Archive for March, 2005
March 24 2005
Delta and Northwest both shared bad news yesterday about their financial positions.
Delta said that they will have liquidity issues for the next 2 years, but they will avoid bankruptcy at all costs. As their CEO said, 140 airlines have gone into Chapter 11, and only 2 have emerged. That’s Continental and America West if you’re counting.
Meanwhile, Northwest said that it needs additional pay cuts from labor, which at this point should put the starting flight attendant salary at about $723 a year.
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March 23 2005
Thanks to Frommers for pointing out a great deal to the island of Malta. $750 gets you a flight from the east coast, 7 nights hotel, breakfast and transfers. That’s a solid price to a pretty interesting destination.
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March 23 2005
Check out this link to get 20% off all fares from Independence Air. (Thanks to the View from the Wing blog for the heads up.)
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March 23 2005
Um. Remember the article from yesterday about airlines rolling back their fare hikes? Well, they changed their minds again and actually made a rational decision, raising fares by $10 in most markets.
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March 22 2005
I flew out to Salt Lake City last night (on a full 737, which makes for a rather unpleasant journey), and it occurred to me that while passengers complain about airlines all the time, in fact we, the passengers, are quite guilty of contributing to the misery that is the coach experience. So, in that spirit, I’ve come up with a modest proposal that will, I hope, make your next journey in the back more pleasant.
–I know that your seat CAN recline all of the way. But I’m begging you, please, please, please recline just a little bit. This, more than anything else, would improve the quality of coach air travel. Whenever I mention this people say to me, "But it’s my seat, I can do what I want." I know you can. I’m asking you nicely.
–When you get up from your seat, please do not grab the seat in front of you for leverage. It catapults that person forward when you let go. That is especially annoying when the person in front of them has their seat reclined all the way. You can see how the seat reclining starts to affect the whole thing, right? Grab your arm rests for leverage instead.
–When you’re walking down the aisle with a backpack and you turn around quickly, you will hit the person in the aisle seat in the head. Please, either carry your backpack in your hand, or be more careful when you turn around in the narrow aisle.
–If you are sitting next to your husband, and he is a snorer (like the guy in 10D last night), please wake him to stop him from snoring. Snoring is an annoying sound. Listening to snoring for 4 hours is Guantanamo Bay-like torture.
–If you are on your cell phone, the rest of the plane does not need to hear your conversation. The dude in 12D last night was, at one point, saying (yelling?) into the phone, "Steve—can you tell Bill everything we’ve just discussed, he is the only one who doesn’t know about this yet." To which I said to the person next to me, "Because everyone on the plane now knows." Please, just keep it down.
–I’m guilty of this one: When you see someone struggling to get their bag into the overhead bin, don’t just sit and stare at them, wondering if they’re going to triumph. Help them out.
–If you’re the last one on the plane, and the plane is full, please do not schlep your 2 large bags down the aisle to seat 37B. Ask the flight attendant if there is any room in the overhead bins so that you need not drag both bags to 37B, then bag down the aisle to get them checked. It holds up the flights and knocks into everyone in the aisle seats.
–Say please and thank you to the flight attendants. You’ll be
surprised how much happier it makes them, and how much happier that
will make you.
That’s really about it. A few simple pieces of consideration that will make everyone’s life a little better back here in coach.
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March 22 2005
Here’s how we know things are just screwy in airlineworld: Continental raised fares on Thursday, a good move considering the airline has complained quite a bit that their revenues have fallen because of low fares. In response, on Monday Delta lowered their fares, forcing Continental to drop their fares back to previous levels. Keep in mind, it’s not as if Delta is in any position to be lowering their fares. I’d like us all to remember this as Delta discusses how much money they’ve lost this quarter. I know that everyone and their mother has discussed how the fare system is broken, but I think that the continued downward pressure on fares in an environment where no one is making any money is even more nutty than the fare rules (incidentally, I know Delta’s fare changes were supposed to revolutionize the airline world, but if you’ve booked a ticket lately you’ve probably noticed that the rules are hardly less complicated than they used to be). In sum: a company that isn’t making any money decided to reduce their revenues as a way of staying afloat. Whatever.
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March 21 2005
An AA passenger died on Friday en route to New York from LA after flight attendants refused to serve him another beer. Yes, you read that correctly.
The passenger, William Lee, became disruptive on the flight and had to be subdued by other passengers. So subdued, in fact, that he died. The cause of death is unknown, but I bet it had something to do with the beer.
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March 21 2005
United Airlines is launching a new set of ads poking fun at American Airlines for eliminating their "More Room in Coach" campaign. The ads suggest that flyers in United’s Economy Plus section have spacious legroom (they do) while American’s flyers have their knees up their noses (true enough). However, and this is the ridiculous part, United’s regular economy section is no different than American’s.
Says an AA spokesman:
"We are puzzled why United Airlines is spending an estimated $15 million
to $20 million to advertise a product that nearly three out of four
customers can’t fit in."
No, I don’t get it either.
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March 21 2005
Northwest Airlines said that it would cut 900 jobs and remove 24 jets from service after it announced that it would see no capacity growth in 2005 (they had previously said capacity would grow 2-3%). The airline will remove DC-9s from service, and I fear that it will include aircraft it has been flying since the mid-1960s.
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March 21 2005
Independence Air said that it will save about $2.2 million this year by cutting the pay of its top execs (if you’re keeping track at home, that’s about 75,800 $29 one-way trips from Chicago to Washington. Anyway, the CEO’s base salary will fall to $369,750 a year, the COO to $247,500 and CFO to USD$193,500, in case you were wondering.
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Delta and Northwest Face Cash Crunchet up in the next