Posted by Seth on September 30, 2010 under All You Can Jet, AYCJ, Trip Reports | 
The effects of the AYCJ experience on the human body can be debilitating. Three weeks in – and I’m actually being somewhat conservative in my flight scheduling, with stops in hotels and at home every now and then – and I am beat. Wandering through JFK T5 on Wednesday morning I felt a lot like this guy. I was actually rather jealous that he had some extra time to lie down and sleep.
Alas, no nap time for me on the floor of the terminal. I was off to fly again. I needed to get to Washington, DC eventually on Wednesday in advance of my trip to Wyoming on Thursday. I had previously purchased a MegaBus ticket for $1.50 but that was before I got the All You Can Jet pass. And since the flights were free why not take a couple more. Also, I’m continuing in my quest to get to all the JetBlue airports on JetBlue rather than on any carrier. And I’d never flown from Boston to Baltimore. Add all that up and I had my new plan: JFK-BOS-BWI.
Yes, that’s very much the long way to get from New York to Washington. And it was made longer by the fact that the MARC train frequencies from BWI into Washington’s Union Station suck, even at rush hour. Still, I got my new line and a couple good flights and I even snuck in a quick nap on the BOS-BWI flight.
Plus I got a couple more photos for my collection of the earth from above.
Most amazing to me is that, even though I have 3 more days of AYCJ time unaccounted for, I am actually considering not booking any more flights. Part of that is because I have a decent amount of work that I need to get done and I have not been doing as much as I should have during these travels. But the other part is simply because I’m tired. If feels strange to say it, but I may have actually found my limit in terms of what is a reasonable level of travel for me. Apparently it is somewhere before I am doing multiple domestic redeyes in any single week. I think that’s probably a reasonable place to draw the line.
Posted by Seth on September 30, 2010 under Trip Reports |
The weather on the eastern seaboard today was pretty ridiculous. Heavy rains, winds and general misery meant that many flights were delayed or canceled. I was fortunate when I arrived at Washington’s National airport that I had mostly dried out on the Metro ride and that my flight was only 30 minutes delayed for departure. With a double connection routing today staying on schedule was critical to to plans for actually visiting Wyoming.
Alas, that 30 minutes did not hold. The first indication of a problem was the pilot coming up to the gate area to chat with the agents. The second hint was when I saw a couple maintenance guys walk under the planes with a large jack. And then the pilot picked up the PA and uttered the two worst words in air travel, “Well, folks…”
He suggested that the tire change would only take 5 minutes and that we’d still likely make our connections. After about 15 minutes we were told another 15 minutes. Then we were told another 30 minutes. At this point my layover in Minneapolis was shot. I was going to miss my first connection. Not good.
I headed back up to the SkyClub to talk with the agents about my options. The next flight into Rock Springs, my eventual destination, would not arrive until well after dark and I was departing again early the next morning. There was no point in going on the trip at this point. Such a scenario is known in the industry as a “trip in vain.” I’ve had such before and the airlines are generally pretty good about handling it. Delta was not so much today.
The agents in DC insisted that I would have to try to make the connection in Minneapolis anyways, even though the official timing had me with only 20 minutes from scheduled arrival time to my original departure time. I knew it was basically impossible – especially at MSP, which is huge – but they would not consider it a trip in vain. In other words, they were happy to cancel the ticket but had no intention of refunding my fare, even though the mechanical issues ultimately were what caused the more significant portion of the delay.
On to Minneapolis and into the SkyClub there. Quite a lovely lounge, really (the one by C12) and tremendously helpful agents, to a certain extent. The woman I was dealing with understood the trip in vain issue and agreed with me that it was strange the DC agents insisted I take the flight. She started making calls and was able to get me rebooked back to DC this afternoon but was having trouble processing the refund of the ticket.
Apparently they are insisting that I pay for the part of the ticket I used even though I only used it because the other agents insisted that I had to try to make what was an impossible connection. Not a good scenario and I’m pretty sure not in line with the printed policies of the airline, but I need to review the latest Contract of Carriage to confirm that.
On the plus side, at least the bits of fly-over country that I saw were looking quite nice as the photos show. And I’ve been flying enough lately that I’m not all that broken up about missing out on an extra 10 hours on airplanes and 12 hours in Wyoming. I don’t even think I was going to be in a particularly nice part of the state. C’est la vie!
Posted by Seth on September 28, 2010 under News |
With the last potential road block in the United Airlines/Continental merger – the lawsuit filed by a group of customers in San Francisco – successfully killed by the airlines’ lawyers, the finality of the transaction is merely days away. Of course the new carrier needs something pretty to show off for the press at the event. In this case it looks like a 737 will fill that need.
Sure, the picture is small but it is pretty clear that this is the real thing. Look for it to show up out in the wild on Friday.
Thanks to Scott for sharing this one!
Related Posts:
Posted by Seth on September 28, 2010 under All You Can Jet, AYCJ, Trip Reports |
Quick trip down to RDU on the books for my AYCJ adventures this week. I showed up at the airport like normal, about an hour before departure. Through the security at JFK T5 reasonably quickly and then confronted with my most hated morning sight in the JetBlue terminal: the line for Dunkin. I want a donut for breakfast but I refuse to wait in a longer line than I did to clear TSA for that.
Lacking that I headed back out into the food court area and up onto the high-rise platform. Somewhat engrossed in my laptop I was startled when someone plopped down at the seat right across from me at the table. Hey there, Morgan! No more than 5 minutes later another friend dropped by and joined us at the table.
Chatting about travel, itineraries and the AirTran/Southwest merger was fun but it got better when the two folks at the other end of the table that we were sharing with them piped up that they were also on the AYCJ pass.
I’m always amazed how easy and enjoyable it is to make friends and meet people in airports. When the chances are high that you already know someone there it is even easier.
Related Posts:
Posted by Seth on September 27, 2010 under frequent flyer, Internet, News |
Apparently the airline industry is bored when there isn’t enough merger activity going on. Southwest and AirTran have ramped that pace back up again, with the Dallas-based carrier announcing a planned $1.4 billion buyout of AirTran this morning. The carriers expect the deal to close in the first half of 2011 with operations merging in 2012.
So those are the facts, at least as much as are available now in the early stages of the news discovery. What are the big open questions out there regarding the merger?
WHY?
OK, so this is both a very easy and very complicated question. Southwest has struggled of late to enter new markets, in part because it is harder to find underserved destinations and in part because there are significant barriers to entry in major markets like Atlanta, New York City and Washington, DC. With this purchase the carrier picks up – at a relatively bargain price – significant slot portfolios in all three of those cities. The slots at Washington’s National and New York’s LaGuardia airports are particularly valuable to Southwest.
Somewhat strangely, the Associated Press is reporting the move as an effort by Southwest as seeking “entry into a number of smaller markets.” That makes very little sense. Not only does Southwest already serve many small markets, including most that AirTran serves, but the value is in the larger markets. Southwest fought strongly to defeat the proposed US Airways – Delta slot swap at LGA/DCA in an effort to gain access to slots at those airports. When that failed they simply bought the slots they wanted.
The Atlanta market is nothing to sneeze at, either. While Delta has successfully fought off small entries on a few occasions (e.g. JetBlue’s efforts a few years back), AirTran has established themselves quite solidly in the market there. This move opens up that entire market to Southwest in one quick move.
International?
Southwest has historically only flown domestic routes. They’ve talked about code-sharing to gain international service but those deals have been delayed or canceled recently. This move gives them established service in Mexico and the Caribbean. CEO Gary Kelly stated in the analyst call that the carrier is committed to going international as part of this move. The destinations that AirTran serves should meld nicely with the Southwest operations so that decision isn’t such a surprise.
Fleet commonality?
Southwest is been a Boeing 737 customer and solely operated that type for a long, long time. AirTran operates a fleet of 737s and 717s. There was previously some discussion on retiring the 717s as they start to age – some are 10ish now – and it would seem that the new carrier could simply retire the type completely and keep most of their operations intact based on sharing in the Southwest 737 fleet base. The official statement today says that they will be keeping the 717s in the fleet but it would not be too surprising to see that stance change in the coming years.
In-flight products?
AirTran offers a first class product. They also offer in-flight entertainment. They offer food for purchase. Southwest offers none of those things. Both carriers offer in-flight internet connectivity, with AirTran having deployed the gogo product from Aircell fleet-wide. Southwest is in the early stages of rolling out Row44’s satellite-based system fleet-wide.
There are a lot of things that will need to be reconciled on that front. I expect that the gogo-equipped planes will convert to Row44 eventually. Once the 717s are retired there are not all that many 737s to add on to the Row44 deployment and Southwest holds quite a bit of pricing power on that front since they are the sole commercial customer for the product today.
On the seating front I expect that the first class sections will be removed from AirTran’s planes. Perhaps they will pursue a hybrid option comparable to JetBlue’s Even More Legroom product but that seems unlikely, particularly as Southwest seems quite satisfied with their open seating policy and their “fewer fees” marketing mantra, even if that isn’t completely true in terms of actual operations. Still, there doesn’t seem to be a sufficient demand in the business model to keep the first class seats around so those will disappear.
Loyalty Programs?
The loyalty programs of the two carriers are rather different and Southwest is long rumored to be working on a revised Rapid Rewards program expected to launch eventually. It seems highly unlikely that AirTran’s A+ Rewards will trump the Rapid Rewards program as part of this merger. Even with the uncertainty surrounding the timeframe for the revised Rapid Rewards, the program is bigger and more established than A+ Rewards.
Fares?
The quotes from Southwest are touting the “Southwest effect” and their intentions to bring lower fares to more customers. Unfortunately, that plan does not seem to mesh with the reality of the merger. AirTran already generally offers downward pricing pressure in markets which suggests that there is not necessarily a lot of room for fares to move with Southwest taking over. Connecting the two networks will offer a bit of expansion in potential for low fares but it does not seem conclusive that fares will be cut for consumers.
Moreover, it ignores the effect on airports where Southwest becomes the dominant carrier and sees little competition. In such cities, including Oakland and Albany, fares actually have increased faster than the average across the country.
Finally, any loss of competition almost certainly will lead to increased fares for passengers. Supply & demand doesn’t work perfectly in the airline industry but it is pretty close at the macro scale in situations like this.
Conclusions?
Unlike the United Airlines – Continental merger which was billed as a combination of equals, this move is most definitely a buy-out of the smaller AirTran by Southwest. The main attractions – NYC, Washington and Atlanta markets as well as the international routes – are likely worth more to Southwest than the purchase price paid. The fact that they also pick up a few extra airplanes, too, probably doesn’t hurt the situation, but not really critical to the deal. Southwest is dictating terms and nearly everything associated with the combined carrier will be based on the Southwest side of the operation.
There are plenty of other little things that will play out in the coming months. But the near-term view suggests that Southwest is going to be growing and spreading their wings just a bit further.
Related Posts:
Tags: AirTran, Atlanta, Boeing, Continental, Delta, fees, frequent flyer, IFE, internet, JetBlue, merger, Mexico, New York, New York City, points, Southwest Airline, United, US Air, Washington DC
Posted by Seth on September 26, 2010 under All You Can Jet, AYCJ, Trip Reports |
Today’s AYCJ trip was perhaps the silliest of all for me – and that’s saying something. I took a flight out to Nantucket (ACK) and back just an hour later solely for being able to say that I flew to or from that airport. Why? Because it means that I’ve now flown to every domestic airport that JetBlue serves.
Yeah, I collect airports like some people collect stamps or coins or whatever else it is that people collect. And today I picked up the last dot on the USA that I needed for my JetBlue collection to be complete when I touched down in Nantucket.
By my count there are currently 43 domestic destinations served by JetBlue. I’ve flown to or from 30 of those destinations on JetBlue; the other 13 I’ve hit on other airlines. Maybe that’s cheating the stats a bit, but I am going to pick up at least 2 more of those 13 this coming week and maybe a couple more next week as the All You Can Jet adventure wraps up this year plus another a couple weeks hence.
I’m nowhere close to flying all the routes that the airline offers and there are still many international destinations that I need to get to. And I’ll try to get to the few missing on JetBlue at some point. Still, I’m happy to have reached this milestone. Oh, and the two new domestic stations coming online later this year – BDL and DCA – I have already flown through so I’m covered for a bit there.
I tried to write a limerick to celebrate this milestone, but my efforts proved rather futile. I think we’re all better off for that.
In other AYCJ news today, I actually got yelled at (as did several other passengers) by the gate agents in Nantucket for not boarding the flight quickly enough. Apparently they decided that the “Boarding Time” on our boarding passes was when the plane should be closed up and ready to depart, not when boarding should start. They actually started the boarding before the inbound flight was even scheduled to arrive. That we then closed up and taxied out to the end of the runway where we waited for our departure slot into JFK – which came right when it was supposed to assuming an on-time boarding – without functional LiveTV on the plane is a whole different issue.
Read more of my All You Can Jet adventures here.
Posted by Seth on September 26, 2010 under All You Can Jet, AYCJ, Trip Reports |
JetBlue might not have quite as extensive of an international route map as some other legacy network carriers, but I still managed to get to the Orient using my All You Can Jet pass. Orient Beach, that is.
Located on the French side of St. Martin, Orient Beach is a small town with a couple miles of white sand, a few dozen hotels and merchants and crystal-clear blue water as far as the eye can see. The town also has a number of restaurants in it, all within walking distance, so I was able to find some good food even though my rental car was broken and i had to disconnect the battery overnight to turn off the horn that was sounding incessantly. It is off-season in St. Martin right now so many of the shops and restaurants are either closed or running on limited hours but overall there was still enough to see and do and eat to keep me going.
After a morning walk the length of the beach – and passing plenty of naked old dudes having their morning constitutional as well – I settled in on a beach chair at La Playa, adjacent to L’Hoste Hotel where I was staying. I saw about a dozen people total over the next two hours which was just fine with me. A bit of quiet reading and relaxing time was quite enjoyable given my flight patterns the past couple weeks.
And then it was back to the Dutch side of the island and making my way back towards the airport. I drove through Phillipsburg and across the southern edge of the island as I made my way back towards Maho beach. Phillipsburg has a lovely beach of its own and plenty of hotels, as well as being a somewhat developed section of the island with grocery stores, shopping and industrial areas.
I returned the car early and headed to the airport to grab my boarding pass before a bit more plane-spotting at Maho beach. The line was completely ridiculous, however, three hours before departure so I made the 10 minute walk to the beach without having checked in first and figured I’d just hope for the best. It was worth it as just moments after I arrived at the beach – literally I dropped my bags in the sand to grab these shots – an Air Carribes A330, F-ORLY, arrived from Paris. What a beauty.
After that a couple US Airways planes – an A320 and a B757 – came in.
And then the real moment of truth for this day, the Air France A340-300 arriving from Paris.
Now it was only 1:40 prior to my flight’s scheduled departure so I bid adieu to my AYCJ pals I was plane-spotting with and hoofed it back to the airport. No line at check-in which was great. I also learned why I had been unable to complete online check-in. I got SSSS’d. Seriously. That hasn’t happened to me in 5+ years. I was shocked. Even the guy working the counter couldn’t figure it out.
The crazy part is that apparently it didn’t matter. No one checked anything special throughout the immigration or security screening process. They didn’t even check my boarding pass as I went through the metal detectors. At the gate the same agent took my ticket and asked me to make sure I had my bag inspected by the rent-a-goons they had performing “random” secondary screenings in the jetway area.
I probably could have just walked past that without trouble but I was curious to see just how thorough my screening would be. Not very. The buy didn’t make it more than 2 layers down into one of my two bags before waving me on. Don’t get me wrong – I think most of the “security” crap today is, well, crap – but they barely even tried here even after I was apparently flagged for some reason.
Off to seat 12A and a nice, smooth flight back up to New York City. A bit of a nap and a bit of screaming from the baby next to me, plus the lap child he was holding, and I made it safe and sound. Just another day in the Jetting life.
Posted by Seth on September 24, 2010 under All You Can Jet, AYCJ, Trip Reports |
“Oh, you again.”
Probably not the way most folks want to be greeted when boarding a plane. For me this morning, however, it was just another JetBlue flight attendant who I had previously had the pleasure of flying with during the All You Can Jet month and one who remembered me. Good to see you again, too, Michael.
This is also my first AYCJ flight where I’ve been acutely aware of just how many others on the pass are on the flight. There were a number of AYCJ conversations going on in the cabin during boarding. Hearing “Where else have you been?” is a pretty good indicator on that front. The flight attendants took a quick poll just prior to departure, asking all the AYCJ folks to raise their hand. I counted roughly 20. A solid showing.
A bunch of us chatted during and after the flight about going to watch the planes land at Maho Beach but there was nothing definitive. At the rental car office the couple sitting behind me happened to show up on the shuttle after mine. We all started chatting with the guy behind the counter about plane spotting and I mentioned that the KLM MD-11 was due in about an hour hence. The other couple was nearly as excited as I was (he was much more than she) and we drove over to Sunset Bar, had a couple Carib beers and watched the planes land.
It. Was. Awesome!
I also confirmed that an Air France A340 is due in tomorrow afternoon shortly before my flight leaves so I’ll be back at the bar to catch that arrival, too.
I’m staying on the French side of the island, right on Orient Bay Beach. Quite nice, though it is clearly off-season and a bit quiet. That’s actually probably a good thing for me.This was sunset from the bar on the beach:
Yeah…life doesn’t particularly suck at all right now.
Posted by Seth on September 24, 2010 under frequent flyer, News, points |
Since they introduced their first class suites on the Airbus A380 a few years ago, Singapore Air has been unwilling to offer up those seats for award redemption. They consider the suites a product above first class and therefore simply have not published any award inventory for them, either for their own frequent flyer program members or for partners. That changed this past week for KrisFlyer members. They can now redeem points for travel in one of the nicest cabin experiences on offer. Assuming they have a ton of points, of course.
When Singapore decided to only offer their new business class at the “rule-buster” redemption level for their customers it was a bit gauche but at least the pricing was still somewhat reasonable. The suites pricing is anything but. The least expensive outright award is a one-way between Sydney and Singapore; it will set you back 550,000 points. A one way between London and Singapore tips the scales at a cool million.
The numbers are astounding not only because they are so high, but also because they do not even remotely parallel the cash costs of buying tickets outright. Every frequent flyer program will have some redemptions that are better than others but this is rather ridiculous. It is simply not possible to realize a decent value on the points being redeemed at this level. About the only way I can figure it makes sense is for someone who is spending someone else’s money on their credit card in a volume that is rather tremendous. And even then there are much better ways to channel that spend rather than into the KrisFlyer program if Suites travel is the ultimate goal.
I think that this one can be chalked up on the “thanks, but no thanks” side of the ledger.
Nod to Lucky for spotting the details on FlyerTalk and sharing.
Related Posts:
Posted by Seth on September 24, 2010 under News |
Ever since news came out that airline seat manufacturer Koito had been falsifying safety data for their products the industry has been waiting to learn the fate of the roughly 150,000 seats currently installed worldwide. Certainly if the seats are not up to spec they’ll need to be replaced, but just how quickly and who will be most affected?
Both the European and American certifying organizations (EASA and FAA, respectively) have released directives to all airlines detailing the next steps that must be taken by airlines currently operating with Koito seats in production. While the directives certainly pull no punches on the issue the EASA report is particularly damning:
The Japanese airworthiness authority JCAB has informed EASA that a review of the safety of passenger seats manufactured by Koito industries has disclosed discrepancies which include falsification of static, dynamic and flammability testing, as well as uncontrolled changes to production data (material and dimensional).
In addition JCAB confirmed that Koito records, showing evidence of falsification, could not be deemed complete. Examples include: fictitious dynamic test pulse plots inserted into test reports following failure to meet required certification requirements; flammability test coupons not representative of production parts, for instance by use of alternative adhesive not specified on the approved drawing; and fictitious deformation values entered in test reports when values exceeded the maximum allowed.
Based on these findings the EASA will require that all Koito seats be removed from aircraft within two years unless the airline is willing to pursue a new certification process for the seats in question. Any such plan must be first approved by EASA before going into effect.
The FAA is not taking quite as hard a line on the issue. Rather than requiring the replacement or recertification of the seats, the FAA will permit airlines to demonstrate only partial compliance in order to keep the seats currently flying legal. The FAA will also permit spares to be installed in a like for like manner where the seats are today.
So why did the FAA take a softer stance on the issue? Is it possibly because roughly 30% of the Koito install base is centered in a single company that is based in the United States, Continental? Is it because someone in Washington decided that they don’t really need to enforce all the rules so long as some of them are followed? The only comment offered up by an FAA spokesperson was this non-answer:
Clearly the FAA doesn’t operate in a vacuum, but that said what we have to do is look at the safety impact and the safety issue and the proposed solution based on our environment, not the environment that exists in Europe.
Apparently a plane crashing in Europe does so in a manner that is sufficiently different from a plane crashing in the United States such that the seats can be subject to different rules. It is certainly understandable that the two bodies might have small variations in their policies but when the FAA chooses to only partially enforce their own rules – “[T]his proposed AD will not require full compliance with every applicable regulation…” – that certainly raises other questions.
Posted by Seth on September 23, 2010 under All You Can Jet, AYCJ, Trip Reports |
Wander around the square outside the cathedral the Zona Colonial in Santo Domingo for more than a couple minutes and the layers of touts become quickly apparent. They even go so far as to wear appropriate uniforms depending on exactly what they’re shilling for. The guys in pink are all selling tchotkes, for example. On the plus side, that does make them rather easy to identify and avoid.
One of the groups working the square is a collection of volunteer guides (blue shirts), willing to show tourists around for “free.” Even knowing that it was not really free, I decided to take Manuel up on his offer to walk me around the Zona for an hour. Odd are he knew more about what I should be looking for and I was too lazy to do any research of my own. Besides, while my walkabout yesterday was pleasant enough, I really had no idea what I was looking at.
So we set off together to explore the oldest city in the Americas. Because of Santo Domingo’s position as the oldest city it has many other “oldest” designations as well. Oldest cathedral? Yeah, we got that. Oldest hospital? We saw that, too. Oldest stone house and oldest military installation were covered, too.
The cathedral is actually quite impressive. The cornerstone was laid in the 1520s and construction was completed in the 1540s. They’ve done a fantastic job of maintaining the interior of the facility. Other parts are more recent – the bell tower is from the 1600s – but still quite impressive.
The exterior of the cathedral tells the history of the island as well. There are statues and carvings that reflect a few different European occupations of the area. Some are original and some are replicas, such as the six stone works that replaced bronze statues melted down to make cannon balls at one point.
We wandered over to a couple old homes from the early days. Many have been restored in one form or another. The original tax collector in town had quite a nice setup for his living arrangements; it is now a children’s museum. The original representative of the royal court was rich enough to have his own chapel adjacent to his home. That has been restored into an art gallery. Others are hotels or government offices.
There was also a stop in to the building housing the eternal flame honoring great Dominicans that have honored the country in some way. From past presidents to the pair of women responsible for writing the national anthem, there are scores of honorees in the building and an honor guard keeping an eye out for all of them.
The ceiling of the facility was to me even more interesting than the memorial at ground level. There was a large chandelier that was a gift from General Franco (I think; Manuel was very excited and talking very quickly at this point) and also a pretty awesome painting representing life and death.
Wandering a bit further up towards Place d’España we saw a replica of a pretty cool sundial – two faces for telling time in the morning and afternoon – as well as a wedding party taking some photos. Both rather cool scenes.
And then a trip to the shopping street. Typical process of showing the process first – in this case stones being polished for jewelry – and then the shop next door selling the wares. It is good to know that some things truly are the same the world over.
And then my hour was up. I set the deadline, not the guide, and I think he was just as happy to have me out of his hair. He again reminded me that he was a volunteer and that I was welcome to pay him a small sum as a thanks for the tour I received. Apparently my idea of a small donation and his were rather different.
Maybe it wasn’t really a “proper” tour in the truest sense of the word. Still, I managed to see a bunch of things that I probably would not have otherwise. All in all a pretty good deal. Definitely better than being in one of the groups of 30 I watched being marched from gift shop to gift shop around the square later in the afternoon.
Related Posts:
Alas, no nap time for me on the floor of the terminal. I was off to fly again. I needed to get to Washington, DC eventually on Wednesday in advance of my trip to Wyoming on Thursday. I had previously purchased a MegaBus ticket for $1.50 but that was before I got the All You Can Jet pass. And since the flights were free why not take a couple more. Also, I’m continuing in my quest to get to all the JetBlue airports on JetBlue rather than on any carrier. And I’d never flown from Boston to Baltimore. Add all that up and I had my new plan: JFK-BOS-BWI.
Yes, that’s very much the long way to get from New York to Washington. And it was made longer by the fact that the MARC train frequencies from BWI into Washington’s Union Station suck, even at rush hour. Still, I got my new line and a couple good flights and I even snuck in a quick nap on the BOS-BWI flight.
