BYO device entertainment systems finally working on more United flights (Photo: United)
AIRLINES
United expands in-flight streaming. Passengers on most United Airlines A319s and A320s can now (finally) stream entertainment in-flight. A United official said at an industry conference in Las Vegas that the airline recently activated in-flight entertainment streaming on almost three-fourths of its 152 Airbus narrow-bodies, with the rest coming soon. In-flight streaming — which is already available on UA’s 23 747-400s and all 777-200s to Hawaii — was dependent on completing the installation of in-flight Wi-Fi equipment, he noted. (Have you tried it yet? How did it work?)
ATL flyers short-changed by merger? Southwest’s acquisition of AirTran could prove to be more costly than beneficial for Atlanta-area flyers, according to an analysis by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The paper said that when the government approved the combination, it didn’t foresee Southwest’s drawdown of service at ATL, giving more of the market to an already-dominant Delta. The report said Southwest/AirTran has already cut competition on more than a dozen routes out of ATL, and that Delta’s market share there has grown from 78 to 83 percent.
Ryanair rolls out business fares. Business travelers have never been too fond of Ryanair, the intra-European airline known for ultra-low fares and its broad range of ancillary passenger fees. But now the carrier has come out with a new category of business fares. They’re significantly higher than base fares, but include a menu of services that would otherwise incur hefty fees, like a checked bag, priority boarding, access to premium seats, and, perhaps most significant: a waiver of change fees.
Print your bag tag at home, insert it into special bag tag sleeve at airport, and bypass long luggage check in lines. (Photo: Hawaiian Air)
Hawaiian tries out self-checked luggage. The latest carrier to start testing a procedure for passengers to check their own bags is Hawaiian Airlines. For two months, travelers on its flights from Seattle and Oakland to four Hawaiian destinations can use the TAG@HOME option, which lets them print out bag tags at home when they check in for flights. At the airport, they’ll find a stand with reusable sleeves; tags are slipped into them and attached to the luggage, which is taken to a bag drop. Alaska Airlines offers a similar option for home printing called Self-Tag Express, and United has started offering a self-tagged bag procedure at Chicago O’Hare, but with tags printed at the airport.
Earlier boarding for uber elite? This just in from TravelSkills reader EJ: “When the Delta gate agent called for first class boarding on a recent flight to New York, she invited Diamond Medallion members to board the flight with first class passengers. The agent then waited two minutes before inviting other Sky Priority passengers — Platinum, Gold — to board. As a Diamond flyer with Delta, the invite to board with first class passengers was a pleasant surprise. I’ve had issues with Delta over the years, but Delta deserves kudos in this case. Delta seems to me upping its game on multiple fronts.” Has anyone else received special treatment like this?
This week’s most popular post
Hawaiian, Frontier add routes. Members of American’s AAdvantage program in the San Francisco area are getting a new option for award travel to Maui. AAdvantage partner Hawaiian Airlines said it plans to begin four weekly flights between SFO-Maui on November 20, increasing to daily December 17, using a 294-seat A330-200. Meanwhile, Frontier announced new service starting in late October from Cincinnati to DFW, Orlando, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Ft Lauderdale; from Chicago O’Hare to Phoenix and Salt Lake City and from DFW to Memphis.
Secret spaces on new jets: TravelSkills in London’s Daily Mail. Last week, London’s popular Daily Mail website post on a story we brought you two years ago: An inside look at airline crew rest areas. The Mail story included several images as well as our 8 Best Beds video we created in 2012 when invited on a Cathay Pacific B777 delivery flight from the Boeing factory in Seattle to Hong Kong. The post was hugely popular… as a matter of fact, view on our video jumped from around 90,000 to over 240,000 in just a few days.
SECURITY
TSA PreCheck hits a milestone. TSA said last week its PreCheck program, now about nine months old, has passed the half-million mark in approved members. What’s more, Customs and Border Protection now has more than 3 million members in its own trusted traveler programs, which include Global Entry for international airport arrivals. TSA said PreCheck is currently available at 118 U.S. airports, while Global Entry can be used at 51 U.S. airports and at preclearance stations in Canada. TSA has opened more than 300 PreCheck application centers nationwide.
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HOTELS
Fees on hotel guests hit a new record. A new study by NYU’s Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management finds U.S. hotels are on track to haul in a record $2.25 billion in fees and surcharges from guests in 2014 — up from $1.7 billion just four years ago. “Fees and surcharges are highly profitable; most have incremental profitability of 80 to 90 percent or more of the amounts collected,” the study noted. Hotel charges include things like resort fees, early departure fees, Internet fees, room service surcharges and business center fees, among others. Have you been seeing new hotel fees lately? Which ones irritate you the most?
In Case You Missed It…
>Check out this amusing video about the controversial “Knee Defender” incident on United last week.
>Check out these interesting facts about airline flight numbers.
Jim Glab & Chris McGinnis
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Entertainment streaming was fine on a 747 FRA-ORD using a Dell E6410, Windows 7. No power plug so I didn’t test my Apple Macbook Pro (weak battery).
Pre-Check: UA has given me pre-check on my last 5 or 6 flights, I liked it. My BOS-SFO flight last week did NOT have pre-check … now I REALLY appreciate it! Going in to sign up next month.
I was recently on a United 777 to Honolulu and the streaming works if you’re carrying on a device. I don’t normally travel with one (another thing to keep track of) and I’d imagine it’s a challenge to hold it for the five hours we were flying. I think it’s a dumb idea and another flying feature that’s NOT enhancing the flying experience. 🙁
UA streaming worked great from IAH –> SFO. Great selection of movies and shows. No issues
United streaming worked great for me HNL-LAX last week
Most irritating hotel fee? Charging for Wifi! Come on hotels……..just provide quailty wifi as part of your service.
United streaming was broken on the 777 Hawaii flight I was on. On top of that, the plane had no power ports (USB or plugs), so it’s not very conducive to powering laptops or tablets. Oh….and according to the United website, they’re still “…working to expand the service to include Android devices.” For now, Android users are SOL.
We flew on a United flight Aug 14 with the streaming entertainment from Honolulu to Los Angeles. Hubby used the iPad and I had the iPhone to get access to the movies as long as you had the latest version of the United app and a fully charged device. Decent choices of movies and got to catch up on some TV shows too for the 5 hour flight. Made for a nice entertaining flight and had no problems with it at all. But, I wondered what my parents would do (they don’t have smartphones nor would they know how to download the app!) and we also wondered how much United would charge once it was out of beta mode.
Re: Southwest “shortchanging Atlanta area flyers”…Not only will we experience that “drawdown”; Southwest’s model of flying hither and yon before getting you where you want to go is, to say the least, annoying. If you book a flight via Southwest website and the first leg is AirTran equipment; forget about TSA Pre-Check. Southwest did not pay the fees for AirTran to participate. Found that out too late. Also, if you book a flight via Southwest and, again, if on AirTran equipment, forget about complimentary upgrades even if you are a 10+ year Elite with AirTran. The computer systems “cannot communicate” with each other so no complimentary upgrade for you! If you book a flight on AirTran’s website you can get upgrades (granted if available) but, as I understand the current arrangement, you do not get any qualifying credit for Southwest. Also, I recall the old Delta method for determining Sliver/Gold/Platinum was by segments. Wheels up, wheels down was a segment. Not with Southwest. My recent Southwest trip was roundtrip to MEM out of ATL. I went from ATL to MDW, then MDW to MEM. Return flight was MEM to MCO and MCO to ATL. Two segments, not four. I ask other AirTran Elites when I see their AirTran Elite luggage tag how they are liking the “adjustment” so far and the majority are none too happy. Three out of four say they will seriously consider “starting all over with Delta”. Stay tuned boys and girls!
You should mention that Delta already has streaming on every single plane in the mainline fleet, and every Delta Connection jet except the 50-seaters.
While it is great that Delta Medallions were called to board with First Class passengers on that flight, I would rather see US Military Members in uniform board before any other passenger. I’ve brought to Delta’s attention that other carriers do this on a regular basis at many airports. I live in San Diego and find many members of the military, in uniform, boarding with the ‘regular passengers’. I haven’t seen any changes yet from DL. Come on, Delta, give the military members in uniform a break on every flight, in every city!
Thanks FT! Sounds like folks are having more luck with the product on overseas flights than on domestic ones… –Chris
Just flew on a 747-400 from HKG to SFO and was impressed with the in-flight entertainment streaming. Interface and video quality was very good; I wish the video selection had been more extensive and more current. I was hoping the selections would be more like what is offered in business/first class.
While waiting to board a flight from ATL to DAY last Thursday, the gate agent announced the new order for boarding with First Class and Diamonds first. We were told it was a test and it was ONLY being done at the gates on Concourse T. The GA encouraged us to email our opinions to Boarding@Delta.com, and let them know what we thought.
I recently flew from LAX to ORD on an A320 that had the streaming video option. I do not have any ios devices so i tried it on my laptop instead. While the process to select and start a video was simple enough (A small plugin install is required from Panasonic for DRM purposes), the audio/video would freeze approximately a minute in. Restarting the video would work but it would always freeze. I think they still have some work to do as i was informed in the email before the flight the system is still in beta.
Ugh United. Just flew O’Hare to SFO and only entertaiment option was to pay for wifi. I couldn’t get it on my personal iphone–neither could several people near me. Flight crew insisted it was working (but they wouldn’t/couldn’t provide assistance). Then I tried my work iphone (same model as personal one) and I was able to pay, use email, use Facebook, Twitter–but if I clicked on any link it would bring me back to United Wifi homepage. Also no streaming allowed. Terrible experience. Will get money back but it was a verrry long flight without entertainment.