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airfarewatchdog – Get answers to all your airline related questions!

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:57:59 +0000

I found out about airfarewatchdog a couple of years ago when I was searching for airfare deals, and since then I became a huge fan of these guys. Their search engine is not really that different from many others I typically use, though their fare alerts typically show unadvertised deals, based on the departure airport(s) and destination you choose in your profile.

Nonetheless, the big value-add of airfarewatchdog is in the Q&A section. There you’ll find all the answers that you once had and and didn’t know who to ask. By subscribing to their newsletter you can get those Q&As directly in your inbox and if have stepped on a plane recently, you will find at least one of their tips quite useful.

For you to have an idea, these are some topics I’ve learned from them:
- How Bereavement fees work in airlines
- Best time of the year to book your next vacation
- Information on Baggage Fees
- What to do when the airlines lose your luggage
- Compensation when they sell out or cancel your flight
- and many many more….

Check out their website and let me know what you think or how it was useful for you!

airfarewatchdog – Get answers to all your airline related questions! is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

This post was submitted by Kris.

Booking an Award Trip? Here are some tools!

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:14:16 +0000

I had mentioned about Expert Flyer here on kristraveler.com before. Here’s another article from the WSJ that gives more details of how it works and also mentions another tool – MileageManager.

——————–

Have Miles but Can’t Get a Seat? How to Snare One

JANUARY 14, 2010 By SCOTT MCCARTNEY

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Even though recession-weary consumers may want to cash in frequent-flier miles to get free trips and upgrades more than ever these days, it’s gotten harder to snare those awards.

Continental Airlines, the only U.S. airline to report award redemptions monthly, says awards and upgrades claimed in its frequent-flier program were down 20% in the first 10 months of 2009 compared to the same months of 2008.

And this year may be even tougher. Since airlines aggressively reduced capacity through the economic downturn, they’ve filled flights fuller with paying customers and appear to have reduced availability of award seats and upgrades. As the economy picks up, passenger demand for seats will get tighter.

“Awards and upgrades will be harder to find, unless you are constantly looking,” said Chris Lopinto, president of ExpertFlyer.com, a service used by road warriors that focuses on airline inventory and seat availability.

Landing the free seat you want using frequent-flier miles has long been one of the biggest frustrations for travelers. The prizes offered by airlines are enticing, but the seats never seem to be available on the flights and routes you want. Some people try to call airlines at midnight 11 months before the date they plan to travel—typically when booking opens for a flight—to be first in line for frequent-flier award seats. Some know to check repeatedly because airlines change inventory daily. And many give up the search, letting miles accumulate and cursing airlines for selling false hope.

New Tools

Still, there are several new tools available to help you find that elusive award. Some airlines have made it easier to find award seats—when they are available—and several Web sites have tools to help you search. ExpertFlyer and another site called MileageManager.com have award alerts that send you an email when a frequent-flier seat or upgrade opens up on a flight you want.

Airlines often hold back frequent-flier award seats or upgrades on popular flights, hoping that bookings by fare-paying passengers will be strong. But if seats don’t sell as briskly as predicted, awards can be made available for booking in reservation systems at anytime.

ExpertFlyer’s award alert feature works on 22 airlines worldwide, including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, a unit of Hawaiian Holdings Inc., in the U.S., plus Air Canada, Air China, Air France, which is a unit of the Air France KLM Group, Qantas Airways and others. ExpertFlyer says that more than 50% of customers who look for an award actually find one that works for them.

Using the alert system, it takes about 25 days on average for travelers to find the award they want, says Mr. Lopinto. His customers typically look for seats about 10 weeks in advance, and the most-searched-for award is a business-class upgrade. “More and more business travelers book into economy and then try to use their own miles to upgrade into business,” he said.

MileageManager’s AwardPlanner function lets you put in up to five different itineraries and when availability is found, AwardPlanner alerts you by email so you can book it. The award alert service works with 10 different airlines: American, British Airways, Continental, Delta, Deutsche Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.

MileageManager requires you to register your frequent flier accounts with the service, turning over your airline account number and password, before its AwardPlanner function can be used. Both MileageManager and ExpertFlyer offer free trial periods, but after that MileageManager is $14.95 per year and ExpertFlyer costs $9.99 a month.

Checking Alliances

On the airline side, road warriors suggest checking alliance Web sites—StarAlliance.com, oneWorld.com and SkyTeam.com—that show flights on partner airlines that may not be displayed on your own airline’s booking site. Those partner airlines may have award seats available, but you’ll need to call to find out. LOT Polish, for example, might offer something that doesn’t automatically show up on UAL Corp.’s United Airlines’ Web site, but you can often use your United miles to book it if you know what to ask for.

Sharon Adcock, a publicist for the entertainment industry and elite-level member of United’s program, says she usually has success using StarAlliance.com to get free tickets or upgrades even when United’s Web site says nothing is available.

“They tell me they don’t have anything and then I say, What about this one? What about that one? I manage to get award tickets the way I want,” she said.

Charles Witt, a facilities planner who travels the world, has the same kind of success using alliance Web sites.

“If you lead the airline, it can work out. That’s part of the game, too. You know the answer before you ask the question,” he said.

More Options

Airlines have long told customers that flexibility is the key to booking awards—a willingness to travel on different days or even to different cities increases your chances of finding an award. But now airlines are also becoming more flexible and giving customers more options to redeem their miles. That’s because it is actually in the airlines interest to encourage fliers to use miles.

A change in accounting rules has made it more expensive for airlines to carry unredeemed miles on their balance sheets. And miles have become a huge cash generator for airlines, primarily by selling them to credit card companies that give them out as customer rewards. If the miles lose their shine by being difficult to use, credit card companies may curb their purchases. Last year, American pre-sold $1 billion worth of AAdvantage miles to Citicorp, propping up the airline financially and showcasing the importance of miles.

In an effort to spur mileage redemption, Alaska Airlines began offering one-way awards in 2007, allowing customers to use miles for just a one-way ticket, or mix-and-match different mileage levels into one round-trip. The result has been a sharp rise in award redemption for that airline. In 2008, the number of awards redeemed with frequent- flier miles jumped 26% and mileage balances in accounts declined, according to Alaska, a unit of Alaska Air Group Inc. (The airline hasn’t yet reported 2009 redemptions.)

AMR Corp.’s American and Delta now offer one-way award pricing as well. Continental and US Airways Group Inc. also allow different award levels to be combined. A flight at the cheapest award level, typically 25,000 miles round-trip for domestic itineraries, might be available for the outbound part of a trip, but not available for the return the customer wants. Book the return at the 50,000-mile level, and you get the seats you want for a total of 12,500 outbound plus 25,000 for the return, or 37,500 miles total.

Most airlines also now offer calendars on their Web sites that quickly show customers what dates have awards available, and at what mileage levels.

Still, many consumers find using miles frustrating, especially when they focus on scarce awards like summertime trips to Europe. That’s an area where there’s huge variation in availability at different airlines.

IdeaWorks, a Wisconsin-based loyalty-program consulting firm, did 6,400 booking queries last year to rank airlines by award availability on trans-Atlantic flights. The study looked for flights between April and November and found that Iberia had the most liberal offering among 10 U.S. and European airlines, with 83% of the Iberia queries offering award seats. Lufthansa’s program was second at 66% and British Airways third at 63%.

American out-distanced U.S. airlines with 58% of queries successful. United offered awards on only 18% of queries made and US Airways, which has far fewer flights to Europe than larger rivals, offered award seats on only 4% of the queries IdeaWorks made.

The study reinforces the importance of checking partner airlines: Iberia is a partner of American, for example, but American’s Web site doesn’t automatically display all available awards on its partners, IdeaWorks noted.

Booking an Award Trip? Here are some tools! is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

AA Penalty Challenge – save 10% on your next flight with AA

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:37:50 +0000

Play AA’s soccer game to get a discount code for 10% off your next flight with AA. Offer available Sep 1 through December 31, 2009 To register and play: www.aa.com/soccer AA Penalty Challenge – save 10% on your next flight with AA is a post from: www.kristraveler.com Related posts:airfarewatchdog – Get answers to all your airline related questions! Booking an [...]

AA Penalty Challenge – save 10% on your next flight with AA is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

8 things an airline would never tell you

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:49:48 +0000

This would actually be quite funny if it wasn’t so real….

8 things an airline would never tell you - Insiders expose little-known facts the industry would rather you didn’t think about

By Alexander Basek | Updated: 5:49 p.m. ET Sept. 1, 2009

“Airport luggage scales often lie.”

It’s bad enough that the airlines charge a fee for overweight luggage, varying from $39 to $300 per bag industrywide. But it’s galling that they may also hit you with the fee by mistake.

At JFK last November, New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs found that 14 percent of the airport’s scales were not properly calibrated.

At Boston’s Logan airport, 10 percent of the scales recently inspected gave incorrect readings.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel has discovered numerous busted scales at area airports.

And the list goes on.

What to do? Stand up for yourself, especially when a scale barely tips the balance into the “overweight” category.

Brandon Macsata, executive editor of the D.C.-based lobbying group Association for Airline Passenger Rights advises passengers to weigh their bags at home first, and if the airport scale comes up with a different number, insist that your bags be weighed on a different scale.

Yes, it’s come to that.

“Our air may make you sick.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether potentially harmful fumes have been circulating in airplane cabins.

Between 1999 and 2008, air became contaminated on 926 flights, reports the FAA, without specifying any possible health risks.

Currently, the agency is looking at a particular type of “fume event” that involves “bleed air,” or air that’s been compressed by the airplane’s engines.

If there’s a malfunction in plane equipment, the air that’s fed into the cabin can be contaminated with chemical residues from engine oil — specifically TCP, or tricresyl phosphate.

“Passengers may have symptoms like tremors,” says Clement Furlong, a research professor of genome sciences and medicine at the University of Washington.

So far, federal reviews of the research have been inconclusive about whether bleed air actually endangers the health of passengers and flight crews, though two civil lawsuits about fume events are under way.

“That nonstop flight you booked? We can add a layover to it — without explanation.”

Think you scored a sweet fare on that transcontinental flight? Think again.

You may be making a previously unscheduled layover. Airlines can cancel your nonstop and rebook passengers onto flights with connections, which are obviously less desirable.

Advises Brett Snyder, author of “The Cranky Flier” and a former pricing analyst at America West: As soon as you find out that your nonstop flight has been canceled, check to see if there’s another nonstop option. If there is, call the airline and ask — nicely — to be put on it.

But if nonstop service on the route has disappeared, threaten to switch to another carrier for the trip. Major airlines will typically agree to refund your money without any fees if you refuse to accept a new, multistop flight that will arrive at your destination more than two hours later than you were originally scheduled.

“We wouldn’t tell you right away if there’s an emergency.”

The FAA leaves it up to the airline to decide if it wants to tell passengers about an engine failure or other significant crisis. And many flight crews opt to keep their lips sealed.

The reason? Flight crews don’t want to scare passengers or say something they’ll regret later.

“In one recent emergency, the cockpit crew was faulted for making a public announcement before some of the required procedures were accomplished,” explains Kent Wien, a pilot for a U.S. carrier.

So attendants tend to err on the side of being secretive to avoid trouble.

Last June, passengers traveling from Brussels to Newark on Continental Airlines were not informed when the captain died during the flight. The plane continued along its scheduled route with nary a peep from the rest of the crew, beyond a cryptic question: “Is there a doctor on board?”

“When we let you pick your seat assignment, we were only joking.”

As the airlines decrease the number of seats they fly in an attempt to eke out a profit, they’re swapping out larger planes for smaller ones more often.

Whenever fliers are put on a new plane, seat assignments are scrambled. A traveler may end up in a middle seat he or she would never have selected.

If it happens to you, there’s not much you can do — airlines aren’t obligated to honor any seat assignment.

“Passengers are actually purchasing a fare and not a seat,” says Macsata of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights.

Checking in online 24 hours prior to departure is often the best you can do to boost your chances of getting the seat assignment you want. Print your boarding pass with your seat assignment on it before you get to the airport as proof in case you need to argue with a gate agent over a last-minute switcheroo.

“Our planes are antiques.”

Compared to the rest of the world, we’re flying the airplane equivalent of grandma’s Cutlass Supreme — except Uncle Sam isn’t interested in paying cash for these clunkers.

American owns 268 MD-80 class airplanes, with an average age of 18 years old. Meanwhile, thanks to a geriatric fleet of DC-9s, Delta and Northwest’s average fleet age is 13 years old.

In contrast, Emirates has an average fleet age of about 5 years. Singapore Air’s is 6 years. And, while Ryanair is often faulted for lacking basic amenities, its planes average less than 3 years of age.

Luckily, U.S. airlines aren’t having problems maintaining their aging aircraft from a safety standpoint, notes Bill Voss, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation. “There’s no real indication of anyone cutting corners,” says Voss. “Planes don’t age like wine, but they do remain flight-worthy with proper maintenance.”

The FAA doesn’t have a maximum age limit for planes, though it does require more frequent inspections for planes that have flown for more than 14 years.

So if you’ve ever wished you had a personal seatback flat-screen TV instead of having to share a view of a cathode-ray tube in the aisle — well, now you know the reason.

“Our crew is totally exhausted.”

Airline jobs are famously hard on the Circadian rhythms, and flight crews simply aren’t getting enough rest.

Pilot fatigue has been a factor in crashes that have led to over 250 fatalities in the past 16 years, including the recent crash of a Colgan Air flight to Buffalo, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The night before that accident, the copilot commuted from the West Coast to Newark while the pilot slept on a couch in a crew lounge at the airport.

Crews on reserve (that is, crews readily available for service on short notice) don’t have it much better. “On reserve, we don’t have control over what we’re doing,” says Heather Poole, a flight attendant for a U.S. carrier and a contributor to travel blog Gadling. “One day we’re flying a 5 a.m. departure, and the next day we’re working a red-eye. Do this for a few trips in a row — add the delays in there — and that’s when it gets bad.”

Working reserve can stretch crews to the limit. “Once during a terrible reserve month, I remember staring at my emergency exit door, thinking, Is it armed? Is it armed? Is it armed? I could see that it was, indeed, armed (the evacuation slide was attached to the door properly). But it wasn’t clicking in my brain because I was so tired.”

“Your ticket might not be with the airline you booked.”

Two airlines may sell seats on the same flight, a sales strategy called code sharing. You may think you’ll be traveling on one airline, but you actually fly on another.

The situation seems harmless enough but can cause major headaches for passengers. For example, most major airlines farm out their short, commuter flights to regional airlines.

“By and large, you haven’t heard of Chautauqua or Republic, but you may be flying them when you click to buy a ticket on Continental,” explains Randy Petersen, publisher of InsideFlyer. “With two airlines involved, there’s a constant passing of the buck. Worse, many regional carriers operating on code shares are exempt from reporting their on-time statistics. And God forbid if you need to file a claim with them for lost baggage.”

Source: 8 things airline will never tell you – MSNBC / Budget Travel

8 things an airline would never tell you is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Online Hotel Reservations, Reviews & Twitter

admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:41:30 +0000

Resideo – I love the simplicity of this website. It includes reviews from tripadvisor, but without all the ads and visual polution from other websites, allows you to easily compare prices and properties and book your hotel through their reservation system.

Getaroom.com – typical search & book site, but often has good deals. I recently read on Emily Gerson’s “Maiden Voyage” blog that you can get better prices if you call their reservations number. Read Emily’s blog to understand why.

Hotelscombined – also a very simple to use website. It’s not cluttered with the information, which makes your experience become much more pleasant. I’ve also found some better deals for hotels comparing to few other sites out there.

Twihotels – twitter is now being used as an opportunity for hoteliers to grab guests looking for a place to stay by offering special services or deals. Twihotels is an application through twitter where the user says what they’re looking for and hotels contact the guests directly. Not the best approach for those loyal to a hotel chain, but could be useful if you’re looking for a deal or have no clue where to stay in your next trip. I’m curious to see what hotels are willing to do to get your business… please let me know if you’ve used it already! Read more about it on Adam Kirby’s blog

Inoqo: haven’t used it yet, but am tempted in trying soon. Focused on last minute reservations – they also connect you to hotels through twitter and claim to offer better last minute deals as hoteliers don’t want empty rooms. Update: read more about Inoqo on Adam’s blog

Priceline & Hotwire – their ‘name your own price’ or blind booking can save you a lot of money if you’re not looking for a specific hotel. Choose by location and star rating, confirm & pay your reservation, and they tell you where you’re staying after. I’ve stayed at Hudson Hotel in NYC for $110 through Priceline, which saved me about 60% from the $260 rate on the same day/room. Check BetterBidding to find tips on how to bid on Priceline & Hotwire. You’ll also find descriptions of hotel amenities to match with the description of the hotel your bidding and try to guess where you’re staying before giving them your credit card number…

Online Hotel Reservations, Reviews & Twitter is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

My Favorite Travel Twitterers

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:13:46 +0000

Motivated by Wendy Perrin’s article about finding great deals through twitter, here are my favorite travel twitterers: @airfarewatchdog @flyfromwas; @flyfromnyc; etc (@flyfrom _ _ _ 3 letter airport code) @rickseaney @bestfares @virginamerica @aairwaves @fareologist @wendyperrin @garyleff (work in progress post… more twitterers and description of each to come soon) My Favorite Travel Twitterers is a post from: www.kristraveler.com Related posts:airfarewatchdog – Get answers to all your airline [...]

My Favorite Travel Twitterers is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

How To Tweet Your Way to Amazing Deals

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:03:30 +0000

How To Tweet Your Way To Amazing Travel Deals

by Wendy Perrin | Published October 2009 | Condé Nast Traveler

http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/501669

Twitter isn’t just a networking site, it’s a powerful tool that can save you money and change how you plan your travels

One evening last summer, 450 people snagged round–trip airline tickets to Europe for a mere $250, including taxes. The spectacularly low fares were available for only a few hours; by the next morning, Delta had discovered its pricing glitch and hiked the fare again. How did those people learn about the deal in time? By following Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, on Twitter. Other lucky travelers last summer were able to nab $9 JetBlue tickets from JFK to Nantucket and $444 round–trips on United from the West Coast to Australia. How? By watching JetBlue and United onTwitter: Those airlines are giving their followers first dibs on some of their steepest sales.

You may know Twitter only as the butt of late–night comedians’ jokes, and if you haven’t spent much time on Twitter, it’s easy to dismiss it as a silly social–networking fad for narcissists telling one another what they ate for lunch. But I’ve been on Twitter for more than a year now, and I’m here to tell you that the perks you can glean from it are no joke. Ignore it and you’ll miss out on significant travel benefits, including deals you can’t find elsewhere.

The trick to Twitter is figuring out who to follow—meaning, whose Twitter updates (“tweets”) to receive. Follow the right people and you’ve got an instant personalized travel news feed on your mobile phone or computer. You’ll be among the first to hear about airfare sales, get access to steep Twitter–only discounts on hotel rooms or last–minute island–vacation packages, hear timely advice from travel experts, maybe even win a free hotel night, a day pass to an airline lounge club, or bonus frequent–flier miles. Morever, if you’ve got a complaint about a travel company that has a presence on Twitter, you can lodge it via a tweet. If the company doesn’t resolve the issue, the viral nature of Twitter means that thousands of others can know about your gripe within minutes.

Although you’ll find a gazillion travel entities on Twitter—from tourist boards (e.g., @VisitBritain) to airline lounge clubs (e.g., @AdmiralsClub) to hotel company CEOs (e.g., @SimonFCooper of Ritz–Carlton)—you’d have no reason to follow most of them unless you’re headed to a specific destination. Some, however, are worth following regularly for the information, assistance, or perks that they offer and which you can’t easily find elsewhere. These people and companies use Twitter to answer travelers’ questions, to sell distressed inventory, and/or to resolve complaints.

How To Tweet Your Way to Amazing Deals is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Get $25 off your next AirTran Airways flight to or from Florida

admin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:42:09 +0000

Discount Rules and Restrictions: These special discounts must be booked on airtran.com by Saturday, October 31, 2009, and are valid for travel on AirTran Airways flights to or from Florida destinations only through December 18, 2009. Discount must be redeemed at the original time of purchase. Limit one (1) discount per person. A $75 fee per person applies to any change made after purchase, plus any applicable increase in airfare. A first bag may be checked for a fee of up to $15 per person and a second bag may be checked for a fee of up to $25 per person. Reservations may be obtained or changed through an AirTran Airways Telephone Reservations Center for an additional $15 per person. Fares, routes and schedules are subject to change without notice.

To get the voucher, enter your email address in the promotion’s website

Get $25 off your next AirTran Airways flight to or from Florida is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Double Miles on AAdvantage For Greater New York Area Members

admin — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:50:20 +0000

New York residents can earn double miles on all American Airlines flights for travel between July 29 and Dec. 31, 2009.

The double mile offer is valid on all American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection flights, even flights that don’t begin or end in New York.

Registration is required and to qualify for this promotion, your address on file with AAdvantage must have a New York, New Jersey or Connecticut mailing address. Tickets purchased prior to July 29, 2009 are also eligible to earn the bonus.

Double miles will be calculated at 100 percent of the base miles earned and bonus miles will not count towards elite qualification.

For more information about the promotion click here

Double Miles on AAdvantage For Greater New York Area Members is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Fast track to Gold or Platinum status with American Airlines loyalty program

admin — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:02:42 +0000

If you’ve achieved Elite status in any loyalty program in the travel industry, you know the perks that come with status can be very valuable…. Having Platinum status on American Airlines for example can get you access to the vip lounge, priority boarding and double miles on each of your trips, making it easier for to renew your status and redeem for awards and flights.

Here’s a shortcut to get you there faster with American – the AAdvantage Gold or Platinum Challenge. Simply fly the equivalent to 5,000 qualifying points during the following 3 months after you enroll in the challenge to achieve Gold status, or 10,000 Qmiles for Platinum status. That can easily be achieved on a transatlantic or even coast to coast multistop flight. I enrolled myself right before a trip from the US East Coast to South America and got the status in few days.

To enroll on the challenge, call American Airlines customer service (+ 1 800 882 8880) and ask for the Gold or Platinum Challenge.

American Airlines doesn’t have the challenge documented anywhere on their website, but here’s another site that seems to be a good source if you want to have more details on the program: American AAdvantage Elite Status Challenge

Fast track to Gold or Platinum status with American Airlines loyalty program is a post from: www.kristraveler.com