Comments on: vacation, anyone?

vacation, anyone?

krautland — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:40:14 -0800

Most frequent flyer programs are kind of a raw deal: seats are often severely limited, many popular dates are blocked and fees can be steep. But there are exceptions: JetBlue just came out with an All-You-Can-Jet Offer. $599 gets people unlimited travel anywhere on their network for a month beginning September 8th and seats are not limited. The idea isn't new: American Airlines used to sell a Lifetime AAirPass through the Neiman Marcus catalog, which offered unlimited travel on any AA flight in any class. Unfortunately, it cost a cool $3 million.

By: Horace Rumpole

Horace Rumpole — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:48:35 -0800

The name of the airline has already preempted my only possible comment.

By: box

box — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:54:27 -0800

Certain restrictions may apply.

By: box

box — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:55:43 -0800

(Amtrak does this too, btw.)

By: permafrost

permafrost — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:00:11 -0800

I think the Neiman Marcus catalogue deserves its own post. Specifically, the fantasy gifts section, which reads like a Borges encyclopaedia crossed with a Sharper Image store: A gold toilet seat advertised as 'a 24 kt. Gold plated throne' A Noah's ark with all endangered species aboard A truckload of pink air Mermaid suit, comes with a mermaid tail, faux pearl top and swimming lessons An imperial sacrificial robe worn by a Chinese emperor, circa 1770 California Spangled Cat Life-size Lego replicas of you and your beloved

By: krautland

krautland — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:11:38 -0800

oh neat, I didn't know about amtrack. I thought about writing about the united program as well, which used to offer free lifetime flights as well, but details seemed scarce and I didn't want to litter the post with potentially wrong information. I wished lufthansa or BA would be doing a jetblue style program. I wished expedia or orbitz did it. this would rock in europe right now.

By: wingless_angel

wingless_angel — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:28:38 -0800

Wish I had a vacation to the US coming up! That's seriously awesome. I used to really like airline coupon programs (I bought a bunch of flights this way on United once, 5 flights for maybe $500) but they seem to have been dying off of late. +1 krautland's suggestion that this would be awesome in Europe.

By: DU

DU — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:32:51 -0800

In 1952, Stanley Marcus introduced a new tradition of having extravagant and unusual gifts in each year's Christmas catalog, The Christmas Book; the idea was sparked when journalist Edward R. Murrow contacted Marcus to ask if the store would be offering anything unusual that might interest his radio listeners; So I guess today's journalists aren't violating as many ethical guidelines as previously thought.

By: cmonkey

cmonkey — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:35:49 -0800

If you don't mind the train and you live in Europe, you can buy InterRail passes that offer unlimited train trips around Europe.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:37:54 -0800

Didn't Mission of Burma use an offer like this to tour the US by plane?

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:51:53 -0800

Too bad that JetBlue's network is kind of sucky. It's good to go from JFK to Florida or the West Coast, but that's about it.

By: smoke

smoke — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:03:41 -0800

God, I hate to sound like a total downer/climate pariah, but I feel like airlines should be doing everything they can to encourage responsible flying when carbon emissions from aviation are so staggeringly high, and particularly damaging at higher altitudes.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:04:04 -0800

the idea was sparked when journalist Edward R. Murrow contacted Marcus to ask if the store would be offering anything unusual that might interest his radio listeners Ouch! May I offer my apology to quonsar for the doubt (who did indeed, take it to the new fangled mail thingy).

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:16:13 -0800

Cathay Pacific offers something similar: the All Asia Pass--kinda' like a Eurorail pass, but for Southeast Asia, and by plane. You can fly four times in 3 weeks from 24 different SEA cities for $1500. The price includes the round-trip flight from L.A. or New York to Hong Kong. /PacificBlue filter.

By: krautland

krautland — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:08:08 -0800

airlines should be doing everything they can to encourage responsible flying you mean like mc donalds advertising its apples?

By: Kadin2048

Kadin2048 — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:21:16 -0800

I feel like airlines should be doing everything they can to encourage responsible flying when carbon emissions from aviation are so staggeringly high, and particularly damaging at higher altitudes. They're essentially selling standby ("space available") tickets; it's not like they're going to warm up an extra plane if someone shows up with one of these passes and there aren't any seats left. The planes are going to fly either way, so the marginal cost to JetBlue and the environmental impact of these passes is very low. If you could convince fewer people to fly overall, then eventually the airlines would reduce the number of flights and that would have an environmental impact, but you can't really expect them to encourage people not to fly. They are, after all, in the business of operating an airline. I can't think of any industry that has ever encouraged "responsible" consumption of their product, where "responsible" meant "less," unless it was a way to prevent lawsuits or as an alternative to abandoning the product completely (e.g. cigarette companies, junk food). It's pretty naïve to think otherwise. If a carbon tax does go through and it's not a total exercise in political favoritism, it ought to have a measurable increase on the price of airline tickets relative to less-carbon-intense forms of transportation like passenger rail (especially electric trains; quite a bit of the NE Corridor—the old Pennsy, anyway—is hydroelectric).

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:23:10 -0800

By: djgh

djgh — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:23:12 -0800

Jet...BlueBlue? Although that is actually a pretty decent price - I was looking at LA-NY return, and it's about $170ish each way, which is just one trip. Over a month I could easily rack up more than $600 worth.

By: krautland

krautland — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:36:36 -0800

it's only $170 if you book on time and find a seat at that price. I have in the past paid up to $380 or $400 for a coach ticket on that route. so yeah, decent deal if you have some flying to do and JB's coach product is rather nice.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:01:21 -0800

Meh. Air Canada did this too. And the first time out they forgot to cap the number of Aeroplan points you could rack up so someone bought an unlimited use tickets and proceeded to fly 100,000 miles in the space of two months (maybe a million?) thus getting him top-tier elite status and enough FF miles to last a long time. I think it cost him around a couple thousand dollars and a few SAN points.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:03:35 -0800

Ah yes, The Metafilter post on getting a million miles in 60 days. $7000. 2005.

By: Razzle Bathbone

Razzle Bathbone — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:50:53 -0800

Back in the early 80's Eastern Airlines did something similar. I think it was unlimited to 60 days from the first flight. My dad and I hit New Orleans, Atlanta, Washington, New York, Orlando, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Bahamas, US Virgin Islands, Mexico and Los Angeles. Great way to spend a summer when you are about 12.

By: yoyo_nyc

yoyo_nyc — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:23:36 -0800

Certain restrictions may apply. Well, maybe I should make a FPP about "Screw U Airlines", AKA as Continental Airlines. Or write a book about them.

By: Netzapper

Netzapper — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:39:11 -0800

airlines should be doing everything they can to encourage responsible flying when carbon emissions from aviation are so staggeringly high, and particularly damaging at higher altitudes. Actually, you've got it backwards. What we should be doing is encouraging all flights to take place during the day. Why? So, some scientists were doing studies on how much sunlight impacts the ground and how much that results in atmospheric warming. And then 9/11 occurred, and all flights were grounded in the US. And, lo and behold, the amount of sunlight hitting the earth drastically shot up. It turns out that contrails block the sunlight and reflect it back into space before it has a chance to warm the atmosphere. On the other hand, if you fly at night, the contrails can trap heat that would otherwise be radiated off into space.

By: armage

armage — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:57:33 -0800

A gold toilet seat advertised as 'a 24 kt. Gold plated throne' A Noah's ark with all endangered species aboard A truckload of pink air Mermaid suit, comes with a mermaid tail, faux pearl top and swimming lessons An imperial sacrificial robe worn by a Chinese emperor, circa 1770 California Spangled Cat Life-size Lego replicas of you and your beloved Sounds like the inside of Miguel Cardoso's house(s).