Airline Fanatic

Following in the footsteps of the great Stephen Colbert, I am officially putting Virgin America’s inflight entertainment system RED on notice. RED need to get it’s act together before it really starts to hurt the rest of the airline.

I flew back from San Francisco today and, for the third leg in a row, was on a plane without a functioning entertainment system.  Right now I’m 1/4 on my Virgin America flights as far as RED goes, and that kind of experience annoys me a lot, but I have a feeling it annoys the general flying public a whole lot more.  If I were VX I would be worried that every time their “dark” plane goes aloft, there are about 100 people on board who might not come back because the reason they bought their ticket -RED- doesn’t work.

Don’t get me wrong, Virgin proved to me again today why they are a great airline and why I hope they stick around for along time.  Their people, the most important part of any organization, are outstanding, right up there with JetBlue and Southwest employees.  The agent at the check-in area put me on standby for a flight more than 4 hours before my scheduled departure when apparently VA policy says you should only do it when that flight is within 2 hours of my original departure time.  The gate agent also gave me a seat the second I walked up to gate and didn’t make me wait until the very last second for a middle seat in the back as most other airline would (that probably had something to do with the fact that the plane was no more than half full).

VX went even further and gave me something tangible for the inconvenience of not having TV for a 40 minute flight. Great.  When I went to cash in that voucher on board for a drink, the flight attendant said keep it and gave me one on the house, double great!  All these are great examples of how VA has done a great job hiring their staff, and I thank them for it.

The problem for me though, and for Virgin, is that I now have three vouchers sitting at home here good for a free drink, movie or TV show on my next flight.  I love getting free stuff, but I would love it even more if I could use some of the great technology VX has on board their fancy new planes.  It was great the one time I used it, but the prospect of not having any inflight entertainment on my next transcon will definitely way heavy on my decision to book with them in the future.

Again this isn’t even really about my experience, but the one the general, and less forgiving, flying public has with VX.  They are more than likely giving VX a try for the first time.  If they had heard great things from their friends about the cool gadgets on board VA (especially for the techy SFO crowd) they would be sorely dissapointed.

As to whether or not having a dark aircraft flying around the skies (or unreliable live aircraft) has any effect on Virgin’s return customers, only they know.  But I would hope its something they would move to correct sooner rather than later.  Virgin America’s best hope for success in the current catasrophy that is the airline industry is that their amazing staff will attract those disgruntled passengers back for another try in the future, this time when they can tune out to ESPN instead of a blank screen.

A visibly very disturbed passenger on a flight from London to Toronto (on board Air Canada) was caught in this YouTube post from a December 6th flight.  He is being restrained by two men on either side of him, but I can’t tell if they are inflight crew or just passenger unfortunate enough to be sitting next to him.  They do have him handcuffed though.  I wonder how long passengers had to endure this stressful stuff before he was finally subdued?

The US is definitely behind the curve in this area, as several airline in Canada already let passengers check in using their cellphone. And lets not even talk about how far ahead Asia is in the cell phone department. Still, progress marches on, and the video below demonstrates testing currently going on that would allow passengers to use their cellphone to board a plane. The technology seems very convenient, but I’m wondering how long it would be before someone enterprising hacker figures out the algorithm and can generate boarding passes at will.

Here’s the latest and greatest in stupid drunk passengers getting arrested in airports for being stupid and drunk.  I found this one via Digg, which found it via the Consumerist.  Heres a quick summary: 

An American Airlines passenger was found sitting on a jet bridge at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, covered in salad dressing and missing a shoe, according to the Star-Telegram.

The man was unable to stand by himself and slurred when he asked police why he wasn’t allowed to board his American Eagle flight. He was unaware that his shoe was missing.

Oh goodness, I smell a reality show coming on – who can come up with the best reason they shouldn’t be allowed on an airplane?

[Via the Consumerist]

The Wall Street Journal is running a piece today about the recent round of fare increases across the airline industry.  American carriers unfortunately bare the brunt of this price increase because oil is priced in dollars.  As the US dollar falls in value against other currencies around the world, even if the price of oil remained stagnant, the domestic price would continue to rise.  That fact combined with increasing demand and limited supply results in a huge spike in prices over the past few months.

Delta is leading the way with these price increases, initiating seven out of ten this year.  While most of the time these increases probably wouldn’t have been matched by other carriers, the dramatic increase in the price of jet fuel has pushed even AirTran and JetBlue over the edge.

The practice of raising ticket prices in the face of ever increasing fuel costs is a long and storied one, and one that always rides the fine line between profit maximization and customer rejection of the increase.  For the most part, customers are ignorant and don’t understand airlines buy gas too, and even if they do understand it, they want the airlines to eat the loss and still give them $39 tickets each way.  This time however, consumers seem to be accepting the rise in prices, but airlines have to watch demand very closely as public acceptance can change quite quickly.

So what happens when oil finally does hit $100 a barrel and airlines continue to raise prices?  Customers will eventually reject the high cost of flying and stay closer to home when it comes to vacation time.  Business travelers will probably still pony up for most trips, but might see a slight reduction in volume.  The carriers most dependent on leisure travel will be hit the hardest probably – the low cost carriers.  If that happens we might be looking at consolidation among airlines that today are thriving, instead of those that are aging.

After 18 months of delays, its finally happened, the A380 is winging its way on its maiden commercial voyage from Singapore Changi to Sydney.  Seats on the maiden voyage were auctioned on eBay with the proceeds going to charity.  Some ended up paying six figure numbers for seats on this flight.  The double decker giant ended up carrying 471 people on their way to Sydney today.

Delta Airlinesannounced today that they are going to expand their transatlantic partnership with Air France next spring with new flights across the pond.  Passengers will now be able to fly nonstop between Atlanta and London Heathrow, JFK and Heathrow, JFK and Paris-Orly, and JFK to Lyons, France.  The routes start operating and the end of March, and fares seems pretty standard.

You can see the official press release here.

This is one of many announcements we will see in the transatlantic department now that the Open Skies agreement has been signed.