In other airline, hotel and travel industry news last week…

• Southwest Airlines acquired AirTran in May last year and received a single operating certificate from the FAA last month, but each carrier remains an independent operation for the time being meaning AirTran’s baggage and other fees will remain intact. Unlike the relatively faster integration between Delta & Northwest and United & Continental, Southwest says it will take, “several years to fully transition AirTran into Southwest Airlines to become one airline.” The fees will continue through at least the end of 2013 and possibly into 2014.
• US Airways is expanding its Gogo Wi-Fi service across their entire Airbus fleet and Embraer 190 aircraft, eventually bringing onboard internet capabilities to 90 percent of its domestic mainline fleet. Regional carrier Republic Airlines will also add the service to its Express Embrarer 170 and 175 aircraft. Gogo Vision will be included where passengers have the option to download movies, TV shows and other content directly to their Wi-Fi enabled devices.
• Lufthansa announced their new Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental aircraft will be deployed on the Frankfurt to Washington Dulles route shortly after deliveries begin April 23. It will replace the existing 747-400 flights, LH 418 and LH 419. All of Lufthansa’s 747-8 aircraft will feature the new business and first class product, as well as 787-style overhead bins and LED lighting. I look forward to burning some miles to fly this bird in a premium cabin later this year.
• Japan Airlines took delivery of its first two Boeing 787-8s this past week making it the second airline to receive the long-delayed Dreamliner. The airline is expected to begin 787 flights to Boston this month and to San Diego later this year. I may have to start building up my American AAdvantage miles for a future redemption.
• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel predicts Chicago O’Hare’s newest runway will be built and in use by 2015. The city will rely on financial help from both American and United to get it built and predicts once in use, it will reduce delays by 80 percent and allow for 300,000 more passengers annually.
• My “air traveling idiot of the week” award goes to a woman onboard US Airways flight 1697 from Charlotte to Fort Myers who, in an allegedly intoxicated state, kicked, scratched and spit on flight attendants, even knocking one to the ground. Unlike other recent incidents, the flight didn’t divert and continued to Fort Myers after she was restrained with the help of an off-duty sheriff’s deputy.

Finally, here are some other noteworthy items deserving of a click-through:

• A revealing Q&A with American Airlines CEO Thomas Horton.
• Alaska Airlines dedicates it’s new Terminal 6 location at LAX.
• New York-area airports may fine and prosecute disruptive passengers.
• Airlines for America ends its lawsuit over the EU ETS “tax” scheme.
• New Marriott properties will pop up in 2014 at L.A. Live in Los Angeles.

United Airlines purchased Pan Am’s Pacific Division and acquired several aircraft in 1985 and I’ve selected a 747-200 from that time period featuring United’s Royal Pacific configuration for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps.

This particular layout – one of several in United’s 747 fleet at the time – was likely seen flying the U.S. to Japan market as almost 40% of the cabin comprised premium seating. A total of 35 seats were available in First Class in a 2 x 2 layout (or 2 x 2 x 2 aft of door one), Business Class seated 100 passengers in an uncomfortable looking 2 x 4 x 2 configuration with limited pitch, and coach offered 212 seats in the usual 3 x 4 x 3 setup.

In First Class on this bird you’d find me in the nose section as usual, probably in 2A or 2F. In Business I’d be in 17 or 18 A/H and in coach I’d opt for those exit row aisles in rows 27 or 37 if alone, or back in the two-seater section if I had a companion in rows 49-51.

Where would you sit?

This week, the fine folks over at Gadling posted an American Airlines commercial from 1981 themed “Full service no matter what you pay.” It’s a quick look back at what air travel used to be like, with (relatively) low fares, free meals in coach and a swarm of airline and airport employees with smiles on their faces. Times have changed, particularly for American right now, and it made the Gadling staff sad (me, too).

Watching it got me headed over to YouTube to look over other vintage American commercials and I found the one appearing below showcasing the luxury of the carrier’s 747, 707 and DC-10 fleet in 1972. It takes a quick look through each aircraft, showing off the coach lounge on the 747 and DC-10 and the “new” interiors of the 707B. When describing the DC-10, the commentator mentions, “Its takeoffs are quieter and virtually smokeless.” Different times, indeed.

Enjoy!

She’s three feet long and weighs about 15 pounds:

I’m definitely on a Cathay Pacific kick right now having just finished my complete trip report, so I’ve selected a Cathay Boeing 747-400 for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps. This particular configuration was flying the skies in 1988 and I have to once again give special thanks to reader Will who graciously sent me several of the carrier’s seating layouts from the 1980s.

It seated a total of 363 passengers split up between First Class, Marco Polo Business Class and Economy Class. First Class extended beyond just the nose and occupied more than half of the space between doors one and two. United Airlines used to have a version that went fully back to door two and I thoroughly enjoyed flying on 747s with this type of layout. It felt like the entire plane was an exclusive privately operated luxury jet with an incredible amount of room to move about.

30 seats were found up front in the typical 2-seater configuration for First Class during that time period. Still much preferring to sit in the nose for its uniquely shaped aestheticism, you’d find me either in row two or three. Smoking seats, by the way, are the ones with a yellowish hue. That orange square behind the port-side lavatory is labeled as a “bar unit” according to the legend.

Most frequent flyers today prefer the upper deck for its feel of isolation from the rest of the plane and its normally personalized service, but given the volume of Business Class seats crammed into the upstairs section in the 1980s, you’d find me downstairs probably around rows 26 or 27. The mini-cabin at rows 20 and 21 might be unpleasant due to the proximity of both the First Class and Business Class galleys, not to mention being in the smoking section. Oh, and those “x” marks in front of rows one, 10, 20, 23, 31 and 57 denote bassinet positions for which I’d definitely steer clear of.

In coach, I generally book an aisle seat in the center 4-seater section on a 747 since those seats have a greater likelihood of the seat next to it being unoccupied. Here I’d go for rows 38 or 39 as last-minute standby seats are generally assigned front-to-back, so my unoccupied seat strategy has a better chance of coming through. I might consider rows 58 and 59 for the same reason. Also, I always pick the ‘G’ seats since the computer algorithm also automatically assigns last minute seats left to right.

Where would you sit?

Upper deck

Main deck

The Boeing 747SPs flying around for the major U.S. carriers was truly something special in the 1980s. I previously posted the American Airlines 747SP seat map whose routes focused on the high yield traffic to Tokyo, and likewise United’s Special Performance version of the bird flew primarily to London with additional flights to Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. United acquired the aircraft & routes as a direct result of their purchase of Pan Am’s network. When I was an intern for United in 1993, I had a chance to walk through a SP at their San Francisco Maintenance Operation Center (SFOMOC), but sadly I didn’t get any pictures.

Here, though, is the seat map from the “mini me” of a 747 featuring 47 seats in First Class, 100 in Business Class and 86 in Coach/Economy. What I found interesting about United’s configuration is their use of the upstairs section as First Class. Today’s standards of seat comfort would never see four rows of the premium cabin upstairs in such a layout, but back then it probably did equate to First Class comfort. In First, you’d definitely find me in the pointy section of the plane, likely in row two or three. In Business I’d be in row 17 or 18, and in coach I’d most definitely be found in an aisle seat near row 31.

Where would you sit?

It’s time for another edition of Vintage Airline Seat Maps and I’ve selected the American Airlines Boeing 747-100 appearing below. This map was published in 1977 and shows the reconfigured layout after American took out the piano bar and lounge in coach. Seating a total of 396 passengers with 66 seats in first class and 330 in coach, American flew this exclusively on long haul domestic flights.

In first class you’d definitely find me in the nose and while row one looks unique, I’d definitely choose a seat mid-cabin. Check out how huge the center table looks and of course notice the unique “dining in the sky” section and upper deck lounge. In economy I’d prefer the first zone of seating with particular focus on the two-seaters in rows 18, 19 and 20. How nice that American offered a total of 20 of these pairs of doubles. Of course this was pre-deregulation before airlines started stuffing as many seats in as possible. I’d love to know the seat pitch figures. Seven rows in the nose plus those tables behind the first row leads me to believe it couldn’t be more than 38″ in first class.

Where would you sit?

Image courtesy American Airlines

There has been some interesting airline news the last week or so from Australia, and here’s a recap:

• The pesky ash cloud from the Chilean volcano made at least two passes over Australia & New Zealand in the past 10 days causing widespread flight cancellations and reroutings. From shutting down the major airports at Sydney and Melbourne for a day (or more for some airlines) to localized route-specific cancellations, the airlines had their hands full with rebookings. Travel waivers were issued allowing for cancellation & refunds. Let’s hope Diamond Head on Oahu stays dormant & the other Hawaiian volcanoes remain “normal” to avoid the same disruption in the U.S. as the Chilean one has in Australia and the Icelandic volcano did in Europe.
• On August 24^th this year Qantas will announce “a strategic renewal of Qantas international” likely overhauling many of the red kangaroo’s ailing international routes. It is all but certain that the carrier will pull out of select markets & instead look to enhance code-share flights with oneworld alliance partners. Qantas is also overhauling some of their A380s and 747s to include additional economy seats after removing first class entirely from select aircraft.
• With added pressure from a rebranded Virgin Australia, Qantas has made adjustments to their frequent flyer program making elite status and upgrades easier to attain. Pricing & ticketing rule structures are also being more closely aligned to compete with Virgin Australia. Both carriers are also offering promotional upgrades with Qantas having a (targeted?) offer for U.S. American Express cardholders to upgrade a one-way segment of a roundtrip Dallas to Sydney Premium Economy ticket to Business Class. Virgin Australia within Australia is offering a taste of their domestic Premium Economy complete with lounge access starting at $35.
• Previous strike threats were called off, but a new round is set to begin on Monday for Qantas, where maintenance engineers in Melbourne plan a two-hour work stoppage, followed by Perth on Tuesday and Brisbane on Wednesday. The airline is attempting to be proactive in substituting larger aircraft on routes assumed to take the biggest hit for delays & cancellations, and claims the majority of travelers “will remain on schedule.”

It’s time for another Vintage Airline Seat Map and I bring you a Trans World Airlines Boeing 747-100 from the early 1980s. Divided into three cabins, this workhorse of TWA’s international operations seated 21 passengers in First Class, 52 in Ambassador Class (Business) and 359 in coach. Pan Am also filled the pointy section up with 21 seats, and although the map states they are “sleeper” seats, I’d have to imagine they didn’t recline to a full 180-degrees due to the cabin density.

Ambassador Class looks to have incredibly spacious aisles and it appears those passengers shared the two lavatories with First Class since I don’t see any aft of the Ambassador cabin. I’m surprised TWA didn’t make the entire upper deck non-smoking and find it strange to split the seating the way they did. It was a different time, that’s for sure, but in that small of a space they might have well made it all smoking up there.

Coach has a number of two-seaters, which would be perfect options for couples and otherwise it’s the standard 3 x 4 x 3 layout. In First Class you’d find me in row 2 or 3; Ambassador in 11 or 12; Coach I’d hope for seat 15-8 or 43-8 with the incredible legroom. Also, I have no idea why TWA bucked the industry and decided to number their seats instead of lettering them. If anyone knows why, I’d love to know!

Where would you sit?

Last week I posted about the possibility of United being close to announcing whether or not International First Class would remain on the carrier. Yesterday a report surfaced on Bloomberg quoting United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek saying “There are certain markets in which (first class) makes a lot of sense and there are others where it doesn’t.” There hasn’t been an official press release or updates to United’s website, but this may be good news for many high value international flyers accustomed to a three-cabin aircraft.

I read the Bloomberg article as a teaser of sorts with a lot of vague and unspecific data points. Another such point by Chief Revenue Officer Jim Compton stated “we have United 747s that have gone through a real recent reconfiguration with flat-bed in both first and business. So we’ll have both.” Retirement of the 747 fleet is scheduled for around the 2016 timeframe, and since they’ve taken down the conversion schedule for what remains on their 777 workhorse internationally, I’m led to believe this is a short-term (five year) decision. Is United considering making some of the unconverted international 777s into two-cabin aircraft?

Fleet integration is definitely a logistical challenge when merging carriers, and it sounds like we’ll have fairly different lie-flat products based on which “metal” we fly and to which markets. Continental’s seat architecture is different than United’s, and it sounds like the new United will maintain both for at least this short-term period. What United will certainly have to ensure during this period is that no market selling first class ends up with an ex-Continental metal aircraft with only two classes. Jeff Smisek acknowledges this issue in the article, however.

One good thing for frequent flyers is although United’s soft product (service & meals) in International First Class is completely inferior to that of its competitors, award redemption opportunities have been easier for the front cabin to popular destinations in Australia, Asia and Europe than that of business class. I will still generally redeem my miles for Star Alliance carriers, though, unless United really makes marketed improvements and reports begin to surface lauding a transformation. Time will paint the picture.

I am still anxious to see United’s official release to support this article, but I now expect United to keep a three-class presence in most markets served by the old United today, at least for the next five years. I now anticipate during the 2015-2016 timeframe United will make a decision on a uniform international offering (seat architecture & cabin configuration) to roll out in the 2018-2020 period based on market demand and global economic factors at that time.

I was curious to see the full cabin layout of the Pan Am Boeing 747 featured in this video from 1989, so here is a “blended” edition of Vintage Airline Seat Maps. By blended, I’m referring to the difference in first class seating from the video as compared to the full South American version posted below. It appears Pan Am reconfigured these birds to allow 21 seats in a 5-row format in the nose vs. the 4-row 18 seat format shown below. I’ll post the other version another time, but the nose shot on the right matches up with the rest of the plane from the video.

In first class, you’d definitely find me in 1J if I were traveling alone; otherwise row 2 is usually my preference on a 747. In Clipper Class (I love that name), I’d prefer row 7 (the video shows the cabin area around row 14-19). In economy, I’d likely be in one of the two-seater rows with 38-40 JK being favorable.

Where would you sit?