iPads in the cockpit isn’t exactly news at this point.  Many large legacy carriers have issued them to their pilots to use as Electronic Flight Bags.  The iPads store current flight charts and display them electronically with better organization and that’s a good thing for pilots.  It can reduce the weight a pilot has to lug around by as much as 30lbs.

In fact, with two pilots per aircraft and a savings as much as 60lbs, that actually translates into money savings for airlines in the form of fuel.

The presence of iPads in the cockpit has also caused the consumer to believe that leaving their electronic devices turned on at all times is really OK.  It isn’t.

Pilots aren’t using WiFi in the cockpit.  In fact, they aren’t supposed to use WiFi in the cockpit at all.  That is turned off on the iPads.  And lest you believe that’s an overabundance of caution, you would be dead wrong.  There is enough data to show that unshielded use of cellphones and/or WiFi devices in or near the cockpit can affect flight displays or controls.

Delta is asking for a waiver to use their iPads’ WiFi in the cockpit to use a weather turbulence app as a test.  They contend that the wattage of the iPad’s WiFi is not enough to affect instrumentation on the Boeing 737.

Will we see connectivity in the cockpit?  Yes, I think we will.   The challenge here is that you can shield new instrumentation from the dangers of WiFi fairly easily but that means expensive replacements for equipment on legacy aircraft.  In other words, airlines aren’t going to do this until its time to refresh cockpits or buy new aircraft.  So expect to see this evolution take place literally over the next 2 decades.

Filed under: Airline Fleets by ajax
No Comments »

Jeremy Clarkson is an automotive journalist who writes and serves as the presenter on the original UK based Top Gear automotive show.  He’s known for his outbursts from time to time and his outbursts tend to be very dramatic and almost always offend someone.

It would appear that American Airlines lost his wife’s bag recently and Clarkson took to Twitter to chastise them.  You can see a story about this HERE.

But here is a sampling of his Tweets:

“American Airlines. Literally the worst thing…….in the world.”

“People of the world. DO NOT USE American Airlines.”

“If American Airlines was a country, it would be North Korea.”

And people think I’m rough on them.

Filed under: Airline Social Media by ajax
No Comments »

Hawaiian Airlines has made an order for the A321NEO which, I think, causes trouble for Boeing.  It’s a validation of the A321 as a 757 replacement that, I think, Boeing didn’t need showing up given its desire to sell the 737MAX-9.  It is increasingly clear that the new A321 isn’t going to be the dog that the current A321 has been.  Good on Airbus.

Hawaiian is clearly going to make trouble for a couple of airlines with this purchase.  The first is Alaska Airlines.  When Hawaiian takes delivery, it can start to compete with Alaska on the smaller routes such as Bellingham to Hawaii.  Hawaiian succeeds quite well in this area when it goes up against other airlines with its Airbus A330 and Boeing 767 aircraft.  It knows how to attract the right passengers at the right fares.

The other airline that, I think, will be a surprise to some is Southwest.  It’s clear that Southwest has been eyeing the Hawaiian markets for some time and it has even talked about its need to gain ETOPS experience in order to do this.  I think Hawaiian is responding to this threat by bringing its games to the kinds of markets Southwest might be tempted to enter.

And that brings me to a criticism I have for Southwest:  This airline isn’t responding in a very agile way to opening up new markets and opportunities.  By the time it studies and prepares for new flying outside its comfort zone, the opportunity is often gone.  Witness its vaunted codeshare deal with WestJet and Volaris as more evidence.  Southwest could have been flying those Hawaiian routes as soon as this year but the conventional wisdom is that Southwest won’t have itself ready for this challenge until 2015 or about 2 or more years from now.

2 years is an eternity in the airline business.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
No Comments »

About a year ago, a few airlines started to enter the DFW market and that made me thrilled.  For all too long, American Airlines has dominated virtually all routes from Dallas / Fort Worth to all other destinations.  It’s even been able to manage keeping its pricing up on intra-Texas flights against Southwest.  The last time a truly competitive fare was found in Dallas was when Delta was still here operating a hub.

I saw the entrance of Virgin America on routes between DFW and LAX/SFO as a great start and American Airlines clearly didn’t like the competition because it did what it always does and tried to scare away the airline.  Virgin America CEO David Cush has never said anything but glowing things about VA’s performance to and from DFW.

JetBlue came to town as well with 3 flights to and from Boston.  Boston is a route that is, again, dominated by American Airlines and which had very high fares and by all reports, those flights do very well, too.

Spirit Airlines has come as well and they’re killing it.  Spirit has been adding routes and now is adding a crew base in Dallas because it’s discovered an untapped demand that is the result of very little competition in Dallas.  Hey, folks who live here like a good deal as much as anyone when it comes to a leisure destination.

But a year later, I see two airlines (JetBlue and Virgin America) maintaining their status quo.  I wonder what it is about the middle of the United States and Texas that scares these two airlines so much.  Particularly when you have a major legacy carrier sitting here airling and another LCC carrier (Southwest) raising fare prices in this market considerably.  There is some low hanging fruit.

If I had been Virgin America, I would have targeted Dallas for routes on LAX and SFO for sure.  I would also have laid on flights to New York City and Washington D.C.   I would have opened up a gate in Chicago and connected LAX, SFO, NYC, Washington, D.C. and DFW to Chicago in a heartbeat.

If I had been JetBlue, I would have added flights to New York City, not just Boston and I would have looked at some point to point flying to its Caribbean destinations as well.  We’re as close to the Caribbean as anyone in the Northeast and it’s a popular vacation destination for this area.

But it hasn’t been done.  A year later, these two airlines sit with their timid schedule into and out of Dallas from their strongholds while AA prepares to come out of bankruptcy as a cost competitive airline that potentially is mated with US Airways.  I would have spent the last year building loyalty on routes that those airlines could serve well by offering the fares people want here and getting them just a little too addicted to excellent service on modern aircraft.

It’s disappointing to me, the consumer, because I think that DFW is a destination where a lot of “upstart” airlines could succeed more.  The fear towards AA and SWA defies my imagination at this point.  And there is Spirit Airlines who is taking advantage of the moment and growing like crazy.  Go figure.

Filed under: Airline Service, Airports by ajax
2 Comments »

There have been a series of events with respect to the Boeing 787 over the past several days culminating in the FAA announcing that it would do a priority review of the 787’s design and manufacture.  This has people asking if the 787 is dangerous and I wanted to address what I think is already incorrect information being disseminated out there.

First and foremost:  I would fly the 787 tomorrow.  With regards to safety, I believe this airliner is as safe as any other relatively new airliner.

Fuel leaks have been found as a result of incorrect manufacturing installations.  That isn’t a design problem, it’s a manufacturing problem.  And manufacturing problems arise in new airliners.

Engine problems in the GEnX engines used for the 787 have been found in a few of the airliners.  These appear to be truthfully isolated in nature and appear to be getting addressed by GE.  That said, I’ll also concede that there hasn’t been as much visibility on this engine as one would ordinarily like to see if you watch this industry.  In fact, these engine problems have typically been described as a problem on the Boeing 787.  They’re not.  They are a problem for the GE GEnX engine.

The battery fire in Boston is alarming and needs quick and sure investigation.  So little is known here that it, alone, shouldn’t prompt a design review.  It should, however, prompt a quick and sure investigation and it has.

I’ve seen reports of windshield cracking from Japan being cited as a problem cropping up with this newly designed aircraft.  That would be incorrect.  Windshield cracking happens frequently and particularly so in the wintertime.  Temperatures get unbelievably cold on the outside of the aircraft while temps in the cockpits are a comfortable 70 degrees.  There can be as much as a 120 degree temperature differential between the outside of an aircraft and the inside.  Windows, even the best ones, periodically crack because of these temperature stresses.  That’s why cockpit windows are heated:  It prevents cracking.

There have been the odd mechanical issues showing up on the 787.  This is extremely normal and nothing approaching the boundary of “normal” for a newly introduced airliner.  It takes operational time to weed these things out, put fixes in and raise the reliability to the measure its expected to meet.

The best contrast I could offer today is this:  I believe the 787 is a safer airliner than the old MD-80s being flown by many airlines today.  It has the best of the best in technologies and an aircraft company behind it with a safety record that is second to none.   If I just took the number of engine shutdowns, rejected takeoffs, engine mechanical issues causing returns to airports for American Airlines MD-80 fleet, I could create a media scare that would dwarf the 787 perceived issues.

The Airbus A380 went through some very similar times in its first few years as well.  We in the United States didn’t notice them much at all because the A380 wasn’t being flown in the US (and still isn’t) and the safety issues weren’t cropping up in our newspapers and on our TV news shows.

So take these reports with a large grain of salt.

Filed under: Airline Fleets, Airline News by ajax
3 Comments »

American Airlines’ board of directors met on Wednesday but don’t expect a merger announcement quite yet.  I think there will be a merger.  Frankly, I think there is a very high chance of a merger.  But I also think that the details of the deal still have to be worked out to everyone’s satisfaction.  Tom Horton will be arguing that shareholders will get more value with a standalone exit (I’m not sure I agree here if one considers what is likely to happen with a mediocre operation over the 3 years following bankruptcy exit).  I think a better guess for an announcement will be around late January.

Delta Airlines is set to acquire regional airline Pinnacle as it is already providing its Debtor In Possession financing.  Pinnacle entered bankruptcy and Delta needed that airline to stay afloat and operating.  Whether the airline is integrated into Delta and Delta managed, I can’t say for now.  I suspect that Delta will become the majority owner and seek to install an executive to finish making Pinnacle a viable entity.  At that point, I would expect Delta to spin off Pinnacle again.

US Airways is setting new records (again) for revenue and passengers.  While they expect a $35 million hit against 4Q earnings because of Hurricane Sandy, I would expect that their earnings report for December to, once again, shock and delight investment analysts.  This is where US Airways is making its best argument for a merger with American Airlines:  Investment analysts, shareholders, etc all want this management team in charge of American Airlines because it performs and does so under the worst of network circumstances.

Delta Airlines opened up 300 flight attendant positions and got 22,000 applications for the positions.  That’s about 73.5 people per job applying.  (Take note flight attendant unions:  People want those jobs and readily accept the entry level conditions.)

Filed under: Airline News, Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax
No Comments »

Here is some video of the arrival of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.  The video has great shots of various aircraft arriving including old Braniff 707-227s, Pan Am 707 press aircraft and others.  The arrival of Air Force 1 and 2 are well worth the watch alone.  At one point, an announcer refers to LBJ’s Air Force 2 as a “707 Astrojet” which had to have thrilled American Airlines.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv-frO6zG3w&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3xozpqLj8&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]

Filed under: Trivia by ajax
1 Comment »

It is a fairly open secret that American Airlines has some re-branding effort going on for the airline.  The current expectation is that we’ll learn what this is when AA unveils its new 777-300ER later this month (according to current plan).  I noticed that AA’s 777-300ER was sitting, untouched, on the ramp of the former Delta, now American hanger located on the east side of DFW airport.  Sorry but the aircraft looked just as it did in other photos.  It’s grey with a whiter tail section that extends downward through the rear fuselate/tailcone area.

Re-branding an airline doesn’t happen very often (except in United Airlines’ case) and particularly not often in AA’s situation.  There are fans who don’t want to see AA change their branding and logo but I think most agree that AA is fairly long overdue at this point.

And they have a functional reason for doing this as well.  Airbus aircraft can’t kept polished easily.  The metal used on their fuselages pretty much requires paint.  In addition, other aircraft that AA is set to receive such as the 787 have fuselages that aren’t even metal.  So it’s time for a new look.

In another life, I did a fair bit of marketing and branding work although for very small companies. Like everyone else, I’ve always tried to consider the message that was being sent with a new look.  In the airline world, a re-branding often takes on more and more “white” on the fuselage with billboard titles becoming more common as well.  Most want to signal a global presence or a brand identity that has not downsides in other countries.  As a result, the look ends up being a bit generic these days.

I’ve thought about what AA might want to signal with its re-branding vs what it likely is going to signal.  I think whatever is unveiled with be extremely modern with strong design cues that harken to the history of the airline.  I think we’ll see a silver or grey fuselage with bigger, bolder titles in a single color and some dashes of red and blue thrown in.  It will be modern in its typeface and almost certainly global in its look.

But I would be very, very tempted to go a very different route with those aircraft.  I would want to signal an element of “cool” and harken back to the days when an airline was truly full service even in coach.  I would want people to seek me out because I was both trendy and retro at the same time.  I would use some variation of these aircraft:

1950’s/1960’s Red Tail Logo on a modern 757

1960’s Astrojet Logo on a modern 737

I would paint the aircraft a metallic silver and use the 757 scheme (the first image) and I think people would go wild for it.  It would signal all the romance and service of the airline world of the 1960’s and 1970’s and there would be no doubt as to who the airline was when it landed at either a domestic or foreign airport.

Or imagine the lightning bolt cheatline on a silver metallic paint job but place modern billboard American Airlines titles across the top of the fuselage.   Use the 1950/1960 red tail scheme as it appears on the above 757 as well as the later 1960 logo that is used on the above 737 Astrojet and even today’s logo as well.

It will never happen.  It’s far too risky and bold for today’s corporate airline world.  But I think it would be a great move and I think it would have a great effect on the traveling public.

Filed under: Airline Fleets by ajax
No Comments »

It’s been announced that American Airlines Senior Vice President Craig S. Kreeger will become Virgin Atlantic’s new Chief Executive Officer (current VA CEO Steve Ridgeway is retiring).  Kreeger is British and came to American Airlines by rising through the ranks in London, then Europe and then here in the United States.

The appointment to Virgin Atlantic is in keeping with owner Richard Branson’s emphasis on service as Kreeger has had customer service responsibilities at American Airlines through most of his career.

Curiously, two of the Virgins, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America, will now be run by American Airlines alumni.  Virgin America is run by former AA CFO David Cush.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
No Comments »

Virgin America is going to be flying into Newark Liberty International Airport in the near future with flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco.  It’s a destination that Virgin America has coveted for some time but which has been unable to get into due to slot restrictions at the airport.

The real surprise, to me, is who they’re getting the slots from:  American Airlines

American, through its bankruptcy proceedings, is terminating existing leases of its slots to both United and Porter Airlines and making those slots available (plus additional slots direct from AA) to Virgin America for the exact same price.

Given just how much Virgin America has attacked American Airlines on certain routes, I’m rather surprised at this development.  This development potentially puts pressure on American Airlines on transcontinental routes between NYC and SFO/LAX.  American doesn’t have dominance at Newark and certainly isn’t the dominant airline in NYC at this time.

The dominant airline at Newark is United Airlines and certainly so for that route between those airports.   Between SFO and JFK, both Delta and United have more dominant positions but AA is certainly not a minor player either.  Between LAX and JFK, American Airlines is the dominant carrier but only barely so with Delta and United also being major players.

So I can make a few interpretations here.

First, American sees United as the competitor to fight with on these routes and wishes to make trouble for United in the form of Virgin America.  Why AA doesn’t wish to add frequencies into and out of Newark, I do not know.  There are several trunk routes that presumably would fit neatly into AA’s system for that airport.

Second, American has traditionally viewed even upstarts like Virgin America as a threat and gone to great lengths to price them out of markets.  AA has most recently done this when Virgin America entered the DFW market with flights from LAX and SFO.  So perhaps American views Virgin America as insignificant competition when compared to the SuperLegacy landscape.   Personally, I wouldn’t be quite ready to write off Virgin America when you give them access to an airport in the NYC area that plays very well into their strengths.

Third, I now wonder if American (primarily CEO Tom Horton) is starting to eye Virgin America as an acquisition.  This isn’t quite as far fetched as it might seem.  Virgin does have some valuable landing slots (although many are currently leased) into slot constrained airports.  Virgin is also run by a former American Airlines CFO, David Cush.  And Virgin has the equipment that American has decided to adopt for its future:  The Airbus A320 and A320NEO.

Virgin America has done poorly and even I think it’s time for Virgin to seek a partner.  Their value isn’t much at this point given that they’ve never earned a profit and their position has worsened in the last year.  An acquisition of Virgin America would essentially be an asset purchase to get their hands on aircraft faster.  Virgin America has nothing in terms of infrastructure, IT, leadership or service product that AA wants or needs.

Right now, I think that AA wants Virgin America alive to provide competition to the airline that best represents trouble for it:  United Airlines.  That competition can hurt United in the near term and allow some breathing space for AA to gets its bearings and start competing with United again.  If I’m right, I would not be surprised if the next market we hear about Virgin entering is Chicago.  Virgin has wanted to fly into O’Hare airport for a long time as well but hasn’t been able to get decently located gate space thus far.

It could be one other thing:  This could be part of a strategy to form partnerships with Virgin America and a closer partnership with jetBlue to give both Delta and United more trouble.  Virgin America competes hard with United on the West Coast and on trans-continental routes.  It also competes heavily with Alaska Airlines on the West Coast and Alaska Airlines has been moving closer and closer to Delta.

On the East Coast, American’s partnership with jetBlue has worked out OK and expanding upon that partnership would put some pressure on both Delta and United as well.  Since this strategy benefits two of the Cornerstone markets of AA, this may well be the purpose.

For now, we’ll just have to watch this play out.  If a US Airways / AA merger isn’t consummated, I’ll be ready to bet heavily on a partnership approach to building the AA network upon bankruptcy exit.  This may well be Tom Horton’s method of not engaging in a merger where he is ousted.  He may well be ready to argue that AA can do as well or better in this approach vs a merger.

Filed under: Airline News, Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax
No Comments »

In the conversations that take place regarding the US Airways / American Airlines merger opportunity, naysayers within both companies frequently end up being the pilots.  The minority groups of these pilots like to ask for (demand) firm agreements on seniority integration and point to Doug Parker and his team being unable to achieve seniority integration for US Airways pilots since the America West / US Airways merger of 2005.

That’s really not true.  The history there is bloody but it really is the fault and responsibility of the pilots involved that combination.  Here is what has happened:

America West and US Airways pilots were both represented by ALPA.  As such, when the merger occurred there was a mechanism in place at ALPA to arbitrate such a seniority integration.  There were many issues but the overriding viewpoints on each side were centered around a couple of things.  America West pilots felt they deserved to have their seniority (and job opportunities) guarded to some fair degree because it was their airline that was consuming US Airways which had been in bankruptcy not once but twice in the same decade.  That was a reasonable viewpoint and it could have been handled by using “fences” to protect some percentage of jobs for those pilots.

US Airways pilots wanted a date of hire seniority integration because their pilot group had some very old, very senior pilots who didn’t want to be knocked down from the premium pilot opportunities.  Since these pilots had agreed to major wage concessions in two bankruptcies, they felt they had given enough at that point.  This wasn’t entirely reasonable but it wasn’t entirely unreasonable either.

In the arbitration discussions, US Airways representation basically went “hardline” and drilled in on a date of hire seniority integration and avoided discussing any ways to come to a compromise using mechanisms that would give each side some protection and some opportunity.  Fencing routes and/or aircraft was one way this could have been handled and the most senior of each pilot group could have had their retirement protected reasonably well.

But the hardline negotiations on the part of the US Airways group led to the arbitrator having to make a tough ruling that blended each group with a relative date of hire integration.  This solution had some fairly junior America West captains sitting in front of some fairly senior US Airways captains (as an example.)

US Airways pilots went livid and used the nuclear option.  They held a new union representation election and formed a new independent union called USAPA.  They were able to do this because they actually outnumbered America West pilots.  Essentially, US Airways pilots didn’t like the binding arbitration and had a rare opportunity to stick it to everyone and did so.

This breakaway and the lack of seniority integration has been litigated in court ever since between the two pilot groups.  Doug Parker and his executive team have very wisely stayed far, far away from this problem the whole time.  They’re not even sure who they should legally engage in negotiations with and have (rightly) offered the opinion that the pilots had to get their act together first.  The pilots have been unable to do so for more than 5 years.

Frankly, my own opinion is that a court should have made a decision that looked like this:

• The pilots may organize in any way they wish including creating an independent union.  However,
• The pilots must integrate according to the ALPA/Nicolau seniority integration arbitration decision before anything else occurs.  Binding arbitration that results in a decision should be enforced otherwise binding arbitration isn’t binding.
• After the seniority integration is implemented, the pilots may work out their contracts and future seniority issues among themselves and with the company leadership.

Under that scenario, no one gets their cake and the chance to eat it too.

Now, there is a reason why most pilots actually view the US Airways / AA merger as a good thing.  There is now federal law which governs a seniority integration which didn’t exist when America West bought US Airways.  This law works fairly well.  Not perfectly but it does get the job done and that’s important.

American Airlines pilots are very senior and know that under that federal law they’ll do pretty well.  If they do pretty well and the new airline is successful, their future is pretty secure and that’s what a pilot wants.

America West pilots know that they’ll do pretty well because the merger framework pretty much raises their incomes to levels never thought of before because the baseline for those wages will be AA pilot wages.  Even if they lose some positions in seniority, everyone makes a lot more money.  Best of all, USAPA almost certainly goes away as a union and that is an emotional win for America West pilots.  (I would argue that while USAPA is pretty awful as a union, they aren’t exactly upgrading big with AA’s Allied Pilots Association.)

US Airways (Old) pilots are very senior and know that they’ll do pretty well under the federal law as seniority integration goes and they, too, get a big raise.

All three parties in this know that they don’t have to deal with a multi-year mess of seniority integration if this deal is made because the McCaskill Bond statute provides adequate framework for a fairly timely seniority integration.  No union leadership in this battle has to “fight” because there is only so much that can be fought for under the law now.  Notice that in the United / Continental merger there really wasn’t much “fight” between the unions as there were few areas where any “fight” could occur.

So despite the naysayers predicting a mess of seniority integration, that’s not really true.  It will happen and the worse case scenario is that everyone gets a pay raise and gets a fairly secure future with an airline that can compete globally.  More so, Doug Parker and his team also know this and also know that if they present a deal that gets everyone a bit of what they want in a worst case scenario, they’ll be integrated in fairly short time.  They can do this deal and succeed in the labor area without much fear and most creditors know this by now.

Filed under: Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax
No Comments »

A few weeks ago, American Airlines introduced a new fare structure and I recently had time to view AA’s fares and the structures on their website for travel between Portland, OR and Dallas, TX.

Airlines and particularly American Airlines, have tried to change how fares are priced before and generally with little success.  Other airlines are reluctant to engage in fare pricing structure changes that don’t give them parity or advantage against other airlines when it comes to bottom line price.

What American Airlines is doing is creating new fare structures that are based on bundled services they can sell individually.  These are not new fees, they are fare structures and it’s important to remember that.

I’m not a fan of the way fees have been introduced at most airlines over the past 5 years.  In some areas, I think the approach has been OK.  For instance, I think charging for food and alcohol in economy class was ultimately a wise move for two reasons:  First, food is one of those things that is taken whether it really is desired or not and that raises costs.  When you charge for it, you get only those who truly want it requesting it.  Second, by charging for the food, the airline can plan for a demand and not board too much food.  If you add more food to a flight than necessary, costs go up as a result of weight (yes, weight of that food does cost money in terms of fuel) and as a result of wastage.

I like charging for the advantage of boarding early.  It’s a fee that I’ve willingly paid on Southwest Airlines because I’m a tall, big man and having the advantage to get settled into a seat and make myself comfortable is worth money to me.

Charging for seat position is something I’m largely neutral on.  When the seat truly is an upgrade, I think charging for it is fine.  When you’re charging for exit aisle seats just because there is inherently a couple of inches of more legroom because it’s required, I don’t like it.

I do think that airlines need to address family needs with fees for boarding early and seat position.  I would suggest a reduced cost fee that covers families with 3 to 5 traveling.  When a family larger than 5 is traveling, they’ll often split up anyway.  3 to 5 allows two parents with a kid to get an optimum seating position for travel and as many as 2 parents and 3 kids can situate themselves optimally.

I hate baggage fees.  I think these are wrong on many levels and could be structured very differently with better results for all concerned.  First off, I think charging for any checked items is wrong.  Passengers are inherently traveling which means they must carry some luggage.  I think the first bag checked on any airline should be free.  I think that airlines should adhere to a strict policy of allowing a coat and one personal item to be carried onboard for free.  If you want to carry on additional luggage, it should be $30/bag.  If you want to check more than one bag, it should be $20 / bag.  Those who want the convenience and assurance of carrying on their luggage should pay considerably for it because it is a convenience.  Checked baggage isn’t a convenience, it’s a reality.

At first glance, I like what AA has done.  You can buy a base fare with no added services involved and conduct your travel just as you have been.  You can buy up and get a free checked bag, the ability to change your ticket without fee and priority boarding.  That’s a $68 increase in fare cost and is named Choice Essential.  Let’s break out the values of that:

• The checked baggage each way we know is worth $50 ($25 / bag each way).
• Group 1 priority boarding is probably worth about $10 if we use what Southwest charges for a similar opportunity.
• If the first two items have a value of $60 total, then the “insurance” against the need to change your ticket is worth about $8.00 and that strikes me as about right for such a thing.

So is it worth it?  I actually think it is.  This is a fare that I would likely pay for most of my trips.  I really think this adds value appropriately and it’s a bundle structure that other airlines should consider emulating.

There is an $88 fare upgrade (Called Choice Plus) that offers same day flight change and a free premium beverage in addition to the already named advantages.   This bundle has potential for business travelers but I think that the real value in this is the opportunity to do a same day flight change.  For today’s business traveler, I’m not sure this is much value, however.

Today’s airline road warrior generally is able to change their ticket for different travel anyway.  Even if they aren’t, the costs accrue to their companies rather than themselves and that means a traveler isn’t inclined to be worried about those fees in many cases.  Furthermore, that same road warrior typically carries their briefcase/purse and a rollaboard onto the airplane so they can bypass the baggage claim at their destination.  (Longtime readers will know that I think this is silly behavior but let’s not digress.)  In addition, many frequent fliers have arrangements that already permit them one or more free checked bags.   So when it comes to Choice Plus, here is what I think your real values are:

• Checked bag:  No real value (to most users)
• Ability to change ticket:  $8.00 (we’ve valued this above already)
• Group 1 priority boarding:  $10.00 (we’ve valued this above already)
• Free Premium Beverage:  $8.00 (this could vary but that price is fair at the least.)
• Same Day Flight Change:  $62.00 ($88 minus the above values of $26 equals $62)

I’m not feeling this “choice” as a big value.  Some business travelers might find it a value to be able to change their tickets and that value might go up depending on how AA treats its frequent fliers at various status levels going forward.

Bottom Line:  Choice Essentials feels like a pretty good bundle for both the business and casual traveler.  I like it on many levels.

I would like to see more bundling and I think fare bundling can work really well if airlines get their IT systems together to handle this.  It’s a good first start but I do think there are other opportunities out there to create more value bundles that work for more people.

Filed under: Airline Fees by ajax
No Comments »

Airfarewatchdog.com has a survey indicating that American Airlines has the rudest employees followed closely by United Airlines and then to a lesser extent Delta and US Airways.

It comes as no surprise that the legacy airlines would have these higher “rudeness” ratings given the trials that their service staff have been through in comparison to others.

But there is more to it, in my opinion.  These top dogs are legendary for being micro-managers of their service staff.  There is no empowerment at these organizations that permits employees to solve problems and win customers.  There is a fear that employees will give away the farm if permitted to do so.

Curiously, that has never been the case at Southwest Airlines where employees are quite empowered.  Employees know when someone is trying to scam their airline and generally will defend the airline and its values quite well when given the chance.  Employees know that just handing things out to placate people isn’t the answer in many cases and they do know that the more they hand out, the more impact it has on the profitability of the company and therefore their salaries.

But I also think that legacy airline infrastructures just don’t care very much about service.  They see themselves as selling a commodity rather than a service.

Is an airline trip a commodity to you?  Or a service you’re buying?

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
1 Comment »

I’ve watched this unfold much as anyone else has and there is one peculiar observation I have.

Am I the only one to notice that Doug Parker & company have largely kept their mouths shut in the merger process while virtually all other parties keep trying to find ways into the public eye?

Am I the only one to notice that AA CEO Tom Horton seems to be working overtime to speak about this merger opportunity?

We continually here Tom Horton portray himself neutrally when speaking to news media.  Yet when he has an opportunity to make a company communication, there is always a tone that leads me to believe that he’s less than happy with the merger idea being pressed upon him.

And it is curious to me that Horton’s “private” comments about the merger opportunity get leaked to the press pretty frequently whereas Doug Parker and his team really have largely just kept their mouths closed.

I’m tempted to think that Tom Horton protests too much in this and tend to interpret his behavior as somewhat desperate.  This may in fact not be the case at all.  The truth is, what’s going on behind closed doors is pretty much unknown by all.

But the more I notice Doug Parker’s silence, the more I think that he’s managed to pretty much corner this deal and it is his to lose at this point.

Filed under: Trivia by ajax
No Comments »

Spirit Airlines is blaming a collision between an A320 of its own and a US Airways A320 parked on a remote ramp in Ft. Lauderdale on New Year’s Eve.  Spirit says its pilots weren’t warned of the aircraft being parked there.

I have a somewhat grudging admiration for how Spirit manages its PR in these situations.  They are the teenage kid who says outrageous things and denies responsibility for problems it does cause.

But let’s take note of a few facts.  First, ATC isn’t responsible for warning taxiing aircraft of properly parked aircraft on ramps.

Second, pilots and most specifically the captain, are responsible for watching where they are taxiing their aircraft.   In this case, the Spirit aircraft didn’t back into the aircraft, it struck the tail of the US Airways aircraft as it was passing by.  It’s true that care has to be exercised when taxiing on ramps but it is the responsibility of the taxiing aircraft to pay attention to its surroundings.

Third, LiveATC.net has captured audio of another Spirit aircraft warning of tight quarters just before the collision.

Look, it’s an accident and it probably isn’t one bit funny to US Airways whose aircraft suffered significant damage.  But these things do happen and this one probably didn’t happen because the Spirit captain wasn’t paying attention.  It isn’t easy to taxi these aircraft and there is a reason why the captain is made responsible for this duty.

Blaming it on air traffic control is just silly, however.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
No Comments »

I’m often struck by how many successful investors have often described their choices in who to invest in being based upon their own personal experiences with a product.  Time and again, one of these people tries a product and realizes that someone has something worth betting on.

For those who may invest in American Airlines and particularly at this time, I would ask that you try the product out.  Read my trip reviews found HERE and HERE.

Don’t fly in First Class.  Don’t schedule a trip known to AA management.  Buy an economy class ticket for a flight of a duration of 2 hours or more and make a decision based upon your experiences and contrast those experiences with those on other airlines.

American Airlines may have largely fixed its cost problems but it hasn’t addressed its service problems at all.  Service will be what determines the airline’s ultimate success.  Service is what attracts revenue, not cost cutting.

Consider the value proposition AA is offering in comparison to other airlines and particularly those it is competing against.

US Airways may have its problems but it doesn’t have AA’s problems.  It attracts customers on price and it keeps them by doing what it contracts to do.  It competes against the likes of Southwest and Delta all the time and it makes money.  It makes money because it does deliver on the service and value propositions.

Ask yourself if the status quo that exists today at American is the status quo that wins in the marketplace here in the United States.  Consider that despite having a very senior and very well paid service staff and crew, Southwest accomplishes what AA can’t every day.  It does it day after day and has expanded its revenue growth and still has managed to earn a profit.

Contrast the experiences with Delta who is arguably kicking everyone’s butt in the business currently.  It is these intangibles that have always determined the success of an airline.

Yes, it’s important to be competitive on costs but you can’t win if you can’t compete on the service and value side.

Now, ask yourself if the status quo is who should be running American Airlines going forward out of bankruptcy.  Some say that the executive team has changed and that it is leaner and more responsive.  I would argue that we simply have Version 3.0 of the same leadership the airline has enjoyed for 15 years and that this version shows no evidence of being anymore sensitive to the service and value side of the business than the previous regimes.

AA needs new leadership and it needs leadership that can change those service and value propositions.  Even if that leadership is not US Airways management, those in charge today need to go and new people need to come in and change the airline to a model that wins.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
No Comments »

Let’s get on with the second part of this trip review:

American Airlines Flight 1905 (EWR – DFW)
Scheduled Departure Time:  05:05pm  Actual Departure Time:  Cancelled
Scheduled Arrival Time:  08:10pm  Actual Arrival Time:  Cancelled

Yes, it was cancelled.  Here is the actual flight:

American Airlines Flight 2705 (EWR – DFW)
Scheduled Departure Time:  07:10pm  Actual Departure Time:  07:49pm
Scheduled Arrival Time:  10:05pm  Actual Arrival Time:  10:24pm

I was monitoring my flight status from the start of the day as well as the flight status of several family members.  My flight suddenly showed cancelled at around 1pm of that day and I had to call AA to find out what was going on.

After spending yet another frustrating 10 minutes fighting through the goo that is AA’s voice activated system for determining what you don’t want to do, I got a reservations agent.  After a couple of minutes of working with this agent, she determined that she couldn’t help me because the trip was booked on AAdvantage Miles.  So I got transferred to a new agent.

I did not find this funny.  To battle an automated system for 10 minutes and then to work with a reservations agent for another 10 minutes only to be told “please hold while I get you the AAdvantage desk” is just not amusing.

The next woman indicated that I had been re-booked on the next flight out.  I was OK with this since it meant I was still departing the same day and just  a couple of hours later.  I wasn’t amused by the fact that my seat had changed from 10A to 25E.

Me:  “Let me get this straight.  You’ve cancelled the flight and think I’m happy with sitting in seat 25E which is in the back of the aircraft and in the middle?”

Res Agent:  “Sir, it isn’t in the back of the aircraft.  It’s actually in the middle of the aircraft.”

Me:  “I’ve flown the MD-80 aircraft since you guys put it into your fleet.  Seat 25 is just a couple of rows from the rear galley and a middle seat isn’t amusing to a man who is 6′ 2″ tall and 270lbs.”

You be the judge.  Here is the SeatGuru map. I’m just going to note that row 25 has 24 rows in front of it and 7 rows behind it.  But apparently AA thinks it is in the middle of the aircraft.

After an interesting exchange between myself and the AAdvantage agent which involved holding for a while while she checked on things, I got Seat 12A offered to me.  Much better.

Arrival at EWR (Newark Liberty International Airport) found me once again stepping into the swirling mess that is AA right away.  The gate agent found it difficult to print 2 baggage tags for my bags because, at first, she couldn’t find me on the flight at all.

TSA had a Priority Access lane that, once again, didn’t save me any time at all.  Particularly so when TSA is permitting people left and right to claim imminently departing flights and by-pass the line.  After several had done this, I began to suspect that locals have figured out that this is the real way to have Priority Access.  I can’t prove it but I do suspect it.

As I arrived at the gate, I checked my flight status app on my phone and saw that the flight had a new flight plan filed for a delayed departure.  I approached the gate agent and asked about the delay and was told that I didn’t know what I was talking about and of course the flight would leave on time.

Roughly 10 minutes later, maybe less, this same agent was announcing that there would be a delay in the departure because the aircraft suffered a bird strike on the inbound approach and had to be inspected prior to going back into service.

It was another 25 minutes before I saw any mechanics go out to the aircraft to look at the airplane.

Once we boarded, the exact same Dance of the Privileged Passengers took place.  In fact, it was as if I was back in Dallas leaving for Newark 2 days earlier.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on what it means to carry your luggage on to the aircraft.  I am an ardent supporter of checking bags on flights.  Baggage doesn’t go getting lost with any meaningful statistical frequency.  I have been flying since 1968 and in all of that time my baggage was lost exactly once.  I’ve guessed that I have traveled roughly 3 to 4 million miles in that time.  It isn’t worth taking your life’s possessions on board, it really isn’t.  I can’t tell you how often I arrive at an airport, wait for my bag at the baggage claim and then find myself walking past those who didn’t check bags as they wait for their rides curbside.  This makes you people look silly.

But if you insist on carrying your luggage onto the aircraft, observe the rules.  For instance, one personal item (purse, briefcase, etc) and one bag means that.  It doesn’t mean, for instance, a purse, an oversize rollaboard that doesn’t fit and 2 large boxes from Macy’s.  And, no, I won’t remove my small briefcase and light jacket from the overhead bin so you can park your possessions in various places throughout the aircraft.

American Airlines:  If you’re going to have rules, you’re going to have to enforce them.  Or remove the rules and let the games begin.  I actually think you would earn more revenue and experience fewer delays if you charged someone $25 to bring their rollaboard into the aircraft.  Seriously, charge *those* people for carrying luggage.  You’ll stop the chaos in boarding and earn more money, I would wager.  Offer one free checked bag, charge for additional checked bags and charge for a carry-on.

After the flight took off, we had another Chatty Captain who described in painful detail how we were going to fly the entire route and that we would be pushing against the jetstream the entire way so we would likely run very late.  In fact, the return trip took about 1 hour longer than the one going to Newark.

The truth is, my trip back to Dallas was very similar to the one to Newark.  Right down to lethargic flight attendants doing a beverage service.  Out of sheer curiosity to find out what would happen, I asked for a sandwich again.  This time, I did get one (Roast Beef) but only after taking the chance to remind the flight attendant I had asked for one when she leaned over my seat to reach the person behind me.

The sandwich was . . . OK.  Nothing special but I could taste meat and other items and it was filling enough.  About what I expected for my money.   I was satisfied with it and would argue that a better sandwich would, in fact, require a higher price.

Arrival at the airport found us disembarking from a gate that was inexplicably many, many gates away from an open entry/exit point in Terminal A at DFW.  While walking towards the indicated open exit point, I asked some service agents how much farther did I have to walk to the exit, 6 or 7 more miles, and they just laughed heartily.  What is annoying is that I checked the gates near the open exit point.  All but one were empty.  In other words, AA could have parked their aircraft near an open exit point and prevented a long hike late in the evening.

Once I had my baggage and walked past those who had carried all theirs onto the aircraft, I was able to flag a Parking Spot van immediately and get to my car in just 8 minutes.  I was home just 50 minutes after arriving at the airport and I live a great distance from DFW airport in the Metroplex.

Summary:

• Boarding experience:  B-
• Flight Crew experience:  B- (hey, I got my sandwich)
• Onboard Seating experience:  D (Because there is no reason for this discomfort on a airliner today)

• Departure / Arrival experience:  C+  (routing your flight through the jetstream was just stupid.)

Final thoughts:

On both flights I was struck by one thought over and over again.  I don’t ever experience this kind of poor attitude, poor behavior, and awful service when I fly Southwest Airlines.

Nominally, when you fly American Airlines you are supposed to be flying a full service airline.  When flying Southwest, you’re supposed to be flying a cut-rate airline.  In fact, the opposites are true.  Let’s compare:

Aircraft Quality

Southwest has clean, well maintained and fairly new 737 aircraft.
American Airlines has some new 737 aircraft but after having them for over 10 years, I’ve yet to have flown on one.  I am always on a MD-80.  That isn’t chance, that is because they can fly them from DFW to just about all points in the US and because AA has a stranglehold on the DFW O&D market, they know they can impose this condition on its customers.

Aircraft Seating

Southwest has extremely comfortable leather seating with more average seat pitch than just about any legacy or SuperLegacy airline.  Yes, they’re updating their seats to fit more on the aircraft and I will say that time will tell if these are as comfortable.  They could be and I do have some faith that SWA knows it’s wise not to diminish the seating experience for their customers.  American Airlines on the other hand just has the most outdated, uncomfortable seating available.  It’s that simple.  There might be some seats on the 737s or 777s that are better but that doesn’t describe the vast majority of the fleet.

Service Staff

Southwest’s staff tends to be moderately friendly, fairly interested in solving a problem and ready to help.  Onboard, their flight attendants are usually the right combination of “in charge” and “service oriented”.  Yes, they’re only serving a minor snack and beverage but they somehow make it seem important that it be done timely and right.  American Airlines service staff are surly, resentful and fairly uninterested in solving a problem or even having the correct facts about a flight.   Flight attendants onboard tend to be very senior and very resentful of passengers and their situation.  They are clearly uninterested in serving beverages or food.  I’ve had more than one scold me with “We’re hear primarily for your safety!”  No you aren’t.  You’re there to be in service of the customer and to act in the event an emergency requires strong supervision of passengers.  98% of the time spent performing your job is to keep the passenger happy.

Value

Look, Southwest isn’t “cheap” anymore.  That said, they are competitive on price and when you consider the experience, the convenience and the ability to get someplace on time, they’re high value.  They don’t charge for checking bags and what they do charge fees for makes sense and are priced appropriately.  American Airlines is just bad.  Their fares are high, their service value is the worst around presently.  It’s that simple.  There isn’t a value proposition to flying AA in my opinion unless you’re burning unused air miles.

Tomorrow:  A suggestion for investors in American Airlines

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
8 Comments »

For long time readers, it will come as a surprise that I flew American Airlines anywhere.  Relax, this was a trip made on award points. I confess that I did regard this as an opportunity to re-check my thoughts regarding travel on American Airlines.

I scheduled myself to fly from DFW (Dallas / Fort Worth) to EWR (Newark, NJ) for my brother’s wedding.  When checking the schedule, I noticed right off that, once again, the flights available for this route all included what I like to refer to as the Ubiquitous MD-80.  Mostly MD-83 aircraft.

I despise the American Airlines MD-80 fleet.  They are old, very old, compared to virtually any other legacy airline fleet in the United States.  They are not well kept aircraft and lack any cabin updates that would be described as meaningful.  Their seats are extremely dated and you have to love (not) a seat that you can sit on and actually feel the support structure through the cushion.

It’s true that I’ve always liked the 3-2 seating configuration in this aircraft because only 1/5 of all seats are middle seats instead of 1/3.  That said, I readily acknowledge that the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 fuselage is not the most economical around and should have drifted away to retirement about 20 years ago.  China’s COMAC who is building the ARJ21 should take note.

There is a reason why the AA MD-80 fleet is seeing more and more mid-air engine shutdowns and other problems that are cancelling and grounding flights.  It isn’t well maintained.  Yes, the MD-80 is built like a brick outhouse but if it isn’t maintained in the manner of, say, Delta, it starts to deteriorate badly.

On my outbound trip, I watched another AA MD-83 lineup and do a full power take-off while we waited on the ramp for our turn.  This aircraft was a former TWA aircraft as it had the “TW” suffix to its registration.  It made it about 1/4 of the way down the runway, clearly suffered a problem as it appeared that thrust on the aircraft wasn’t equal and suddenly the aircraft did a rejected take-off and quite quickly took a high speed exit from the runway.

If AA pilots are feeling frustrated by this aircraft, I feel your pain.

So, let’s kick off the outbound segment of this trip.

American Airlines Flight 1554 (DFW – EWR)
Scheduled Departure Time:  11:40am  Actual Departure Time:  12:12pm
Scheduled Arrival Time:  03:49pm  Actual Arrival Time:  03:45pm

Arrival at DFW airport was smooth and I almost always use The Parking Spot on the north side of the airport because A) it’s far less expensive, B) I can get into the terminals as fast or faster than DFW long term parking and C) I can remember the name of the place.

I made it to the terminal and checked both my bags and then found myself killing some time because I actually arrived faster than I even planned thanks to a quick driver at the Parking Spot.  The terminal was fairly crowded and I’ve come to despise the bottlenecks at DFW known as the TSA.

DFW’s design isn’t TSA friendly and I get that it is expensive to run many entry points to DFW but, hey, that’s the design of the airport and better to accommodate it or redesign it.  In AA’s case, they just live with it.

I entered the line with AA Priority Access privileges and despite bypassing roughly 2/3’s of the crowd, it still took me approximately 15 minutes to pass through TSA.  I find it disappointing that after 11 years we still are removing shoes, belts, jackets and other items of clothing to get through security.  Even more disappointing with the new(ish) scanners in lieu of being sexually assaulted.  Yes, I used the scanner.  The backscatter scanners are quick(ish) but really don’t save anyone any time since we’re still removing our clothing, our jewelry, our wallets and our dignity.

The Dance of the Privileged Passengers aka boarding the aircraft was somewhat delayed and when begun, it was slow due to gate agents more interested in frantically locating standby passengers than, you know, filling the aircraft with those who were there.

First hint for AA:  Manage your standby passengers better and when you have more than 30 people waiting to go standby, make the call for the passenger once, maybe twice and move on to the next.  Don’t spend 10 minutes making repetitive announcements requesting that Johnny Doe please come to the counter for his standby ticket.  If Johnny isn’t interested enough in getting on the flight to be standing at the ready to get his ticket, move on to someone who is.

Despite Priority Access for this flight, I boarded after roughly 1/3 of the flight had already boarded.  It’s shocking how many people boarded for first class.  I counted 21 people going through as first class passengers.   The problem with that is that there are only 16 first class seats on that aircraft.  Right, so the gate agents weren’t really paying attention to whether or not it was someone’s turn.  I suspect this was true as well for Executive Platinum and Gold passengers given the number of those who went through.

Next hint for AA:  Don’t do this Dance of the Privileged Passengers unless you are truly willing to enforce who gets on by status.  Otherwise, it becomes a farce in which the dishonest are awarded with early boarding.  Although, one does question the sanity of a person who wants onto an AA flight early.

Passengers boarded in a disorganized and frantic fashion while literally claiming overhead bin space for their overstuffed carry-on bag as much as 5 or 6 rows away from arriving at their seat.  I boarded with a small briefcase and jacket.  Many seemed to be carrying considerably more than intended by current rules.  For instance, I’m pretty sure that a large purse, backpack and carry-on rollaboard was a bit over the line.

The flight finally departed the gate, struggled to the runway 100% full and did an exceptionally high powered takeoff to the north that took a fair bit of runway nonetheless.

We climbed fairly quickly, achieved cruise altitude pretty quickly and after the Chatty Captain finished his lengthy description of his flight plan, the flight attendants went to work doing their beverage service.

This beverage service was amusing to watch.  I was in seat 12A which was the 6th row back in economy. With 2 flight attendants working this service, you would expect it to move along reasonably well paced despite the full load of passengers.

You’d be wrong.  I timed it.  It took 38 minutes to reach me and offer me a beverage.  I requested and got orange juice and asked if there was food available.  There was in the form of either a roast beef or chicken sandwich.  I was hungry and asked for the roast beef sandwich while trying to offer my credit card.

I’m still waiting for that sandwich.  Folks across the aisle from me aren’t waiting for theirs.  Theirs came roughly 5 minutes after their request.   Another hint for American:  If you want to sell things on board and earn extra revenue, then deliver what’s been requested.  Furthermore, don’t make it hard to get later.   Seriously, you have to act like you want to sell the stuff to get people to buy it.

The aircraft arrived in New Jersey quickly taking just 2 hours, 33 minutes as a result of some very fast tailwinds that day.  Somehow my butt was still quite sore after what is a fairly short trip time.  I believe it was the metal structure it was riding on due to very worn cushion material.  I’m not one of those guys who minds thin cushions.  I don’t.  Airtran had fairly thin cushioning but it was cushioning.

Summary:

• Boarding experience:  B-
• Flight Crew experience:  C
• Onboard Seating experience:  D (Because there is no reason for this discomfort on a airliner today)

• Departure / Arrival experience:  A (but you got lucky with a high speed jetstream pushing the aircraft AA.)

Tomorrow, the return trip.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
No Comments »

I’m going to New Jersey. On yet another ubiquitous MD-80 that looks as if it was rode hard and put up wet.

10 years ago.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
3 Comments »

The people at Brussels Airlines decided to play a nice trick on a few passengers while they waited for the luggage.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag9Y6RQcbEc&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]

Filed under: Trivia by ajax
No Comments »