The 10 largest airlines in the world
United-Continental now numero uno in el mundo
Interesting nugget of aviation news from AP today:
A series of mergers over the last decade has created a group of mega-airlines that reach almost every corner of the globe. Here are the world’s largest airline companies based on the number of miles their passengers flew in 2010:
- United Continental: 181,939 million
- Delta Air Lines: 165,900 million
- American Airlines: 125,443 million
- Air France, KLM: 125,043 million
- Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian: 108,811 million
- British Airways, Iberia: 97,384 million
- Southwest, AirTran: 97,360 million
- Emirates: 89,266 million
- China Southern Airlines: 68,689 million
- Qantas Airways: 62,082 million
Source: AP calculations on International Air Transport Association data
All except #9 and #10 fly to SFO…. which airline do you fly most? And why?
American Air Bankruptcy: No impact at SFO for now
An American Airlines B737 loads up at SFO (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
American Airlines is filing for bankruptcy protection as they try to cut costs and unload massive debt built up by years of high fuel prices and labor struggles according to AP. The company says that there will no impact on travelers for now. American said it would operate normally while it reorganizes in bankruptcy, but hinted at future flight and staffing cuts. The airline said it would continue to operate flights, honor tickets and take reservations. It said the AAdvantage frequent-flier program would not be affected.
Important: American is NOT shutting down. It’s filed for Chapter 11 protection, which means it will continue to operate while it reorganizes. Chapter 11 protection is a well-worn path taken by nearly every major US carrier at some point in the last 20 years. (Southwest Airlines is the exception.)
American and its Oneworld alliance partners have had a dwindling presence at SFO for a couple years now. AA exited SFO-Honolulu in September and left SFO-Boston last year. Partner QANTAS left SFO-Sydney last year. The carrier walked away from Oakland in 2008. It stopped flying its famous “nerd bird” flights between San Jose and Austin in 2009.
(Are you following me on Twitter or Facebook? If not why not? You’ll get more travel news faster!)
From SFO, American flies nonstop to only its hubs at New York-JFK, Chicago-O’Hare, Dallas-Ft Worth, Miami and Los Angeles– and in all those markets faces stiff fare competition from low fare carriers like Virgin America, Southwest and JetBlue.
Last year, American inaugurated new service and a posh new Admiral’s Club at SFO’s swank Terminal 2, which it shares with Virgin America. While that presence won’t be affected in the short run, if the carrier continues to shrink at SFO over time, it will be interesting to watch what happens at T2.
How do you feel about American’s bankruptcy? Will it affect your decision to fly American?
Paying up pays off for holiday trips
Why wait in a long holiday taxi queue? Reserve a car instead! (Photo: Enrico Salad / Flickr)
As the peak holiday travel season approaches, everyone’s looking for a deal or a steal. But the truth of the matter is that bargains are difficult to come by during the Thanksgiving and Christmas peak travel season.
And if you snag what you think is a bargain, you might end of “getting what you pay for.”
As a matter of fact, paying a little more at this time of year usually translates into more peace of mind, more quality time with friends or family, and the increased likelihood of a low-hassle trip home for the holidays…. which is what we all want.
Here are six examples to illustrate what I mean:
1> Take a nonstop flight. While you might be tempted by the price of a one-stop flight, by choosing one, you are increasing your chances of a delay or cancellation by 100%! Why take that chance, especially if you are headed home for just a few days, and a delayed or canceled flight could spoil the entire trip?
Cost: $50 to $200 depending on flight length
Example: Flying during peak Christmas week between San Francisco and Atlanta, you’ll pay $660 for a six-hour one-stop journey on Frontier connecting in Denver. On the other hand, fly four hours nonstop on Delta or AirTran and the fare is $730– $70 more. Worth it to fly nonstop? I think so. (Fares checked Nov 13 for flights departing Dec 23, returning Dec 27 and are subject to change.)
2> Book your trip via a real, live travel agent. Most budget-conscious travelers shy away from travel agents who charge fees. But as the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) likes to say, “Without a travel agent, you’re on your own.” Most travel agents can use their experience, connections and clout to help get you out of sticky situations, plus they’ve got knowledge and experience to offer you the best alternatives when or if you get stuck.
Cost: $20-$50 or negotiable
Example: ASTA’s motto surely rang true last year when a monster storm blew up the East Coast on Christmas day, stranding travelers across the country. Most of those who booked trips via travel agents were able to get through to them by phone and adjust travel plans faster than those who only had airline 800-numbers. (Note: Be sure the travel agent you choose has an after hours emergency number.)
Rooms dip as low as $80 over Xmas at a brand new Best Western near Dallas, TX
3> Stay at a hotel. Why burden the in-laws with the stress of houseguests during the already stressful holidays? Instead of bunking on that lumpy sofa bed or stuffy guest room, book a nearby hotel. Tip: Due to lack of demand from business travelers, most hotels are dirt-cheap during the holidays, especially those located in suburban office parks. Travel expert John DiScala, who edits the popular johnnyjet.com website suggests that the holidays are a great time to consider redeeming loyalty points for nicer hotel digs, saying, “For example, Hilton HHonors points can also now be used to upgrade an existing reservation to a premium room or suite at hotels worldwide, with no blackout dates.”
Cost: $50 to $100 per night, depending on location.
Example: A nice, newish Hilton Garden Inn in the northern Atlanta suburbs costs only $67 per night during Christmas week—but book it two weeks later when business travelers are back on the road and you’ll pay nearly twice that much– $127.
4> Review your charge card benefits. Most banks have added a slew of new benefits to charge cards in recent years to woo free-spending, credit-worthy frequent travelers, so you might be packing more power in your pocket than you know. While annual fees are higher for such cards, many now offer benefits that come in handy for holiday travel such as waived baggage fees, access to airport lounges, early boarding privileges, early check in/late check out or upgrades at hotels, concierge services and more.
Cost: $100-$500/year
Example: While the American Express Platinum card sounds expensive at $450/year, the benefits can pay off big time when it comes to peak travel season. For example, the card gets you out of the airport holiday mayhem and into 600 airport lounges (gratis) around the world, covers up to $200 airline fees from checked bags to in-flight food or cocktails, and Global Entry membership, which gets you to the front of the line US Customs and Immigration. For a $95 fee, the new Chase/United Explorer card offers early boarding, one free checked bag, and two United Club passes. Many high-end cards also offer concierge services that can help get you out of travel jams—worth a call if you get stuck!
5> Book roomier airline seats. While you can always pay a lot more to sit in first class, you can now pay a little bit more, and get a more comfortable coach seat. During the busy, crowded holidays, that’s money well spent. While getting a few extra inches of room always helps, the real benefit of paying for a better economy seat is that you usually get to board early—with elite level flyers—which means you get first dibs on scarce overhead bin space.
Cost: Varies based on carrier and flight duration– $10-$100 per segment
Example: I frequently take advantage of last minute upgrades to Virgin America’s Main Cabin Select seats, which offer a few extra inches of legroom at exit rows and bulkheads, free in-flight food and booze, and early boarding privileges. While reserving a Main Cabin Select seat in advance can be expensive, cheaper last-minute upgrades (24 hours prior to flight) can make a good flight a great one. Delta recently added roomier “Economy Comfort” seating on transcon flights between SFO and New York City.
6> Hire a car service to/from the airport. There are lots of reasons why you should use a car service for a ride to or from the airport during the holidays. First, don’t burden friends or family with the chore of driving to the airport during rush hour traffic to pick you up or drop you off. Second, when arriving, you walk straight to your waiting car instead of waiting in those long, cold taxi queues at airports that form during peak holiday season.
Cost: 10%-20% more than cab fare
Example: Last month I was greeted by a taxicab queue at SFO at least 100 people deep after returning from a 15-hour flight from Dubai. Wish I had booked a car service! In New York, I always use the economical Dial 7 car service (212-777-7777) which costs $5 or $10 more than a cab, but offers a comfortable sedan ride to/from Manhattan versus the tight squeeze, bumpy ride, and possible wait for a NYC Taxi.
Where are YOU headed for the holidays? Please leave your comments below.
United to install fleetwide inflight wi-fi (finally!)
To me, the introduction of in-flight wi-fi is the best thing to happen to air travel since the introduction of the jet engine. I love it. It makes me more productive. It makes the flight go by much faster. I now choose my flight based on whether or not it has wi-fi. And relatively speaking, it does not cost that much at $6 to $15 per flight.
While SF-based Virgin America has had inflight wi-fi since it first took off in 2007 and Delta Air Lines and AirTran completed fleetwide installations last year, United, the largest carrier at SFO, has only offered it on flights to or from New York.
That’s about to change.
Today United has officially announced that it has selected Panasonic Avionics Corporation to provide Wi-Fi connectivity on more than 300 United Airlines and Continental Airlines mainline aircraft beginning in mid-2012.
And the wait might have been worth it…. That’s because the Panasonic Ku-band system that UAL has chosen will work on flights WORLDWIDE! Across oceans! That’s because the Panasonic system utilizes a satellite based network to provide connectivity. The biggest drawback to the Gogo system used by Virgin, Delta and AirTran is that it’s dependent on a ground based system of antenna, so it only works when flying over the US—once you fly overseas, the service quits. (Gogo does have plans to eventually adopt a satellite-based system; Row 44, which supplies wi-fi to Southwest Airlines, also uses a satellite-based system).
Jim Compton, United’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer said, “As a global carrier, we selected satellite-based Ku-band technology to enable customers to stay connected on long-haul overseas flights, something no other U.S.-based international carrier currently offers.”
United expects to install the Panasonic system on Airbus 319 and 320 and Boeing 747, 757, 767, 777 and 787 aircraft. Customers will be able to use their wireless devices such as laptops, smart phones and tablets onboard those aircraft to connect with internet service using the in-flight hotspot.
United’s entire mainline fleet will be equipped with Wi-Fi by 2015. Details regarding the installation schedule and pricing are not yet available.
This is super exciting news for United devotees who have felt left behind when nearly every other carrier was offering inflight wi-fi.
How do you feel about this announcement? Will it impact your decision to fly United instead of another carrier? What’s the most you’d pay to be connected to the internet for a flight from SFO to Tokyo…or Frankfurt? Please leave your comments!
Holiday Travel: “Dead Week” airfare sale
Photo: Flickr / Andertho
If you’ve been putting off business trips, blown off your family back home, or missed that romantic weekend away because airfares are too high, you should check out the new “dead week” deals offered by Southwest and AirTran.
Dead weeks are the annual low points in travel demand each year, which ironically come in the midst of the peak holiday travel season. And when demand plummets, so do prices. However, the catch is that you’ve got to travel when everyone else is staying at home.
Dead weeks typically fall during the first few weeks of December right after the big Thanksgiving rush, and again right after the Christmas/New Years rush in early January.
In a 72-hour sale that starts today, Southwest and AirTran are now offering some pretty remarkable fares for travel during this period. Keep in mind also that hotel rates and car rental rates plummet (except in NYC during December). There are also tons of last minute deals as desperate suppliers try to dump unsold seats, rooms and cars. Note that many Rocky Mountain destinations are great for skiing in January.
Here are the deals from Southwest and AirTran…I imagine by the time you read this other airlines will have matched them. For 72-hours only, you can purchase one-way tickets for $35, $65, $95 or $125 based on length of travel (Add $25-$35 to each of these round trips to cover taxes/fees. Fares are not valid on SUNDAYS.)
- For travel up to 450 miles, fares are $35 one-way, $70 round trip. (Most destinations in California)
- For travel 451 to 1,000 miles, fares are $65 one-way, $130 round trip. (Boise, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake, Seattle)
- For travel 1,001 to 1,500 miles, fares are $95 one-way, $190 round trip. (Bozeman, Denver, Albuquerque)
- For travel 1,501 or more miles, fares are $125 one-way, $250 round trip. (Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Chicago, Washington)
These low fares are available for purchase through 11:59 p.m. PST October 20, 2011, for travel beginning Nov. 30 through Dec. 14, 2011 and Jan. 4 through Feb. 15, 2012. See www.southwest.com.
As a part of the effort to spread low fares farther through the integration of two airlines, AirTran Airways will launch a parallel fare sale. See www.airtran.com.
(Chris McGinnis publishes The BAT and The TICKET blogs for frequent travelers.)
Clever Virgin America campaign: Twin-tested
You may have missed this Virgin American video campaign if you’ve not been to Dallas recently… but it’s clever enough to share here in SF— especially if you are into twins.
The videos are part of a Virgin campaign in Dallas–Fort Worth that invites local travelers to determine the “best of two airlines.” In the videos, three sets of twins are sent on trips…one twin on Virgin America, the other on “the competition.” After the flight, the twins compare their experiences– with, I might add, predictable results considering this is a Virgin campaign. Nonetheless, it’s fun to watch!
–
–
(Chris McGinnis publishes The BAT and The TICKET blogs for frequent travelers.)
SFO to get posh new biz/first class lounge
Entry at the Emirates Lounge in New Delhi-- expect similar touches like marble, polished wood and gold letters at SFO (Photo: C. McGinnis)
Dubai-based Emirates Airline has announced that it will open a new business and first class lounge on the A side of the international terminal at SFO later this year.
It will be Emirates’ only lounge on the West Coast…not even LAX gets one of these posh perches.
(Want to see what’s in store for SFO? Scroll down for my slideshow of photos inside Emirates lounges in Dubai and Delhi.)
Emirates currently operates a single daily Boeing 777 SFO-Dubai flight from the G (left) side of the international terminal where it provides business and first class passengers with access to United’s lounges.
The new 9,502 square foot club will be located on the A (right) side between gates 3 and 5 (on the left as you walk from security) and directly across the terminal walkway from the British Airways lounge.
As in other Emirates facilities around the world, cost does not seem to be much of an object with the SFO lounge—expect marble floors, gold Rolex Clocks, fresh flowers, HD televisions, exclusive restrooms and showers, a business center, workstations and free wi-fi. (See slideshow below for a peek of what’s in store.)
Crowding should not be an issue since the lounge will be exclusive to Emirates first, business and elite frequent flyers. (Emirates says that it will not share loung access with any other carriers.) An Emirates 777 holds only 50 first and business class passengers, but the lounge is designed to accommodate a maximum of 265, including a dining area for 77.
Chefs will prepare and present a wide array of hot and cold dishes from an on-site kitchen. There will also be a full bar (flights depart SFO at 4:45 pm…conveniently close to cocktail hour).
Unusual: Business and first class passengers will be able to board the flight from a jetway door located in the lounge leading directly to the plane.
On a recent trip through Dubai to India, Emirates invited me into its massive lounge at its hub there. Since the look and feel of its lounges are pretty standard around the world, what you see in these photos should match up pretty closely with what we’ll soon see at SFO:
Entry point at Emirates flagship business class lounge at Dubai-DXB which can accommodate 1,800 passengers-- and still gets quite crowded at peak times. There's a separate first class lounge I was unable to get into. (Photo: C. McGinnis)
.
One of four dining areas at the Dubai lounge which can accommodate 1,800 passengers (Photo: C. McGinnis)
.
Check out this lox and bagel spread (Photo: C. McGinnis)
.
Loungers for naps (photo: C. McGinnis)
.
Shrimp (Prawn) sandos (Photo: C. McGinnis)
.
One of a wide selection of desserts and pastries (Photo: C. McGinnis)
.
Full bar stocked with premium brands (Photo: C. McGinnis)
.
Rolex wall clocks at Dubai Int'l-- a standard in all Emirates lounges (Photo: C. McGinnis)
(Chris McGinnis publishes The BAT and The TICKET blogs for frequent travelers.)
New name, but few changes at “United Club”
United Club lounge at Chicago O'Hare (Photo: Joevare / Flickr)
This week United and Continental celebrated the one year anniversary of their merger by christening their combined lounges with a new name: United Club. However, your Red Carpet club credentials will still get you in the door. So far, no significant changes have been announced, but United says, “In time, remodeled clubs will provide additional business-friendly features…including more workstations…” What could United do to make the clubs better?
Some details:
>United Club members now have access to 50 lounges in 39 airports worldwide, including two here at SFO.
>Memberships start at $475, but day passes are available for $39 online or $50 at the door.
>Clubs offer free wi-fi, beer, wine and liquor, breakfast and afternoon snacks.
>United Club members now have access to 25 more lounges that were once Continental Presidents Clubs.
>Due to its tight affiliation with Chase, United Clubs will no longer offer free access to American Express Platinum Cardmembers.
>United Club already has its own Wikipedia page.
>Starting later this year, Emirates passengers will get their own lounge at SFO, and no longer share facilities with United.
What’s your favorite United Club location? Why? What do you think of the new name?
Virgin America adds SFO-Palm Springs flights
Buzzing Palm Springs (Photo: JoeinSouthernCA / Flickr)
This just in…
San Francisco – September 20, 2011 – Virgin America is bringing its stylish, low-fare service to Palm Springs International Airport (PSP) as of December 15, 2011: with tickets on sale now for its new nonstop seasonal flights from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to PSP. Known for its reputation as “Hollywood’s Playground,” an enviable desert climate, world-class resorts and golfing, shopping, special events and modern and mid-century architecture, PSP will be the sixteenth destination in the award-winning airline’s growing network. As the only California-based airline, Virgin America will bring its unique brand of low-fare competition to the PSP market with a seasonal daily flight schedule operating from December 15, 2011-April 30, 2012. Virgin America will offer daily nonstop intra-California flights from SFO to PSP and daily same-plane through-flights from New York to PSP. To mark its expansion to the ultimate winter getaway, today the carrier also launches a “Get Some Playtime” fare sale with SFO-PSP roundtrip fares as low as $219 round trip.
Google unveils flight search tool (Video)
Today Google unveiled its long awaited new flight search tool. Take a look at the video and a spin through the tool and share your thoughts…do you like it better than your favorite online booking tool? Is this a game changer?
I like what I see…in typical Google style, its super fast, clean and simple, easy to understand, and unbiased. Right now it’s a work in progress, so there are no international flights, or options for one way travel. It also only displays Southwest flight times, but not fares.
What do you think? Please leave your comments below.
What’s your outlook for fall travel?
By the time you get back to the office on Tuesday, business travel season will have kicked in and road warriors can begin to reclaim their space at airports, on planes and at hotels. But given recent fluctuations in financial markets and economic uncertainty….what’s it going to be like out there over the next 4-6 months? Are travelers cutting back? Are fares and rates rising or falling?
At the recent Global Business Travel Association convention in Denver, I wrangled interviews with some of the most important executives in attendance— from the likes of American Express, British Airways, Southwest Airlines, Best Western and Singapore Air. I asked them about their outlook for the fall business travel season…. click on the video above to hear their answers.
What’s your outlook? Do you plan on traveling more, less or about the same amount this fall compared to last fall? Has the recent roller coaster ride in financial markets clipped your wings at all? Please take a peek at the 3-minute video, and leave your comments below!
Virgin America adds SFO-Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta (Photo: HBarrison / Flickr)Virgin America officially announced new service between SFO and Puerto Vallarta (PVR), Mexico starting December 2. Virgin joins United and Alaska Airlines as the third provider of nonstop flights to the popular beach town.
Three carriers on one route? That means lots of competition and lower fares. Ole to that! But still, I would not put fares in the “cheap” category yet.
Virgin’s lowest introductory fare of $258 round trip expands to $368.02 when you add in taxes and fees. And if you are thinking about buzzing down for the super-popular Christmas week in December, fares now stand at $800+ round trip on all three carriers offering nonstops from SFO.
Starting December 2, Virgin will fly down from SFO at 9:30 am and return from PVR at 4:10 pm. (No flights on Mondays or Thursdays.) Flight duration is about 3.5 hours.
Sunday’s SFO cancellations due to Irene
(Source: NOAA)
Below is a list of flights for Sunday, August 28, 2011 that have been cancelled out of SFO due to Hurricane Irene:
(The following is provided to The BAT by SFO Airport Authorities:)
| AIRLINE | DESTINATION | SKED | FLT # | STATUS |
| UA | Baltimore-BWI | 13:30 | 273 | cancelled |
| UA | Baltimore-BWI | 22:31 | 746 | cancelled |
| JetBlue | Boston-BOS | 7:00 | 632 | cancelled |
| JetBlue | Boston-BOS | 13:50 | 634 | cancelled |
| JetBlue | Boston-BOS | 22:27 | 636 | cancelled |
| CO | Boston-BOS | 21:00 | 1519 | cancelled |
| UA | Boston-BOS | 16:00 | 444 | cancelled |
| UA | Boston-BOS | 8:27 | 715 | cancelled |
| UA | Boston-BOS | 22:58 | 733 | cancelled |
| UA | Boston-BOS | 10:53 | 788 | cancelled |
| UA | Boston-BOS | 14:08 | 892 | cancelled |
| VX | Boston-BOS | 10:00 | 352 | cancelled |
| AA | New York-JFK | 9:15 | 12 | cancelled |
| AA | New York-JFK | 12:20 | 16 | cancelled |
| AA | New York-JFK | 15:00 | 20 | cancelled |
| AA | New York-JFK | 7:20 | 24 | cancelled |
| B6 | New York-JFK | 10:49 | 644 | cancelled |
| DL | New York-JFK | 6:30 | 30 | cancelled |
| DL | New York-JFK | 8:30 | 268 | cancelled |
| DL | New York-JFK | 15:30 | 2040 | cancelled |
| UA | New York-JFK | 7:00 | 242 | cancelled |
| UA | New York-JFK | 8:26 | 259 | cancelled |
| UA | New York-JFK | 10:43 | 281 | cancelled |
| UA | New York-JFK | 13:55 | 286 | cancelled |
| UA | New York-JFK | 16:00 | 297 | cancelled |
| UA | New York-JFK | 22:37 | 380 | cancelled |
| UA | New York-JFK | 13:05 | 870 | cancelled |
| VX | New York-JFK | 7:00 | 12 | cancelled |
| VX | New York-JFK | 9:45 | 22 | cancelled |
| VX | New York-JFK | 14:55 | 26 | cancelled |
| CO | Newark-EWR | 7:10 | 1173 | cancelled |
| CO | Newark-EWR | 6:00 | 1202 | cancelled |
| CO | Newark-EWR | 13:15 | 1524 | cancelled |
| CO | Newark-EWR | 11:05 | 1683 | cancelled |
| UA | Newark-EWR | 9:08 | 623 | cancelled |
| UA | Newark-EWR | 21:53 | 791 | cancelled |
| UA | Philadelphia-PHL | 8:31 | 749 | cancelled |
| US | Philadelphia-PHL | 13:40 | 651 | cancelled |
| US | Philadelphia-PHL | 11:00 | 658 | cancelled |
| US | Philadelphia-PHL | 6:15 | 700 | cancelled |
| US | Philadelphia-PHL | 8:25 | 768 | Cancelled |
(UA=United; US=US Airways; CO=Continental; VX=Virgin America; DL=Delta;)
Additionally, the following airports are currently closed:
Atlantic City (ACY)
Caldwell Wright (CDW)
Newark-Liberty International (EWR)
Long Island-MacArthur (ISP)
New York-Kennedy (JFK)
New York-LaGuardia (LGA)
Morristown Municipal (MMU)
Philadelphia Int’l (PHL)
Stewart Airport (SWF)
Teterboro Airport (TEB)
All passengers, regardless of their destinations and carrier, are strongly encouraged to contact their respective air carriers for the most current information regarding the status of their flights. Additionally, passengers should not come to the Airport unless their air carrier has indicated their flight will depart as scheduled.
“Ultra low cost” carrier arrives in Bay Area
Spirit Airlines route mapSpirit Airlines, which bills itself as “the ultra low cost carrier,” quietly entered the Bay Area this week, with four daily nonstops between Oakland and Las Vegas.
From Vegas, fliers can fly nonstop to its main hub at Ft Lauderdale– and from there connecting to points in Latin America and Caribbean.
Spirit also offers nonstops from Vegas to Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago-O’Hare, Dallas-Ft Worth and San Diego.
While I would normally get excited about new flights from the Bay, I’m filled with trepidation instead. Why? Spirit has a very strong “you-get-what-you-pay-for” reputation. (Disclosure: I have not flown Spirit yet. This is what I’ve heard anecdotally, online review sites and from media reports.)
A quick scan of Spirit’s OAK-LAS fares shows some good deals, but with some caveats. (Note Spirit fares do not show up on travel search engines…you must shop at spirit.com)
During September and October, Spirit is promoting $9 each way, $18 round trips between Oakland and Las Vegas. Sounds great, but you have to pay a $60 fee to join its “club” to get that fare.
Don’t want to join? Then the base fare jumps to $22 round trip.
But that’s not what you pay. In addition, you will pay Spirit’s unique “passenger usage fee” of $16 per round trip, plus the usual federal taxes, so the round trip ends up at $59.40. (This fee covers the cost of Spirit maintaining its web site, so the only way to avoid this fee is to go to Oakland and buy your tickets at the airport.)
But wait, it does not stop there.
If you carry on a bag, you’ll pay an additional $30 each way, making the total price $119.40. (Want to check your bag at the airport? That will be $40 each way!)
Want to reserve a window seat near the front of the plane, or one next to the person you are traveling with? That’s an extra $14 each way, $28 round trip, so now the ticket price is $147.40
By comparison, the lowest fare on Virgin America for SFO-Las Vegas in mid-September (including all taxes and fees) is $133.40.
Have you ever, or would you fly Spirit? Please leave your comments below.
American Airlines eliminates SFO-Honolulu
Despite its fancy new digs at SFO’s Terminal 2, American Airlines continues to reduce the number of cities it serves from San Francisco.
On September 7, the Texas-based carrier will eliminate its nonstop flights between San Francisco and Honolulu. This follows a decision to cut out nonstops between SFO and Boston last November.
After Sept 7, American will have 31 daily round trips into and out of SFO: 11 to Dallas/Ft Worth; six to Chicago O’Hare; five (four on off-peak days) to New York-JFK; three to Miami; and six to LAX.
American spokesman Tim Smith said that the move is not directly related to any particular issue in San Francisco. “It remains a key city for us or we obviously would not have become involved in the new terminal and built a new, state-of-the-art Admirals Club that just opened. 31 flights a day makes it an important destination/departure city in terms of being a non-hub.”
The move is a result of American’s 2009 decision to concentrate domestic flying at what it calls its hub or “cornerstone cities:” Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Nearly all its domestic now flying touches those cities in some way.
“As to the SFO-HNL flight itself, since it is a point-to-point flight between two non-hub cities, there is generally not enough traffic on both ends to fully support the flight,” said Smith. “That means we have had to find ways to feed traffic bound for Honolulu into SFO. Under the cornerstone plan it is much more efficient and cost effective to feed traffic to HNL from our cornerstone hubs where we have lots of daily feed [from other cities]. So, as of Sept. 7, we will fly from HNL 3x daily from LAX; 2x daily from DFW; and 1 from ORD (but not every day – it will be 4 times per week). This gives us either 5 or 6 round trips per day to and from HNL from the U.S. mainland.” he said.
What’s happening with American’s flights at SFO is happening throughout the airline industry as airlines grapple with higher fuel costs. “We’re past the point of airlines flying routes out of a sense of vanity or pride. If a route doesn’t make money, it shouldn’t be flown,” said San Francisco-based Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt.
Despite the loss of American, Bay area residents won’t have much difficulty finding flights from here to Hawaii. Alaska Airlines has added a slew of new Boeing 737 non-stops from Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento to several Hawaiian cities over the last year.
And there are still plenty of seats to Honolulu from SFO. “While disappointed by American’s decision, the airport recognizes that our partner airlines need to make tough economic decisions on where to deploy their aircraft. After September 7 the non-stop SFO-Honolulu market will be served by United, Hawaiian, and Delta; collectively offering over 9,000 seats a week,” said airport spokesman Charles Schuler. (Fares for October SFO-HNL flights are currently in the $400-$500 range, but dip closer to $350 during periodic sales.)
American’s partnership with Hawaiian on its nonstops between SFO and HNL helps ease the pain a little for AAdvantage members. Currently, they can still redeem AAdvantage miles for Hawaiian flights between SFO and HNL. However, they can only earn AAdvantage miles on Hawaiian’s inter-island flights.
Does the loss of American flights provide an opening for Virgin America to enter the market? “It doesn’t really impact our immediate plans,” said Virgin’s Abby Lunardini. “That said, Hawaii remains on our prospective destination list [but] our ability to fly there in the short-term is dependent on our aircraft, as we need the extended range capability of our new on-order A320s to fly those routes.”
Will you miss having American fly between SFO and Honolulu? Please leave your comments below.
