Boston reaps the rewards of airline competition

by Grant Martin on

It’s funny. Airlines blame last year’s industry implosions on consumers’ non-stop demands for low fares. Ask any analyst and they’ll say “Transcontinental fares are as low this year as they are were in 1986! Where’s the inflation! The Humanity! The Humanity!”

We can’t be completely to blame though. Three out of four times, a consumer like myself needs to buy a ticket, logs on to Kayak, finds the cheapest fare and buys a ticket. If the bar is twenty dollars higher all around? The cheapest fare still gets purchased and I buy one less fitted oxford at Hollister.

Instead, I think much of the blame lies in aggressive competition. With their fun oil hedge, Southwest often sets the market price by opening service to a city, offering outrageous deals and forcing the competition to match or undercut those fares. Often times, the competition launches their own promotions to keep loyal passengers flying on their product.

Boston is the picture perfect example. Last month, Virgin America started service to Beantown, saturating the transcontinental market and directly competing with American Airlines. Soon thereafter, Southwest announced that they would be setting up camp in the Autumn. To compete with Virgin America? Perhaps.

In kind, American Airlines has now launched its own campaign, offering transcontinental passengers triple the miles on any flight. This means that after only two round trips, passengers can earn free domestic award travel on the airline. That’s a pretty outstanding deal and direct competition to both carriers.

Will this sway the fickle traveler back to American Airlines when Virgin America offers mood lighting and hipsterdome while Southwest provides zaniness and a robust route network? Maybe for the business traveler, but my guess is that the casual traveler will still go with the younger, cooler airlines.

Airlines losing less of our baggage – for the wrong reasons

by Scott Carmichael on

Here is (what should be) a great piece of news from the aviation world – domestic US carriers are losing fewer of our bags.

A staggering 1.3 million bags were not lost when compared to statistics from the previous year.

Normally, airlines would have a good reason to be proud of this result. It could be because they are paying more attention to their baggage procedures, or simply that their staff are learning to be more respectful of our belongings, but sadly, the reason they are losing less luggage has a far more logical explanation.

People are not checking as many bags.

The airlines, in their infinite wisdom decided that checking a bag is a luxury that should be sold to us, in addition to our ticket fee.

Too many passengers refuse to pay this fee, so as more people drag all their luggage on board the plane, fewer bags have to be placed in the baggage hold. It all makes perfect sense.

American Airlines was the clear winner with a 26% improvement over 2007. But of course, American Airlines was also the first of the major carriers to introduce the pay-to-check baggage scheme.

Eventually, the whole thing will probably come back and bite the airlines in the ass. As more people carry more stuff on to the plane, departure times will get delayed, flight attendants will have to spend more time finding space for bags that don’t fit in the overhead compartment, and passengers will still get their bags checked for free when the crew have to do a gate check for any bags that can’t be stored in the cabin.

Spring fever hits early with discounted flights to Europe

by Alison Brick on

Forget the snow, forget the winter. Trade in your down coat for a cardigan, and hot tea for iced tea (in your mind, if nowhere else). It’s time to start thinking about spring.

The springtime sales on European flights have started. American Airlines has a slew of cheapies from the US — including San Francisco-London for $569 (after taxes) and Chicago-Frankfurt for $527 (after taxes). Book your ticket by February 10, and travel outbound by April 2, and inbound by May 2.

American has also extended its companion ticket offer to the UK and the Caribbean for AAdvantage members. Book the qualifying ticket by March 31, then use the 2nd ticket by December 31. It’s not without a little spending, though. The companion flight might be free, but you’ll still have to pay the taxes and fees.

Delta also has discounted Europe flights from either New York City or Atlanta, including JFK-Madrid $454 (after taxes) or Atlanta-Milan $598 (after taxes). Book by February 2, and travel February 2-April 2.

And Travelzoo tips us off to Air France’s New York City-Dublin that’s a mere $328 (after taxes). Travel through April 2.

American Airlines limiting passengers due to shortage of life rafts

by Jeffrey White on

American Airlines has announced that it will be limiting slightly the number of passengers it carries on its 767-300 planes as it orders additional life rafts to comply with FAA regulations.

The carrier said that it only learned this week that its 767s did not carry the required number of life rafts. The FAA requires airlines to have enough rafts — or room on rafts — to accommodate everyone on board the plane, including crew members.

American said it can carry a maximum 228 people, including crew, on its 767s, which generally have a capacity to hold 236 people.

The company said the shortage occurred when it added additional seats in its refurbished business class section a few years ago.

AA says it is also reviewing life raft compliance on other plane models in its fleet.

There is no doubt more attention being paid to life raft compliance following US Airways flight 1549, which was forced to ditch in New York’s Hudson River, its passengers evacuated with life rafts.

If you miss a flight because of a long check in line it can cost you money

by Jamie Rhein on

If you’re one of those people who scoff at the two-hour a head of time check-in schedule recommended by airlines, check out this story that Christopher Elliot posted on his website, Elliot.org. A woman showed up on Jan. 5, two hours and twenty minutes before her American Airlines flight from Orlando back to Japan, but the line was so slow that she was denied boarding by the time it was her turn. It cost her $2,600 more to get back to Japan because American Airlines originally said it was her problem, not theirs.

Since this happened, American Airlines, according to Elliot has agreed to send the woman a voucher for $2,600 for air travel. Although this a decent gesture, still she’s out the money.

While reading Elliot’s recounting of the woman’s tale where she describes telling the agent that she was afraid of missing her flight and the agent brushed her off, I’m wondering if getting riled up might have helped. After all, it seems as if the airline was not keeping up with their part of the bargain. About an hour before the flight, I might have really started to get pushy–a bit forceful. By that time, being sweetly polite would have been brushed aside.

I might be wrong, but from the way the situation was described, I’m picturing a mild, nice woman who is trying to be heard in a crowd. Depending on the nature of the staff person you’re dealing with, such a person often gets ignored. The person in the business suit with the no nonsense voice gets further.

There’s a balance between being forceful and going so far that you might have security on top of you, but if the airline doesn’t staff enough people to handle the volume, one has to have a voice loud enough to be reckoned with.

After reading the comments left on Elliot’s post, it seems that this is not an isolated instance. Some have suggested folks should arrive three hours before a flight to be safe, particularly on high volume travel days. I still don’t get why she just wasn’t put on the next available flight without any charges. Too bad there isn’t a time-card punch so you can prove exactly what time you arrived. Maybe that’s the next step.

By the way, because she was flying internationally, she couldn’t check in on her own at a kiosk so that wouldn’t have been a solution.