Posted by Seth on September 12, 2010 under All You Can Jet, AYCJ, Trip Reports | 
Today is a day of a couple firsts for my flying on my JetBlue All You Can Jet pass. I get a new airport – Sarasota/Bradenton (SRQ) – and a couple new lines on my route map. SRQ-JFK is the “easy” new one I am getting. I’m also going to be flying from Boston to Las Vegas later on this evening which will also be a new line for me. It also almost created quite a problem for me with my carry-on bag.
Due to a rather interesting boarding process in Sarasota I ended up basically one of the last folks to get on the plane. No room for my bag in the overhead. Were it just a normal routing I wouldn’t care but I’m flying every day for the next five and I’d like to have clean underwear eventually during that time. Plus the chances of my bag ever catching up to me should it get delayed are pretty low. Needless to say, I started to freak out a bit.
The flight attendant, Michael, was trying his best to help out but when I started to try to explain my itinerary I realized that it wasn’t going to do any good. I just waited for the gate agent to come down the jetway with the bag tags. The conversation went roughly like this:
GA: What’s your final destination?
Me: Las Vegas.
GA: What flight number?
FA: He’s connecting via Boston.
Me: Yeah, Do you want to route it direct to LAS or have it connect with me in Boston, too?
GA: Forget it. I’ll just tag it for a gate claim in JFK. Pick it up in the jetway when you arrive.
Me: THANK YOU! That’s way easier for me, too!
The best news is that I made it complicated enough that the agent agreed to tag it like a stroller so it should be brought back up to the jetway in New York City when I arrive. I’ve tried that before and have never been successful. Hopefully it actually works this time. If not I can go out and get it at the carousel but I’d rather not deal with the TSA again if I don’t have to.
I managed to get myself a free EML seat in row 1 for SRQ-JFK.There was no one in 1A/B/C so I just took 1A and settled in. Much better than a full row in the back. It also meant that I got to chat with the flight attendants some more, this time without freaking out over my bag. It was then that I finally got to explain why I was flying to Las Vegas via Boston: because I wanted the new line for my map. The response I got was the title of this post, “Oh, I just thought you were crazy.” I’m pretty sure that I am and that my flight patterns prove it, but if they’re willing to give me the benefit of the doubt I suppose I should take it.
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Posted by Seth on September 7, 2010 under All You Can Jet, AYCJ, Trip Reports |
The first day of All You Can Jet 2010 is here and I’m flying. Not really any way things could have gone much better. Well, maybe a little bit, but not enough that I’m complaining. I woke up this morning in Guyana so that meant a bit of a later start on the AYCJ adventure for me. I actually didn’t make it back to JFK until around 1:40pm but I was through immigration and customs and inside T5, boarding pass in hand and hanging out with some old and new AYCJ friends about 45 minutes later.
I knew that I’d miss the kick-off party because of the arrival time from Guyana. Still, I held out hope that there would be a few freebies around to pick up even after the main party had dissipated. The first AYCJ item I spotted was actually outside security in the ticket counter area. One of the crewmembers had an AYCJ 2010 pin on her lanyard. I was somewhat racing past to get inside to meet people but I stopped short upon seeing the button. A bit of chatting later and we agreed to a trade: one of the extra bag tags I had (thanks, Morgan!) for her pin. A no-brainer in my mind. Deal done, I attached the pin and headed in to the terminal.
Inside I immediately went to my usual seat. In the food court there are two raised platforms. The higher one has a plethora of power outlets to go with the great views of folks coming and going in the terminal. The very first day the terminal opened I sat up there for hours soaking up the experience; I haven’t left since. Just my luck as I got up there – I spotted AYCJ legend 30DaysOnJetBlue hanging out with a few other folks. Introductions and handshakes quickly devolved into conversations of itineraries, tips and destination debates. The AYCJ community truly is one, even if very much an ad hoc one that ebbs and flows depending on who’s around at the time. The common bond – a love of travel – is a great way to meet and engage with completely random strangers.
Speaking of completely random strangers, returning from the service counter where I was trying to get my return boarding pass printed I saw an AYCJ luggage tag hanging off a red backpack attached to a tall guy walking through the food court. Community needs fresh blood to grow. Before I knew it Adam was explaining the itinerary he and his wife had mapped out. They live in Toronto and drove down to Buffalo to start their adventures. A week in California followed by Bogotá and then maybe Bermuda. I invited them to join us for more travel talk which they did eventually once they realized we knew where the power outlets were.
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Tags: Airbus, AYCJ, AYCJ2010, Bermuda, Boston, Embraer, Flying, Guyana, JetBlue, Las Vegas, New York City, Photos, Toronto, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on June 5, 2010 under News |
The Department of Transportation (DoT) has been rattling their saber quite a bit lately, handing out fines to a number of carriers and revising rules to better protect passengers, mostly under the auspices of enforcement against “deceptive trade practices” in whichever way the DoT chooses to interpret that clause. The most recent big-name actions coming from the DoT included notable fines for failure to comply with reporting requirements and insufficient notification of passenger rights when flights are overbooked. Oh, and the recently implemented 3-hour tarrmac hold time rule.
That was a pretty busy first half of the year for the DoT but they are not done yet. This week they’ve unveiled a slew of proposed rules changes to the rules. Most of the proposed rules appear pretty solid though there are a few which are questionable at best. Tarmac delay rule enforcement would be increased from domestic carriers to all airlines operating planes of 30 or more seats in the United States, for example. But beyond that change there are three significant areas that could see dramatic revisions in policies as enforced by the airlines.
Denied Boarding Compensation
The idea of permitting airlines to overbook flights and hope to have the correct number of passengers by the time the door closes is one that has been in effect for nearly 50 years, originally prescribed by the Civil Aeronautics Board way back when they ran the show for airline policies. Even after deregulation and the dissolution of the CAB the voluntary/involuntary denied boarding policies have more or less thrived. Passengers have often been willing to accept bumps and the airlines would pay out compensation either under the voluntary rules or the forced comp scheme of IDB as set by the Feds.
Unfortunately, however, the IDB comp is often not keeping pace with the economy or the changing landscape of air travel. The dollar amounts are fixed rather than tied to an annual adjustment rate such as the CPI. Moreover, there are some holes in how the compensations offers are presented to customers at the gate. Generally there isn’t much time to fully educate these passengers of their rights and the airlines have been taking advantage of this rushed environment to convince passengers to take company credit vouchers rather than cash or check compensation that they may be entitled to. Similarly airlines will offer a “free round trip ticket” without sufficient details of the restrictions surrounding those tickets. The DoT is suggesting that the rules be changed on this front such that any offer made verbally include all the options and details, not just the one that is best for the airline with the alternate options buried in fine print.
If a carrier offers free or reduced rate air transportation as compensation to volunteers, the carrier must disclose all material restrictions on the use of that transportation before the passenger decides whether to give up his or her confirmed reserved space on that flight in exchange for the free or reduced rate transportation.
Additionally, the DoT is altering the definition of what “confirmed reserved space” means with regard to denied boarding compensation. Currently “zero fare tickets,” those from certificates, frequent flyer points or consolidator shops where the actual price is not stored in the PNR, would not be eligible for denied boarding compensation. The DoT suggests that this be changed such that zero fare tickets are included. Determining the value of those tickets for the purposes of compensating the customer my be difficult as there is no good way to translate the value of points to dollars. One proposal is to use comparably priced tickets from others on the flight. Another is to simply refund double the number of points redeemed for the travel, plus the cash component paid for taxes and fees. Either way, this change will be good news for protecting folks on the “free” flights, tickets which are generally anything but.
Of course, increasing the compensation requirements may induce the carriers to reduce their overbooking thresholds. They overbook because they generally get enough volunteers to accept a voucher – and only about 35% of those vouchers are redeemed – to the point that they can still make money handing out the chits. As loads increase such that the airlines are less able to accommodate passengers on a re-route in a timely manner it becomes much less convenient for the customer to the point that a $200 or $400 voucher is less likely to solve the problem if it also involves a delay of a couple days rather than a couple hours. Hopefully this new set of regulations helps on this front.
Full Fare Pricing
The DoT holds a unique position in its ability to control pricing advertising rules over airlines. Neither states nor the Federal Trade Commission have jurisdiction; it is just the DoT. And for quite some time now the DoT has had a policy that
…states that the Department considers any advertisement that states a price for air transportation that is not the total price to be paid by the consumer to be an unfair and deceptive practice in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712. However, the Department’s enforcement policy regarding this rule has permitted certain government-imposed charges to be stated separately from this total price. Under this policy, taxes and fees that are collected by a carrier on a per-person basis, are imposed by a government entity, and are not ad valorem in nature are allowed to be excluded from an advertised fare. The existence, nature, and amount of these additional taxes and fees must be clearly indicated where the airfare first appears in the ad, so that the consumer can easily calculate the total price to be paid. The Department has consistently prohibited sellers of air transportation from breaking out any other fee, including fuel surcharges, service fees, and taxes imposed on an ad valorem basis.
In other words, the airlines have to publish everything except the per-passenger taxes as a single number and they have to make it very easy for a customer to figure out what those extra taxes are. Unfortunately airlines are stretching the limits of what those fees are the DoT is now suggesting that the rule “include a requirement that all advertisers include all mandatory fees in the advertised price.”
One quirk of such a plan is that each airport has a different Passenger Facility Charge item that is added on to a fare on a per-person basis but specific to a routing. So flying from New York City to Chicago to Las Vegas would price differently than New York City to Houston to Chicago or on a non-stop flight from New York to Chicago. This is just one of many hurdles that would need to be overcome to enforce a true “full fare pricing” scheme.
The policy would also prohibit the advertising of “one way” fares where a round-trip purchase is required. This is a pet peeve of mine and I would be quite happy to see it go away.
Another hurdle to overcome is the fact that carriers are racing to unbundle costs that have traditionally been considered part of air travel including checked baggage or carry-on baggage, meals, seat assignments and other similar benefits.The DoT is investigating the likelihood that pricing engines can accurately support the ability to allow passengers to specify a search not just by dates and city pairs but by the amenities required such as the ability to check a bag and have a meal on the flight. The GDS networks that handle the majority of the fare pricing for customers are not quite to the position where they can support these queries but it will be interesting to see what happens as they come about. Of course, it might mean deciding 9 months in advance if you’re going to check a bag on a vacation next summer, but you’ll have some idea of what it will actually cost in the end, much more so than is possible today. All booking documents such as e-Ticket receipts would be required to show the full details of these pricing details so as to inform the customer of any future charges as far in advance as possible.
Opt-Out Sales
The DoT is proposing to ban all add-on sales offers that require customers to opt out of a service rather than to opt in. These services often include advance seat assignments, airport transfers, travel insurance, show tickets and similar ancillary offers. These are generally high margin sales for the agents and confusing to the customer to figure out how to unselect all the offers. Even an educated consumer can be easily tricked by these opt-out offers as a good friend of mine experienced on a recent trip to Panama City and Mexico City.
Codeshare Service
Airlines love codeshare service. By creating phantom flight numbers one airline can sell service from another with virtually zero responsibility to actually deliver on that service. Whether through the outsourcing of flight operations to smaller, regional carriers or in setting up long-haul partnerships to provide increased global coverage, codesharing is generally a fantastic thing for the airlines. As part of approving international codeshare service the DoT has generally inserted this clause in the deal:
…the carrier selling such transportation (i.e., the carrier shown on the ticket) accept responsibility for the entirety of the code-share journey for all obligations established in the contract of carriage with the passenger; and that the passenger liability of the operating carrier be unaffected
When all the airlines had generally similar policies this was easy as there weren’t enough discrepancies in policies for it to matter. But as each carrier carves more benefits into nuance and minutiae the ability to deliver those benefits consistently across the codeshare is diminishing rapidly.When one airline permits holders of a certain credit card to check bags for free but then sells those customers a codeshare flight operated by a partner which does not extend that same benefit then the spirit, if not the letter, of this clause is violated. The DoT hopes that the revised rule will address this issue and require truly seamless applicability of benefits.
Peanuts
Finally, the DoT is back to looking at how to prevent peanuts from showing up on airplanes in the name of protecting people who have severe peanut allergies. In short, the DoT suggests that, “Airline passengers with severe allergies to peanuts have a qualifying disability as defined in Part 382.” A “qualifying disability” in this sense requires action to address it on the part of the carriers. The DoT once previously tried to issue a ruling on this issue. In 1998 they proposed that accommodations be made when the airline was informed in advance. Congress quite quickly stepped in and threatened to pull funding should that guidance actually be enforced.
The DoT isn’t giving up on the issue, however, and they are coming back with proposals for other ways to make such a ban stick.
A lot of the things the DoT is trying to require here are actually moves that will ultimately benefit the traveling public. Sure, I’d love to see more DBC vouchers in my travel funds kit but I also understand that protecting the folks who don’t understand how they work, the folks who will be left stranded for days at an airport waiting to get home, do need some protection. Probably not a ton of huge impact with these changes, especially with the current crop of GDS interfaces unable to actually produce the truly full fare costs including the al a carte services, but the ideas are definitely good ones. Hopefully the rest of the technology catches up soon to make it happen.
Want to read more about these proposals? Check out what Aviation Week, View from the Wing or Chris Elliott have to say about it.
Posted by Seth on April 27, 2010 under Trip Reports |
For years now every time I’ve read anything or talked to anyone about what to do during a layover at Los Angeles International Airport the answer has been simple and singular: Plane spotting from the In-n-Out. I’ve done that a few times now and been quite happy with it. But I also discovered this weekend that there is another option for folks on a layover, one that is more educational, less fattening and every bit as cool to an aerophile like me: Flight Path LAX.
Flight Path is a museum and learning center is a non-profit organization formed 15 years ago as part of an effort by the operators of the airport to honor the 75th anniversary of its founding. In the intervening years the facility has blossomed into a phenomenal collection of models, photographs and memorabilia, all of which celebrates the history of flight in Southern California. The museum is situated in the Imperial Terminal, on the grounds of LAX. The terminal has served a number of purposes over the years, from operating as the MGM Grand terminal for shuttles to the casino in Las Vegas to the charter operations facility for private flights at the airport. And they’ve got the photos on the walls to prove it.
The museum has one of the largest collections of aviation uniforms out there. They have almost all of the mumus that the United Airlines flight attendants wore on the Hawaii runs in the 60s and 70s. They have several of the paper dress uniforms that the TWA attendants wore on their premium runs to London, Paris, Rome and New York City. Our guide was Eleanor, a former Flight Attendant for United and a woman incredibly knowledgeable about the industry and its history had a number of stories to share with us about those paper uniforms, including how they were hemmed to fit each attendant (scissors) and how the businessmen “flirting” with them would accidentally brush their cigarettes up against the attendants, risking the uniforms going up in smoke (and coming off). They’ve got hot pants from Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) and several generations of Pan Am uniforms, among others.
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| The paper dress uniforms from TWA, 1968. On the left is the Rome outfit; Paris on the right. |
Pacific Southwest Airlines’ uniform from the 70s. |
The museum also has a pretty impressive collection of in-flight service sets, ticket stubs, napkins, models and just about anything else that has an airline logo on it from the past 100+ years of flight. The breadth of the collection is rather astounding.
As part of our tour we were also treated to a bus ride around the airfield. I’m pretty sure this isn’t part of the regular visits, but if you can arrange it I highly recommend doing so. We all loaded up onto a bus and cruised around the airport, mixed in among the baggage trailers, maintenance trucks and crew vans. It was wonderful to be up close with the planes and see the operations from that perspective; it is much different than from inside the terminal.
Finally, the museum has a DC-3 parked out on the tarmac outside. The aircraft was built in 1941 and served in commercial service and as a private airplane before it was retired and eventually moved to the airport. We were quite lucky during our tour and were actually permitted to go inside. It sounds like this is somewhat common – more so than the bus tour – but it was still a special treat. The interior is still in its private plane configuration and it looks quite lavish for the era it was flying in.
No, they don’t have a Double Double available. And you cannot hop on the Parking Spot shuttle to get there (though the Embassy Suites El Segundo is right across the street, maybe a 5-10 minute walk). But the museum is open five days per week, Tuesday – Saturday, from 10 am to 3 pm and admission is free. It is absolutely worth visiting for a peek back at the history of aviation in Southern California and around the globe. You can even watch the video that includes the airport’s theme song. It is a classic (made it to #54 on the pop charts in the USA)!
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Posted by Seth on April 4, 2010 under News |
At some point recently JetBlue has quietly increased the prices they charge for their “Even More Legroom” seats. Previously offered in the $10-$40 range, depending on the segment length, the new prices range from $5-$75. And while the prices are still somewhat related to the segment length, the correlation is not quite as strict. Indeed, there are a few quirks in the new price structure that have shorter flights more expensive than longer ones (e.g. Long Beach to Portland, OR is more expensive than Long Beach to Seattle).
The increases come as Continental has introduced an up-charge for non-elites to choose their exit row seats, ones with similar increases in leg room, and with much higher prices than JetBlue charged previously or even charges under the new scheme. Perhaps JetBlue is looking to cash in on the perceived value of that extra legroom and still remain comparatively less expensive. Or perhaps they are just pricing based on what the market will bear in general. Las Vegas is a more expensive market now. So is Burbank. Apparently those look like good opportunities to realize a bit more revenue. And JetBlue realizes tens of millions of dollars annually from the EML sales and other fees; increasing those numbers is easier than raising fares and has the potential to increase the carrier’s profitability.
Here are a few maps and charts that show some of the new EML prices from a few JetBlue hubs.
From Long Beach:
| From: |
To: |
EML Price: |
| LGB |
SFO |
$5 |
| LGB |
OAK |
$10 |
| LGB |
SMF |
$10 |
| LGB |
SEA |
$30 |
| LGB |
PDX |
$35 |
| LGB |
IAD |
$50 |
| LGB |
BOS |
$75 |
From JFK:
| From: |
To: |
EML Price: |
| JFK |
SYR |
$5 |
| JFK |
BTV |
$10 |
| JFK |
BOS |
$10 |
| JFK |
RDU |
$15 |
| JFK |
FLL |
$25 |
| JFK |
MCO |
$25 |
| JFK |
PSE |
$29 |
| JFK |
HOU |
$35 |
| JFK |
DEN |
$40 |
| JFK |
PDX |
$40 |
| JFK |
SEA |
$40 |
| JFK |
SFO |
$40 |
| JFK |
DEN |
$40 |
| JFK |
SJU |
$40 |
| JFK |
BQN |
$40 |
| JFK |
OAK |
$40 |
| JFK |
SJC |
$40 |
| JFK |
SMF |
$40 |
| JFK |
CUN |
$50 |
| JFK |
LGB |
$60 |
| JFK |
LAS |
$65 |
| JFK |
BUR |
$75 |
From Boston:
| From: |
To: |
EML Price: |
| BOS |
MCO |
$25 |
| BOS |
DEN |
$40 |
| BOS |
LAS |
$40 |
| BOS |
SEA |
$40 |
| BOS |
CUN |
$40 |
| BOS |
SFO |
$50 |
| BOS |
OAK |
$60 |
| BOS |
LGB |
$75 |
From Cancun:
| From: |
To: |
EML Price: |
| CUN |
FLL |
$10 |
| CUN |
IAD |
$25 |
| CUN |
MCO |
$25 |
| CUN |
BOS |
$40 |
| CUN |
JFK |
$50 |
The EML seats were never really a compelling value to me. The fact that most seats on JetBlue have 33-34” of pitch is quite enough for me. I’ll take them if they’re free (who wouldn’t??) but paying extra for them was quite uncommon for me. With the new, higher prices that frequency will drop even more.
UPDATE (4.4.10 20:44 EDT): The new pricing is apparently a one month trial to “to better match the value of these seats with customer demand, based on the route.”
Posted by Seth on March 17, 2010 under News |
The American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts (FHR) program is one of those benefits that their cardholders find either incredibly valuable or an incredible waste of marketing materials. The benefits are certainly tangible but the cost to get there can be quite high. Paying extra to be in a fancy hotel just to get the free breakfast doesn’t always make sense, especially when one wouldn’t otherwise be in that level of hotel.
Still, the annual update of the properties in the program is a much anticipated event by many as the changes can change booking habits for a number of customers. In previous years the property list came as a huge glossy book with tons of photos and detailed descriptions of each property. This year the update was a matte post card with only the new properties listed. Indeed, budget cuts are deep, even in the luxury travel sector.
So, what are the new properties this year? There are over 60 new hotels joining the program, about half of which are Four Seasons properties. In addition to the 30ish Four Seasons properties there are a number of Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency locations joining the program (Tokyo, Goa, Shanghai and Aruba) as well as a couple Mandarin Oriental properties added (Barcelona, Las Vegas and Jakarta). There are a number of non-affiliated hotels as well such as The Pierre, Montage Beverly Hills, The Resort at Pelican Hill, Lizard Island and La Momounia Marrakech.
This year’s new additions look like a solid group of properties and represent good growth in the FHR program. Too bad that I’ll still likely not use it this year.
Posted by Seth on March 2, 2010 under News, Trip Reports |
A few months back the news came out that the Department of Transportation would be issuing significant fines against airline operators when they had flights delayed more than three hours between the runway and the gate. The rule hasn’t actually done into effect yet – there are a couple weeks left until enforcement begins – but several airlines appear to be already running their operations in line with the new rules? The net effect of the change in the airlines’ behavior? Thousands of canceled flights across the country.
This should not come as much of a surprise to the traveling public but apparently it is. It seems that the airlines are choosing to cancel flights much more aggressively now when faced with a severe weather situation and they are doing so without any real obligations to their customers. It is not a good thing at all. But it is apparently what society thought they wanted so it is what we’re now faced with.
It is interesting to hear the spin that airlines are putting on their new policies. Take the line from Continental President and CEO Jeff Smisek about the company’s Operations Center policies:
During difficult weather our [Operations] team … works to pre-cancel flights in order to minimize inconvenience for our customers.… [The plan] not only allows Continental to minimize disruptions for passengers during irregular operations, it also permits us to return our operations to normal as quickly as possible after a weather event.
And there is no doubt that parts of this is actually true. It does appear that the airlines are able to get back to normal operations generally pretty quickly after a weather event, though it isn’t completely obvious that it is any better than before. There are, however, some parts that don’t seem to quite live up to the expectations being set. Things like the airlines simply canceling out all of their regional and express operations for a days at a time are not good for customers. When the ability to actually complete travel is frequently delayed two or more days from the weather event it is hard to see how that is minimizing disruptions for passengers. When airlines are unwilling to pay the cost of accommodating their customers on the airlines that are operating the situation becomes even more difficult, especially when the reasons given for the cancelations are less than wholly accurate.
And it isn’t just one or two airlines that take the wholesale cancelation approach. In the past month there have been a number of weather events in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States and many carriers have taken this approach to handling the situation. Southwest, Delta, jetBlue, United and US Airways have all done it at one more more airports for one or more days. That’s hundreds of thousands of passengers displaced because of thousands of flight cancelations.
But it could be worse. More troublesome than just canceling all the flights and telling everyone to go home is when a carrier cancels all their flights across the board and then starts putting a few back into operation. There are simply too many moving bits to keep track of to keep everyone informed. At Newark last Friday I watched as thousands of passengers, self included, were given the run-around while flights were reinstated, moved to new gates, delayed or canceled again and otherwise left with misinformation.
For my own flight a call from the lounge to the gate indicated that I was the only passenger who had not yet boarded the flight and that they were getting ready to depart without me. A quick sprint to the gate showed a much different reality. They were still trying to find a full crew to get on the plane and get us out of there. I’m not sure if the agent in the lounge just didn’t want to deal with me anymore, if the woman at the gate was less than truthful or if no one knew what was going on at all. But it truly sucked from a passenger perspective.
And I was one of the lucky ones. I actually made it on to my flight with only a 5.5 hour delay and with an upgrade. Two other friends in the airport had no reasonable choice other than to cancel their travel plans completely. Ditto for two other guys supposed to make the trip out to Las Vegas for the weekend with us. So what is good for the customer about these new policies?
There are plenty of problems in the airline industry today but this new approach doesn’t solve many of them, other than to avoid DoT fines. Thanks for looking out for the consumers there. Y’all screwed up on this one pretty good.
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Posted by Seth on March 1, 2010 under Trip Reports |
I knew that something was wrong on Sunday morning when I didn’t get the confirmation email from Continental informing me that I was checked in for my return flight to Newark on Monday morning. I figured that my reservation was messed up thanks to the chaos at Newark on Friday trying to get out after the snow there and that it wasn’t too big a deal. Most likely just out of sync and a relatively trivial task for the agent to resolve when I called in. I was out at the NASCAR race all day and didn’t have time to deal with calling until around 8pm and that’s when I received some rather disturbing news from the reservations agent I spoke with. According to her I had “requested to cancel the reservation because I would be traveling on an alternate carrier instead.”
Say what?
Yes, I spoke to a dozen or so different agents throughout the day on Friday trying to get a new reservation put into place. But at no time did I actually ask for the ticket to be canceled. And the agent I was speaking with on Sunday evening continued to insist that was the case. After a couple minutes of my explaining that there’s no reason I’d cancel the return only and that I had actually flown on my original flight to get to Las Vegas she got a supervisor to reinstate the reservation so it wasn’t too big a deal. But it was definitely a bit disturbing to hear that I was talking to agents and requesting things, especially when I knew it to be untrue.
Even more strange was the time of the supposed request I made. I made a second call in to Continental to try to get some more information about the cancelation. Specifically, I asked what time I made this supposed request since they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) give me the name of the agent who I told to cancel the trip. Apparently Continental is the first airline to offer cell phone service in-flight in the United States as I was en route to Las Vegas on a Continental flight at the time.
Eventually the second agent and I figured out what happened. For some reason I was marked as a no-show on the outbound flight and the remainder of the ticket was forfeited. This is pretty typical of most airlines (jetBlue is the only one I know of that doesn’t do this as a matter of course) though it was definitely worrisome that I was listed as a no-show for a flight I actually took. I wonder what the other 220 folks on my flight had to deal with to get home. At least the second agent was willing to actually read through the details of the reservation history and get to the bottom of the situation, unlike the first agent who really seemed more focused on blaming me for canceling the trip.
All’s well that ends well, though this past weekend was certainly not Continental’s finest moment in terms of handling irregular operations.
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Posted by Seth on March 1, 2010 under Trip Reports |
This past weekend’s trip to Las Vegas was anchored around attending the NASCAR race at the local track. Yes, it was a bachelor party and yes, there would be the usual drunken revelry, but the main focus was the race. For all but one of the guys on the trip it was our first trip to a NASCAR race. It was everything I expected and then some.
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| The ~130,000 fans getting ready for the Green Flag to drop. |
I grew up in a family that was relatively involved in sports, both as participants and as spectators. And I grew up in the South, where game day meant that you could easily be hanging out with 85,000+ of your closest friends, all dressed in the same colors and all screaming your heads off in support of the local team. I thought that was pretty impressive. It turns out that NASCAR takes the concept to another level. A race isn’t just two teams (though there did seem to be the Jimmie Johnson versus everyone else thing going on in many of the conversations I caught snippets of). There are 43 cars on the track every week that a fan can affiliate with. On top of that there are ownership teams, manufacturer teams and probably a few other alliances that I didn’t catch. It was a lot to keep track of, especially for a first-time attendee.
The entire scene was “more” than I expected of just about every aspect. It was louder than I thought it would be, and that was after I put in my ear plugs. It was way faster than I expected, too. And there was way more unhealthy food available to buy than in any other stadium environment I’ve been in. Just walking the midway area and seeing the bacon-wrapped hotdogs, foot long corndogs and wide variety of fried items available for consumption made my arteries a bit sore.
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| Watching the final restart of the race. |
There was also the human element of race day. When I say that we experienced a broad range of society I’m probably selling the experience short. From the three women in front of us who got into a fight with each other when they realized they had to shift two seats over to the impressive displays of facial hair stylings to, well, just about everything else we witnessed, it was impressive. They stereotypes that NASCAR has associated with it were strongly represented, as were a number of other demographics. But even with the typical stereotypes in play it was enjoyable and even sometimes educational to listen to the crowd talking about race strategy, relative strengths of the drivers and the minutiae that determined the difference between winning and crashing into the wall. The people part of the experience was just as much fun as the race. With over 125,000 people there to cheer and take in the event it is easy to see why.
And it was a pretty good race to watch overall. Not a ton of accidents and only a couple dozen laps run under caution meant that, for the most part, the drivers were able to really open it up and go after each other on the track. Watching Kevin Harvick move up from starting in 34th to a 2nd place finish was impressive. The ability of the drivers to negotiate traffic and the confines of the track while moving as fast as they were was downright amazing, especially as close as they were to each other and the walls.
Equally amazing to the drivers’ ability to generally not crash while hurtling around the track at 180+ miles/hour was the ability of the pit crews to do as much as they do as quickly as they do it. I understand that races are won and lost in the pits as much as they are out on the track and watching the dozen or so guys working together throughout the race, particularly for the 10-20 seconds/stop that they were “on” was quite impressive. The amount of work that can happen on a car that quickly is amazing.
The main downside of the day was the poorly planned design of the parking at the track and the completely inept attempts of the group working at traffic control to manage the situation. At one point we literally did not move for an hour trying to leave. Shortly after that I managed to convince the traffic folks of a better plan – mostly by moving the cones and implementing the plan myself while they were debating whether they should or not – and things got better. And it still took about 90 minutes from that point to travel the 15 miles from the race to the hotel. It was a rookie mistake on our part. The smart folks set up their grills and had a grand time watching us struggle to leave. That’s definitely the smart way to play the situation there.
Am I planning on emigrating to NASCAR nation anytime soon? Probably not. But I can definitely understand the enjoyment of the sport for those who are into it. There’s a lot more to it than “turn left at the corner” and trying not to crash too badly. I’m definitely happy that I got to experience it the once.
A few more pictures, just for fun. To see the rest of the shots from the day check out the photo gallery here.
Posted by Seth on February 26, 2010 under Trip Reports |
I’d love to take credit for some sort of brilliant trick or negotiating skill I used with one of the half dozen agents I worked with today trying to get out of New York City to Las Vegas. I wish I had a special trick up my sleeve or a special code word I could share that explains how I actually got on the plane and got the plane out of the snow at Newark today. I don’t. I do have a lovely first class seat on the one 757-300 that Continental Airlines got off the ground this morning that was actually headed to Vegas and I’ll admit that it was mostly luck that got me here.
I’m actually on the same flight I was originally booked on when I woke up this morning. The flight was canceled at least once – maybe twice – and reinstated with customers being moved around and reassigned flights somewhat haphazardly from what I could tell. A few of the times I called in to ask about alternate routings I was apparently already assigned seats back on this flight. The folks at the airport couldn’t really tell me if the flight was going to happen or not; there was mostly just confusion as the various different computer systems were spitting out different data to people.
When I left the Presidents Club the second time two friends were in the midst of a very creative rebooking that the agent seemed to be quite keen on, more more helpful than the three I spoke with that denied much less creative or expensive reroutes earlier in the day. Such is life, I suppose, though the inconsistency in the application of the rules is certainly frustrating.
One smart move Continental made was to not waste all the food that their Chelsea Kitchens division had produced the night before expecting to serve on the flights today. Rather than trash it since most of the flights were cancelled they packed it all up and brought it over to the terminal, setting up a snack bar near the Customer Service station in the terminal. Definitely a classy move, even if a limited choice of options.
But I was leaving the club because my flight was boarding, so I didn’t mind all that much, even if it was 5+ hours after the original departure time. It was only around the tenth flight that Continental managed to get off the ground at all today so the fact that it happened to be the one headed to the place I was going was pretty much blind luck. Oh, and then there were the hundred or so other lucky souls who managed to get a seat on the flight from the standby list. I’ve never seen the list of cleared standby passengers quite so long and I don’t think we left anyone behind at the airport.
First up, deicing, with the nifty trucks that they use at Newark. The guy in the cherry-picker cab actually drives the truck via controls up there. Saves needing an extra guy in the truck and it is pretty cool too.
Thanks to the fact that there were basically no other planes flying we had a quick taxi out to runway 4L and a great view as we made the final turn to depart. I really look forward to this view every time I get on an airplane.
And then it was time for the meal service. Sure, it was 3:15 in the afternoon at this point, but the flight was originally scheduled for a 9am departure. That means it is catered as a breakfast flight. So it was Honey Nut Cheerios or Omelets for everyone. Ten hours after I woke up and three hours after I had lunch I was finally having breakfast. Not that I mind too much; I love Cheerios. But it was entertaining and the flight attendant was laughing at the fact that she was taking breakfast orders in the middle of the afternoon.
A nap and a fresh baked chocolate-chip cookie somewhere over the Rockies and we’re getting ready to start our descent into Vegas now.
I hope the other guys trying to get out from NYC had less trouble with their flights than I did. Most were taking afternoon or evening flights so I’m somewhat optimistic – not overly so, but a bit.
Today is a day of a couple firsts for my flying on my JetBlue All You Can Jet pass. I get a new airport – Sarasota/Bradenton (SRQ) – and a couple new lines on my route map. SRQ-JFK is the “easy” new one I am getting. I’m also going to be flying from Boston to Las Vegas later on this evening which will also be a new line for me. It also almost created quite a problem for me with my carry-on bag.
The best news is that I made it complicated enough that the agent agreed to tag it like a stroller so it should be brought back up to the jetway in New York City when I arrive. I’ve tried that before and have never been successful. Hopefully it actually works this time. If not I can go out and get it at the carousel but I’d rather not deal with the TSA again if I don’t have to.
