumers, have the ability to comparison-shop and know the full cost of a trip before committing to a purchase,” BTC Chairman Kevin Mitchell said in an e-mail message on Monday. The “airline hidden fees can surprise us at the airport, ruining our holidays, or vanquishing our business travel budgets. For example, check baggage fees can add 30%, 40% or more to the price of a ticket.”
The campaign is in support of the Department of Transportation’s Notice of Proposed Rule Making, regarding airline-passenger protections, Mitchell said.
What’s the likelihood that this initiative will be more successful than previous attempts to extract similar disclosures from the airlines? How long has the battle over false airfare advertising been going on? To this day, you see examples like this one on most U.S. airline websites: $199 each way, based on a required round-trip purchase, plus taxes and surcharges.
If a round trip is mandatory, why on earth are they quoting half of the price? It’s actually less than half, given the extra taxes. As I’ve written before, such deception is not tolerated in Europe and most other parts of the world.
If you can’t get the airlines to be open and honest about their fares, how are you supposed to force them to disclose additional fees? While everyone has to pay for the fare, many passengers are exempt from luggage, standby and other fees — an argument the airlines will no doubt use against the new campaign.
Getting those fees waived is easier than most travelers think. As I wrote in July, all you need is the lowest level of elite status on any member of one of the three global airline alliances — Oneworld, SkyTeam or the Star Alliance — to have your bags fly for free alliance-wide. And sometimes, it takes as little as 3,000 miles to achieve that.
As often happens, my advice has to do with travel education. Air travel has become a maze of rules, fees and restrictions that’s hard to keep up with. So travelers need to invest time to learn the system and find ways to work around it. My experience so far with “On the Fly” Seminars shows that most people don’t think they need to get educated. How many more fees and other frustrations will it take to change their mind?
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U.S. carriers have made major progress in listening to direct customer feedback in recent years, while foreign airlines have been less aggressive in pursuing new creative approaches. Finnair, however, is trying to change that. It’s looking for “quality hunters” — fliers who will spend two months on flights around the world and report their findings.
Product-testing and sampling is certainly not a new concept, but the scale on which Finland’s largest carrier plans to implement the program is rare — as is the public way it has chosen to recruit the four travelers it needs.
Finnair, which is a member of the Oneworld alliance, calls them “independent advisers, whose task is to travel to various destinations in Europe, Asia and the U.S. to investigate the elements that determine quality in travel.” They “are expected to communicate their impartial views and recommendations to the company on a regular basis throughout the two-month period” in October and November, the airline said in a press release this week.
In an attempt to improve its products and services in a very competitive environment, Finnair has launched a new project and created a website called Rethink Quality. This is where you can apply for one of the four slots by Sept. 26, if you can make yourself available for the duration of the exercise. That same site will feature blogs by the “quality hunters” once they begin their travels.
“The recruitment of the quality hunters is one means for Finnair to focus more
closely on issues that are important to today’s travelers,” Antti Nieminen, global marketing communications manager at Finnair, was quoted as saying in the press release.
As often happens, the release didn’t answer some of the obvious questions about this experiment: How and by whom will the winners be selected? Will they be compensated? Will they earn frequent-flier miles for the flights they take? Will they fly in economy or business class?
So I asked Nieminen and quickly received the answers. A 10-member panel of judges from Finnair and its PR agency will choose the “hunters” based on “creativity, excellent writing skills, ability to use modern technology, no-fear attitude and open mind to explore quality and provoke conversation.”
“The hunters will be paid compensation,” he said. “The exact amount is confidential contract information but can be compared with an average salary. No miles are granted to the hunters as they are flying on duty. They will be flying in both business class and economy class, since we want them to blog in a versatile manner from all angles related to flying.”
Nieminen also said that “Finnair staff will not be warned about them in advance,” so they shouldn’t receive special treatment.
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Global airline alliances are a relatively new concept, and the three existing ones have naturally had to create their own rules. This week’s Mexicana Airlines decision to suspend ticket sales raised serious questions about Oneworld rules and requirements.
Why did the alliance insist publicly that all was fine at Mexicana just a day before the announcement? Did the carrier fail to give Oneworld a proper warning?
On Tuesday, Mexicana filed for insolvency proceedings in Mexico and bankruptcy protection in the United States. That same day, Oneworld spokesman Michael Blunt issued a press release, assuring travelers that the Mexicana’s position in the alliance was “unaffected” by the developments.
“Mexicana has stressed that it will continue to operate normally, in line with Mexican legislation covering such restructurings. Its schedule is being maintained — though with some network and frequency changes — and it continues to take bookings and offer its full range of services. So the airline continues to offer full Oneworld services and benefits, and tickets for flights on Mexicana and its frequent-flier arrangements are unaffected,” Blunt said.
That statement reminded me of the Star Alliance’s expression of support for United Airlines when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002. But as it turned out, things with Mexicana were very different.
Late Wednesday, Mexicana stopped selling tickets. In a new press release, Oneworld called it a “temporary suspension,” adding that, “during this time, Mexicana will continue to operate most of its previously scheduled international flights as normal, but further bookings will not be accepted.”
The logical question is, How long can the airline continue to operate flights for which it accepts no bookings? More importantly, was Oneworld blindsided by the sales suspension or did it mislead customers in its first statement? Did Mexicana bother to tell the alliance what was coming up? Was it even required to do so by Oneworld rules?
Blunt didn’t respond to an e-mail I sent him yesterday with those questions.
Mexicana is Oneworld’s 11th and newest member, having joined in November 2009. Among the alliance’s other members are American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas Airways. Mexicana was part of the Star Alliance from 2000 until 2004. Interestingly, Star’s CEO, Jaan Albrecht, is a former Mexicana pilot.
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Doing something no one has ever done before is both exciting and scary at the same time. In other words, I can use all the help I can get to spread the word.
The “On the Fly” Seminars I mentioned in my column last week are now officially open for registration. The first classes will take place on June 25 and 26 in Washington. If you come, you will learn now to travel cheaply but luxuriously.
For a long time, one of my missions has been to encourage more people to travel — both domestically and internationally. I realize travel has become difficult in recent years, and most of the pleasure that used to come with it has been sucked out by the airline industry’s desperate attempts to lower costs.
There was a time — more than a decade ago — when sitting in the coach cabin didn’t bother me too much. Planes and air travel always excited me, and the promise of what awaited at the other end of my journey left me little time for self-pity. Plus, I’d take only a couple of trips a year.
But then I began traveling around the world for work, as the Washington Times’ diplomatic correspondent, and flying between three continents in a week in coach and enduring today’s airport routine started to seem really ugly. So I decided to look for ways to travel in business class — paying for it wasn’t an option, given my budget limitations, and the only alternative was to achieve the highest elite status by flying 100,000 miles a year.
At the beginning, that wasn’t too easy — it required me to fly on the same airline or its alliance partners. The global alliances — Star, Oneworld and SkyTeam — were not as big as they are today, and none of their member-carriers served some of the countries I went to. Even when they did, that option might not have been the cheapest.
With some creativity and strategic planning, however, I managed pretty well — and the benefits of top elite status changed my life. At the airport, priority lines, business lounges and red-carpet boarding have made the experience much less of a hassle. On board, I’ve enjoyed flat beds, great meals and on-demand entertainment, thanks to complimentary upgrades I’ve been able to confirm long before a flight.
The real challenge was how to maintain that combination of paying low fares and flying in luxury year after year. Since knowledge means power, I decided to take the power in my own hands and stop relying on travel agents or online booking engines to find me the best deals — by learning all I could about airfares and airline inventory, and by accessing raw, real-time airline data right from the source where it’s published.
Now I’ve decided to share my knowledge and experience with others. Come see for yourself.
