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UPDATE 2, December 3, 2007: Southwest issued cease-and-desist orders to the last of the remaining sites. Looks like the automated check-in game is over.

UPDATE: As of October 2007, most third-party services offering Southwest automated check-in have folded. See here for the update. Of the services mentioned below, only PlaneFast is still offering the service for a donation, not a fee. The remainder of this post follows, as originally published.

Since Southwest Airlines doesn’t have assigned seating, but assigns boarding areas on the basis of how early you check in to your flight, it’s long been known that an early check-in (preferably online) is the key to getting a good seat. So a cottage industry developed, with websites such as boardfirst.com, apassonly.com, and alineonline.com offering the service of checking you in automatically at the first possible moment, to guarantee you one of the approximately 45 boarding passes in group A. (Reminds me of sniping sites that put in bids for you at the last second on eBay.)

Of these three sites, only APassOnly.com has caved to the legal pressure, and is no longer accepting new customers. Go ahead and use the other sites if you like. They charge about $5 per use.

Southwest apparently doesn’t like anyone getting the automated upper hand, so they’re suing these sites (WSJ - subscription required). Their suit names “fraud, unfair competition and trademark infringement, among other things.” In particular, Southwest suggests that these other firms are violating the terms and conditions of the website — they are accessing passenger records as non-family third parties.

The argument is specious. I’m not sure if the airline is getting complaints from too many Group B ticketholders, or if they’re just control freaks. But the services are working on behalf of the ticketholders, at the ticketholders’ request — I would argue that they’re authorized users of the website as a result. And if you have an open seating policy (which I find awful to begin with) then you’re always going to find people looking to beat the system. Don’t like that? Then allow assigned seats. Most people I know prefer to know where they’re sitting.

In the meantime, if you’re flying Southwest, auto-check-in or not, and you’re looking for the best seats, print the SeatGuru seatmap and target a nice aisle or window. (Caveat: The map is for the 737-300, not the newer 737-700. If you see winglets jutting up at the end of the wings, you’re on your own…)

(Update June 8, 2006: Reader VS reports that PlaneFast, another service offering automated check-in, is still up and running — and that they’re FREE to use. The site works on a donation basis, not a fee.)

(Update June 18, 2006: Reader Marie e-mails me another site that offers “A” boarding passes: Fly A Today charges $5.95 and claims a 99.6% rate of getting the A pass.)

(image: jimfrazier on flickr)
tags: travel | airlines | Southwest

Less meat, more food
Sure, if you’re promised a meal, and you don’t get one, you should be angry. But holding a sit-in? 55 vegetarian passengers on Air India refused to leave the plane after landing at their destination, because they had not been given a vegetarian option on board.

More drinks
As part of its continuing Texas-sized war with American Airlines, Southwest upped the ante and gave away free drinks last week to travelers from Dallas’ Love Field. 65,000 free drinks.

Less legroom, less luggage, but lots more prime minister!
Tony Blair, tired of flying in first class while Prince Charles flew business class, went downscale with his family, opting to fly Irish discount carrier Ryanair from Rome to Stansted. Unlike other Ryanair patrons, he and his family got to choose their seats in advance. (I wonder if he also paid for each piece of checked luggage, inflight food and drinks, or any of the myriad taxes and fees…) I guess he didn’t watch the channel 4 report on Ryanair safety! Next year, maybe we’ll see him jet off to Amsterdam on EasyJet for a weekend with his mates.

More plane
Singapore Airlines, the first airline to fly the double-decker Airbus A380, announced its first official route for the plane: Singapore to Sydney.

More old-school mileage
Best Interstate road trips in America? USA Today has a list. Some good roads, but if you’re road-tripping, don’t just stick to the interstates.

More newfangled mileage
Currently, twin-engine planes traveling over the oceans need to chart a course so they remain close to airports in case of emergency. (The certification is called “ETOPS” — explained here.) Airbus’ 319, 320, and 321 were just upgraded to 3 hour ETOPS recently by the FAA, allowing them to fly longer overwater. For widebody longhaul planes like the Boeing 777, the maximum legal flight time to the nearest airport is currently 3 hours. The Federal Aviation Administration appears set to certify the Boeing 777 (and potentially other 2-engine widebody planes) for longhaul overwater flights of up to 5 ½ hours. Only Antarctica would be off-limits.

More beat-up furniture and saggy mattresses. Lots more.
Want your home to be more like a rundown hotel? Then this is your home furnishing supercenter, from furniture to art. (via BoingBoing)

Earlier in the week, I commented on Farecast, the new service that seeks to predict the direction of airfares. Access to the site is currently by invitation only.

I have 25 login invitations to give away. If you want a login to beta-test the site, please use the “contact me” link at the top right of the blog to send me a note. First come, first served.

Remember, the site is in beta, so it only searches fares departing from Boston and Seattle, but you’re welcome to kick the tires.

Wireless internet access on board commercial aircraft is closer than ever to reality in American airspace. Intercontinental travelers on a number of non-US airlines (e.g., Singapore, Lufthansa, Asiana, Etihad, SAS, Korean …) have already been enjoying inflight internet access through Boeing’s Connexion service, which connects planes to satellites.

Now, however, two companies are poised to offer inflight wi-fi in the U.S. market. AirCell and LiveTV (a division of JetBlue) won sections of broadcast spectrum in Federal Communications Commission auction last week. AirCell promises to deliver air-to-ground access by early 2007, with a consumer cost expected to be about $10 per flight. Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean countries are lining up for similar services. No word yet on individual airlines signing up with either firm.

The appeal of inflight internet is huge, since the internet serves both the business traveler and the leisure traveler. (Though not everyone has a laptop…) The possibility exists as well to allow for phone calls in flight through one of these services. However, some airlines, like Frontier, are planning to introduce inflight wi-fi, but to block voice over IP services like Skype.

Maybe I’ll be posting at 600 mph sooner than I thought.

Chicago is the latest city to roll out so-called airport cell phone lots. These parking facilities allow you to park for *free* while waiting to pick someone up, as long as you stay in the car and leave within an hour. They’re “cell phone lots” because the traveler is presumably calling the driver to let them know they’ve arrived.

Houston, Seattle, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and San Diego are other U.S. cities with similar features at their airports. The lots are designed to reduce traffic and emissions from circling cars. Most also require you to turn off the car while in the lot. (Houston, which allows idling, is a notable exception on that count…)

European friends are bewildered that I’m not as excited as they are about the upcoming World Cup. To them, and to soccer (or football) fans world wide, my apologies.

The World Cup brings out the competitiveness in teams, in nations, and in airlines as well, it seems. Case in point: The competition is in Germany, so Germany’s Lufthansa painted soccer balls on the nosecones of 40 of its planes, angering official tournament sponsor Emirates Airlines and the international soccer organization FIFA.

In any case, to explain the lack of general World Cup excitement in the US, with some ha-ha’s, I refer them (and you) to this snippet from the Simpsons, which could serve as a kind of instructional video.

May the best team win…

(image: jetblasts2k on flickr)
tags: soccer | football | world cup

The Boston Globe spends quite a few words on a new fare search site that hasn’t even gone live. It hasn’t even gone truly beta. The new site, Farecast, is in “private beta” — meaning you need an invitation to be able try out the site.

Farecast goes beyond a cute name. It promises to go a step further than FareCompare’s graphical plotting of the past year’s fares, as reported here last week. Farecast’s goal is to predict the direction fares will go, with a confidence percentage (how confident it is of its prediction) so you can decide whether to buy now or wait.

A neat idea, but it’s clearly not quite ready for primetime yet.

The downsides? 1) So far, the site only includes searches from Boston or Seattle. 2) Southwest fares are excluded, which distorts predictions, since a good Southwest fare sale can send the other airlines into a tizzy. 3) If you see a fare you like, you can’t always book it through the site. You may still need to go to Kayak, Travelocity, Orbitz, or the airline to buy the fare. 4) With current oil prices, and rising fares, it doesn’t take much sophisticated programming to create a site that always suggests buying now.

Farecast isn’t alone in the space either. Coming soon: FlySpy, offering a similar product. I can imagine FareCompare or Kayak adding a prediction function, too. Who will win out in the end? Let me check my crystal ball…

It had to happen. Bona fide snake, bona fide plane. The AP reports:

Monty Coles was 3,000 feet in the air when he discovered a stowaway peeking out at him from the plane’s instrument panel — a 4 1/2-foot black snake. Coles had left Charleston earlier for a leisurely flight over the West Virginia countryside last Saturday in his Piper Cherokee and was preparing to land in Gallipolis, Ohio, when the snake revealed itself.
[…]
An attempt to swat the snake only resulted in it falling to Coles’ feet under the rudder pedals. It then darted to the other side of the cockpit. While maintaining control of the single-engine plane with one hand, Coles grabbed the reptile behind its head with his other. “There was no way I was letting that thing go. It coiled all around my arm, and its tail grabbed hold of a lever on the floor and started pulling,” Coles said.

Dynamite. I’d like to see Samuel L. Jackson actually do THAT.

But please, PLEASE release this movie soon so no one has to suffer through any more jokes about airborne reptiles…

(image)
tags: travel | air travel | snakes on a plane

Every other day, there’s another article warning travelers that this will be the busiest summer for air travel ever. (Here, have another article. On the house.) As we’ve heard, planes will be full, security lines will be long, and tempers will flare.

The Air Line Pilots Association now adds another wrinkle: They say that U.S. airlines, especially United, don’t have enough pilots.

“If a hub goes down because of thunderstorms, it totally changes the schedule and guys run out of time,” said Capt. Steve Derebey, a spokesman for ALPA, which represents about 6,350 United pilots. “The system backs up and schedules go out the window. Towards the end of the month, you can run out of reserves.”

Great, another thing to make travel harder, and out of travelers’ control.

Most news reports offer the same tips to reduce your risk: check in online, get there early, pack light (under 50lbs per checked bag), use skycaps to check luggage, etc. (Consider these tips for finding the shortest security line, too.)

But one suggestion for reducing your risk is rarely voiced: Whenever possible, schedule your flights for as *early in the day* as you can arrange. Delays tend to be cumulative, so afternoon and evening flights suffer more from the day’s ripple effects than morning flights. The earlier you can get to the airport, the better your odds of avoiding delays and cancellations. Whenever possible, strongly consider standing by for earlier flights, too.

And United might strongly consider hiring some more pilots…

(image)
tags: travel | air travel | UAL Corp | United Airlines | air travel | ALPA | pilots | trip delays

Extended stay hotels aren’t known for luxury — they’re more likely to feature a barbeque area or a basketball court than a sauna. But I’ve always liked the flexibility of having your own apartment on the road. I’m a fan of the Marriott Residence Inn, though their beds could use a sprucing up. The units I’ve had (calling them “rooms” or “suites” doesn’t quite do them justice) have always been clean, spacious, and comfortable. (I have particularly fond memories of the Manhattan Beach Residence Inn, very close to LAX.)

Now Starwood announces that they’re getting into the extended stay market, but that they’re moving the niche upscale. The new chain will be a Westin derivative. If that’s the case, then we might see the Heavenly Bed as well.

Combine that with a breakfast buffet featuring a waffle iron, and I’m sold.

Lost privacy
If you’ve used hotels.com to book a room, your credit card information may have been stolen. The company should be contacting you if you’re affected. Yay.

Lost kids
Parents’ nightmare: United Airlines put an unaccompanied child on the wrong flight (sent him to South Bend instead of Taiwan), and left the South Bend-bound child at O’Hare. No word on whether their bags arrived in the proper city.

Lost marbles
Singapore cab driver converts his vehicle into a mobile karaoke unit. I wonder if his repertoire includes Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55.”

Lost fight
Virgin America says it won’t start flying until 2007, because Continental keeps filing objections with the Department of Transportation. Virgin promises fares 30 to 50 percent less than competitors on cross-country flights. Where have we seen this before?…

Lost lunch
Nervous about flying? Ever frightened when you’re coming in for a landing during serious crosswinds? This video of Boeing 777s and 747SPs doing test landings somewhere in Brazil might make you feel better about the ability of airliners to land safely in less than ideal conditions. Or it might just make you shout “holy crap!” repeatedly, like I did last night.

(image: ABC, via Honolulu Star-Bulletin, which describes how a former Eastern (and later Delta) L-1011 was destroyed in order to serve as a set piece for the TV series “Lost”)
tags: travel

USA Today runs another rant about how hard it is to redeem frequent flyer miles, but the inset text box alongside the article offers a few fun facts. Here’s what’s in the box:

• If travelers today were to convert all their miles into free travel, airlines would be liable for an estimated 27 million free trips. Realistically, many of those miles will be diverted to seating upgrades, hotel stays or even merchandise. And about a quarter of all earned miles will never be used.
• Of the 180 million distinct members of frequent-flier programs - many are members of multiple programs - only about 28% are active participants in any one year.
• American’s AAdvantage program is the oldest and largest program, claiming about 54 million members
• The average active member of a frequent-flier program earns 11,364 miles per year.
• An estimated 310,000 frequent fliers have earned at least 1 million miles in their programs.
• An award trip costs an airline at least $23.93, based on the food, beverage, fuel, reservations, liability insurance and miscellaneous costs. This assumes the seat occupied would have gone unsold and the airline didn’t forgo revenue from a paying passenger.

Sources: Randy Petersen, publisher of WebFlyer.com

The last point in particular really caught my attention. $23.93 seems really low for the airlines’ expenses, even for a short domestic flight, especially given the price of oil.

What I really wonder (and I am not sure anyone can answer this without divulging trade secrets) is how the accounting between *partner* airlines works. If you, say, use USAirways miles to get first class tickets on Singapore Airlines, does cash change hands between the two airlines? If so, how much? In other words, how much are the really good awards costing the airline?

Anyone know?