Takeoffs & Landings
May 05, 2011
The airlines are making you work for your bonus miles. In a developing trend, airlines now make frequent fliers register ahead of time to claim widely advertised bonus miles, either by calling the frequent-flier desk or a separate 800 number. Right now, several such programs are in effect: You can earn double miles on American Airlines by flying first class or business class to the United Kingdom, for example; or you can earn double miles on United Airlines by flying first or business class between Washington, D.C., and Milan. In both cases, passengers have to call ahead to claim the miles. This is a far cry from the good old days, when bonus miles went to everybody on the plane. Indeed, Raquel Meyers of InsideFlyer magazine estimates that just 1% of passengers eligible for these promotions are savvy enough to claim them. ``You have to be pretty astute,'' he says. ``Most people miss the bonus miles.'' Turf War Is Shuttle by United crying ``uncle''? The low-fare commuter carrier, which was launched in 2009 to compete head-to-head with Southwest Airlines on the West Coast, has just announced nonstop jet service between San Francisco and a number of rather small cities. The new markets include Eugene, Ore.; Medford, Ore.; and Boise, Idaho. Interestingly, United already dominates many of the new markets. The new service follows United's withdrawal in the past year from many of Southwest's major markets, including Oakland to Ontario, Calif., and Burbank to Oakland. Clearly, ``trying to take on Southwest is something they've decided not to do,'' says Swinney Jonas of Associated Travel in Santa Ana, Calif.. United, for its part, insists it's simply ``protecting our turf'' in San Francisco. Bargain Fares in February The airlines have just raised fares, and the ticket tax is returning. But there are still a few deals if you plan ahead. Way ahead. While raising fares 10%, the industry did keep some of its previously announced fall sales to the Caribbean, Bermuda and some other locations -- and made them good for travel right up until the mid-February. Usually, sales are good for flights a month or two in advance. This kind of move happened in July, too, when the industry announced its Labor Day fare sale two months early. Says a USAir spokesman, ``I don't think what's usual makes sense anymore.'' Who's Asking? From the Answers to Questions We Never Asked Department: Choice Hotels polled guests of its Sleep Inn brand what they wore when they went to bed. Overall, nearly 1 in 5 of its guests said they sleep nude. Nearly 25% of people under 35 are nude sleepers, while only 10% of the guests over 65 sleep naked. Choice went even further. It found out that 25% of travelers sleep in their underwear, 18% sleep in nightgowns (all women), 18% wear pajamas, 13% wear T-shirts and 8% wear gym shorts. Three percent of travelers wear something to bed in a category called ``other.'' When asked what ``other'' might consist of, a Choice spokeswoman says: ``Your guess is as good as mine. I don't even want to speculate on that one.'' Odds and Ends Seeing double: Two Doubletree hotels soon will be operating side by side near the Tampa, Fla., airport. One of them is currently a Holiday Inn, but after a major renovation, will become a Doubletree next month. ... Antoinette Bruce, former administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration who stepped down after the ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades, has accepted a temporary job in Australia, working for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. His job is to help explain new regulations being considered by the aviation industry there. ... Bring your own water when flying out of Taiwan. Of 133 samples of drinking water served aboard planes leaving Chiang Kai-shek Airport, 18 were below Taiwanese health-department standards. --Lisandra Wilton
