Eos Airlines, the all-business class class airline that actually approached all-first class service on the New York-London route, shut down abruptly today. Their homepage contains the now all-too-familiar declaration, as seen in the Maxjet and Skybus shutdowns, that future flights are canceled.

The business class wars, so heated just a year ago, are nearing an end. Who knows how long the remaining all-business class carriers — Silverjet and L’Avion — can hold on. The standalone niche all-business class airline just isn’t viable in a recessionary world of $120 oil.

Eos didn’t actually blame oil prices in their last-minute notice that they were shutting down. Instead, they blamed the credit markets.

This announcement is particularly regrettable since we have achieved so much, including having a term sheet in hand for additional financing. Clearly, even in today’s challenging economic and credit environment, investors believe in Eos. Unfortunately, some issues arose that prevented the parties from moving forward.

Nice spin. Maybe the airline’s investors held out hope, but hope is not a plan. And in today’s economic environment, the bankers didn’t see that plan coming together.

Of the three all-biz airlines on the NYC-London route, that now leaves Silverjet. They’re appealing to Eos ticketholders, saying they’ll “honour the price you paid to EOS, subject to seat availability and a minimum price paid” — a minimum of £600 / $1,200 plus taxes one-way or £1,200 / $2,400 plus taxes round trip. I note that they say they’ll honor the PRICE, not the TICKET. I’ve put in a question to Silverjet, to see if this means they’ll be accepting Eos tickets as-is, or if they will require a payment in the amount of the original fare. I’ll update if and when they respond. (Updated: See below.)

British Airways is offering reduced rates to Eos customers for business class fares. No word on how big a discount.

No word yet from Virgin, American, or anyone else on the NYC-London route as to how they’ll approach Eos customers.

If you can’t be rebooked, call your credit card and try to get a refund. With Eos’ pricing being on the higher end, you’ll want that money back.

UPDATE: Silverjet clarifies their policy. “This statement means you will need to purchase new flights from Silverjet and then claim any monies owed from Eos back from them, your credit card company or your travel insurance provider.” In other words, they’ll let you buy a new ticket at the original Eos fare, which, if it was purchased a while back, may be cheaper than a walkup fare today, but they aren’t honoring Eos tickets as-is.

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!)

[InterContinental Hotels Group] Americas’ President Steve Porter kicked off [IHG's national meeting] with the gusto of a rock star, directing a choir singing Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” A band, including CEO Cosslett on guitar, provided the thunderous chords while drummers drilled the song into the rafters of the Dallas Convention Center.

“Today we are at a crossroads,” Porter said. “Our relevance is at risk.”

Clearly, true. For real relevance, Porter would have conducted the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and London Symphony Orchestra in a complete performance of the Who’s “Tommy,” while discussing the prospects for expansion of the Hotel Indigo brand.

Upgraded: Airport health care
Why visit a doctor — or heck, a supermarket — when you can get your flu shots at the airport? Now injecting at gate C17!

Downgraded: New England fall foliage
One year’s weather or global warming? Either way, fall foliage in the northeast U.S. isn’t looking so great.

Upgraded: Eos adds more all-business flights
Eos Airlines, which currently flies from JFK to London-Stansted is expanding. New routes will include Newark to Stansted in the spring, and JFK to Paris in the fall.

Upgraded: Skybus adds flights from Greensboro
Late last month, I posted about Skybus‘ plans to expand to a new hub — or “focus city,” if you must use the proper nomenclature. Signs were pointing toward Greensboro, NC or Portsmouth, NH. Greensboro it is. Up to 11 flights a day coming soon.

Upgraded: A380 cinema verité
Video of the interior of the new Singapore Airbus A380. It’s pure, unadulterated Singapore Airlines and Airbus PR video. But it’s actually often rather unflattering, if you ask me, at least in coach. (Legroom looks good, but those colors are drab!) For those seeking some first class airline porn, voila.

(Thanks to reader Chris!)

I know that so called y-up fares can be a good way to sit in first class for cheap, but I can’t find them for flights to Europe or Asia. Can you help?

The reason you can’t find them, Steven, is because there are none by that name. International long-haul discount first (and business) class fares go by different names than their domestic equivalents.

Y-UP fares and their ilk are limited to North American flights, and generally refer to an upgrade from coach to first on two-class planes. See here for background on Y-UP fares, and see FareCompare’s Y-UP search tool to find these fares on routes you travel.

For Europe or Asia, you’re generally going to be looking for Z-fares. But there’s no handy-dandy search tool (yet) for Z-fares like there is for Y-UPs. (Neil and Rick, consider this a challenge!…)

Z-fares crop up from time to time, but aren’t available on every route. Traveling in summer or the December holiday season maximizes your chances of finding such a fare.

For international premium class travel, be sure to also consider the startup airlines like Maxjet, Silverjet, Eos Airlines, MiMa, and L’Avion (update: L’Avion is now renamed OpenSkies). These offer all-business class flights to London, Milan, or Paris.

Related:
- First class for less than coach?
- More tips on finding discounted first class fares (Y-UP, Q-UP, etc.)
- Update/Correction re: discounted first class fares (Y-UP, Q-UP, etc.)
- Y-UP and Q-UP first class fares apparently not enough: Welcome M-UP and B-UP fares
- More trans-Atlantic flights, but lower prices?

Looking to choose the best seats on the plane?

SeatExpert now covers the two all-business class airlines. Seats are color-coded for good, bad, and so-so seating, but annotated comments are yet to come. See here for Eos, and here for Maxjet. (The odd shape of Eos’ seats on the map reflects their use of ottomans and privacy partitions in their seating units.)

Flying Southwest?
Savvy Southwest flyers have been checking in online 24 hours before their flight, to get that boarding pass in group A and assure themselves of early boarding. Many use automated check-in services that guarantee an A pass, since they’re cheap, or even free.

But legitimate “A” holders may be fighting for space with cheaters. Someone posted a method of hacking your boarding pass to change the B or C to an A. It’s astonishingly simple, and it’s frankly an embarrassment to Southwest that their boarding passes are so easily manipulated. (No, you can’t create a boarding pass willy-nilly and fly around the country for free… the barcode still contains the information about you and your itinerary.) A similar trick could be used to change the date and print yourself a boarding pass for security, if you wanted to accompany a friend to the gate. (It won’t let you on a plane.) This latter trick I have no problem with, since you’d just be using the boarding pass to enter security, not cheating your way into better seats.

I wonder how long it will take before the company changes the HTML of the passes to prevent this sort of hack. When 137 people line up with “A” passes, with no one in “B” or “C”? Start the clock. (Via digg, thanks to reader BJ!)

(images: Maxjet, ladygypsy)

Call (800) 455-8035 or book online. Book by Thursday July 20, 2006 and travel between Monday July 24, 2006 and Saturday September 30, 2006. Make sure the “affinity code” box lists “COMPUS” if boooking from the United States, and “COMPUK” if booking from the United Kingdom.

Safety second!
British tourists file more travel insurance claims on trips to Thailand than any other country. Runners up: “…the Czech republic, which came out top for incidents of pick-pocketing, South Africa, top for violent robberies, and Mexico, which is the place to go for over-exposure to the sun, it seems.” By this measure, Ireland was the “safest” destination.

Impressive, but…
China recently completed the train to Tibet and began passenger service. It’s an ambitious and impressive engineering project to be sure (the train cars are pressurized, like a plane, due to the enormous altitudes), but also a highly controversial exercise in internal colonialism. A good overview of the cultural and political ramifications (and fears) can be found here. It’s not all gee-whiz-isn’t-it-neat-what-they-built.

The Denny’s of the Sky?
A new promo: If you fly Aloha Airlines on their birthday (July 26), and you keep the boarding pass stub, you can fly free on your birthday (return within 7 days). Inter-island flights only. But what the heck.

Fare sale to Europe
Air France kicks off their Bastille Day fare sale today (purchase by July 28). Some good late summer/fall fares.

More luxe to Europe
All-biz airline Eos looks to expand from the New York-London route to also serve New York-Paris.

Healthier airborne meals
Northwest Airlines had better keep up. Just a few weeks ago they announced that their Stalinist experiment in inflight dining was over, and that they would reintroduce a choice (gasp!) to the menu in domestic first class. At the same time, other carriers are redesigning their first and business class menus, too, with an eye for lighter gourmet fare. But take away the ice cream, and flyers revolt. (The sarcastic chorus of “boo hoo” is coming from the economy seats.) The article also plugs Peter Greenberg’s book The Traveler’s Diet: Eating Right and Staying Fit on the Road.

Predicting the next protectionist outrage
Chicago Midway under foreign management? It could happen, since the city is soliciting bids for long-terms leases on the airport. We’ll see if a (likely) winning bid from a foreign entity yields as much furor as the Dubai ports affair. If an international firm wins the bidding, it won’t be the first foreign-managed US airport. Indianapolis and Stewart-Newburgh, NY airports are already under British firms’ control. International bids for US assets should be no surprise, given the current account deficit; all those dollars flowing overseas need to be put to work somewhere…

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All-biz competitor Maxjet has been showing similarly full planes, but hasn’t made any statements as to profitability. Maxjet, too, is adding flights and leasing more planes.

I still stand by my earlier comments that Maxjet, while providing a great value for a reasonably posh flight, is still not a serious business airline. It’s luxury class for tourists — and that’s terrific! Nothing wrong with that, but it ain’t business.

But let’s put aside gripes about the seat… what’s the food like? Enter AirlineMeals.net, the web’s repository for photos and menus of inflight dining, past and present. It’s an amazing resource, and worth your perusal, much like opening up a time capsule. But it also lets you see what various airlines around the world actually offer in terms of inflight service.

Maxjet’s food looks good. (Virgin Atlantic’s food looks nicer, though Virgin also charges two to three times as much for airfare… but check out that dessert at #117!)

Eos isn’t included in airlinemeals.net yet, but I found the adjacent photo on flickr. And they have real metal knives! (Gasp!) Someone alert the TSA!

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Eos not your speed? Prefer the less swanky but still comfy Maxjet all-business class flights instead? We got a deal for you, too…

New York JFK or Washington Dulles to London Stansted:
$1199/£699*roundtrip, including all taxes and fees

Book between: June 12,2006 and July 14,2006
Travel between: September 15, 2006 and November 10, 2006

Book on maxjet.com and use Promo Code: FALL06

Hey, it’s not the $499 roundtrip business class fare from early May, and it’s too bad the $1199 fare isn’t good for summer, but it’s still a great fare for business class.

…if a capitalist had been present at Kittyhawk back in the early 1900s, he should have shot Orville Wright. He would have saved his progeny money. But seriously, the airline business has been extraordinary. It has eaten up capital over the past century like almost no other business because people seem to keep coming back to it and putting fresh money in.

Sure enough, fresh money is coming into the business.

Silverjet, the latest entrant (alongside Maxjet and Eos) in the London-New York all-business-class space, successfully raised £25 million (approx. US$46.6 million) in an IPO. 75% of shares went to institutional investors, with management retaining 19%. While funding does not guarantee that the airline will actually fly, it’s certainly far more likely.

The company’s goal? To “offer passengers ‘the same level of service as EOS but at the same price as Maxjet.’” Flying from the London-area Luton airport, served primarily by discount airlines, Silverjet promises speedy check-in, as late as 30 minutes before departure.

Unlike Maxjet and Eos, Silverjet states that it plans to expand outside the transatlantic space:

The airline has already identified 30 routes that would suit the airline’s business model and started the licensing process for three long-haul routes outside North America.

We’ll be watching. But, perhaps like Warren Buffett, we won’t be buying the stock.

First it was Maxjet and Eos, the all-business-class airlines connecting New York and London, who introduced their service to compete against the major airlines. Now there will soon be another rival, if investors sufficiently capitalize upstart Silverjet in an IPO scheduled for May on London’s Alternative Investment Market.

Silverjet, which seemingly does not have a website as of yet, plans to operate 10 aircraft within three years, all with lie-flat seats. The primary route would be between London’s Luton airport and Newark. Like MaxJet, Silverjet intends to operate Boeing 767s.

But how much demand can there really be for airlines like this? Loads on MaxJet (which is also seeking to raise cash — $50M from hedge funds) and Eos aren’t great, though MaxJet optimistically sees the plane half full. Literally. Better than reports, but not great.

At the same time, the major airlines are lowering prices, offering greater flexibility, and slating for increased amenities. Plus, the power of the major airlines’ loyalty programs shouldn’t be underestimated. People really like collecting those miles…

This is getting ridiculous. We’ve now got business class service to Heathrow and Gatwick by the majors, plus Stansted and Luton on the startups. What’s next?: Will someone determine that London City airport needs nonstop business class service to White Plains or Islip?

I’d be very wary of investing my money in a new airline in such an already-crowded space.

Eos Airlines now offers a money-back guarantee, within certain parameters:

Maybe you think you’re flying the best business class to London. But we’re willing to bet you’re wrong. Our all-premium class airline is designed to be better. And if after flying with us you disagree, we will give you your money back.

Just call 800.583.0566 US or 0800.019.3658 UK by April 12, 2006 and book our special introductory $3,500 USD or £2000 GBP round trip fare for first time Eos flyers. This fare includes free car service and a ‘refresher room’ for arrivals at London Stansted. If you’re not 100% satisfied with your Eos experience, we’ll issue a full refund.

To qualify for our money-back guarantee, all you have to do is provide us with documentation that you’ve flown at least 2 round trips on British Airways, Virgin Atlantic or any combination of the two, in the past 6 months. Send your valid mileage statement or ticket receipt with boarding passes via email at contact@eosairlines.com or fax to 914.251.1819 at least 7 days prior to your departure.

I guess Eos doesn’t care about the premium-class travelers on American, United, Continental, Air India (!), … all airlines that also fly from the New York area to London.

Thanks to Today in the Sky for pointing this deal out. But note: I don’t see anything in those conditions that specifies where you need to have flown on British or Virgin in order to qualify. The title on the page says they’re targeting business class travelers on those airlines, but there’s not much detail in the terms…