Continental Airlines to join Star Alliance

by Grant Martin on

Continental just issued a press release saying that they’re entering a cooperative agreement with United Airlines, saying the two airlines will “cooperate extensively, linking their networks and services worldwide to the benefit of customers, and creating revenue opportunities and cost savings and other efficiencies.” This means that Continental will also join United in the Star Alliance.

For those of you who follow airline alliances, this means that CO will be dropping Skyteam, whose partners include Delta, KLM and Northwest, and picking up partners such as Lufthansa and US Airways.

Basically, Continental Onepass members won’t be able to accrue or spend miles on Skyteam anymore (similarly, partner airlines can’t spend miles on CO), but they can on Star.

It does not, however, mean that the airlines are merging — only that they’ll be collaborating on many routes, codeshares and other logistics.

In the current airline industry, this change was almost inevitable. Carriers are looking at ways to collaborate on operations and cut costs, just like Northwest and Delta announced earlier this year. With the two airlines’ combined routes and networks, a stronger entity will now exist that can better compete with the soon to be uber Delta Airlines.

No word yet on when exactly the alliance changes will take place and a schedule for the official divorce from Skyteam airlines. But if you were thinking about booking a ticket with your Skyteam miles on CO, now might be a good time to do it.

More free miles: Northwest elite members get 50% bonus

by Grant Martin on

Perhaps as a result of some of the recent increased marketing (read: fare sales) lately or perhaps because of the pending mergers and passengers switching carriers, several airlines have been pitching to frequent fliers in an attempt to retain their business. I posted earlier on double miles promotions on Delta and American, two classic examples of the pitches.

Northwest just launched a similar promotion: now, any elite member who purchases and travels on a flight before August 31 is eligible for a 50% bonus on their earned miles. Real quick, since I know you guys hate numbers, you’ll thus now earn the following miles for a sample Detroit – Los Angeles leg:

Silver Elite: 1980 base miles + 990 Silver Elite miles + 990 bonus miles = 3960 miles
Gold Elite: 1980 base miles + 1980 Gold Elite miles + 990 bonus miles = 4950 miles
Platinum Elite = 1980 base miles + 2475 Platinum Elite miles + 990 bonus miles = 5445 miles.

So on a roundtrip you could be earning as much as 11,000 miles, or about 2/5 of a free domestic ticket. Neat huh? Of course you have to be an elite member to reap any of these benefits, which means you have to fly at least 25k miles a year anyway. So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Sound like any tax plans you’ve seen recently?

Check out Northwest’s promo page if you want to participate.

Beer + gadgets + travel = heaven

by Grant Martin on

Three of my favorite things in one place. Could I be any happier? I’m currently sitting in the Northwest Worldclub in Tokyo, waiting five hours for my flight to Honolulu, where I have a thirteen hour layover before I take another redeye to Los Angeles, where I’m connecting home to Detroit. Total time in transit? About 36 hours.

But at least I’ve got this beer machine to keep me company. I have a feeling we’re going to become great friends in the next five hours.

What Northwest Airlines wrote to me

by Jamie Rhein on

As a person with oodles of frequent-flier miles, you can bet when I read about Northwest’s merger with Delta our miles flashed before my eyes and headed down a drain until I mentally fished them out. Should we book that flight to Copenhagen, Denmark even though we’re holding out for Asia next summer?

When I headed to my in-box, there was an e-mail from Northwest Airlines telling me not to worry about my World Perks miles and Elite status. They are safe and will not be affected by the merger. The message also pointed out that this merger will give me more options to use those miles because of the increase of the routes and the global reach. What I want is for them to fly to Vietnam.

I’m glad that Northwest sent me a warning along with the time frame of when changes could occur. It does make me feel part of Northwest’s radar–like possibly they care. Letting customers know what is going on is key in today’s uncertain world. It instills confidence and keeps customers coming back.

A few year’s ago, when we were flying Northwest to Taiwan and had to be rerouted to Honolulu due to engine failure, we were told what was going on during each step. It was clear that Northwest was prepared to make sure that we were comfortable and happy. The engine trouble resulted in a two-night stay at the Sheraton Waikiki with vouchers for breakfast and dinner–not too shabby. United Airlines lost my business because when the same thing happened on a flight from L.A. to Singapore, we were treated terribly. I have yet to forgive them.

Despite the e-mail, I’m not quite comfortable because our mile accumulation is a hefty amount that I’d hate to lose. I’m the type that hoards for a better day. That day might be now. I’ve started looking into that Denmark trip just in case. As Grant also wrote, better play it safe to not be sorry later.

What does the NWA & Delta merger mean for passengers?

by Grant Martin on

The news, so to speak, is inevitable, as last night’s news and this morning’s press conference are confirming: Delta and Northwest Airlines are to merge. Together they will form the world’s largest airline capable of moving more passengers to more corners of the globe in fewer steps — so they say.

What does this mean for the current passenger of each respective airline? As far as routes and operations, not much will immediately change. It will take 6-8 months to iron out the details of the operation, during which the airlines will continue to operate independently. Afterwards, corporate says they’ll be keeping all of the hubs between the two cities, keeping all of the small local routes and maintaining all of the operations that you now hold dear.

Whether or not that is true is another question — the two airlines would have seven hubs in North America with six east of the Mississippi and five in a pretty straight line between Atlanta and Minneapolis. That doesn’t seem like a great way to geographically approach a hub and spoke system.

Regardless, all routes and schedules are guaranteed, so if you have or want to book a ticket now, go ahead — you’re in no danger of losing it. Indeed there are only a few overlapping routes between the two airlines, so it’s pretty unlikely that they’ll mess with any of your flights; if they do, they’ll rebook you on Delta and you’ll be fine.

For now, both carriers claim that their mileage programs and miles will remain in tact. Multiple press releases, corporate words and their new special website repeat this and I believe this true to the point that your miles won’t be erased. What they could do, however, is screw with the quality of the miles — after all, each mileage program is set up with different milestones and redemption levels — one is going to have to adopt the other’s policy.

Naturally, the airlines want you to believe that Your Favorite Hub and Your Special Miles are going to be safe in the merger. If you cash in your miles that’s money out of the bank and if you lose faith in your hub your business is going to go elsewhere. So don’t plan on them telling you anything that’s really going to happen any time soon.

If you want to play it safe, I would use some of those miles right now and start shopping around for tickets. It’s not too difficult to redeposit your miles if you decide you want to keep them and in the mean time they’re in a safe place (invested in your vacation). And if you really really don’t know what to do with your miles, leave a comment below and I’ll tell you how to get rid of them. Trust me, you don’t want to waste your 100k miles on 70 years of Newsweek subscriptions yet.