USA Today articles about airline fees and Southwest’s new flights from Dallas Love Field

USA Today recently published a couple of articles readers might find of interest.  The focus is on Southwest Airlines.

First up is the piece about fees charged by U.S. domestic carriers for services such as checked baggage, ticket changes, call-center reservations, and so on.  Certainly not to my surprise, Southwest Airlines is the only carrier that does not resort to relentless nickle-and-diming for services which were free not so long ago.

While bag and ticket change fees get the most attention, I think it's important that Southwest does not tack on an extra fee in order to make reservations and pay for tickets over the phone with a reservations sales agent.  (Call center agents cannot book internet-only fares, however.)  And a further benefit that accompanies that, is that as far as I know Southwest does not have out-of-the-U.S. call centers, so you do not have to struggle to understand agents with impenetrable accents.

Why would you want to book over the phone when you can book online?

Complex multi-city itineraries are complicated to complete online.  Also when you are making asymmetrical travel arrangements for different people with overlapping but not identical itineraries, it's easier to have a pro do it.  (Example: you are traveling round-trip from Sacramento to Chicago leaving 10 June returning 17 June but your partner is returning on 20 June.)

At one time Southwest was something of a regional carrier, but that is long past.  They serve the entire country and contrary to what some people say, they do have hubs (Phoenix, Las Vegas, Chicago Midway, Baltimore, Denver, and others with smaller operations).  If you are planning a trip that you know runs a high risk of having to be changed or canceled, you should strongly consider using Southwest even if the service isn't as good as on another carrier.  Why?  With the three big network carriers (American/US Airways, United, and Delta) all charging $200 to make changes to a nonrefundable domestic ticket, you will lose big time if you need to cancel or alter plans.
With Southwest on the other hand, you can cancel without penalty and apply the full value of the old ticket toward purchase of a new one.  You would only have to pay the difference in fare.  And you could handle the transaction with an easy-to-understand Southwest Airlines reservations agent.

The second article from USA Today is purely about Southwest and how in October and November it will be adding flights from Dallas Love Field to many cities.

For those not familiar with the subject, Love Field was the original airport for Dallas, but supplanted in the early 1970s by DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth).  A law called the Wright Act, sharply limited flights out of Love Field to only intra-Texas and neighboring states.  It made sense at the time, because the new DFW (less convenient to Dallas than Love Field) needed to grow its business.  However over the years it became anachronistic as DFW cemented its hold on travelers in north Texas, and as the area surrounding DFW became populous and a business hub itself.  (The story is quite similar to the opening of Washington Dulles Airport in 1962, and its relationship to Reagan National Airport.)

So the Wright Act will pass into history and Dallas Love Field will get a lot of new nonstop flights on Southwest to points much further on the map than Austin or Albuquerque.  For now only LAX, Orange County and San Diego in California are included in the expansion (on 2 November) but my guess is that Oakland will probably not be far behind.  And who knows, maybe even Sacramento one fine day?

Dallas Love Field will instantly become a mini-hub for Southwest connecting the West with the Midwest, East, and Southeast, and at an airport a fraction the size of other hub airports.

Airlines - Hawaiian Airlines to Asia with a free stop in paradise

When you think of travel to Asia, Hawaiian Airlines doesn't normally come to mind.  After all, there is a lot of water between Hawaii and the islands and mainland of east Asia.

Yet Hawaiian Airlines has been slowly but surely adding service to Asia (and Australia) and now offers a nice array of destinations served nonstop from Honolulu including Tokyo (Haneda airport), Osaka, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Seoul, Manila, Sydney, and Brisbane.  Service to Taipei begins in July.

Hawaiian Airlines route map   (link to map on airline's website)

From the mainland, Hawaiian offers flights to Honolulu from all major cities on the west coast, plus Sacramento, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and a very long nonstop flight from New York Kennedy.

Nonstop flights from the west coast to Asia and Australia are very long, ranging from 11 to 14+ hours.  On the one hand it's nice to get to your destination in one big bite, but for many people it is simply too long to be cooped up in the air.  Breaking the trip into two pieces, results in two smaller bites: 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 hours to Honolulu from the west coast gateway airports, and then 9 to 11 hours from there to Asia or Australia.

Hawaiian Airlines sweetens what for some would be a disadvantage in having to make a connection (or in some cases a forced overnight due to flights from the mainland not scheduled to connect with flights to Asia), by allowing a free stopover in Honolulu both coming and going.

For those of you who haven't read my Airline Fare School chapter about stopovers this means that instead of paying two separate fares (for example: San Francisco to Honolulu and then Honolulu to Seoul) you would pay the through fare (San Francisco to Seoul).  This is good, because breaking the fare into two pieces often results in a higher total price.

Normally for international travel, a stop of more than 24 hours means that the fare must be broken, but with the free Honolulu stopover it won't matter.  (You will incur some small additional cost in extra tax, however.)

Think about how nice it would be to break a long trip with a stop in Honolulu.  Or maybe you have a business trip to Asia that on the return you would like to cap with a Hawaiian vacation.

One limitation to be aware of is that the fare routing only allows for travel through Honolulu.  If you wanted to go to Maui, Kauai, the big island, etc., you would need to fly in and out of Honolulu, and purchase separate inter-island connecting flights.

Airlines - United introduces bag delivery service

Other than situations where an errant suitcase is delivered to a passenger, the airlines do not get involved with shipping bags beyond the airport baggage carousel.

Image courtesy of sattva / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

But now United is going to test a third-party service in which your checked bag is delivered directly to you at your destination.  For now, the service will be limited to five U.S. airports: Boston (BOS), Chicago O'Hare (ORD), Honolulu (HNL), Houston Intercontinental (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), and Orlando (MCO).  One's originating city may be any U.S. domestic city, however.  (Example: flying from Chico to Boston on United connecting in San Francisco.)  (Author's note added 19 Feb 2013 - the initial test of this service must have been successful because as of today the service is now offered at 36 airports.)

For delivery within 40 miles of the airport the cost is $29.95 for the first bag, $39.95 for two bags, and $49.95 for up to 8 bags to the same location.  Beyond 40 miles an additional fee applies.

Lest you think that this would be a way to avoid paying United's own fees for checked baggage, it won't be.  But if you have a United Explorer VISA card like I do, or are a high-status Mileage Plus traveler, or are flying first-class, you don't have to pay to check the bag - you just pay for the delivery service.

Airlines are getting heat for adding fees for services previously provided for free, but this is not the same; it's a brand new service that has real value for passengers who are checking luggage.

Here are a few situations that occur to me where this would be of great value.

You're a business traveler headed to Chicago who has to go directly to an important meeting but you do not want to schlep luggage around all day.  You arrange for your bag to go directly to your hotel.

Your family of five (and five pieces of luggage) are going on a trip to Disneyworld and the last thing you want to do is ride the car rental shuttle with the Gang of Five and the Gang of Five Suitcases.  You arrange for the Gang of Five Suitcases to have their own ride to the hotel where you are staying.

You are traveling by yourself to spend a month in Boston.  You are not renting a car and you do not have someone to meet you at the airport.  The idea of lugging two giant suitcases on the Boston subway system to get from the airport to your lodging doesn't charm you, so you arrange for the bags to be delivered to you after you arrive.

If you can afford to pay a little money to make a problem go away, then you should do it, and this service can really make some travel problems go away.

I hope the service is so successful that not only United expands it to many other airports, but other carriers copy it.  It's an idea whose time has come.

Useful links:
- article from Frequent Business Traveler
- United Airlines website page with complete information about the service

Airlines - Alaska Airlines (Horizon Air) to add service in California and Reno

This is a short post to note Alaska Airlines' announcement today of new service to begin on 4 June of this year.

Horizon Air, Alaska Airlines' subsidiary that flies the Bombardier Q400 turboprop, will operate new flights between San Diego and Monterey, Fresno, and Santa Rosa, as well as between Reno and San Jose.

The Reno-San Jose service also makes possible easy connections between Reno and Alaska's extensive service to Hawaii.  From San Jose, Alaska serves four of the five airports in Hawaii that receive mainland traffic: Kona, Maui, Honolulu, and Lihue.

Monterey is an all-new city for Alaska Airlines.  It will be interesting to see whether they add additional northbound service from there on Horizon Air to Alaska's hubs in Seattle and Portland, which other cities such as Fresno, Santa Barbara, and Santa Rosa already enjoy.

Horizon Air's service is top-notch, and as I never tire of pointing out, still includes complimentary beer and wine.

I'm sorry that Eureka and Redding lost their service a while back, and I would do somersaults if Horizon were ever to come to Chico, but I'm just happy to see that the Golden State clearly remains important to Alaska Airlines.

For flight details including schedules, please see Alaska Airlines' press release.

Airlines - (No) Fear of Flying

For most people, flying on commercial aircraft is a pretty ho-hum affair.  While present day flying isn’t very glamorous, and certainly the on-the-ground check-in security procedures now are sheer drudgery, a nonstop flight for distances of 500+ miles is still the best – and sometimes the only – way to go.

But not for everyone.

One out of eight Americans shuns commercial air travel according to the figure cited in the Bay Area’s “Fear of Flying Clinic”.

A good friend of mine, Robert Moran, told me that up until recently he was one of those “one out of eight”.  He traces his anxiousness about flying back to an incident as a 6-year old on his first flight.  There was a minor problem with the aircraft, but even before that he began taking up the fear evinced by his two grown-up traveling companions.

For many years as an adult, he avoided flying altogether which made for very lengthy car trips back to Mississippi where he grew up and where his family still lives.  (Robert and his wife live in northern California.)  Over the last few years, he embraced better flying through chemicals by getting a prescription for a mild sedative to batten down the fear factor, but the aftermath he experienced after reaching his destination wasn’t pretty: exhaustion and disrupted sleep patterns.

Funny thing was that the doctor who prescribed the flying meds had also been a nervous flier, but had benefitted from the program offered by the Fear of Flying Clinic (FOFC) at the San Francisco Airport.  He recommended it to Robert.

In June over two consecutive weekends, Robert went through one of their clinics and emerged much less fearful.  In his own words, “[T]hough by no means cured, I actually look forward to flying now and have many coping mechanisms that have put me on track to conquering this long-term problem”.

The therapists and airline professionals (pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, etc.) who conduct the clinics for the non-profit FOFC, take participants behind the scenes to see how planes fly and how the air traffic control system works.  In essence, they demonstrate that commercial air transport is indeed complex, but it is also routine, and very, very safe.  And those funny noises planes make at the start, end, and sometimes in the middle of a flight are normal.  It’s a cliché but true, that you face more danger on the drive to the airport than you do on the flight itself.

While not an obligatory part of the clinic, Robert and his other FOFC classmates had a graduation day-trip on Alaska Airlines to have lunch in Seattle.  Success!  (And rather decadent, if you ask me.)  Subsequently, Robert along with wife Karen and infant twin boys did another day-trip to San Diego to test his flight comfort level.  More success!

How much longer from now will it be, before Robert  contemplates the “mileage runs” that some frequent flyers do, to ensure elite status in an airline’s mileage program?

For further information about the programs operated by the Fear of Flying Clinic see their website.  Readers outside of northern California will find FOFC has a list of links to similar resources elsewhere in the United States and Canada.

Airlines - Southwest Airlines to buy AirTran

This is a big deal in the airline industry.

A Really, Really Big Deal.

Southwest Airlines has announced that it is going to buy fellow low-cost carrier AirTran.

This is not a "merger of equals" or anything like that.  This is one very big fish acquiring a pretty good-size fish.  The merger process itself, and the much larger Southwest that results, will be far more interesting than the United-Continental merger.  Southwest is clearly in the driver's seat: the airline name and culture will remain Southwest, and yes, bags will continue to fly free!

Southwest will obtain a much larger presence in the Northeast through AirTrans slots in airports like LaGuardia (New York) and Reagan National (Washington, DC), not to mention a major presence in a huge market where it currently has no presence whatsoever: Atlanta.  (Atlanta is AirTran's single busiest airport, although the airline's administrative headquarters is in Orlando.)

Southwest likes to operate an all 737 fleet but they will get both 717s and 737s as part of the deal.  (Southwest has said it intends to continue operating the 717s.)

AirTran's presence on the Pacific coast is negligible, with flights serving San Diego, Los Angeles (LAX), Las Vegas, and Seattle.  Depending on the city, the service from these points is to Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Baltimore.

What I find especially interesting is that AirTran does operate some international service (Cancun, Nassau, Montego Bay, Punta Cana, and Aruba) as well as service to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  On its own, Southwest has never operated internationally (or anywhere outside of the 48 contiguous states) although it has been making noises about the possibility lately, and is supposed to begin a code-share with Volaris (a Mexican low-cost carrier) in the future.

Care to know more?

- See Southwest's new website specifically devoted to the acquisition
- factsheet with facts, figures, and fancy about each carrier and the new Southwest that will emerge

For airline junkies this is a pure thrill.  Congratulations to both carriers to pulling this one off without the rumor mill getting word out prematurely.

Airlines - Fun with 3-letter airport codes

I've bored friends over the years with airline trivia especially those gosh darn airport codes. Some of the codes have for all intents and purposes, become words themselves, such as LAX. In essence the code itself has supplanted use of the airport's name. (How often does someone say that he wants to fly to Los Angeles International?)

Codes for other large cities are usually well known, at least by people who live in the area or fly to the city frequently, yet are not really used as words. Few people, including those in the travel industry, would say that they wanted to fly to P-D-X (Portland, Ore.) or to P-W-M (Portland, Me.).

FAT - read the article to find out what that is


Some codes are logically derived from the name of the city (SEA for Seattle) or the airport (LGA for LaGuardia in New York City) but others seem bizarre, usually because they are derived from the airfield which was named after a now obscure aviator or other personage (GEG for Spokane's Geiger Field; BDL for Hartford's Bradley Field).


For your airport code pleasure here's an article written by Rick Seaney, who is the founder of the FareCompare website. Entitled "The Wacky Logic Behind Airport Codes", it's a fun piece that draws back the veil on some of the reasons behind the 3-letter "names" of airports.

I used to think I was pretty good at the 3-letter code game but I sure wouldn't want to match wits with Rick Seaney.

Airlines - a new flight plan for Horizon Air?

It was with a mix of curiosity, surprise, and apprehension that I recently read about a change of direction for Seattle-based Horizon Air via the travel press and other blogs I follow. Those reactions, like ingredients on a box, are listed in descending order of relative size. Very curious, quite surprised, and a mild sense of stomach distress as to what the future may have in store.

First the facts.

Effective 1 January 2011, Horizon Air’s relationship to sister carrier Alaska Airlines (both are wholly owned by Alaska Air Group) will change. For a thorough account see this article from Aviation Week.

  HORIZON AIR BOMBARDIER Q400

Most of the service operated by regional affiliates of major airlines such as Sky West, Air Wisconsin, Atlantic Southeast, and so on, are under what are called Capacity Purchase Agreements (CPA). Essentially that means that the “big” carrier pays a fixed-rate to the “little” carrier for all of the seats, and that assures a certain profit level for the junior partner. (The network carrier is interested in assuring a flow of connecting passengers to its mainline service, and to that of its code-share partners, but the market does not support operating a large jet aircraft of its own.)

The affiliates – some such as SkyWest are separate companies, others like American Eagle are owned by the parent airline – don’t have much say in where and when they fly, but that’s not always a bad thing if you’re making money reliably.

Look what happened to Expressjet when it began its own branded high-quality service. It helped to weaken the company, which is now in the process of being acquired by SkyWest.

Up until now, Horizon has had only about 45% of its capacity bought by Alaska under CPAs. The rest has been Horizon’s to market and sell as it sees fit. Starting at the beginning of the year, that figure will become 100%.

What changes to Horizon’s route map will result, likely will take a while to occur as Alaska and Horizon examine the impact on the combined and separate bottom lines. Both airlines are profitable again, but Horizon less so than Alaska.

The apprehension part of my reaction is partly personal and partly business - not my business, but rather the airline’s.

Long ago, I worked briefly in Horizon’s reservations call center in Seattle. It was June 1985, and I’d just been trained to work at Alaska but it turns out there weren’t any jobs for our class at that moment, so Alaska suggested we approach Horizon for jobs. I worked there for three months until Alaska called us up, and so ended my “summer vacation” at Horizon.

But it was a brief interlude I enjoyed.  The carrier was laid-back and professional at the same time, and bore the stamp of its founder, businessman Milt Kuolt.
 
Mind you, this was before Alaska owned Horizon. In fact, they so didn’t own it, that Horizon was in cahoots with United offering code-share service in markets like Seattle-Pasco and Seattle-Yakima. (United then and now is one of Alaska's archrivals for traffic between California and the Pacific Northwest.) As you can imagine, the relationship with United ended abruptly when Horizon was acquired by Alaska Air Group in 1986.
 
What didn’t change is that Horizon continued to project its own image and offer a standard of service distinct from Alaska.
 
It was probably 1991 that as an Amtrak employee I had to get quickly between Portland and Boise so I flew Horizon and got to enjoy the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had in the air. I believe that Horizon was the first airline to offer in-flight Starbucks coffee, a logical connection between the two Seattle companies. The coffee was really good, and I believe was actually brewed off-site by Starbucks and delivered plane-side.

Then somewhere along the line and to this very day, Horizon started offering complimentary beer and wine. And not just any beer and wine. Pacific Northwest beer and wine. (With an occasional and sensible lapse, such as when they started their successful service to Santa Rosa a few years ago and celebrated the launch by serving Sonoma County wine and beer.)

You may be wondering what exactly is my apprehension about since all I’ve written about now is Horizon history in general and personal reminiscences in particular.

I don't want to see these memories of the past and stand-out service of the present disappear into the grave of yet another airline fallen flag.

The company/companies are deliberately vague as to what is in store for Horizon Air beyond the switch to the 100% CPA. Perhaps Alaska Air Group has a master plan up its sleeve to sell off the carrier or remove the Horizon Air brand altogether but frankly I doubt that – yet. They have an understandable goal to increase Horizon Air’s profitability and will probably wait to see how things go with the new CPA agreement and perhaps make some changes in the short and medium-term to Horizon’s route map.

But I’ll put my two cents in right now, and opine that I do not want to see dramatic changes to the Horizon Air product or brand. Not only would it make many people unhappy, but more important is that I don’t think it would be useful for the company.

In an age of homogenization and placeless-ness, Horizon (and Alaska) proudly show off their Northwest roots. It creates rapport with the people who live or travel in the carrier's home market, and establishes an identity for the company in the larger marketplace. When I step foot on a Horizon flight I feel like a trip to the Northwest has just begun, even if I’m not flying to the Northwest. (I’m flying Horizon next January between Sacramento and Palm Springs, not exactly a destination in the Pacific Northwest.)

Alaska serves the east coast, midwest, Hawaii, and Mexico, and Horizon has spread its wings well beyond the Northwest, but there's no doubt where the airline is from and where its heart is.

The same thing could be said about another very successful carrier that is much larger than Alaska/Horizon, yet also makes no secret of where it's from: Southwest and its home base of Texas.

Conversely in Chico, Calif. where I live, we have United Express service to SFO operated by SkyWest. I’m delighted to have this service but the flight itself doesn’t do anything other than link a small city with a very large airport and its vast array of connecting flights. There is no sense of place I get from SkyWest, any more than I do from United.

As the managers of Horizon Air and Alaska weigh the regional carrier’s future, I suggest caution at the idea of eliminating the brand and/or removing its trademark services.

Sure, tighten the connection with Alaska, do some flying for other carriers, tinker with the route map, but don’t eliminate a nearly 30 year old Northwest brand, or rename it something unmemorable like Alaska Airlines Connection. Or is that Express?