Southwest wins on bet against extra fees

by Tom Johansmeyer on

How did Southwest score its recent record revenue? Well, it could be because it isn’t jacking up fees for all the extras. The decision to do business the old fashion way seems to have been good for a quarterly profit of $112 million and may provide a good reason for other airlines to reconsider these unpopular measures.

In a roundup of coverage on the airline’s quarterly financial results, USA Today, found the answer in reports by Bloomberg and the Las Vegas Sun, attributing the results to “the company’s policy of not charging for bags and excellent customer service offered by employees.”

Rather than take the short returns on charging for blankets and checked luggage, Southwest is apparently making a longer-term bet on customer satisfaction, with a policy that’s more likely to appeal to the average passenger.

Is it sustainable? Well, that remains to be seen. It’s worth keeping in mind, though, that Southwest has built its business on something of a contrarian strategy … and it’s been working.

[photo by Mr. T in DC via Flickr]

Australian airlines see obese passengers as growing problem

by Tom Johansmeyer on

In the United States, finding ways to accommodate oversized passengers may be the subject of uneven enforcement, but in Australia, it’s uncharted territory. In fact, this in-flight service problem is so ignored that the terminology isn’t even standard. According to Virgin Blue, being too grande for the seat is considered an impairment, while Tiger Airways isn’t sure if it’s a “comfort” issue or a “medical” issue. And last year, Jetstar demonstrated the genius of making one large passenger by two seats: both of them on the aisle. A spokesman for Jetstar, by the way, says, “Obesity is not a disability.”

Then, pray tell, what is it? Distinction from does not equate to definition of. And an inability to define imperils the formulation and enforcement of any policy … not that that’s a problem for Jetstar, whose spokesman added, “There’s no rules around what requirements we should do for somebody if they’re above a certain height or weight.” Virgin Blue also doesn’t have a policy for this.

Qantas has received complaints, too, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, but it punts responsibility back to the passengers: “”The only way for a customer to guarantee extra space is to purchase two economy tickets or fly business- or first-class.”

Needless to say, the majority of Australians support a formal system for addressing obese passengers, according to a study by companytravel.com.au. In fact, 70 percent of survey respondents weighed in favorably believed that “obese or largely overweight people should have to purchase two economy-class seat tickets when travelling by plane.” Only two years ago, 53 percent felt this way.

Clearly, this is a growing problem for Australian airlines. The county’s Department of Health and Ageing puts 41 percent of men and 25 percent o women in the “obese” category. Twenty years ago, the rates were only half as large.

[photo by didbygraham via Flickr]

Mobile boarding passes: Fancy trick but not worth your time

by Grant Martin on

By now you’ve probably heard of mobile boarding passes, the digital version of that slip of paper that identifies you, your flight, your seat and your pertinent itinerary information when flying around the planet. In concept they’re pretty slick: when checking in for a flight online, one can elect to have the boarding pass sent to a phone – what’s downloaded is a barcode (it’s actually closer to a QR code) that can be scanned at the security checkpoint and at the gate to allow boarding. Or that’s how it’s supposed to work.

These days, running Gadling and working on a dozen other small projects I find myself in the airport a lot, whether it’s in bouncing in between O’Hare and LaGuardia for work or sneaking up to Anchorage to visit a few friends for a long, creative weekend.

All of this time on the road has given me plenty of opportunity to road test mobile boarding, both when I was living in Detroit, a Delta hub and now that I’m living in Chicago, a hub for both United and American Airlines. I like the concept; it’s both environmentally friendly and more efficient.

My experience, however, is to the contrary. More often than not, when I download a mobile boarding pass something goes wrong in the process, whether it’s at the gate, security or with my phone. As a result, I end up actually losing time and wasting energy at the airport.The majority of flaws in the process come at the security checkpoint. Either the barcode scanner isn’t working, isn’t interpreting the data properly or the TSA agent isn’t familiar with the process. Right now, their only solution is to send the passenger back to get a hard-copy boarding pass. Sometimes they’ll let you cut in line when you return. Sometimes not.

It’s not often, but a small portion of the faults come from malfunctioning scanners at the gate.

Another part of the problem can be traced to hardware. Turning an iPhone sideways to scan the barcode almost always turns the image sideways as well. If the resulting, resized barcode is too big, the scanner won’t read it. Pick up the phone to look at the barcode and everything flips back over. Frustration goes up, people behind start to cough and things start to get awkward.

None of this is that big of a deal for a travel hardy person like myself, mind you, I don’t mind taking the time to work with a green cause. My problem comes with the delays incurred with going to back to get a paper boarding pass. The thing is, if I’m at the airport I’m always either 5 minutes away from boarding or walking out of the place – I don’t have time to wait in a giant security line only to be turned around to reprint my boarding pass – the risk is just too high.

That’s why Monday morning on the way in from LaGuardia I picked up an extra paper boarding pass on the way over to the C/D gates. Sure enough, when I got to gate C8 the scanner wouldn’t read my phone and 14 elite passengers nearly revolted behind me. Their frustration well reflects the current state of the art in mobile boarding technology: while cute, the concept needs far better implementation to ever become useful in a mainstream commercial travel.

[flickr photo via kalleboo]

Gogo and Foursquare introduce mile high badge for inflight check-ins!

by Scott Carmichael on

Fan of Foursquare? Starting tomorrow, you’ll be able to earn the new Mile High badge any time you check in on a Gogo Inflight Wifi enabled flight.

With just under 1000 planes offering the Gogo Inflight Internet service on 9 different airlines, it isn’t that hard to get online in the skies nowadays – and once connected, all you need to do is open up Foursquare on your mobile device, and check-in. If you are connected using your notebook, check out these computer based Foursquare check-in apps. A single check in is all it takes to earn the badge.

In-flight connections on Gogo start at $4.95 for flights up to 1.5 hours. An unlimited account is now on sale for $34.95 with a discounted first month for just $19.95.

So, next time you are flying one of the nine airlines offering Gogo on some of their planes, be sure to get yourself online and earn this very special badge. And while you are at it, don’t forget to become our friend on Fouraquare!

Sweaty passenger chastises Delta on YouTube

by Tom Johansmeyer on


It’s bad enough to hear about the misery of being stuck on the tarmac, but to see it adds another dimension. When Tony Morales was stuck on a Delta plane in Phoenix, sweat dripping from his head, he recorded a portion of his ordeal, even though he risked “getting yelled at for filming right now.”

Morales described the situation on the plane as “uncomfortable, hot, miserable – it just wasn’t fun,” according to MSNBC.

The passengers were stuck in their seats, since the plane had pushed back from the gate, meaning that they were stuck in a hot cabin, without any fluids except those gushing from their pores. One passenger was allowed to deplane, but Morales recalls that it was for medical reasons.

Delta says it’s looking into the incident, MSNBC reports:

“We have reached out to this customer for more information on his experience as the timeline we have does not coincide with his account,” Delta spokesperson Susan Chana Elliott told msnbc. “Although, we can confirm that the flight did return to the terminal, passengers were offered water during the delay and provided the option to deplane when it was determined that the flight could not depart due to the maintenance issue.”

Passengers were finally offered water as the plane was headed back to the gate, and they were permitted to get off, but only after the situation had dragged on for two and a half hours, Morales says.