Triangle Trip

On my last United flight, I had already selected by seat online, but I always like to look when I get to the airport when I go to the kiosk. The first kiosk approached rejected my credit card and said see customer representative. I had to go next door to the next kiosk which recognized my credit card. Using the credit card is probably the easiest and quickest method to pull your information.

I selected my flight, pressed check in, and then onto checking the seats. I like to check seats to a) get a better seat b) tell me about the # of people on the plane. This time however, the kiosk touchpad was a little out of sync. I had to press the button a few times to get each button to work. The worst part was I accidentally hit another seat number. I ended up with a ridiculous back middle seat. Immediately I tried to go back to my original seat, but the UP arrow button did not work.

For newcomers to seating, the kiosk only displays a few rows at a time, and you have to click up or down to seat the next rows. I looked for a cancel button, but didn’t see anything. I clicked EXIT thinking that would cancel but it didn’t. I had to start all over again and put my credit card in. I checked seats again, and confirmed it DID change my seat number to the back middle seat. I swiftly clicked back on my original seat. Fortunately no one in that span of time took my seat.

With a sigh of relief, I continued on the check-in process, I click next on the bottom right. The NEXT page is immediately an upgrade page. And the upgrade button is on the same spot as the next button on the page before. This is very tricky of united, because you have a tendency to hit next, next, next in the same spot. The DECLINE button is actually on the bottom left, the other side.

For experienced United travelers, we all know how many upgrade options they try to buy, or more mileage for more money. United travelers beware of the kiosk, it doesn’t let you zip through unless you really know it.

Big A out.

I don’t really understand the concept of banking airline miles on travel reward programs such as Asia Miles and Canada’s Air Miles. These programs seem like a consolidation of all your travel activities (miles, hotel stays, etc.) without the benefits from the airline or hotels. Another very minor advantage is you can also use your miles for other goods like travel gear and electronics, but many US airlines offer that type of redemption option.

What I am trying to say here is:  if you decide to bank Asian Miles on your Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver, you’ll only get Asian Miles but zero Marco Polo miles or benefits. I see the value in Asian Miles if you are flying all sorts of airlines throughout your life and want flexible redemption of miles/points. However, I don’t think you are getting the most out of the Asia Miles program if you only travel with one or two international airlines – say Cathay Pacific and ANA when you live in Hong Kong.

With the consolidation of US airlines and global alliances, all travelers should only need three frequent flier accounts to accumulate airline miles. Make sure your frequent flier account is on one of these alliances: Star Alliance, SkyTeam or OneWorld. Most of the major airlines in any country have membership with one of the alliances. For example, if you live in the Hong Kong, you will only need three accounts:  Cathay (OneWorld), China Southern or Korean Air (Skyteam), and ANA, Singapore Airlines or Thai (Star). You should bank all your air travel on one of the accounts. For redemption, you can easily book your flights on a member airline – i.e., use your Marco Polo miles to book a American ticket from Hong Kong to Chicago.

Once you have enough Marco Polo points in a year, you will get more benefits such as 25% to 100% more miles on every flight — something Asia Miles or Air Miles cannot offer. So forget the airline/hotel/car mileage consolidation programs and stick to an airline or alliance to make your miles pay off.

Most US airlines have raised ticket change fees which make non-refundable tickets worthless. I had a USAir discounted non-refundable ticket for $198 but had to cancel the flight for personal reasons. After being routed to two India call centers, I was told that a credit will be issued under my name and I had one year to use it. The credit is not transferable and it will be worthless after one year from the date of issuance. Finally, the USAir call center rep told me that there will be a $150 change fee if I want to re-use my $198 credit for another flight.

After hearing the call center reading all the rules from his screen aloud to me for close to 2 minutes, I asked myself the following question:  “What is the point of issuing me a $198 credit, then take $150 away on my next booking. Why doesn’t USAir just tell me that I have $48 of credit to use for another USAir flight?”

At first I thought the $150 change fee was steep, then I learned UAL has recently up their fees as well. Ghetto Delta has always charged $150 for their itinerary change fee but now they are charging $250 for international change fees (check their ticketing FAQ).

Here’s what I have learned from this experience:

1.  If you see a cheap airfare and clicked on the “SUBMIT” button on a website, you better travel on those dates and times or your ticket will be worthless.

2.  Buy a refundable ticket or wait until a week before you are planning to take off if your plans are still influx

Airlines are obviously using change fees as an alternative way to get more revenue and stick it to its customers.