There was never sterile transit, but before 9/11, citizens of most nations (like those from S. America) can enter the US and change planes without visa, as long as they have the connecting tickets.

Well, yes, that's a valid security issue, so that was ended. But it's ridiculous to NOT implement sterile transit at airports with appropriate facility. Almost all nations in the world can do it, so why can't the US?

Here are some stuff I heard at the panel sessions which interest me and not in the main LK/JS Q&As:

I. Products (1st session):

Inflight:
- 3 of the 737-800s now have power front to exit rows. Others 737-7/8/900 will follow.

- All 41 757-200s should have new seats, power and AVOD in coach by October 2008. Some of the better old seats will be recycled in the 737 fleet, replacing some of those old, thin-padded ones. [Forgot the exact model number of those old seats.] The 739ERs will also have B/E Aerospace seats, same as the 752s.

PC:
- Las Vegas PC will open in 2nd Quarter of 2008.

Food:
- Nov 1 will see totally new FC menus.

- Whether meals are provided on flights are determined by average block time on that route. Not the specific scheduled duration of a particular flight.

- There are steam ovens on all 767/777s, as well as the new 787s. They also use chilled food carts.

II. Hub Airports (2nd session)

IAH:
- 5 more gates at B84 on Oct 20th, in additional to the 10 already in place and the 3 vacated by NW.

- Other improvements in B, like converting the south side satellites to linear terminals, are only in planning phase. Nothing confirmed yet.

EWR:
- They really will not be adding flights there. Only moving to larger planes.

CLE:
- I asked about the CO51 FRA-EWR (772) diversion to CLE a few weeks ago, which I found peculiar. Turned out the plane had a maintenance issue (with radar) and that could be fixed at CLE. The positive thing is that they got the passengers off at CLE and clear customs/immigration; and most were put on other connecting flights direct to their destinations without having to continue to EWR.

PC Club Facts
 

I learned how diverse the visitors within the PC really are: of about 50,000 passengers who pass through IAH as an example, roughly 40,000 are PC members. 4,000 are Amex Platinum card holders, 1,000 are DL members, 1,000 are NW members, 1,000 are other SkyTeam members (i.e.: international guests)

As one who found it impossible to make the DO, thanks to all of you for posting this information! Really interesting!

IAH - SYD - eventually - likely several years out - once CO has lots of 787.

DO's to occur yearly (per Larry).

COInsider did a great job. Bunker - out of this world.

Add: CO Express RJ seat padding upgrade - 40% complete and continuing.

Improved CO coach seat with better seat cushion - installed on three 752's and continuing (these include the AVOD for the international 752 version).
The old 752 - which is better than many in the 737 fleet - will be used to upgrade the 737 - thus getting rid of the worst seats first.

Way to go!

Last night this was not a problem. They actally let folks run tabs for the premium wines and closed them out with a CC at the end of the night. Not sure if that is going to be a permanent thing, but they had the CC terminal on the end of the bar, and it appeared to be getting quite a workout for most of the night.

Also, I learned that all the cool kids who are posting their photos on flickr are using the tag "CODOIII" so that everyone else can find them (hint, hint).

I learned that TripAlert isn't really broken. While it can do what we want, they throttle it back on purpose so that it doesn't.

Has CO stopped flying to Cairns?

No - in fact a response from one of the exec's was we already fly to Australia (ie Cairns) - but the future when lots of 787s are in the fleet - then Australia will be on the expansion list - but later.

Some notes from the OnePass Panel Discussion
 

Panelists -

• Mark Sullivan - MD Loyalty Mktg - Custodian of OnePass and all partnerships
• Leslie Colbert - Customer Interaction - OPSC, Contact Center
• Scott O’Leary - MD Customer Experience

How do you see a possibility of rewarding loyalty beyond 75K EQM?

• We are going to continue to look at that. Want our input to get ideas on answers. **The program has to continue to add value. If it doesn’t … sooner or later we’re going to lose a lot of our valuable customers”
• We’ve got a lot of very high yield customers that fly 75-100K that provide lots more revenue than 125K customers
• 4th Tier isn’t going to happen - Will an extra bonus really help things at all?
  • Many earned elites in multiple programs (~40% of the room)
  • Most are not in IAH - Hub captives are kept, so might not really be an issue
  • More than 50% of elites are in hub markets

What is the argument against SWUs?

• $15MM against the bottom line for issuing them, or maybe something in that general range, so it would be a significant cost
• Fare class minimum?
• Waive co-pay? Only helps if the upgrade actually clears
• All are options and everything is "on the table" but no definitive details to announce today.

Upgrades/Seats going out empty

• Looked at EXTREMELY closely and "we do want to address that."
• Need to ensure that we are not compromising the "revenue integrity" of BF.
• Needs a lot of effort with implementation, so it is hard to do - will take a lot of lead time
• "We would love to take your miles. We would love to keep that co-pay money in the bank." There are some employee issues that have to be addressed. -- I read this as meaning they're worried about upsetting employees who get those empties when upgraders don't.
• Most waitlist clears happen in the day or two prior, and usually clear to one or two seats, but revenue management generally is pretty good about making sure to clear most everyone except one or two seats.
• Same-day upgrade clearing is coming back, though they reseve the right to change back if they see too many phantom bookings showing up. See this thread for more discussion.

Online Award Charts -- Scott actually was waiting for me to ask this one ;)

• In the middle of a clean-sheet redesign of the reward charts
  • Hoped to have it available for DO, but may push into December
  • Scott will solicit some volunteers from FT to help proof them to make sure that we’re happy with them
  • Include only the carriers that can be booked
  • Include which carriers can be booked online and which require calling in
  • Lots of nuance. For example, connecting in EU to SkyTeam via KL TATL, if we book onward in J then it bumps up to 100K, not 80K. Booking onward in Y keeps it 80K

Plans to keep folks in the CO/Chase partnership based on cxl after 1 year

• We are looking at that offering in the next 30-60 days to determine what additional benefits for the next year, including anniversary “bonuses” and other options
• Renewal certificate is only worth $20 in hubs, and that is something that will be considered in the discussion

Any chance of the Privelige Pack returning?
No. It wasn’t making money, a lot of admin expense effort, and won’t be coming back.

How are OP members "valued" by the company? (i.e. long term value - million miler, soft landing, etc.)

• There will be a million miler program. We don’t know what it will look like, and we are having trouble figuring out who the MMs are, based on BiS miles and possibly partner miles (ie EQMs).
  • This will not change Infinite
  • Will be retroactive to the beginning of the OnePass program, including Eastern.
• Soft Landing is the targeted elite buy-up plan. Based on revenue more than anything else, so someone who is close to a level but spent more to get close than the average person who actually qualified will be offered a buy-up. A MRer who just misses will not be offered the buy up.
• MM (and other long term) rewarding needs to not be insulting - egos need to be managed/massaged, so recognition and tangible benefit need to be carefully balanced.
• There was a private recognition for 200K miles last year - 30K flex EQMs that don’t expire to help in the lean years. No promises for it ever happening in the future, but it was a nice touch for those folks
• Possibly doing something small (3-5K flex EQMs) for each year of Platinum to help out? -We’ll consider it.
• Lots of small things that would have marginal "hard" cost (ie lounge passes, 5K flex EQMs, etc.) but would they be behavior changers to ensure more travel on CO? That’s what CO really needs to drive.

Any improvements in seamless booking between partners?

• Either booking online on co.com or making things easier to work on the partner web sites. They’re working on it with the other management groups at the partners
• Upgrade options on other carriers? Getting a list of which partners can be upgraded on?

EasyPass

• CO & Copa are capacity free
• NW/KL is expanded availability
• Everything else is still restricted, so if you’re paying EasyPass it is because of the connecting flights (except the current AF options, but I showed that to Scott and he's going to get that fixed.

What is being done to improve the value of SkyTeam alliance relative to the other alliances?

• In general, we are trying to provide as much value as we can, but some partners don’t allow this sort of thing.
• Reciprical upgrades with DL are on the table for discussion, but not a done deal now (and we were cautioned to remember that it would be a whole bunch more folks upgrading on CO flights, which is already hard in many markets).

Why are you listening to us? There are 200K Platinum pax, so why bother with us?

• We’re a great sounding board and a representative sample of the "big boys" customers
• Tomorrow is a new day, so they need to make sure that if there are things that are enough to drive us to post, so they probably affect others as well, and that is worth tracking and dealing with

Redepositing rewards
Working on auto redeposit still, and only about a year’s worth kept online,

Paper Certificates are going away 100% at the end of the year

Any chance of AX MR bonus coming back?
Not Likely.

Standby based on status?
2nd Week of December!! [much applause ^^^^^]

Any thoughts on spinning off OnePass?
"We’ll always continue to evaluate it." But it doesn’t seem likely. This answer was echoed by Larry following the Q&A during the follow-up questions from folks up front.

Partial EQMs?

• Elites population is growing significantly, so the 50% EQMs thing is helping to keep the ranks thinner.
• Elite base is growing by double digit percentages, even with it
• Drives Co.com
• If you’re always booking lower fares, you’re getting what you deserve - he didn’t say it quite that way, but he meant it (IMO)

Will honor the Sony eBook Readers offer for folks affected by the glitch.

Thanks for keeping the call centers in the USA [LOTS of applause!!!]

Some changes are coming for 2008 EQM/Elite program.
They will be announced in October via a press release. Larry also suggested in the Q&A that there would be some changes to redemption levels on some routes. FCTSTY is betting that it is for the transcons. I think it will be international. We should find out soon enough.

I hate that I was unable to make this, but thank you all for all the info & keep it comming. I'm so jealous:)

Notes from the Customer Technology Session
 

Panelists

• Carrie Wilhelm - 15 Years, 8 Years on co.com and reservations prior to that
• Aaron Hynes - 9.5 years in technology department, primarily on the marketing side
• Jared Miller - Director of Customer self service - kiosk, IVR, pda, website, etc. 4.5 years
• Sherry Key - Director of Technology - In charge of all the check-in apps, plus some voice automation

(As an aside here, I am rather amazed by the longevity of the folks on the co.com side of the house. It is very uncommon to see people in tecnology jobs with such long tenure, and there were plenty with 8+ years - very impressive)

Accomplishments of the past few months
Interline Carriers

• NW revenue 9/13 (only to Asia)
• DL Revenue 3/29, testing for reward currently
• Island Air 8/13 reward 8/28
• AF 8/16, 9/25 reward
• HA 8/22, 8/28 reward
• KE 8/24, testing reward currently
• Copa 9/13, testing for reward currently

All three reward testing are expected by EoY
All carriers are limited routes

New PIN/Password enhancement for recovery (to prevent us from having to call)
BF upgrade online - Now includes all series, including co-pay
Complete Your Purchase page and Manage Reservation pages are both expecting improvements soon
Preview/beta program are coming soon

Check-in applications updates

• PDA check-in came online at the end of January
  • Hit some big milestones, it was very well accepted
  • Expecting some improvements soon
• Kiosks
  • In May, added the ability to get re-accommodated via Kiosks so you can check in on the Kiosk to see what your new flight is instead of waiting in line at the Service Center
  • Online Bag Check - Allows you to review your bag check policy during OLCI. Designed to make the bag drop process easier/faster and avoid the issues with overweight and other issues
  • Up to 8 languages on the kiosks, and planning on adding 2-3 more (mostly driven by offshore)
  • 30 Internation stations online today, and PVR, NRT and NAS are coming on in the next two weeks

Reward Travel - It would be nice to see the return availability calendar when looking at the outbound.Make both outbound and reward calendars available to make a sliding 2 week trip more easily bookable

Picking seats with FireFox doesn’t work - maybe fixed on Sunday??
Date Picker doesn’t work very well - Slow and requires picking twice sometimes
Purchase page - include the seat assignments in that page for information
There is a bug where sometimes one only receives 50% EQMs on mileage upgrade purchased tickets, and it is going to be investigated

Can we eventually buy tix via the PDA site?
We’re always looking at ways to make sure that tool is useful for you. So maybe this is coming, especially since NWA does it (and CO management harps on that to the team). Will also look at adding the ability to effect the 24-hour cancel via the PDA

IAH Terminal C bag drop kiosks
Currently require confirmation numbers to activate the system; not so useful for folks who OLCI but don’t have the boarding pass. Will be “fixed” to let folks use other ID to activate the kiosk (early Q1 08) but will still not allow check-in

PDA online check-in issues

• Doesn’t always work
• Attachment comes as winmail.dat on mac’s

TripAlerts

• Arrive somewhat intermittently, and are very long
• Have introduced the ability to specify the device as SMS to ensure that it is short enough that it all gets in a single message. This is set in the Trip Alerts section on your profile.
  • This will be “true” SMS, not email so it should work somewhat better.
• Events that trigger the notifications are varied and many are time sensitive, but there may not be a reason to send all of them all the time
• Rules might have been set up to only handle the first flight, since after that you’re at an airport and there is current info there.

Display information at the gates similar to DL’s?
“One of the things that we want to do with the kiosks is to provide more tools for the users…so when you’re behind security you can access that information. …If we can put that information in your hands that would be of great value. We’re looking at lots of options.”

Finding inbound flight number for your outbound?
Something they’re looking at, including the inbound status being displayed

Filling middle seats Back to Front
Will mention it to Scott. Again.
Turns out that this was also mentioned in Larry & Scott's bit, so they are definitely working on it.

Interactive Route Maps instead of PDFs
Will move in that direction, especially with partners

On the Manage Reservations page note any rez with a schedule change, also the pax names to distinguish the reservations.

Why can’t we book more partner trips on-line, especially with SkyTeam partners?
We try to keep you on CO metal as much as possible, but there are other issues in play

What is the status of fixing the Jscript bug that allows anyone to book any seat (including exit row)?Hopefully fixed in the latest release. If not, either do or don’t let them know.

Are there still senior fares and/or child fares available?
The field is still there because it is used for other things, and it doesn’t hurt to have it there

Thanks for the great updates!

A couple questions come to mind at this point...

1) I never sat on the 'nice' 752 coach seats...is there a manufacturer/model number I can look up, or could someone shed light on how they're different?

2) When the issue of upgrade reciprocity with Delta came up, what was the opinion expressed to Larry and his staff - that CO/customers want it, or don't want it? Is it something still open for discussion that we might be successful getting squashed?

Nothing is coming up when I search using that tag :(

Was there any specific discussion about the customer service issues on CHQ - and what the long-term outlook is for them?

I'm reading all the stuff from the DO - and realize I missed out on a great thing. I'll do my best to make it to the next one!

John