As a Long Beach resident and airline dork, I have a special connection with Douglas airplanes. As World War II ramped up, Donald Douglas Sr made the decision to build a new plant in Long Beach to crank out the airplanes needed by the military. That plant became the mainstay of the Douglas production operation and was the home of nearly every Douglas commercial jet until the last 717 rolled off the line almost exactly six years ago. I had the chance to tour some of these facilities last weekend. [Fair Warning: If you're not an aircraft dork, this post might not be for you.]

The impetus for the tour was the arrival of a DC-8-62 operated by Air Transport International. Classic Jet Tours put together a trip where the DC-8 would fly a bunch of people down from its base in Sacramento to Long Beach and back. The idea was to visit the spot where the airplane was made and get a tour in Long Beach while there.

Unfortunately, due to some weight and balance issues, the aircraft didn’t arrive until an hour late, so we weren’t able to give the in-depth terminal tour that we usually give. That doesn’t mean the group just turned around and left. The 32 people who came (the small passenger cabin is at the back, behind the big cargo area) were able to get a tour of the old Douglas jet plants which have been idle for years. I was excited to ride along.

The original buildings were built on the northeast corner of Long Beach Airport. It was here the Douglas cranked out thousands of C-47s, B-17s, and more for the war effort. Those buildings were demolished a few years ago and a mixed use industrial park (called Douglas Park) is now being built in its place. But across Lakewood Blvd, the eastern boundary of Long Beach Airport, Douglas constructed Buildings 80-87 to house the commercial jet production operation for the company. These all still stand today, just completely empty. Here’s a video of the tour:

Building 80 is the most recognizable as it has the brilliant lighted “Fly DC Jets” sign on top. That sign is a landmark and won’t be going anywhere. It was inside Building 80 where the company built its DC-9s, MD-80s, and ultimately the 717 after Boeing took over. The last one was delivered to AirTran on May 23, 2006 and the plant has remained idled since.

Right next door is Building 84, where the DC-8s, DC-10s, and MD-11s rolled off the line. Across the way, Buildings 85, 86, and 87 were all paint shops to get the airplanes ready to go to their owners. When they were ready, the company would shut down Lakewood Blvd in the middle of the night so they could bring the jet on to the airport itself for flight testing. That street hasn’t been shut down in years.

While a book should be written on the demise of Douglas (anyone know if it’s already out there?), the short version is that things went downhill quickly after the merger with McDonnell. Under McDonnell’s management, Douglas wasn’t allowed to innovate. No money was invested into developing new concepts that could have kept Douglas as a major world player. Instead, a trickle of money was given to stretch airplanes that never lived up to their expectations and really never would have been competitive in the long run. It pains me to think what could have been had the funds been there to really develop new jets. That Long Beach plant might still be humming today.

Instead, the buildings are simply empty shells. Boeing owns the buildings and has been trying to sell them. The only two real proposals so far were for a movie sound stage operation (which never got funded) and an electric car plant for Tesla. When Tesla decided to re-open a closed plant in the Bay Area, the near-term fate of the Long Beach facilities seemed sealed.

Hopefully some day another use will be found for these buildings, but it won’t be to build airplanes. The last fixed wing manufacturing plant in California is across the airport where the C-17 is built. Once those orders run out, California’s proud legacy as an aircraft manufacturer will be completely extinguished.

[See more photos of the DC-8's visit to Long Beach]

When my wife gave birth to our son in January, one of my best friends hopped in the car from Phoenix and surprised us with a visit. That was such an awesome thing that when his wife gave birth last Saturday, I wanted to do the same. But of course, I couldn’t hop in the car. I had to have something to write about for you guys, right?

The baby was born on Saturday so I quickly started the search for flights on Sunday. Flights out to Phoenix were wide open that day but the returns were jam-packed. In fact, most flights coming back didn’t have seats to buy. So, I had to get a little creative. I called an old friend from my America West days and she gave me a buddy pass for $60 to get out to Phoenix from LAX. (The timing was better than Long Beach on this holiday-gutted schedule.) For the return, I found a seat on Southwest back to Orange County for $187.80. This would give me 3 hours and 56 minutes on the ground in Phoenix. Perfect.

I got to the airport an hour early, grabbed a pass to get me through security from the kiosk, and then walked on through security in about 10 minutes. Once through, I grabbed a snack for me and bought a couple of gifts for my friend’s other kids. After that, I went to the gate and waited.

The airplane was at the gate waiting for me, and people were still trickling off from the flight in. I just parked it and waited to see if I would clear the standby list.

There was one agent working the flight and she started boarding early. There was good reason for that – just about everyone needed to gate check a bag since this was on a tiny CRJ-200. What shocked me was the lack of early boarding. There were no elite members, nobody with paid “Preferred Access” and no members of the military. Even the agent looked surprised.

She then boarded groups 1 through 4 before clearing the three standbys on the list. I was given an exit row window, and I hopped on the airplane.

---

May 27, 2012
US Airways Express 2968 Lv Los Angeles 1125a Arr Phoenix 1249p (operated by SkyWest)
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 6, Runway 24L, Depart 3m Early
Phoenix (PHX): Gate B18, Runway 25L, Arrive 3m Early
N906SW, Bombardier CRJ-200, US Airways colors, 75% Full
Seat 8A
Flight Time 1h0m

This was my first time flying on SkyWest as US Airways Express, a contract which went into effect just a few months ago. It was clear the airplane had been around for a long time (used to fly under the United Express banner). It looked to be in pretty good shape with clean leather seats and an updated bulkhead in US Airways colors. We had a pretty light load (so funny that 75 percent is now considered a light load) and I had nobody next to me in the aisle.

One thing I do like about those CRJs is the little shelf next to the window where you can prop up your leg. Of course, it doesn’t work very well if there’s someone in the aisle, but I had plenty of room on this one.

We took off into the clear blue sky and passed Palos Verdes before coming around just south of Long Beach, as usual, for the flight to Phoenix. I had a ginger ale, got some writing done, and then it was time to descend. Phoenix was uncharacteristically cool for this time of year (in the 80s) so the usual summer bumps thanks to thermals were pretty minor. We parked at the gate and I raced off the to the rental car center.

With family and friends in Phoenix, I had never rented a car there before. I was eager to see how long it took since they opened the new off-site rental car center. There were three buses waiting at the curb to go over there, one that left right after I got on. Each terminal has a direct bus to the center so you don’t have to stop at every terminal along the way. The place is pretty far, however, so it takes about 10 minutes on a good day from Terminal 4.

I had rented from National so I could just go to the Emerald Aisle and be on my way. Normally I don’t care about that, but on such a short trip, I wanted the extra time. I snagged a nice little Kia Rio (I always get Economy or Compact cars when I’m on my own). That gave me a good 1.5 hours with my friends and their new baby before I turned back around.

One problem with the Kia is that the gas gauge is pretty slow to respond. I thought I had filled up to full with one gallon but it still showed below the line. So, I tried it again and got nothing. I just gave up. It started to rise slowly as I got closer to the rental car center and when I explained the situation, the guy acted like this wasn’t a rare occurrence.

I went to a packed bus to go back to Terminal 4 and it left once again right after I got on. At about 405p, I stepped off the bus and went up through security. As expected on an afternoon in the middle of a holiday weekend, security was a ghost town. I got to the gate at 415p just as boarding was beginning.

---

May 27, 2012
Southwest 716 Lv Phoenix 445p Arr Orange County 6p
Phoenix (PHX): Gate C11, Runway 25R, Depart On time
Orange County (SNA): Gate 18, Runway 19R, Arrive 5m Early
N484WN, Boeing 737-7H4, Canyon Blue colors, 96% Full
Seat 15A
Flight Time 59m

Since I had just purchased the ticket that day, I got B30 when I checked in and I was prepared for a middle seat. The gate area was very crowded and cramped, but when I got on, there were still a handful of windows. I settled into mine, right behind the wing. We had 5 empty seats onboard and one was not next to me. Instead that was filled by a SkyWest captain who was along for the ride. (I could only laugh when he ignored the flight attendants request to turn phones off completely and just left it in airplane mode.)

We took off to the west, so it was a very short taxi before we launched into the warm afternoon air. I had another ginger ale and soon we were on our way into Orange County. Descent reminded me just how many families were on the airplane. There was a chorus of screaming babies, clearly having issues with their ears. As a new father, I was very sympathetic. The crying stopped right as we landed.

This was my first time in the new terminal in Orange County and it looks a lot like the old one, just newer and fancier. I quickly walked through and headed to the curb where my wife was waiting to pick me up. The day went like clockwork with everything going perfectly as planned.

If you’re a United frequent flier, you certainly know by now that the airline’s CFO gave a talk at an investors’ conference recently saying that there were “certain groups in [MileagePlus] that were over-entitled.” You know what? He’s right. But that’s the airlines’s own fault.

Over the last several years, airlines have started to reserve what used to be considered a standard benefit as something that only elites could get for free. There’s nothing wrong with that in itself, if an airline wants to play the game that way. The idea behind this strategy was one of rewarding loyalty to the airline and encouraging frequent flights.

The base level of participation in the elite program was 25,000 miles in a calendar year to earn Premier status (now called Premier Silver). If you did that, you would get a complimentary upgrades (if available), a free checked bag, priority check in, priority security, priority boarding, and yes, a seat in Economy Plus. All of this was just part of the package for becoming a United elite member.

The goal for United was to get more people flying on the airline instead of splitting their business. Maybe people would have preferred to fly Delta or American for a flight here and there, but instead they went with United in order to keep that elite status alive. At least, that was what United was banking on.

While I don’t have numbers, I assume the elite ranks swelled. As United removed more and more benefits from regular customers, the benefits of earning elite status became more clear. And really, earning 25,000 miles in a year is something that’s very possible for even a moderate traveler. That’s less than 5 roundtrips from LA to New York. Or it could be as little as a couple trips to Europe or Asia in a year. That sounds like a lot for an occasional traveler, but it adds up very quickly.

Compounding this issue is the fact that once you’re an elite member, it becomes a lot easier to retain elite status. You get bonus qualifying miles every time you fly as an elite so it’s difficult NOT to requalify if you really cared to keep your status.

The upshot was that the experience for the elite traveler got worse. There were now a ton of people with elite status, and that meant that the priority security lines became more crowded. More people were boarding early than during the general process. And even a top tier elite booking a last minute ticket might find only middle in Economy Plus. . . or none at all. Forget about the upgrade in a case like that.

Now that United has merged with Continental, the team in charge has been looking at this and realizing there’s a problem. The quest to begin fragmenting the different elite levels had begun long before, but it was accelerated in the last few months. It seemed clear that the Premier Silver members were going to be targeted with a benefit reduction, but it was more than that. Many of the Golds felt pain as well.

While before, United required annual earning of 25,000 miles for Premier (Silver), 50,000 for Premier Exec (Gold) and 100,000 for 1K (still 1K), the airline made a decision to introduce a new tier, Platinum, at 75,000 miles. Those who were between 50,000 and 75,000 saw a big reduction in earning power, but the Silver level is where the biggest hit occurred.

Sure there were some more minor annoyances, like putting Silver boarding after the rest of the “real” elites, but the biggest issue was that Silvers lost that ability to assign Economy Plus seats in advance. They could either get them assigned at check-in (if available) or they could pay for the seat in advance like anyone else.

This is the natural way for United to approach this problem of its own doing. In order to protect the benefits for the most frequent fliers, the airline had to cut back on benefits for those who didn’t fly quite as much.

And as anyone who has worked with frequent fliers will tell you, it’s those entry level elites that feel (and act) the most entitled of anyone. This is a generalization, of course, but if someone is waving status around and getting snippy, he’s probably a Silver.

The end result? There are some VERY angry people out there. Feel free to check out FlyerTalk if you’d like a sampling. But really, a reduction in benefits for lower level elites needed to happen in order to protect the benefits for the best customers.

Does that mean that the CFO should be out there saying the some elites are over-entitled? No freakin’ way. Even me and my big mouth wouldn’t have said something that dumb in a public setting. The reality is that they are only over-entitled because United set it up that way. And calling someone over-entitled makes it sound like you’re pushing the blame on to the customer, like it’s somehow that person’s fault.

In the end, United can’t add new jet bridges for boarding or more Economy Plus seats without hurting revenue integrity. So it had to find a better way to allocate benefits. But for a lot of people, it’s going to be a bitter pill to swallow. And calling people over-entitled isn’t going to make the medicine go down any easier.

I’m not posting today because of the holiday, but I thought I’d include a great picture from this weekend’s activities.

That is the old Douglas Building 80 at Long Beach Airport. It was the site where just about every DC-9, MD-80, and 717 came together until the plant was shuttered last decade. Fortunately, the sign is a landmark and won’t be going anywhere, even though the fate of the building itself is up in the air.

I had a chance to take a tour of this facility with a group of airline dorks who flew in on a DC-8 on Saturday. I’ll have more about this in a future post. I just figured I’d tease it today. For all my American readers, enjoy the holiday.

Atlanta’s New International Terminal Opened—Here’s How it Will Benefit You – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
The overly-expensive new terminal in Atlanta is open. For connecting passengers, you won’t care that much, but for those starting or ending in Atlanta, things are going to be a lot easier.

United Airlines ends coach preboarding for children – CNN
I was asked to comment on what I thought about United ending preboarding for families. I’m wondering if it will actually slow things down. Not sure about that one.