Posted by Seth on February 13, 2012 under frequent flyer, News | 
PEOPLExpress is best known in most travel circles as one of the first airlines to operate in a LCC model following the deregulation of the US aviation industry. With a hub in Newark, New Jersey, the carrier offered up a slew of a la carte fees well before that was the norm and offered service to a number of cities across the USA and Europe. The company was acquired by Continental in the 80s and the brand disappeared. But now it is back.
A group of entrepreneurs has revived the brand and hopes to begin operations in the near future based out of Newport News, VA (PHF) with a fleet of Boeing 737-400s. The aircraft will be configured with 158 seats in an all-economy configuration. The carrier lists a few destinations in their press release, including Newark, Pittsburgh, West Palm Beach and Providence, with a promise of more to come.
The company’s COO, Mike Morisi is a veteran of the previous PEOPLExpress iteration, giving him a long history in the industry. And he promises that the new operation will change the way the public views air travel:
With the recent decline in airline service due to mergers and consolidations, we have all had to travel farther out of our way to get anywhere. Flights are more expensive and the many ancillary fees make flying a hassle. Our goal is to make flying fun again. We will eliminate most fees for items such as checked bags and seat assignments aboard our fleet of Boeing 737-400 aircraft.
Apparently Morisi doesn’t mind that the exact same line, "make flying fun again," was used just a couple months ago by Virgin America CEO David Cush in describing the goals of his brand.
Morisi also appears to be bringing back many of the hallmarks of PEOPLExpress service, like having a minimal staff at each airport and each employee working in multiple roles. If you buy the corporate spin that "reduces burnout and gives customers access to people knowledgeable in all aspects of the airline." Or it means that there are fewer people around to actually help out when things go wrong, or maybe the ticket agent would have to leave the counter to go load baggage, similar to the recent Allegiant flight where passengers were left behind because the counter had to close for the agent to work another role for the same flight.
Oh, and they are still working on securing both the necessary government approvals to operate as a commercial airline and the start-up funding to begin operations.
There are so many strange things about the announcement that it is hard to know where to begin breaking them down. Perhaps the choice of aircraft is a good place to begin. The 737-400 is a "classic" version of the Boeing jet. It is still in operation all around the world and it is a quite reliable workhorse, but it is also a questionable choice for a start-up carrier. Odds are they’re getting the aircraft at a great price and that’s the reason for the selection. But that bargain comes with a cost: the hourly operating costs of the 737-400 is the highest of the common versions of the type running today:
The numbers are out of date based on the fuel costs but the relative numbers remain so the premise that it is the most expensive holds true. Moreover, the fact that is uses more fuel per hour than other versions of the 737 means that the cost disadvantage has only grown, not gotten better.
And then there is the cabin configuration. US Airways also flies the 737-400, with a configuration of 12 first class seats and 132 coach seats. Those coach seats have a 30" pitch, while the first class cabin has 37" pitch. In order to squeeze in 158 seats the pitch will be somewhere in the bone-crushing range of 28-29" throughout the entire plane. Also, there is the federal requirement that an aircraft be staffed with at least one flight attendant for every 50 seats on the plane. Adding the extra eight seats means that the company also has to add a fourth flight attendant to the crew, increasing their costs of operation.
Also, the initial plans are for only 12 daily departures from Newport News, hopefully scaling up to 25 within a few years. In other words, it is going to be a pretty small operation for the foreseeable future. It is almost hard to believe that they’re going to be able to raise the capital to actually get off the ground. Maybe they’ll do so from the $19 fee they’re asking of folks to join their Club Travelati member-only promotions group.
Posted by Seth on January 30, 2012 under Flying, News |
Thai Airways has announced the end of their non-stop service between Thailand and the United States. The flights will be reduced from the current daily service to 5x weekly on February 1 and will shift to one-stop service via Seoul starting in May. At that time the route will also shift from the gas-guzzling Airbus A345, the only plane flying today with the range to make the non-stop trip (Update: I forgot the 772LR can make it, but TG doesn’t have any), to a Boeing 777-200ER, which has lower fuel burn rates but also a much more limited range. This new flight schedule will only operate 4x weekly. Additionally, the change means no more premium economy product on the route as the carrier’s Boeing aircraft are not configured with that seating. The connection will also increase the travel time between Los Angeles and Bangkok by approximately 2 hours each direction.
This move doesn’t come as too much of a surprise given the trend in jet fuel prices, but it is still somewhat disappointing to see the option disappear. Then again, when I flew it last July I wasn’t particularly impressed with either the hard or soft products on board. And that was in business class. So maybe it is for the best that it is going away.
If you’ve got a ticket booked on TG 794/795 now would be a pretty good time to call the carrier and get that straightened out.
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Posted by Seth on January 18, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
By the time we got to London we had been on the go roughly 34 hours. Sure, a decent amount of that time was spent in the glorious confines of Emirates‘ A380 First Class Suites but we were still pretty beat. The last flight of our vacation was all that remained – British Airways from Heathrow to JFK – in first class on the 747-400. When booking the flights I did my best to ensure that we would have the new first class product so as to hopefully experience the best that BA has to offer. When we got home I actually had to go back and double check to make sure that the product we saw was the new one; the experience itself wasn’t defining enough that I knew.
Yes, I had just come off of Emirates and their Suite so I’m sure that my point of reference is somewhat skewed. And I’m a bit disappointed that we couldn’t get a spa treatment in the Concorde Room lounge, though that is in part due to our short connection and my not pre-booking because of uncertainty with the connection times. But the seat itself was not particularly impressive, especially not for a first class product.
There is no doubt that the seat is good on privacy, but it isn’t particularly large. And, unlike other first class seats I’ve flown in, the British Airways seat tapers somewhat dramatically at the foot. Not enough to be uncomfortable to fly in, but I’m also not nearly the tallest or widest passenger they’re going to be dealing with; I’m actually probably smaller than average for the F cabin.
On the plus side, the soft product on board was incredibly good. I slept nearly the entire flight in the quite comfy PJs I was offered so I didn’t really eat or drink much, but the bits I had were very tasty. At the top of my list was one of the appetizers, a seafood dish that was delicious and also quite nicely presented.
I’ll give a bit of a pass on the lounge bit as missing the spa treatment was at least partially my fault. That said, the quality of the food served was, well, British. Not bad, but also not particularly awesome or inspired. And the soft product was very, very nice, definitely first class. But the hard product on board – the seat – really was a bit of a let down. I understand that the new seat – particularly the iFE options are better than the old one. To me that’s more a comment on how bad the old one was than an endorsement of the new product.
At this point I’d say that there are a number of business class products that I’d probably take over the BA first option, unless BA is pricing first at the business class price. In this case it was more or less free as an add-on to the Emirates fare home from Sri Lanka so I’m not really upset about it, but I was definitely expecting better from BA. I literally had to check after the flight to figure out if I really was on the new product. That’s probably not the impression they’re trying to leave with customers.
On the plus side, snagging seat 1K and getting to look out the front of the plane was pretty awesome.
Tags: A380, Airbus, Boeing, British Airways, Dining, Emirates, in flight, London, NYE2011, Photos, review, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on December 31, 2011 under frequent flyer, points, Trip Reports |
As 2011 comes to a close it is time once again to look back at all the crazy I’ve managed to experience in such a short period of time. This was once again a banner year for me, with plenty of new experiences. It also had a number of repeats, however, and those were mostly good, too. And so, without further ado, some of the highlights of my 2011 travel numbers.
It was a personal best for me in terms of total miles flown at 217,781. That is more than eight times around the globe (though I only did that as an actual trip once) or 87% of the way to the moon. The miles were spread across 103 segments for an average of over 2100 miles/flight; apparently this was the year of long-haul for me. That said, I also managed to grab some really short flights, like a 93 mile hop from Carlsbad, CA to Los Angeles. Awesome views of sunrise on that one.
It was also the year of one million actual flight miles. I actually know there are many more from other trips as a kid that I cannot properly document so I’m not counting them, but I definitely became a millionaire this year.
Of the 104 segments there were 54 routes I had previously not flown. There were also 54 in coach. That’s right, more than half the flights (though only 47% of the total miles flown) were in coach. It isn’t always champagne and caviar for me, though there is plenty of that, too. Oh, and only 5 of those segments were work-related, making up less than 1% of the total mileage flown. Only 19 of the flights were on regional planes of fewer than 90 seats.
Speaking of airplanes, I flew on 33 different aircraft types, including 7 I had not previously flown on. I finally got to fly on an A380 (though I had been on one a few times prior) and I got to fly the 787 in its first week of commercial service. I also got the A345 and A342, a Dash8-100 and an E35, completing my collection of all the Embraer RJs. That’s something of an ignominious accomplishment, but there it is.
I flew on 17 different carriers, of which 5 were new to me. SriLankan, AirOne, South African, ANA, Austrian and Alaska Airlines were the new ones and all but AirOne were quite pleasant.
As for where I traveled, there weren’t as many new countries for me this year – only 7 – as last. Austria, South Africa, Mauritius, China, Brazil, Argentina and Sri Lanka are the new entries in that collection, bringing my total number over 50. I managed to enter a foreign country 20 times through the year, plus all the returns to the USA. No wonder I needed extra pages in my passport. Again. Two of the trips had 3 countries in them; I’ll best that mark early in 2012 with a six-crossing week in January.
Perhaps the most surprising number to me, however, was the total spend I had in consular fees. I paid for new pages for my passport and for my wife. There were also the visas required for India, China, Brazil and Argentina (though I ended up getting out of that last one). Overall I spent nearly $1,000 on consular fees alone. No regrets there at all, but the numbers can add up in a hurry.
I didn’t count how many nights were in hotels or on airplanes (something to add to my list next year, I suppose) but my best guess count based on my TripIt records is nearly 100 nights spent not at home.
There was a trip derailed by an earthquake (I ended up in Guam/Hong Kong instead of Tokyo) and then two more trips later in the year to Tokyo to make up for it. I had an airline try to charge me more while at the gate and I managed to take a VDB in a foreign language. I got to drive a jet bridge, load baggage, make boarding announcements and walk a plane out on pushback (all appropriately supervised, of course).
I got to join three different couples in celebrating their weddings all over the world and narrowly missed out on crashing a couple more wedding parties here in India towards the end. I got to relive a bit of history with TWA and a ride in a helicopter over the tip of South Africa.
I saw penguins, went diving in the Pacific and pet an elephant in India. There were also giraffes, cheetahs and antelopes. Plenty of wild in my life.
Indeed, it was a good year, maybe even a great year. And 2012 shows no signs of that letting up. Happy new year to all; may your upgrades clear and your flights on time.
Tags: 787, A380, Airbus, Alaska Airlines, ANA, Argentina, Austria, Boeing, Brazil, China, Dreamliner, Embraer, India, Mauritius, South Africa, South African Airways, Sri Lanka, SriLankan
Posted by Seth on December 2, 2011 under News |
Airbus CEO John Leahy is claiming that United Airlines is likely to order the A380 according to a story being carried by Aviation Week. Putting aside the fact that they have been advertising the story with some incredibly misleading headlines suggesting that the order is imminent, there are still issues with the story. Not the least of which is that Leahy actually states that the order is not imminent, though he absolutely seems convinced that the order is coming.
I’m not saying there is an order soon, but United understands that if it wants to have a major presence in Asia it needs the A380.
Airbus has already given up on Delta; the company has indicated it will pursue a policy of smaller widebody aircraft, so United is the only North American carrier left for the manufacturer to try to bring on board.
That leaves United as our target.
There are so many things that don’t add up here. For starters, United has committed to ordering the A350-900. Assuming that shows up eventually it will meet the needs of a multi-hub carrier on many routes that the 747-400s currently operate on. And United has more A350s on order than they have 747s currently in service. On top of that, United has a whole bunch of 787 Dreamliner orders in the pipeline, with initial deliveries currently expected at some point next year.
The A380 is great if you have a huge number of customers that need to be moved between two points – namely hubs – and from which you will then move them on smaller planes after the fact to their eventual destination. The numbers seem to work quite nicely for single-hub carriers where all the passengers can be funneled through a single point. But an operation that has nine hubs needs more flexibility in terms of routes and frequencies.
On top of that, the implication that it is needed to provide service in Asia doesn’t seem to match United’s current route map or indicated plans. There are scarce few intra-Asia routes and those are mostly tag-ons. Replacing those with non-stop 787 service from North American gateways seems much more likely to actually address the demand than flying larger aircraft to the Tokyo hub or Hong Kong.
Oh, and Leahy’s observation that the US airports are already too crowded, while accurate, ignores the fact that much of that congestion is slot hoarding by regional aircraft, flights that are easy for the carriers to scrap if they decide they want to fly bigger aircraft, and the entire premise of the demand Leahy is drawing falls apart pretty quickly.
Oh, and if they really do want a bigger plane don’t forget there’s that Boeing 747-8i out there that is desperate to rack up a few sales to keep the program alive.
The headline certainly got a lot of attention and got folks to read the story, but that doesn’t mean an order is coming any time soon.
Posted by Seth on November 3, 2011 under Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
It was day three of scheduled commercial service for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, operated by ANA, and I was on board. No, it was not the actual inaugural flight, but I still managed to get there within the first week of operations and I could not be more excited about the experience. It was awesome. That’s not to say that everything about the aircraft is perfect, but the experience certainly was.
My flight on the Dreamliner was from Hiroshima to Tokyo‘s Haneda airport. The trip is only about 400 miles and the total time in the air was just over one hour so it wasn’t really sufficient to try out everything on board, especially the effects of the higher pressurization (though I don’t recall my ears popping like usual, but I’m also not great at noticing that because it happens so often) and the more moist cabin air, but I still managed to put it through the paces as best I could.
Boarding was quick and efficient, as expected from the Japanese. Still, they allotted an extra 5 minutes to the process as they knew this was a special experience. There was something of a crush of gate lice to the self-boarding gates as they announced that boarding was available. Fortunately my Star Alliance Gold status (and being the big, ugly American) got me towards the front of the crush and on reasonably early in the process.
Business Class Cabin
Nothing really to say here; looks pretty comfy but this also is not their premium long-haul configuration so I’m not too worried about it.
Economy Cabin
There has been a bit of concern since Seat Guru published their guide to the seat map of the aircraft about the seat width in coach. The 2-4-2 layout (which really is more like 2-2-2-2 without an aisle in the middle) lends itself to a very generous seat width yet the reports on the site show the width as a hip-crushing 16.5". Good news, folks. That data is just plain wrong. The bulkhead rows, where the tray tables are in the arm rest, have the narrower width but the rest of the aircraft has a quite generous 18.5" or more width. The seats are quite roomy.
Seat recline is an interesting change from a typical airplane configuration. The seat back doesn’t actually move. Instead the seat-bottom slides forward about three inches and the back slides down a bit, creating the same effect as reclining. But it does so without imposing the seat on the passenger behind you. This sucks if you have long legs and also want to recline as you’re basically stuck but it is great for folks (like me) who hate having someone reclined into you.
The AVOD system is pretty nice, with 9" screens in coach. That’s about as big as you can get being so close to the screen and still be able to watch comfortably. There is a seat-to-seat messaging system and the screens can be used either as touch screens or with the controller. I was rather unimpressed with the music and video selections; no movies (though maybe because the flight was too short) and only a couple dozen short video programs plus maybe a dozen CDs for music. I hope that’s just because they don’t have the content fully loaded and not because it is going to be such a paltry offering going forward.
I’m also a big fan of the built-in cup holder in the tray table. They have two, one if it is open and one if it is closed, meaning that you can use the tray table for a laptop or other purposes and still have somewhere to stow a drink. Definitely a nice touch.
And then there is the mood lighting. Lots of fun there. The flight attendants were playing with this feature a bit, particularly during boarding and de-planing. It is fun, but I’m not sure it adds much value to the in-flight experience. It does demonstrate the ability to control the lighting levels to a very granular level, which I suppose is a very useful thing.
The windows are HUGE. It was a night flight so I’m not sure how much this really matters, but they were noticeably larger than on older aircraft. We’ll have to see what the net effects of this are in the long term but it certainly was nice. The electronic dimmers on the windows were a bit sluggish to react but they behaved exactly as advertised in the end. Again, a night flight made it hard to really evaluate the impact of this but it was certainly neat.
In the lav
The Japanese and their toilets. Touchless flushing (it puts down the seat, too!) and bidet functions (designed by Toto) are built in to the toilets. There’s also a window in the lav by 3L (though not at 3R). I do like a lav window.
It isn’t perfect
OK, maybe my expectations are just too high. Still, like one of the notes in a review offered up by Kerwin I noticed a few quirks in the flight. It was VERY quiet at cruise, and I was sitting just aft of the wing so I should’ve had engine noise to some extent if there was much. During the flight there wasn’t. That said, the mechanical noises surrounding the operation of the flaps and other wing control surfaces were pretty loud. Again, maybe just because I was sitting basically on top of them, but Kerwin noticed it, too.
There was also a strange "whine" going on throughout the flight. It was very high pitched – like an old tube TV going bad – and I have no idea if others noticed it or not. It kept going even after the engines were shut down upon arrival so I’m guessing it has to do with the electrical power plant on board. No matter what, it was pretty annoying. Not enough to ruin the experience, but if it really is like that going forward I can see it being a problem for me flying on this aircraft.
Finally, the new overhead bins, while well designed for baggage, are not particularly well configured for an adult to climb in. I’m thoroughly disappointed in that development.
It was a great day and a great trip. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back on board soon.
Oh, and if you want to check out the pre-flight safety video it is here:
Read more from this Trip Report under the Dream2011 tag here.
Tags: 787, ANA, Boeing, Dream2011, Dreamliner, Hiroshima, Japan, Photos, review, Star Alliance, Tokyo, video
Posted by Seth on November 3, 2011 under Flying, Trip Reports |
I landed at Tokyo‘s Haneda airport about two hours ago having just flown in on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Hiroshima. The experience was quite spectacular, though not everything about the aircraft was perfect.
That said, it is very late and I’ve been up for near 20 hours now today and the adrenaline is finally wearing off so putting together a full post with coherent thoughts simply isn’t going to happen. Instead I’ve decided to post this teaser with just a few of the many, many photos I shot throughout the day.
A full post will be coming after I’ve slept a few hours, so either late tonight back in the USA or tomorrow; either way it’ll be tomorrow here in Japan. Enjoy the pictures.
Read more from this Trip Report under the Dream2011 tag here.
Posted by Seth on October 21, 2011 under Flying, media coverage, News |
The Wall Street Journal has a piece today about inaugural flights and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner discussing next week’s initial flights for the aircraft and the efforts some folks went through to secure a seat on the flight. After reading the details of what some of the others were willing to go through I can quite easily say that I’m both a bit jealous and also quite certain that I stood no chance of getting anywhere close to being on that first flight.
There is a Mr. Lee who lives in California and who was on the first scheduled flight of the 747 and the Airbus A380. He managed to convince ANA to give him a seat on their inaugural as well, though he does have to pay the same amount as the other lottery winners (~$1,000). Or Mr. Bertuccio who fat-fingered his bid in the auction to win a seat and ended up paying about $7,500 more than he intended to bid, but he got the seat for about $33,500.
And then there’s my line, all the way at the end of the article. Yes, I am indeed ecstatic to have the opportunity to fly on the Dreamliner in its first week of commercial service. I also had a lot more to say in the interview though I’m also not surprised at the line that got quoted. It was definitely the best sound bite I tossed out there.
It does gloss over that I’m stringing together a roughly 20,000 mile journey across 10 flights, three airlines (more if you count regional operators) and sleeping in five different cities in the span of 8 days in order to make this happen and the fact that I did it all for only about $1,200 in airfare. Then again, column inches are tough to come by these days, I suppose.
Only 13 days until I’m on the Dreamliner…I’m definitely getting excited.
Posted by Seth on October 1, 2011 under News |
After abruptly canceling the delivery of the first Boeing 747-8F aircraft a couple weeks ago launch customer Cargolux is now ready to move forward with the aircraft. The delivery delay was attributed to issues regarding compensation over delays in the 787 Dreamliner for Cargolux minority share-holder Qatar Airways but that claim is being disputed by Qatar’s CEO. He suggests that the delay in the delivery was over a compensation issue between the carrier and engine manufacturer GE and a 2.7% shortfall in engine efficiency. Delivery of the aircraft is now expected mid-month.
More commentary on the delivery updates here and here.
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Posted by Seth on September 25, 2011 under News |
ANA took delivery of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner today, marking a major milestone in the project’s lifecycle. Boeing has been working on the Dreamliner for more than 7 years and the initial delivery today with the signing of paperwork is the first step in a three day long celebration for Boeing, ANA and the global aviation community.
After today’s contract signing there will be a ceremonial delivery of the aircraft "keys" on Monday. The airline will fly the plane back to Japan on Tuesday.
Today’s events come a few years after the original predictions. While this delivery is a huge event and most folks are excited there are still a number of folks not so ecstatic about the delivery. According to some sources the project horribly over budget and unlikely to ever be a profitable aircraft for the manufacturer. Plus there are concerns that the plane actually is not ready for service but it was delivered anyways. The article published in today’s Seattle Times is pretty brutal on the overall project, detailing cost overruns, project delays and other issues that have plagued the development and construction of the new airframe.
Boeing spokeswoman Lori Gunter said the 787 team is "on track" to make the delivery.
But an experienced mechanic working on No. 8 believes that jet simply isn’t ready for service. The engineer who flew test flights fears it won’t immediately meet the standard of reliability required by ANA.
The senior engineer, however, dismissed such "bugs" as normal in any new program. "They won’t be nearly as bad as they were for the original 747."
The good news for me is that ANA has the aircraft now. I just hope the reliability issues are not such that I miss my opportunity to fly on it in a few weeks during the first week of scheduled operations.
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Photo from the Boeing Company flickr stream
