Can you believe India’s kingfisher is still flying. The group has now slipped from the largest to sixth airline in terms of passengers but continues to fly and amazingly people keep booking seats on them!
Last week, the Indian government announced the carrier owes $US 49m (£31m) in taxes. The carrier owes money to airports, tax authorities, lenders and its own staff.
This Tweet caught my eye:
@ardenbagni Love @WestJet #flightattendants. “This is a no-smoking flight. If you are caught smoking, we will ask you to leave the plane immediately.”
I have entered the Qatar Airways Reflections contest with five photos and need your vote to help me win. You will have to register with Qatar but you can do that using your Facebook id or an email address. I would really appreciate it. Thank you!
Here are four of my five entries along with link to vote for that photo.
1. Mont Saint-Michel
Rising out of the sea, one kilometre off the north-western coast of France, Saint-Michel has been a strategic point in Normandy and a monastery since the 8th century AD.The place has an almost magical feel heightened by the tidal movements which mean at times you can walk around the island.
After a crazy year, I travelled to Samoa . This independent Pacific Island nation has some of beautiful beaches, in the world alongside which stand picturesque villages. The beach and water are a focal point of their culture along with family and faith. Samoans have a long history of resistance to outside interference and have been reluctant to open themselves to outside tourism to protect this culture. I was happy to join the locals on their beach.
3. Wave Rock, Western Australia
14 metres high, and 110m long, the face of Wave Rock appears frozen in time. Frozen for 2700 million years.
The Rock’s shape is formed by gradual erosion of the softer rock beneath the upper edge, over many centuries and its colours of the Wave are caused by the rain washing iron hydroxide down the face, forming vertical stripes of grey, red and yellow.
4. Mackinnon Pass on the Milford Track
On Day three of New Zealand’s Milford Track, we faced the toughest day.We started early morning at our hut which is approximately 500 metres above sea level.
Soon we started our tough climb -which took over two hours to arrive at this point: Mackinnon Pass at 1069 metres above sea level. The combination of the exhilaration at having made it with the scenery and clouds made this place unforgettable. Going down meant dropping back down to 100 metres over 6 hours and 8 km!
Thanks for your support on this!
Cimber Sterling Boeing 737-700 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
On the morning of Thursday May 3rd, 2012, Denmark’s regional airline Cimber Sterling filed for bankruptcy after its owners pulled financial support from the company. The carrier had 19 international and six domestic destinations. Four of its six domestic routes were monopoly routes.
Sun-Air of Scandinavia, Danish Air Transport (DAT), Norwegian and Skyways have all taken over routes very quickly.
I have never flown them but I was interested for two reasons.
The first is how many airlines have gone this year. We are up to ten with some big names (Malev, Air Zimbabwe, and Spanair). Three went in January, four in February and three in April. Not quite as bad as 2008 when 84 carriers across the world disappeared.
The second reason is the pedigree in Cimber Sterling. Cimber has been flying since 1950. In 2008 Cimber Air bought parts of Sterling airlines and changed its name in 2009 to Cimber-Sterling. The airline operated as a combination low cost and regional carrier since. A model that was clearly not working as they had recently announced that from September, 2012, the low cost international operations would go.
Sterling (founded 1962) were Europe’s fourth largest low cost carrier after they merged with Maersk Air in 2005. They collapsed as a result of the Icelandic financial crisis in 2008.
So you want to raise cash as an airline?
What do you do?
Why not sell a First Class ticket that gives a passenger unlimited first class travel for life
The Los Angeles Times reports that this is what American Airlines did in 1981. Aviation Gas was cheap and interest rates high. The airline wanted cash. So for $US250,000, 64 passengers bought a ticket which allowed them to travel as often as they wanted in first class. For an extra $150 000 you could take a companion. It was called the AAirpass program.
The airline did not pass on the taxes associated with the ticket (mistake #2)
On top of that AAirpass passengers could accumulate frequent flyer miles on their free rides (mistake #3). They also got unlimited access to the Admirals Club (American’s airport lounge) for life.
As taxes rose, aviation fuel increased in price and American teetered in the edge of bankruptcy, they discovered that their canny first class fliers had found every loop hole possible! American in 2007 began looking for ways to see if actual rules linked to the AAirpass were being broken.
They found that some passholders
American cancelled some of their passes in 2008. These customers are now in court suing the airline. The customers are claiming they acted within the rules. American is claiming they breached them.
Whatever the outcome, I doubt you can buy an AAirpass today.!
A sight I would have loved to see close up…. a Boeing 787 landed recently at Washington DC National Airport (known as Reagan National since 1998). This airport (Code = DCA) is the nearest to the capitol.
On May 7, as part of its world dream tour, the third Boeing 787 ever manufactured (Serial number ZA003) made a very short flight from Washington’s other main airport: Dulles International to DCA. The 787 uses composite materials and its main features include larger windows than on any other plane, a four-panel windshield, better air circulation, improved lighting and humidity and much larger overhead bins. It is designed to use 30% less fuel than a 767.
Five reasons why it is significant:
American Airlines has bowed to pressure from creditors and is exploring merger options, having previously vowed to go it alone. This consideration makes the possibility much more real. Especially with the AA unions being so keen on a merger.
Lots of logic for the move. It would create the second-largest airline in the United States in terms of operating revenue. US Airways plans to adopt the American Airlines name. The unions feel it would protect them.
Not sure what it will do to customer service at the airline. I personally think AA has the worst in the USA (Business Insider said in 2011 that American Airlines is the seventh worst company in the USA!) Both airlines have very high levels of customer complaints: American 1.44 per 100 000 passengers and US: 1.35 compared with the 1.22 industry average. USAirways has a slightly better on time performance 83.0% of flights arrive within 15 minutes of schedules arrival time compared to American’s 79.6% (Industry: 80.0%). The number of passengers who hold confirmed reservations but cannot get on a flight because it is oversold is 0.86 per 10 000 passengers at American and 1.61 at USAirways. As for luggage, American “loses” 3.2 bags per 10 000 passengers compared with 2.53 at USAirways and an industry average of 3.49
The other concern here at Wild about Travel is price. I imagine on some routes, prices will soar as competition falls.
Such a merger will leave the USA with just three mega legacy carriers:
Plus a handful of other carriers:
In five years the USA has said goodbye to: Aloha, ATA, Big Sky Airlines, Boston-Maine Airways, Continental, Independence Air, Midwest, Northwest, Skybus (though in fairness this was hello/goodbye), TED and USA3000. Soon AirTran will go. Have I left anyone out?
He was 6’4 and sitting in the cramped row in front of me in the middle seat on an American Airlines flight. After the drink and “meal” service, he stood up and moved to the centre of the plane. There he stood in the aisle reading a paperback book. After 45 minutes, the person in the aisle seat next to where he was standing told him loudly: “you are creeping me out. Please go back to your seat.”
The man moved forward one row of seats but continued to stand in the aisle reading his book until just before landing. Flight crew did not ask him to move.
Acceptable or non acceptable behaviour?
Getting from Spokane to Los Angeles on a Sunday after Bloomsday, a major running race in Spokane, was not as easy or as cheap as I would like. My options were fairly limited as I had to fly out after the race had finished and get to LAX in time to connect to a flight to Australia. I could either travel with Frontier via Denver, Alaska via Seattle and US Airways via Phoenix. None very cheap! I chose US Airways which is a big step for me! I had studiously avoided them for years after some terrible flights. More recently, I have been surprised by the improvements in US Airways service.
I could not fault US Airways fare finder and booking engine. I ended up using United points to “pay” for the flight. This flight cost me 25 000 points and $80 for First Class as opposed to $342 in Coach. Getting the frequent flyer point seat through United.com was just as easy except that I could not use the paypal option to pay the fees and taxes etc.
I was unable to check in using the USAirways online system. There was no explanation why I could not check in online. I assumed because it was a United reward ticket? Check in at the small Spokane airport was easy, however. I chose seat 1A (bulkhead seat) on both sectors.
There was no priority line at the screening at Spokane airport. The screening line was also very slow.The guy in front of me was sent back four times. He had left his mobile, his wallet, coin purse and chewing gum in his pockets, his computer in his bag and his shoes on. I am not sure he listened to one instruction!
As a result, I reached the departure gate after boarding had started. As I approached the gate area, an announcement was made for “All Rows, All Zones” to board. The entire lounge stood up and surged forward. I saw no priority access line for First at Spokane. There was such a line at Phoenix for my Los Angeles bound flight.
As I stood in the long jetway line, one of the flight attendants popped her head out of the plane. She advised the ground staff that there was no overhead bin space left. They in turn advised us that all carry on bags would need to be checked in. The six people in front of me all turned to the ground crew members who began writing out check in labels for the bags. As checking bags is against my religion, I snuck around them and boarded the plane. I asked the FA if First was really full. She said “yes”. Glancing up, I saw a small space and said “Can I try?” She invited me to try and said “we will just check it if it does it fit”
I had to find space for two bags as you cannot have luggage on the floor, in the front bulkhead seats. Bag rearranging to me, is like playing Tetris, a game I love. First of all I moved (with its owner’s permission) a small blue bag that was taking up half an overhead bin. In slid my roll aboard bag. The blue bag fitted neatly with a brown bag in the other half of the bin. On the opposite side, I moved one bag three cm (about an inch) to the right, another two centimetres to the left (less than an inch) and reversed another. In went my computer bag. The FA watched and when I was done expressed how impressed she was. “Flying 110 times a year has trained me well! I smiled back. I am interested that in some airlines in the world, the flight crews do the luggage rearranging and on others, they just watch the chaos unfold. Is there a pattern to this?
As I sat down, the flight attendant, offered a drink. On neither sector did they say what was available. I actually asked on the second flight and found out there were both alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks.
On the first flight, I had an orange juice and a water. On the second flight I ordered a glass of Red wine and ended up also having my neighbour’s glass of white wine (Yes, there is a story there!). All drinks came in plastic glasses.
We pushed back quickly and efficiently. There was no pause as we entered the runway and we immediately began our take off run. Initially it was a very smooth take off. There was a bit of bounce from the winds as we climbed. Overall, it was a very smooth flight with a bit of rough air, over what I presumed was Nevada. Both flights landed a little earlier than scheduled.
The Airbus A319s on both sectors were groaning with passengers. On my first sector seat 1B was empty. (I had showered after my race) but on the second sector, all 12 First Class and 112 Coach Class seats were filled.
The First Class seats are arranged 2/2 have a 37″ pitch (distance between seats) and are 21″ wide. Down “the back”, the seats are arranged 3/3 and have a 31″ pitch and 18″ width. Be warned: Row 9 in Economy in the emergency exit which is arranged 2/2 is one of the worst seat options on any plane. Not only do they not recline but they actually lean forward and there is no extra leg room.
On the first sector from Spokane, the captain welcomed us on board and encouraged us to enjoy the fantastic on board service. Fantastic? That is how I would describe Emirates or Air New Zealand service! I am saddened at the on-going devaluation of air service in our price competitive world but also guilty of wanting to fly over a thousand miles for $80 and get great service. This is highlighted by the devaluation of the word “First class” in this context. A definition of First Class is: Of the foremost excellence or highest quality. This rarely applies in a US airline context anymore.
Having said that the flight attendants were all fantastic. I found them friendly, warm and considerate. My drink glass was rarely empty on the two flights. -Thank you.
In the modern world of US Airways First Class, the meal is choice of nice snacks from a small basket brought around by the Flight attendant. These snacks included cookies, pretzels and crackers. There seemed to be no limits as to how much we could have from the little basket. This is not quite the meal one gets on a Virgin Australia Business Class domestic flight. I understand that full meals are available on day time US Airways flights over 3.5 hours.
The economy passengers were offered free drinks and the option to buy snacks or snack boxes. I was interested that first class were neither offered the option of buying the snack boxes or getting one for free. Some of the options sounded nice. Only credit and debit cards are accepted for meal purchases.
There was no wifi available either.
My rating: Overall 67% (3.85 out of 5)- my overall rating of US Airways flights: 3.3 (based on 19 flights) so this year’s flights are much improved on the past
Skytrax Rating of US Airways: 3 star
Positives: Cabin Crew, Website
Negatives: Meal and Entertainment
Would I fly them again? Yes
My last trip Report: May 1: My controversial American Airlines post on JFK to Buenos Aires
Today’s flight with Virgin Australia from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia tipped me over two million kilometres (1.25 million miles) travelled by aeroplane! This is a distance equivalent to 50 times around the earth. I have eaten, read, slept, chatted and worked for 16 and a half weeks of my life in the air.
I record all of my 857 flights at Flightmemory.com. This database allows me to keep al of my flight information in one place and print maps based on the data. In case you think I am completely geeky, here is the blog post which explains how my friend Tony started using Flightmemory. His memory is one motivation for continuing to record my flights.
Key Stats:
This flight also re-earnt me my Platinum Status with Virgin Australia. I now hold Platinum with them until December, 2013. Flying a lot has some rewards.
This week I fly nowhere (unless I win the lottery!)
