Every year I have someone in my circle of friends and family decry how risky it is to check baggage and everyone has an unsubstantiated story of lost luggage.  While it is true that luggage can get lost, it happens far less often than is ever portrayed.  I have been traveling by airline since I was 2 years old and my luggage was “lost” twice.  At one point in my life, I traveled more as a teenager than most seasoned road warriors of today.  Statistically, you are very unlikely to have a misplaced bag and if you do experience lost luggage, it generally can be available in as little as 6 hours. 

 

Some time ago, I wrote this POST about luggage.  It is a collection of strategies to mitigate against lost luggage.  Read it and practice it and you’ll be in a far better position to experience a happy holiday trip.  Because of baggage fees on most airlines, many recommend shipping your gifts rather than checking a bag.  In some respects, I agree.  However, it may be *cheaper* to take a bag along with gifts one way.

 

Many people have nesting suitcases.  Take a large one with your gifts and pay the fee to carry all your gifts.  Pack your clothes in the smaller one.  Once you get to your destination, hand your gifts out and pack your clothes suitcase inside the larger one and then check that back to home on your return trip.  You can also use a softside duffle bag that you can compress to fit inside your clothes suitcase for your return.   If you travel with someone else, see if you can pack one suitcase to check, one bag to carry *both* of your carry-on items and use one other small bag to carry gifts as a carry on. 

 

If you are carrying gifts, it is best to leave them unwrapped.  The TSA may well want to look at the item, especially if it is an electronic gift and you don’t want that gift wrap messed up do you?  Do yourself a favor and put them in your luggage in a manner that lets the TSA look at them and put them back neatly.  Use a TSA luggage lock as recommended in this post.  Such a lock allows the TSA to open your baggage, do their search and relock your luggage.  Most theft actually occurs while the airline is handling your bags, not the TSA.  A TSA lock keeps people honest.  Let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to just move to a bag without a lock than it is to defeat yours where you might be spotted.

 

Identify your luggage.  Put tags on the inside and outside of the bag.  If you’re using one of the Ubiquitous Black Roll On suitcases, mark it with a colorful strap of some kind so you *know* it is your bag coming into the baggage claim and so others know it is *not* their bag.  

 

Best of all, if you know you’ll be checking your bag, get to the airport a bit earlier than usual so that the bag(s) have time to move through the system and to the aircraft.   If you must connect to another flight in another city, try to schedule those connection with 1 1/2 hour of connection time or more.  That gives you some lee way to make a flight if you are late and it lets your bags make that same flight if you are late.   Isn’t it better to spend an hour in the airport reading than it is to have to return to an airport to claim a lost bag a day later?

 

 

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Airtran Airlines has announced that it will begin charging for the 1st bag checked on their flights starting December 5th (2008) and those purchasing tickets on or before November 11th will not have to pay those fees.  In light of the fact that Delta recently announced its intent to implement such a fee, this really comes as no surprise. 

 

Clearly a la carte fees are the new model for air travel and while many can no longer be argued against, this 1st bag checked fee continues to rankle many travelers.  It is akin to charging a cafeteria customer for his tray.  However, since most airlines have adopted this fee, it will be difficult to escape it as a traveler.   I even wonder if Southwest will backtrack on its “no fees” campaign in light of the industry direction.   It will become increasingly difficult for Southwest to remain competitive in many markets by forgoing this revenue opportunity that virtually ever other competitor has adopted. 

 

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
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Today in the Sky, a USA Today Blog, has posted THIS story about United Airlines doubling their 2nd checked bag fee from $25 to $50.   Citing volatile oil prices and the fact that oil remains almost double what it was a year ago, United Airlines is raising this fee for a 2nd checked bag with the usual disclaimers (elite frequent flier members, business class passengers, etc don’t pay the fee.)

 

While the checked bag fees may be working for some airlines, it still strikes me as dishonest.  What United is saying essentially is that it costs them $50 to carry that second bag in addition to all the other fees you are now charged for flying their airline.  Not really true.  What they want is more revenue to fly profitably and I’ve no objection to them asking for that.  But to couch this as necessary for checking bags is just silly and fosters resentment from passengers. 

 

This fee affects a relatively small portion of travelers and will likely have the effect of simply reducing the number of 2nd bags checked.  Travelers will instead stuff more into a carry on and 1st bag. 

 

Please note that Southwest Airlines continues to charge no fees until the 3rd bag is checked.  All of these additional fees just leave a foul taste in one’s mouth over legacy airlines in general.  How long before they suggest tipping flight attendants in order to reduce their salaries?

 

 

Filed under: Airline News, Airline Service by ajax
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As an experiment today, I decided to go through the process of booking a flight and estimating the cost of the ticket and fees that might be associated with that trip.  To be fair and give a reasonable representation, I’m going to assume that I’ll enjoy a couple of beverages (but not liquor or beer since I don’t drink on flights as a general rule) and that I’ll be hungry.  To make it interesting, I chose to fly from DFW (where I live) to EWR (Newark Liberty International Airport and where my brother lives) and I’m going to choose 2 airlines for comparison.

 

To start, I visited American Airlines’ website because AA is, after all, the dominant carrier in my home town and most likely to offer a variety of flights that are non-stop.  A reasonable person seeks out non-stop first, right?

 

I found a flight leaving on a Friday morning and a flight returning on a Monday morning so that I could visit for the weekend.  After entering my preferred criteria, AA shows me a set of flights that, to my surprise, are labeled as being $164.00.  I’m feeling good suddenly.  I chose the outbound flight and it then asks me to select a return flight.  Hmm, there is that same fare so I choose an early morning return for the same price.  It felt like my roundtrip fare was $164 the way it was presented even though I actually know better from my own extensive experience.  The presentation gets one’s hopes up I suspect.

 

It wasn’t.  It was $164 each way for total of $328 and that, my friends, was as super saver fare.  The standard Economy saver fare (still not the full economy fare and therefore still subject to some restrictions) was $876 each way for a total of $1752. 

 

Now, my super saver economy fare was to also be taxed $21.00 for fees levied by various governments.  Now I’m up to $349.00.  Mind you, that’s what it has cost to simply book the flight and let me note that if I want a paper ticket (which would be unreasonable today but wasn’t just 8 years ago), I would pay an additional $25 and I would only have that option *if* I lived in a country where paper ticketing was required such as a Latin American nation.  Yes, they’ll let you pay $25 to receive a ticket if you live in a country where e-ticketing isn’t permitted. 

 

Now, since I’m flying to visit my brother, I plan to bring him a few things and since we tend to go out and enjoy ourselves, I’ll be taking my larger suitcase and need to check that bag.  The first checked bag fee is $15.  In some respects people have been seeing that as almost reasonable.  How reasonable does it look when you realize that you pay that fee EACH WAY?  Yup.  $30 for roundtrip baggage check of my bag.  If I were traveling with two bags to be checked (unreasonable), it would cost a total of $80 each way to transport two bags (and they still have to be under 50lbs each.)

 

So, just to plan, I’ll need to find out what my food and beverage costs will be for this trip.  I’ll be wanting a couple of soft drinks or cups of juice each way and it turns out that on AA, this will be complimentary for me.  GREAT! 

 

Both of my flights will be morning departures and it would be nice to eat a meal enroute so that I don’t empty my brother’s cupboard or force him to stop at a Nathan’s as soon as I get there.  It doesn’t have to be a big meal or a hot meal, just a good sandwich or something similar for a breakfast item.  Checking AA, I find that I have these options for my morning flights:

Snacks for $3.00

• 4oz of mixed nuts
• A 4oz MegaCookie (i’ll be choosing this.)

 

Snacks for $4.00

• Cheese and crackers (not for breakfast!)

 

Breakfast Sandwiches for $6.00 each.

• Breakfast Bagel Sandwich
  Enjoy a plain bagel topped with slices of roasted turkey breast and mild muenster cheese. This sandwich is served with a side of Hellman’s® mayonnaise and dijonnaise mustard.
• Club Croissant Sandwich
  Savor a freshly baked croissant topped with thinly sliced roasted turkey breast and aged cheddar cheese, garnished with crisp green leaf lettuce. Hellman’s® mayonnaise served on the side.

 

Neither of those sandwiches are very appealing but let’s assume I’m hungry enough to get one.  My meal costs each way will be $9.00 for a total of $18.00 roundtrip.  But, hey, I get a free Coca Cola right?

 

So, to take this trip on American Airlines, it will cost me $397 and that doesn’t seem too bad all in all.  However, let’s say my brother and I have just too good of a time and I want to return a day later.   That would cost me a whopping $150 change fee *and* the difference in fares.  Since it would be a morning flight, it’s safe to assume that I’ll be paying full economy fare and that would mean a one day change would cost me $1137. 

 

Now, let’s take a look at taking a different airline.  Since I have done this trip once before on Airtran, I’ve chosen them as my economy option.  It will require me to connect through Atlanta but my departure and arrival times are actually quite close to the non-stop AA flights so I’m happy enough with that.

 

First, I discover that my travel fare options include a super saver fare for $164 each way or a total of $370 roundtrip with taxes.  The taxes and fees for this choice were a stunning $43.00 higher.  Not a good start.  There is some good news though.  Airtran will let me check that first bag for free so I save $30 and find myself at this point with a total cost savings of $9.00 over AA right now.

 

But I will be hungry so let’s check out the options on Airtran.   Hmmm, no food except a complimentary snack of pretzels (which I only know from experience as it is not shown on their website.).  I’ll have to buy some food at an airport and I think that if we assume that I’ll purchase something resembling breakfast at McDonald’s, I’ll probably pay about $4.50 for a couple of sausage biscuits or breakfast burritos (and I’ll enjoy them more too just from my own experience.)  Let’s call my food charges an additional $10 just to be safe. 

 

My all in price on Airtran will be $380 vs AA’s price of $397 for a savings of $17.00 overall.  Now, which would I actually choose?  That’s tough to say.  Airtran offers XM satellite radio which I like a lot but I do own a MP3 player and I would very likely bring it along anyway so that doesn’t compel me towards Airtran.  I do prefer Airtran’s seating, particularly on their 737’s which use a Recaro seat that is a great deal more comfortable than AA’s economy seat.  That *might* compel me to choose Airtran. 

 

However, Airtran also offes a business class upgrade at the gate for pretty cheap prices per segment.  Assuming I could get it for 2 of the 4 segments, it would only cost me $69 each segment or a total of $138.  That is compelling.  In my experience, you need only arrive about 1.25 hours before your departure time and you can usually get these seats.  Flying Business Class gets me a nice seat and that is it though.  For a man like me at 6’1″ with long legs and weighing 275lbs, it’s nice to be a bit more comfortable and I would probably take that upgrade for two flight segments.  So, I would pay $518 total to fly travel an extra hour but be comfortable.  You might choose otherwise. 

 

My point here is that cheap economy fares are pretty much the same no matter what the airline.  At least on trunk routes.  It might be possible to save a dollar here and there but more often it isn’t.  Airtran’s approach strikes me as more honest in that while I do pay the same base fare, I don’t pay for the first bag checked (reasonable) and I do have some upgrade opportunities to a better seat.  I don’t get food but, then again, do I really want food from the airline?  In the real world I do not.  I’ll happily buy a burger or a breakfast at the airport because the food is not only cheaper but a bit more appetizing. 

 

Just for the record, I planned a similar trip from DFW to PDX (Portland, where my mother lives) for the same dates on both AA and Southwest Airlines.  Using the same criteria, here are the all in prices:

 

American Airlines:  $527 (including $21.00 in taxes and fees) for the ticket and a grand total of $575.00 (checked bag fees and meal prices included).

 

Southwest Airlines:  $469.00 (including $76.94 in taxes and fees) for the ticket and a grand total of . . . wait for it. . . $469.00.  Southwest has no baggage fees and they do not offer food.  Would I take SWA?  Nope.  Because it requires me to fly from DAL (Love Field) to ABQ (Albuquerque) and then to SLC (Salt Lake City) where I changes planes and fly on to Portland.  That’s a whipping and it’s just worth it to fly on AA’s decrepit MD-83 for only 3.5 hours to get there. 

In general, low cost carriers such as Southwest and Airtran are providing a slightly lower fare than the legacy carriers.  The difference in fares are mere dollars but that is because we examined economy super saver fares.  Want to know why those airlines soundly trounce legacy carriers?  Take a look at their business class fares.

 

DFW to EWR

AA:  $2902.00 all in.  Since it is business class, there will be no baggage fees and a decent meal will be provided. 

 

Airtran:  $1070.00 but since we’ll still have to buy a meal, let’s call it $1100.00 even. 

 

That is a savings of over $1800.  And it is the biggest reason why airlines such as American Airlines are doing everything possible to hold on to their valued frequent flier.  Sure, Airtran takes about 1.25 hours longer but if I’m running a business, my guys will be flying Airtran because with a savings of $1800, I don’t mind if they lose 2.5 hours of productivity. 

 

This is the real reason airlines such as American and United resent low cost carriers.   Low cost carriers set the price for the “fill” of the aircraft.  Which is the revenue they would not earn if they didn’t sell a seat at a discount price.  In addition, low cost carriers such as Airtran, Jet Blue and Frontier (and to a lesser extent, Southwest) are now competing for those business class passengers at prices legacy carriers can’t come close to. 

 

 

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
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The Dallas Morning News had This Story this morning.  It seems that Continental Airlines has found itself unable to resist charging a fee ($15) for the first piece of luggage to be checked.  It was encouraging to me that they had resisted this up to now and it is disappointing to see them join the band wagon.  No doubt the argument is that they are leaving money on the table by not charging this fee.  This also changes my mind some on the idea that someone will break away from this pattern among the legacy carriers.  These fees may be around for a lot longer than I originally thought.

 

 

Filed under: Airline News, Airline Service by ajax
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In the late 1990’s, I worked in a general contractor partnership with two other men.  We reached a particularly bad period where despite all our efforts, our clients weren’t giving us business.  After almost 2 months of giving ourselves $200 paychecks every other week, it was clear that it was time to do something else. 

 

Our particular situation seemed to be based on our costs.  Things like sheetrock and doors had been rising in costs to the point where it became necessary to raise our prices to support the work we did.  There were other competitors, one man shops with a pickup for an office, who were undercutting our bids just enough to win the business.  We faced a choice of lowering our prices to win the business and not have any money or to stand firm and not win the business.  Or so we thought.

 

One of my partners and I were motorcyclists and decided to take a ride during this period that lasted 18 hours.  At one point, we were taking a breather alongside a very quiet road and began talking about our business troubles.  We realized a couple of things that changed our game.  First, the people that were undercutting our business were formerly from larger construction companies setting out on their own.  They were winning on price, not quality and dependability.  Second, we had an operation that had grown some and no longer fit well with some of our clients. 

 

The next business day, we renewed our effort to check in with clients on a regular basis and continued to bid every job available.  By doing this, we began to underline our ability to a project better and for a reasonable price.  We also began to go out and seek new clients who better fit into our business.  This meant asking for the business and delivering exactly what we promised on each job.  The result was that old customers that continued to fit our model came back and we gained new customers who were looking for a company that performed.

 

This should sound remarkably familiar to those who follow the airline industry.  There has been a cycle of attempts to enter the industry by people thought they had a game changing business plan and some were successful while others haven’t been.  Jet Blue brought a new LCC model based on the Southwest turnaround and fleet efficiency but that was also focused on a higher level of comfort and service.  They introduced two types of fleets to right size their routes but stuck with only two in order to benefit from economies of scale. 

 

Skybus came about based on the single fleet, pay for everything model that Ryanair of Ireland built.  They promised rock bottom fares and engineered a plan to accomodate that by flying to secondary cities and airports that offered lower operational costs.  Skybus failed partly because of rising fuel costs but also from a failure to recognize that distances in the US make it much more inconvenient to fly into those secondary cities. 

 

Airlines who identify their niche and develop a plan for it are more likely to survive.  You cannot be all things to all people in this business because that means you have to compete against every other airline at the lowest common denominator.    Why would American Airlines wish to compete against Allegiant Airlines when doing so puts them at a competitive disadvantage?  Allegiant is based on a business model that addresses low frequency, leisure travel combined with ancillary revenue derived from charging for every convenience.  Their labor costs are low and their fleet capital costs are low.   American Airlines isn’t built to compete for that business.

 

Continental Airlines is an excellent example of a company serving the people that fit their niche.  It doesn’t operate a low cost airline, it operates a high frequency, high service system that serves business travelers.  They understand that maintaining a modern fleet with modern conveniences is important to that customer.  They fly where their customers want to go and worry a lot less about being all things to all people when it comes to destinations. 

 

Southwest Airlines has found itself evolving over these past several years.  Often identified with the first time flier in the past, business travelers have realized that Southwest Airlines offers something that many don’t:  dependability.  When they fly Southwest, they know that there is a very high degree of probability that they’ll be able to get to their destination on time and, often, closer to their needs in a particular city.   While Southwest still offers a very low fare compared to its customers and still attracts those first time fliers, they’ve also begun to serve the needs of the business traveler by remodeling their gate areas to offers business conveniences such as laptop power ports.  They are in the process of testing in flight internet connections for the business traveler as well. 

 

In contrast, you have United Airlines who has pursued the “be all to everyone” philosophy and it shows.  With a huge network to leisure destinations, they get soundly beat by other airlines who compete on price.  Their national and international business traveler destinations are served by older, unrefurbished equipment and their service model denies the conveniences a business traveler expects such as meals, beverages and even charging for checking the first bag.  Notice that Continental hasn’t ignored the incremental revenue from such fees in general (they charge $25 for the 2nd bag checked) but they haven’t offended the business traveler with 1st bag checked fees either. 

 

American Airlines and United Airlines have pursued a strategy that offends or, at the least, disappoints their core customers.  Continental, on the other hand, recognizes that the opportunity cost of forgoing that 1st bag fee is paid back in customer loyalty when it comes to choosing Continental. 

 

The last thing the business or frequent flyer wants to hear is that the airline resents them and wants more.  Indeed, many have said publicly that if an airline wants more money, charge a higher fare but don’t insult them by charging for a bottle of Ozarka water on a flight.  It strikes such people as petty and money grubbing.   At the same time, these travelers don’t need to be singled out as the ones to carry the burden of paying for a flight.   Don’t charge exorbitant business fares simply because the company is paying for it rather than traveler.  These business travelers are smart people and generally the ones traveling are some of the smartest.  They will begin to recognize that the fare to travel somewhere on business becomes inefficient at a certain point.

 

I suspect that it is time for airlines to begin eliminating some perks in the business class cabin as well.  Often the business cabin is occupied by many travelers who purchased full fare economy class tickets and used their frequent flier status to upgrade into that seat.  Airlines will have to begin to find ways to differentiate their service and charge accordingly.  Perhaps a full fare economy ticket should be upgradeable to an Economy Plus seat rather than a business class seat. 

 

Service is important to the frequent flier but what is that “service” that is most important?  Is it a hot meal?  A business class seat?  A friendly flight attendant?  No doubt each of those things has some importantance but I’d argue that the primary measure of service is whether or not you can dependanbly transport your customer from point A to point B on time.   That is, after all, what the airline is contracting to do.  Deliver that and the customers bags as well, and you’ll likely win their hearts and minds.

 

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
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