Delta, Alaska frequent flyers lose again as the cold war heats up

Guess who's coming out the losers as Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines heat up the cold war that's rapidly diluting reciprocal partnership benefits for each airline's frequent flyer programs?

Surprise. It's their best customers.

As of May 1, each airline is cutting the frequent flyer benefits they provide elite-level members on each other's flights.

Delta Sky Medallion customers traveling on Alaska Airlines will no longer receive free checked baggage or priority security line access.

Alaska Airlines MVP members flying on Delta flights will lose baggage fee waivers, priority baggage handling, priority security line access and experience reduced priority check-in and boarding (Zone 1 instead of Sky Priority).

Please...Baggage fees I can see...maybe, but how much does allowing priority security line access cost? This one seems like a punishment more appropriate to misbehaving in third grade than a legitimate attempt to thwart competition.

Neither airline has done a very good job explaining these cuts to customers. Thanks for Hack My Trip's Scott Mackenzie for attempting to sort it out in an excellent blog post.

Joe Brancatelli, editor of JoeSentMe.com, an online newsletter for business travelers, calls it 
"one of the first hub wars we've seen in years.'' Eager to trim the Tokyo-based Asia hub it inherited in the Northwest Airlines merger, Delta is refocusing Pacific Rim operations at Sea-Tac, says Brancatelli.

The latest cuts follow a move by Delta to eliminate code shares on Alaska flights linking Seattle with Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Vancouver, Anchorage, Portland and Phoenix — presumably to avoid competing with new flights of its own on these routes.

And why does this matter? If you're a member of Delta's Skymiles frequent flyer program, it means you can no longer buy a ticket on Delta's website for an Alaska Air flight to some major West Coast cities. This makes it harder to rack up important Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) needed to qualify for elite status. As of this year, Delta began requiring Skymiles members to spend a minimum of $2,500 with Delta as well as rack up at least 25,000 miles to earn elite status in 2015. 

Flying on a partner airline counts, as long as you purchase the ticket from Delta, now impossible to do on Delta.com for certain Alaska Air flights (although still possible for other partners such as KLM and Air France).

So what should you do? Book the old-fashioned way - on the phone. I did this recently with a flight to Phoenix flight. Alaska's flight was better (non-stop) and cheaper than Delta's, so I got a Delta agent to book the Alaska flight for me on the phone. He agreed to waive the usual telephone charges, and let me use by credit card to pay Delta directly for the flight, so the purchase would count towards my MQDs. It's anyone's guess how long Delta will do this, but for now, it's one solution. 

Travel Weekly's summation of the growing rift between Delta and Alaska hints that more changes are ahead.

“Over the next 12 months, we expect the American number will grow and the Delta number will shrink,” Travel Weekly quoted Andrew Harrison, Alaska's vice president of planning and revenue management, as saying in November. 

Speaking of MQDs, keep track of how Delta accounts for these. Taxes and fees don't count, so you don't get credit for the full amount you pay for a ticket, only the portion that doesn't include taxes and other charges such as checked bag fees and upgrades.

Heading to Vancouver? Add these Downtown Eastside finds to your list

Breakfast at the Acme Cafe

Downtown Vancouver's Eastside is a neighborhood most tourists avoid. Home to run-down and abandoned buildings, transient hotels, panhandlers and addicts, it's not an area that reflects the city's urban beauty in a way that a trip to Stanley Park or Granville Island might. That's why I was happy to make two new discoveries on a walk along West Hastings and Carrall Streets recently, just east of historic Gastown's popular Water Street. 

The Acme Cafe, 51 West Hastings Street, has the cozy feel of an early 1900s diner updated with 21st century riffs on traditional comfort food. It was cold and raining when my husband and I slid into a booth for breakfast. The "Fireball hot chocolate,'' spiked with cinnamon whisky, was tempting, but we stuck with the bottomless cups of $2 coffee and yogurt parfaits  layered with honey, homemade granola and fruit, cinnamon toast on the side.

The Acme, we learned, is housed in a restored 1907 building, part of the historic "Paris Block'' once occupied by Pierre Paris and Sons Shoes in 1919. The Paris family sold logging boots here when the Hastings Street and Gastown were working-class neighborhoods filled with diners, clothing and shoe shops, and markets. The Acme opened in April 2010 in a newly salvaged and restored part of the block, with the goal of creating a spot that might have been there in the area’s heyday.

Formica-topped booths and tables are spacious and comfortable for settling in and spreading out the papers. Lining a glass case near the register are homemade pastries, pies piled high with meringue and rows of colorful Pop Shoppe sodas in thow-back flavors such as black cherry, lime, orange and cream soda. On the menu are mac and cheese, meatloaf, chicken pot pies and a few surprises such as lemon prawns and wild boar sausage & turkey cassoulet. 

I noticed an effort on the part of the employees to be sensitive to neighborhood residents. It's not unusual to see "Restrooms for Customers Only'' signs posted in Vancouver restaurants, but when man wandered into the Acme and asked if he could the men's room, a waitress motioned him to go ahead. It wasn't a busy time, and maybe this isn't normal policy, but it was a kind gesture that said to me the Acme makes an effort to bring a social conscience to neighborhood gentrification.

The Acme is open daily, 8 a.m. -9 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.- 9 p.m. weekends and holidays. Phone: 1 604-569-1022

Shelley Bolton of East Van Rosters

Around the corner at 319 Carroll, East Van Roasters is a cafe with a cause. Pop in here for a cup of Mayan-spiced drinking chocolate or a honey-caramel brownie and know your purchase goes to help train, employ and provide social services to women recovering from addictions. In a space occupied by a former pub on the ground floor of the Rainier Hotel, a women's supportive housing project run by the Portland Hotel Society, Shelley Bolton, the agency's social enterprise director, leads a team creating organic and ethically-sourced  ‘bean-to-bar’ chocolate and coffee roasted and prepared on site. 

The work is labor-intensive on purpose. Without lots of expensive equipment, doing things by hand is the only way to create fresh, high-end chocolate on a small scale, and it creates jobs. On the day I visited, one woman sat by the roaster winnowing or shelling roasted cacao beans by hand. Others wrapped thin squares of chocolate in foil or hand-rolled truffles in cocoa powder. Chocolate-making happens once a week in a small glassed-in kitchen visible to anyone who walks in to buy a few bars, or relax at one of the wooden cafe tables over an espresso or hot chocolate.  

Hand-rolled truffles at East Van Rosters 

Why chocolate-making as a social enterprise? "It's dignified employment,'' says Bolton. It's something people can feel proud to come in here and do everyday,'' knowing that what they produce sells out every week. High-end chefs and restaurants, including the the Four Seasons Vancouver, are among their customers. "If you give a person dignity and meaningful employment,'' says Bolton, "they will heal themselves.'' 

East Van Roasters is open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Phone: 604-629-7562

Vancouver deals

Often the best deals on "travel packages'' are often the ones you put together yourself. Case in point: I booked my recent late-March overnight in Vancouver, B.C. for two, including a room in a  four-star hotel and round-trip transportation on Amtrak from Seattle for under $200, including taxes.

Here's How:

This was a quick business trip for me, but I took my husband along, so we were able to take advantage of a discount code (V530), provided earlier this year on coupons distributed by PCC Natural Markets, to book the two-for-one Amtrak tickets ($80 for two). The offer is good through April 30 on any Amtrak Cascades runs between Vancouver, B.C. and Eugene, Oregon. 

Then I used Priceline.com to bid on a four-star downtown hotel. Checking the website Bidding for Travel, I saw a few people reported snagging rooms for $76 at the downtown Marriott Pinnacle and the Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside. Both are excellent Marriott hotels in the heart of downtown, so I knew I'd be satisfied with either. I put in a first bid of $76 (not sure why $75 wasn't cutting it) and scored a room at the Marriott Pinnacle for a total of $96.15, including taxes and fees. This compared to a rate of $189 (Canadian) or $170 in U.S. dollars, plus taxes, posted on the hotel's website for the same date. 

Remember, the key successful bidding on Priceline is to 1) Pick your star level. 2) Pick the exact area of town where you want to stay- in my case, downtown. 3) Realize that once your bid is accepted, your credit card is charged and payments are nonrefundable.

Our room was on the 17th floor and available for a requested early check-in at noon. Total cost of our trip for two, including transportation and all taxes: $176.15 (Had I wanted to stay longer, I had the option of booking additional nights for the same price).

Was there a catch? Just one - the cost of overnight parking at the Marriott - which we avoided by taking the train, and using public transportation in Vancouver. We used the Sky Train (There's a stop right across the street from the train station) to get to and from downtown and buses to get around. Info on routes, tickets and day passes (convenient if you're doing a lot of touring) is at Trans Link.

One more bonus: The rising value of the U.S. dollar means it's a good time for Americans to visit Vancouver.  One U.S. dollar is worth $1.11 Canadian at current exchange rates.

Proposed new airfare bill: Prepare to be hoodwinked once again

Remember a time when it was easy to be hoodwinked by the lure of seemingly rock-bottom airfares, only to find out the promo prices didn't include taxes and fees?

Those practices ended in January of 2012 when new federal airline passenger-protection rules began requiring airlines and online booking sites to include taxes and fees in all advertised fares.

Not only that, but the new regs required them to incorporate taxes and fees into the first fare that the customer sees. No longer acceptable is listing prices, not including taxes and fees, in big, bold type, followed by the bottom-line price in small print.

Well, guess who's lobbying to roll the clock back?

A bill introduced in the House of Representatives and supported by airline trade groups, seeks to allow advertised fares to include only the base air fare, minus taxes and fees, and disclose the full amount "in a link or pop up" prior to purchase.

Without hearings or debate, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved a bill April 9, Bloombeg News reports. 

Feel like doing something about it? Sign this online petition on Change.org. 

The reasoning for this step backward is laughable. Somehow, by including taxes and fees in the total price quoted, the industry is doing consumers are a disservice by "hiding'' how big of a cut the government is taking,  say Bill Shuster (R-Penn.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who introduced the Transparent Airfares Act along with Oregon Dem Peter DeFazio and Washington State Dem Rick Larsen. 

Who's hiding anything? Here's an example of the way Alaska Airlines shows a round-trip fare between Seattle and Phoenix:  Note the total fare is presented first, followed by the break-down in taxes and fees. 

Total per Traveler
$292.00

Base Fare $251.16
Taxes and Fees
$40.84
US Flight Segment Tax $8.00
US Psgr. Facility Charge $9.00
US Sept. 11 Security Fee $5.00
US Transportation Tax $18.84

Easy enough?

You'd think so, but apparently not good enough for Airlines for America, the airline industry trade group. CEO Nicholas E. Calio makes a very unconvincing case for a change in this post for The Congress Blog. 

More accurate is what consumer advocate Ed Perkins had to say in a recent post for Smarter Traveler.com

"While claiming to offer consumers 'better information,' the bill's provisions would actually make matters worse, " Perkins states. "It would again allow airlines to feature ridiculously low-ball fares with an asterisk noting, "each way based on round-trip purchase, not including fees, surcharges, and taxes."

"Proponents of the bill—clearly parroting words supplied by airline lobbyists—claim that consumers want to know how much of the airfare they pay consists of taxes and fees. Actually, Rep Shuster, they don't. What they want to know is how much a trip will really cost, not some phony figure designed to make them think an airline is almost giving away tickets. If they really want to know the details about taxes and fees, they can easily look at the "terms and conditions" pull-down display.

I recall this "Flight Deals to Europe" promotion I found on American Airlines' website prior to the new rules taking effect in  2012.

Seattle to Rome for $381 for travel into mid-June sounded like a steal. But wait. That was one way based on buying a round trip. Still, $762 sounded pretty good, but ... as the fine print indicated, that quote didn't include $92 in taxes and fees. The true fare, once I clicked through to book, was $853.

As Perkins suggests, even if you aren't into politics much, this is one time you will want to contact your representatives, or back the efforts of a consumer coalition, called Travelers United, working to make sure the Senate doesn't go along. That group includes the American Society of Travel Agents and the Travel Technology Association, which represents online travel companies like Priceline Group Inc. (PCLN), Orbitz Worldwide Inc. (OWW) and Sabre Corp.’s Travelocity. 

With Congress home on recess, the airline industry is lobbying senators and their aides to find sponsors for a companion measure in the Senate, which would also have to pass a bill for the measure to become law, Bloomberg reports.

The American Association of Travel Agents is asking members to write members of Congress and ask them to oppose the bill.  "This bill would allow airlines to deceive travelers about the actual cost of a flight, a fight they already lost in 2012 when the Department of Transportation put rules in place to prevent precisely this situation," said ASTA CEO Zane Kerby.

"Congress should stay its hand here. There is no evidence of consumer harm under the DOT rule, only benefits for the traveling public."