Month: March 2007

One of my coworkers stays in a different Hilton or Hilton partner hotel every night because stays – not nights – count towards status.  So one night he stayed across the street from our Marriott.  The next night he stayed across town.  Nevermind that we had to go drop him off and pick him up. 

What crazy thing have you done for points?

A few days ago I blogged about how to get through airport security.  Earlier this week I learned another good trick: ask to go through the explosive detector lane.  There’s no line there.

Monday morning I arrived at the Denver airport twenty minutes before my flight was supposed to board and discovered that the security lines were wound around all the way out of all the available space and starting to curl back towards baggage claim!  (The problem was spring break …)  I got in the frequent flier line and made good time and then I got the best piece of advice from the woman behind me in line.  She told me to ask to go through the explosives test line.  So after I got to the point where they check your ID,  I asked if I could go through the explosives check line, was told “sure” and there was no wait!  You go through security just the same way but you have to hold your boarding pass in your hand and you leave your shoes on until after you’ve gone through the explosive machine.  You stand in this machine, it blows air all over you and then you wait about 30 seconds.  When the light turns green, you step out, take your shoes off, put them through the Xray machine, step through the metal detector and show your boarding pass to the inspection agent.  I got through security, including the long line, in 20 minutes!

When I got to the concourse I joined the millions of people running down the concourse.  My flight was sold out and they had taken two volunteers but they had saved a seat for me!

The New York Times had an article yesterday about frequent fliers who lost their premier status because they had a baby or stopped traveling to care for a family member.  Before you say "whatever," realize that not having frequent flier mile status can mean allocating another hour in the morning to get through security.  It means not being able to work on the airplane because your laptop won’t open in the back of the airplane so when you get home, you have to spend another hour answering emails.  Having frequent flier status can help the whole work/life balance when you travel a lot for work.

I had a good experience getting my status back from United.  I didn’t travel for six months last year – some time before and some time after I had Caleb.  In order to get my status back from United I had to be persistent and I probably talked to four or five different representatives but finally one of them asked when my baby was born, checked how much I’d flown until then, projected out what it would have looked like over the year, and decided I would have earned premier executive status if I hadn’t left on maternity leave.  She gave me premier executive status for the year and warned me I’d have to earn it the hard way this time.  She did ask about the flights I had taken during maternity and I explained that I had taken Caleb to see my parents.  So United was pretty good about giving frequent flier mile status back.

I’m on a completely booked flight and as it started boarding they announced that if you had a middle seat you could buy an aisle seat for $29.  Since it’s a completely booked flight that means that they are giving away the seats of late comers.  People that reserved aisle seats and who haven’t shown up 30 minutes before departure will now be sitting in a middle seat when they show up.  And the airline will be $29 richer for each person that gets booted to a middle seat! 

They might also be selling my seat as I got a complimentary upgrade to business.

What will they think of next?

You can now carry water onto the airplane – any water you bought after you went through security that is.

Lufthansa is a stickler for the rules, whether they make sense or not.  Rules are to be followed and there are no exceptions.  Especially not for frequent fliers or people flying in business class or people who paid more for their ticket.  One traveller was recently barred from the from using the business class line even though he was entitled to use the first class line.  This guy thought it was funny:

 

Lufthansa Senator member sees the first class checkin has a
long time, wants to use the empty business class line. They’re told ‘no
way’ — a benefit of Senator status is that they use the First Class
lines. Period. They’re not allowed to use the business class lines.

[…] Your boarding
pass displays your status, which entitles you to the lounge…. but the
rules say you must present your membership card.  No card, no entry.  Rules.

Personally, having been in a very similar situation with Lufthansa, just reading the story made my heart beat faster and my blood start boiling.  The rules, whether they make sense or not, will be enforced by Lufthansa.

Maybe someday I’ll run across Lufthansa and their rules when I’m not in the middle of a 40 hour trip or I’m not about to miss my flight, and I’ll be able to see the humor in it, but not today.

Photo by  caribb.