@AmericanAir have hit the jackpot (not) but the customers love them!

May 10, 2012 Leave a comment

Airline’s fury as travellers live it up in first class, for life

  • Airline bled dry after offering unlimited first-class flights
  • Lucky travellers snapped up the deal for $200,000
  • Airline seeking legal action in a bid to ground them

American Airlines

IT’S the holy grail of air travel – unlimited first-class flights.

Back in 1985 when American Airlines offered the enticing proposition for $US250,000 ($245,000) – and an extra $US150,000 ($147,000) for a travel companion – they never imagined how much trouble it would land them in.  Eager travellers snapped up the deal and have been living the high life ever since, bleeding the airline dry and forcing it to hire private detectives and pursue legal action in a desperate bid to ground the passengers once and for all.

“We thought originally it would be something that firms would buy for top employees,” Bob Crandall, American Airlines’ chairman and chief executive from 1985-98, told the LA Times.
“It soon became apparent that the public was smarter than we were.”

These travellers would fly to Japan for lunch and back to the US for dinner that night, with one of them costing the airline more than $1 million a year.  Steven Rothstein and Jacques Vroom were among the lucky few who secured unlimited flights but they have gone from being treated like kings by the airline to being the targets of much ire.
Unwilling to let the good times end, the duo fly whenever they feel like it and for however long they like. And with a deal like that who needs a house?  They sat in the most comfortable airline seats, enjoyed the best meals and entertainment, bypassed long queues at the airport and never had to worry about cancellation fees.  The “fliers who flew too much” put George Clooney’s adventures in the 2009 movie Up in the Air look pitiful. While the superstar’s character was showered with attention after reaching 10 million miles (16 million kilometres), Mr Vroom, 67, has logged nearly four times this amount.  That’s equivalent to a staggering 1606 trips around the world.
Unsurprisingly, the airline has discontinued the lifetime pass.

This article was originally posted at news.com and can be seen here: http://shar.es/2xI67

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Did I here you ask “white with one Ebola or two?”

November 19, 2011 Leave a comment

It’s Friday and the sun is setting on another week in Canberra.  The tasks left for the week are to fill the hire car with fuel, grab a boarding pass and head to the Qantas Club while I wait (usually longer than scheduled and more on that later) for my flight.  Those of you familiar with my previous posts will have been privy to the state of the Lounge in Canberra.  Last week you could have licked the floor and had less bacteria on your person after the event, this week, that all changed.  I could feel that vale of Ebola descending upon me as I walked in.  A chain saw massacre would have left less mess, not that I am saying that anyone had died, yet!  Staff no where in sight, alas no, two at the counter, two behind the bar (in the casual chatter position) and a 5th serving food.  That is record for this lounge, yet no one cleaning up.  One may think that the lounge must have been busy, no, you would not be able to check that box either.  For a premium service, aimed at frequent (high yield) travelers, the Jet Star/Easy Jet make over of Qantas obviously has it’s genesis in the Qantas Club with the new corporate goal, “dumb down the aspirations of high yield travelers and forget the rest”.

The other big news is, we are back on schedule!

And my word, are they what.  This week I got to Canberra on time and home on time. That would be first time in 6 months of grueling economy travel that the ticket timings were delivered. I have generally found in the past that the ticket time was akin to lotto numbers and every now and a gain, you may have a win!  The same could not be said for the poor soles on the flight after mine to Melbourne last Friday (11/11/2011), no winners on that fight.  By 14:30, Qantas were advising of a hour delay.  I see that disconect coming back already but time will be the judge of that.

Next week I have a Eastern Sea Board loop with a day in Brisbane before heading to Canberra.  I hope they have a schedule thing sorted as the timings are tight.  Watch this space….

 

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Qantanomics, The Economics of Cancelled flights and more.

October 26, 2011 Leave a comment

Qantanomics is where “The Spirit of Australia” look after the bonus pool with no regard for  “those annoying people who take up valuable space on the aircraft”.

As previously indicated, I was rolled by Qantas due to “Industrial Action” but that did not seem to stack up this morning.  Qantas fly two direct flights from Melbourne to Canberra each week day before 9 AM.  The first flight (7:20AM) is a 767-300 and the second (8:30AM) is a 737-800.  Based on their own data, that would give you somewhere in the vicinity of 390 to 420 seats in a combination of Business and Economy seating configurations.  On Tuesday(25/10/2011), Qantas  then cancelled the first flight and ran a full 737-800 on the second flight.  This would indicate that they calculated they were taking a bath on the seat yield across the two flights so conveniently dropped the first flight and blamed the ongoing industrial action for the cancellation.  Good one, you must think we are fools.

The other side of Quantanomics is the yield that can be extracted before flyer start drifting access to Virgin Australia.  Since July I ave flown to Canberra every week and in August, I had a side trip to Brisbane.  In this period, I have spent over $12,500 and on my present flying regime, I will not break out of  the  entry level flyer status, Silver flying every week till Christmas so looks like the investment in the Qantas Club was a necessary requirement!

Tired using the iPhone app to check in.  I did and see what happened:

When I asked about this in the Lounge, the response was the problem must be with my phone – checked that, no problem, wrong app – checked that, no problem.  Ahh well it could not possibly be our (Qantas) fault as you were checked in successfully.  I hope the people who manage aircraft safety do not work on the iPhone app’s!

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