Recession Means More People Travel Locally, Take Shorter Trips
It’s not a surprise, but people are changing their travel habits in this economy. The numbers are sobering to see.

US-EU Open Skies Phase II Talks Begin
All eyes are on round two of the talks - this, the EU hopes, will result in cabotage rights within the US.

United, Continental Antitrust Application Slammed by DOJ
The DOT was in favor of the broad antitrust immunity application, but the DOJ isn’t so happy.

Frontier Makes Money in May, What’s Next?
Frontier is making money, and that’s great, but it’s what happens next that really determines how this airline will be doing going forward. Lots of changes could be underway.

Boeing Set to Buy Vought?
Boeing seems to be having seconds thoughts about outsourcing most of the 787 part production, and it now appears to be bringing one of its suppliers back in-house.

Air Canada has now swept out its top management and it’s trying to do what it can to avoid running out of cash. I’m sure a lot of work is being done on the finance side, but I’ve been waiting to see what they’d be doing on the revenue/promotion side of things with this new team. The first move? A low fare guarantee for those who book on the Canadian version of Air Canada’s website. Lame.

They say it’s “industry-leading,” and that may be the case in Canada, but it’s pretty similar to most of the ones that have come and gone in the US over the years. That being said, Air Canada’s fare structure makes it even harder to use than most. If you buy a ticket on AirCanada.com (Canadian version only), you have 24 hours to find a lower fare elsewhere. If you find it, you report it online and get a $50 credit plus the difference in fare. One catch. That lower fare has to be within the same fare bucket.

You’ll remember that Air Canada has a branded fare bucket approach (that I love). Tango fares are the cheapest and come with a certain set of benefits, and it moves up from there to different buckets with different benefits. So if you bought a “Latitude” fare, you would have to find another Latitude fare for cheaper somewhere else. The only problem is that I don’t know of another website that breaks down Air Canada’s fares that way. So good luck.

You could always check with a travel agent to see if there’s a lower fare around, but that’s probably the only place you could do it across all fare buckets. (And who is going to do that, anyway?) I seem to remember reading that a lot of people upsell to higher fare classes, so this may be a nice marketing message, but I’d imagine that few people will actually be able to take advantage of it. That will just confuse and annoy people, and that’s not a great way to do business.

I hope they’ve got more up their sleeve than this.

Cranky is on vacation, but I pre-scheduled a handful of posts over at BNET. Here are this week’s.
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Montie Brewer Ousted as CEO of Air Canada
Air Canada’s board decided to clean house last week in order to face its impending cash crisis. But was it really Brewer’s fault?

Oberstar Questions Virgin America’s Citizenship Status
Though the DOT may not have been too high on reviewing Virgin America’s ownership status before, Rep Oberstar’s intervention will certainly change that.

Airline Executives Talk About Oil and the Economy
I promise I’m almost done with my wrap-up from the Phoenix Aviation Symposium. This is part one of the executive panel.

Air Canada has long been the leader in finding things to sell that were not previously offered at all, and it appears they’ve done it again. Now, you can earn some cash by volunteering in advance to be bumped if they need your seat closer to departure. I like the idea a lot, but I do have to wonder if the execution could have been done better.

Unfortunately, it’s not a very straightforward process. Air Canada says that to take advantage of the opportunity, you have to go to the Optiontown website. Apparently, they’re the ones taking the risk here. Once there, you put in your confirmation number and last name and they prepare your offer.

Only parties of 1 or 2 people traveling on Tango or Tango Plus (the cheapest) fares are eligible on flights within Canada or between Canada and the US. Even those people may not be offered the option on every flight. When you enter your information, you get to decide how flexible you are. If you give them a wider range of availability (up to three days), you can earn more than if you just have a few hours of leeway. Once you pick your time range, they give you specific flights within that range from which to choose. At that point, you pick the actual flight that you would be willing to take as an alternate to your original, if they need you.

Finally, you get to choose how far in advance you need to know your plans, either 2 or 4 days prior to departure. If you give them 2 days, they’ll pay you more than if you need 4 days. More flexibility means more money for you.

So how much can you get? They’ll give you up to $7 (USD or CAD) just for signing up. Then if they actually opt to switch you to the new flight, they’ll give you up to $50 more each way. It’s not as much as you could get if you were bumped at the airport, but that makes sense. They’re giving you much more advance notice and they even let you pick your alternative.

This seems like a win-win to me. For Air Canada, they can gain flexibility. If they want to overbook as the flight gets closer, they know how many options they have to move people around. And it will ultimately cost them less to bump people in both monetary and emotional costs. For passengers, they can earn a little extra cash and pick the flight to which they’d want to switch.

My only complaint is that it’s a very complicated system, and you won’t know how much you could make until you actually go through the motions of signing up. That’s a lot of hassle for something that you may not opt to accept if the payment isn’t high enough. But still, it’s better than nothing. Let me know if anyone has the chance to give it a try.

American Airlines Gets Closer to A La Carte Pricing
American has talked about moving closer to a true a la carte pricing system like Air Canada. This is a big win for airlines and their customers.

Airlines May Weather Financial Crisis Well
Demand may be going down but so are fuel prices, and that could make for some good news for airlines. Quarterly earnings are right around the corner.

Are Delta’s Turboprop Moves an Ominous Sign for Memphis?
Word is out that Delta plans to shift some of Northwest’s turboprop flying into its Atlanta hub. Does this mean that Memphis will be shrinking?

Delta Reports Quarterly Loss But Outlook is Positive
It’s earnings season, and Delta kicked it off with a $26 million loss ex special items. These aren’t bad results, and the outlook is actually pretty positive.

American Sees Third Quarter Loss, Warns of Challenges
American reported a loss this quarter, but the outlook was thought to be improving. CEO Gerard Arpey, however, cautioned about challenges ahead.

Two Important Things to Know About Continental and Southwest Earnings
Hurricane Ike and fuel hedges? These two things matter a lot when reviewing Continental and Southwest’s earning reports.

Boeing Strike May Be Good News for Airlines
Maybe that headline is a bit of an overstatement, but the month-long Boeing strike isn’t all bad news for airlines. In fact, some may be happy with it.