The whole point of PR is to try to spin an issue in your favor, but sometimes the spin is so strong, you feel like you’re riding the teacups at Disneyland. Yesterday, American announced it was pulling out of Dallas/Love Field with a release entitled . . . “AA Signs New Lease at Love Field.” Huh?

Technically, American has signed a new extended lease with Dallas/Love Field that commits the airline to Love until 2028. BUT, beginning June 11, the airline will suspend service until the terminal work is done. When will that happen? 2013, as of now. So I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that a four year suspension of service is actually pulling out of a market.

Why would they bother to renew a lease on the terminal if they clearly don’t want to be there for the next four years? Well it all goes back to the whole Love Field fight. When DFW opened, traffic restrictions were put in place at Love Field (by the Wright Amendment) to force airlines to move to DFW. Southwest refused to move, and the battle was born.

Southwest really became aggressive at trying to end the restrictions recently, and American tried to play the “doom” card. American said it would have to move a bunch of flights to Love, split its hub up, and the whole area would suffer just so it could compete with Southwest.

Once Love was opened up slightly, American immediately jumped into the airport with flights to show that the doom and gloom was coming. Well those flights failed, and they ended up consolidating around a single route – Love to Chicago/O’Hare. Now that route is going away.

But as part of the compromise, Love was restricted to a certain number of gates (20), and American got some of those gates. So what would happen if they gave them up? Well Southwest would be able to grow into those gates. Hmm, they can’t have that. So it appears they’ve committed to the gates under the assumption that they’ll need to squat on them in the future.

If I were Southwest, I’d be mounting a challenge here to see if I could get those gates, but of course when I asked them, they didn’t have any official challenge to speak about. They did, however, say that with more of the current terminal being empty right now with American’s departure, it might allow them to accelerate the completion of the new terminal because it gives them more room to maneuver.

You hear that American? That may make you come back to the airport in only 3 years. Think you can handle it?

According to Today in the Sky, United is no longer going to send E-fare emails to its customers. E-fares, the ones that are for last minute weekend travel, will still be around on the United website, but they just won’t proactively tell you about them anymore. So what’s up with the customer unfriendly policy? I’m guessing it’s related to United’s new corporate motto, “If it’s broke, don’t fix it.”

I don’t get the E-fare emails from many airlines anymore, or if I do, I just delete them, so I don’t know the state of United’s emails. But there is really no good excuse for removing customer notification for a program that isn’t going away. Here’s how I imagine the conversation going over at United.

Marketeer #1: We’ve got a problem.
Marketeer #2: Just one? So we’re getting better?

Marketeer #1: Very funny. You know those E-fare emails? They don’t work well. We don’t send people the information they want, and it’s an expensive/inefficient system.
Marketeer #2: Hmm, well if it’s a bad experience, we should fix it.

Marketeer #1: Nah, that takes effort. Instead, I think we’ll just stop sending the emails. Then it won’t be bad anymore!
Marketeer #2: But, um, then won’t people have an even worse experience by having to search for the E-fares each week?

Marketeer #1: I’m sorry . . . did you say something?

I can fully understand if United wanted to ditch this program entirely. I mean, these last minute fares have been around for a long time and they likely aren’t generating a huge amount business. But if you’re going to keep the program, you’d think that United would want to at least make it user-friendly.

*sigh*

Updated on 3/12 @ 944a – United Spokesperson Robin Urbanski sent me a note saying the following. “They were discontinued because customers have asked us to reduce the frequency of emails and most go to united.com to find and book our special deals, including e-fares.”

So that appears to be the official stance, but I’ve heard differently from others.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of dealing with United’s reservation agents since they shipped the majority of calls overseas knows that it’s generally one of the most unpleasant experiences imaginable. I’ve had countless problematic interactions with some Indian agent conveniently named “Mark” or “Mr Smith” or anything else generically American in the past, and I’ve rarely left the call feeling satisfied. In fact, I consider it a victory if I find an agent that I can actually understand, so when I had to call the reservations line this week, I braced for the worst. Shockingly, it turned out very well.

I only called into reservations because I had no other choice. When I decided to hit the road for a cross-country trip last November, that left me with a $242 United ticket that I wouldn’t need to use. Subtracting the hefty $150 change fee, I still had a meager $92 left. And thanks to a phone call I received this week, I was able to put that $92 to good use and even have some credit left over.

How is that possible? Well let me back up. I received a call from Southwest saying that I was actually one of the two winners in their contest to build the best schedule. (Seems unrelated to United, I know, but stick with me) They offered to fly me out for a celebration, and considering that I would have the chance to meet founders Herb Kelleher and Colleen Barrett, I certainly couldn’t say no. (“Giddy like a school girl” is probably a good way to describe it.)

But after Dallas, I still needed to come back to Phoenix for the aviation symposium. Southwest would get me to Dallas and back to Phoenix, but I had to get back home to LA at the end of the week. That would be the perfect way to use my United credit. I looked and they had a ticket for a mere $59 one way (thank you, slowing demand), so I was ready to go. Just one problem. You can’t use your old credit online. I had to call reservations and that always means trouble. Would they charge me the $25 phone reservations fee even though there was no other option? I braced for the worst.

The agent that answered the phone had a slight accent and tone that led me to believe he was Filipino. First victory: I could understand him. I told him my situation, and he surprisingly didn’t have to ask for clarification. He pulled up my reservation, said that the $25 phone reservations fee didn’t apply, and quickly took care of it for me. Then he took my address and said the remaining $32 of the credit would just be sent to me in the mail for future use.

Let’s forget about how ridiculous it is that United can’t handle this transaction online and just appreciate the fact that the airline actually, adequately served me via their phone reservations team. Good work. It’s amazing how well low expectations can frame something as a win even though it should be routine, no?

They’ve been talking about it for awhile, but it wasn’t until yesterday that US Airways turned on the screens for a two month test of a new in-seat entertainment system. The system, made by Lumexis, will only be on one aircraft (N680AW) that is scheduled to spend each night in Orange County. Why Orange County? Well Lumexis is based right next to the runway, and since they’re close, I was able to stop down last week and take the new system for a spin.

Why bother describing it when I can just show you. I took a 1 minute 58 second video of me playing with the system, and here it is:

As you can tell it’s fast. That’s thanks to the fiber optic cable they’ve decided to use, a first for the world of inflight entertainment. But this unit isn’t even the best they’ve got; it’s just the test system. The actual production units have the same 8.9 inch screen with 16:9 aspect ratio, but they’re lighter by half (weighing only 2.2 pounds each). Oh, and the production units are capable of full HD broadcasts. They showed me a sample video from Discovery Channel in HD and it was impressive. No, you won’t see that on US Airways at this point, and as you can imagine, a video of an HD broadcast doesn’t come out very well. So you’ll just have to imagine it for now.

Do I have any complaints? Really, just a couple. My biggest complaint is that the headset jack is in the screen instead of in the armrest. That may save on maintenance, but it will be extremely annoying. Just imagine sitting on the aisle and having to unplug every time someone wants to pass over you to go to the lav. Not a great experience, but I suppose if the cord is long enough, it might be not be as bad.

The other complaint is about the sensitivity of the screen. It’s not sensitive enough, and that means people will start tapping hard on the seat to make it work. That’s not pleasant for anyone. The good news is that the sensitivity can be changed easily – they’re just testing it out now to see what will work best.

So will US Airways roll this out across the fleet? It’s tough to say, especially in this economic climate. Installing a system like this isn’t cheap, and US Airways would have to be comfortable that it could make the cost back and more by selling the entertainment to customers. There are other players in the space as well, so we’ll just have to see how things go.

Without question, Lumexis has created a very impressive system that is sure to find a home with some carriers in the future, even if it for the more traditional long haul aircraft. Assuming installation and service is handled well, these guys could be serious contenders in the inflight entertainment world in the future.

If you’d like to try to get onboard, the plane is supposed to fly the following schedule every day for the next two months (no guarantees, of course):

US Airways 610 Lv Orange County 646a Arr Phoenix 814a (later on Sunday)
US Airways 610 Lv Phoenix 909a Arr Atlanta 347p (later on Sunday)
US Airways 656 Lv Atlanta 535p Arr Phoenix 656p
US Airways 656 Lv Phoenix 808p Arr Orange County 929p

For more information on Lumexis itself, see my post on BNET with much more.

I know that being a pilot doesn’t hold nearly as much caché as it used to, but Air Asia is really trying to drive this profession into the ground even further. They need pilots, so what are they doing? In their own words . . . .

So YOU wanna be a pilot? Simple. What do you have to do? Blog. What? Thats [sic] it? Yes, you’re reading it right. Blog.

Scary thought, right? I mean, this seems like a very strange way to find someone to command an airplane full of dozens of people. To be fair, it’s not really as bad as it sounds. The winners of this contest just get their foot in the door for an interview. I assume at that point, something like decent flying skills will actually be required. But I can’t imagine that something this gimmicky is good for public perception of the airline.

What really gets me is the poorly-edited, low sound quality video they’ve included to promote the contest:

What’s the first reason the man with the sun glasses who appears to fly for the airline likes being a pilot? “Because of the girls.” The second reason? “’cause of the bling-bling and because of the money.” I know it’s a joke (sort of), and I’m sure this kind of talk could go on behind the scenes at any airline, but come on, Air Asia. You have passengers watching this video, and that hardly gives off an aura of competency.

The good news is that there are some rules behind this competition, but of course those are buried in the fine print. Yes, you actually do have to meet minimum standards as set by the government of Malaysia and you must have received decent grades in school. And like I said, this just gets you in the door for an interview. So it’s not really as bad as it looks, but it sure does look bad.

Heck, I might fit in with these clowns myself. I’d be tempted to give it a shot except for one slight problem. You have to be proficient in Bahasa Malaysia. And according to the comments, it seems like you have to be a Malaysian national. Well, so much for that.

[Thanks to Bangalore Aviation for the tip]