Posted by Seth on January 29, 2010 under frequent flyer | 
Nearly a year ago American Airlines sent a letter to the IRS defining about 40 different “services” that the carrier offers to its customers. They asked for specific rulings on each of the 40 with respect to § 4261 of the IRS code, the section that covers the specific activities for which the airlines are required to collect and remit taxes. In general such a document wouldn’t be all that interesting, but there are a couple things that this particular one has in it that are worth noting. The impact on taxes for baggage fees has already been covered, and that is reasonably interesting, but there are two specific entries in the services list that describe potential future offerings. These are the two bits that piqued my interests most.
- Service P allows Members to purchase “bonus” Miles (i.e., double or triple miles) on certain flights to be credited to the Member’s Account. Currently, this service is occasionally offered to members free of charge on a limited-time basis. However, Taxpayer is preparing to offer Service P for a fee.
United Airlines currently offers a program similar to that identified as “Service P” above. They call it their Award Accelerator and it is generally a pretty bad deal; the points are too expensive. Continental also offfers something similar with their “Extra Mile” promo every year. So American wouldn’t be breaking new ground with such a more. Still, it would be an interesting move to see American attempt to further monetize their frequent flyer program and cash in on the obsession with points.
- Service CC allows Members to redeem Miles for the purchase of air transportation on Taxpayer’s website. At the time this letter ruling request was issued, Taxpayer was not charging a fee for Service CC. Taxpayer is, however, contemplating implementation of a fee for this service. The fee would be charged at the time of ticketing.
This one is a bit more worrisome from the consumer perspective. It suggests that AA is considering adding a booking fee for reward ticket reservations made through the website. Currently most airlines charge for such reservations when they are booked through the call center. Extending that out to bookings made online would be quite a leap. Currently there are a couple airlines that have such “convenience fees” for bookings but it would be quite a shock for a legacy carrier to start down that route. The verbiage is sufficiently different – “contemplating implementation” versus “preparing to offer” – that it doesn’t seem likely such charges are imminent, but it is out there now and intriguing enough to raise an eyebrow or two.
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Posted by Seth on January 29, 2010 under News |
A few months ago I wrote about some inquiries that Congressfolks were making over the unbundling of airfare components. Basically the airlines have been shifting more and more of the travel costs out of the base ticket price but the feds are only able to tax that base ticket price. The end result is that all the unbundled services are about 7.5% better for the airlines than simply raising fares by a comparable amount across the board.
It seems that the folks on the ill can take a break from that saber-rattling or at least find a way to refocus their efforts. The IRS released a ruling in response to a request from American Airlines, clarifying about 40 different scenarios and the taxability of each under the IRS code. The document is, as one might expect, a rather boring read. But it does provide some insight into just what the carriers can charge for without having to pay any taxes. In addition to any baggage handling the ruling addresses the taxability of buying miles (taxable), lounge memberships (not taxable) and fuel surcharges (taxable).
Probably not a huge surprise but it does confirm that the airlines’ decision to unbundle services and charge fees is more profitable for them than simply raising fares, to the tune of about 7.5%. In an industry that has been bleeding cash every little bit helps.
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Posted by Seth on January 29, 2010 under News |
Continental Airlines announced this morning that they will be increasing service between London and their Newark hub starting this summer. The increases – up to four daily departures beginning at the end of March and five daily beginning at the end of October – will be mostly operated by the carrier’s Boeing 757-200 aircraft; one of the daily flights will remain on the 777-200s.
In addition to the increased frequencies, Continental has committed to operating all these flights with their new fully flat Business Class product, effective June 1, 2010. It is the first time in recent memory that Continental has committed to including a specific product that only exists on a subset of its fleet on a specific route. The carrier generally avoids such commitments since they generally cycle their planes through their route network very aggressively rather than dedicating specific planes to specific routes. They get increased utilization from the planes but it also increases the troubles when they have mechanical issues and it prevents planes from being dedicated to routes.
The original timeline for the new lie-flat BusinessFirst seats is actually pretty slow; the 777s and 757s aren’t scheduled to be completed until mid-to-late 2011. But two 777s were ferried to Hong Kong – the site of the retrofits – recently increasing the speed of the deployment. And the 757s can be cycled through the upgrade pretty quickly as well. This is good news for passengers as it means getting the new product out into the fleet faster. The increased service also means more options for customers who are delayed in getting to Newark on connecting flights and more opportunities for connections to London-based Star Alliance partner bmi.
It is also worth noting that the increase in service is coming from Newark rather than the other potential option: Cleveland. Continental has previously run seasonal service to London from the Hublet but that was cut at the end of last summer. Rather than reinstating it there this year’s increase is going to Newark. This speaks to the increased flexibility of having the 757 in Newark and to the higher demand in Newark versus that of Cleveland. The good news for the folks there is that they have a lot of options (ORD, IAD, YYZ, YUL, etc.) that allow them to avoid connecting in Newark if they choose thanks to partners.
Here’s what the new schedule will look like:
Effective March 27, 2010, the airline’s Heathrow schedule will be as follows:
To London/Heathrow
New York/Newark CO18 9:00 a.m. 9:20 p.m. Daily 757-200
New York/Newark CO28 6:40 p.m. 6:45 a.m.+1 Daily 777
New York/Newark CO112 7:20 p.m. 7:40 a.m.+1 Daily 757-200
New York/Newark CO110 8:00 p.m. 8:20a.m.+1 Daily 757-200
Houston CO34 3:45 p.m. 6:55 a.m.+1 Daily 777
Houston CO4 6:25 p.m. 9:35 a.m.+1 Daily 777
From London/Heathrow
New York/Newark CO29 10:25 a.m. 1:15 p.m. Daily 777
New York/Newark CO113 10:50 a.m. 1:55 p.m. Daily 757-200
New York/Newark CO111 12:05 p.m. 3:15 p.m. Daily 757-200
New York/Newark CO19 6:30 p.m. 9:40 p.m. Daily 757-200
Houston CO35 8:40 a.m. 12:40 p.m. Daily 777
Houston CO5 11:40 a.m. 3:50 p.m. Daily 777
Effective Oct. 30, 2010, Continental’s Heathrow schedule will be as follows:
To London/Heathrow
New York/Newark CO18 9:00 a.m. 9:20 p.m. Daily 757-200
New York/Newark CO28 6:25 p.m. 6:20 a.m.+1 Daily 777
New York/Newark CO112 7:15 p.m. 7:25 a.m.+1 Daily 757-200
New York/Newark CO110 9:20 p.m. 9:25 a.m.+1 Daily 757-200
New York/Newark CO114 10:10 p.m. 10:15 a.m.+1 Daily 757-200
Houston CO34 3:50 p.m. 6:50 a.m.+1 Daily 777
Houston CO4 6:35 p.m. 9:35 a.m.+1 Daily 777
From London/Heathrow
New York/Newark CO115 8:40 a.m. 12:05 p.m. Daily 757-200
New York/Newark CO29 10:30 a.m. 1:30 p.m. Daily 777
New York/Newark CO113 11:15 a.m. 2:45 p.m. Daily 757-200
New York/Newark CO111 12:35 p.m. 4:05 p.m. Daily 757-200
New York/Newark CO19 6:00 p.m. 9:30 p.m. Daily 757-200
Houston CO35 9:20 a.m. 1:40 p.m. Daily 777
Houston CO5 11:40 a.m. 4:05 p.m. Daily 777
Posted by Seth on January 29, 2010 under Internet, News |
It is really, really, really official now. Southwest is going to have in-flight internet service from Row44. Yes, this would seem to be old news. It was 5 months ago that the carrier announced their intentions to go down this path with provider Row44. But both parties have been rather quiet for the past few months and there was no real progress in the contracts for actually making it happen.
That changed today when Runway Girl noted that the two had reached an agreement. The carrier confirmed the details shortly thereafter on their own blog. The contracts are signed and the hardware install is beginning. The existing four installed aircraft are no longer considered to be in “testing;” the system is officially live. They have still not announced full details on the pricing – that is still in testing apparently – but the product is definitely coming, and at a pretty quick pace. They expect to outfit 15 airplanes per month initially and ramp that up to 25 per month in the near future. That puts the at early 2012 for a full fleet-wide deployment completion date.
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Posted by Seth on January 28, 2010 under News |
Back in October British Airways had a sale for travel to India that was apparently too good to be true. At least that was the claim they made when they decided – three days after the tickets were sold – that they didn’t want to honor the tickets. Instead they simply canceled them, refunded everyone’s money and pretended that all was right in the world. Sadly I actually understand why they made such a decision and it doesn’t really do much to engender customer loyalty or really present the brand in a positive light at all. It seems that customers like me simply don’t matter to the carrier.
After a couple weeks of phone tag, emails and other relatively useless communication from the carrier we were at an impasse. The bad press from their actions had forced BA’s hand a little bit: they were offering a $300 discount on fares to India for travel booked in a 30-day window. That was pretty poor, especially when the costs of comparable trips had roughly tripled. The voucher was essentially worthless.
And so I took them to court. Small Claims Court in New York City, to be precise. That actually matters a bit in that it skewed the ultimate outcome of the case. At the initial trial date the attorney for BA showed up late and immediately requested a delay of four months in the case. We settled on a six week delay in the end and that day was today. The same attorney was present as was the Director of Customer Service and Refunds, Americas, for BA (I’m pretty sure that title is correct; she said it pretty quickly when I asked). She actually had a copy of one of my blog posts about this fiasco, I believe, which I found a bit entertaining.
While waiting for our turn in front of the judge they made a settlement offer to me. My initial reaction was that I was still unwilling to accept the cruddy $300 voucher only valid on limited dates and only to India. It was a bad deal then and it is still a bad deal today. Their offer in the courthouse, however, was slightly better. Only slightly, but enough that I decided it was probably worth taking.
The credit granted was a $600 total credit (same $300 for each of two tickets, but in a single lump sum which is a good thing for me) that can be used in either of our names. That bit of flexibility was quite nice. In addition, the credit is valid for a year from now, not just for the short window that was originally offered. And, finally, the credit is valid on any ticket that British Airways can sell through their call center, including the OpenSkies product.
Ultimately it looks like I’m going to get a bit of a discount off an OpenSkies flight out of all this. It is a shame that BA chose to not honor their sale (or “mistake” as they claim it to be). It is a shame that they chose to offer such cruddy options to most customers. And it is a shame that they wasted so much of my time with visits to the courthouse rather than having a reasonable conversation on the phone about the situation from the get-go.
I know that this will cost them a bit of cash on legal fees, likely more than they had to credit me in travel vouchers, and it definitely is going to cost them a customer. Moreover I’ll go out of my way to make sure that people know just how little respect the carrier has for its customers. Any company willing to hide behind a “whoopsie” claim rather than own up to their mistakes doesn’t deserve my business. After all, when I say “whoopsie” they tell me to pound sand.
As for the significance of the case being in Small Claims Court in NYC, apparently the rules are different there than in the regular proceedings. Specifically the ability to claim damages changes a bit. That fact was lost on me until I got to the courthouse this morning and ultimately was the deciding factor in my willingness to accept the settlement. My other option was to switch to the regular courts and I wasn’t up for that adventure.
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Posted by Seth on January 28, 2010 under frequent flyer, News |
jetBlue is making major changes to their systems this weekend, starting on Friday afternoon and scheduled to finish on Saturday, that are expected to interrupt their operations throughout their network. These upgrades are for the reservations and flight scheduling systems that run the back-office functions at the carrier, and the upgrade is nothing short of huge. The new system, SabreSonic, allows for a number of new features to be included in the booking, ticketing and operational processes that the carrier deals with on a daily basis. It means that things like interlining and codesharing with other carriers will be possible, allowing for tighter integration with partner Lufthansa, for example.
Just how significant are the interruptions to operations during this upgrade? Very is an understatement. Here are some of the details that jetBlue provided to their customers:
- Travelers will be unable to book flights or make changes to reservations. If your matter is urgent and you need to book a flight or make changes to flights during this period, you can do so only at the airport.
- Flight status will be unavailable.
- Online check-in will be unavailable.
- Reservation agents will be unable to book flights or make changes to reservations. If your matter is urgent and you need to book a flight or make changes during this period, you can do so only at the airport.
And that’s just for making new plans. At the airport things are going to be pretty bad, too. Again, from jetBlue:
- Check-in and bag-drop lines will be longer during and immediately after the transition.
- We recommend that you arrive at the airport:
- Two hours before your scheduled departure for domestic flights.
- Three hours before your scheduled departure for international flights.
It is going to be a rough weekend for customers and the fact that it is snowing in New York City right now probably isn’t helping things. Of course, the carrier will be monitoring the weather situation and can always pull the plug prior to starting the changeover. No matter what, this change needs to happen and the carrier will come out of the deal in a better situation. Here’s hoping that they can make the transition with minimal pain for their customers.
Fortunately I’ve got 6 weeks until my next jetBlue flight, plenty of time for them to work the kinks out.
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Posted by Seth on January 27, 2010 under frequent flyer, media coverage, News, Trip Reports |
Back in November when me and 220 other aerophiles were jetting around in a chartered Boeing 757-300 there were a couple reporters along for the ride. They each focused on different aspects of why all all of us were there and what motivates us to travel as much as we do. Some of them got it and some of them most certainly did not. But none of them managed to relay the story quite as eloquently as Greg Lindsay, writing in the February 2010 issue of Condé Nast Traveler magazine.
His article, Triumph of the Air Warriors captures the spirit of that specific trip as well as the joy that many frequent flyers find in hunting down deals, identifying loopholes and otherwise fighting back just a little bit against a system that is decidedly stacked against the customer.
"I call it Airworld," Bingham says in the novel by Walter Kirn on which [Up in the Air] is based. "The scene, the place, the style. . . . Airworld is a nation within a nation, with its own language, architecture, mood, and even its own currency—the token economy of airline bonus miles that I’ve come to value more than dollars. Inflation doesn’t degrade them. They’re not taxed. They’re private property in its purest form."
For you, Airworld is the nowhere you pass through on your way to a meeting or a vacation. It’s the series of tubes from security to your gate, and to the rental car lots, chain hotels, and fast-casual restaurants. At every stop, if you’re savvy, you earn precious miles. American Airlines launched the first frequent-flier program almost 30 years ago on a lark; United followed suit a week later. Therein lies the tale—and many free trips to Hawaii. These led to real-life Clooneys endlessly chasing miles—and who knows what else.
And that’s what it is for me. The chase of the miles. The hunt for bargains. The chase for new cities, airlines, aircraft or just random trips that I’m just crazy enough to take. Lindsay spoke with a couple dozen “Air Warriors” – residents of AirWorld – about their adventures. And the stories we tell are full of frivolity, challenges and conquests. From one guy’s tale of his earliest memory – falling down the stairs of a 747 as a three year old – to a story of a mass revolution against an airline’s declining product quality, the stories are great reads.
Plus, I’m quoted a few times in the article; I’m sure that contributes to my appreciation of it.
You can read it here (http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/502250) or pick up a copy on the newsstands. The print version has a pretty awesome photo, too.
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Posted by Seth on January 26, 2010 under News |
There has been quite a bit of reporting on the new Air New Zealand economy product that will be offered on their Boeing 777-300s and 787 Dreamliner planes that they will be taking delivery of starting later in 2010. The idea makes a lot of sense. Lie-flat seating is great but most folks cannot afford the cost of a business or first class seat. Buying (or hoping to get) multiple coach seats has often worked but even still the experience wasn’t incredibly comfortable. Air New Zealand is looking to both monetize that demand and also improve the quality of the experience.
The SkyCouch will work by having a leg-rest that rises up to a fully horizontal surface, effectively extending the seat cushion to completely fill the space between the seat-backs
In addition, they’ve designed the seats so that the armrests retract fully up into the seats rather than jutting out a bit like most current models do. Overall it should be a rather comfortable option.
As long as you aren’t all that tall.
With the layout of the cabin Air New Zealand cannot make the seats particularly wide. They will almost certainly be about the same width as the current 777 seats and possibly even narrower for the 787 seats. That means the average length of the couch is going to be about 66 inches. And figure about 30 inchs wide on the “couch” based on an average seat pitch of 32 inches and needing to account for the thickness of the seat back. That is bigger than many business class seats – definitely wider – but it also has some serious limits. There is a wall on one side and the aisle on the other. Folks who don’t curl up will end up with their legs sticking out into the aisle. And getting two people into a 30” wide bed is a lot more cozy than I recall of my experiences in a single bed (39” x 75”) freshman year in college.
Looking at the photo from the ANZ marketing group I have to wonder how tall those models are and just how much his neck would hurt after sleeping for any extended period of time in that position.
Don’t get me wrong – lie-flat coach is great. I got to experience it last night on a Seattle – Newark flight and I slept like a baby and was mostly functional upon arrival this morning. I’m just not sure that the premium that ANZ will be charging – estimated at an extra 50% for the extra space – is really going to make sense. Especially when folks keep sticking their legs out into the aisle and getting awakened as the carts or other passengers pass by.
Some additional coverage of the new product can be found here:
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Posted by Seth on January 25, 2010 under Trip Reports |
I’m that guy. I feel it is important to get that out of the way very early in this trip report. I’m the guy who went to Egypt and didn’t actually see the pyramids. I was given strict instructions by many, many people that I should see the pyramids. I did much research on how to best experience the pyramids given the short amount of time we had on the ground.
And then reality set in. We only had five nights on the ground and one of them started well after midnight. We would be diving for two full days so that was a decent chunk of the total time. And we had trouble with the flights as well. Around New Years the domestic flights are pretty full so that further restricted our options time-wise. Based on that – and a desire to have more than a few hours of time to actually see things – we were basically stuck. We could either do Luxor or Cairo and the pyramids. We chose Luxor over Cairo. That meant no pyramids, but we saw amazing temples, a pharaoh and an awesome collection of sphinx.
The ride in to Luxor from Hurghada was four hours through the middle of the desert. It is truly a beautiful and completely barren landscape. Rockier than I expected for a desert but absolutely stunning. And then we were on the edge of the Nile River. The transformation from desert to lush green is a stark change. It happens suddenly along both sides of the Nile. And it is amazing. You end up with views like this from the restaurant/pool area from the hotel:
The Temple at Luxor is simply awesome. Like many of the other ruins on display in Egypt it is hard to believe that they are thousands of years old. They look reasonably new. And they are wonderfully well lighted at night. The mosque in the middle is a relatively new addition to the site but the whole of the site is a wonderful walk-through.
On our one full day in Luxor we did the “standard” half day tour. A private car, including an English-speaking driver, was about $80 for us as arranged through the front desk of our hotel. That included visiting the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and other temples. The admissions costs at the sites was easily another $75ish per person – lots more than I expected – but they were worth it for the most part.
The Valley of the Kings is a collection of tombs from a number of pharaohs who ruled about 3-4000 years ago. They decided to relocate their tombs farther south in Egypt, out in the middle of the desert, to avoid the typical looters of the pyramids. They found a site a few miles away from Luxor where there was a natural formation that resembles a pyramid – a sharp point at the top of the hill – and they excavated amazing caverns under the desert to hold their remains and possessions.
The number of tombs that are now uncovered and exposed to the public is quite impressive. The tomb of Ramses II is one of the more publicized bits of museum within the greater site. I do not think that it meets the expectations set by that publicity. It was the smallest of the three tombs we visited and the interior was rather unimpressive. Yes, there was a 3000+ year old corpse on display and that was pretty cool. And there is the hope that the money paid goes to the further maintenance and preservation of the site. But beyond that the tomb was really rather small, simple and notably less impressive than the other couple that we saw at the site.
After the Valley of the Kings it was on to the other side of the hill where the Temple of Hatshepsut sits. Hatshepsut was one of the more famous pharaohs, mostly because she was a woman, a rather rare bit in the lineage of ancient rulers in Egypt. And, for reasons that I cannot quite understand, that particular site is not excluded from photography like the Valleys of the Kings and Queens are. It is in just as good of shape as the others and it presents some amazing views of how the temples of the time were built. The hieroglyphic carvings are intricate and amazing.and are impressive even thousands of years later. But photos are permitted. I’m not complaining.
And then there are the Sphinx. Pluralize it how you wish. I like Sphinxen though I can understand where the term Sphinxes is more acceptable. Either way, there are tons of them throughout Egypt and they are quite impressive. Only recently was it discovered that there is a boulevard connecting the Temples of Luxor and Karnak, about two kilometers apart, and that the entire length of road is lined with sphinxen on both sides. Businesses and homes have been bought out using the Egyptian version of eminent domain laws and the path is being uncovered from end to end to put the sphinxen on display. The interruption to life is unfortunate but the history that they’ve been able to put on display is wonderful.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these sphinxen on the road from Luxor to Karnak. And at either end is an amazing temple, thousands of years old and incredibly well preserved. Both are worth visiting but the site at Karnak is somewhat larger and truly amazing. Given no personal experience, if asked to describe an ancient Egyptian Temple the description given would almost certainly come very close to the reality that is the Temple at Karnak. The columns, the statues and the facades are iconic. And seeing them in person is not an experience that can be easily translated to words.
I can use the word awesome only so many times in a single post so I’ll let this be the last one:The Temple at Karnak is AWESOME. If it isn’t there already put it on your bucket list. It really is that impressive.
Following the visit to Karnak we headed back down to Luxor and settled in for a couple drinks, dinner and then heading off to the airport to start our overnight journey home. But that last afternoon and evening in Luxor gave us many wonderful discoveries. There were the couple amazing restaurants we found – probably the only two worth speaking of in Egypt from our perspective. There was the sunset. It was a beautiful blend of natural light, a range of colors and shadows and a handful of guys on the promenade, swearing that they could sell us a sunset felucca sailing even after it was clear that the sun had actually passed below the horizon.
The restaurants that afternoon and evening – Sofra and Casablanca, respectively – were both quite good. Finding an authentic dining experience rather than a greasy spoon targeting Brits, Germans and other Europeans on package holidays was incredibly hard throughout our time in Egypt. Asking at the hotel in Hurghada got us referred to a restaurant that was out of business. Asking elsewhere endured the risk of being sent to the place where the baksheesh was stronger than the actual quality. It was not a good situation.
There were many recommendations for a place on the west bank of the Nile that had all the details except for an actual address. We never found that restaurant. But these two, these tourist-focused but authentic cuisine shops, were truly outstanding. The food quality was some of the best that we experienced in Egypt and the service was top notch, almost too much in the case of Casablanca. Still, we finally managed to actually find some good food in Egypt and that was a tremendous relief. The trouble we had on that front is a big enough scar on the visit that it has actually made a return trip less likely than I had expected it to be.
Overall the experiences that one can have in Egypt are unparalleled. There is simply too much there that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world that it demands a few days out of every life. And it still demands a few more days of mine.
After all, I still have to see the pyramids.
More photos from the trip here.
Posted by Seth on January 24, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Standing underneath the wing of a 747-800F on the assembly line is an incredibly humbling experience. The plane is simply enormous in a way that being inside it or seeing it from the terminal simply doesn’t convey. But there we were, a group of about 20 aerophiles and a couple of Boeing employees, wandering across the factory floor of the wide-body assembly plant in Everett, Washington. It was phenomenal!
I was quite fortunate to be invited along on this behind-the-scenes event. We spent a full day touring the main assembly lines in the Seattle area, both the narrow-body facility in Renton and the wide-body facility in Everett. We were accompanied by engineers from Boeing rather than regular tour guides and we were able to ask random nitty-gritty detail questions. Oh, and were close enough to touch the planes in some cases.
Our morning consisted of a tour of the 737 assembly line in Renton, Washington. The line isn’t open to regular tours so getting inside was a special treat. We got to see planes at various stages of the 11-day final assembly cycle, from fuselage arrival to wing joining to interior fitting to rolling out the door for painting and first flight. The fuselages arrive on rail cars and are transferred into the assembly building. Two weeks later they roll out the other end as fully assembled airplanes.
Every plane in the factory is marked with its registration number – N1786B – so that it is ready to fly when it is completed. But they are all the same registration, something that is rather unusual. Boeing can do this because the planes fly only once with that registration number. The destination of that first flight is the paint shop a few miles away where the fuselage is repainted into the customer’s livery and the new registration number is applied.
A number of mementos from the history of the assembly facility are on display throughout the factory. It has a rather impressive history – over 60 years of assembly across a number of product lines – and the stories relayed by the memorabilia are wonderful. My favorite was the737 wingtip on the wall. It was a segment of wing about 18 inches long painted in the familiar colors of the Southwest livery and it sticks off the wall with a plaque underneath:
Dear Boeing:
Thanks for the new winglets. We don’t need this anymore.
Love,
Southwest Airlines
A cool souvenir celebrating the end of their winglet conversion project.
The second half of the day was spent on the ground in Everett, site of the wide-body assembly plant that Boeing operates. They build the 747s, 767s, 777s and 787s in Everett and the assembly lines are running around the clock these days on all the lines. Obviously much of the focus is on the Dreamliner but the 777 line is still cranking out new deliveries and the 747-800 line is working quickly towards having the first production aircraft ready for delivery. Our tour was very different than the one given to the public (that I took back in March). Rather than looking down on the assembly line from a platform six floor up we were down on the ground, walking amongst the planes so close that we could reach out and touch them. It was awesome.
The size of the planes is hard to appreciate when in them. I’m sitting in a 737-900ER as I type this and I have some concept of how big it is. But seeing it from the ground changes the perspective immensely. Even the two engines of one wing of the 747-8, two engines that are exactly the same, look to be much different sizes because of the perspective from which they are viewed on the ground. In reality they are both enormous.
Our tour included things like watching the wings be riveted together and sealed, landing gear tests of the 777 (they put the plane on jacks and drop the floor out from under it so the gear can swing) and a deployed ram air turbine (RAT) engine. The RAT is an emergency generator that deploys when the aircraft loses engine power. It is basically fan that generates power from the air rushing by as the plane glides. It can provide enough poser to keep the avionics and other critical cockpit systems operating while the pilots get the engines running again. Just seeing it is one thing. Getting to hear the stories of the design and testing of the system from the engineer who worked the certification flight was top-notch. It takes a special amount of faith in your design, engineering and manufacturing group to be willing to get in an airplane, climb to altitude and then cut the engine and hope that the backup system kicks in. But this guy did it and had a great story to tell.
We say about 30 different wide-body aircraft for a dozen different carriers in various stages of assembly – all in the same building. It isn’t surprising that bicycles are the preferred means of conveyance in the factory; the spaces to cover are too great for walking all the time.
Of course, like any good tour, we finished up in the gift shop. No complaints there, however, as they have all sorts of cool aero-geek toys to play with.
A special thanks to the guys who organized the event and invited me along; I hope I made the cut to be asked back for next year.
Posted by Seth on January 21, 2010 under Trip Reports |
It has been a long couple weeks on the ground in New York City. Sure, I’m having plenty of fun but I’m also working a lot more than usual so getting back into the air is a great pleasure that I get to indulge in this weekend. And it really is a bit of indulgence – probably more fun than I should have in any given weekend.
First up today is the trek from New York to Seattle. I’m flying via Chicago to meet up with some friends who are based there. Plus it is my first opportunity to use my Continental Star Alliance Gold credentials while flying with United Airlines so that’s been fun to see how it plays out. Oh, and it means free drinks thanks to a large supply of coupons provided by one of the guys in the group. Today is two flights and gets me across the country but that’s just the beginning for the weekend.
After a couple days in Seattle we’re flying down to Houston on Continental. We’ll spend a day there doing some things with the carrier and then it is on to San Diego on Sunday. I’ll be flying on US Airways via Phoenix because of the significant cost savings. That’s five flights and three cities over four days.
The trip home will be equally entertaining. On Monday I fly San Diego – Los Angeles – Portland – Seattle – Newark on a combination of United, United Express and Continental. I get three new routes and a new aircraft type – the Embrear 120. Yeah, it is a tiny turboprop and I don’t expect it to be particularly wonderful in terms of the in-flight experience, but it does get me very, very close to closing out the entire Embrear product line in terms of aircraft flown. This is the second time I’m trying for the E120 and last time I was the victim of delays so I missed it. I’m hoping that I can get it more quickly than I did the upper deck of the 747; that was way too many tries.
On the plus side, the lounges have all been nice thus far. The Bloody Mary at the Presidents Club in LaGuardia this morning was perfect, as always. The Goose Island brew at the newly remodeled Red Carpet Club was excellent; I’m a fan of local beers in the lounges. And the drink certs on the flights have come in quite handy. The plane is now out of rum and gin; yeah, we’re having a great time here. More of the same is expected this weekend in air world. It is a great place to visit frequently.
