Kinglobjaw's Blog

Archive for the ‘Personal Thoughts’ Category

Just a few minutes ago, United’s Twitter account informed us all that United has 10,00o+ followers. If you were following closesly, United promised a surprise for those who register on United.com and follow Twitter. We finally know what the surprise is- bonus miles! Visit United’s Twitter page to see for yourself.

How many miles? I’m guessing, no more than a 1,000. Although ’10′ could be key so maybe 10 miles or 10,000? Or could it be tied in with an activity requirement? I’ll report back as soon as I get the miles and confirm with others if they got the same amount.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Can you believe that the very first Charlotte to Rio de Janeiro service appears to offer only 6 more Envoy seats for sale. This would indicate that within just two days of starting to sell tickets for the flight, twelve seats have been already “grabbed”. One is definitely there as a pilot crew rest, so who are the other eleven? Ocean’s Eleven?

Who could it be? Kinglobjaw’s minions? Maybe! No, haha! Parker’s entourage? Could be! Samba Dancers? I don’t know. Fishy!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

US Airways just posted on their website the date of the new Charlotte to Rio de Janeiro flights. Southbound services beings on December 2, 2009 while the northbound services beings the day after, December 3, 2009.

The information is now available on USAirways.com, however the flights haven’t been loaded into the reservation system.

I’ll be on the inaugural flight. It’s just a matter of securing Envoy seats which I’m focused on.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Off course you don’t find that out from the email that US Airways sends you. The email reads: “Tell US how we’re doing. We want to hear about your recent overnight flight. We know your time is valuable and we appreciate your feedback!”

I’m not sure if it’s targeted or not, but my recent overnight flight took place in late April from Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii to Phoenix. The survey really did take no more than five minutes of my time and it only focused on in-flight entertainment (IFE) during overnight flights. It asked me what things I do on board to make the time go by (read, sleep, listen to ipod- funny they didn’t mention take photos and chat with crew members). It then asked if I would enjoy IFE on all flights, later if I would pay $5 for IFE on all flights . Later, it asked me if I would do both on overnight flights specifically.

The final page offered me a text box to input comments. I shared with them how I would enjoy of real meal service on overnight transcon/Pacific flights.

I’m pretty sure this has to do with their ongoing seat back entertainment system trials. They’ve just completed the Lumexis trial and are in the midst of testing the LiveTV trial. Since those systems would be available anytime on any flight, they are trying to figure just how many people would watch them on overnight flights. It could also have something to do with the Pacific return flights which are all overnight flights and whether or o not people will pay for a movie on the ceiling TV display on the 757′s. Personally, I wouldn’t, but that’s just me.

Here’s some food for thought. Once installed on the entire fleet, would a Lumexis or LiveTV system be complimentary in First Class? I’m not 100% sure, but I think Delta comps it for First Class passengers. I know internet is for a fee regardless of whether you’re in First or on a premium ticket, so I’m sure US will follow that if & once they install internet capabilities on their planes.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Today was the grand opening of Best Buy’s newest Chicagoland location- John Hancock Center. I didn’t go for the same reason I didn’t blog for the last few days and wouldn’t fly even if I had a confirmed First Class ticket for today or yesterday! What? I was worried it could have been the swine flu. Luckily, it wasn’t. Seriously, I haven’t been this sick in a long time- but it’s better now, hence the blog entry.

So while I didn’t go today due to my illness, I don’t think I’d go even if I was fit to fly. The reason? The pre-grand opening event that took place last Thursday. As a Silver Premier shopper at Best Buy I was invited to a private event. First fifty Silver Premier members received a $50 Best Buy gift card- I was # 53. For those who don’t know Silver premier is like an elite level of the Reward Zone program, kind of like US Airways Silver Preferred.

The doors opened at 6:02PM and I swear, I haven’t seen this many Best Buy employees at all stores combined as I saw that night. All of them introduced themselves to the customers and shook our hands. Within seconds, I had three or four “personal shoppers” following me around offering tasteful suggestions and doing zero product hawking. I can’t believe I spent almost two hours at Best Buy just chatting with the employees and shopping around. It was that much fun! I ended up with three large bags of purchases and additional products on the way in the mail. While the prices were not reduced, the offers and incentives were plentiful. Turns, out they had a similar event the previous night for building residents and offered cheese, crackers and wine. I never thought Best Buy would pull it off in such a classy manner.

That same evening I was approved for the Best Buy store charge card offering 0% interest for 18 months on purchases over $499. Expected, but still a nice surprise.

In addition, I had a chance to chat with the store manager about the Reward Zone program. It was probably the only thing that was unpleasant that evening. Not the chat itself, she was wonderful, but it turns out they’ve actually put Premier Black member level on hold. Premier Black was supposed to be a higher level, like Chairman’s at US Airways (by that I mean a prestigious level) where members who spend $7,500 or more in a year at Best Buy get additional benefits.

A funny tidbit. As I was chatting with the manager, another employee started taking shots of me and my overloaded Best Buy bags. Maybe I’ll be featured in an ad booklet come next Sunday?

I was very impressed with the event and Best Buy handled this very well. Maybe I’m being a bit too optimistic, but any troubles I’ve had with Best Buy in the past few months are water under the bridge at this point.

That said, I wish I brought my camera to take some pictures. Oh yeah, and what happened with the Best Buy yellow logo? Nowhere to be found at this location!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

This was posted on FlyerTalk a few hours ago. A grad school student is conducting a survey for passengers who fly US Airways and/or Southwest been Southern California and Phoenix or Las Vegas. You can learn more about the survey here. Mr. Victor Farn’s contact information is also there.

There is a $100 gift certificate incentive, but I recommend helping the guy out anyway! Aside from your name and email address, no personal information is requested.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Aside from my other Twitter account, LOTPolish, I didn’t think there were any actual airlines out there broadcasting news related to their companies. There’s also an USAirways on Twitter, but I was never really sure if they were the ones who created the account on Twitter.

Apparently, Twitter is the newest addition to United’s marketing plan. They have a “friendly being” who could or could not be UnitedPR on FlyerTalk twitting away at other people. He or she is alerting subscribers of United’s most recent fare sales and bonus mile offers. He or she is also offering advice, talking aviation and sharing behind the scenes tid bits. Given my general disdain for United Airlines and my curiosity if such “friendly being” will reply to absolutely anyone, I’ve decided to twit @unitedairlines:

@unitedairlines joins @usairways on Twitter! Does it mean United is dropping StarNet blocking and becoming the good guy like US Airways?

Talk about asking a loaded question! For those of you that don’t know what StarNet is, it’s the a program that makes your United miles basically worthplace should you choose to redeem on Star Alliance partners.  United uses StarNet to block the majority of available award seats on Star Alliance member carriers like Lufthansa, Air New Zealand or Singapore Airlines. This is the opposite of what US Airways does, which matches all award availability that the other Star Alliance members release. I guess I don’t have to tell you who the good guy is…

Let’s see what they [UnitedAirlines] say!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

If you remember posts from my blog from over a year ago regarding Hawaiian airlines, you’ll know that I was generally happy with them. Friendly service with smile? Check! Miles earned with US Airways Dividend Miles program? Check! No hassle baggage policies + interlining (passing of bags between carriers)? Check!

I don’t know if it is because Aloha Airlines no longer flies, or there is growing hostility toward Go! airline, but Hawaiian Airlines has taken a turn for the worse. And it has nothing to do with closed counters to which customers are still directed to, poor signage that to forces you to change lines three times or agents that won’t check you in, becuase you’re not flying First Class all the way.

When we were checking in with Hawaiian for the Honolulu to Chicago via Lihue, Phoenix and Philadelphia (HNL-LIH-PHX-PHL-ORD) portion of the trip, we were fully aware of baggage fees. It was explained to us from the beginning- since we were flying interisland on Hawaiian, we were only responsible for the 2nd bag fees.  Immediately after arriving, the “kind” lady barked at me saying I have to pay for each and every bag I am checking. “Doesn’t matter what reservations or US Airways told you, you have to pay for all the bags you check. I simply don’t care that it’s on US Airways stock or their rules. You’re on Hawaiian Airlines and we decided what we do with you!” Here’s the juicy part. A supervisor and a second agent sided with me. They told me I would only have to pay the bag fee for the second bag since I’m flying US Airways back to the mainland. A few minutes later as the supervisor’s shift ended (or maybe he just took a break), the original agent told me I would still have to pay up since she couldn’t get in touch with the supervisor and that the supervisor didn’t go into the record. She also told me the second agent that sided with me was not a supervisor and she couldn’t listen to him. Funny she said so. Isn’t she just a regular agent? So why can she make rules, but the, the second agent can’t? I keep telling her I want to talk to the supervisor in front of her. She says he’s gone, puts her hand in the air covering the area face and direct vision at her and storms of for five minutes.

After about five minutes, she returns in a slightly better mood and says she has a special deal for me. I thought, what, a bribe? She says she’ll only charge for the second bag as the rules state, but she will only tag it to Lihue where I have to leave security during my connection, pick up all bags and re-check with US Airways. Ha! This is after I told her that my Mom lost her only photo ID and that she would need about 30-40 minutes of additional screening time. In the end we had to pay the $55 dollars since there’s no arguing with a lady which probably finished drinking some acid. She was pure spite! Of course, while gathering information about the supervisor, second agent and her, all I got was first name. No last name or initial or badge number. Agent should have been fired on the spot.

Erase the friendly service with a smile and the no hassle baggage policies on the spot. Also erase the automatic miles postings. I had to contact a USAirways.com live chat agent in order to get the miles posted. I am going to write a complaint letter to Hawaiian Airlines, but I’m also going to try and question the charges with the credit card since techinically “I was charged for a service I did not use/request”. We’ll see where that takes me.

There is good news however which is what the second half of this post is dedicated to. While “arguing” with the agent, I noticed a new airline  nearby with a small counter- Mokulele Airlines. I did some research after I returned from my trip and I’m thinking if they do well, they could be the next Aloha Airlines. Mokulele Airlines has their own website. I also emailed them with a few questions and here’s what I can tell you so far without flying with them.

• First Class- 2 bags free of charge on each flight, Coach Class- first bag free on all fares, second bag $17
• Fleet of 3 Embraer 170′s and Cessna Grand Caravans 208 B’s
• Complimentary juice/water in coach, alcohol/soft drinks/juice/water in First Class
• Working on a in-flight snack program for sale
• Operate two lounges (one in Honolulu, the other in Kona)- annual membership costs $79.95 + tax
• Each flight will earn you 500 Alaska Airlines miles
• No additional charges for passing bags two two interline carriers, Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines (more to be added in the future)

What’s neat is that with only three EMB-170′s they still offer a generous amount of flights between the different islands. The Cessna’s add to the experience by offering service to smaller destination, and for aviation enthusiasts, a nice “ride”.

I am seriously considering switching to Mokulele Airlines for all my future inter-island travel. I’ll likely miss out on my 500 miles, but I’ll be able to see which “pineapple” tastes better! Cause we’re not comparing apples to oranges here.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

New blog rule I plan to follow based on user feedback- no more airport codes alone in a post. It seems as though certain readers are not an airline/aviation “geek” to my degree. From now on, I will only use airport codes as tags, but I will write the full city name in the actual post. I’m also thinking of adding an airport code lookup widget on the right panel of the blog and/or on Kinglobjaw.com. Just wanted to let you know.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

A recent discussion on Airliners.net about US Airways’ presence at Chicago- O’Hare got me thinking; how will the airlines and airport authority handle Delta’s move to Terminal 2 to join merger partner Northwest.

I know that Continental will be moving to Terminal 1 to join United, so the the lounge operated together by Northwest and Continental will become a Delta SkyClub. I assume, Delta will prefer to pick up additional ‘E’ gates instead of moving to the F councourse . This makes sense due to the proximity of the lounge.

Since US Airways uses two (at times three) ‘E’ gates, this will surely cause trouble and limitations for Delta. The combined US Airways and America West need more gate space than what pre-merger US Airways had. I’m also sure US Airways would welcome an opportunity to consolidate gates into one specific concourse as walking from ‘E’ to ‘F’ or vice versa is a bit of a schleep!

I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks and I think it would be best for Air Canada to move to the E concourse, so United Express can operate out of Air Canada’s gates. That would free up F6 and F12 so US could use it permanently instead of sharing it with United Express.

Also, what would happen with Delta’s ‘L’ gates? From what I’ve heard, American Airlines would try to pick up most of them, but couldn’t JetBlue relocate from ‘E’ to the ‘L’ area to make room for Delta?

With the O’Hare’s largest carriers cutting back on flights, it does make sense to consolidate gate space and allow for those who are still operating at maximum capacity to ‘move about freely’. No pun intended.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark