A Cathay Pacific pilot lost his job for flying a Boeing 777-300ER at extremely low altitude over the runway at a Boeing plant in Washington. He was picking up the newly-delivered jet and decided to pull an air-show move, circling back for a low fly-by. Back in Hong Kong, his employer summarily handed him his walking papers.

The video of the fly-byis really a choppy collection of still photos. More photos taken by a planespotter are here.

But did the pilot really deserve to lose his job over this? It was a stunt, yes. But there were no passengers involved, and this wasn’t at a regular commercial airport. Slap him on the wrist, sure, teach him some etiquette, but fire him? It seems like someone at Cathay woke up on the wrong side of the first class suite.

Has the passenger rights movement found a second life in the recent tumult over airline mergers?

Kate Hanni’s Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights, which seemed to be on the fast track to irrelevance by sticking to a narrow pitch of opposing passenger strandings by the airlines, may have found new purpose. The Coalition has created an alliance with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers to oppose any airline merger that involves American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, or United. (Southwest, AirTran, US Airways… feel free to merge away!)

Will they have an impact on the merger mania? That depends on what “opposition” to a merger really means. Pickets? Passenger and employee strikes? Lawsuits? We’ll see.

But the key is this: This is an effort to take the stalled passenger rights movement and extend it into a real organization by joining forces with other parties. Creating an interest group, and not just a bunch of people with a website.

But as Chris Elliott warned a while back, any organization needs to look out for passengers, not just for media coverage. Opposing these mergers is pro-consumer, so this is a promising step for Kate Hanni & Co. But, much like there are automobile associations, there’s a long way to go before we have a true airline passenger organization.

Still, this may be the first step.

Related:
- Travel 2008: 33 hours from San Juan to Chicago
- Good for the goose, good for the gander: Charge change fees to your airline?
- Passengers’ bill of rights: Slow but steady progress?
- Chicago City Council to mandate passengers’ bill of rights?
- Should we trust airlines to improve passenger rights?

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No surprises here, but US Airways copied its Star Alliance brethren United and started charging a fee for a second checked bag. United announced their change earlier this month. No surprises here, but it still sucks.

As Cranky notes, this isn’t just for domestic travel, either. International flights will be hit with the charge as well.

But as I’ve argued before, the really key point in the spread of “a la carte” pricing is that it’s becoming harder and harder to compare apples to apples. Comparing base fares is increasingly going to be meaningless, as individual customers’ final prices will vary greatly.

And right now, there’s no search engine that’s equipped to help. You’ll need a magic decoder ring to know which airline charges extra for bags, for seat assignments, etc. The Travelocitys, Expedias, and Orbitzes of the world can only quote you the base fare and taxes. Not the real cost.

That’s going to put pressure on other airlines to follow suit. And it’s going to make online fare search that much harder.

(image: gratuitous use of the Staples Copy Cat)

It’s been a tough week, so forgive my absence online. I’m just starting to dig through the e-mails and comments, so if you sent me a message, please bear with me while I catch up. Speaking of catch-up…

Downgraded: Channel 9
For those who have flown United Airlines, you may be familiar with Channel 9, the inflight entertainment feature that lets you hear the conversations between the pilots and air traffic control. There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who get it, and those who don’t. I’m a fan, and I have always appreciated the openness and lifting-of-the-curtain that the channel provides. Of course, I hardly ever fly United any more, so I might as well use the past tense in describing it myself. When things seem amiss (like a powerful jolt of turbulence) it’s nice to hear know what’s going on. My affection for channel 9 is probably balanced out by the naysayers who ask why the hell anyone would want to hear that stuff, or who would rather NOT know how airline pilots actually do their job. The naysayers may have their day, though, as reports are increasing that Channel 9 is turned off more and more. The Wall Street Journal’s Scott McCartney even devoted a weekly column to the subject, and his sources indicate that some pilots are intentionally keeping Channel 9 turned off as a protest against United management. Well that’s just lovely. Take one of the last (positive) things that makes UA unique, and destroy it. Another nail in United’s coffin.

Upgraded: Eos going domestic?
Eos, the swanky all-business class airline, plans to expand beyond its New York JFK to London Stansted route. First there was the addition of Newark flights to London. Then London to Dubai. And now, there’s word that Eos wants to introduce flights to “Western U.S. destinations.” But whereto?

Upgraded: Salt Lake City security
At the Salt Lake City airport, the TSA is running a pilot program and allowing passengers to self-categorize themselves as beginners, intermediates, or experts, as pertains to security. Interestingly, the “beginner” stage includes families and special needs travelers. Different needs, sure, but “beginners”? I like the ski-slope coding scheme (black diamond = expert), but it’ll be interesting to see if passengers actually categorize themselves correctly.

Upgraded, sorta: JetBlue inflight meals
Downgraded: Your peace and quiet
JetBlue will give you a free breakfast laden with Kraft cream cheese, as part of a buzz-building campaign for a reformulated light spread. Some flights even have Kraft representatives in white tuxedos chatting up the flight, pimping the cheese. Classy. The free bagel and cream cheese? Fine. But a sales schtick you can’t escape? Two thumbs way, way down. (Marketplace, via Rick Seaney)

Downgraded: go! Airlines’ pilots’ caffeine rush
Inter-island capitalization-challenged Hawaiian airline go! treated its passengers to a little extra flight mileage on board their Canadair torture machine regional jet, when both the pilot and the co-pilot apparently fell asleep during a flight from Honolulu to Hilo. I couldn’t imagine falling asleep during such a short flight, even as a passenger. But both pilots falling asleep? Mechanical errors have been ruled out. Those pilots’ seats must be comfy. Or maybe someone slipped them a decaf instead of a triple-shot of regular?

Downgraded: London Heathrow
British Airways economy and premium economy passengers at Heathrow’s terminal 4 were told they could only fly on February 20 if they had no checked baggage. What? Again: Passenger wishing to check bags were prohibited from flying. Why? Because the airport’s luggage handling system had failed. And note that this is the terminal where BA’s long-haul flights tend to begin, so you’re not just hitting the folks who are daytripping on business. Great work, team. (Thanks, Hamish!)

Gary Leff slams Peter Greenberg’s frequent-flyer advice, but is Gary’s advice any better for the common traveler?

Gary argues that Peter’s restatement of the conventional wisdom — that cashing in frequent flyer miles is getting harder, if not impossible — is wrong.

And yet I’ve never failed to redeem for the award I’ve wanted, as I’ve mentioned here several times. In the next 10 weeks I have first class award bookings to South Asia, business class award bookings to Europe, and a domestic award as well. All on the dates I needed.

But I’ve accumulated miles in a variety of accounts, if United doesn’t have availability I can check to see what American (or British Airways) has to offer.

Good for Gary, but let’s face it, not everyone has the luxury (or curse?) of multiple accounts with 6-digit mileage balances.

It’s like saying, “Well, my checking account at Citibank was tapped out, so I just paid for my bills, a vacation, and a new house with the interest I earned in my WaMu account.” It’s easy to be glib when you’re a multi-millionaire.

Most people don’t have that luxury. So Gary’s argument, while factually accurate, is not applicable to most travelers. Certainly not most leisure travelers. And, I’d argue, it’s unlikely to work for many business travelers either, whose loyalties (and corporate travel policies) make accumulation in one program more probable.

There IS potentially one way to follow Gary’s advice without getting a sore butt-bone from flying on dozens of different airlines. My weapon of choice: The Starwood Preferred Guest Program and the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card. You can collect points in the Starwood program, and when the need arises, you can transfer miles to a laundry list of airlines, with no devaluation. (Caveat: Some airlines don’t participate, and some, like United, only accept transfers at a 50% haircut. Stick to the programs that take full-value transfers.)

Britain’s Guardian had my respect and admiration for some time. Until Thursday morning. And all because of a travel blog.

It’s not because they started a travel blog, per se. It’s because they disrespected their readers so completely by publishing a poorly-written, self-indulgent case study in nepotism. And they featured it on the front page.

Here’s the editor’s intro to the new blog, giving a hint of the incredible insight that is to come, right out of the gate:

Meet Max Gogarty – 19, from north London, spends his money on food, booze and skinny jeans, writes for Skins in his spare time. He’s off to India and Thailand to have a good time, and you can join him in his weekly blog.

“Skinny jeans” ??! Wow. And the actual blog entry isn’t much better.

Take that, regular Guardian travel writers! You’ve been punked.

Normally I wouldn’t begrudge a 19-year old documenting his travels overseas. More power to him, and after all, we all act like idiots in our teens. But this is on the website of the Guardian. The freakin’ Guardian. The homepage of the Guardian.

So how did he get the gig? Some dismayed commenters on the site — among the over 500 comments left — cleverly deduced that Max is the offspring of Paul Gogarty, a semi-frequent contributor to the paper. And that Thailand, one of the stops on young Max’s itinerary, is a place the young lad in the “skinny jeans” has already been to, in 2002, as previously featured in Daddy’s writings.

Within minutes, the Wikipedia entry for “Nepotism” was edited to reflect young Max’s good fortune.

The comments on the thread are scathing. Deliciously scathing. In fact, staying on the Wikipedia theme, a Guardian reader noticed that Max had apparently described himself as a “top Guardian travel columnist” in the Wikipedia entry for his secondary school, a week before his blog was launched. Smooth.

The comments went crazy. British dry humor meets mob anger. Reason enough to welcome young Max and his skinny jeans to the blogosphere, solely for the comments. Really, they’re that funny. (Even if hundreds have been deleted by the Guardian’s editors. Too bad, really.)

Some samples:

a great lesson in ‘how travel journalism works’. in other words, via sperm and eggs

Or:

@Max
“I’m doing India on my own.”
You goddamn heroic bastard. How exactly are you planning on “doing” a billion people?

But for a complete disembowelment of the Guardian’s judgment, I turn it over to John Brownlee, whose gift for metaphoric hyperbole is matched only by his nose for a good internet meme. A sarcastic tour de force. Go read the whole thing.

Update: The Guardian sticks its head even further up its backside, by accusing the collective reader response of being a case of “mob rule.” Allusions to Cuba and Hitler abound, for good measure, but the paper refuses to back down from the position that their blog idea was anything but a bad one. Brownlee is on the case, again, and hits the nail on the head.

US Airways reduces the value of frequent flyer programs further with their latest policy change. Here’s the official statement of the changes to the US Airways Dividend Miles program:

Accrual
Tickets purchased on/after March 1, 2008 for travel on US Airways on/after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown and will no longer earn a minimum of 500 miles per segment.
Tickets flown on partner airlines after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown.
Tickets purchased prior to March 1, 2008 will continue to earn the 500 mile minimum for travel after May 1, 2008. Accrual on flight segments greater than 500 miles in length are not impacted by this change.

Redemption
Members redeeming miles for award travel online within 14-days of departure will be assessed a quick ticketing fee of $50 per ticket.
A quick ticketing fee of $75 per award ticket will continue to apply for award tickets purchased from US Airways Reservations. Chairman’s and Platinum Preferred members booking within 14-days (both online and by phone) are exempt from the fee.

The “quick-ticketing fee” is not an innovation. American has been doing it for years, and United followed suit just over a year ago. It’s obnoxious, and purely a cash-grab with no sensible justification, but it’s not a new idea.

What IS a new idea is the elimination of the minimum mileage for short flights. Until now, travelers on short hops were able to console themselves with the knowledge that they’d at least get a few miles for their trouble. This will make earning elite status harder, too. (Which might be a corporate goal.)

What remains to be seen is if when other airlines will follow suit and eliminate the minimum mileage earned.

Another unknown at this point: how US Airways’ partner airlines will credit US Airways flights. For example, US Airways flights can accrue miles in a United Mileage Plus account. As of this morning, this page on United’s website still lists a 500-mile minimum accrual rate for US Airways flights credit to Mileage Plus. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Yay. Aren’t these programs fun?

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The tide continues to turn against smokers at North American hotels. Sheraton and Four Points, both part of the Starwood group, are the latest to ban smoking at all properties in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean, much as their corporate cousin Westin did a few years earlier.

This isn’t just about the market responding to a smaller population of smokers, or a kindly gesture designed to improve your longevity. It’s also a way for the hotel to cut costs, since cleaning a smoky room is more time-consuming and expensive than cleaning a non-smoking room. And minimizing the variation between hotel rooms, by eliminating an entire class of rooms, makes it easier to manage inventory.

Nonsmokers are celebrating. Smokers are inevitably planning their boycott.

Related:
- Nicotine jitters: Another hotel chain goes non-smoking
- Smoking prohibitions: Hurdles and tradeoffs
- Marriott hotels to eliminate smoking in all its North American brands
- The captain has turned on the smoke-’em-if-you-got-’em sign…

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Reader Joe writes in:

I live in Ventura, California, and I was looking at a flight to Philadelphia. But the fares don’t make sense. It’s cheaper for me to fly from Santa Barbara to LAX to Philadelphia than it is to fly nonstop LAX-PHL. I don’t get it. It’s cheaper to connect at LAX??! I’m flying further, so why is it less? About $80 less, too. Why??

Ahh, airline economics. Use more of a resource, pay less! But believe it or not there’s sometimes a logic to it.

In fact, this is quite common. I recently faced a similar thing when buying a ticket. It was cheaper to fly from Greensboro to Charlotte, and onward to San Diego, that to fly nonstop from Charlotte to San Diego. Adding the Greensboro to Charlotte leg actually caused the price to drop about $70.

Two important things to remember:
1) Pairs matter. Distance doesn’t.
Fares won’t necessarily depend on the route you fly. Fares are based on city pairs — the departure and destination city.
2) Supply and Demand.
Supply and competition for a particular route will generally trump other economic factors like distance flown.

Airlines price flights based not only on the costs they incur, but also on the demand for the route and the amount of competition for the particular city pair. In your case, Joe, the LAX-Philadelphia route may have seen hefty sales already, selling out the cheaper seats on that route. But the Santa Barbara-Philadelphia city pair may have seen only light sales, so the cheap seats could still have been available.

And don’t forget fare sales: If a competitor is driving prices lower on the Santa Barbara-Philadelphia route, then prices are likely to drop. This is especially noticeable when a new, cheaper competitor starts service from a city. (The “Southwest Effect” is a common phrase to describe the effect of fares on a city when Southwest starts service in a market.)

[As a sidebar: Given the fact that you'll have to change planes, thereby risking a misconnection and spending more time in airports, is it really worth saving a few bucks to increase your inconvenience? You might also be paying a nonstop premium, which could easily be worth it. I realize your question was about why the price difference exists, but the lower price may still be a bad value.]

Bottom line: If you’re trying to make sense of an airfare, ignore distance. Ignore where you’re changing planes. And ignore superficial logic. Focus on price for the explanation.

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Upgraded: Frequent flyer legislation
Downgraded: The value of your miles
Frequent flyer programs can be a byzantine maze. Above all, nearly everyone is cranky about being able to cash in their frequent flyer miles. I just tried winnowing down the uncomfortably large kitty of points for some Caribbean travel in May and was given the Heisman. But I’m not cheering on Washington state legislator Chris Hurst, who’s proposing a bill that would allow consumers to cash in their miles at 0.2 cents apiece. “Cash in” literally — for cash. House Bill 2707 is probably not going to go anywhere, but it’s meant as a shot across the bow of airlines whose point redemptions are increasingly stingy. Representative Hurst, call me when you start demanding 2 cents per mile or better. (via Pointswizard)

Upgraded: Delta’s business class seats… on some of its planes
Delta is rolling out new fully-flat seats on its 767s that travel internationally. Excellent news. But only on the 767s for starters, which means that the Delta fleet will have a patchwork of seating at the front of the plane. Sure, every airline rolls new seats out one plane at a time, but it’s odd to limit the rollout explicitly to one aircraft type.

Upgraded: Delta’s flight attendants’ trepidations
With Delta and Northwest in confirmed talks regarding a possible merger, the as-yet non-unionized flight attendants at Delta are looking to organize. Delta’s attendants might be members of the AFA-CWA as of February 14. Consider it a Valentine to Delta management. The goal is to “have a seat at the table” when merger discussions take shape.

Upgraded: Competition for hourly car rentals
With the success of hourly “car-sharing” rentals like Zipcar, the big car rental players are getting in on the action. Reportedly, Enterprise is launching its own version, dubbed “WeCar,” which is being test near Washington University in St. Louis. Just be sure to walk around the car and take photos before and after the rental. If WeCar is anything like their regular operation, those Enterprise guys will try to nail you for any damages on the car, whether it happened on your watch or not.

Upgraded: Gitmo!?
Disturbing and bizarre: There actually exists scheduled service to Guantanamo Bay, ironically provided by the happy-go-lucky sounding Air Sunshine, using 9-seat Cessnas. For those wishing to plan their trip, service is only four days a week, at $250 each way. Not cheap, for such a short trip, and you’d better hope they honor the return portion of the ticket. But you may never want to leave. After all, as Dick Cheney described the conditions for detainees at the base’s prison facilities, when he spoke to CNN in 2005, “They’re living in the tropics. They’re well fed. They’ve got everything they could possibly want.”

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