Upgrades
American Airlines has finally decided to take advantage of the problems many United Airlines fliers have experienced since the merger with Continental Airlines was completed on March 3. In an extremely rare move, American is now offering conditions-free top-elite status match to United’s most loyal customers.
Having read and heard about many United customers’ troubles after the carrier adopted Continental’s reservations system — and having encountered some problems myself — I e-mailed American spokesman Tim Smith on March 16. Smith has been the best PR person to deal with at any airline since I started writing my column in the Washington Times in 2008. I asked him whether American had any intention of capitalizing on United customers’ dissatisfaction by stealing some of them away through a status-match offer.
He involved his colleague Stacey Frantz, who works directly with American’s AAdvantage program. She said she couldn’t comment on “marketing strategies,” but it was apparent from her and Smith’s messages that American wasn’t considering such a move at the time. More than a month later, however, it decided to follow my suggestion — not that I’m taking any credit.
When the promotion first started last week, elite United fliers at all levels were eligible, but on Friday, American decided to limit participation only to United Premier 1K members, the highest published level. A memo was sent out to customer service agents on that day. So if you are a 1K, you can get Executive Platinum status on American.
The carrier is not advertising the promotion, so you need to call AAdvantage Customer Service to request an e-mail outlining the offer. Status is valid through February 2013, and all you have to do is submit proof of your current elite status with United. On the rare occasions when American has offered matches in the past, it has extended challenges, meaning you had to fly a certain number of miles during a certain period to qualify. There are no conditions this time. Challenges to Executive Platinum have been even rarer than to other levels.
But is Executive Platinum better than 1K, and is American better than United? Let’s review.
Executive Platinum advantages
This is truly American’s top elite level. Concierge Key, the unpublished super status that George Clooney’s character had in “Up in the Air,” is awarded only by invitation to very few hyper-frequent and high-paying travelers. In contract, United’s Global Services status has been given to so many people — albeit still “by invitation” — that it has somewhat devalued the 1K level.
Executive Platinum members are the only ones eligible for complimentary domestic upgrades that clear as early as 100 hours before a flight — at United, all elite fliers are, and lower-level elites on full-fare tickets trump 1K members on discounted fares. United also aggressively sells domestic upgrades at check-in for as little as tens of dollars to non-elites, while elites linger on waiting lists. As a result, the upgrade rates for 1Ks have gone down significantly.
As for international — or systemwide — upgrades, American is much more generous than United. Executive Platinum members get eight of those so-called eVIP certificates each year, compared to six for 1Ks. More importantly, on American, they are valid on all published fares, while United excludes its five lowest booking classes — S, T, L, K and G — requiring at least W class. That means you need to pay hundreds of dollars more on W class, and if your upgrade doesn’t clear, you’ve wasted your money.
American has the best domestic First Class soft product. It’s the only airline to still use linens and menus during meal service, as well as pillows and blankets on transcontinental flights. United used to have linens, pillows and blankets before the merger with Continental, but it lost them. The food also tends to be better on American. Many of its domestic planes have no in-flight entertainment at all, though wi-fi has been installed on a big part of its fleet.
As an Executive Platinum, you get Emerald status on the global Oneworld alliance, which gives you access to First Class lounges on foreign Oneworld members, such as Cathay Pacific and Qantas. The Star Alliance has only two levels, instead of Oneworld’s three, so United Gold, Platinum and 1K members get the same access to Business Class lounges.
American has dedicated agents working on the Executive Platinum phone line, and they are not only the best trained agents in the airline industry, but also the ones given the most authority and discretion to help customers in any way possible, even if that means sometimes bending the rules. United’s so-called 1K Desk is not really a dedicated desk — those agents service all callers, but 1Ks get priority in the queue.
No one knows if any of the above might change as a result of American’s Chapter 11 restructuring or in a potential merger with US Airways, but this is where things stand right now. For me, American’s main disadvantages are the limits of Oneworld, whose size is about half the Star Alliance’s, the hefty fuel surcharges imposed on award tickets with British Airways flights, and those old McDonnell Douglas planes American still flies. In addition, if you live in a United hub, it might be hard to give up nonstop flights to many destinations in favor of connections on American. That said, American often offers very low fares out of United hubs, while United does the same out of American hubs.
Premier 1K advantages
United offers 1K members so-called regional upgrade certificates, which can be used to confirm an upgrade on North and Central American flights at the time of ticketing — just like using miles or systemwide upgrades. Unfortunately, this year, United reduced the regional certificates from eight to four a year. It also eliminated the two upgrades million-mile fliers used to get annually. It’s worth noting that the Executive Platinum exclusive perk of complimentary upgrades on American compensates for the lack of certificates to a large extent, though those can be confirmed only within 100 of departure.
United offers instant upgrades without requiring any “instrument” to 1Ks on domestic M fares — all elites get the same benefit on the higher Y and B fares — as soon as the time of ticketing. The inventory is controlled separately and is not the same as regular First Class availability (it books in PN class).
United waives same-day confirmed changes on domestic flights for 1Ks, while American doesn’t for Executive Platinums. United also waives award booking, change and redeposit fees on tickets issued with 1K members’ miles — regardless of who the passenger is. American does so only if the Executive Platinum member is the passenger.
United allows stopovers on round-trip international award tickets. American permits those only in U.S. gateways — the city where you leave or arrive in the United States.
The biggest advantage United has is its membership in the Star Alliance, which has 25 member-carriers, including some of the best in the world, such as All Nippon, Asiana, Singapore, Air New Zealand and Swiss.
The biggest problem with United is that its new management doesn’t value long-term loyalty nearly as much as American’s — or United’s previous leadership team, for that matter. Unfortunately, my prediction in 2010, based on warnings from departing United executives at the time, came true after the merger was finalized. The current management apparently cares much more about making a quick buck. It prefers to sell an upgrade seat from Seattle to Washington Dulles to a non-elite flier for $99, as reported on FlyerTalk by a passenger who took advantage of that offer, rather than give the seat to a 1K member who spends tens of thousands of dollars on United a year. So much for complimentary upgrades.
At the end of the day, the choice is yours. If I’ve missed anything on either airline, feel free to let me know.
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The decision by United Airlines’ management to use Continental’s Shares reservations system for the merged carrier has been causing serious problems since its implementation last weekend. So the news that the airline is working on a new version of its IT platform, integrating some of the features of the pre-merger United’s Apollo system, is very welcome, indeed.
It was hardly surprising that CEO Jeff Smisek and his team chose to keep Shares, given that most policies and practices of the combined carrier have followed the way Continental did business under Smisek. But in this case, the decision made good financial sense — Continental has owned Shares for years, while United paid Travelport, the company that owns Apollo.
As I completed the last research trip for my upcoming book on the U.S. Foreign Service on Sunday, I was worried much less than many passengers and United employees, who had warned me not to fly during the first days of the integrated system. The merger was first announced in May 2010, so the company surely had plenty of time to prepare — and if not, it would have delayed integration, I thought.
I was wrong. On the first day of the new era, March 3, I monitored the situation from Frankfurt, where I overnighted on my way back from Iraq. Delays were widespread, which the United employees I talked to the next day attributed largely to their inability to board passengers automatically by scanning boarding passes — each person had to be boarded manually.
The other reason for the problems was how unprepared pre-merger United agents were to use Shares. They had been trained, but obviously not quite enough — actually, it may be more a matter of experience than training.
The real issue is Shares’ complexity, clumsiness, use-unfriendliness and lack of intuitiveness compared to Apollo. That was my first impression when I initially looked at it at three different airports, and it was confirmed by several longtime United employees, some of whom showed me long multiple-page instructions for basic functions, which resembled complex formulas.
Some agents are still having trouble printing boarding passes for flights for which I’d checked in online — one said, “It would have taken me five seconds in Apollo.” Others find it challenging to decipher seat maps.
I didn’t want to make a final judgment on Shares without consulting Continental employees, who have been using the system for years, and I had a chance to do that yesterday. Those agents had been sent to pre-merger United stations to help their inexperienced new colleagues — but from what I could see, there was much more demand than supply.
Those Continental agents, who also had some knowledge of Apollo, agreed with my first impressions of Shares. They also told me that Continental hadn’t invested much in modernizing Shares, but that was about to change. In a few months, they said, there will be a new version combining current features with some of the best Apollo functions.
One can only hope. The question is, why couldn’t integration wait until then? Those poor pre-merger United agents have to learn one system now, and another — apparently less complicated — in a few months?
I asked a corporate contact at United about the new plans and received the following response: “I think you’ve been hearing about a new GUI [graphical user interface] that will be added to Shares later this year. It will make it more user-friendly for our agents. We didn’t want to postpone the customer benefits that were gained by going to one passenger service system — one frequent-flier program, one website, any agent able to help any customer, etc. — by waiting until the GUI was in place.”
A task of this magnitude will always be accompanied by problems, especially at the world’s largest airline. At least for me, however, those problems have been much worse than I expected. Perhaps this is due in part to the higher numbers of pre-merger United employees compared to Continental’s — after all, United was the bigger airline.
Shares is incapable of performing some vital functions that Apollo offered. For example, upgrades using miles or certificates can no longer be waitlisted less than 24 hours before departure. So if your international flight, which you have upgraded with miles, is canceled and you are rebooked on another flight, you won’t be put on an upgrade waitlist on the day of travel. If, however, there is an available upgrade seat, you should be able to get it.
Another problem that is affecting thousands of passengers has to do with upgrades waitlisted in Apollo before the conversion. All segments waitlisted in NF booking class, which United used for upgrades to First Class, converted into ON in Shares. ON inventory exists only on three-cabin aircraft. On two-cabin planes however, the correct code is R. So if you are waitlisted in ON on a two-cabin domestic flight, you will never clear, because there will never be availability in that booking class.
United has a representative on FlyerTalk who monitors various comments, and she has indicated the carrier is aware of the incorrect conversion issue but hasn’t yet found a solution.
One of my favorite features of the old Continental website, which United’s didn’t have, was the information about where your aircraft is coming from. I was very happy it was preserved on the new site, but my happiness has been seriously tempered this week. The tool is offering plenty of erroneous data.
Just one example: Today’s flight 984 from San Francisco to Portland, OR, is operated on a Boeing 757. According to the website, the plane is coming from Monterey, CA. The problem is that the aircraft flying back from Monterey is an Embraer regional jet.
Here is the silver lining in all this: Whatever the problems at the new United, they pale in comparison to the systemic breakdowns that occurred during the US Airways-America West merger in the middle of the last decade.
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It’s no secret that the U.S. government wastes huge amounts of money on airfare, and that waste has been institutionalized. So it’s hardly a surprise that Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has done the same, as an Associated Press story pointed out yesterday.
The reason for the story was the apparent discrepancy between Paul’s crusade against excessive government spending and his own spending. But while he did waste taxpayers’ money, he didn’t break any rules. So perhaps it’s time for the rules to change.
Government employees are usually required to buy full-fare tickets — meaning Y or B booking class — when traveling on business. The main reason for that is to have the flexibility to change and cancel those tickets for free.
Because of the massive amount of business the federal government gives the airlines, they provide it with special fares, which still carry the Y and B codes but are much cheaper than the regular published Y and B fares. For instance, the discount on a round-trip coach ticket to Europe can be over $2,500. I gave a specific example in a column last July.
However, those special fares are still much more expensive than the lowest published fares, which of course come with penalties for changes and cancellations — and while most of them are non-refundable, one can almost always use the amount paid, minus the change fee, for a future ticket.
I would guess that buying regular non-special fares and paying the penalty if necessary would be much cheaper than purchasing full-fare tickets. History shows that changes are not made too frequently.
There is another source of waste. Although the government fares are free to change and cancel, that “free” applies only to the airlines, meaning there are no airline-imposed penalties. Booking government travel is handled by large travel agencies, which charge as much as $90 per transaction — every time one of their agents touches a ticket to issue, change or cancel it.
First and Business Class tickets are usually allowed only on very long intercontinental flights, though each government agency can set its own policy. The rules are often bent for top management, and members of Congress certainly fall in that category.
The AP story said that Paul flew in paid First Class dozens of times since May 2009 on Continental flights between Washington and his Texas district. In addition, even when his office bough coach tickets, he often got upgraded, because Continental offers instant upgrades on Y and B fares, depending on availability.
So while it may be more prudent for Paul to put his money where his mouth is, the much bigger question is whether the current rules for government air travel need a fresh look.
In fact, any government agency could probably save millions if it used the Kralev Method from “Decoding Air Travel.” Pardon the shameless plug, but I’d be happy to teach them.
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How do you know that an airline agent is trying to charge you much more than necessary to change a ticket? Two agents attempted that on me just yesterday, but they quickly realized they were messing with the wrong guy and retreated from their positions. The difference was thousands of dollars.
In my book, I explain why it helps to know what exactly you want before calling an airline, and more importantly, to know the outcome of an agent’s actions. I never trust agents to tell me how much I need to pay for anything — I call them simply to accomplish something I can’t do online.
A couple of months ago, I issued a Business Class ticket for a client who flew the outbound portion but had to cancel the return. I called the airline to take him off that flight and said I wasn’t ready to rebook yet but would call back when I was. The agent said, fine, call us then.
That’s what I did yesterday, but the agent I got was told by the rate desk that the new flight had to be booked at the same time the original segment was canceled — in other words, it was too late. That was the biggest claptrap I’d heard in a long time, so I hung up. After all, what was the alternative? Buying a new ticket?
I immediately called again to speak to another agent, but in the one minute that took, the first agent had managed to notate the record that changes weren’t allowed. As calm as I try to stay with reservations on the phone, spiteful agents like that one annoy me hugely. Naturally, I asked for a supervisor to make my case that the rate-desk person was wrong.
First, even if the change had to be made at the same time as the original cancellation, I should have been informed of that when I made the cancellation, if that would leave the ticket with no value — not when it was too late.
Second, the fare rules said the following: “Original reservations are cancelled prior to the original scheduled flight and the new intended travel is scheduled.” If the authors of that sentence meant that both actions had to be completed at the same time, they would have put “and the new intended travel is scheduled” before the words “prior to the original scheduled flight.” In that case, both actions would have been covered by “prior to…” — as I understand it here, the first action does need to take place “prior to…,” but not the second.
The supervisor didn’t even argue with me. She deleted the spiteful notes and authorized the change.
But the rate desk’s shenanigans were far from over. The original Z booking class wasn’t eligible for an upgrade to First Class, which was available on the new flight and my client wanted it, so he had to buy up to the higher D class. I’d looked at the airline’s tariff and determined that the difference in fare would be about $1,000.
However, the rate desk wanted to charge $4,000. Customers don’t have access to the rate desk, so I had to reason with a reservation agent. I pointed out what I’d seen on the tariff and explained that the rate desk wanted to charge a one-way D fare, but this was a round-trip ticket, and they should be charing half of the lower round-trip D fare.
The agent suggested that perhaps the lower D fare was not combinable with the Z fare on the already flown outbound flight. I had an answer to that, too: The last three letters of both fare-basis codes were the same, so they were indeed combinable. I could also prove that by booking a new reservation in Z class on the outbound and D class on the return.
She went back to the rate desk and quickly returned with the news that I was right and the fare difference would be about $1,000.
Was this incompetence or did they try to take me for a ride? I don’t know — what I do know is that something that should have taken 10 minutes took instead more than an hour to accomplish.
So make sure you do your homework and don’t trust agents, even if they tell you that they have 20 years of experience.
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Volunteering to get bumped from a flight is an issue often raised by participants in the events on my book tour. As is the case with most situations I discuss in “Decoding Air Travel,” I advice travelers to think carefully before giving up their seat and examine the alternative ways to get to their destination — and to know exactly what they would get in exchange.
U.S. airlines, which overbook flights all the time, offer discount vouchers valued at as much as $400 for bumps on domestic flights, and up to $800 on international flights. Those certificates are very tempting and can save you lots of money. In fact, many travelers take certain trips only because they have vouchers to use.
However, unless you are familiar with alternative flights that will get you to your destination, you may be asking for trouble.
I’ve never volunteered to get bumped. Comfort and convenience are very important to me during travel, so I’m unlikely to give up a Business or First Class seat for Economy.
I was prepared to relinquish my seat on a flight for the first time late last month, and even put my name on the list, but then I removed it. I was to fly nonstop from Denver (DEN) to Milwaukee (MKE) on a coach-only Canadair regional aircraft, and I could afford to arrive in MKE as much as four hours later than scheduled. I also knew my flight was oversold.
During online check-in the day before the flight, I was asked whether I’d give up my seat if it were needed, and I said yes. Later that night, however, I decided to take a look at my options. The only other nonstop flight to MKE was not until 8 p.m., which was too late for me, so I’d have to connect in Chicago (ORD). I checked out the DEN-ORD flights — there were two I could take, but one was sold out, and on the other one I would be stuck in a middle coach seat.
As soon as I got to the airport in the morning, I asked to be taken off the volunteer list.
Had I stayed on the list, I would have negotiated with the gate agent exactly what I would have received for diving up my seat, on which alternate flight I would have been rebooked, and whether I would have sat in Economy or First Class.
Even though most U.S. carriers are moving toward the discount-voucher approach, some agents might still try to give you “a free round trip anywhere in the United States.” Before you accept it, keep in mind that those certificates come with many restrictions, such as advance purchase and minimum-stay requirements. They must be booked in a certain coach booking class, which may not be available on the flights you want. In addition, you won’t earn any frequent-flier miles on that trip, and it cannot be upgraded.
A discount voucher, on the other hand, is just that — it will take $400 or more off a future ticket for you or someone else designated by you. Any restrictions depend on the rules of the fare you purchase, and any published fare is eligible. You will earn miles, including elite-qualifying ones, and you can upgrade your ticket.
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