Update 10/9 @1041a: Nevermind. Continental just uses the 737-800 as a placeholder for future schedules. These can be expected to change in the next month or so. The Hawai’i stuff is still valid. Sorry about that.

It looks like Continental has decided to join in the Hawai’i sweepstakes with some interesting new west coast routes, including the first Orange County – Honolulu flight since Aloha folded. But while those are interesting, I’m more intrigued by the remaking they’re giving to their LA operation.

Today, LAX is a jumble of airplanes ranging from 737-800s and 737-900s to 757-200s and 757-300s. Beginning March 7, LAX will be an all-737 operation. In fact, everything will be a 737-800 except for the two flights to Honolulu which will be on 737-900s. Not only are the planes shrinking, but they’re also cutting frequencies. Houston, Newark, and Cleveland will each see one less flight per day from LAX.

Currently, by my count there are six Continental airplanes that sit overnight at LAX. That will drop to four with the new schedule. Part of that is thanks to a new nonstop flight to Maui. The airplane leaves LAX at 505p and returns on a redeye just in time to start the day as it would have were it sitting on the ground.

The Honolulu operations are even more interesting. Right now, Honolulu is operated by a 737-800, and it sits there for a long time. It arrives at 1245p and then doesn’t come back to LAX until 830p. But starting in March, there will be two daily flights on the 737-900. One will leave LAX at 1020a and arrive Honolulu at 120p. But instead of waiting all day, it will turn right around and come back to LAX at 150p. The other will leave LAX at 155p and arrive Honolulu at 440p. That will just turn around on the 825p redeye. It appears these airplanes will just go around in circles between the two cities.

Meanwhile, down the road in Orange County, Continental is resurrecting the flight to Honolulu that last operated before Aloha went belly up. Like Aloha, they’ll use a 737-700. This is a pure utilization flight. Right now, there are two 737-700s that come in at 428p and 732p. One of those turns around for the 915p redeye to Newark but the other stays overnight. So, if the 428p sits overnight today, it can now do the 520p departure to Honolulu and return at 745a the next day ready to resume its normal schedule.

This flight is only operating 4 days a week for now but they have plans to expand to daily.

So why are all these moves being made? Something tells me it’s related to Continental joining the Star Alliance. Now, Continental will be able to fill those Hawai’i flights with feed from United and United Express in LAX. And in Orange County, they’ll be able to tap into that loyal Mileage Plus base that may not even know what OnePass is. (It’s been a long, long time since Continental was based here, and they’re often the last airline people think about.)

Should United be flying Orange County to Honolulu? Hell yeah, but they don’t really have the right airplane for the route. Those Airbuses can’t make it. So once again, United will sit back and watch another airline pick away at its turf. At least this time it’s an ally. It’s quite interesting to see Continental make these changes.

The “death by a thousand cuts” strategy seems to be continuing in Cincinnati. Delta is shrinking once again in November and December. Is this sounding like American in St Louis to anyone else?

Here’s the deal. The following cities will be losing roughly a flight day from Cincinnati:
Greensboro – November 30
Hartford – December 16
Huntsville – December 16
Indianapolis – December 16
Milwaukee – December 15
Northwest Arkansas – December 16
St Louis – December 16
Tri-Cities (Tennessee) – December 16
Tulsa (loses its only flight) – January 4

If there’s any consolation, Cincinnati will be getting another flight to Minneapolis. Hmm, that’s not much in the way of consolation is it?

It’s possible these are just cuts for the winter season and they’ll come back next summer. Um, yeah. That’s it. The airport appears to be on an inevitable march toward hublessness despite a lack of any official proclamation.

Earlier this week, United announced that it would stop charging you fees for your first and second bags . . . if you’re willing to pay $249 up front. Is it a good deal for fliers? Maybe in some cases, but it’s really only some families that will be able to benefit.

This program says that if you pay $249 (as an “intro” rate), then you can take 2 bags with you without any additional charge for a year. What’s more, you can bring up to 8 companions with you and they get the same royal treatment.

Your initial thought is probably that if you fly a lot, this makes sense. But if you fly a lot, this makes the least sense of all. Huh? Remember, if you’re an elite member, then you never pay for the first and second bags. So if you’re a single traveler and you check enough bags to make this worthwhile, you’re probably already an elite flier, especially with all these bonus elite mile specials that are out there.

What if you have a family of 8 and everyone wants to check two bags? Well, this is a great deal. That first bag is normally $15 in advance and the second is $25. So, $40 times 8 people = $320. You’ve already made your money back before you even take the return flight.

But those are rare scenarios (except in Utah). The reality lies somewhere in the middle. And that is why I think this is a great idea from United’s perspective.

Let’s say that you have a husband, 2 kids and you travel 3 times a year. Generally when you travel, you’ll check 3 bags. That means you’ll pay $270 to check bags on those three trips, so you might just decide to pay up front and spend the extra $20 on an overpriced snack box.

Here’s where it gets interesting. If you don’t fly that often, you may not have loyalty with any airline. In fact, you’re probably just making your decision based on price. If you buy this baggage option, however, then United has hooked you. Even if they cost more than other carriers for your second and third flight, you might take them simply because you already have “free” bags. It’s a great psychological move in that it secretly builds a level of loyalty in a group that is usually far from loyal.

Will they sell a lot of this? Probably not. But every time they sell it, they’re helping to build loyalty.

Don’t get too excited. It’s not a flying car that’s coming to the US (though a flying Mitsubishi Eclipse would look pretty sweet). It’s actually the new Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) that received its first interest from a US carrier. We’re pretty far away from actually seeing one of these bad boys over here, but I suppose we’re now one step closer.

Little Trans States is the one that bit by signing an ambitious Letter of Intent for 100 of the MRJs (pdf). Right now, they operate 30 ERJ-145s for United and US Airways as well as 22 CRJ-700s for United. This would be just shy of a 200% increase in fleet size . . . if they take them all.

Flightblogger is pretty excited about this one, and thinks it could be “on par with the 1986 order by Northwest Airlines and the 1996 order by United Airlines for A320 family aircraft, opening the door to a flood of new operators.” I’m not so sure about that.

The LOI is for 50 firm aircraft and 50 options, but again, it’s just an LOI. And there isn’t any sort of delivery timeframe mentioned either, though first delivery to ANA is supposed to be in 2014. But let’s say this does turn into an actual order. Will this be the opening of the flood gates? I highly doubt it.

Mitsubishi can build a lot of things, but they don’t build commercial aircraft. (They build pieces, but not the whole thing.) That doesn’t mean they can’t, but it also means that airlines will be doubly wary about jumping onboard without even seeing the thing fly. At least Airbus in the mid-80s had shown that they could get A300s and A310s in the air.

While that rosy comparison is possible, we’ve seen others come and go from the regional world without much more than a whimper. How about Dornier? Those 328s were supposed to be all the rage with Horizon and others ordering them. Now I don’t think you’ll find a single one flying in the US.

Let’s see if Mitsubishi can get this thing in the air with the fuel-saving numbers that they’ve been quoting. (This will be using the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan.) If they can, then this could be a winner.

For Trans States, this is a pretty easy decision. If Mitsubishi ends up making a game-changer, then they undoubtedly got a smoking deal on the aircraft. If things don’t work as planned, I’m sure they have an out. Even if they do take delivery, the planes won’t be here for at least 5 years anyway, and that’s an eternity in this industry. It may seem a little crazy to dive in right now, but they don’t have much to lose.

I will say one thing. It’s a pretty mean looking aircraft (in a good way). But then again, so was the Dornier 328.

For more than 3 years, I’ve been writing The Cranky Flier to provide opinions and general information about the latest with airlines and airports. Today, I’m officially launching what I think is the next logical extension of the blog . . . Cranky Concierge, a personalized air travel assistance company.

I’m sure everyone out there has been frustrated with at least one part (likely all parts) of the air travel process. Now starting at only $30 per trip for all passengers on an itinerary (with a money-back guarantee), you can have your own airline dork watching over you to help with all aspects of your trip. Here’s what we provide:

We’ve been doing testing for a couple of months, and I think that the most exciting pieces here are the Flight Monitoring and Delay & Cancellation Assistance. With Flight Monitoring, you’ll receive an email before your trip outlining your flight info, potential delays, weather, and a description of where your airplane is coming from before your flight. We’ll monitor this throughout the day leading up to your flight and keep you apprised of any changes to your flight status via email or SMS. In testing, we’ve been able to notify travelers of delays long before the airlines update their own flight statuses. We are not a travel agent, so we don’t actually handle booking but rather just give you options.

When it comes to helping fix problems when they go wrong, we’ve had great success. In one example, clients were traveling from San Francisco to Denver via LA (the only itinerary on which they could get a ticket using miles) The flight to LA was late and would miss the last flight to Denver. There were no seats on the nonstops to Denver, so the airline said that they would have to wait until the next afternoon.

That’s when we got the email. We quickly sprung into action and were able to tell them about a flight from LA to Colorado Springs that had room and that they would make with time to spare thanks to a slight delay. They suggested that to the airline which gladly put them onboard. We found them a cheaper rental car in Colorado Springs and they made it that night.

That’s the power of having an airline dork on your side. We’re starting small and only offering this to US residents right now, but we are planning to expand over time. We are looking to build our network of airline dorks as demand grows. In particular, we’re looking for airline employees with flexible schedules (hello, flight attendants) who might be interested in joining the team on their days off. Send me an email at brett@crankyconcierge.com if you’re interested in learning more.

This service is not meant for those people who like to do everything online independently. This is meant for those who don’t have the time to spend on researching everything themselves. It’s also meant for those people who don’t have the deep knowledge about the industry and simply want someone to help them with the process.

So, please visit http://crankyconcierge.com/ and let me what you think. (I actually coded the entire website myself, so if you find any problems, let me know that as well.)

As I said, I see this as a natural extension of the blog. Hopefully this service will be worthwhile for many of you. It will help me make a living while still providing the same great content on the blog for free that I provide every day. From time to time, I’m sure I will post successful assistance efforts here on Cranky Flier so you can learn how to help yourself when you’re stranded.

If you’d like the assistance of an airline dork for your next trip, you know where to find us. For only $30 per trip, you really can’t go wrong. (We’re also looking at subscription pricing options, so stay tuned for that.)

[Update: Pricing now starts at only $25 per trip for advance travel within the US and Canada]