United Premier Exec Members Receive New Boarding Priority

According to an email from United, effective Wednesday, Premier Executive and Star Alliance Gold members will now enjoy an even higher level of boarding privileges when flying United.

Global Service, 1K's and First Class passengers will continue to board first, followed by Business Class, all via the Red-Carpet Lane. Then all Premier Executive and Star Alliance Gold members will be invited to board, through the main Economy lane. After all the "most valued" customers have boarded, boarding with resume beginning with Boarding Area 1 - including lower level Premier members.

The change essentially elevates the Premier Exec status to a level one notch up from Boarding Area 1, at least in terms of boarding order. This enables Premier Execs and those with equivalent access from partner airlines, to have more overhead space available, get adjusted to their seat, and simply relax, before the boarding of the masses.

Southwest Introduces Priority Security Lanes At Select Airports

Southwest Airlines will soon introduce priority security lane access for its Business Select and Rapid Reward A-List Customers at select airports.

Later this month, the airline will implement the lanes branded “Fly By” at the following locations: Baltimore/Washington International, Dallas Love Field, Phoenix Sky Harbor International, Orange County John Wayne, Denver International, San Francisco International, and Los Angeles International. Southwest plans to add additional airports to the Fly By rollout starting in November 2008, continuing to implement the priority security lane program throughout its system on an airport by airport basis.

Southwest Customers can take advantage of Southwest’s Fly By Security Lanes by presenting an A-List identification card or by presenting a Business Select boarding pass. A-List status applies to Rapid Rewards Members who fly 16 qualifying roundtrips in 12 months, while Business Select fares are usually more costly than regular fares, but come ticket flexibility and a few other perks.

In a press release, Kevin Krone, Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Distribution said, “We believe that our Customers will appreciate the added benefit priority security lanes will provide. Expediting passengers through security is just one example of how Southwest is enhancing the Customer experience by offering added convenience for seasoned travelers.”

Delta Debuts Ads With Online Boarding Passes

Starting today, Delta Airlines customers checking in online for Las Vegas will see something more than their flight information on their boarding pass; Ads.

Perhaps you want information on the David Copperfield magic performance or details on current Cirque du Soleil shows. All of this - and more, on your boarding pass.

While some airlines are flying off into a direction of electronic boarding passes - dumping the paper all together, Delta Airlines is taxiing on with the good old fashioned paper boarding passes, just now exercising a creative use. Sure they are making a few bucks on the ads, but they claim to also be offering a service to passengers, particularly last minute folks, who don't necessarily have the time to research their destination before hoping on the plane. And let's face it, with airlines cutting back on inflight entertainment, raising the price of food and liquid and filling the planes to capacity, maybe these advertisements will keep passengers occupied in flight.

But love it or hate it, almost all Delta passengers will face it. By the end of the week, Delta will expand the ads so virtually everyone printing a domestic boarding pass at home will find advertisements batched with boarding passes. The company behind the technology says however that passengers will have an opt out box should they decide not to print out the ads.

Northwest and U.S Airways stated they too will begin boarding pass advertisements by year end as well.

Southwest Airlines "Special" and "Not so Special" customers

The airline announced several changes including added perks for frequent or high paying fare customers; stops short of calling themselves a 2-class airline. (Let's just call them "special").

First, yes - the "Cattle class", unique to Southwest remains, but with some minor changes. The airline will start giving passengers an assigned number within the current A, B and C boarding groups and then have you line up in your respective group and board together. To this point in Southwest's history, passengers simply queued according to their assigned group.

Other changes:
A "Business Select Class" will be created, whereby those paying the highest fares (often last minute and/or refundable) pay an extra $10-$30 and receive a guaranteed "A" boarding pass (first on the plane), free cocktail and ability to earn RapidReward credits a bit faster.

All members of its RapidRewards program who have flown 32 one-way flights or 16 round-trips in 12 months will be placed on the carrier's "A-List," where they will be automatically checked in for their flight in advance, and will most likely receive an "A" boarding pass.

Although the airline has operated on a one-class system - no first class cabin and no elite levels in the RapidRewards program, quite unlike most other U.S airlines, the changes announced yesterday begin to erode away at a single class Southwest society many people are use to.

Fare Basis Code: Unscramble to reveal the mystery behind your fare

By Mike Grasso
Decoding the Fare Basis of your Airline ticket. Oh what fun!
Understanding the pricing strategy behind the fare basis can help you realize the different fares available for a particular route, saving ya oodles of money.
Caution: Now entering the murky waters of airfare pricing.

A fare basis code (different from the confirmation number) applies to all purchased airline tickets. Each code explains how your fare was calculated, the restrictions on it and more. They usually aren't printed on your boarding pass, occasionally found on your receipt, or sometimes no where to be found & you just have to call the airline directly to find it out. Hint: Travelocity is pretty good about giving at least the first letter "booking class" when you view rules of a selected airfare. Let's look more into fare basis codes:

Below is a sampling of fares available for San Francisco to Las Vegas:

The "L" fare basis code is the cheapest $44 each way. The "14" in the code signifies the ticket must be purchased 14 days in advance. The remainder of the codes can signify peak or off peak or minimum stay requirements. If you were purchasing a ticket 10 days before departure, the computer would display a $99 "W" fare because you meet the requirement of a 7 day advance purchase. Of course if the airline has sold out of the "W" fares, then it looks for the next higher priced tier- in this case a "V" fare. Finally, the "Y" fare is a refundable fare with 0 day minimum purchase; you can walk up to the ticket counter to purchase - and pay the $407 fare that luxury comes with.

Fare Basis Purchase as early as Fare
LA14ON9 29 Oct 07 $ 44
WA7NGZ 22 Oct 07 $ 99
VA3NGZ 18 Oct 07 $ 109
YTED0 15 Oct 07 $ 407

This is a simplified version of how to unscramble your fare basis code. In reality there are several fare basis codes, and sub-categories, since airline pricing is pretty complex. Here is a link for SFO-SEATTLE (scroll to the bottom part of the screen) if you want to look at some additional fare basis codes. You can also check your own itineraries and try to decode the mystery behind fare basis. BTW - fare basis codes are different from the airlines confirmation code.

An important thing to remember is the airline allocates a particular number of seats for each fare basis. They don't want the plane full of people buying cheap tickets! So maybe 10 of the "L" cheap cheap tickets are available, and 15 of the "W" still pretty cheap tickets. Once the "L" tickets are sold out, then everyone else gets "W" or higher fares. So when you book a ticket for 2 or more people, if there is only 1 cheap cheap seat left, most of the time the computer doesn't split your reservation where 1 person gets the "L" and other the "W" fare - both end up getting the "W" more expensive fare. In other words, if your buying for 1 person, the fare is cheap, but buying for 2 in this example, the fare isn't as cheap per person. In this example, you might consider booking this as 2 separate reservations so at least 1 person can take advantage of the lower price.

Of course the fare basis is only 1 piece of the pricing pie. The airline may not offer multiple tiers of pricing on some routes because of a lack of competition or expected higher demand. In this case, all the fares may be high when you perform a search. Best advice: Keep at it. Check prices periodically, airlines have sales, and sometimes they even have unannounced short-term deals which the general public never hears of unless they just happen to stumble on it.

In the meantime, have fun with your fare basis code - decode. Use the link provided above and change your cities and dates in the address bar line to suite your needs. With this information, you can find all fares published and the restrictions with each, enabling you to make an informed decision for airline tickets.

Pre-Boarding at Southwest Airlines: No longer for families & kids

Southwest Airlines has announced that families with small children can no longer pre-board ahead of all other passengers. The airline, which currently doesn't offer pre-assigned seating, assigns seating by groups - A, B, C etc.. based on how early one checks in; group A boards after families with kids, followed by groups B & C. Under the new policy, such families will board after group A or whatever boarding Group their boarding pass indicates. Article here
This change is reportably one of other boarding changes Southwest will announce in a press conference later today.
4pm Update: (thanks Ktjen) Southwest announced "open seating is here to stay" in an email to RapidRewards members. There is a slight change to current procedure, as noted in their text:
"Open Seating is Here to Stay!You spoke and we listened. Today, Southwest Airlines is thrilled to announce that you will continue to be able to choose your favorite seat once onboard the aircraft. And it doesn’t stop there! We’ve figured out how to make our open seating method even better by doing away with the so called “cattle call” and eliminating the need to “camp out” in the boarding line.Beginning in early November, you will be assigned not only a boarding group (A, B, or C) but also a number within that boarding group based on the time you check in for a flight (for example: A32)..."