That status used to require flying 25,000 miles per year. Now, United is adding a requirement for at least $2,500 in spending, too, to qualify for status in its MileagePlus program.

Most frequent fliers would spend that much anyway if they are earning 25,000 miles. But those who buy discounted tickets might be affected.

Travelers like to get so-called “elite” status because of seat upgrades and other perks.

The change takes effect next year for travelers trying to earn status in 2015. Taxes and bag fees won’t count toward the spending total.

United Continental Holdings Inc. announced the change Tuesday. It matches a change made by Delta Air Lines Inc. in January.

Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Air Belin jets sits at Munich Airport. Marcus Bolt / Flickr

Pilots at Air Berlin Plc, Europe’s third-biggest discount carrier, plan a short-term strike sometime in coming days in a push for higher pay, arguing they aren’t the ones to blame for losses at the company.

The carrier should make up for wages that lag behind the average at competitors by at least 10 percent, Markus Germann, chief negotiator for the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots union, said. Air Berlin needs to narrow its business focus rather than basing a turnaround push on employees’ concessions, he said.

“Air Berlin is doing a little bit of everything: touristic flights, city shuttles and business passengers,” Germann said. “That strategy obviously doesn’t work, and that’s not the pilots’ fault.”

The airline outlined a strategy in January of reducing its fleet and cutting 900 jobs, or 10 percent of its workforce, in a push to increase earnings by 400 million euros ($535 million) by 2014. Air Berlin, based in the German capital, posted its first annual net income since 2007 last year only after selling control of its frequent-flier program to Etihad Airways PJSC, the carrier’s biggest investor.

Germann declined to specify the union’s demand beyond saying he wants a “strongly improved offer” from Air Berlin that would raise pilot wages in about three years to the average paid by Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s Germanwings low-fare unit, TUI AG’s competing TUIfly division and Thomas Cook Group Plc’s Condor charter brand. He also declined to give dates or times for the warning strike.

‘Fair Offer’

Air Berlin made “a fair offer” to pilots on May 12, said Mathias Radowski, a spokesman, declining to give figures. The company will do everything it can to minimize effects of any strike, he said.

Cumulative losses in the four years prior to 2012 amounted to 610.6 million euros, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and the first-quarter loss in 2013 totaled 196.4 million euros. The company plans to generate an operating profit this year, and reduce net debt to 500 million euros from 728 million euros on March 31.

The company is also suffering from capacity constraints at its Berlin home hub after the opening of a new airport being built in the city was delayed.

Productivity at the company’s namesake brand is declining as Air Berlin shifts routes to partner airlines abroad, Germann said. The airline currently employs almost 1,300 pilots, according to the labor representative.

Etihad, the Abu Dhabi-based airline that’s the third- biggest Persian Gulf carrier and the owner of a 29 percent stake in Air Berlin, said in May that it’s recruiting pilots from the German partner amid an expansion drive by the Middle Eastern company.

Editors: Tom Lavell and Robert Valpuesta.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at rweiss5@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net.

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Thrifty is among the brands available at the SeaTac Airport rental car facility. / Flickr

Thrifty Car Rental says it’s sorry, but many customers who were offered a free one-day rental won’t be getting that after all.

The company says the offer was intended for a select group of top customers but was sent accidentally to many other people.

“We’re very sorry for any confusion our eagerness may have caused,” the chain, which is owned by Hertz Global Holdings Inc., told customers by email.

Airlines, hotels and stores occasionally post incorrect prices. When they do, they must balance the cost of honoring the mistaken price against the potential to offend bargain-loving customers.

When the dollar difference is huge, “smart companies offer an apology with some sort of salve — ‘Here’s a gift certificate,’ or ‘Here’s a 10 percent-off coupon’ to demonstrate their remorse,” said Mark Cohen, a longtime executive at Sears and other department stores who now teaches at Columbia University’s business school.

Hertz spokeswoman Paula Rivera said the offer sent out Friday night was meant for “select” members of Thrifty’s frequent-renter program, called Blue Chip. They were offered a free day after 16 days of paid rentals.

By mistake the offer went to other customers who had merely signed up to receive emails from the company, Rivera said.

“Unfortunately, this was a human error and as soon as we became aware of the mass email distribution, we took steps to correct the situation.” including the follow-up email on Saturday, she said.

The company did not say how many customers received the offer in error, so it’s impossible to estimate how much it would cost Thrifty to make good on the free rentals.

Customers who thought they were getting a nice freebie were disappointed by the reversal.

“I was kind of shocked that they rescinded the offer, even if it was a mistake,” said Alison McCarthy of Brooklyn, N.Y., who works in digital marketing. “They should have honored it — it’s just one day.”

McCarthy said last year she lucked into a mistake airfare to Israel on El Al. The airline blamed a contractor for accidentally posting fares of less than $400 instead of the usual $1,000 to $1,600 per round trip but honored the lower price. “It was awesome, and it was positive PR (public relations) for them,” she said.

Such airfare deals are less common now because the company that airlines use to publish fares has made it easier for the carriers to spot unusual prices before they’re made public, said Gary Leff, a travel blogger and co-founder of Milepoint, an online forum for frequent fliers, who avidly swap tips on mistake fares. Hotels might be more fruitful hunting ground.

Leff said that a few years ago he jumped on a nightly rate of 66 cents for a beachfront villa at a Le Meridien resort in Thailand. The hotel company had loaded the price in Ugandan shillings instead of U.S. dollars. He said the hotel gave him the room for $33, “and that included tax and a free breakfast.”

Leff’s advice: If you see a deal that sounds too good to be true, go ahead and book it but don’t be too disappointed if the company rescinds the offer.

Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Handout of of a United Airlines 787 Dreamliner. Handout / Reuters

It’s a good news, bad news story for airline customer satisfaction: Scores are the best in nearly two decades, but consumers still love to hate airlines more than most any other industry, according to a report released Tuesday by the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

Despite raising its benchmark score 2 points, to 69 out of 100, the airline industry beat only cable TV companies and Internet providers in customer satisfaction among 43 industries measured by the index.

“Crowded seating, rising ticket prices, extra fees and poor service all contribute to a rather dreary travel experience,” the report says. Customers were also unhappy with flight schedules and the quality of loyalty programs.

“They’re really just about as bad as it gets,” Forrest Morgeson, the index’s director of research, said of airlines.

Chicago-based United Airlines is emblematic of the industry. Its score remained at the highest level since 2007. But with a dismal score of 62, it was the worst-performing airline among six large carriers measured, rating below the cable and Internet service industries.

Jeff Smisek, CEO of United, said recently that United’s in-house satisfaction scores “have gone up by a factor of five from where they were a year ago,” and he vowed better service for passengers this summer compared with the problem-plagued travel season last year.

United passengers experienced rampant delays and cancellations last summer after United and Continental moved to a common passenger reservation system, an airline’s technology backbone. Glitches and inadequate training of employees were blamed for delays and poor customer service.

“We’re making huge strides,” Smisek said during a speech at the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce annual membership meeting June 4. “If you’ve been flying us lately, I think you’ve experienced improvement in customer service, and I think you’re only going to continue to see that going forward.”

The index’s study was conducted during the first quarter of the year, asking about the experience of consumers who flew particular airlines during the previous 12 months. That time frame included United’s trouble-plagued summer of 2012.

Low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways led the airline industry for a second year, up 2 percent, to a score of 83, according to the report, which has been released annually since 1994. Next was Southwest Airlines, the largest carrier at Midway Airport. It rediscovered its “luster,” with a 5 percent gain in satisfaction after a decline following its merger with AirTran Airways, the report said.

Delta Air Lines improved 5 percent, to 68, its highest score in a decade. American Airlines and US Airways, which plan to merge, rate in the mid-60s, just above United.

Airlines aren’t bad at everything when it comes to passengers.

Customers give high marks to airlines for the check-in process (82 out of 100); ease of making reservations (82); and the courtesy and helpfulness of flight crews (81).

But the quality of in-flight services such as the food, beverage service, movies and music was not rated as good (68), and seat comfort was awful (63).

The study’s finding of incremental improvement for airlines echoes others.

For example, airline customer satisfaction improved to its highest level since 2006, according to the J.D. Power & Associates 2013 North America Airline Satisfaction Study released in May. Overall satisfaction improved to 695 on its 1,000-point scale, a 14-point increase from 2012.

A different ranking, called the Airline Quality Rating, a project of researchers at Purdue University and Wichita State University, found that the airline industry in 2012 performed at a near-record-high level on measures important to consumers, such as taking off on time and not losing checked bags. The study is based on data collected by the Transportation Department.

gkarp@tribune.com ___

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Russian air force Sukhoi su-139 fighters performs during their presentation at Paris Air Show in le Bourget, North of Paris, France, Sunday, June 16, 2013. The Paris Air Show will open on June 17 at Le Bourget. Jacques Brinon / AP Photo

The Paris Air Show, which opened for business on Monday, brings hundreds of aircraft to the skies around the French capital, the usual tense competition between aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus, and a slew of innovations large and small. Here’s what to look for over the show:

Battle of the wide-bodies

The much-anticipated Airbus A350 flew for the first time on Friday, launching a new air race between the European plane maker and Boeing for long-haul wide-body aircraft.

Boeing has dominated the market so far, but troubles with the lithium ion batteries in its 787 Dreamliner are giving customers a reason to give a close look at Airbus’ first all-new plane in eight years. The CEO of Airbus parent EADS, Tom Enders, has said he expects a “few hundred” new orders. Boeing executives, meanwhile, downplayed the air show’s importance for orders, noting that the two companies have historically split the commercial aircraft market.

A year ago, at the Paris Air Show’s sister event in Britain, Boeing beat Airbus for the number of orders announced. The U.S. company took in $37 billion in orders and commitments, well above Airbus’ $16.9 billion.

But the announcements during the air shows are not always a reliable indicator of business since prices are often negotiated down heavily and big orders don’t always coincide with the event.

The race for the title of biggest plane maker is as tight as ever. Over the whole of 2012, Airbus delivered 588 planes. That was a record, but one Boeing beat with 601 deliveries, the first time since 2003 it came out on top.

No hands on deck

They have swooped into wildfires to take temperatures and tracked animals across Africa. They have guided a fuel tanker to safety through icy waters. Drones are increasingly being used for non-military purposes and are expected to feature prominently at the Paris Air Show.

There are still tough restrictions on their flight for safety reasons, but while the Federal Aviation Authority works on new rules, the makers of drones will aim to show off innovation and technical prowess at the show. Eurocopter, a company based in France, will showcase new technology that can transform a manned helicopter into one that flies without a pilot.

Even in Paris, sequestration takes toll

American fighter jets aren’t taking to the skies above Paris, nor will they be seen on the ground, for the first time in more than two decades thanks to the U.S. government’s spending cuts – the infamous ‘sequestration’.

The U.S. pavilion remains the largest, but the event will be less of a sales showcase for latest military hardware and more a place for suppliers to meet up with potential customers.

Russia, on the other hand, is looking to make a splash by presenting fighter jets and military helicopters at the show for the first time since 2001. The Sukhoi manufacturer will showcase its Su-35, a twin-engine multipurpose fighter, for the first time outside Russia. Britain and France also will have fighter jets on display.

“It’s two different trends between commercial aircraft and defense,” said Eric Bernardini, a consultant for AlixPartners who follows the aerospace industry.

Every little bit counts

Less flashy but just as important for the industry will be the myriad technological innovations that parts suppliers will come to Paris to present. The biggest issue? The cost of fuel.

The price of jet fuel has more than tripled worldwide since 2003 — a trend both jet manufacturers and airlines expect to continue. Electric- or solar-powered commercial flights are wildly improbable and biofuels aren’t yet economically viable, so airlines are looking to improve mileage any way possible.

For long-haul flights, that means more carbon-fiber in airplane bodies and other design tweaks, such as electric motors for taxiing. For passengers, it means no end in sight on extra baggage fees.

Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The initiative could cut up to half the time needed to get from the check-in to boarding the aircraft.

While a saving of around two minutes a person appears minimal, with Gatwick handling 55,000 passengers a day the changes could have a dramatic impact on how the airport operates.

Traditionally passengers arrive at the airport, drop off their bag and have to present their boarding card or inspection twice before getting on board the plane – once at security and again at the boarding gate.

In addition passengers also have to show their passport at the boarding gate to verify their identity, which is compared against the boarding pass.

The new system, which was tested for three months earlier this year. entails a passenger having a photograph taken of their iris when they check in luggage which is linked to the boarding pass.

Anyone travelling with only hand luggage is photographed as they go through security.

This information is stored and means the passenger’s identity is verified by the image of their iris as they pass through the airport.

At the boarding gate alone, this was found to save at least 15 seconds a person, saving potentially 15-20 minutes for loading an aircraft.

It is hoped this will enable Gatwick to handle more flights because of reduced time needed to keep a plane on the stand.

While iris recognition has been shelved for international flights at Gatwick, it is still in place for domestic flights.

This is to prevent illegal immigrants, who have just flown into Britain, trying to sidestep border controls by swapping boarding passes in the departure lounge with somebody who is already in the country as passports are not inspected on domestic flights.

Gatwick is in discussion with airlines over rolling out the technology across the airport as a whole over the next two years.

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In this Sunday, May 26, 2013 photo, several flights get ready to take off after a couple of days of bad weather disrupted flight services at Lukla airport, Nepal. Niranjan Shrestha / AP Photo

As soon as the decades-old Twin Otter landed at Lukla airport, passengers burst out in applause. They do that for nearly every safe landing at the often terrifying airport at the gateway to Mount Everest.

At an altitude of 2,843 meters (9,325 feet), the small airstrip here has earned a reputation as one of the most extreme and dangerous airports in the world. The single runway is narrow, short and sloped. Miss the runway by a few meters (or feet) and the plane would hit a mountain.

“After you cross the river there is no turning back, you have to land,” said Pramod Poudel, a Tara Air pilot who has flown hundreds of these flights to Lukla.

Carved out of the side of a mountain, the airport was built by Sir Edmund Hillary in 1965 — 12 years after he became the first man to conquer the world’s highest peak — to help the local yak herders known as Sherpas spur development in the impoverished area.

Now what once was a dirt strip is one of Nepal’s busiest airports, the Tenzing-Hillary Airport — named as well for Hillary’s climbing partner Tenzing Norgay. The thousands of mountaineers and trekkers who visit the Everest region have to fly to the airport if they want to avoid a daylong bus trip from Katmandu and five days of trekking to reach here.

The airport has handled up to 79 flights on one day — far beyond the acceptable capacity for such a facility, said Rinji, the airport’s air traffic controller, who, like most Sherpas in the Everest region, uses only one name.

“It is really challenging, because of the geographical location of the airport and high mountains that surround it. Topography is challenging and the traffic volume is challenging,” said Rinji. “There is little space for aircraft to maneuver because of the high mountains and narrow valley.”

Poudel, the pilot, said he and his colleagues need to concentrate hard when landing on the single runway, which is less than 500 meters (yards) long, slopes some 12 degrees and is barely 20 meters (65 feet) wide.

“Because there is no way to go around again, we have to calculate many things like air speed, tail wind, fog,” he said. “If you don’t do the proper calculation or proper exercise, then it” — meaning an accident — “happens.”

The airport can only handle special short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft like the Twin Otter or Dronier that take about 18 passengers. It has room for only four of these planes to be parked at one time.

The runway is one-way for both takeoff and landing. Aircraft have to land from the southwest and take off toward the northeast because at the end of one side of the runway is a mountain. When winds are blowing in an unfavorable direction, all takeoffs and landings have to stop.

Crashes are not uncommon.

In 2008, 18 people were killed when a Twin Otter plane belonging to the domestic Yeti Airlines smashed into the side of the runway and caught fire while trying to land in heavy fog. Investigators said the pilot should not have attempted to land in those conditions.

In August 2010, 14 people were killed when a Dronier belonging to the domestic Agni Air crashed after it was forced to turn around due to bad weather conditions at Lukla. In May 2004, another Yeti Airlines Twin Otter crashed while approaching Lukla, killing all three occupants in an accident blamed on heavy cloud buildup and pilot misjudgment.

One plane was unable to stop on the short runway and smashed into a wall. Another skidded off the runway. A third lost its front landing gear as it tried to land and skidded down the runway, forcing the airport to shut for two days. No one was killed in those crashes.

In addition to trekkers, the flights bring in food, construction materials, beer and other supplies required by the local population in this poor area.

And it has changed life here.

Once a tiny village, Lukla now has 3,000 people, many of them drawn to tourism work. Sherpas wait outside the airport hoping to be hired as porters by trekkers staying in the mountains for anywhere from a few days to a month.

But the burgeoning population attracted by the airport has also created severe drinking water shortages and sewage problems. And when a curtain of fog descends on the airport during the popular October trekking season, flights can be cancelled for days. As many as 2,500 passengers have been left stranded here with little food and no accommodation.

Even on its best days, the airport is open for only a few hours.

A man named Funru said his father once owned the land where the airport sits and helped Hillary dig the airstrip.

“When I first began working at the airport, it used to be nothing like this. It was like a river bank. Every evening we had to collect rocks and fill the potholes so flights could land the next morning,” Funru said.

Gurubacharya contributed to this story from Katmandu.

Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Naspers, the South African media and internet conglomerate which has a global portfolio of digital acquisitions, is now close to another one: it is buying India’s biggest bus booking service RedBus.in, for a reported price of between $100 million to $140 million, according to two reports in Economic Times and NextBigWhat.

The talks are still in advanced stages of negotiation, and it may involve a majority stake, not outright acquisition. Earlier this year reports came out that ReBus was trying to raie $20 million from private equity, but looks like it led to these sale talks. Last year Naspers took a stake in India’s largest ecommerce site Flipkart.

RedBus was founded in 2006, and grew to be the largest bus ticketing site in horrendously unorganized sector in the country. It says it is now selling 10 million tickets every year, with gross sales nearing $200 million annually. Bangalore-based Pilani Soft Labs, the holding company of Redbus, has raised about $10 million in three rounds of funding so far, from investors such as Helion Venture Partners, SeedFund and Inventus Capital.

From MediaNama, on Naspers’ travel investments in India:

If this acquisition turns out to be true, it will probably strengthen [Nasper India's] online travel ticketing venture Goibibo which already offers bus ticketing services along with flight and hotel reservation services. Last year, MIH Group had acquired 51% stake in the Gurgaon-based travel company Tek Travels, which owned a B2B travel portal Travel Boutique Online, which provided white label solutions for agents to offer B2B and B2C travel bookings online.

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… The holographic announcer I met is named Carla. She is a product by Tensator, a “queue control and management solutions” brand. Installed in June of last year, an aviation trade publication reported she cost the airport only 26,000 dollars. The avatar runs 24 hours a day and is portable so she can be moved to other areas of the terminal.

Carla is kind and calm in demeanour, with big eyes and a bright smile. Her resolution is so crisp one might mistake her for flesh and blood even at close distance. She greets you with folded hands before breaking into prestidigitation: a quart-sized clear plastic bag full of toiletries floats like magic into her flexed fingers. “Now that your liquid items are ready, let’s get you prepared for your departure security check,” she says.

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A traveler boards Spain's high-speed rail AVE Madrid Atocha station. Matthew Black / Flickr

A one-track dirt road used by local farmers is the main access to a magnificent glass-and-steel train station in the small city of Villena, on Spain’s latest high-speed rail route.

It is a spanking new 4,500 square meter building – essentially in the middle of nowhere.

The central government financed the rail route, inaugurated on Monday, between Madrid and Alicante on the Costa Blanca. The Valencia regional government was supposed to fund works to connect it to the nearby motorway and Villena, home to 35,000.

But it ran out of money, leaving the station high and dry.

The disconnect says a lot about both Spain and its current finances, about a love affair with grand projects to showcase its modernity and a diminishing ability to pay for them.

The Valencia government has pledged to complete the works but it is now not clear when and where it will be able to find the funds as it is already cutting spending on schools and hospitals as it tries to reduce a deficit.

Ximo Puig, the head of the Socialist opposition in Valencia, says the station is likely to become yet another white elephant in a country where dozens of airports, train stations, motorways or cultural centres built during a decade-long property boom are under-used or have been abandoned.

“The new route was a much needed infrastructure but there was a lot of improvisation and a complete lack of planning and it could all come to nothing, starting with Villena,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview on Monday.

Spain has been in and out of recession since its credit-driven expansion ended abruptly in 2008, pushing millions into unemployment and putting the country on the brink of requesting an international bailout.

In order to meet tough Europe-agreed deficit targets, Spain has pledged to reform its administration, its public pensions scheme, its tax system and its energy sector among a list of close to 100 reforms it committed to implement by 2015.

One thing it will not cut, however, is its plan to add more fast trains – called AVE, the initials for high-speed in Spanish and also meaning “bird” – to what is already the second-biggest high-speed network in the world after China.

More trains

Far from scaling down the previous Socialist government’s plans, the centre-right administration of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy intends to invest more than 25 billion euros over the next decade to almost double the existing 3,100-kilometers network to reach regions such as the Basque Country, Galicia or Murcia.

Rajoy, who rode the debut train service from Madrid to Alicante on Monday with Spain’s Prince Felipe, said in a speech in Alicante that building AVE trains would remain a priority.

“Despite our budget woes, one of the objectives of the government is to stimulate investments that are truly productive so that they’ll contribute to the shared objective of the government and the society: the economic recovery and job creation,” he said.

Although Spain’s train system as a whole loses money, most of its high-speed lines break even. However Spain earlier this month cut service on 41 routes, including some AVE lines, praised for their comfort and reliability but expensive to maintain.

Spain’s government is drafting a law to reform the railway system and make it more sustainable.

On many routes, Spanish cities lack the critical size to make the system sustainable, partly explaining why the state-owned Renfe train operator and Adif station and rail company are losing money.

Renfe has a 5 billion-euro debt while Adif, rated as junk by Moody’s investors service, has debt of more than 11 billion euros.

Spaniards enthusiasm

The government aimed to avoid repeating previous mistakes on the Madrid-Alicante line by using second-hand trains and reducing the number of daily train journeys. But the 2-billion-euro project may struggle for profitability.

The biggest town on the route is Albacete with only 170,000 inhabitants and the cost of a ticket for a return trip between Madrid and Alicante on the coast – 125 euros – will be unaffordable for most Spaniards.

The official projection for passenger capacity on the route was raised by 40 percent to put it at 2.2 million people every year, twice the number of people who used the 50-minutes-slower existing train service in 2012.

AVE believers say that Spain’s obsession for high-speed trains has helped Adif winning majors contracts abroad such as the one to build a high-speed train to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It now plans to compete for other projects in Brazil and Russia.

But on board the opening train and at the unfinished stations along the route, there was little enthusiasm.

In Alicante, about 200 people staged a demonstration against the new infrastructure and no more than 50 people welcome the new train at the Villena station.

Copyright (2013) Thomson Reuters.

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