50,000 Miles for Continental MasterCard

Continental and Chase give generous terms for this MasterCard offer.  In 2012 the Continental OnePass and United Mileage Plus programs will merge, and this product will cease to exist.  If you have been waiting to grab many Continental miles to roll into the new United, here is your chance. 

If you wait until February 1^st you can register with Continental’s Mile-a-Thon offer and earn credits for applying for the card.  The more credits you accumulate, the more miles you earn.

The credit card is standard.  There is an $85 annual fee waived for the first year, and if you are not looking for a loan soon, you can cancel the card with very little determent to your longer term credit history.

You will get 50,000 bonus miles after your first purchase and 10,000 bonus miles if you spend more than $25,000 on the card for the year.  You earn one mile for every $1 spent and two miles for every $1 spent on tickets purchased directly from Continental.

You receive your first checked bag free every time you fly on Continental and two President’s Club passes every anniversary.

It is not a great card, but it’s a perfect opportunity to pick up some miles.

PBS Special Investigates the Outsourcing of Aircraft Maintenance

PBS FRONTLINE and the Investigative Reporting Workshop examined the growing trend of outsourcing major airline repair work to lower-cost independent maintenance operations in the special Flying Cheaper.

The segment points out issues at one facility, but the safety records of US airlines suggest air travel is safer than ever before.  What is the truth of the situation industry-wide?  Obviously, finding glaring issues is good for production and entertainment, but how many of the major airlines are turning to incompetent subcontractors?  Is this more of an issue for regional jet carriers?  International carriers?

Obviously, airlines are in the business of transporting passengers and cargo.  The aircraft, interiors, in-flight entertainment, avionics, engines, etc are all built by specialized sub-contractors.  It makes sense that the maintenance of all those items could be handled with more care and at a lower cost by a specialized subcontractor, and true free-market competition has always demonstrated benefits.  

As flyers we forget how dynamic the air transport industry can be.  We like to have a carrier you can trust to take you anywhere, whether that be Dubai or Jackson Hole.  Delta, United, and Continental provide that service, but to do it well they need to have a very diverse fleet of aircraft for all the different routings and passenger capacities.  This means lots of different training for pilots, flight attendants, ground crews, and maintenance crews.

Look at United’s mainline fleet.  Maintenance operations need to support the A319, A320, B744, B752, B763, and B772.  Scheduling the right crews to the right aircraft is inefficient.  For example, United only flies 24 B744s, so what does a B744 trained maintenance crew do when all the B744s do not need maintenance or FAA checks?  You could train them on another airframe, but it increases the likelihood of getting confused or having to more frequently look up information which wastes time.

Rather imagine a maintenance company that specializes in B744s and services United, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, and Singapore.  All are members of Star Alliance so there is a willingness to cooperate.  All operate B744s and some airlines only in the single digits.  The maintenance company would have facilities across the globe to support these clients so it makes relocating aircraft for repair significantly easier.  You have crews who become experts on one airframe.  It is better and cheaper for everyone involved.

Welcome To The New United

I went to bed yesterday with Delta being the clear winner of my business. Today, things start to get a little more fuzzy. United and Continental signed the papers to become one and surpass Delta as the largest airline in the world. With that means a merging of ideas and a whole lot of growing pains.

Delta has offered the cheapest advanced rates to my destinations, and Delta also has a policy of earning perks with Medallion status.

United has had the policy of you can pay for everything. Pay for priority. Pay for Economy Plus. Pay for alcohol in the Red Carpet Rooms. Pay. Pay. Pay. On the other hand, Delta reserves it’s perks only for Medallion Elites, and Medallion Members have been known to complain to high heaven any time Delta so much as THINKS about offering perks for payment.

The latter appeals to me as an Elite member. Despite SkyPesos (SkyMiles) have one of the poorest exchange for rewards of the US majors, having the AMEX SPG card means 1.25:1 transfer of StarPoints to Sky Miles versus 0.625:1 transfer to Mileage Plus, so SkyPesos still appeal to me. But, in two years, the New United might be the better choice. We’ll see how the business decisions fall into place. In the meantime, enjoy the new livery. “United” text on white with the Continental tail. Boring, if you ask me, but symbolic.