Airline analysis, travel tips/deals and other musings
Last day to purchase E+ on United at 30% off. If you are flying long-haul the extra five inches might be worth the $70-100. For short flights I still don’t see the value. Especially, when you can just not pick a seat and chances are they’ll have to put you up in E+ anyways. (Disclaimer: The downside of that strategy is getting stuck with the middle seat in the last aisle. Up to you.)
Awhile back when Midwest Airlines announced they were cutting nearly 50% of their routes and dumping the MD-80, I always assumed they would be keeping their charter MD-80s. I assumed this because chartering can be quite profitable as you have more leeway to control you revenue stream. My assumption was wrong though as local news laments the end of service to to the Bucs and Brewers. Air Canada is picking up the slack right now for the Bucs, but no word yet on a permanent replacement.
Late last week, AirTran made news as the first airplane to sign up for flights to Branson, Missouri.
Exciting? Maybe for those flying from Atlanta looking for some good midwestern, riverboat cruises.
For the rest of us, this airport is far more intriguing as it is the only privately financed and operated commercial airport in the United States. Debt and equity combined it took the developers around $150M to get this airport going. Branson is unique in that it has sufficient demand but no airport. Flights are set for next summer and it should be interesting to watch.
I’m helping some friends with a trip to South Africa and the itineary was too much for the Delta site. I found a flight for March 5 (PIT-ATL-DAK-JNB) returning March 14 (CPT-DAK-JFK-PIT) that returns as “Refundable” for only $1400. You could probably get away with booking this and they’ll likely honor it.
Missed this from last week but BA announced that passengers no its new service from London City Airport to JFK would be able to clear customs on the ground in Ireland as the plane refuels.
The competitive advantage of this route is efficiency and saving the customer time from commuting to LHR. Now by cutting out the hassle of clearing customs at JFK (which usually isn’t bad, but sometimes can be) BA should be able capture those passengers that had been weary of the refueling stop. This will be an exciting route to watch when it launches next year.
It’s official: United is now a night club. Make sure there are at least two females in your group if you want to get in after midnight.
Ted Reed over at the Street has a nice piece on Southwest’s evolution from a LCC to a mainstream player. And, he makes many good points, so check it out.
Most importantly, Reed examines on Southwest’s “no fee” strategy:
Despite all the changes, Southwest is today locked into a defiant effort to differentiate itself through a heavily promoted advertising campaign, focused on its “no hidden fees” strategy. This strategy is fraught with risk. The primary one is that while airline passengers seem to enjoy complaining about fees, evidence is scant that they book away from airlines who charge them.
Gary Kelly, Southwest’s CEO, is standing behind the strategy for now but said, “Time will tell if that translates into more money and more customers for Southwest Airlines. And it has to. If it doesn’t, we probably will have to change that.”
Southwest’s primary “no fee” advantage has been around for a long time. It is the ability to change flights and cancel flights without any penalty. You do need to pay the increase in fare but you don’t lose $150 on non-refundable tickets as you do with almost every other airline. Add in the baggage fee and other fees and Southwest is much better of the consumer. Now, there is a huge education barrier. Most of the general public doesn’t follow the industry close enough to change purchasing behavior. And, for business travelers, the frequent flier and business perks still are not enough to compete with traditional programs.
How many years is it going to take until US Airways removes “America West” and the “/awa” from its website?
First Punta Gorda had flights from Skybus. Those evaporated quickly. A couple weeks ago Direct Air moved in with flights to a few cities. Now, they’ve hit the homerun by landing Allegiant. Allegiant will start service in March 2009 with flights to Greenville/Spartanburg and Knoxville. While Direct Air still needs to prove it can survive as it grows, Allegiant is not going anywhere as long as Punta Gorda can sustain the necessary demand. It will likely be able to do so, and look for Allegiant to expand in Punta Gorda in the future.
London Stansted saw a boom of USA traffic over the last couple years with MaxJet, Eos and American Airlines. Unfortunately, by taking in the AA flights they all but guaranteed that flights to the USA would disappear. Now STN, will be seeing Air Asia in March 2009 with direct flights to Kuala Lumpur. Introductory fares start out at 99 GBP.
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