My first time on Delta Internationally

For my cruise in May I flew, for the first time, Delta (or any US carrier) to Europe.  I generally avoid US carriers when I fly internationally, they're simply not as good.  While Delta was fine, my thoughts did hold true.  The reason I chose Delta was because it was one of the lowest prices, and my other choices in that price range weren't much better (Iberia) but more importantly it was a non-stop flight.  While I often don't mind a stopover, I don't want to pay an extra $400 and have to deal with the stress of a stopover.  So Delta it was. 

My flight out was at 6pm, but took off 2 hours late.  The flight staff did keep us up to date, we were waiting for passengers transfering to this flight, then they had to do something else.  It wasn't a big deal, I just read my book and since we took off later I probably slept more.  The food was standard hit or miss airplane food.  The entertainment system was pretty good, I like on demand movies for long flights, which they had.  And the selection wasn't too bad either.  I managed to watch 1 movie I had already seen on the flight out (didn't want to get sucked into a movie and not sleep), and 3 new movies on the flight home. 

I did notice though that everyone on my flight was flying to Barcelona for either a cruise, or they were Spanish and going back home (or to the US).  It was funny to see people talking and realizing they met someone on the flight that they knew who was going on the same cruise as them.  In addition to the Norwegian Epic, the Liberty of the Seas and a Disney ship were sailing out of Barcelona that weekend.

Where I really noticed that Delta wasn't as good as some of the International airlines, the amenity kit, there were none.  You just got a blanket and a pillow.  Every International airline I've been on has had some sort of amenity kit, including a tooth brush, toothpaste, and eye mask at a minimum.  For the overnight flights, this is definately handy, and I could always use another addition to my eye mask collection ;). 

For my flight home I booked an Economy Comfort seat for an extra $80.  Compared to Economy discomfort I'm not totally convinced it was worth the extra money.  I think I had another 2-4 inches of leg room, I'm thinking more like 2 inches, and I was in the front of Economy, but I'm not sure what the other benefits were.  Ok, I did get a better boarding section.  Otherwise, movies are already included, as are drinks.  My best frame of reference for this was when I flew in Virgin America's version of Economy Comfort - I got free drinks, food, movies and got a lot more leg room - but it also cost closer to $150 for the upgrade.  I think if you're tall and every inch makes a difference for your legs, $80 would be worth it.  Otherwise, I'm on the fence about this.

I'm not sure who does the check-in for Delta in Barcelona, but they were terrible.  Maybe what they say about the Spanish work ethic is true, or maybe they're not well training, but unless you were checked in, had a seat and just wanted to drop luggage, you could have died waiting.  I saw the staff and the supervisor flipping through the manual for quite some time.  I suggest to anyone flying Delta out of Barcelona to give themselves plenty of time.

Would I fly Delta Internationally again?  Yes.  Would they be my first choice? No.  I treat every airfare booking seperately and often look for something different, maybe it's schedule, or price, or amenities.  I try to keep an open mind and pick the best fit for the trip.

Incase you're wondering, I slept a good 4 hours on the flight to Barcelona, which is a success in my book.

Reminder: I can be found on Twitter @Travelingiraffe

The Unroad Warrior - A blog review

The Unroad Warrior is a blog I've been reading on and off for a few a few years.  Only recently though did I start reading it regularly.  I really like the blog - it has a nitch, is written simply and is informative.

The Unroad Warrior writes about airline stuff - the UNroad.  Maybe it's a plane, or a new policy by an airline.  But I have really enjoyed the posts about all that complicated airline stuff that I only kind of understand - interline agreements, codesharing, and alliances.  The posts are written in an easy to read and understand style, the kind of writting where when you read it you go, "oh, that's how that works." 

I recommend the blog to those of you who are interested in how all this airline stuff works.  I think you'll slowly learn a lot of tricks of the trade and be able to make better choices for yourself.

Reading Travel Reviews

After my looked into flights to London and Scotland I realized I didn't know much about Air France. The obvious solution was to go look at Airlinequality.com for reviews of Air France. To my frustration I found the same problem that I have at other review websites. There are too many people complaining about things that aren't really related to the airline. There are a lot of people complaining that their flight was canceled and they couldn't get through to the phone support. Well if there were a lot of cancellations for the airline, say due to weather, then of course you can't get through to phone support because everyone is doing the same thing. Or you get the complaints about delays, well every airline has delays and they all have them for the same reasons some of which they have limited control over. Based on one flight they will rate the airline really, really low. I liked the guy who doesn't like the use of the term "bed" when referring to the business seat that doesn't lay flat. Maybe I'm a geek or a dreamer, but I often take a look at airlines premium class cabins and see what you get, if someone is so interested in the terminology, didn't he look at that before flying? He then tried to compare the wine offerings from Business with the offerings on Singapore Coach class - an airline that many consider the best in the world and something that isn't exactly a secret if you looked it up. As for the customer service complaints... First, it's a French Airline, the French suck at customer service why do they think it would stop at their airline? Not that it's an excuse for bad customer service, but if you're expecting great customer service then I wouldn't choose an airline from France. I'm just saying.

But this is a common theme when looking at travel reviews. Chris Christensen from the Amateur Traveler podcast and This Week In Travel once said that you learn more about people's trips in some hotel reviews then you learn about the actual hotel. It's true, and it makes it hard to find good information about travel things. For the airlinequality website I now just skip the reviews with a zero, they're pissed about something on their flight and are on a rant and I know that that person would probably fly with the airline again if it offered the cheapest price. I also suspect these are the same people who get up to the counter and yell at the person and get screwed. You then walk up right after are nice and the person gets you whatever you want. I know I don't think like that person.

Then of course there are the people who visit hotels and tell hotel owners that if they don't do something for them they will write a bad review on tripadvisor. Between those people and the people who complain in their review about every little thing, they walked in behind a tour bus and had to wait too long to check in or the sheets were scratchy in a $50 a night hotel who knows what to believe. Some reviews are entertaining, but not helpful.

So how to find good reviews? I personally like it when websites, though I can't think of any travel websites that do this, that allow readers to rate if the review was helpful or not. Short of that I avoid reviews that give the lowest review possible, this is usually the person who is mad and wants everyone to hear how horrible they were treated, but they don't offer information that is helpful in making a decision. This is especially true if there are a lot of high markings. Do they offer examples of what was wrong. "The room was dirty" is subjective. But, "there were stains on the carpet, and bedding," that tells me what was wrong and is useful in making my decision. I often don't spend much time on the 5 star ratings, they really liked I don't need to read too much about that. I like to concentrate on the middle of the road ratings.

In the meantime you should all know that you can't lie flat in Air France Business class, and you might have to contort to sleep. WHAT? In business class you can actually contort so that you CAN sleep, now that's worth money!

Milage Runs

I just found the upgrd podcast, today I listened to the first two episodes, one of which was about milage runs. I had heard the term, but didn't really know what it was all about, but now I do know...

People actually fly on planes simply to earn miles and achieve or maintain their elite airline status. They don't necessarily go anywhere, they just fly to one place using as many mile earning flights as possible and then go home. Seriously????

Q: So what did you do this weekend?
A: Flew to San Fran via 4 flights, then back home. No, I didn't get to see anything, just earning some miles...

It seems insane, is an elite lounge really worth that kind of committment? With my committment to earn airlines miles I'm wondering now if I've stepped into a world of crazy flying people. I'm fine with traveling to go see a place, but just for the sake of some miles? Wow, I'm a little concerned about this insane world, and possibly getting sucked into it. The last time I went away my sister had a comment on how many vacations I take, what would she say if I said I was just flying to earn miles and not actually seeing anything? Either way, I'm going to keep earning my miles so I can either get a free flight or an upgrade one of these days.

FYI, I got a confirmation from Delta about 48 miles I earned, baby steps.

Jetblue broke my heart

Last year I earned 2 Truepasses through Jetblue's frequent flyer program. I used one of those passes last September, the other will expire tomorrow. I had offered my flight to my mother a while ago and she planned to use it, but then they laid off a bunch of people at work and she couldn't commit to booking a flight this month. I've been toying with some ideas, but with surgery scheduled for next month I can't even think about a trip (did I just say that?). Then to add insult to injury, Jetblue announced this week that they were shutting down their reservation system today and tomorrow - effectively shortening my year at the last moment, thanks!

On Tuesday night I decided to take action and call Jetblue to see if their are any exceptions to the rule - that would be a big fat NO! And, my agent Karen wasn't terribly sympathetic to my case, it was just - no, their are no exceptions. I tried to explain again, thinking maybe she needed more persuasion, I ended up convinced that she has no heart. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told I didn't need one because there are no exceptions. Now I was concerned with the lack of heart thing, and started wondering if she was a computer reading a script. Has Jetblue's phone been so busy that Karen (or the computer named Karen) forgotten to insert the part about "I'm so sorry about this inconvenience and I understand your frustration, but our policy is that we can not transfer calls to supervisors in regards to extending Truepasses." No, instead I got, "you don't need to speak to a supervisor."

Ya know what, I did, and I still need to.

I promptly went on the website to complain, I submitted my complaint and got a canned response back on Wednesday. Apparently, someone is missing the point. Jetblue is an airline that prides itself on bringing humanity back to air travel - I found that on their website, that's what they say - there words, not mine. Where is the humanity?

I've flown Jetblue many times and I flew with them within the first few months of their launch. I dealt with customer service a couple times and everything always worked out fine and I felt like a valued customer. I've had flights delayed with Jetblue and even those were relatively good experiences. My attitude has changed...

I woke up the morning after the call and Jetblue was dead to me, they had broken my heart and I no longer wanted to book a flight with them or fly on their planes. I wrote another letter, a real one, on paper with an envelope and a stamp and a signature (I think my true calling is consumer advocate.) I briefly explained what had happened and how I lost my desire to fly with them. I expressed my concern with customer service - I have NEVER EVER in all the companies that I had called (and trust me I have called my fair share) been told I can't speak to a supervisor. Then I went into how they weren't living up to their mission of bringing humanity back to air travel and that I no longer wanted to fly with them that I might as well fly with a legacy carrier because they would at least let me speak with a supervisor.

In the end all I wanted was for Jetblue to act like they cared, to humor me a bit and let me think I'm a special customer to them. Instead, they broke my heart. Jetblue your dead to me!

Fining Airlines

http://rickseaney.com/2010/01/15/dot-fines-united-airlines-must-treat-passengers-fairly/
I just read the above article. For those who don't want to read it the short version is that DOT fined United Airlines for adding on an illegal fee during a 60 hour computer glitch. I wonder if it's really a glitch and they're sorry they got caught or if it was just a glitch and bad luck. Here is the thing... United was fined $30,000, good for DOT. However, where does that money come from - our pockets. I'm not suggesting that fines are bad and shouldn't be imposed, but I wonder is there other ways that might hurt the airlines more?

How about taking away gates and peak take off times at airports, I'm sure that's a complex process, but I would think that DOT might be able to use that as leverage and it would hurt more then a fine that is passed on to the consumers.

Frequent Flyer Programs Misconceptions

I find a lot of people from all walks of life don't fully understand Frequent Flyer Programs, how they work or how to make them work for them. I'll admit that even I am just getting a grasp on them.

The first misconception about frequent flyer programs is the idea that you need to fly a lot with one airline to take advantage of them, and while that does help it's not the only way to make them work for you.

Most airlines are part of airline alliances, this allows you to fly on one airline but build up points with another airlines frequent flyer program. For example: If you belong to American Airlines (AA) frequent flyer program and book a trip with British Airways, (BA) both members of One World, you can use your AA program number to buildup your points from your flight with BA. Or, you can use your AA points to book your flight with BA. With this understanding I try to keep a frequent flyer program with one airline in each alliance and use that number when I fly with other airlines within the alliance.

Building up miles can be quite difficult if you don't fly too often or fly with whoever has the best deal. If you're using the same airline or airlines within an alliance most of the time, but not enough to earn your miles, then you might want to consider getting thier credit card. You'll earn points on your purchases and build up your frequent flyer account more quickly, maybe just enough to get an upgrade or free flight. Take a look at different opportunities to earn double or triple miles with your credit card, it may take nothing more then using your card at the right places. Be aware that credit cards associated with frequent flyer programs often have large fees - from no fee to over $100 a year. BUT, you may be able to earn these fees back by having the card. One of the benefits of the Continental credit card is that you are waived baggage fees. You would reduce that yearly fee from $95 to $65 with one round trip flight where you are checking a bag.

Airline credit cards usually have high interest rates so if you have trouble paying off your credit card month to month then these cards might not be your best option. 

After reviewing all the different airline cards I personally decided on the American Express Card. It allows you to earn points with each purchase and then the points can be transferred to most airlines for use in purchasing tickets, upgrades and other types of travel. Additionally, I have family who have used their Amex card this way and have been more then happy with it. Here is an article that has ratings of some of the airline credit cards. I do also have a Jetblue Amex card, but am planning to close that account when it's up for renewal.

What to do when you have lots of points, but nowhere to go or not enough to do anything with? Many programs offer other products you can purchase with expiring points. I've gotten subscriptions to magazines with my old points in the past, a better use then losing the points. You can also donate to charitable organizations, a nice way to give if you don't have the cash to donate.

Here is a list of the current airlines alliances as of Aug 2009:

One World
American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japanese Airlines, LAN, Malav, Qantas, Royal Jordanian

Sky Team
Aeroflot, Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, China Southern, Delta, Continental, CSA Czech Airlines, KLM, Korean, Northwest

Star Alliance
Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asian Airlines, Austrian, BMI, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shanghi Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airlines, Spainair, Swiss, TAP Portugal, Thai Airways Int., United, US Airways

In late October Continental will be moving from Sky Team to Star Alliance.

And to give credit where credit is due, I started to understand this whole airline miles stuff when I read Chis Guillebeau's Unconventional Guide to Discount Airfare.