Archive for June, 2008
June 23 2008
I’m back from my quick trip on OpenSkies and I thought I’d post a very quick review:
The airline, which is a corporate cousin to British Airways (so you can get BA miles), flies 757s outfitted with 82 seats from New York to Paris (Orly). The plane is divided into Economy (nothing special there), Prem+ (a product that is probably a quarter step below most international business class and blows away domestic business), and Biz (a product that is probably half a step above most international business class, and it’s the only flat bed business class seat to Paris).
Here’s my take: You can get a roundtrip ticket in Prem+ right now for about $1700. The product is at least as good as business in Continental (about $2300 round trip over the summer) or Delta (about $4800 round trip over the summer). 52″ of pitch and a nice amount of recline make it very comfortable. With only 82 people on board, getting on and off is a snap, and there’s no worries about overhead space. Plus you can clear customs quickly without fighting 250 other people getting off your plane.
Business is, from what we could tell, the forward/backwards facing British Airways flat-bad business seats. They are very comfortable lying down and pretty comfortable sitting up. Oddly, there’s nowhere to put your stuff. I generally don’t care about food on planes, as I can survive a 7 hour flight without a 14 course meal and on the eastbound, I really just want to sleep. That said, the food was perfectly fine and offered some lighter and healthier choices than you often find.
Both Prem+ and Biz had their own minicabins, with the Biz cabins only having 12 seats in them, giving it a private jet feel. Which was quite nice.
Economy was just like coach, though with only 30 seats in a mini-cabin, it looked cramped and sad. And at less than $200 more each way, you can fly in Prem+. It’s more than worth it.
My take? All of us were blown away by the value of the Prem+ product. Seriously, it is a steal for what you get. I cannot overstate how much better it is to fly with so few people on board - the whole process (even if you were in economy) is so laid back and leisurely, without the insanity of boarding 250 other people.
The big question, of course, is whether they can survive given the fuel situation. A 757 is the right plane, and they’ve got a solid product (seriously, you should check it out), but whether they can make it work with sub-$4k business fares and sub $2k premium economy fares, it seems like a questionmark to me given the fuel situation.
Go grab a flight before the fares go up.
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June 23 2008
Delta implemented a $25 second-checked-bag fee on April 9th for flights after May 5th (you had to pay the fee regardless of whether you had already purchased a ticket for those dates prior to the announcement). Well, it turns out they can’t do that.
If you purchased a ticket on Delta prior to April 9th, and you had to pay a baggage fee for your flight after May 5th, you are entitled to a refund (details here).
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June 23 2008
This is an odd one:
A United Airlines pilot on a flight from Salt Lake City last week told passengers that he was too angry too fly after a heated discussion just before he boarded the aircraft. I won’t bother to get into the details here (because I can’t be bothered) but it involved him possibly wearing his hat while walking to the airplane. And the pilot’s union. Or something.
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June 23 2008
I was away when the Continental/United tie-up was announced and everyone else has already commented on this already. I won’t bore you with a long blah blah blah about it, I’ll bore you with a short point:
- We’re at least a year from this being implemented.
- Many of the details haven’t been decided, so it’s difficult to know what it really means for frequent flyers. In general, Continental flyers should be happy because the Star Alliance carriers have far better international products in business & first class, so you’ll enjoy nicer travel when you’re flying on a reward ticket to Asia. The domestic upgrade situation hasn’t been decided yet, so while frequent flyers of both airlines are probably grumbling that upgrading won’t be as easy anymore, it remains to be seen what will happen. Keep this in mind: Continental’s much-touted free domestic upgrades for elites isn’t nearly as great as it sounds anymore. Upgrades on transcon flights are nearly impossible to come by at every level - Continental flyers may decide they like the United program better because (gasp) they’ll actually be able to upgrade.
As I said, it’ll be at least a year before any of this happens so we can all calm down now.
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June 19 2008
Hi all,
No posts tomorrow - I’ll be taking the first OpenSkies flight out of JFK to Paris this evening (then spending a night in Sofia, Bulgaria). I’ll have a short report on the new airline on Monday.
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June 19 2008
I rarely report airline financials here, but I thought it was interesting to note that Delta announced yesterday that they expect to turn a profit in the 2nd quarter (ie, this quarter). I’m by no means suggesting that the situation isn’t gloomy (it is), but we should remember that it’s not impossible to be profitable either (Southwest and Allegiant).
Just to be clear, Delta’s not in good shape - they announced they’re further cutting capacity in the 4th quarter (from 10% to 13% - yikes).
And one further note (as if this isn’t a random enough post as it is), I saw that a US Airways exec said that so-called a la carte pricing (aka, fees for everything) could bring $300 million in additional revenue to the airline. He also said that customers prefer to have everything unbundled. Which would be true if the base fare were lowered (as Air Canada had done) and added on top of that. That’s not what happened. I don’t begrudge the airlines anything - they should charge whatever they want for everything. The market will dictate whether it’s a good idea. But where I think they’re making an error is in treating the new fees as if they’re in any way at all beneficial or that cutting back on frequent flyer benefits helps to make Dividend Miles “one of the best programs in the industry.”
It’s time to stop flinging the B.S. - every traveler knows that the industry is a mess because (at least in some part) of the fuel situation. Travelers have the same issues when they drive. I think if they were completely up front about it - we’re instituting these fees because we can’t raise fares - consumers would be fine. Suggesting that consumers are benefiting from the changes is just silly.
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June 19 2008
A quick note to let you know about Channel 9, a new airline blog written by friend/former colleague Tom Lang. Tom is a former journalist and former Eos revenue/marketing guy and has a great perspective on the industry. You can check his site out at http://channel-9.blogspot.com/
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June 18 2008
A reporter covering the Euro 2008 soccer/football tournament found himself running late for his Air Dolomiti flight from Verona to Vienna. So he did what any of us would do: he called the airline and made a bomb threat so the flight would be delayed. Clever.
Except that when he arrived at the airport he said to the gate agent that he heard the flight was delayed. Which was funny, as it hadn’t been delayed. Police then interviewed the man and found, of course, that he used the cellphone on him to make the bomb threat. The end.
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June 18 2008
New Delhi sees some impressive rains this time of year, and even the animals have had trouble drying off after the downpours: Following the heavy rains in Delhi, the international airport was overrun by jackals, foxes and lizards on Monday, causing the closure of the airport for an hour. About 100 flights were affected by the animals, which had come to the runway to sun themselves following the storms. Just another typical day for India’s aviation industry.
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June 17 2008
Just a quick update on what all the airlines said today about shrinking their schedules:
- Virgin America will cut 10% of its capacity in the fall, but will not eliminate any planes or jobs. Most cuts will come by reducing midweek frequencies. Oddly enough, they’ll also be increasing their west coast flying and launching JFK-Las Vegas which, if I had to guess, will be eliminated soon enough.
- Northwest said that it will see capacity cuts in the 9.5% range this fall and will likely introduce new fees. No further details were released.
- And, incredibly, WestJet (unlike main competitor Air Canada) will keep capacity where it is for the end of 2008 and not eliminate any routes, frequencies or jobs. WestJet has done something interesting where during the winter they shift a bunch of their planes out of the frigid north and onto routes to sunny locales. Clever.
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A Quick OpenSkies Review