China Airlines New Boeing 777-300ER Website Up

A few days ago, I wrote about leaked renderings of China Airlines' brand new Boeing 777-300ER and opportunities to redeem Delta Skymiles for the reverse herringbone lie-flat business class seats from LAX and JFK. Well, it looks like the official welcome website for the aircraft has launched, and the seat designs and cabin layouts are exactly as envisioned.

Unfortunately, the website is only in Chinese as of now, although it is fairly simple to navigate the different sections featuring specifications and highlights of each cabin. In addition, an overview video of the entire aircraft has been posted, which I've included here:

Besides verifying much of what we already know about the new design, the only unpleasant surprise I found was the inclusion of 10-across seating in standard economy, which follows an unfortunate industry trend to pack in as many seats as possible into cattle class while generally improving premium offerings.

If American Airlines' brand new 777-300ER is any indication, the economy seats will have 17" width, which is significantly lower than the 18.3" offered by rival EVA Air. In addition, there is still no final word on seat pitch for either economy class or premium economy. EVA Air provides a very generous 33" pitch in economy - something I don't expect to see emulated by China Airlines. The new premium economy seats, however, with a fixed-back forward-reclining design, looks quite comfortable, and could end up being a better overall product.

As I mentioned in my previous post, award availability has already been loaded and appear to be very good in both business and economy using Delta Skymiles. The first long-haul destination will be Los Angeles starting on December 1, 2014. New York will then be added on February 2, 2015. Note that China Airlines has the following blackout dates in 2014 for award redemptions:

• December 10, 2013 - January 4, 2014
• January 24, 2014 - February 3, 2014
• June 1, 2014 - August 31, 2014
• December 10, 2014 - December 31, 2014

China Airlines Brand New 777-300ER Interiors Revealed

From Now News in Taiwan, renderings for China Airlines' brand new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft interiors have leaked. A China Airlines website dedicated to the new design apparently went public prior to the scheduled release date. While the site has since been pulled, renderings and full descriptions were quickly copied down by observant readers. 

Although it is difficult to say for certain if the pictures actually represent the final product, they do look quite professional and polished. Many of the details in the article also match previously reported features of the new design.

In recent years, the other major Taiwanese carrier, EVA Air, has made significant improvements to their hard product in addition to taking the major step of joining Star Alliance. This created a brand new lie-flat business class award redemption option across the Pacific and beyond. EVA Air's Royal Laurel Class, based on the ubiquitous Cirrus Reverse Herringbone layout, arguably remains one of the best business class seats in the industry.

Not to be left behind, China Airlines has finally decided to overhaul their outdated interiors, starting with their soon-to-be-delivered Boeing 777-300ERs. The first three aircraft are scheduled to commence scheduled flights in September of this year. In total, ten 777-300ERs will arrive by 2016, replacing a rapidly aging fleet of 747-400s.

Not surprisingly, China Airlines has decided to completely forego their first class offering, opting to follow EVA Air instead with a lie-flat business class, premium economy class, and standard economy class. Even less surprisingly, their brand new business class will feature the B/E Aerospace Reverse Herringbone design with slight modifications.

China Airlines new business class

The business class cabin will have a total of 40 lie-flat beds in a dark-blue color scheme and wood panel accents. A brand new Panasonic eX3 AVOD system will showcase 18-inch screens, the largest among Taiwanese carriers, and even the remote control will feature a 4.1-inch multi-touch display. Other amenities include fully-adjustable headrests, storage closets, power outlets, USB inputs, and noise-canceling headphones.

Business class lie-flat bed

AVOD system and storage

One slight modification from the EVA Air and Cathay Pacific designs can be seen in the removal of the side storage cabinets to create a more spacious feel for passengers. While the cabinets were well thought-out and useful, I did find that it required passengers to twist uncomfortably to the side to access. China Airlines' version places the seat and AVOD controls, as well as additional storage space, at arm level within easy reach. The reduced obstruction will also better facilitate conversation between couples seated in the center aisle.

Business class passengers will have access to the VIP Sky Lounge, featuring magazines, self-service alcohol, refreshments, and snacks in a comfortable and social environment.

Business class Sky Lounge

The 777-300ERs will introduce China Airlines' foray into the growing premium economy sector. Upon first inspection, the seats appear to be better than EVA Air's offering, with a fixed-back, forward reclining design that will prevent intrusion into the rear passenger's personal space. While Cathay Pacific used a similar design in their economy cabin with disastrous results, I believe these seats are more akin to true business class seats, and look far more comfortable. Details about width and pitch have yet to be revealed.

Additional features in premium economy include larger dining tables, front tray tables with cup and bottle holders, coat hooks, personal reading lights, USB and power outlets, and a large 12.1-inch multi-touch AVOD screen.

China Airlines new premium economy class

Fixed-back forward reclining seats

While no renderings of standard economy class were included, one interesting tidbit was the announcement of the Family Couch, which will allow the middle two armrests to fold up completely and an extra set of three leg rests to prop up horizontally, forming a fully flat bed of sorts for families. This idea is not new, as Air New Zealand pioneered the unique configuration years ago on their Economy Skycouch.

According to the article, China Airlines plans to introduce ten rows of their Family Couch in the economy cabin, for a total of 30 seats (I'm guessing only the center aisle). In addition, the seats will feature a specially designed harness for safety. Pillows, blankets, and even a mattress pad will be provided for extra comfort.

China Airlines Family Couch in economy class

Of course, the big question is what this all means for award redemptions through Delta Skymiles. Round-trip travel from the U.S. to Taipei costs 70,000 miles in economy and 140,000 miles in business. Delta imposes mild fuel surcharges on China Airlines, and they tend to run about $350 for a round-trip award ticket.

China Airlines award space is searchable on its own website even if you are not a Dynasty Flyer member, and availability should match what Delta agents can see, as long as the booking classes are correct (X for economy, O for business).

Unfortunately, Delta does not display China Airlines award space on its website, so the only booking option via Skymiles is to phone in. Air France's Flying Blue website is supposed to display China Airlines award availability, but it does not appear to be working right now. Another paid option, ExpertFlyer, only displays economy award space for China Airlines.

Oddly enough, after speaking to multiple Delta Skymiles agents, not one award seat in any class from October all the way through the end of the schedule could be found. Intra-Asia routes came up empty as well. A few hours later, I called in again and seemed to get an agent who knew what she was doing. This time, plenty of award space in both economy and business showed up. On certain days, there were even three or four business class seats available. So as the old saying goes... hang up and call again!

If you want to preemptively book a seat on the new 777-300ERs, China Airlines has initial plans to fly them on regional routes to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh City beginning in September 2014. The aircraft will then be deployed across the Pacific to Los Angeles in December, with continued expansion to New York City in February 2015.

Flight schedules featuring the new 777-300ERs have already been loaded, so an award search on China Airlines' website can quickly determine if you will get the new product. Of course, last-minute aircraft swaps are always a possibility, so keep your fingers crossed. The current route map can be found here.

China Airlines award search showing the new 777-300ER

Available business class award seats

One Hell Of A Time Booking AeroMexico Award Tickets

I spent the past week pulling out my hair in frustration trying to book AeroMexico award tickets using both Delta Skymiles and Air France Flying Blue miles. Last Wednesday, I wrote a detailed post about AeroMexico's phantom award availability on the Delta website. While there may still be random occurrences that I'm not aware of, it does seem like the problem has mostly been fixed.

On Friday, I did my daily search using Delta's website for the flight I needed from SFO to CUN via MEX, all on AeroMexico. Of course, I used the multi-city search function with the non-stop option selected to get the most accurate results. Per usual, each segment of the AeroMexico itinerary showed up as available. Once I selected the last leg, however, instead of seeing an error message that typically indicates phantom award availability, I was shocked to see the summary page with taxes and fees listed!

AeroMexico award seats bookable on Delta!

I clicked all the way through, entered my credit card information, and amazingly, I had my itinerary booked without any problems. Just to be completely sure, I even called into Delta and reconfirmed my ticket with the agent. The total cost was 35,000 Skymiles plus $109.18 in taxes and fees.

Now the wheels in my head started turning. As some of you may already know, there are some hidden gems in the Air France Flying Blue award chart, mostly involving Latin America. A round-trip award ticket from the U.S. and Canada to Mexico only costs 25,000 miles, as opposed to 35,000 miles like most other programs. Going to Central America costs only 30,000 miles as opposed to 35,000 miles as well. Going to Northern South America costs 35,000 miles, which is identical to the American Airlines AAdvantage award chart. However, going to Southern South America costs only 50,000 miles as opposed to 60,000 miles like most other programs.

So, with a 24-hour cancellation guarantee on the Delta award booking I already made, I figured why not try booking the exact same itinerary using Flying Blue instead for 10,000 less miles? After all, they are an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, and I had a small stash of points just sitting there. I went onto the Flying Blue website and tried searching for the same itinerary, and there it was:

Flying Blue website shows availablity

However, once I clicked through to the next page, I got this:

Cannot book this award ticket due to "technical reasons"

I could not book this itinerary online no matter what I tried. And since the Flying Blue award search engine is apparently even more broken than the infamous Delta website, I couldn't even do a multi-city search (try it and you'll see what I mean). Although it did seem to allow me to book each segment individually, but the cumulative price would total a whopping 50,000 miles instead.

So I called into Flying Blue... for the next five days. I must have spoken to two dozen agents, many of them I began to recognize by name because I would get connected to the same ones over and over again. And every single response was the same. They could see the award availability, but once they tried to grab the seats for me, it would fail. All of the agents blamed it on AeroMexico, saying they were not releasing the seats.

In the meantime, I was cancelling and rebooking the same itinerary like crazy over on Delta as a backup. I even called into Delta again and asked them if they could see how many award seats were available since I knew the AeroMexico award fare code was (X). They assured me they could see two seats available. At this point, I knew the issue was on the Flying Blue side.

Yesterday morning, I called into Flying Blue again, this time trying to elevate the situation to a higher level. Amazingly, I was connected to an understanding supervisor, who listened to my five-minute rant about how their website was broken and how Flying Blue agents could not book an award ticket that was clearly available. He apologized and told me he would get in direct contact with AeroMexico to see what the problem was.

A few hours later, I received a phone call back from the supervisor, saying that he had AeroMexico manually sell him the award seats, and everything was set! I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then, as we were going through all the booking information, I noticed he got the return date wrong. My head nearly exploded at that point. Unfortunately, he said he needed to call AeroMexico again and start from scratch.

About another hour later, he called back again, and this time, everything was correct. Total cost for the award flight was 25,000 Flying Blue miles and $113.72. He didn't even bother adding on the usual €15 phone booking fee. I still don't know why the taxes and fees were higher than Delta's calculation, but by then, I could really care less about a $5.00 discrepancy. I just wanted my tickets booked and done with.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Flying Blue program is riddled with problems like these. Numerous other bookings I tried to make on their website also came back with the same technical error issue. And from the experiences I've described, it seems like calling in won't get the problems easily resolved either. As with most things in life, persistence appears to be the key. If you are 100% positive that the award seat is available, then keep hammering away until you can get a supervisor to do a manual sell for you. Otherwise, you'd be hard pressed to take advantage of any hidden gems on the Flying Blue award chart.

Phantom Partner Award Availability On The Delta Website?

Last week, I was in the midst of constructing award itineraries on two different SkyTeam partners using Delta Skymiles. Since they were rather complicated routings, I had to call in to make the bookings. Before I did that, however, I researched partner award availability using the Delta website and noted that there were plenty of open seats for Korean Air as well as Aeromexico. However, after speaking to multiple agents, I discovered that they could not see any of the online availability. Here is what I found in both cases:

Case #1 - Korean Air

Korean Air releases plenty of award seats, despite the checkerboard of blackout dates that apply year-round. Be aware that Delta effectively blocks all Korean Air award availability on the blackout dates listed, regardless of the fact that only specific routes are supposed to be affected. Nevertheless, it is quite easy to find award seats from North America to Seoul, and then on to other parts of Asia. For example, for SFO to ICN on a random date, not only was the direct flight available at the saver level, but also routes via LAX, where Korean Air flies the Airbus A380.

Korean Air award seats showing as available online

Try calling in to book these seats, however, and you may hit a brick wall. Five out of six agents I talked to last week immediately said they saw no availability on Korean Air at all. Being transferred to the Delta website help desk got me nowhere as well. I was about to give up and blame it on the dreaded online phantom award availability issue when I finally connected with a very knowledgeable agent who told me to hold on while she tried something else.

A few minutes later, she came back and said she was able to see all the available award seats I had been talking about! Surprised, I asked her what she did differently this time, and her response was that for some reason, when querying Korean Air award availability, she had to use the "shopping tab" feature on the internal system instead of the standard search function. Even doing a segment by segment search didn't return any results.

From then on, for every agent I talked to who couldn't see any Korean Air award availability, all I had to do was gently advise them to try the "shopping tab" feature, and voilà, suddenly all the missing award seats became visible! So don't give up if you speak to an agent who insists that there is nothing available on Korean Air. Simply suggest the "shopping tab" and see what happens.

Case #2 - Aeromexico
In the case of Aeromexico, things got a little more strange. Searching on the Delta website for a simple one-way or round-trip award ticket won't return any Aeromexico results if the seats are not actually available. However, if you use the multi-city search function and type in each segment individually, suddenly, plenty of Aeromexico results pop up.

Multi-city search for Aeromexico seats

Aeromexico award seats showing as available

If you click through the results, and select the available flights, you can get all the way to the very last segment. Once you select the flight for your last segment, however, an error message will appear. Basically, you will never be able to book Aeromexico award flights online using the multi-city search function.

Error message when trying to book the award ticket

I called in to Delta and talked to several different agents, and as expected, none of them could see any Aeromexico award seats even after trying every possible search method. I was transferred to a supervisor and also to the website help desk once again, neither of which helped one bit. I finally came to the conclusion that Delta is in fact showing phantom award availability online for Aeromexico flights using the multi-city search function.

Wanting to confirm this, I logged on to my Flying Blue account and did a search for the exact same award itinerary there. Surprisingly, they also showed award availability on Aeromexico. When I clicked through to book, however, an error message popped up as well. Calling in to Flying Blue, the agent told me that she could see the Aeromexico flights, but when she tried to reserve them as an award, they would come back as unavailable.

As of tonight, it appears that both the Delta and Flying Blue websites are still displaying phantom award availability on Aeromexico. I haven't checked other partner airlines for these issues, but be aware that phantom award availability remains a problem on Delta, and the only way to know for sure is to call in. And when calling in, make sure the agents are using all available search functions at their disposal, including the "shopping tab".

Stackable Airline Miles Promotions For Hilton

A few days ago I posted about the Hilton HHonors More Points promotion, where you can earn 1,000 bonus points for every night you stay between January 1 and March 31, 2012. In addition, you can earn 5,000 bonus points for every weekend stay of two nights or more.

Well, it looks like Hilton has quite a few other offers running concurrently, where you can earn bonus airline miles. Remember, you must have your earning preference set to points and miles (variable or fixed), and you must have the respective airline selected as the earning partner. Your stays must occur between January 1 and March 31, 2012. All of these offers are stackable with the More Points promotion, except for the Lufthansa offer.

• Lufthansa Miles And More: Earn double miles on all eligible stays at any Hilton brand hotel worldwide
• Delta Skymiles: Earn 2,012 bonus miles on all eligible stays of two nights or more at any Hilton brand hotel worldwide
• American Airlines AAdvantage: Earn double miles on all eligible stays at participating Hilton brand hotels worldwide
• Air Canada Aeroplan: Earn double miles on all eligible stays at participating Hilton brand hotels worldwide
• US Airways Dividend Miles: Earn triple miles on all eligible stays at participating Hilton brand hotels worldwide

    
Remember that the Hilton HHonors program offers three methods of earning points/miles you can choose from:

• HHonors Points and HHonors Points: 10 base points + 5 bonus points per eligible dollar spent
• HHonors Points and Variable Miles: 10 base points + 1 airline mile per eligible dollar spent
• HHonors Points and Fixed Miles: 10 base points per eligible dollar spent + 500 airline miles per stay (100 miles per stay at Hampton Inns & Suites and Homewood Suites)

      
So for all of the airline bonus miles promotions above, if you select the variable miles option, you will earn two airline miles per eligible dollar spent. If you select the fixed miles option, you will earn 1,000 airline miles per stay (200 miles per stay at Hampton Inns & Suites and Homewood Suites). There is no limit to the amount of bonus miles you can earn on any of the offers above. Remember to double check the participating hotels list before booking your stay (there are many that have opted out)!

Delta 40% Rebate On Membership Rewards Transfers Delay

In late July 2011, Delta ran a very lucrative promotion for transferring American Express Membership Rewards points into Delta Skymiles. For every 50,000 MR points transferred, you would receive a 40% rebate on the points spent. The rebate would come in the form of an email certificate for 20,000 MR points that had to be deposited back into your MR account. Essentially, this was equivalent to a 67% bonus, since 30,000 MR points became 50,000 Delta Skymiles... and there appeared to be no limits on how many e-certs you could earn. So transfer a million MR points into Skymiles, and you would receive 20 e-certs back totaling 400,000 MR points.

The terms and conditions stated that you would receive the e-certs in your email within 8 weeks of the transfer, but soon people realized that their 8-week deadline came and went with still no sign of the certificate. I completed my 50,000 MR points transfer on August 4, 2011, so on October 4, 2011 I gave Delta a call to see what was going on. Many people had hoped to see their MR rebate before September 30, 2011 so they could transfer their points to Continental, since the Continental/MR relationship ended that day. Well... no such luck.

The lady I spoke to at Delta said there was a delay in processing the certificates and that I should receive them within another week. A week came and went, then almost another month. I finally called again today and was transferred twice, finally reaching the Delta Promotions desk, where the gentleman I spoke to had to call another department that issued the certificates to see what was going on. After being put on hold for another 10 minutes, he finally came back and said they were manually pushing through the email to me, and that I should receive it within 72 hours. No sign of the certificate in my email yet, but hopefully this time it's finally resolved.

If there are still people out there waiting for their 40% MR rebate certificates from Delta, I would suggest calling the Delta Promotions desk at 1-888-750-3284 directly, instead of the normal Skymiles reservations desk. Unlike the limited hours of the Skymiles reservations line, the Promotions desk is open 24 hours a day, and can help you directly with the issue. Good luck!

Federal Taxes Are Returning

Fortunately (or unfortunately?), the Senate has finally passed legislation temporarily funding the FAA, allowing about 4,000 furloughed employees to return to work. President Obama signed the bill just a few hours ago. While this is great for the FAA, it also means that the federal government will now return to collecting taxes on all airfare. Officially, airlines will be required to start charging federal taxes again at 12:01 AM on Monday August 8, 2011.

Most airlines have already raised ticket prices in the past few weeks to match the reduced taxes, and stand to reap upwards of $1.3 billion. I don't, however, expect to see a jump in airfare starting on Monday. Instead, airlines will most likely adjust the base fares down to their pre-tax holiday levels. Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and Virgin America were the only airlines to pass the tax savings on to consumers during the entire FAA shutdown.

Meanwhile, based on instructions the IRS issued today, customers who purchased tickets prior to July 23, 2011, and flew during the FAA shutdown are NOT eligible for a refund on the taxes and fees paid. The government, however, will not be retroactively collecting the unpaid taxes owed during the shutdown, so those who took advantage of the tax holiday can breathe a sigh of relief. Visit the IRS website for more information.

Finally, if you haven't bought miles or transferred your American Express Membership Rewards points to an airline program yet, make sure you do so before 12:01 AM on Monday August 8, 2011! I went ahead and took advantage of the Delta Skymiles transfer bonus with 40% rebate on Membership Rewards points last night and didn't have to pay the $30 in federal taxes that would have come with it. This is in effect a 67% Skymiles bonus on transfers of 50K MR point increments through September 30, 2011.

The worst part about this whole situation is that in just 6 short weeks, Congress will have to take up the issue all over again to avoid another lapse in funding for the FAA. And since none of the core political differences that caused this impasse has been resolved with today's temporary resolution, expect more partisan bickering and perhaps another shutdown in the coming month.

Big Transfer Bonuses From Membership Rewards

Membership Rewards is the proprietary rewards program for American Express charge cards (green, gold, platinum). While MR offers many ways to redeem for rewards, perhaps the best way to use these points is by transferring them to any number of participating airline frequent flyer programs. Currently, AMEX has agreements with Delta Skymiles, Continental OnePass, British Airways Executive Club, Air Canada Aeroplan, and many more (most at a 1000:1000 ratio). It's usually a good idea to keep your points in the MR program and only transfer when you actually have a need to book an award flight. And if for some reason you have an urgent need to transfer points, I would always recommend Continental Airlines, since OnePass miles are generally more valuable.

However, there are two great promotions going on right now for transferring MR points into Delta Skymiles and British Airways Executive Club:

• From now through 9/30/2011, transfer any amount of MR points into the Delta Skymiles program and receive a 50% bonus. Transfer 100,000 points or more and also receive 25,000 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQM) - enough to qualify for Silver Medallion status. MQMs are NOT redeemable for awards and are only used for status qualification. Silver Medallion status will give you bonus redeemable miles, waived baggage fees, seat upgrades and more when traveling on Delta. Note that this is for first-time transfers only!

• From now through 7/31/2011, transfer any amount of MR points into the British Airways Executive Club program and receive a 50% bonus. Note that the bonus is only applicable once during this period!

I must add a word of warning though... because I normally would not recommend either program as a means to accumulate miles unless there is a large promotion like in this case. Delta Skymiles is notoriously stingy about releasing saver awards, especially on international flights. I've done some searches before for fairly popular international routes that Delta flies, and have seen zero saver award availability for an entire year! Domestic routes through their main hubs tend to be slightly better... but still far behind the competition. So even though it is extremely easy to accumulate, you often will end up spending double or even triple the amount of miles you originally thought. Hence the term "Skypesos".

British Airways, on the other hand, actually has fairly good award seat availability, especially on their own metal. However, they also tack on an obscene amount of fuel surcharge fees to award flights. First class flights going through London can have upwards of $700 in fuel surcharges, in addition to the miles they deduct from your account! They even collect fuel surcharges on partner awards flights such as Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines, whereas American Airlines never does that for award redemptions. Partner award fuel surcharges can run upwards of $400 roundtrip.

If you are interested in Membership Rewards, there is a thread on Flyertalk right now that details a promotion for 75,000 MR points after completing the spend requirements on an American Express Premiere Rewards Gold Card. I won't go into details about this here because this is not a straightforward application, and you may run into several obstacles trying to get the bonus points. Do read through the entire thread before deciding whether or not it's worth the risk!