Mountains of lost bags, canceled flights, frustrated travelers and a public relations fiasco
The dedicated website for Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5 cooed into cyberspace, "At London Heathrow Terminal 5 we’ve created a natural, logical journey that’s so calm, you’ll flow through. It shouldn’t take long to get from Check-in to Departures. Transferring and arriving are just as simple and calm. Spend the time you save enjoying the excellent range of shops, cafes and restaurants. Or simply relax and be wowed by the world class architecture."
Instead, travelers using the new £4.3 billion ($8.7 billion) T5 were wowed by utter chaos that began almost as soon as the new facilitiy. In its first four days of operations, at least 250 British Airways flights were canceled, stranding thousands of passengers. At least 15,000 and perhaps 20,000 pieces of luggage that reportedly were not loaded onto the planes need to be "repratriated" to their owners who had, in fact, taken off while their bags were still on the ground. Computer problems were blamed.
In a story called "Flight Club at Heathrow T5," the Sun newspaper reported of a brawl among 30 baggage handlers. BA could be libel for compensation up to a stunning £5,000 per passenger, it was further reported. At the very least, the airline had to arrange for and pay for emergency accommodations for armies of stranded passengers. Image-conscious Brits are have a cow, and the tabloids are having a field day.
Long-haul flights were said to be operating close to schedule today (Sunday). Domestic (i.e., within the UK) flights and flights to the European continent have been most affected. "We are endeavoring to do everything we can to get the operation back to normal," said an unnamed but clearly beleaguered spokeswoman for British Airways. Of course. The airline claimed that 400 employees volunteered to work on Sunday to help with what the BBC described as "mountains of suitcases stacked up in the terminal after passengers were unable to reclaim them or were forced to fly on to their destinations without their luggage, and which the BBC continued "could take weeks to sort out."
The flying public will have to take their word for it, because BBC also said that "it had been banned from filming at the terminal, where hundreds of passengers were facing long delays. Sky News television also said it had been locked out." Go to the Telegraph's online story, scroll down to "In Pictures" and we wowed by the slide show of the mess.
Even when the chaos has been straightened out and T5 is humming as promised, Heathrow will remain an incredibly congested airport. It is the world's third-busiest airport (after Chicago/O'Hare and Atlanta/Hartsfield) and has just two runways, meaning that delays are endemic, even without a snafu like T5's opening days. In wisdom that matches US automakers' foresight, US-based Delta, Continental Airlines, Northwest and United began flights into London's chronically constripated Heathrow Airport on Mar. 30, even as their BA brethren were still struggling under mountains of luggage. At least the American carriers won't be using T5.
Addendum from the Monday, March 31, report in the Telegraph:
"The debacle, which is estimated to have cost BA £20 million already, will mean the airline has been forced to scrap more than 450 flights since the opening of the £4.3 billion Terminal last week. The chaos would have been even worse had the airline not decided to continue operating the bulk of its long-haul operation from Terminal 4."
Saturday, April 30, 2011
European Airline Consolidation Continues
You can't tell the airlines without a scorecard anymore. Mergers, consolidations, bankruptcies, start-ups, alliances and code shares make the airline industry very confusing -- more so with each day's headlines. The US led the way, and Europe is recently followed.
In the US, airline consolidations go back a long way, but consolidation fever . The present Continental was forged from an agglomeration of old carriers such as the original Frontier, Eastern, People Express and New York Air. Merger fever, economies of scale, Wall Street paper moving and so on have essentially left us with United and its current partner, U.S. Airways (that long ago took over the old Mohawk and Allegheny and recently AmericaWest), Delta (including Northwest) and American (which absorbed TWA) -- plus fast-growing, customer-friendly Southwest that currently seems to be the smartest carrier in the American skies. Along the way, other legacy domestic carriers disappeared. Think Pan Am (which had previously absorbed National) and Braniff. And these are just the ones that came to mind.
Similar consolidations, mergers and takeovers have raked European flag carriers too, but there, things are dicier because national pride is emblazoned on fuselages that are hard for airlines to relinquish, even as they are in dire financial straits. A merger between Belgium's SABENA and the former Swissair imploded or exploded after the national airline of Switzerland not only had its own financial problems by mismanaged SABENA. Brussels Airlines rose from its ashes but is a shadow of its predecessor
Air France and KLM (above right) are part of the same Dutch-controlled operating group that also owns 25 percent of Alitalia. Lufthansa, Germany's airline, owns SWISS, which succeeded Swissair after that carrier's bankruptcy; is a large stakeholder in Brussels Airlines and could take it over completely by 2011; bought BMI, and has just announced their takeover of Austrian Airlines. I could make a tasteless joke about an Anchluss in the air, but let's pretend that I didn't. There's also talk that Lufthansa might buy or merge with SAS -- or something. Stay tuned.
Avis Uses Bait, Switch and Upsell Tactics
Car rental firms jack up rates when using AmEx points
I use frequent flyer miles for flights whenever possible, expedient and/or wise, but I've been hoarding American Express points for car rentals for a long time. We are soon going to Hawaii -- first to Maui for a wedding and then to the Big Island for a vacation. Two rental car opportunities seemed like a good use of points. I started with the Big Island, because that will be the longer stay.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the Avis website trying to figure out what promotion/coupon codes I could use for Avis, so I finally phoned. The AmEx system is that I could redeem points for several coupons to be used toward (but not in full payment for) the rental, which for one week with Avis was going to be more than $450. I was too shocked to write down the exact quote, but it was high. The reservation agent told me that I would be better off not using the coupon at all. He quoted an economy car rate of $242 for seven days, with unlimited mileage and no extra charge for the second driver. Sold.
Then he told me about a service that Avis offers which would net me a $20 gas coupon and 5 percent cash back on the rental. I asked whether this happens automatically when renting, and instead of answering, he switched me to a fast-talking sales type who "upgraded" the service which I could try for a month for "only one dollar" and "cancel any time." The carrot he dangled over the telephone was a $20 gas coupon plus that 5 percent rebate, but first, he said, I had to sign up. When I balked, he told me that he "has been authorized" to raise the gas coupon to $40. I told him my name, address, etc., but when he asked for my date of birth, I refused and said I wasn't interested in providing personal information. He huffed, "I'm not asking for your Social Security number." I said I didn't want to provide any more personal information, so he hung up on me.
Avis indeed seems to be trying harder -- trying harder to sell a "service" that I didn't really want (although a $40 gas coupon would be nice). No matter what they tried, they succeeded in annoying me. Because I knew that the AmEx coupons would not make sense for Maui either, I simply made the reservation online and ignored the "offer" for the same service that the phone folks tried to force on me.
I use frequent flyer miles for flights whenever possible, expedient and/or wise, but I've been hoarding American Express points for car rentals for a long time. We are soon going to Hawaii -- first to Maui for a wedding and then to the Big Island for a vacation. Two rental car opportunities seemed like a good use of points. I started with the Big Island, because that will be the longer stay.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the Avis website trying to figure out what promotion/coupon codes I could use for Avis, so I finally phoned. The AmEx system is that I could redeem points for several coupons to be used toward (but not in full payment for) the rental, which for one week with Avis was going to be more than $450. I was too shocked to write down the exact quote, but it was high. The reservation agent told me that I would be better off not using the coupon at all. He quoted an economy car rate of $242 for seven days, with unlimited mileage and no extra charge for the second driver. Sold.
Then he told me about a service that Avis offers which would net me a $20 gas coupon and 5 percent cash back on the rental. I asked whether this happens automatically when renting, and instead of answering, he switched me to a fast-talking sales type who "upgraded" the service which I could try for a month for "only one dollar" and "cancel any time." The carrot he dangled over the telephone was a $20 gas coupon plus that 5 percent rebate, but first, he said, I had to sign up. When I balked, he told me that he "has been authorized" to raise the gas coupon to $40. I told him my name, address, etc., but when he asked for my date of birth, I refused and said I wasn't interested in providing personal information. He huffed, "I'm not asking for your Social Security number." I said I didn't want to provide any more personal information, so he hung up on me.
Avis indeed seems to be trying harder -- trying harder to sell a "service" that I didn't really want (although a $40 gas coupon would be nice). No matter what they tried, they succeeded in annoying me. Because I knew that the AmEx coupons would not make sense for Maui either, I simply made the reservation online and ignored the "offer" for the same service that the phone folks tried to force on me.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Airlines Report Profits and Spend Millions on Mergers
The current cost of doing business as airlines consolidate
Repainting planes, merging headquarters, introducing new uniforms, ordering new stationary, integrating staffs....these are some of the issues that came to mind when airlines merge. Associated Press reported good news/bad news related to Republic Airways' takeover first of Midwest and then of Frontier last year. The good news was that second-quarter revenues grew by 113% to $683.3 million; the bad news is that income fell by 82%. Republic's merger-related costs were reportedly close to $20 million in items that hit the bottom line related to merger costs. "They ranged from $18.5 million of expenses related to the integration of the branded businesses and return of leased aircraft, $6.4 million in negative adjustments for fuel hedges and prior period fuel excise taxes; and a $5.2 million positive adjustment due to a reduction in lease obligations for Midwest aircraft and office facilities," according to AP, which also noted that Republic now owns Chautauqua Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Lynx Aviation, Midwest Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America.
Republic's numbers are small potatoes compared with the imminent Continental-United merger, which is expected to be consummated this fall. According to an annotated report on Wikinvest.com, "For the second quarter of 2010, the company reported its first quarterly operating profit since 2007 of $430 million, an improvement of $751 million since year ago second quarter." Continental, meanwhile, Thursday posted second-quarter earnings of $233 million, reversing a similar loss of $213 million loss a year ago. Comparing revenues with profits is an apples-and-oranges mix, but those are the numbers that I found -- but in a sense, they do demonstrate the differences in scale. If Republic's merger costs were $20 million, imagine what the United-Continental union will cost.
Merging or not, US carriers, which have been aggressively trimming costs, mothballing aircraft and charging passengers for formerly free services, are reporting second-quarter profits almost across the board. Three big legacy carriers -- Delta, United and US Airways -- among them earned a cool $1 billion in the second quart (April through June). At Alaska Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest, revenues also rose and black showed on balance sheets. Among the biggies, only AMR, American's parent company, bucked the trend ans was down compared with 2009.
With revenues rising and on the ledgers showing profits for the first time in three years, I still wonder how the cost of big mergers will impact the balance sheet, and down the road, whether more monopolistic merged companies will keep the money rolling in with continued add-ons. I don't know what the second-quarter revenues were, but in "Lawmakers Consider Taxing Airlines' Fees" regarding a Congressional hearing on these add-ons, the Wall Street Journal reported, "Airlines collected $1.3 billion from fees for checked baggage and reservation changes in the first three months of this year, a 13% increase over the same period in 2009, government data show."
Silly me. Why am I even asking the question. What will probably happen is that the add-ons will be locked in or perhaps even increased to help the airlines cover the merger costs and their top exectives' bonuses -- and the payment to law and accounting firms for effecting the mergers.
Repainting planes, merging headquarters, introducing new uniforms, ordering new stationary, integrating staffs....these are some of the issues that came to mind when airlines merge. Associated Press reported good news/bad news related to Republic Airways' takeover first of Midwest and then of Frontier last year. The good news was that second-quarter revenues grew by 113% to $683.3 million; the bad news is that income fell by 82%. Republic's merger-related costs were reportedly close to $20 million in items that hit the bottom line related to merger costs. "They ranged from $18.5 million of expenses related to the integration of the branded businesses and return of leased aircraft, $6.4 million in negative adjustments for fuel hedges and prior period fuel excise taxes; and a $5.2 million positive adjustment due to a reduction in lease obligations for Midwest aircraft and office facilities," according to AP, which also noted that Republic now owns Chautauqua Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Lynx Aviation, Midwest Airlines, Republic Airlines and Shuttle America.
Republic's numbers are small potatoes compared with the imminent Continental-United merger, which is expected to be consummated this fall. According to an annotated report on Wikinvest.com, "For the second quarter of 2010, the company reported its first quarterly operating profit since 2007 of $430 million, an improvement of $751 million since year ago second quarter." Continental, meanwhile, Thursday posted second-quarter earnings of $233 million, reversing a similar loss of $213 million loss a year ago. Comparing revenues with profits is an apples-and-oranges mix, but those are the numbers that I found -- but in a sense, they do demonstrate the differences in scale. If Republic's merger costs were $20 million, imagine what the United-Continental union will cost.
Merging or not, US carriers, which have been aggressively trimming costs, mothballing aircraft and charging passengers for formerly free services, are reporting second-quarter profits almost across the board. Three big legacy carriers -- Delta, United and US Airways -- among them earned a cool $1 billion in the second quart (April through June). At Alaska Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest, revenues also rose and black showed on balance sheets. Among the biggies, only AMR, American's parent company, bucked the trend ans was down compared with 2009.
With revenues rising and on the ledgers showing profits for the first time in three years, I still wonder how the cost of big mergers will impact the balance sheet, and down the road, whether more monopolistic merged companies will keep the money rolling in with continued add-ons. I don't know what the second-quarter revenues were, but in "Lawmakers Consider Taxing Airlines' Fees" regarding a Congressional hearing on these add-ons, the Wall Street Journal reported, "Airlines collected $1.3 billion from fees for checked baggage and reservation changes in the first three months of this year, a 13% increase over the same period in 2009, government data show."
Silly me. Why am I even asking the question. What will probably happen is that the add-ons will be locked in or perhaps even increased to help the airlines cover the merger costs and their top exectives' bonuses -- and the payment to law and accounting firms for effecting the mergers.
Lady Liberty's Crown to Reopen
Closed since 9/11, the crown again will welcome a limited number of visitors
Especially after the recent ill-conceived recent photo op of a "spare" Air Force One flying low over New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, it is refreshing that the crown will reopen to visitors on July 4. It has been closed since September 11, 2001. The official reason was given as "fire safety," but most of us believe that it was part of the previous administration's promoting an ongoing climate of fear. The airport threat level, after all, has been "orange" since this silly recorded alert was introduced.
Former Colorado senator and now Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced,“This Statue of Liberty really is about hope and optimism for America, it’s also about jobs that come with tourism all over this country, and it’s about President Obama’s agenda. So today we’re announcing that on the Fourth of July, we will open up the crown of the Statue of Liberty here in New York and New Jersey to the entire people of America in a way that we’ll be able to manage the crowds that come into this place."
Just to cover bases staked out by the paranoid, he said,“We have conducted a very comprehensive life-safety review for the statue itself and for the pedestal and there are improvements that are gonna have to be put in place. We’ll put some of those in place before we open it up on the Fourth of July. We’ll then go through a two-year period where the crown will be opened up, where the public — it will be about 30 people an hour that can come up here, it will be managed. And then following that, we’re going to go through a more major rehabilitation that ultimately will increase the number of people who can come up here to about 200,000.”
Timed passes will be distributed on a lottery-style basis, and access is ranger-guided. Even access to the statue's pedestal has been seriously limited to those who have a applied in advance for free monument pass and pick up the morning of the visit. Call 866-STATUE-4 or 212-269-5755. Oh, how unfortunately different this is from my childhood in Connecticut and young adult years in New York, when access to the pedestal and the statue was limited only by visitors' willingness to stand in line and climb a lot of stairs.
The ferries to Liberty Island board their last passengers well before the park's daily closing. There is no entrance fee to the park, which is open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Park Service passes are not good for ferry fares. Due to the park's security procedures, visitors are advised to allow ample time for their visits. Ferry ticket prices from Battery Park are adult, $11:50; senior (62 and over), $9:50; child (4-12), $4.50, under 4, free.
Former Colorado senator and now Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced,“This Statue of Liberty really is about hope and optimism for America, it’s also about jobs that come with tourism all over this country, and it’s about President Obama’s agenda. So today we’re announcing that on the Fourth of July, we will open up the crown of the Statue of Liberty here in New York and New Jersey to the entire people of America in a way that we’ll be able to manage the crowds that come into this place."
Just to cover bases staked out by the paranoid, he said,“We have conducted a very comprehensive life-safety review for the statue itself and for the pedestal and there are improvements that are gonna have to be put in place. We’ll put some of those in place before we open it up on the Fourth of July. We’ll then go through a two-year period where the crown will be opened up, where the public — it will be about 30 people an hour that can come up here, it will be managed. And then following that, we’re going to go through a more major rehabilitation that ultimately will increase the number of people who can come up here to about 200,000.”
Timed passes will be distributed on a lottery-style basis, and access is ranger-guided. Even access to the statue's pedestal has been seriously limited to those who have a applied in advance for free monument pass and pick up the morning of the visit. Call 866-STATUE-4 or 212-269-5755. Oh, how unfortunately different this is from my childhood in Connecticut and young adult years in New York, when access to the pedestal and the statue was limited only by visitors' willingness to stand in line and climb a lot of stairs.
The ferries to Liberty Island board their last passengers well before the park's daily closing. There is no entrance fee to the park, which is open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Park Service passes are not good for ferry fares. Due to the park's security procedures, visitors are advised to allow ample time for their visits. Ferry ticket prices from Battery Park are adult, $11:50; senior (62 and over), $9:50; child (4-12), $4.50, under 4, free.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Eat, Pray, Love -- and Watch Your Tail
Travel journalist Bruce Northam urges intuition when soloing
Julia Roberts is all over the tube these days promoting the movie, "Eat, Pray, Love," based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling bookabout her soul-searching odyssey to mend a broken heart. My travel-writer colleague Bruce Northam (left) wrote "Eat Pray Love, and Be Cautious," as the title implies, a cautionary but not paranoid piece on Huffington Post. He began, "The book Eat Pray Love issued no travel warnings; nor does the movie. However, somebody needs to remind women traveling alone that Halloween-night-style caution is always necessary. I'm the only guy I know who read Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert's wildly successful travelogue-cum-romance novel that's now a movie starring Julia Roberts portraying the lovesick and soul-searching editor who met her second husband in Bali."
I'm not paranoid when it comes to travel, and I don't advocate that travelers always leash themselves to a tour guide either, but caution and precautions make sense -- not just for women traveling solo but sometimes even for men as well. Northam is a believer in following your instincts about what is safe and what is a silly flirtation with trouble. Read his piece and the practical tips he includes from two well-traveled women writers, Carla King and Lisa Alpine. The more adventurous and out there the traveler, the finer line between reasonable caution and folly. Northam is just sayin'
I'm not paranoid when it comes to travel, and I don't advocate that travelers always leash themselves to a tour guide either, but caution and precautions make sense -- not just for women traveling solo but sometimes even for men as well. Northam is a believer in following your instincts about what is safe and what is a silly flirtation with trouble. Read his piece and the practical tips he includes from two well-traveled women writers, Carla King and Lisa Alpine. The more adventurous and out there the traveler, the finer line between reasonable caution and folly. Northam is just sayin'
Two High Points on a Short Road Trip
Very teensy town and very large statue along Interstate 80
This past weekend four of us did a short road trip -- Boulder-Cheyenne-Laramie-Snowy Range-Boulder. Of Interstate 80's 2,909 miles between the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and New York-New Jersey's George Washington Bridge, the 47 modest miles from Cheyenne to Laramie contain two places that are worth stopping at. They are lliteral and figurative high points along a stretch of freeway that passes through a lot of wide-open country.
Buford, Wyoming - Pop. 1
How could we not stop in Buford, Wyoming -- population 1 and its own zip code. It is purportedly the smallest town in America and also the highest town between along I-80's entire route. Just south of the Exit 335 off the Interstate. road, we found a gateway to a ranch and Buford-- the signs below, one house, the Buford Trading Post and a bunch of gas pumps.
Buford was not always so tiny. Its population was purportedly about 2,000 as the transcontinental railroad was being built westward across Wyoming.
Lincoln Monument
The Lincoln Memorial is, of course, in Washington, DC, but the Lincoln Monnument is just of Exit 239. It is visible from the Interstate that closely follows the historic Lincoln Highway (US 30), the first auto road to cross the country.To honor this achievement as well as the president who most fervently believe in a union of all the states, Robert Russin, a University of Wyoming art professor and a Lincoln admirer, sculpted a monumental, 13 1/2-foot Lincoln head resting on a 35-foot stone base.
It originally stood at Sherman Summit, at 8,878 feet above sea level and the highest point on old Lincoln Highway, but when when I-80 was opened in 1969, the head was moved about 1 mile to this highpoint on the Interstate. It too is visible from the highway, but its worth a stop.
Pull into the Summit Rest Area and go into the visitor center, not just to use the restroom and have adrink of water, but also to watch a short interpretive film and look into the small museum room with exhibits about Wyoming and its natural and human history.
Buford, Wyoming - Pop. 1
How could we not stop in Buford, Wyoming -- population 1 and its own zip code. It is purportedly the smallest town in America and also the highest town between along I-80's entire route. Just south of the Exit 335 off the Interstate. road, we found a gateway to a ranch and Buford-- the signs below, one house, the Buford Trading Post and a bunch of gas pumps.
The sole resident wasn't manning the store, but his photograph graced the counter. Regretfully I neglected to ask his name, but I took a picture of his picture.
Buford was not always so tiny. Its population was purportedly about 2,000 as the transcontinental railroad was being built westward across Wyoming.
Lincoln Monument
The Lincoln Memorial is, of course, in Washington, DC, but the Lincoln Monnument is just of Exit 239. It is visible from the Interstate that closely follows the historic Lincoln Highway (US 30), the first auto road to cross the country.To honor this achievement as well as the president who most fervently believe in a union of all the states, Robert Russin, a University of Wyoming art professor and a Lincoln admirer, sculpted a monumental, 13 1/2-foot Lincoln head resting on a 35-foot stone base.
It originally stood at Sherman Summit, at 8,878 feet above sea level and the highest point on old Lincoln Highway, but when when I-80 was opened in 1969, the head was moved about 1 mile to this highpoint on the Interstate. It too is visible from the highway, but its worth a stop.
Pull into the Summit Rest Area and go into the visitor center, not just to use the restroom and have adrink of water, but also to watch a short interpretive film and look into the small museum room with exhibits about Wyoming and its natural and human history.
If you too are road-tripping through Wyoming in I-80, eachof these attractions is worth a stop.
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