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.
Posted by Seth on January 6, 2010 under Trip Reports |
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| Happy New Years from Barcelona! |
I’m a bit late in getting to my year-end summary of travel this year because, well, I was traveling. No sense wasting part of a wonderful vacation in Barcelona trying to figure out the details of my year in review when there was so much delicious food to be had and beautiful sights to be seen. But I’m back now and finally had a chance to update my records with the flights from last year and take a look at just how much I did. The numbers are pretty astounding to me.
My travels in 2009 were, by far, the most extensive I’ve ever had. There was more of just about everything. And it was a ton of fun. I visited more countries – 20 – than I’ve ever visited in a year. I actually doubled my previous high of 10. Even more exciting for me is that of the 20, 12 were new to me.
I flew on 25 different airlines (more if you count the various express operators out there), from the largest in the world to some of the smallest.
I flew on 34 different aircraft types, ranging in size from 6 seats to 350ish. I got on every jet type that Boeing currently has flying (I think – 717, 737 Classic, 737 NG, 747, 757, 767, 777) and most of the Airbus (A300, A318, A319, A320, A321, A330, A340) and Embrear (E140, E145, E170, E190) options, too. There were other aircraft, including random props and a few flights on a Gulfstream G IV.
I flew a total of 180,752 miles, give or take a few. I spent almost 17 days in the air and flew about three quarters of the way to the moon or just over seven times around the earth. That bests my previous annual high by over 50%.
Most amazing to me, however, was the number of new (to me) routes I flew this past year. I flew 126 flights in the year. Of those, 70 of them were on routes I had not previously flown. A full 55% of my flights were on new routes. Considering that I managed to make it home from every trip that seems rather amazing to me.
I also redeemed more miles than ever last year – over 500,000 in total. That covered a number of trips, many in the pointy end of the plane and all of them across oceans. Some of my accounts are looking a bit anemic right now but I’ve got plans to solve that problem pretty quickly.
The best part is that I’ve already started to count up for 2010. A couple countries, several new routes and a bunch of miles have already been logged. Plus, I’ve got trips booked through April so far covering lots more routes and miles.
Posted by Seth on December 29, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Sitting on board EgyptAir flight 362 from Luxor to Cairo right now, happily ensconced in the bulkhead aisle of the “business class” cabin and laughing to myself about the scene going on across the aisle. The flight is operated by the Express arm of EgyptAir on an Embrear E170 (my first time on this type, I believe) and the business class cabin is anything but special. The bulkhead seats have plenty of knee room and typical bulkhead legroom while row two has nothing special to speak of, save for the guy in 2K (starboard window).
Boarding off the bus and up the air stairs he seemed quite shocked to discover that the business class seats were really just regular seats. So shocked that he didn’t shut up about it, grumbling to his wife in the row behind for several minutes before calling the flight attendant over to inquire about the situation. Once informed that the only difference is in the food service on board he gave up, pulled his hat over his face and passed out. A bit strange, but it definitely goes to show that there are plenty of people out there who have no idea what they are buying when it comes to travel. For what it is worth, the sandwich we had was pretty decent though I found the dessert a bit dry.
Shortly before boarding started a group of about a dozen guys showed up at the airport in dark suits. Several of them went into one of the private waiting rooms in the gate area while the rest milled about just outside the door. Not so hard to identify VVIPs in this sort of situation. And these two definitely are. They are two cabinet-level ministers in the Egyptian government – Education and Youth/Sports. They were the last two on the plane (plus their rather conspicuous security guy) and the doors were closed pretty much right after they got on board. The flight attendant told me just how special they were when I asked and the body guard poked his head out to say hi.
I didn’t ask for a photo with them – I’ll blame it on not wanting to document the crazy that is my hair right now rather than having no real reason to ask and a lack of cojones to ignore that – but it was certainly interesting. Especially the part where a security guard cam running down the stairs after us to make sure we didn’t try to board their VIP van since we followed them directly off the plane.
Good stuff.
Posted by Seth on October 28, 2009 under News |
Calling it a “Strategic Plan to Strengthen Core Network,” US Airways announced a series of cuts today that will significantly change the way the airline operates. They are dropping several destinations and closing a few crew bases. As part of these changes they expect to remove about 1,000 employee positions.
On the Domestic US service front the most significant change comes with the cuts as Las Vegas. US Air will be reducing service there to 36 daily departures in the next 3 months. As recently as April 2007 the airline operated 131 daily departures. In April 2008 that number dropped to about 100. Today they’re at 64 and in February only 36. They’ve apparently decided that there is no more money to be made in Las Vegas so they’re cutting to the bone. The Las Vegas hub used to be a cornerstone of the America West network. It has fallen mighty far mighty quickly under the US Air brand name.
On the international service front the cuts are equally dramatic. US Air never was a big player in the trans-Atlantic market but they’re basically giving up completely now. They’re cutting service between Philadelphia and Birmingham, UK; London-Gatwick; Milan;Shannon, Ireland and Stockholm, Sweden. In addition they are formally returning the slots for the Philadelphia-Beijing service that the DOT awarded them and which were never actually operated.
With these cuts there are now a few wide-body aircraft sitting around with nothing to do. US Air announced just over a month ago their intention to refit their long-haul aircraft with a new premium cabin. One has to wonder now if those plans are still going forward, especially if they no longer will be operating the routes where the premium cabin can generate the revenue to justify the costs of that seating layout.
The one bit of good news coming out of the announcement is that the Shuttle service amongst New York’s LaGuardia, Boston and Washington’s National airports will remain in place. The Boston-New York route will be switching over to the Embrear E190 aircraft, as will Boston-Philadelphia service.
These cuts are huge. Just a few weeks ago there were discussions going on about how well US Air seems to have weathered the storm and how they might turn the corner back to profit. Apparently that simply isn’t in the cards and these drastic cuts are necessary. It does explain a bit why CEO Doug Parker looked so glum during the press conference yesterday announcing Continental Airlines joining Star Alliance. This sort of thing would weigh on my mind, too.
Related Posts:
Posted by Seth on July 24, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Sure, I’m way more obsessed with earning frequent flyer points than the next guy, but that doesn’t mean that it is the only thing I consider when booking a flight. They’re called loyalty programs for a reason: the carriers want you to have some motivation to book more, above and beyond the most obvious considerations of fare and schedule. And it works some of the time. But there has to be a point where you can just walk away and know that the miles not be there but it doesn’t really matter. This weekend’s trip to Florida is just one example of such a situation. Yup. I paid for a plane ticket with no expectation of any mileage earning opportunity at all.
This is a quick weekend trip – last flight out Friday night and last flight back on Sunday evening. There isn’t a lot of time to spare but there was also some concern about making it to the airport in time for the flight due to work schedules. Delta, jetBlue and Continental all offer flights in the NYC(-ish for CO) to Jacksonville market and they even all have a late evening departure, but there are enough differences between the offerings that choosing the carrier for this trip was not as simple as going with my “normal” points program.
Continental – the front-runner for my loyalty in this market – offers service on the late flight through Continental Express. That means a departure from the decidedly crappy Terminal A at Newark and a flight on an Embrear ERJ-145, aka the Barbie jet. It is plenty safe and fine and I’m sure it would get me to Jacksonville just fine, but the seats aren’t as comfortable as a mainline flight. And with the smaller plane no chance at an upgrade detracts a bit from the allure of the minimal number of miles involved in the trip. Plus, the crappy dinner options at the terminal would mean that food for the night would basically be non-existent. Not a good thing when the expected arrival at our final destination is somewhere after midnight.
Delta would also allow me to credit miles to my Continental account so they’re pretty much number two on my list for the flight. But their service is operated by Comair and is on a Canadair Regional Jet. Those are a step below the Barbie jets from Embrear, which isn’t a particularly great motivation to take that flight. Plus the departure from LaGuardia would mean trying to time the travel to the airport correctly during the evening rush hour on a Friday. That’s a risky proposition. The food options in the terminal are better than what CO can offer so Delta would actually jump up to number two for this particular trip, but they still didn’t win my business.
The winner? JetBlue.
I’m not a fan at all of the TrueBlue program from a loyalty marketing perspective. It doesn’t present a terribly useful upside to the passengers and it is outright horrible for folks who want to travel beyond the limited route network that jetBlue serves in the USA, the Caribbean and northern South America. But they fly a pretty decent fleet of airplanes. The late flight to Jacksonville is operated on the Embrear E-190, a plane that I had not yet flown when I booked the tickets. It was also the latest of the three scheduled departures which was useful for the work issues. The ease of access on public transit – which translates to a cheap trip and a reasonably predictable travel time, if not necessarily the quickest commute – was also quite beneficial. It took 85 minutes from boarding the train at 14th Street & 8th Avenue until we were inside security in T5. That’s certainly no record, but we were pretty much guaranteed that it would be between 80 and 90 minutes for the trip on the subway. At $15 for the two of us that’s a pretty reasonable deal and the timing didn’t completely suck. And JFK T5 has, by far, the best dining options of any terminal in the NYC area. Since we were definitely looking at dinner in the airport this was the final tipping point for my booking plans.
Booking on jetBlue means that I’m giving up the 831 miles for this trip. I’ve already qualified for next year’s status and it really isn’t enough miles to get worried about. Yeah, I’ll get 4 TrueBlue points (I think), but I’m never going to earn enough to redeem a reward with their ridiculous rules so I’m calling them worthless. Does that mean the loyalty programs are meaningless to me? Certainly not. Like I said, I’m pretty obsessed with the points. But it also means that there is more to travel than just the points. At least there is for me.
Of course, we are flying Delta on the way home because it is the late flight and getting a cab home from LaGuardia at 11pm is cheaper and faster than the same from JFK. Plus there is no compelling difference on the food side of the equation and I can handle the CRJ for a couple hours when the schedule makes it compelling. And this is actually the second time I’ve booked a “worthless” trip this year. The first was a flight on VLM in January from London’s City Airport to Luxembourg. I got a couple new airports, a new route line, a new airplane type and a new airline all at once. It was completely worth it, that one even more than this weekend’s trip.
Posted by Seth on July 17, 2008 under Uncategorized |
This past week the Farnborough Air Show has been going on. This is one of the major shows, where the airlines and the vendors all show up to announce deals, developments and other fun stuff. I’m sure I’ll make it to a show like this eventually, but in the mean time I have to live vicariously through the other reporters/bloggers/fans there. Some of my favorite bits from the week…
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was a big topic of conversation. In their update to the press Boeing reiterated that things are looking pretty good on the most recent timetable. There is a small chance that the software that controls the braking system will have delays, but those delays are based on issues with traceability in the code and getting it certified, not in the brakes actually working. I guess that’s a good thing, though it’d be nice if the brakes word AND we can prove it. There also is a delay in some fuselage components in South Carolina, but thus far that delay can be handled with slack time built in to the schedule. Boeing still is pretty confident in their Q4 target for first flight. Boeing is also considering adding a second assembly line to help deal with the backlog.
“Going Green” is always a good way to get press, and for airliners it is pretty hard to claim to be going green when your product burns a lot of fuel. Bombardier, a Canadian airplane manufacturer, announced their CSeries, the “greenest” passenger jet ever at the show. The CSeries is designed to seat 110-130 passengers and use 20% less fuel than comparable sized planes. That being said, there are very few comparable sized planes in the market today. Some older 737 models (the –300 and –500) both qualify, but Boeing hasn’t been selling those new for a while now, preferring to focus on the slightly larger 150-180 seat 737NG models. On the plus side, there is a good chance that these CSeries and the similar Embrear 190s (100 seats) will start to replace the smallest regional jets that are particularly cramped and uncomfortable to ride in.
Planes are pretty. This guy took some great pictures during the show. So did this guy.
And, as I mentioned above, lots of deals announced as well. Embraer announced 22 planes sold. Etihad announced a huge purchase sheet: 35 Boeing 787-9 and 10 777-300ER aircraft, 20 Airbus A320s, 25 A350 XWBs and 10 A380s. That’s more capacity than a LOT of airlines out there these days, and they’re just up the Gulf from Dubai where Emirates has a ton of planes and more coming.
Lots more happened, but these are some of the highlights that I thought were useful.
Posted by Seth on March 27, 2008 under Uncategorized |
As previously speculated, JetBlue founder David Neelman officially announced his new Brazilian airline today. The yet to be named carrier will start flying in “early 2009″ with 3 Embrear E195 planes and grow from there, with 36 more on order and options on another 20. In addition, Neelman is looking to step down from his role of Chairman at JetBlue, stating that “My attention needs to be here,” referring to Sao Paulo, where the new airline will be headquartered.
Also being covered here and discussed here and here.
Posted by Seth on March 24, 2008 under Uncategorized |
OK…not really, but there is some movement in the Brazilian aviation market, and it is being driven by David Neelman, the founder of JetBlue, so that’s where the connection comes into play. I’m guessing it is just bad translation on some press releases.
There have been rumors swirling for a few months now that Neelman was working on getting a new carrier off the ground in Brazil, taking advantage of his dual-citizenship status to get things moving (Brazil has a citizen ownership limit, similar to the USA). The latest article suggests that he has raised $200MM in funding, has hired executives – including some from the now shuttered flag carrier Varig – and is poised to make an announcement regarding the new company as soon as this Thursday. The airline will operate using ~36 E190 planes, which happen to be made by Embrear, a Brazilian company. Stay tuned…
Posted by Seth on March 19, 2008 under Uncategorized |
JetBlue, long committed to an egalitarian attitude in the sky, seems to be moving away from that plan slightly with the introduction of a “pay-for-legroom” scheme in their planes, beginning April 1 (and no, it is not a bad April Fool’s joke, unless they’ve enlisted the media to participate). Currently JetBlue offers 34-36″ pitch on their Airbus A320 planes and 32-33″ pitch on their Embraer E190s. The new scheme will make all the seats on the A320 34″ and increase the pitch for 4 rows to 38″, giving them the absolute title for most pitch for an economy seat (better than United’s Economy+, which is also a pay product). The E190s will only have the “Even More Legroom” (EML) program available for the exit rows. The 34″ throughout the A320s will still be industry leading and the buy-up for the 38″ pitch is only $10-20 per segment, depending on the flight length.
I completely understand the way United markets their E+ section. The other E- seats a cramped and hard to fit in and do anything else. JetBlue doesn’t have the same problem. With 34″ pitch in the other seats there isn’t much motivation for most people to pay more for the 38″ seat. Indeed, until they get bigger screens for their LiveTV system, it may make things worse because the screen will be too far away.
The 38″ pitch is on par with many legacy carriers’ domestic first class section, but this isn’t really that. CEO David Barger is very insistent that JetBlue is not going to be installing a second cabin, stating “We’re not going to a two-cabin airplane,” during an interview yesterday about the EML program. So it will be sortof like domestic F, but you still might be in a middle seat, there will not be preboarding, pre-departure drinks, free drinks or food at all (any more than economy gets) nor increased seat width. I guess that’s about fair for $10-20, but I’m still not sure that it is compelling considering how comfortable and spacious the rest of the seats are.
Not mentioned is a program to allow free access to the EML seats for frequent fliers (United does this) or the option to buy access to those seats as an annual pass (United does this, too). What about for the passengers who are buying the recently introduced fully refundable tickets? It will be interesting to see if the TrueBlue program can be modified to allow such things.
So again, JetBlue makes motions towards traditional legacy carrier. I think that the seats are priced cheap enough that they’ll actually make money with this plan, especially since they didn’t take any seats out of the plane. That being said, I can’t see myself ever paying the extra $10-20 for the legroom. I’ve done it on United for the E+ seat, but I wouldn’t bother when I’m already getting 34″ in the A320 or even 32″ in the E190. This also raises questions of airport assignment of those seats if no one wants to pay for them but a flight is sold out, something that will probably cause problems when people try to jockey for position to get them for free.
Yeah, it is a little ironic that they’re going live with the program on April Fool’s Day. It’d be fun to be a fly on the wall at JFK’s T6 that day; maybe I’ll go hang out and watch…
