Posted by Seth on May 21, 2009 under Uncategorized | 
Continental and jetBlue have announced some new routes over the past couple weeks, looking to capitalize on fun, sun and, in one case, subsidy money and demand. Sure, the economy is still hurt and the airline industry is still struggling, but there are little bits of expansion happening anyways as specific markets still appear ripe for the taking.
In Continental’s case the market is Biloxi, Mississippi. The carrier has contracted with Grand Casino Biloxi and the IP Casino Resort to subsidize the costs of operating flights between the casino town and two Florida cities – Tampa and Jacksonville. The fares are not super-cheap; they still cost ~$120 each way at the bottom end of the range – but they are at least providing service. AirTran used to operate similar flights for the casinos but chose to not renew the contract in January so there is clearly some questionable history on the routes. Continental will operate the flights using an Embrear ERJ-145 through its regional carrier Continental Express.
JetBlue announced today their intent to expand their service into Jamaica, adding daily non-stop flights to Kingston from their hub at New York’s JFK, subject to government approval. This is on top of the Montego Bay flights that began service today. Air Jamaica has been struggling of late and this certainly cannot be good for them. Relatively speaking jetBlue operates a reliable and friendly service and has nicer planes. There is only so much bad that “champagne flights” can make up for, and Air Jamaica has gone way past that historically so it is nice to see that folks needing to get between New York and Kingston will have another option available.
Service to Kingston will mark jetBlue’s 14th international destination, a significant growth in the Caribbean region over the past couple years. Those markets appear to have much higher yields than the transcon markets that jetBlue has been trimming down lately. Yes, they are keeping the transcons, but they are not growing them and aren’t working too hard to build that aspect of their business. After all, it isn’t a particularly profitable market.
JetBlue has also announced a return of their seasonal service to Nantucket for the summer and a fare sale on the Montego Bay flights. If Jamaica in the middle of hurricane season is your thing the fares are actually pretty good – $129+tax each way.
Get out there and fly!
Posted by Seth on April 30, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Sliding down the descent line the wreck slowly comes into focus. I reach the top of the wreck, ironically the bottom of the overturned ship, and notice one of the other divers calling me over to the edge; clearly he’s found something that I need to see. I let go of the line and swim across the 30 feet or so to the edge of the hull. Peering over the side I see the cargo of the ship – large cement pipe sections – and then the reason for my buddy’s call. Baby was headed right at me and she didn’t look all that happy.
Baby is a six foot long Morey eel that is a resident on the wreck of the Sea Emperor. The ship was purposefully sunk along the south Florida coast several years ago as part of an artificial reef project. It capsized during the (not so) controlled ditching and now rests in 75 feet of water just a few hundred yards off the coast of Pompano Beach. The cement pipe sections that were initially loaded into her cargo compartments spilled out as the boat sank, creating the basis for a decent artificial reef near the wreck. The site is home to several “special” treats, including a couple of Goliath Grouper (~300-400 pounds), rays in the 10 foot range and Baby, along with many other “regular” reef fish typical of the region.
Like most dive trips that I’ve done solo, the first 30 minutes or so on the boat are critical. That is when you meet the others who are out diving and get paired up with a buddy for the trip. I met Kyle and a couple of his buddies (bringing donuts certainly helped break the ice) and we chatted a bit. Eventually we agreed that I could tag along with their crew which turned out to be a great opportunity.
Kyle & company were quite experienced divers and very comfortable underwater. That was good news in more way than one. They had brought along some frozen baitfish for the dives, figuring that it would help ensure more lively interactions with the sea-life. They were certainly correct on that front. Having the fish helps us coax a couple spiny lobster out of their coral hideaways and also helped bring Baby out into the open water. It also brought a reef shark out for a passing view, but the shark chose to leave us alone. Only Baby really took the bait, so to speak, interacting quite readily with us during the 20 minutes or so we spent on the wreck. She was certainly not shy about trying to get at the lunch being offered and didn’t seem to care too much who was holding it; she came after all of us for it.
Seeing a six foot long eel swimming right at me, teeth bared, was quite a shock. I actually freaked out enough that I somehow managed to wriggle out of my weight belt – a very dangerous proposition while 50 feet below the surface. Fortunately my training kicked in, I remembered that the weights were more important than just about anything else and I managed to fin down to where they had fallen and grab them, stabilizing my position in the water. The bad news was that I was now seventy feet below the surface with my camera in one hand, by weight belt in the other and an eel swimming at me with its teeth rather prominent in the whole scene. It was also at this point that I truly realized the good fortune I had to be diving with these guys. One of them had seen my weights drop and was already moving into position to help keep me underwater. Plus they were the ones that got Baby into the open. Well done on both fronts.
The dive on the wreck was actually our second dive of the day, though it was intended to be our first; when we got out there initially it was too crowded with other divers so we did our dives out of order that day. Or first dive was on a small reef system called Crab Cove. The reef system runs north/south along the coast with scattered coral heads and a sandy bottom. There were lobster, angelfish (a favorite of mine) and even a blowfish among the coral but the colors were rather subdued, similar to what I’ve come to expect from diving in Florida.
More significantly of note on our boat was a group of divers from Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba (S.U.D.S.). This is a group focused on helping amputee veterans remain connected to the world through diving. The group was truly amazing, both the guys diving and the woman who organized the trip for the group. One of the divers was a very recent amputee – it has only been a couple months for him – but they were out there having a phenomenal time underwater just like I was. It didn’t take much for them to fit fins onto their prosthetic limbs and get out into the water, and they were truly enjoying the experience. It was rather uplifting to see that scene. I now have a new charity to support as I was incredibly impressed by the whole bit of what they were doing.
Diving in Ft. Lauderdale means picking either a dive shop or a boat operator. In many cases the dive shops just pay for your space on the boat if they don’t have a boat of their own so it may be that you are diving with a wholly different operation. It pays to do a bit of extra research when choosing a dive shop/operator to make sure that you understand exactly who you’ll be out on the boat with and who is actually responsible for what is going on. In my case the dives and the boat, operated by South Florida Diving Headquarters out of Pompano Beach, were OK, but neither was particularly great and there were enough rough edges that I’d be willing to find a different operator next time. Getting yelled at for mis-navigating a reef where we went exactly where they told us to go wasn’t particularly fun, nor was the fact that my rental gear almost didn’t make the boat.
South Florida may be most famous for its sun and surf, but the underwater experience is lively as well. There are natural and artificial reefs running from Miami to Boca Raton with enough options along the way to keep anyone busy for several weeks of daily diving. With a half day to spend underwater I only experienced a couple dive sites, but it was enough to make me appreciate the options available in the area and certainly enough to whet my appetite for future dives in the area.
Posted by Seth on August 22, 2008 under Uncategorized |
In an event that was hardly a surprise considering that we’re flying into Tropical Storm Fay, our flight to Jacksonville tonight was canceled. It was one of about ten flights that I know of that were canceled, and I’m guessing that it is mostly because people don’t generally try to fly in when the storm is still blowing. But we are still headed to Florida, and so we were faced with the prospect of dealing with the rebooking.
I noticed that the flight was canceled around 1pm today, giving me plenty of time to call Delta and figure out alternatives. Fortunately there were seats available on the 3:50pm flight and it was running on time (and I’m typing this on the plane expecting an early arrival into JAX) so we were able to get that booked no problem. Or so I thought. On the way out the door I tried to do on-line check-in so that we wouldn’t have to deal with potential issues at the airport if our taxi was running late. For some reason our reservation had a number of flights in it as different contingency plans, rendering the OLCI useless. I called and spoke to a second representative to confirm that we really did have a reservation on the flight and then it was off to the airport. Of course the kiosk didn’t work so we approached the Medallion desk. I don’t know if I didn’t genuflect appropriately to the woman working the counter or if she was just having a bad day, but I was immediately brushed off with a ‘what are you doing here?’ sort of look. I explained that the kiosk choked and she pointed me at the regular line. Only after I assured her that I was, in fact, an elite member and was supposed to be in that line did she relent and start working on our tickets.
Things didn’t get much better as she suggested we were booked on a flight for tomorrow, not today. This is one of the “extra” flights I saw in the reservation but I pressed on with my request for her to double-check since I knew we had the flight booked. Eventually she found the reservation and then had the temerity to suggest that we needed to pay the $50 change fee to take the earlier flight. I had planned on paying that fee if we voluntarily made the change, but I knew that wasn’t the case. At this point I might have started to lose my temper with her, but we eventually agreed that no additional fees would be paid. So it was off to security and the Crown Room Club.
Security was a breeze thanks to elite status, and the line looked like it was only about 10 minutes long otherwise. And he Crown Room was quiet and the bar not so crowded. All good things. I tried to get us seats together at this point and was saddened to learn that I’d have to go to the gate to do so. Leaving my drink and the quiet of the lounge it was off to the gate where another agent having a bad day greeted me. I asked for seats together in the bulkhead and was greeted with a gruff “there is a reason they are blocked – for handicapped people” response. It was 20 minutes prior to departure and no one had yet requested them. It seemed a pretty safe bet that no one would. And certainly there are more polite ways it could’ve been handled. I also needed to change our frequent flier numbers on the tickets to get the correct credit. Another back and forth for no particular reason but we got that squared away, too.
Then it was a bus to the plane, and settling in to our seats. Apparently the new fees for checked baggage are working because “not enough people checked bags on this flight so we need to move some of you around for weight and balance reasons.” This is certainly not the first time I’ve had to deal with that so I had no problems moving to the back of the plane for takeoff. The two women in front of me were a bit disconcerted, but they got over it eventually.
The flight has been fine so far, with the exception of the sticky floor, and I’m sure we’ll make it in to JAX OK, though probably a little wet as well. And that is certainly some of the “good” of this unexpected change. But the Delta & Comair staff in La Guardia are definitely the “bad.”
Posted by Seth on August 21, 2008 under Uncategorized |
This weekend kicks of a four week run of over 30,000 miles of flying for me, and I’ve apparently managed to schedule a great start to the adventure – flying into the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay in NE Florida. The good news is that the storm should be far enough west by tomorrow that it won’t affect my beach time for the weekend nor the flights, but it is rather entertaining to be flying into the aftermath of a storm, again. Last time was in October ‘03 following four hurricanes in NE Florida.
Sadly, this is just a quick trip to the beach, but we need to get back up north quickly to start our 12 day trip to Turkey and England, which should be a ton of fun. More on that to follow…
