Archives

Recent Comments

  • Backlinks: I agree with your thoughts here and I really love read more
  • Backlinks: Interesting layout on your blog. I really enjoyed reading it read more
  • Kate Shrimplin: Una empresa que ayuda a hacer de este un mundo read more
  • Backlinks: Nice blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What read more
  • Backlinks: Keep focusing on your blog. I love how we can read more
  • poker oyna: Apple now has Rhapsody as an app, which is a read more
  • Backlinks: Nice blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What read more
  • Backlinks: Dreamin. I love blogging. You all express your feelings the read more
  • John Stewart: I love it, check out www.bosstube.net warning not for the read more
  • Lonnie Schuelke: Thanks for the amazing piece of work. I will be read more

Recent Assets

  • points%20dot%20com.jpg
  • 431-1M27ARGENT.embedded.prod_affiliate.4.jpg
  • Continental-HR-1.jpg
  • shark-kayak.jpg
  • Midway_Airport_%28USGS%29.png
  • smoke_filled.jpg
  • 121570891_15512422c2.jpg
  • 2963861805_ecaba89723.jpg
  • Swelbar Photo 1.JPG
  • Glenn_Tilton_0001.jpg

Strategies and tactics: October 2008 Archives

Wave this credit card, and we'll waive the bag fee

| 8 Comments | No TrackBacks
| More

Continental-HR-1.jpgAnother exemption: when the airlines starting imposing extra fees to check a bag, the screamers were loud and clear. But the exemptions weren't. And this ancillary pricing had a number of exceptions, exemptions and specifications. If you were flying on a full fare, if you were a member of the elite level of an airline's frequent flyer plan, if you in uniform, you were exempt.

Now comes word from Continental that you can be exempt from the bag fee depending on how you pay. The carrier, based at the Houston Intercontinental airport and the major carrier at Newark, NJ's Liberty airport, said that you don't have to pay the first bag fee - $15 - if you own or hold a Chase Bank card (or debit card) that is a co-branded Continental card. If you have the card and are a member of its Presidential Plus level, you can check up to two bags without charge

Ryanair takes on a big guy: Expedia

| 10 Comments | No TrackBacks
| More
Okay, here's Ryanair again, taking on the on-line guys. This time it's a pretty well established player, though: Expedia. Ryanair says it is ending its hotels booking 724expedia-screen-shot.pngdeal with Expedia in November because the On-line Travel Agency has not honoured the payment terms of their deal. The OTA, based near Seattle in Bellevue, was the only third-party hotels seller allowed on the Ryanair website, and it disputes the airline. They've paid, they say, and "strongly believe that Ryanair does not have the right to terminate our agreement," Expedia said in a statement from its chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi. Expedia won the business in March, 2007, ousting needahotel.com, a Travelport unit. The five-year, private-label deal was supposed to lead to big things for Expedia - despite the fact that Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary had once called Expedia "dead." We will leave it to you to speculate as to the motives of the players, but note that Ryanair's chief operating officer, Michael Cawley, says the airline's already been approached by other hotel distributors.   

Porter carries the slim good news

| No TrackBacks
| More
1056003521_6ccc913833.jpgIn the midst of all of the bad news, someone has to find something good to talk about. So OAG, which used to be the Official Airline Guide, says that some startup routes constitute the good news. If it is, it's slim: OAG leapt on the shift of Houston Bush Intercontinental service London's airport from Gatwick to Heathrow, a move that was made possible by Open Skies, and it said that a flight by Caribbean Airlines between Tobago and Port of Spain is among the busiest, with almost 15,000 seats a week. We have no idea how many of those seats are filed, but we did find some real good news in the list: a top new international route is a new route between Newark's Liberty International Airport and the Toronto City Centre airport in Canada, operated by Porter Airlines. Porter is quite happy with the route, says spokesman Brad Cicero, who calls it Porter's "most successful new destination to date."

Runway fever in SeaTac, O'Hare, Dulles

| 3 Comments | No TrackBacks
| More
Sept%20Aerial%20080901-A-23_t2.jpgThey got planes flying over it, they got planes landing on it, but they're not using it yet. It is the third runway at SeaTac, the Seattle/Tacoma International Airport, a project that's been debated, disputed and delayed for about 20 years now, but is finally just about ready to open. And this 8,500-foot runway may well do more for the national airspace system and for airline delays than new airport terminals at Raleigh/Durham or New York JFK.

Airline 'passenger rights' still in a holding pattern

| 2 Comments | No TrackBacks
| More
1682108_e4e431bebf.jpgLast year when airline delays were really bad (what a moment... when were they not bad?), the White House came out with a number of steps to address the issue; some of them were proposed regs, and one of the regs took effect on the First. It requires airlines to report more details on flights after they have been cancelled or diverted from other airports. Under the old Bureau of Transportation Statistics rules, airlines didn't have to report any information once a flight was cancelled or diverted, and didn't have to report how long airliners sat for hours on the ground before passengers could leave.
Behind the push for new rules were folks like Kate Hanni, the passenger activist whose lengthy stay on a jet stranded in Austin, Texas, launched the latest passenger rights lobbying push. But her very aggressive efforts haven't quite carried the day: the House Aviation Subcommittee decide to leave any passenger rights legislation off of the extension they wrote for the FAA, a six-month extension that President Bush signed.

About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries in the Strategies and tactics category from October 2008.

Strategies and tactics: September 2008 is the previous archive.

Strategies and tactics: November 2008 is the next archive.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.