Airline buys competitor’s cheap seats so you can’t

by Grant Martin on

You have to hand it to Climber Sterling, a Danish low cost carrier. When they found out that their competitor, Norwegian Air Shuttle was launching a massive fare sale, instead of letting consumers go out and buy the dirt cheap tickets they scooped them all up. Using a series of fake names and a lot of keyboard stokes, the airline was able to purchase over 650 seats, successfully preventing hundreds of travelers from getting in on the deal and in all probability, sending some business back to Sterling.

It’s a clever trick, but highly noncompetitive and kind of low, and the airline’s CEO officially apologized to its competitor, saying that the employees acted independent of the company’s knowledge. It’s worth noting that two of the airline’s board members were also in on the operation, so one wonders how sincere that apology was.

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British Airways “on again off again” strike is “on again”

by Scott Carmichael on

Poor British Airways – their staff had originally threatened to walk out during the Christmas vacation last year, but a last minute court objection stopped their plans. Now the staff have once again voted that it is time to strike.

As of right now, the majority of BA cabin crew members will be on strike on March 20, 21 and 22 and again on March 27, 28, 29 and 30.

According to British Airways, not all flights will be canceled, but they have stopped selling tickets for all flights during these dates. On the flights that will operate, you should expect to face some major inconveniences, long delays and other hassles.

Flights operated by BA subsidiary BA CityFlyer will operate normally, as will the London City (LCY) to New York (JFK) flights.

On other flights that are not (yet) canceled, you will probably receive a limited in-flight service, as the cabin crew may have been replaced by pilots who have been retrained on how to serve food and beverages (along with any other cabin crew tasks).

Bottom line is this – if you are currently scheduled to fly on British Airways between March 19th and March 31st, consider finding another airline or delaying your travel plans.

BA will issue refunds or allow you to rebook without any additional charges.

I have been stranded at Heathrow during a BA strike, and I can assure you that the experience is not something I’d ever want others to experience. For the most up to date information on flight disruptions, check out the British Airways strike status pages.

Fees passengers hate actually make sense

by Tom Johansmeyer on

I honestly don’t have much of a problem with all the extra fees being tacked on by airlines. They have an obligation to their shareholders to deliver results: it’s a fact of life. And, realistically, they don’t do us any good if they can’t afford to put planes in the air. But, I suspect I’m in the minority on this one. A recent online poll by Airfarewatchdog.com sought to learn which fee passengers hate most and found that 52 percent abhor having to pay to pick a seat. Only 14 percent had a problem paying for snacks. A mere 3 percent (my kindred spirits, I guess) said they were happy to pay for extra services.

George Hobica, Airfarewatchdog.com‘s president, observes that passengers are more tolerant of fees that come with an added expense to the airline. If you want a meal, someone has to pay for it. Sure, you’re going to pay more than the airline does – as you should – but there’s an understanding that the airline is picking up part of the burden. With seat assignments, he believes, the fact that there is no incremental cost is what irks passengers.

I see Hobica’s point, but there’s an opportunity cost for the airlines that isn’t readily seen by the average passenger. If there is a place for a fee that the airline doesn’t use, it’s potential income that can never be recaptured. Sure, there’s no additional cost to be covered, but there is the reality that the airlines aren’t monetizing something that could ease the pressure on their financial statements.

There’s a good reason for every additional fee you’re seeing: airlines don’t have a choice. Rather than push up the prices, this a la carte approach allows passengers to decide what’s important to them. Why pay for a meal you won’t eat … or for a “better” seat that won’t make a difference to you?

United Airlines announces wireless check-in and paperless boarding passes

by Scott Carmichael on

A mere 24 hours after American Airlines announced the expansion of their paperless boarding passes, United Airlines becomes more mobile with their own services. The United Airlines announcement involves two new technologies – mobile check-in and paperless boarding passes.

With mobile check-in, you simply point your mobile browser to mobile.united.com, and enter your flight information. If you are flying out of Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York La Guardia, San Francisco or Washington Dulles, you can have your boarding pass emailed to your device.

For other airports, you’ll need to pay Mr Easy Check-In a visit to have a paper boarding pass printed. Of course, if you have baggage to check, you’ll still need to stop at a desk or use a Skycap.

With the paperless option, you save a bar code image to your device, ready for the checkpoint and boarding gate staff to scan.

United expects to expand the paperless option to other airports as soon as possible. Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Seattle are next on the list to receive the service.

At the United Airlines mobile site, you can also check flight status, flight availability, Mileage Plus statements, Red Carpet Club locations and airport codes. I’m happy to see airlines invest in these technologies – anything that can speed up the process of getting from the front door of the airport to the plane is great.

Have you used mobile boarding passes yet? How was your experience with them?

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American Airlines expands mobile boarding pass system to 19 new airports

by Scott Carmichael on

Yesterday, American Airlines announced on Twitter that their mobile boarding pass system has been expanded to 19 new airports.

The system allows you to receive an email link to a mobile boarding pass on your (smart)phone, and to save the image to your device. At the security checkpoint and boarding gate, you simply show your phone, and allow the bar code to be scanned.

Now, this all sounds great on paper, but I’ve had my fair share of problems getting it to work correctly – the scanners at the checkpoint don’t always work, and when you are in line at the gate waiting to board, you’ll need to be sure you can pull up the image quickly.

When your phone goes into standby, it can take 20 seconds or more to get back to the image. Also, on the iPhone I’ve noticed that the image needs some zooming to work correctly. Back in 2008, our very own Grant Martin was one of the first to take the system for a spin – and had similar issues.

Still, paperless boarding is the future, and eventually the minor issues will be resolved, which means you no more late night hassles to find a working printer at your hotel.

The airports participating in the mobile boarding pass system are: Albuquerque (ABQ), Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS), Charlotte (CLT), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Cleveland (CLE), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Denver (DEN), El Paso (ELP), Houston George Bush Intercontinental (IAH), Jacksonville (JAX), Las Vegas (LAS), Little Rock (LIT), Los Angeles (LAX), Memphis (MEM), Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP), New York LaGuardia (LGA), Oklahoma City (OKC), Orlando (MCO), Phoenix (PHX), Santa Ana/John Wayne/Orange Counte (SNA), Salt Lake City (SLC), San Antonio (SAT), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO), Tulsa (TUL), and Washington Dulles (IAD) airports.

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