Kolek planning to go pro
Airline loyalty programs are pretty useless. I'm spending the last of my AA miles (it got up over 2,000,000 for a while) but can't get much for them any more, and really must book ahead. What I do to make travel simple is just fly on the cheapest business class there is. That means I've used nearly every airline you can imagine. In the last 18 months I've done trans-atlantic on BA, AA, Lufthansa, Swiss, Finn, Austrian, Qatar, and Lot and trans-pacific on Qatar, SQ, JAL, ANA, and Asiana. Some are great... none are bad. By doing this I get some very interesting layovers in new cities.In the USA you can fly almost any route in first class for about $400. It's worth it. Even when you're on a little CRJ, the pointy end is always better. When it's more expensive than that, I use my miles.
JWags hit the nail on the head. I’m 1K with United and haven’t been in a United Club in a couple years. All my work travel is domestic and I always plan to spend as little time as possible at the airport. My 1K status for my family is nice when they travel with me (all checked bags free, and I use my Regional/Global premier upgrades to try to get some combo of us upgraded), but as JWags said, my Marriott Titanium status is far more handy for the family. We’ve stayed in suites at some really nice places. My tip to people, if you’re staying at a resort with your family on an upcoming trip and you have status, always email the hotel manager a month ahead, let them know what your family is celebrating on that trip, and you should get something nice when you get there.
I have a United Club membership, which is really great or downright awful depending on the city. Newark, Dulles and SFO 60s concourse is awful. ORD "B" is great, C is a craphole. Orlando is magnificent, the people are incredible and the service as good as anywhere. United Club in Minneapolis is small but nice. The new Los Angeles is club is fantastic and Houston isn't bad either.The Globals and Regionals are worthless. United just rolled out a new program to replace them because too many of us have found these programs to be unusable.I go to so many different places that a hotel loyalty is harder. I tend to prefer Starwood/Marriott and have to admit I stay at Westins when I can. The interesting thing about hotels is I can tell the quality within 5 seconds of walking in a room. How does it smell? Are there scuffs and scratches on the furniture and walls? What's the bathroom like? Are the windows clean? Does the furniture look like something made in the 21st century? And, how firm is the bed?
HARD disagree on Global's being worthless. Again though, if you're a domestic flier who flies to Europe once a year in summer or around the holidays, then yes, probably worthless cause availability will be hard to find. If you take 1 or more international trips a year, especially with a spouse, they are fantastic, provided you're not in a peak period. I know 1Ks that have done mini-vacations in Asia, Europe, and S America cause they found good fares as demand wasn't high, and auto upgraded with the Globals.
I love this thread, I realize it’s not for everyone, and I honestly find joy in every perspective from all you guys/gals on travel.I agree with JWags on the new Upgrades program has me trying to figure out how it’s getting downgraded. The Regional/Global upgrade process ticks me off more than anything else. I totally get United wants to wait as long as possible to sell that inventory rather than give it away. My beef was we went to Maui on March 1st this year on a Friday from LAX. I requested upgrades for all 5 of my family, and there was a ton of open inventory all the way up to the day of. I knew there was no business traveler competition on this leg either. I called United the morning of the flight asking why none of us had cleared yet. Long story short, 3 of the 5 ended up cleared, but even that didn’t happen until minutes before boarding. I’d rather know 24 hours before if I have multiple people on an itinerary that I’m trying to clear. 1K desk never has any idea, it’s frustrating (#firstworldproblem).
This is why I just suck it up and book biz/first.
Same here.I find it interesting where people live kind of determines their airline of choice.Chicago area people seem to be United fliers. Elsewhere is usually another carrier.
And oh the sensitive SWA fliers, yay! Again, its a fantastic airline for the kind of traveler it caters to. If you fly enough to have decent status and have any international travel needs (or just enjoy getting to the airport late as possible for varieties of reason), its just not an ideal option. But yet, SWA loyalists still call you a snob and a slave to legacy carriers.
Cause when you stick to your airline for status and perks, and that airline isn't hubbed near you, every trip is a connection nightmare. One of my friends was United 1MM by his late 20s. Very loyal, raved about them, almost aggressively pro-United. He moved to Charlotte for work about 5 years ago. He lasted 2.5, once he realized the job was long term, before switching begrudgingly to American cause he missed direct flights and ease of travel on a regular basis, instead of flying to IAD/EWR/ORD for basically every flight.And oh the sensitive SWA fliers, yay! Again, its a fantastic airline for the kind of traveler it caters to. If you fly enough to have decent status and have any international travel needs (or just enjoy getting to the airport late as possible for varieties of reason), its just not an ideal option. But yet, SWA loyalists still call you a snob and a slave to legacy carriers.
I bode no ill will towards the airlines. They are (almost all) horrible companies, run by idiots, staffed by drones and they don't care at all about customers. ONE MUST ACCEPT THIS and find a way to get what one wants regardless of loyalty and points and miles and all of that. Anyone who thinks that airline "status" will get you anything in 5-10 years is kidding themselves.Hotels - some chains at least - are headed the same way, but you can still play it while there's a game to play. Probably 10-15 more years before the same scenario exists as exists now with air travel. By then I'll be done traveling and won't care anymore anyway.
Goodness, I didn't realize I would need teal.I have never called people who don't fly SWA snobs. It's a choice, just like anything else. Who I do take issue with (and I have run into a number of them) are people who have never flown SWA and denigrate it based on Jay Leno jokes. I know Chicago-area natives (mostly North Short types) who have not been to Midway in decades, and wouldn't fly out of that "filthy old place", and were surprised to learn from me that it has been completely renovated since the '80's. It's significantly nicer than many parts of O'Hare.
Brother Fan, I beg to differ. There is nothing that you want from an airline that you can't get by paying for it. Or bringing it on if it is a food matter.The problem we have -- especially those of us who traveled in the days before the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 -- is that we have a romanticized notion of what air travel is. We oldsters remember the days when flight attendants waited on a cabin of 100 people head-to-toe in 1.5 hours between Chicago and New York. Hell, United used to have a Sud Aviation Caravelle (an early French plane similar to a DC9-10) that was all first class and all male. The flight attendants absolutely hated that flight. You can guess why!Back in the mid-1970s, Douglas Souter, who was then an aide to Senator Kennedy, got roundly berated for spending time on airline matters. "Well never be able to afford to fly," a woman said. "That's the problem we're trying to fix," said Souter.Before 1978, air travel was highly regulated and extremely expensive. Relatively few people could afford it and too often, it was a once in a lifetime experience. The airlines had both the revenue and the desire to make it special which, for the most part, they did.Today, the airlines are giving people what they want. The cheap fares we cherish come with a very high price -- customer discomfort, expensive amenities (i.e., baggage fees and snack boxes) and lack of ground support due to automation. Planes are fuller because to get profit margins, airlines have to jam every possible ounce of passenger and freight on to a plane. That's what we said we wanted and the geniuses at the airlines business are giving it to us. It's how markets work!As a side not, one of my favorite stories was a 1960s United Airlines "take me along" promotion, in which the airline did a reduced fare (with CAB approval) for husbands to take their wives on business trips. It was so rare for wives to fly that this was thought to be critical to building awareness. As a side benefit, "take me along" cut down on customer misbehavior with flight attendants on the planes.After the trip, United sent roses to the "take me along" wives, thanking them for flying United. Not long afterward, there was a surge in divorces among United Airlines "take me along" men. True story.. want to guess why... LOL!!@!