It looks like the time has come for inflight entertainment on turboprops. Thanks to the newly discovered In-flight Entertainment blog for pointing out the link to the press release that also had this picture.

Pretty nice looking for a turboprop, huh? Well, if you go to India, you’ll be able to fly this plane on Kingfisher Airlines. I am a little suspect on this press release’s claim that this is “the world’s first turboprop aircraft facilitating In-flight entertainment system” though.

I know there were plenty of piston engine props back in the day that had inflight entertainment onboard, so maybe by limiting this to turboprops, they can get away with this claim. Anyone know otherwise?

Spirit, in their never-ending pursuit of ancillary revenue, launched the $9 Fare Club yesterday. In short, you pay $9 for a three month trial ($29.95 annually after that), and you get a list of deals reserved only for members at least once every 6 weeks.

Is it worth it?

Personally, I’d take the wait and see approach here. Looking at the first deal list they launched yesterday, there are some hit or miss fares in there. Of course, they have the obligatory $9 one way fares in many markets, but they’re only good on 4 random dates in the next few months. If you can be flexible and they happen to have your city there, it’s great and you should sign up now to take advantage (fares expire tonight).

They also have $99 one way fares available for all Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday travel between April 17 and June 30. I randomly picked May 9 returning May 16 in a couple of markets to see where the public rate stands. If you’re going from LAX to Detroit, it’s a good deal. Fares are currently $159 each way so this will be worthwhile, even if you had to pay $29.95 for the full year membership. On the other hand, if you’re flying from Myrtle Beach to Ft Lauderdale, forget it. The current fare on the nonstop flight is $59 each way, $40 BELOW the sale fare.

Assuming they continue to publish the deal list publicly to entice new members, you’re best bet is to just keep tabs on it. If you see a fare you like and it saves you more than the membership fee costs, then you can join right there and take advantage. If there are no fares you like, wait for the next ones to come out. This all changes if they stop publicly displaying the fares of course, but for now, it’s the best way to go.

A couple of random things you’ll want to know:

• Every person who wants to book the sale fares has to have a separate membership
• If you have the Spirit-branded credit card, you get free membership
• To sign up, you have to enroll in the frequent flier program
• If you do sign up, they’ll continue to auto-renew every year unless you cancel, so make sure you mark the renew date down so you can cancel if you’re not happy

In short, this could be a helpful program for you as long as you find fares you can use. Personally, I think the idea is a decent one, but I do wonder about its legality. The DOT has been very concerned about making sure that publicly advertised fares are readily accessible, and it seems like this might not be what they had in mind. Then again, I’m sure Spirit has done their homework here, so it should be fine.

It didn’t seem to get very much press, but Biman Bangladesh had an accident the other day and there were security cameras there to capture it. The plane was departing from Dubai when the nosegear collapsed. This security cameras caught it sliding down the runway, sparks and all.

Pretty interesting stuff, no? The plane sat at the end of the runway for awhile and there were no injuries.

I think it’s been a long time since people have been as excited about seeing an aircraft roll out as they are about seeing the 787. Part of it may be that the construction process if very different from any other commercial aircraft.  Read this to see what I’m talking about.  I think a lot of people just can’t believe it’s going to happen.  Meanwhile, this latest image from the Boeing Company looks pretty good.  Enough images though, I’m ready for the real thing!

Now word is out that it’s still running on schedule.  Apparently production will begin in the next three months and rollout may very well be on July 8.  (That’s 7-8-07, get it?)  The end of August is targeted for the first test flight.  Will it happen?  Airbus’ top salesman doesn’t believe it.  It’s getting relatively close, so I would think Boeing would have a good idea right now, but I guess we’ll find out in August if not before.

I really haven’t gotten very cranky lately, but an experience this weekend put me back in the cranky mood. My girlfriend and I decided to use miles on United to go to Hawai’i. We had to book separately since we used our own mileage accounts. We walked through the process simultaneously online, but in the end mine went through and hers didn’t. The website said to contact United reservations due to technical issues, so I did. That’s where the problem began. Here is an approximate transcript of the three different conversations it took to get things fixed.

United Rep #1 (with heavy Indian accent): Hi this is Mark, can I have your name?
Me: Yes, it’s Brett
“Mark” (I hate that they use fake Americanized names – never good to start off with a lie): Ok Mr Brett, how can I help you?
Me: I got booked but my girlfriend didn’t. Help me.
“Mark”: I checked and there are no more seats available, sorry Mr Brett.
Me: That’s great, but I’m not going to Hawai’i alone. Are there other flights with two seats available?
“Mark”: Yes Mr Brett
Me: Can you change it?
“Mark”: No Mr Brett. You’ll have to go online and request a refund. That will take 7 to 10 days.
Me (After checking online and seeing that I’m not allowed to request Mileage Plus refunds online): It says I can’t do it online and I have to call you.
“Mark”: No Mr Brett, you have to do it online.
Me: Ok, this is ridiculous. Let me talk to your supervisor
“Mark”: Ok Mr Brett (puts me on terminal hold)
“Mark” (after 10 minutes of listening to Rhapsody in Blue): Mr Brett, my supervisor is still busy but I talked to the support desk and I’m happy to tell you that there are two options. One, you can use double the miles for a standard award or two, you can buy a ticket.
Me: You’re kidding, right? I’m not doing that. Give me a refund.
“Mark”: You have to go online for that Mr Brett
Me: Arrgggggggghhhhhh. Give me the number for Mileage Plus directly.
“Mark”: Ok Mr Brett

<click>

So now I’m mad, and I dial Mileage Plus. after 25 minutes of waiting Rhapsody in Blue has been firmly planted in my head. Finally, another Indian agent answers.

United Rep #2 (again with heavy Indian accent): This is Deanne, how can I help you?
Me: I hate everyone. Please help me.
Deanne: What seems to be the problem sir?
Me: I just want to fly to Hawai’i with my girlfriend
Deanne: I’m sorry sir but there are no seats available on those dates on any flights
Me: The last guy told me there were seats but he couldn’t change me. This sucks. Just give me my miles back.
Deanne: Ok, that’ll cost you $100 to have them redeposited
Me: You’ve got to be kidding me! I just booked these and there was a problem. You should be able to refund these for no charge.
Deanne: Hold please
(While I’m listening to Rhapsody yet again and whistling along, I pull up the United customer service plan saying that any tickets can be refunded within 24 hours of purchase. Armed with this, I’m just waiting to pounce.)
Deanne: Ok, I can refund it for free. Just hold.
Me: Ok (somewhat dejected that I don’t get to pounce)
Deanne keeps typing for literally 10 minutes asking me periodic questions about billing addresses, etc and then . . .

<click>

She friggin’ hangs up on me! So not cool. I call back and miraculously someone answers quickly. This time she doesn’t have an Indian accent.

United Rep #3: Hi this is Phoebe can I help you?
Me: I think I’m beyond help, but please try
Phoebe: Ok, I see your reservation was canceled but your miles weren’t redeposited. Did you want those redeposited?
Me: No, I was hoping you could just keep them in the canceled reservations. YES, I WANT THE MILES REDEPOSITED!
Phoebe: Ok, thanks for flying United.

At this point, my miles did actually go back to my account, I went back online and booked different flights on that same day with availability. That took 1 minute.

This is certainly not a problem that only United faces. As my girlfriend pointed out after this whole debacle, the advent of having to pay to make a reservation on the phone means that a large portion of the simple reservations have been pushed online. That means that people calling the reservations phone lines are generally facing a problem and need some real help. Of course, people tend to remember the customer service when things go wrong a lot more often than when things go right. With that in mind, you would think that the front line reservationists would be really important for the airline’s image, but sadly that’s not the way airlines perceive it.

Instead the airlines are cutting back on their reservations teams. Many airlines have outsourced at least some of their reservations functions to third parties either domestically or more likely abroad. There are three fundamental problems in reservations offices these days that need to be addressed.

First, adding new employees without adequate training is a recipe for disaster. “Mark” didn’t seem to have a full understanding of what the rules were and that really frustrated me. Then again, I don’t think training alone would have fixed the problem.

Second, there is the issue of empowerment. Front lines agents no longer have the ability to do anything beyond what the rulebooks say. If something doesn’t fall into a category in the rulebook, you’re not getting anywhere. If the airlines don’t want to empower their agents (probably because they haven’t trained them well), they need to make it easy to reach an empowered supervisor when problems arise. In my experience with many airlines, if there is a supervisor around, it’s tough to get them on the phone. When you do, you generally can’t get things resolved anyway, because even they aren’t empowered to help.

Third, there is the issue of empathy. Outsourcing has brought on a whole new level of problems that didn’t exist before. It is certainly hard to relate to people trying to help you with a reservation to Omaha when they have no idea where Omaha is even located. I’ve heard stories about agents suggesting San Francisco as an alternate airport to Los Angeles. I would be surprised if anyone in North America would make that mistake. It’s even harder to relate to someone who has never flown on the airline and possibly never flown at all. They just don’t have the ability to empathize with the problems that travelers face, and that makes getting problems resolved very difficult.

I think about airlines like Southwest which still have their call centers in house and their agents are empowered. I have never had a problem that couldn’t be resolved relatively quickly with a Southwest agent. I imagine that every agent has traveled on the airline and many travel frequently. They know what people are facing and they can empathize. It’s never as frustrating talking to them. I understand part of that is because Southwest’s rules tend to be simpler, but it’s also due to the empathy, empowerment, and training that enables them to do their jobs well. The other airlines need to realize how important those three things can be.