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Volume 6, Issue 12, March 26, 2008 |
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While we’ve been seeing a new spate of airfare increases to offset rising fuel costs, the biggest sea change in travel costs is coming in the form of baggage fees and restrictions. Over the past several months both United and US Airways began charging non-premium passengers to check an extra bag. Harder for travelers to judge, and thus more important to watch, is the growing trend toward lowering the allowable weight per bag.
Examples are rampant. For example, Delta consider a bag overweight if it weighs over 50 pounds, and has raised its fee for overweight bags (between 50 and 70 pounds) from $50 to $80 (over 70 pounds, they incur standard extra-weight fees). Most major U.S. carriers consider anything over 50 pounds to incur an extra fee. Singapore Airways just lowered its weight limits for flights to and from the United States to 50 pounds, from 70, as of April 1, in all classes of service; each passenger still gets a two-bag allowance, regardless of class. Inside Asia, the airline has established a new system of excess-weight charges that varies by distance flown.
China Airlines last week dropped its weight limit for economy passengers to and from North American from 70 to 50 pounds, although business-class and first-class passengers can still have 70 pounds per bag without incurring extra charges — and if they do, they can pay for the extra charges with Dynasty Flyer points. The limits go into effect with tickets issued after April 15. Bahamasair dropped its international baggage allowance by 10 pounds, to 60 pounds; heavier bags cost $100 to $125.
Last month Malaysia Airlines took a different approach: It established a maximum weight per bag of 70 pounds. Period. If your check-in luggage exceeds that weight, you will be required to repack it into smaller, lighter bags (without penalty).
Discount carriers are especially tight with their baggage allowances. For example, Tiger Airways only allows 33 pounds of free baggage per passenger, and charges $5 a pound thereafter. Jetstar and Virgin Blue allow 44 free pounds, and only charge between $1 and $3 per extra pound.
The 50-pound limit that is becoming an international standard means you should take a good look at your luggage. If you’re bumping up against weight restrictions, a new generation of light but sturdy bags may give you more leeway. Also, remember that “wheelie” bags tend to have heavy metal frameworks for their expanding handle; can you use a trolley instead? When packing more than one bag you intend to check, divide the heavy items equally among them to avoid incurring excess in any one bag. 
As of April 1, American Airlines is ending its bonus mileage for booking flights through its Web site, becoming the last of the major U.S. carriers to do so. While some discount carriers still offer bonuses for online booking — AirTran, Frontier, JetBlue and Southwest, for example — the balance is definitely shifting the other way. The discount carriers don’t always participate in the big reservations systems, so they need to incent travelers to find them online, but it seems that for the major airlines, the online destination is well established. As a result, it is now more common to find penalties for not booking online — as much as $20 — among major carriers in the United States and Western Europe. For example, American charges $15 to book tickets by phone, $20 if you book them at an airport desk, Admirals Club or other airline travel office.
In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, travel news is coming out of that city weekly; this week, it’s the opening of a new hotel, The Emperor, next to the Forbidden City’s Imperial Palace. The 55-room hotel, part of the Design Hotels group, was formerly a university alumni club and has the classic Chinese roof and brick front, and classical Chinese music wafts through lounge alcoves that also offer LCD local-information screens. Modern guestrooms have wall-mounted flat-screen TVs with MP3 connectors. Also in the hotel are Shi, a Chinese restaurant; Yin, the rooftop bar; and Yue, the spa. Official opening date is April 18; rates start at $170.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand has launched a new Web site, AmazingThailand.TourismThailand.org, incorporating all sorts of Web 2.0 features such as user ratings and reviews, feedback, and videos. It promotes more than 300 special deals for inbound Thailand travelers, and lists more than 2,000 travel products throughout the country, from hotels and restaurants to tours, attractions and travel agents. You can search the site in such categories as nature, health, trendy activities and “Thai-ness”.
We gave you the heads-up lasts year, and now it’s official: JetBlue, as of April 1, will be offering premium seats in the front of the plane. It’s not a special cabin; in fact, it’s very similar to United’s Economy Plus seating, i.e., in JetBlue’s case, six rows of seats in the front of the plane with four inches of extra legroom (pitch). The seats can be booked in advance or, if available, as an upgrade at the airport, for a small fee: $10 for short-haul flights, $15 for medium-length flights, and $20 for transcontinental flights. You could, however, wind up in one of the premium seats for free if the economy seats fill up quickly, the airline said; passengers will not be refused coach seats simply to hold the front rows for higher-paying passengers.
Whether you love the idea or hate it, there’s no going back: Emirates Airlines has broken the sound barrier. The sound of cellphones, that is. The Airbus A340-300 from which the initial call was placed last Friday is the first of the airline’s fleet to be equipped with the AeroMobile system, which allows calls to be made from passenger cellphones, using minimum power that does not interfere with avionics. Emirates is investing $27 million to outfit its fleet with the system. Listening to other people talk on the phone isn’t new for Emirates passengers, however; the airline is already equipped with working phones at every seat, as well as email and text-messaging via the inflight entertainment system.
The Aeromobile system is activated once the flight reaches cruising altitude and can be blocked (for instance, at night) at the crew’s discretion. Additional features, such as enabling BlackBerry email, are due later this year. Personal cellphones cannot be used on Emirates aircraft that have not yet received the AeroMobile upgrade.
Virgin America
Economy class, New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX)
tel 877 359 8474
www.virginamerica.com
We began boarding at 7 a.m., and I noticed the physical differences between Virgin and other domestic carriers as soon as I entered the cabin, with the advertised “mood lighting” creating a soothing indigo and pink glow on the fuselage ceiling. The black leather seats were new, and felt larger than other carriers. The 9-inch video screens on each seatback looked inviting. A translucent, blue Plexiglas divider separated the main cabin from two rows of first-class seats, and I wondered if the flight itself would be as nice as the physical appearance of Virgin America’s Airbus A320.
Within 20 minutes everyone was on board the JFK-to-LAX flight, eight in first class, about 140 in coach — a full flight. As a creative, well-executed, black-and-white video cartoon played on the seatback screen, VX311 pulled away from the gate at 7:35 a.m., five minutes ahead of schedule, and took off at 8:10. I checked out the entertainment system, which Virgin calls “Red,” where an array of cable TV channels, 30 different feature films ($7 each), 15 short independent films (free), games, music and radio choices are available by touching the screen or using the hand-held remote.
Food options are also presented via Red, and snacks and sandwiches can be ordered from your seat by swiping a credit card through the device. A flight attendant then delivers the order. I considered the organic cranberry-nut bar, the strawberry fruit-leather (each $1), the turkey-bacon wrap ($9), and the yogurt parfait ($7), but settled for numerous half-bottles of water, available anytime from the rear-cabin self-service bar, and my own brown-bagged fruit, dry Cheerios, and energy bars.
I spent the next five hours pleasantly working on my laptop (using the conveniently placed electrical outlet at my seat) watching CNN and ESPN, and logging on to the inflight “chat room” of Red, which would have enabled me to chat online with the nice-looking woman seated behind me in 5D, if she had been so inclined.
We landed at LAX at 11:10 am, after a comfortable flight, in a new aircraft, with a friendly and casual crew. A few days after my flight, The New York Times ran a piece by business travel writer Joe Sharkey about his flight on Virgin America. His column title, “A Cross-Country Flight That Can Cure a Bad Mood,” seemed to sum up how most of the smiling passengers on my early-morning Virgin flight felt after arriving at LAX — a rare post-flight feeling on the transcontinental route these days.
Score: •••••Ron Bernthal
Save 20 percent and earn 20,000 miles when flying US Airways’ Envoy business class transatlantic this spring — and using your MasterCard to pay for the ticket. The co-promotion between the airline and the credit card company is good for flights from any U.S. gateway to Amsterdam (AMS), Brussels (BRU), Dublin (DUB), Milan (MXP), Venice (VCE) or Zurich (ZRH) as long as they are booked online by May 5 for travel to be completed by May 10. You must register your Dividend Miles number to qualify, and use promo code USENVOY when booking. The deal is also good for economy travel, with a 10 percent discount and 10,000 bonus miles off coach fares; use promo code USEUROPE.
W Hotels are normally pricey, but during the group’s Spring Fling sale, for stays at participating W hotels through May 26, the rates are downright reasonable. Not only that, but they include two Oxygen Shots, two Spring Martinis, and 100 trees donated on your behalf to Trees for the Future's Plant-a-Tree program. Sample sale prices range from $139 a night at the W Atlanta to $319 at W New York. You may arrive any day of the week; you can also book by calling 877 822 0000, using promotion code LNG.
You have until midnight March 31 to enter Cathay Pacific Airways’ Eye Spy All-Asia Pass Sweepstakes. There is one grand prize for American residents: two 2008 All-Asia Passes on Cathay Pacific, good for travel to Hong Kong and two other cities in Asia from Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO) or New York (JFK). You must register, and can then enter once a day for the duration of the sweeps period. The same prize, but with departure from Vancouver (YVR) or Toronto (YYZ), is being offered in the Canadian edition of the sweeps.
Airlines periodically challenge the competition, and for the next month Delta is running a promotion aimed at attracting customers to its flights into or out of Charlotte (CLT), Philadelphia (PHL) and Phoenix (PHX) — all US Airways hubs. In the promotion, good for flights through April 17, SkyMiles members who register will earn triple miles for tickets booked in first class, and double miles for economy travel on Delta and Delta Connection flights.
Book by March 31 to get 15 percent off British Airways premium-economy or economy round-trip tickets for travel worldwide. You must register before booking to qualify; tickets can be used for departures from any U.S. gateway through Sept. 3.
