Get $250 back with a booking on OpenSkies

by Grant Martin on

With the economy down and whatnot, it’s not hard to fathom that airlines like OpenSkies and even the Virgin Atlantic and BA business products might be suffering. And what do you do when demand drops? Inspire with a fare sale.

Just this past week, OpenSkies announced a $250 coupon on any premium flight that that the airline flies. All that you have to do is sign up for their e-newsletter and the goodies roll in.

All that you have to do to redeem the coupon is book a ticket to Amsterdam or Paris in First (Biz) or Business (Prem +.) Which is still a pretty big deal — the least expensive Prem + tickets to Amsterdam that I could find were in the $1600 range while Paris is a shade under that.

But you have to put it in perspective: for the shade more that you’re paying for a seat on OpenSkies, you’re getting giant, comfy seats, excellent meals and premium service all around. If you’ve got a few extra shares of Google to dump, you can justify that real quick.

Check out Gadling’s review of OpenSkies here.

Passengers stranded 9 hours on plane

by Jeffrey White on

Who doesn’t remember that disastrous run of JetBlue flights during which more than a 1,00 people flying the airline sat hostage on the tarmac for hours — one flight for more than 11 hours — during a New York snow storm in early 2007?

Since then, such tales have become less common in the airline industry, even as a passenger bill of rights continues to get shot down by the government.

But such delays still happen, as anyone flying TACA recently from El Salvador to LAX knows. Two-hundred passengers were stuck on the plane for nearly 9 hours last Sunday after the flight was diverted to a regional airport 45 miles to the east of LA due to heavy fog in the city.

Problem was, it seems that either TACA didn’t request that its passengers be allowed to disembark and clear immigration at this small airport, or local customs officials didn’t allow it. The result: Passengers were stuck on the plane most of the night, receiving only water and crackers from firefighters and airport personnel toward the end of the ordeal.

In all, the passengers’ trip to LA took more than 15 hours.

Tripso has the complete story here.

Top 10 stupidest laws you could encounter abroad


Gatwick airport gets some snow – shuts down for the morning

by Scott Carmichael on

Gatwick airport was taken by surprise yesterday morning when an unexpected flurry passed over the area. Even though just a fraction of an inch of snow actually landed on the tarmac, the airport decided it would be best to shut down all flight operations.

Of course, when over 100 flights are either heading towards Gatwick or getting ready to depart, you can understand that the mess was quite considerable.

Gatwick is in the regrettable situation of only having a single runway for all flight operations, despite being the second busiest airport in the UK, and the busiest single runway airport in the world.

It took airport operators 5 hours to get the ice and snow cleared, and allow airlines to arrive or depart again.

By then the damage had already been done. Major carriers had already diverted flights to neighbouring airports, including airlines who don’t even have operations at those airports. I briefly spoke to someone at Ghana International Airlines who saw their Accra flight end up in London Stansted instead of London Gatwick.

Flightstats now has the flight listed as having to reposition to Gatwick tomorrow morning, which is probably a better situation than having to load 200 passengers and crew on a bus.

None of this helps improve the image of BAA, the UK’s airport operating authority. The agency is already under fire, and was recently ordered to pay airlines back for failing to provide adequate service.

(Thanks to Chris for the tip, via Telegraph.co.uk)

JAL’s CEO takes bus to work and eats at the cafeteria (even when the press aren’t following him)

by Josh Lew on

Every couple of days here in Minneapolis, Northwest CEO Doug Steenland is on the television telling the thousands on Northwest employees living in the Twin Cities not to worry about losing their jobs after the merger with Delta is completed. Judging by the number of strikes and employee complaints NW has experienced over the past few years, I’d say no one takes him too seriously. If you you headed a company that performed so poorly and you still made Steenland’s salary (before perks), you wouldn’t be worried about anything or anyone.

Perhaps top execs at US airlines could learn something from JAL CEO Haruka Nishimatsu. After major lay-offs three years ago, Nishimatsu cut all his perks and then slashed his salary. In 2007, he made $90,000. A tidy sum, but much less than many of JAL’s pilots make. He takes public transit to work and eats lunch next to the plebes in the cafeteria.

Perhaps you could chalk up Nishimatsu’s approach to cultural differences between the US and Japan. But his explanation of the rational behind cutting his own perks and salary makes perfect sense to me.

“We in Japan learned during the bubble economy that businesses who pursue money first fail. The business world has lost sight of this basic tenet of business ethics.”

Is this ethical approach working? JAL is faring reasonably well. Compared to US airlines, it is quite successful. So you can be ethical and successful? Amazing.

Your ticket was expensive and your plane crowded, but at least you took off on time

by Josh Lew on

Is there an upside to the fact that the airline industry is struggling? Perhaps you can feel smug knowing that the CEOs of legacy carriers will probably be taking home six-figure bonuses this year, instead of the usual seven or eight digit haul (“Ha, greedy bastards finally got what they deserve,” you might say to yourself).

But all you smiling, glass-half-full folks out there can take comfort in this: airlines have the highest on-time percentages they’ve had in a long, long time. According to USAToday, 86% of all flights were on time during the month of October. That is compared to 78% during the same month of 2007.

A plane is considered on time if it reaches its destination within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time. I assume they mean less than 15 minutes later than scheduled; although I’m sure there is the odd person out there who might be put off by arriving 15 minutes early.

So look on the bright side of air travel. You may have to spend more for your ticket and your plane is bound to be crowded and, perhaps, noisy. But at least you have a good chance of getting where you are going on time.