Oh Alitalia, why can’t you have any really exciting news? Instead, we just get to watch Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi try to pull his foot out of his mouth and find a way to do exactly what he said he wouldn’t; get an foreign carrier to fix Alitalia. Good luck with that.

Remember how Silvio wanted to keep Alitalia Italian? And how that killed the airline’s best prospect for survival, a takeover by Air France/KLM? Yeah, well I had to laugh when I saw the International Herald Tribune headline, “Italy gov’t in Alitalia talks with foreign company.”

I think it’s time to get a little cranky here. What the hell is wrong with the Italian government? They had a perfectly good solution that is now gone, and they’ve let millions of euros just drain away as they sit with their thumbs up their asses. It’s time for some action instead of just bombastic talks. Oh sure, Berlusconi’s words make it sound like things are moving along.

We already have an industrial plan, the partners and the necessary capital, and we are negotiating with a big foreign company for an alliance at the international level.

Sounds good, right? But I think the IHT says it best.

However, the government has failed to present its plan by an end-of-July deadline, and no significant development is expected to be announced during the summer.

I’m sure the government is all too busy going on holiday during the month of August to bother with something like this. Just imagine how much money disappears into this black hole daily? Will someone just get this over with? Pull the bandage off quickly instead of slowly peeling it off.

Have you used Orbitz lately? I haven’t because I usually don’t find enough value in the online travel agents to pay their fees, but I’m glad to see that Orbitz is at least trying to create some new value here. Take a look at their new Price Assurance program; a new program that will automatically give you a refund if they find a lower price for your purchased itinerary. It sounds great, but there are plenty of holes in this program that make it not nearly as valuable as you might think.

Here’s the idea. Book a trip on Orbitz. If someone books that exact same flight itinerary after you on Orbitz for a lower fare, then you get the difference. They won’t give you anything until it’s $5 cheaper and you’re capped at $250. So what’s the catch?

There are a couple questionable terms that I’d like to know more about (eg “Fare decreases resulting from changes to an air carrier’s fare filing policies or practices will not be eligible for Orbitz Price Assurance”), and it’s pretty annoying that you won’t get your refund until 30 days after you take your trip when you could get it immediately on some airlines. My biggest issue, though? You may not always get the refund, even if you’re eligible for it.

Remember, someone has to book the exact same itinerary as you for a lower fare. Of course, if you’re flying LAX to JFK, then there’s a good chance that they will be able to compare it relatively often. But if you’re flying from Allentown to Bakersfield, well, there probably won’t be many people booked on the same flights on the same dates as you at all, let alone via Orbitz.

So, it’s a nice addition to Orbitz that at least makes it a bit more worthwhile to pay the booking fee, but there are better ways to handle this. You can do this yourself by registering with Yapta and book directly with the airline to save the fee. Or if you’re concerned about Yapta’s reliability, you could just use brute force and check it yourself.

Still, I know a lot of people won’t bother following up on these things. Since this is completely automated and no additional work is required, there is still some value here. It might just be worth the fee, depending upon the itinerary you’re flying and your willingness (or lack thereof) to do the follow up work yourself.

Something tells me I’m going to get a lot of flack for this post. I know there are plenty of people out there who think that US Airways is more evil than just about anything else on Earth, but I really think they’re doing a great job. You still with me? Before you faint or throw your keyboard into your monitor in anger, let me explain.

I know I’ve talked about this many times before. This isn’t your father’s US Airways (or USAir, or Allegheny, or . . . .) This is America West with a much bigger route structure and a strategy that they’re executing on quite well. As a refresher, here is the airline’s strategy as explained to us at this year’s Media Day.

First, let’s remember that I’m primarily talking about domestic flying here. So, schedule and price matter most as long as they are reliable, convenient, and have a respectable appearance. It sounds good to me, but then again, I’m not an old-school US Airways loyalist. If you go over to the US Airways board on FlyerTalk, you’d think that every reduction in benefits from previous levels is like a dagger being stuck in every frequent flier’s heart. But it’s not. It’s just different from what they’re used to. And yes, that’s going to alienate some people, but that’s the decision they’ve consciously made for the good of their business. (I mean come on; when was the old US Airways considered a model airline?!?)

What’s most important here is whether or not they can actually deliver on their simple strategy. So can they? Let’s start with reliability since that’s probably most important. On that front, they’re performing quite well, actually. Kudos are due to COO Robert Isom for bringing the airline back from the operational brink. Now that June DOT numbers are out, we know that the airline has been at the top of the charts for on-time performance for all of this year. Check out June in Philly. A chronically-delayed airport during the summer? Yeah, but US Airways still walked away with a 76.5% on time rate.

How about baggage? That was always the downfall of Philly in the past, but now they’re finishing in the middle of the pack throughout the system. June saw a rate of 4.65 bags lost per thousand passengers. That was good enough for 9th place (out of 19) but more importantly it was less than half last year’s abysmal 10.59. By the way, they’re also in 9th place for the full first half of the year, so this isn’t a one month anomaly.

So reliability is good. As for convenience, well, I don’t see them as being any better or worse than other airlines except that they do have a functional mobile site, something some airlines have yet to figure out. If they really want to become more convenient, they need to let me pay for these fees on the website at the time of booking. Then I’d be much happier. And appearance? Well, my understanding is that they’re sprucing up interiors on most of their planes. (They need it on some of those.)

Looking at this independently, you’d think US Airways would actually be a pretty good airline to fly, right? Then why does everyone seem to pile on the airline so much? Like I said, it’s because things are different now, and people don’t like change. This is why they never should have kept that name. That airline died during its second consecutive bankruptcy a couple years back.

Let’s look at this whole “charging for drinks” thing that has the nation in an uproar. Yes, they charge for drinks, but who says drinks should be included in your base fare? It’s just what you’re used to, and there’s nothing that says every airline should include drinks in your fare. US Airways is being up front about these things (except for that horribly shady booking fee on USAirways.com which still bothers me, if it’s still around). In general, they aren’t promising much and they’re delivering.

Let’s look at it another way. United and American like to act like they’re full service airlines, but they charge most of the same fees as US Airways does. On top of that, neither of those airlines got their planes to land on time more than 60% of the time in June. That’s a far bigger problem.

This doesn’t mean flying a fee-filled US Airways is for everyone. If you don’t like the fees, you can fly Southwest and, um, well, that’s about it these days. But if you don’t like paying for drinks, there are plenty of options. But for a lot of people, the lowest fare is what matters, and if US Airways has it, they’ll probably fly them. It’s not a strategy for every airline, and I’d certainly agree that this race to the fee-world opens up more opportunities for an all-inclusive experience at the other end, but it’s definitely a valid strategy that can work for the airline.

The bottom line is that as long as they keep running a solid operation, they’re going to remain a viable option for most domestic travelers. And if they keep beating the likes of United and American in on-time performance by 15 points, they’re going to become a preferred option, regardless of what fees they charge.

Edited 8/12 @ 1129a: For those who are new to the blog, I want to disclose that I worked at America West from 1997-2002 under the same management team that runs US Airways today. Robert Isom was my VP briefly at one point. I don’t believe this colors my view (I mean, I haven’t worked there in 6 years), but I wanted to make sure it was disclosed. If you’d like to see everywhere I’ve worked, you can always look at the about page.

Things got a little busy last week with the A380 flight, so I didn’t have a chance to post the last of my NBTA posts. Here it is . . . .

Back in May, I talked about how Swiss had decided to replace its current business class offering with a new seat that used air for cushion instead of foam. Well, at NBTA, they trotted out a very early version of the seat to show it off.

I didn’t get to sit in the seat, because they said it wasn’t fully developed yet, but they did have a cushion there that you could hold. Why would you want to hold it? Well, they wanted to show you how light it was compared to a regular cushion. As you’d probably imagine, it really was a good deal lighter. (If it weren’t why would they bother trotting it out?) But that’s only half the story . . . will it be comfortable?

They’ve certainly put a ton of effort into this. You can see at left that there are several layers on top of the air cushion. I believe the white layer is a kevlar coating that helps with fire resistance and distribution of weight. The light blue layer is almost entirely for moisture-wicking. Then the seat cover is on top. Not bad at all, I have to say. But let’s see how it holds up under the stress of flying in revenue service.

By the way, you can see the entire flat seat at right. It looks very similar to Continental, no? You can see how the legs go underneath the seat in front of you. But Swiss is doing something different from Continental in that some rows will have a 1-2-2 configuration while others will have 1-2-1.

I imagine I’d like the seat by itself on the “1″ side, but it depends on if I’m traveling with someone or not. The interesting thing about this configuration is that only a few seats require stepping over someone to get to the aisle. (Just the window seat on one side of the 1-2-2 configuration.) But compared to Continental, they have a lot fewer seats in a row here. That could come back to haunt them – it’s going to be tougher to make money with this less dense configuration.

I know, I know. Enough about seats already, right? This should be it for awhile. Not back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I know I usually don’t post on Sundays, but I figured this would be a good way to get some housekeeping items out of the way. If you’ve ever wanted to write your own post, skip to the last point for more info.

Enter the Contest
Just a friendly reminder that the contest to win an iPod Nano or a BottleWise Duo™ is halfway over. We’ve received more than 200 entries, but there is plenty of room for more. Submit your six word summary of the TSA liquid ban here.

Take a Survey
The Aircraft Interiors Expo – Americas is coming up next month, and they’re trying to get people to take a survey about what you like in an aircraft interior. The results will be announced at the show, so if you have the time (it’s not long), go here to take the survey.

Write Your Own Post
No, not here on Cranky, but the folks over at BNET are looking for guest posts. I write the travel blog over there, but you can write a post of your own. Read here for more details, and dive in! By the way, head over there and leave some comments for me. It gets lonely over there.