The rollout of the first 787 is only 46 days away, and I can’t wait. Really, what I’m excited about is flying on one, but the rollout obviously has to come first. As we get closer to seeing the plane for the first time, I keep learning more about why this plane is so cool.

That latest? The vertical gust suppression system.

Oh yeah, it sounds fancy. Actually, it IS fancy. It’s a system that actually reduces the turbulence you’ll feel while in flight. James Wallace over at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer had the opportunity to ride in a simulator once with and once without the system activated. You can find his report online here. Here’s a brief snippet to pique your interest.

Mike Sinnett, chief project engineer for 787 systems, said Boeing can’t reveal all the details about how the vertical gust suppression system works. It involves the plane’s entire “air data package,” he said. That includes sensors embedded in the composite skin of the Dreamliner that will detect tiny changes in pressure caused by wind gusts. The jet’s flight-control system automatically will make adjustments to smooth out the ride before the plane gets bounced around.

Boeing’s 777 has a gust-suppression system that reduces side-to-side motion, but it does not dampen the up-and-down motion of the plane during turbulence. The 787 system will dampen these motions by as much as 60 percent to 70 percent.

So cool.

Well, it took them 15 days, but I finally received the following email from Delta yesterday:

Hi Brett,

We think the idea you sent us was excellent. In fact, it’s being featured along with other member ideas at delta.com/change this week. Be sure to check it out, and thanks for sharing.

We’re really looking forward to your participation in our new online community forum launching mid-summer of this year.

Cheers,

Rick
delta.com/change

Yes, I got a response from Delta about the suggestion I submitted to their new change site. See my previous post for some background. Fifteen days is hardly a respectable turnaround time, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

I’m not sure if this means that they’re actually planning on rotating comments in and out each week, but at least for now, my name is up in lights. I’d post a link, but that’s not possible with their current setup, so instead I’ll leave you with this screen shot.

American announced yesterday that they’ll being offering a hybrid price/schedule search on the website that looks quite similar to what we’ve already seen at Southwest, Air Canada, Alaska, and Hawaiian. Though it’s not live yet (and there is no announced date), they’ve put up a demo on the website that shows what it will look like.

This is the first true legacy carrier in the US to start displaying fares in categories. Southwest has done this for as long as I can remember, but they’ve never differentiated the actual product received by people who buy in different categories.

Air Canada was really the first to begin “productizing” their fares. In other words, you receive a different onboard product, different number of miles, and different levels of fees, etc. depending upon what type of fare you buy. American hasn’t announced they’ll be moving to this type of model, but I have to think that it’s likely the main driver for an enhancement like this.

That’s a good thing for everyone involved, and it’s why I’ve given them a gold star for the effort. It’s sort of a gold star-in-waiting so we can see what they actually do with this technology, but I have high hopes.

Why is this a good thing? As airline continue to feel downward pricing pressure (look at how much a flight cost 20 years ago, you’ll be surprised how much it was), they’ve had to adapt to charging for every little additional thing. Most people don’t like this, but then again, most people aren’t willing to pay more in their base fare either.

The problem is that the airlines don’t have the ability to really upsell you, so even if you would pay more, you aren’t given the option. For example, let’s say American’s lowest fare class has no frequent flier miles, no meal, and a $100 change fee. The next fare class up may cost $50 more but it includes miles, a meal, and a $50 change fee. Is it worth it? To some, it might be. In the current set up, there’s no way for American to try to push that option to the customer. This new functionality allows them to do that.

This gives the airline an opportunity to earn more money at the time of sale instead of nickel-and-diming throughout the travel experience, and it gives the customer more options when they’re purchasing flights. Again, this hasn’t actually happened for American yet, but the new booking interface is the first and most crucial step in making it a reality.

Southwest just decided to start participating in the Galileo Global Distribution System (GDS), and the media is running around like it’s the biggest news in the history of mankind.

• Travel Weekly (subscription only) says it’s “a sea-change for Southwest”
• The Star-Telegram says that this move, along with a couple others, marks a “retooling” for the airline.
• Ebert and Roeper gave the move “Two thumbs up,” or not . . .

The problem is that this isn’t as big of a deal as people are making it out to be.

Right now, if you, Joe Customer, want to book a flight on Southwest, you have to go directly to Southwest or you can go to a travel agent. This will not be changing. If you go to a travel agent, they either have to make the booking directly with Southwest or they can use the Sabre GDS, which they’ve participated in for many years.

Now, travel agents that use the Galileo GDS will also be able to book with Southwest without having to go direct, but they’ll have to pay for the privilege. This agreement is a bit more robust than Sabre’s in that it will eventually have real-time availability and fares, but that does absolutely nothing for you as a passenger.

You still can’t book on any website other than Southwest’s. Even if Galileo powers an online travel agent (eg Orbitz, Expedia, etc.), Southwest won’t let the agent sell their fares online. So the only people who have access to this will be travel agents and corporate travel managers.

And that’s exactly why Southwest is doing this. They’re trying to be more friendly to the corporate market by letting them search fares and availability and book directly in their own system, even if they will be charging them extra to do so. It’s one of many efforts they’re making to be more business-friendly, including a far more exciting development that they hope to have onboard wi-fi by early next year (happy, happy, joy, joy).

So unless you’re a corporate travel manager or a travel agent, there’s nothing to get excited about here.  Even if you’re a corporate travel manager, it may still be worth it to book directly with Southwest to avoid the additional cost of booking through Galileo.

After an epic battle, Virgin America (IATA code: VX, seriously) has finally received approval from the DOT to start flying.

They jumped through a million hoops, and now they’ve finally finished this part of the process. If you’d like to read the 12 page ruling, go here (PDF).

In the end, CEO Fred Reid was forced to leave, but he’s received a stay of execution. He can stay up to 6 months after launch. According to a friend who flew through SFO last week, the AirTrain at the airport says that Virgin America starts service on August 3. They haven’t said anything about it yet, but that sounds plausible.

I wish I could say that the hardest part is over for these guys, but really it’s just beginning. They’re not exactly starting on less traveled routes (SFO to JFK), and the competition is going to be fierce. I do wish them luck, and hopefully I’ll get to try them out sometime once they start flying to LAX.