“I wanted to thank the staff of Aircomplane.com for helping me get these miles credited. After I had posted my message I got a message from Aircomplane.com just hours later with phone numbers and email addresses of people at US Airways to contact about this. And sure enough, the next morning at 8 am my phone rang and US Airways apologized and said they’d everything to resolve the issue. About three weeks later, my miles were credited. Again, thanks a bunch to the crew of Aircomplane.com.”

Andreas Kraemer

See the entire story here.

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(This Aircomplane.com blog entry originally posted on December 13, 2006.)

We know that our Aircomplane.com™  readers are a pretty well-read and sophisticated audience, so we won’t pretend for a second that we in any way “broke” the story surrounding the potential mergers, takeovers or other high-flying drama taking place within the airline industry. But we know you are all busy (ironically) sitting in an airport somewhere, so we will give you a rundown based on news reports as of this morning:

• Of the six major airlines now in operation (and many needing one), three may soon be gone.
• Consider the US Airways bid for Delta last month.
• UAL, United’s parent (think more the Osbournes rather than the Cleavers) was in talks with Continental Airlines.
• And even the “discount” airlines are getting in on the action with AirTran’s reported hostile bid for its competitor, Midwest Express.

Now, if any of you happen to have one or more of those airlines on your credit card statements, travel itinerary or worse, frequent flyer cards in your wallet, you may want to start thinking about how to protect yourselves.

What’s fascinating about all of this is that with the general oligolopolistic control so few have over airline travel, one would think they would be better at extorting profits from the public and ACTUALLY MAKING MONEY. If Enron taught us anything, it’s thatsomeone is.

Anyway, as your Aircomplane.com Spite Crew, we are here to help you, not [ahem] speculate wildly. So here is what we suggest:

If you are a shareholder or have a history, relationship, flyer miles, or any other connection to a specific airline involved in this latest drama, go to the websites of the airlines that might be affected. We’ll make that easy for you. They are here:

• USAirways www.usairways.com
  • Link to merger information including letter from Doug Parker, President/CEO
• Delta www.delta.com
  • Link to November 17, 2006 SEC FilingWe had to plug “USAirways” into the Delta search box to find this.
  • Delta does offer this section on its restructuring and bankruptcy
• United www.united.com
  • Link to SEC Filings including current “Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities”
• Continental www.continental.com
  • Investor Relations (with sub-link to SEC filings)
• AirTran www.airtran.com
  • Link to Press Room with Midwest press releases
  • Link to Investor Relations page with webcast on Midwest and names and contact       information for your questions
  • Airtran’s SEC filing for Midwest Please see the 12.13.06 filing. It includes this old chestnut (Or since it’s an airline, perhaps it’s a peanut). “The combination of AirTran Airways and Midwest Airlines would create a truly national low cost airline with pro- forma revenue of approximately $3.0 billion in 2007. AirTran believes that both      companies would benefit from this merger by building greater scale, efficiencies and growth opportunities to better succeed in the face of an increasingly competitive airline environment.”
• Midwest Express www.midwestairlines.com
  -Here’s the letter from Midwest Chairman, CEO, and President Timothy E. Hoeksema, to Airtran’s Chairman & CEO Joseph P. Leonard. It’s called  “Midwest Air Group Confirms Receipt of Unsolicited, Highly Conditional Expression of Interest”

 o SEC filings page  Also see 12.13.06 filing

Keep an eye on their “news” and customer pages, and don’t hesitate to check in with their press offices. Look for how they are going to address the issues that concern you. Yes, much of this may be preliminary, but you have a vested interest. Show it! Demand to be kept informed about your “assets” and interests – including frequent flyer miles. You can Google search here from our Aircomplane.com home page and monitor such terms as “airline mergers,” and “airline takeovers.” Use the Google “News Alert” feature to be notified when something on these airlines hits the Internet (which is what we use).

And, please feel free to POST your concerns here onAircomplane.com™ . If you don’t see a main posting concerning your topic or question, just e-mail us, and we’ll put it up for you. We’ve made it easier to do so with the links on the right as well. Chances are many of you are asking the same questions and have the same concerns. You are the reason thatAircomplane.com™ exists.

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Thanks to Andreas Kraemer for our “Comment of the Day” concerning his suggestion that we develop a new category regarding frequent flyer miles. His comment is two below this one and in the category here: Frequent Flyer Miles: “Where are they, what are they worth, and why are you doing this to us?”

Thanks, Andreas. If any of you have any feedback for him or the other Aircomplane.com™ bloggers (and readers….ahem, Mr. Airline, is that you?), please feel free to comment or write us here atinfo@aircomplane.com and we’ll post it for you.

Sincerely,

Your Friendly Aircomplane.com™ Spite Crew

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Where are my miles?

America West (AWA) merged with US Air to form US Airways in 2005.  In early 2006, the new combined airline finally started accepting Star Alliance member’s frequent flyer programs.  Previously, even though the airlines had officially merged, you could earn Star Alliance miles only on US Air flights, but not on AWA flights, which still operated on their own, separate flight numbers.

In the spring of 2006, the new airline heavily advertised that you were now able to earn miles for other Star Alliance airlines on all of US Airway’s flights… Wrong!  I have taken six trips since then and am still waiting for my miles to be credited to my Lufthansa (LH) account.

So I started investigating.  LH tells me that they cannot credit AWA flights.  But hey, wait a minute, AWA doesn’t even exist any more, it’s all US Airways now, right? Wrong again.  Even though they now market and advertise as one airline, they internally still differentiate between (legacy) US Air flights and (legacy) AWA flights.  Their computer systems also do not communicate with each other.  And that’s where my miles are.  Stuck in AWA’s old computer system that doesn’t recognize that AWA is now US Airways and therefore a member of Star Alliance. Unfortunately, all of my flights were legacy AWA flights.

What strikes me is that the airline’s phone operators and customer service reps are just as frustrated as I am.  On numerous occasions, I actually had to listen to THEIR complaints about their own airline’s inability to merge the computer systems and how they do not communicate with each other.  The result is that my miles are stuck in their system.  I sent a formal complaint to the airline but have yet to hear back from them.  I know through my travel agent that many other people have the same problem and that other Star Alliance airlines have sent complaint letters to US Airways/AWA.  I’d be curious to hear from other people who have the same problem.

Oh, and since no inappropriate language is allowed on this blog (and I hope it stays that way), I cannot tell you my thoughts when I see Doug Parker, CEO of US Airways, on TV flat out lying about how travelers will profit from their recently announced takeover of Delta.

Andreas Kraemer

California

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