This weekend was Carmageddon here in Southern California. You probably heard all about it, because I’m told that this was national and even global news. JetBlue smartly took advantage of the opportunity and scored itself some unique press while endearing itself among Southern Californians by offering flights between Burbank and Long Beach, just a few miles apart. Here’s how it came together.

Carmageddon was supposed to result in epic gridlock thanks to the closing of the 405 freeway in a key spot between West LA and the San Fernando Valley. The freeway is being expanded and they had to knock down a bridge as part of that project. That required a weekend-long shutdown. The public awareness was tremendous, and in the end, the freeway reopened way early and there was no gridlock. Kudos certainly go to all the authorities involved for getting the word out so well that people stayed local this weekend.

But many of the warnings in advance were that there would be terrible gridlock. Every electronic road sign on every freeway flashed closure info. They even trotted out temporary signs. The local media had been covering it for weeks, and when it was given the name “Carmageddon,” it really stuck. Meanwhile, there had been a few efforts to figure out ways around the mess including discounted helicopter flights and things like that. JetBlue decided to jump in on Wednesday by offering two roundtrip flights between Burbank and Long Beach for cheap. Really cheap.

The flights were scheduled for Saturday afternoon and would cost only $4 all-in each way, $5 if you wanted to spring for extra legroom. Get it? 4 or 5 = 405. The flights sold out in less than three hours. In fact, JetBlue says that this was the fastest selling promotion it has ever launched.

Clearly JetBlue didn’t expect to make a profit on these flights alone. Each flight generated $642 in revenue. That’s enough to buy just over 200 gallons of fuel, and I bet the flight used even more than that. But that wasn’t the point. This was all about generating exposure, or as JetBlue said, “the value we are receiving beyond the publicity is earning new customers and educating the community on about all of the cities we serve. Our research shows that once a customer tries us, they become loyal fans!” If that’s the case, then this worked wonders.

The response was immediate. Within minutes, news vans had swarmed JetBlue’s operations in Burbank and Long Beach to cover the story. After so many weeks of covering the same boring stuff around the closure, this was a fun story that really hit the spot and was top story on several newscasts. The local coverage was priceless. JetBlue hasn’t been as visible in SoCal as it was during its early days, but this was a clear stand of solidarity with those who live here. JetBlue knows your pain, and JetBlue is going to try to relieve it and help you fly down to the beach.

Emails quickly flew through cyberspace – I had all kinds of friends sending me notes about this, asking if I’d be taking it. You might think that there could have been backlash from environmentalists decrying such a waste, but I saw none of that. In fact, environmentally-friendly transport lovers jumped on the bandwagon. A biking group called Wolfpack Hustle put together a challenge to see who could get from a location near Burbank Airport to the Long Beach Aquarium the fastest – someone who flew or someone who biked. The bikes won considering the drive time to the airport and the waiting time as well. That little wrinkle simply gave the story staying power. It was covered nonstop leading up to the flights. Of course, when the flights operated on Saturday, there was more coverage as well.

Even though this was a marketing coup, the idea didn’t come from marketing at all. According to JetBlue, it came from “a crewmember outside of the marketing department, and we ran with it!” I’m guessing it came from someone here in SoCal. JetBlue has a large presence with its Long Beach crew base, so it could have come from anyone, and hopefully they get a little thank you note, at the very least. There aren’t a lot of places where something like that could come together that quickly, but JetBlue is one of those places. This idea came up on Monday, was launched on Wednesday, and flew on Saturday.

On Saturdays, JetBlue has a thinner schedule in Burbank. One airplane comes in from JFK at 1118a and doesn’t leave for Vegas until 355p. So they stuck a roundtrip to Long Beach in there while it was on the ground. The next flight lands from Vegas at 555p but doesn’t go back to New York until 920p. They slotted another roundtrip to Long Beach in there. All they needed were crews to fly the extra legs, but with a Long Beach crew base, I can’t imagine that was hard to find for a little flightseeing around SoCal.

JetBlue even went to the FAA to make sure that it wouldn’t have any trouble getting a clear flight path through crowded air space. No problem.

The result was a well-liked promotion that got the airline coverage all over the US and even around the world. Excellent move.

This isn’t the airline I signed up for – CNN Out of the Office
This week, I tackle codesharing. I find codsharing to be incredibly confusing with limited consumer benefit, but that’s not going to change anything. I gave some tips for those traveling on codeshares.

GUEST POST: Cranky Flier Mulls Service Prospects for BWI Airport – Aviation Queen
In case you missed it, Benet Wilson is now writing her own blog at aviationqueen.com. I filled in this week with a guest post on prospects for more service at the Queen’s hometown airport of BWI.

In the Trenches: Learning How to Use an Assistant – Intuit Small Business Blog
The idea of having an assistant sounds good, but really, I don’t think I’d even know where to start.

Low cost carrier Air Asia X announced that its flight from Kuala Lumpur will now go to London Gatwick instead of Stansted. Is this a sign that Gatwick is becoming a more competitive airport under new, non-BAA ownership? Or is it just a one-off move? I know it may just seem like a small change, but could it be the first of bigger changes among London’s secondary airports?

Earlier this week, I published a column on CNN.com talking about codesharing. You all know the practice. It’s when one airline sells flights on another airline under its own code. This column turned into a great discussion on airliners.net, and now I’m bringing it here. Why? Because I don’t see a single consumer benefit to codesharing. Anyone else believe otherwise?

I suppose I should break this down into two different pieces, because there is one aspect of codesharing that does make sense to me: the regional airline relationship. If you fly Delta from LAX to Phoenix, you’re actually flying on SkyWest Airlines operating as Delta Connection. SkyWest doesn’t sell flights on its own. It’s just a hired service-provider, and that type of codesharing I understand. The operating airline isn’t equipped to really handle ticket sales and shouldn’t have to be. It’s really operated on behalf of the larger partner, and that larger partner’s policies and procedures increasingly apply. So let’s exclude this type of codesharing from the discussion.

It’s the other type of codesharing that I’m targeting here, and I would love to see it disappear completely. You know what I’m talking about. It’s when you buy a flight on United but actually fly on Lufthansa. Or you buy a ticket on US Airways and find it’s actually on United. These types of codesharing relationships have grown dramatically over the years to the point where airlines have started to run out of 4 digit flight numbers. (Ever wonder why you see flights with the same number for a roundtrip? It’s to conserve on numbers.)

From a sales perspective, this makes sense. Consumers are more likely to want to buy a ticket on a single airline and at least at one point, there was bias in the reservation systems to display single-airline itineraries first. This practice also allows airlines to double their presence on screen. Instead of one flight display of American from LA to London and British Airways to Athens, they get two. You’ll now see one option on American and the other on BA, even though they’re the exact same flights. This creates a ton of clutter and really adds no value.

But is there any true advantage to a passenger? I think not. Here are some of the suggested advantages and why they aren’t real.

1. You can check your baggage all the way through on codeshares instead of having to claim and re-check in the middle.
   This may be true, but this benefit is in no way limited to codeshares. Most airlines have ticketing and baggage agreements with other airlines to be able to check bags through. For example, if you’re flying United to Paris, you can check your bags through to a connecting flight on Air France even though the two have no commercial relationship involving codesharing.
2. But then I’m subject to a bunch of different baggage policies?
   It’s actually no different. The operating airline sets the baggage policies, so even if you’re on a codeshare, that doesn’t really change anything.
3. You can buy a single ticket on a codeshare but you’d have to buy two tickets otherwise.
   That’s not true at all. There are interline agreements that allow you to buy one ticket across airlines, regardless of the code.
4. But it’s a lot more expensive when you buy a ticket on separate codes.
   That’s airline policy, not a given fact. Airlines may provide lower fares that are booked on their codes, but there’s no reason they can’t do the same for interlining. I was just helping one client go from Geneva to LA and found the best business class option to be on Swiss to London and then Air New Zealand to LA. No codesharing involved, but the price was competitive.
5. When I buy a ticket on one airline’s code, then I can go to that airline to take care of everything.
   This is one of the more dangerous aspects of codesharing. People think the airline they buy from is in charge of everything, but that’s only true when convenient. When it comes to ticketing, whichever airline sold the ticket is the one responsible for changes. It doesn’t matter if it’s a codeshare or not. I just helped someone who had a problem with an Iberia flight on a ticket purchased via Qantas. Iberia said it couldn’t help, and we had to talk to Qantas to get it fixed. But when it comes to things like lost baggage, it goes to the operating airline. The codeshare gives an illusion of responsibility when that’s really not the case.
6. I can earn my miles on codeshares but not otherwise.
   This actually has nothing to do with codesharing but is really a separate business agreement. Any two airlines can provide any level of frequent flier reciprocity regardless of code. If they choose to do otherwise, that’s a business decision.

While there are no real benefits, there are plenty of downsides. First and most important is the confusion. People simply don’t know who they’re actually flying. Sure, it’s disclosed (required by law in the US) but people don’t always read every detail. It also adds a ton of clutter. One of the biggest complaints on airliners.net was that codesharing fills departure screens with a ton of flight numbers for the exact same flight so it just makes it more time-consuming to get the information you need.

There’s also the issue of product consistency. Airlines may codeshare but that says nothing about consistency between the products onboard. You might buy a ticket on British Airways, but if you end up on an Iberia flight, you’re going to be disappointed with what you get.

I should clarify that I do see benefits from alliances. They set a basic standard (admittedly, very basic) about what you can expect across the participating airlines in terms of mileage accrual, elite benefits, etc. They also have been working to locate closer to each other in large hubs to make for an easier connection. But codesharing isn’t necessary or even really that helpful to making an alliance work. If you buy a ticket that shows Delta the whole way versus a ticket that has Delta connecting to Air France, the alliance-benefits would remain the same. And if they don’t, that’s a business issue that can be fixed.

In the end, I see no good reason for codesharing, and I wish it would just disappear. Anyone care to argue for why codeshares are good? Am I missing something?

[Photo via Flickr user Samuel P/CC 2.0]

Any airline dorks out there have $880 lying around? If so, I’d highly recommend heading to Dallas on August 27 to take a ride on one of the last BAC-111 aircraft still flying. This one is in a sweet executive configuration. You can get all the details here.

Why am I posting about this on a day when I normally don’t post at all? Well, remember Johosofat, the high school junior who created a real Cranky Jackass Award? He has some serious initiative, and he has put together a little business trying to arrange flights on classic airliners. And I’m all for encouraging high school students who love our industry that much.

As of earlier this week, he had 14 people signed up, and he needs 10 more to be able to pay the bill. I sadly won’t be able to make it, but if you can, please send pictures. This would be a ton of fun.