This Week's Travel Industry Newsbites

The earnings season is upon us, with third-quarter financial reports beginning to trickle in for the airlines.

Traditionally, the third quarter is the most lucrative one for the airlines, and can make the difference between turning a profit or not for the full year.

Against the backdrop of low ticket prices, record-high fuel costs and hurricane-disrupted flights, Continental weighed in with a surprise: a $61 million profit for the July-September period, compared with a loss of $18 million in the same period last year.

American, the world's largest airline, reported a loss of $153 million for the quarter. In a sign of the times, that was considered a hopeful sign since American lost $214 during last year's third quarter.

American and Continental are currently the subjects of intense scrutiny and speculation because of the Big Six legacy carriers, they are the only ones yet to have opted to reorganize under protection of Chapter 11.

FrequentFlier Forum Topics

As always, there's plenty of activity on the FrequentFlier Forum.

In the "Airline Programs" Forum, phil is grappling with a classic dilemma: "I have 10,100 Lufthansa miles expiring in January 2006. I can't find any way to use them, any suggestions? I thought of having some sort of activity like a car rental to 'renew' the clock and save these miles but I don't think Lufthansa's Miles & More is that progressive. Honestly, I'm not sure how I even earned these but now is not time for Sherlock Holmes, I gotta find a way to burn em!"

Also in the "Airline Programs" Forum, boshouse faces an equally persistent problem: "My goal is to accrue 60k [US Air] miles for two tickets to the Caribbean. I am planning a trip to Ireland, and can get two tickets on US Air for about 70 dollars more than American Airlines. Is it worth paying the premium for the extra miles?"

And much more. Questions, answers? Post them to the Forum!

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American Doubles Miles for LAX-San Antonio Flights

AAdvantage members will earn double miles for travel on American Airlines' new nonstop flights between Los Angeles and San Antonio from Oct. 30, 2005 through Jan. 31, 2006.

Registration is required.

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Continental Bonuses for Online Booking, Check-In

Continental OnePass members can earn up to 1,500 bonus miles for using the online booking and check-in features at continental.com.

On an ongoing basis, members earn 500 bonus miles for every ticket booked at continental.com; plus, through Dec. 31, they'll receive 500 bonus miles and a complimentary inflight headset coupon each time they use continental.com to check in for a flight. Combined, the bonuses total 1,500 miles for every roundtrip flight.

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Frontier Offers Online Booking Bonus

Frontier EarlyReturns members who book a flight online at frontierairlines.com between Oct. 19 and Oct. 31 will receive 1,000 bonus miles in addition to the miles normally earned for the flight.

To receive the bonus, members should log in using their EarlyReturns numbers and passwords, then book their flights.

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Earn Double Points at U.K. Hiltons

Through Dec. 31, Hilton HHonors members will earn double HHonors Base points at 30 participating Hilton hotels in Scotland, Ireland, Central and Northern England.

Request Plan Code HM when making reservations by phone.

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Marriott Adds Abercrombie & Kent Awards

Marriott Rewards members can now redeem points for certificates good toward the purchase of Abercrombie & Kent tours.

Redeem 150,000 points for a $1,000 certificate towards Abercrombie & Kent African safaris, European river cruises, Antarctic expeditions, etc.

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Marriott Rewards Members Earn NWA Miles for Lounge Memberships

Through Dec. 31, Marriott Rewards members who purchase Northwest WorldClub airport lounge memberships for the first time will earn a 2,500-mile bonus for one-year subscriptions or a 5,000-mile bonus for three-year subscriptions.

Also part of the offer: Northwest will waive the $50 "new member initiation fee."

Use source code MRT05 when enrolling to receive the bonus.

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Southwest Offers Booking Bonus

Between Oct. 14 and Nov. 15, Southwest Rapid Rewards members will earn one bonus credit for every roundtrip booked through MySouthwest. There's a limit of three bonus credits per member. (An additional incentive to log into MySouthwest: you can enter a sweepstakes to win a Lenovo ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC.)

This offer can be combined with Southwest's double-credit offer for flights purchased at southwest.com and flown by Nov. 17.

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Double United Elite-Qualifying Miles

Mileage Plus members can double the number of elite-qualifying miles (EQMs) or segments earned for United, United Express, and Ted flights between Oct. 25 and Dec. 15 by paying a $200 fee.

Bear in mind that EQMs cannot be redeemed for award travel, so there's no sense in paying the $200 -- which is non-refundable -- unless the extra miles or segments will either make the difference between reaching and not reaching elite status, or be enough to raise one's status to a higher elite tier.

Current elites are likely to be of two minds about this offer. On one hand, it may represent an opportunity to upgrade from Premier to Premier Exec, or from Premier Exec to 1K. On the other hand, there's the unwelcome prospect of more elite members fighting for upgrades and other limited elite perks.

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United Rewards Elite Achievers

With the above offer, United is making it easier to reach elite status. They're also providing an extra incentive to earn elite.

Mileage Plus members who earn enough elite-qualifying miles or segments to qualify for elite status by Dec. 31 can choose one of three rewards, depending on their tier.

Those who qualify for Premier status, for example, have a choice of two 500-mile e-upgrades, triple flight miles during March 2006, or five entries in a sweepstakes with a prize of 1 million miles. Reward choices for those reaching Premier Exec and 1K are correspondingly richer.

Registration by Dec. 15 is required.

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From US Air: Bonus + Discount for Online Bookings

Beginning Oct. 1, Dividend Miles members will earn 500 bonus miles plus a $5 - $30 discount for tickets purchased at usairways.com.

Offer is valid for published roundtrip adult fares purchased on usairways.com for travel on US Airways (including flights operated by America West), the US Airways Express carriers and US Airways Shuttle.

There's no end-date posted for this promotion.

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Deal Alert from SmarterTravel.com

1) Sale Fares from $39 Each Way on Independence Air

Book by Thursday to take advantage of Independence Air's latest sale. Prices start at $39 one-way, and destinations include Tampa; Washington, D.C.; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Travel is valid from Nov. 1, 2005, through Feb. 15, 2006. Book tickets by Oct. 20, 2005.

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2) Ireland on Aer Lingus from $228

Fall flights to Dublin and Shannon start at $228 roundtrip with Aer Lingus' current sale. Departures are available from both coasts.

Travel at the lowest prices for most routes is valid daily from Jan. 1 through Feb. 28, 2006. Chicago fares are also valid Dec. 1 - 31, 2005. Travel on the Los Angeles route is not valid on Mondays or Wednesdays.

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Win a Trip for 2 to London

Enter the VisitBritain sweepstakes by Nov. 15 for a chance to win a trip for two to London, including air and three nights' hotel accommodations.

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[Visit http://frequentflier.com/sweeps.htm for more travel sweepstakes.]

Feedback from the Frontlines of Travel

"Thank you, thank you, thank you.

"I subscribe to Consumer Reports and had read their review of airline programs. Their conclusions were very different from my own but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. They are in the business of objectively evaluating such matters and I'm just one person (albeit a very frequent flyer, I should say).

"But as you pointed out in the newsletter [last week's Crier], Consumer Reports awarded the airline high marks even when members of their frequent flyer programs were forced to pay twice as many miles for 'anytime' awards. That's just plain ridiculous and shows, unfortunately, that the magazine is out of touch with real world expectations.

"That certainly explains the disconnect between my judgement of the airlines' performance and theirs. And it makes me wonder if they are similarly clueless in their other product reviews, which I've trusted over the years.

"I'll be reading their reviews of other products with a more critical eye in future." [Marjorie M.]

"Anyone else find problems with America West Flight Fund lately? I bought thru the AmWest web site flowers from Teleflora's Flower Club last August. I haven't received the miles credit. Email to customerservice@flowerclub.com bounced back as undeliverable. The customer service link at the AmWest web site returned error message that the page was "experiencing difficulties". The AmWest web page technical problems links, of course, gave the same error message." [Bruce H.]

Until next week...