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Vol.
4 | Issue 49 | December 12, 2006 | |
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One of the new announcements was an expansion of codesharing between Northwest Airlines and Korean Air to include seven Korean international routes and six domestic Northwest routes; previously the two airlines only codeshared between Los Angeles (LAX) and Memphis (MEM). Both airlines belong to the Skyteam alliance, which has the least seat capacity inside Asia of the three major airline alliances. Asiana and ANA, both Star Alliance members, have expanded their codesharing relationship to cover all 18 Korea-Japan routes operated by both airlines. This allows easier ticketing and baggage transfer, among other benefits to travelers. Although only about 40 airlines participate in the three main alliances, their members account for more than half of all seat-miles flown, and Asian participation has been lagging. Flights going to or from Asian destinations account for only about one in four Star Alliance seats, and fewer than 10 percent of Skyteam or Oneworld seats. Codesharing is a more structured joint venture between pairs of alliance members, and can be attractive to smaller regional airlines because they can tap into the higher-powered revenue-generating ticketing operations of larger carriers; in turn, they can offer their lower local operating costs to those big airlines. China Southern is joining Skyteam in 2007,
which will more than double the alliance’s seat capacity in Asia.
Oneworld is looking to sign up Dragonair. These and other behind-the-scenes
machinations are all to the benefit of travelers looking to make more
painless, and seamless, transit through Asia. |
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| L’Avion
Taking Flight |
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Two New Terminals |
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London Frost Fair |
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Eurail Expands |
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Hop By Chopper to Newark |
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Ground
Hold A recent quick hop to New York and back on American Airlines was basically fine, and uneventful, but it did underline some of the findings of the recent Department of Transportation report about overall airline weaknesses in customer service as it pertains to delays and frequent flier information (for details, see the Dec. 5 issue of eFlyer). Once on board the aircraft (in this case, an S80), everything was perfectly fine, with comfortable seating (for coach), decent service, clean cabin and restrooms, and so on. I was even able to go online six hours before the return flight and change to a pair of bulkhead seats. The only complaint I had, in either direction, was that on my return flight, while I enjoyed the extra legroom of the first row of coach, thanks to American’s recent upgrade of its first-class amenities I got to “enjoy” my little free snack bag of club mix (pretzels, etc.) while smelling the food cooking for the first-class passengers. On the ground, however, it was another story. As is typical of December weather, there were delays in both directions. In Tampa, we boarded the plane on time, but then the captain announced, “As you know, we were supposed to have an hour and a half delay” (we didn’t know) but that it had been cut down to 20 minutes. Sure enough, we took off 20 minutes late, but made up so much time in the air we actually landed ahead of our scheduled arrival time. For the return flight, there were snowstorms in Chicago wreaking havoc with American’s overall schedule, and wind gusts in New York that were causing air traffic control to space out the takeoffs and landings more than usual. On the “Departures” board, some flights showed cancellations, others delays. Ours had no comment. The flight was originally scheduled to depart at 6:25 p.m., but my boarding pass showed 7 p.m.; that was the first clue. At the gate, 7 p.m. was posted as the departure time. Then I happened to wander past the gate agent’s desk again and saw that it had been changed to 7:15; there had been no announcement. I asked several airline employees about the reason for the delay, and mostly got shrugged shoulders. One said, “It’s La Guardia; delay is its middle name.” We finally boarded about 7:20; no announcements were ever made about the delay. As the DOT report indicated, passengers like to know whether they’re waiting for a plane that’s still stuck in a storm on the other side of the country, or are just backed up by ATC holds, but American didn’t seem to feel any need to share that information with us. The DOT report also made mention of the airlines “hiding” some of their frequent flier program info. I had that experience, too. I was 200 miles short of an award level and did some qualifying shopping to put me over the top. It didn’t go through in time — I was cutting it too close — but I still decided to buy miles (I had to buy 1,000, the smallest increment) for $50, which was a lot cheaper than the full fare. Somehow along the line, however, they also imposed a $32 handling fee, and another $5 fee, for what, I still don’t know. You have to go to a lot of different screens to find out all that information, and I agree with the DOT report — it’s a lot more opaque and more of a hassle than it needs to be. Score: ••••• Mary
Hunt | ||
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Mix Business With Family |
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Africa Under $1,000 |
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CSA’s Holiday Bonus |
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| Save A Grand On Amazon Cruise A couple can save $1,000 by choosing the Jan. 5 departure of International Expeditions’ Amazon Voyage. The $500-per-person discount drops the top cabin price of $2,998 to $2,498, so it’s about a 17 percent savings. Airfare is not included. The 10-day cruise package includes a tour of Lima and a flight to Iquitos, where passengers board a riverboat to visit various Amazon ports of call, with visits to local villages and talks by naturalists about rain forest ecology and wildlife.  |
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Triple Starwood Pacific Points |
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© 2006 FXExpress Publications Inc. All rights
reserved. Reproduction and/or distribution of eFlyer is strictly
forbidden without the written authorization of the publisher. |
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Produced by Mercury Solutions - www.mercury-solutions.com |
