Triangle Trip

It took about a week … but Delta finally responded with their own Elite Qualifying Miles offer (actually it’s Medallion Qualifying Miles aka: MQM). Delta has up the ante by offering TRIPLE MQM miles for flights between March 23, 2009 to June 15, 2009. Here’s the link for you to register if you’re interested.

HOWEVER, we believe this is a huge ghetto Delta scam. The Triple MQM announcement is a pubic relations play in response to UA, AA and Continental’s offers. Upon reviewing Delta’s ticket prices and fare class restrictions (see below), you will not qualify for double MQM unless you are willing to pay for an above average priced ticket. To get the triple MQM, you will need to pay an arm and a leg.

As a frequently flier between JFK/LAX myself, Delta’s round trip JFK/LAX flights are usually $280 which are L, U, and T classes. For the H, Q, K class bookings, you are looking at $400 to $500 for the round trip JFK/LAX ticket. I did not even bother looking at the other classes as they are last minute purchases or same day prices which can run $800+.

Furthermore, the fine print on the Delta offer states that you will not get your triple MQM bonus miles until 8 weeks after the promotion ends – so roughly mid-August.

In summary, Delta is making you pay for the MQM/Elite status. I am sure Delta will see a backlash from the public after this promotion ends. There will be many people out there who hasn’t read the fine print or the chart and believe they have earned status come August only to find they are only 1/3 of the way there.

Guess this offer is Delta’s way of saying: “caveat emptor” or “we found another way to scam you.”

Check out my previous posts for links to UA, AA and Continental’s offers. Continental by far is the most transparent and generous offer.

Everyone’s offering Elite Qualifying Miles… (Part 1)

Everyone’s offering Elite Qualifying Miles… (Part 2)

United announced that they will offer Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) from today to June 15, 2009 (here’s the link to register). With this promotion, you can make Premier Executive on UAL with 5 coast-to-coast trips. United obviously did this promotion in response to American Airline’s recently EQM promotion (here’s the link to register). Had you gone with UAL’s previous offer of paying for EQM or miles to gets status (see my previous post blasting on UAL for being desperate), you’d feel like a total fool.

So … will ghetto Delta be the next airline to offer a similar promotion? Delta did a similar promotion in 2008. It would not surprise me to see them counter UAL and AA in the next day or two.

All airlines have depreciated their mileage programs and offering fast track to obtaining status. What’s the value of earning actual miles and having loyalty to an airline? Hence we recommend you book hotel points with your credit cards (see previous post) and choose the most efficient way to travel as status does not matter on US airlines. The entire industry is heading to a bail out like banks, Detroit, etc.

There are four airlines (American, Delta, United, Virgin) that operate nonstop flights between New York JFK and Los Angeles LAX. Each airline has six round trip flights per day out of each airport. This means there are 24 flights per day from JFK to LAX. Assuming each flight can carry around 200 passengers which means there are 4,800 available seats from JFK to LAX. Do we really need that many flights each day between the two cities?

The number gets bigger if you include the Greater NYC and Los Angeles areas. Continental which flies out of Newark has about eight nonstops to LAX, Burbank and Long Beach. Jetblue has four nonstops from JFK to Long Beach and Burbank. This means there are 36 flights a day with 7,200 available seats everyday from the Greater NYC to Los Angeles area.

The among of flights between the two metro areas are way too excessive. This is one of many excess and waste we have in America which is part of the reason we are in a recession. Just like having too many Starbucks on one street, too many Citibanks in a two block radius, we have too many airlines flying half empty planes coast to coast. I can see the demand for the flights during peak travel season and peak travel days such as Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. I highly doubt the Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday flights are full.

For the record, the same airlines have similar among of flights between the Greater New York area and the Bay area (San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose). Also keep in mine that my statistics are only for NON-STOP flights. There are 200 more options if you decide to connect or use multiple carriers. Below is a simple search result from Kayak with a three week advance purchase search:

Kayak Search Result (JFK-LAX)

As a frequent coast to coast traveler, I have been on many half empty plane for the past month flying out on Monday mornings and Thursday evenings (which are peak travel times). Perhaps this is why my round trip tickets has not been more than $400 when I bought it 24 hours before the flight. This week’s round trip JFK/LAX ticket was $210 which was purchased 5 days in advanced. Competition driving prices down is capitalism at its best. I have benefited as a consumer. However we all should know that these airlines aren’t money on these flights. Here’s a link to a WSJ article (March 12, 2009) about fuel-hedging loses are impacting Cathay, Delta, etc. Eventually the airlines will go to the government to ask for money.

Government needs to step in to manage the airline industry or we will see another bail out request situation – which already happened once if you recalled post September 11. The previous bail out also drove every single major airline to bankruptcy. I may sound like a socialist but I rather be a socialist than paying for it like we are funding Wall Street and Detroit. I don’t want President Obama the US to appoint me as the Airline Czar to manage the bailout funds when he decides to distribute funds for airline failures. The airline industry needs government intervention now.