The last couple of weeks have been action-packed when it comes to labor issues with each of the big three legacy airlines. For one airline, it’s good news while for the other two . . . not so much. Let’s just go in alphabetical order for lack of a better plan. If you’re a traveler, there’s only thing you care about. Will it impact your travels? With two of the three, minor disruptions are possible at most, I suppose, but I wouldn’t worry about it.

American
In the last month, there has been a ton of momentum for American to finally come to an agreement with its pilots. This comes from a combination of two things. American pilots elected a far more rational leader awhile back in Dave Bates, so that right away makes a deal more likely than under the old regime. From the other side, American is feeling pressure for a few reasons.

Probably most pressing is the fact that American has seen a large number of pilots retire in the last few months, far more than normal. That means that American needs to do a lot of shifting and training to fly its airplanes, and it’s trying to get relief from the pilots to be a little more flexible during the transition. The pilots, however, said that no relief will be given unless it’s part of a full contract. This is where the potential for disruption lies. If American doesn’t have enough pilots, then some flights could cancel. American should know this in advance, however, so I wouldn’t look for any last minute issues.

The other big issue for American is that investors are getting antsy. Without a new contract in place, there’s a higher concern that American could file bankruptcy. The stock has been beaten up, losing half its value in the last three months. We all know that American’s leaders don’t like when that happens, so the pilots have some leverage here.

There seemed to be some progress on the negotiations until American put out its last, best offer. The airline decided to negotiate in public by putting this out on its website. The pilots were not happy with either of the two options. While I always expect union leaders to complain, it sounds like the rank and file doesn’t like it either. And that means we’re probably back where we started.

I still don’t expect bankruptcy any time soon, but if it happens eventually, this would undoubtedly be like many of the other bankruptcies over the last several years where operations aren’t impacted. So don’t worry.

Delta
Delta is the good news “meat” in between the two slices of “bad news” bread here. After a long, drawn-out process, there is finally labor peace with the flight attendants. See, pre-merger Delta flight attendants were non-union but pre-merger Northwest flight attendants were union. There was an election a year ago to see which path would win, and the votes went in favor of doing away with the union by a clear amount.

The union, however, challenged the results, saying that Delta had interfered with the election. This is generally standard operating procedure any time a union loses, but this time, the union was told to stuff it. The National Mediation Board says that there wasn’t enough interference to influence the outcome, so the vote stands. Delta’s flight attendants will remain non-union.

While some flight attendants will be unhappy with this outcome, it’s a done deal and the integration can continue.

United
Then there’s United. The negotiations with pilots are ongoing, and really I haven’t heard about much progress. But the bigger, more important short term issue is with training.

Continental and United both have different procedures in the cockpit, but they need to be harmonized before the airline can become one under a single operating certificate. According to the pilots, it sounds like on the 757, 767, and 777 fleets, there are a lot of changes being made and most of them are standardizing with Continental procedures. So, the United pilots have a lot of learning to do.

The airline has decided to do all this new training via computer instead of in a simulator or in a classroom. The union thinks this is inadequate considering how big of a change it is, and I get the feeling after talking to some folks about this that very well might be the case. This is far from my area of expertise, so maybe some pilots can chime in below. (You can read the full report from the union.)

The airline keeps pushing on, however, and CEO Jeff Smisek had some harsh words, saying that union leaders “are crossing a line that is shameful and inappropriate between safety and industrial relations.” The FAA won’t step in, so it looks it’s a go. The new target date is, I believe, November 30.

What’s the hurry to get this done? According to the union, there are financial incentives for execs at the airline to get a single operating certificate by a certain time. It always comes down to money, doesn’t it?

So will this cause any disruption? I’m not sure. It would seem that if a pilot is scheduled to fly and doesn’t feel comfortable with the new procedures, then he might refuse the trip. I can’t imagine a pilot agreeing to fly if he thinks he’s not prepared. I haven’t heard a word about any real disruption, but I would think some mineor ones are always possible depending upon how this proceeds.

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To sum things up, there shouldn’t be any labor issues that disrupt flights during the holidays, but some of these related issues could have some sort of tiny impact. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it. Just worry about the potential for snowstorms to snarl your plans. That’s the bigger potential problem.

Alaska and American have inked a deal that will give reciprocal elite benefits to each other’s elite members. This might not sound like much, but it could make Alaska’s frequent flier program even more interesting for a lot of people, some of whom might not even set foot on an Alaska airplane.

The program had actually started becoming attractive to me before this move, but this just makes it even better. With my “somewhat frequent but not too frequent” travel schedule (one that I assume many of you share), this program really hits a sweet spot for me. But before we get into that, let’s talk about what’s happening. The following benefits will be available to elite members in each program when flying the other airline.

• Priority check-in
• Priority security lines
• Priority boarding
• Preferred seating
• Two free checked bags domestically
• Elite qualifying miles (this isn’t new)

This might not sound like anything special, right? I mean, American has these benefits with its oneworld partners. Most airlines have some sort of program like this within their alliances. It doesn’t even have reciprocal upgrades, so who cares?

I do. And that’s because Alaska has done something that’s very difficult to do. It has cultivated very close partnerships with arch rivals.

Alaska is already closely tied with Delta. Mileage Plan elite members earn elite qualifying miles and they get priority boarding, priority security, priority seats, and two free checked bags on Delta. They even get free upgrades on the day of departure on Delta, if available. Now similar (though not quite as robust) benefits are exchanged with American as well.

If I tried to consolidate all my paid flying in a year on one airline, I would probably qualify for silver status. But I don’t like to fly one airline. It’s rare that one airline is going to provide me with the best option every time. Even if I did squeak out elite status, I would just be an entry level elite so I wouldn’t be looking at a lot of upgrade opportunities. It would really just get me priority screening/check in/boarding and free bags, something that might become much more handy with a kid on the way.

And that’s why I find myself drawn to Alaska. First off, I like the airline. It’s a nice airline to fly with a sharp management team that has created a great business. The biggest problem is that Alaska doesn’t fly very many places. It’s pretty much up and down the west coast for me being based near LA. But when you throw in Delta and American, then it provides a ton of opportunities.

Though I don’t like consolidating my travel with one airline, there’s a better chance of me flying American, Delta, and Alaska enough in a year to get 25,000 miles than with any other program. (And if I did fly all on Alaska, I would only need 20,000 miles for elite status. It’s only 25,000 when including partner airline travel.)

It also opens up a lot of redemption opportunities. Alaska is partners with a good number of oneworld and Skyteam airlines, including Qantas, British Airways, Air France/KLM, Korean, etc. So there are some great ways to spend miles.

What do I lose by not earning on Delta? Not much. I mean, I don’t get upgrades in advance, but I probably wouldn’t get those anyway with lowly status. I also lose out on redeeming for standard awards on Delta itself. That’s ok, because those are usually overpriced anyway. I’m not a fan of Skypesos. (If you haven’t seen it, View From the Wing has a great overview of the program and how to make it work for you.)

The same goes for American, though the AAdvantage program is much more flexible for redemptions. So there is a bit more of a loss there. But it’s not a huge loss for me.

The main point is that I can quite possibly qualify for elite status on an airline without having to change my behavior much. I don’t live for elite status, but if I can earn it without a ton of effort, it will save me from having to pay for checked bags. So as a friend of mine who just made the same decision up in the Bay Area said, I’m going all-in.

In the past, I’ve just earned either Delta or American miles when I’ve flow Alaska, but on my last trip, I signed up for a Mileage Plan account and even earned Alaska miles when I flew Delta. I’m going to stick with that plan next year and see where it gets me. I’m also probably going to sign up for a Mileage Plan credit card, though I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. Seems like a good move for someone like me.

[Original photo via Flickr user Bucajack/CC SA 2.0]

Last week, Delta announced that it would bring its version of United’s Economy Plus, Economy Comfort to most of its fleet. This sounds like great news, and it is for just about everyone. When something like this happens, it can’t be completely good, however.

So, who would look at this with the harshest eye? Potentially an entry level Delta elite frequent flier out of Atlanta. I’m not sure why, but I have this enduring image of a stereotypical Delta elite who looks like Colonel Sanders and sounds like Foghorn Leghorn. Ridiculous? Sure. But then I started playing out an interview with Colonel Leghorn in my warped little mind on Economy Comfort. Here it is.

Colonel Leghorn I say, I say, what’s happenin’ here?
Cranky: Well, last summer, Delta decided to introduce Economy Comfort seats to international flights. Like United’s Economy Plus, it mostly meant a few extra inches of legroom in the same exact seat as you’d find in regular coach. But it also came with extra recline, priority boarding, and free drinks. Not a bad proposition, and apparently it worked well. Now, Delta will bring the offering to its domestic fleet – any jet with more than 50 seats on it will have Economy Comfort. This will be in place for travel beginning next summer (though you might get lucky and snag some legroom before then on a converted airplane).

The Colonel: Internat’nal Economy Comfort ain’t bad, I guess, since I’ll never spring for an M fare to upgrade to Business Class. Is this the same thing?
Cranky: Not quite. If you purchase a domestic Economy Comfort seat, you’ll get more legroom. You’ll also get priority boarding. Neither of those change. But you won’t get any more recline (Delta says it’s because on shorter flights, people need to work while on longer flights they need to sleep) and you won’t get free drinks.

The Colonel: I’m a drunk, so that’s just downright unpleasant. But I say, I still love my legroom. How do I get it?
Cranky: If you were a Diamond, Platinum, or Gold Medallion member, you’d get it for free. But since you’re just a Silver Medallion, you get a 50 percent discount if you buy in advance or you get it free at the time of check-in (if available). Full fare passengers get it included as well (something that United took away years ago). Everyone else can just pay up if they want it. It’s $19 to $99 each way.

The Colonel: What in tarnation?! I deserve to get for free, I say. So my Kentucky Fried Travel Agent can just reserve it for me, right?
Cranky: Not so much. It can only be done directly through Delta, whether online, at a kiosk, or over the phone.

The Colonel: I’m not thrilled, son, but I only plan on reserving those seats if my much-deserved and never paid-for upgrade fails to come through. Wait, they aren’t cuttin’ First Class, are they?
Cranky: On most airplanes, the number of First Class seats won’t change, but that’s not the case everywhere. You elites who love your upgrades won’t be thrilled if you’re on an A320. According to Delta spokesperson Chris Kelly, A320s will lose “a few” First Class seats. I take that to mean 4 of the 16 seats will disappear. Any more than that and there will be mutiny. If you saw the post on FlyerTalk with the proposed configurations, ignore it. They aren’t right, and the MD-90 will not be losing First Class seats as noted there.

The Colonel: Son of a biscuit. Guess I won’t be flying A320s anymore. But what if there are too many higher elites and my upgrade fails to come through? Are there are a lot of these Comfort seats for me to sit in?
Cranky: Delta says the first 3 to 5 rows of coach will be Economy Comfort. That means 12 to 20 on a big regional jet, 15 to 25 on an MD-80/90, and 18 to 30 on an A319/A320/737/757 aircraft. That’s less than United, which has 50 seats on a 757 and even 28 on the big regional jet. But it’s better than nothing.

The Colonel: That ain’t good, especially if them other elites get ‘em first. But what if the worst thing I could possibly imagine happens, and I get stuck in Economy Discomfort with the rest of the chickens? I will, I say, yell at the nearest gate agent and remind him how important I am.
Cranky: It shouldn’t be much different than today, though we’ll see exactly what happens. Delta says that regular coach seat pitch won’t change and that the legroom will come by “removing a negligible number of seats from the current cabin configuration.” Not sure what a negligible number is, but hey, we’ll find out soon enough. The airline can also move “monuments” around – galleys, lavs, etc – to try to squeeze out some more room. Not sure if that’s the plan, but it would make some sense. Lastly, if you look at the press release, it’s clearly stated that “Delta’s standard Economy Class seat pitch is currently 31 inches.” According to SeatGuru, however, the A319 has 30-32″ pitch, the 737s have 31-32″ pitch, and 757s show 31-33″ pitch. Something tells me the days of 32 or 33″ pitch may be gone as a way to make room.

The Colonel: I guess this sounds fine and dandy, but I’ll still tell Delta that I’m not getting rewarded enough for flying on really cheap tickets. I’ll just threaten to leave and then forget, I say, forget to actually do it. Besides, where will I go? With AirTran goin’ all-coach and cuttin’ seat assignments when it gets eaten up by Southwest, that airline simply ain’t an option for this big bird.
Cranky: You said it, Colonel, not me.

Delta has quietly started shrinking Memphis again. Beginning January 4, service will cease between Memphis and Baltimore, Grand Rapids, Gulfport/Biloxi, Mobile, Northwest Florida (Panama City), Seattle, and Wichita. Delta will also cut one daily flight between Memphis and Cleveland, Huntsville, Jacksonville, Newark, Philadelphia, and Shreveport. Where will this end? What’s the future (or lack thereof) for the Memphis hub?

As you all know by now, I made a couple stops around the country on a recent trip that had me on three different airlines. First, it was up to Seattle on JetBlue for the APEX expo. Then I went to New York on Alaska where I met up with my wife (who came from work in Orlando) for a wedding. After over a week away, we flew back on Delta via Atlanta. That might not have actually hit each corner of the US, but it certainly felt that way.

The first flight cost $121.70 on JetBlue and the second $283.70 on Alaska. Both of those were reimbursed by the APEX folks. The last flight home cost $175.40 on Delta. (You might remember my decision-making process on this one.) Overall, it was a good trip.

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September 11, 2011
JetBlue 290 Lv Long Beach 705a Arr Seattle 949a
Long Beach (LGB): Gate 23, Runway 30, Depart 12m Early
Seattle (SEA): Gate A10, Runway 34C, Arrive 29m Early
N729JB, Airbus A320-232, Mosaic Tail, “If You Can Read This, You’re Blue Close”, ~50% Full
Seat 7A
Flight Time 2h07m

This was the first September 11th I’d flown on since before THE September 11th ten years ago. Being the tenth anniversary, I figured I’d arrive early in case security was stepped up. That was totally unnecessary. We left from the northern gates at Long Beach and the security line was shorter than usual. The waiting room, however, was jam-packed.

With the construction at LGB, we had to walk for about 5 minutes before we got to our airplane. Once there, we boarded quickly – the flight was only about half full.

The flight itself was uneventful as we headed north. JetBlue struck a deal to show a sneak preview of that new Zooey Deschanel show “New Girl” before its network debut, so that was a nice change of pace. (Show isn’t bad, actually.)

Then I watched an hour of NFL Gameday before I had had enough. That’s when it got weird. I flipped to MSNBC where the network was replaying NBC’s coverage from September 11, 2001 in full. I have no idea why, but I couldn’t stop watching.

I saw the confusion when American 77 hit the Pentagon. Then I saw one of the towers fall. Seeing this from an airplane was surreal. I’m not sure why I didn’t shut it off. I kept watching until we arrived at our gate in Seattle.

Once there, I met up with a friend and hitched a ride into town for a very good time at APEX. By Thursday, it was time to move on.

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September 15, 2011
Alaska 8 Lv Seattle 905a Arr Newark 525p
Seattle (SEA): Gate D6, Runway 16L, Depart 6m Early
Newark (EWR): Gate B41B, Runway 4R, Arrive 22m Early
N548AS, Boeing 737-890, AlaskaAir.com Colors, 100% Full
Seat 18F
Flight Time 4h41m

I had never flown Alaska for a long haul before, so I was looking forward to it. I took the light rail to the airport and found an insanely long security line – took me I think about 30 minutes to get through.

Alaska had been kind enough to give me a lounge pass when I had visited the airline earlier that week, and I was happy to take it so I could see the lounge. But since it took so long to get through security, I only had about 15 minutes to spare.

I went into the lounge near gate D1 and it’s a nice two level lounge with a great view. I went straight upstairs to try the much-vaunted pancake machine. It was awesome. Then I grabbed a glass of water at the kitchen window (which reminded me of a middle school cafeteria, in a good way) and then headed off to my gate.

When I arrived, I found our AlaskaAir.com liveried aircraft already fully boarded. It was still very early, but I got on. Seattle had been murky and chilly all week, so I was looking forward to a little sun. We took off and got through the clouds fairly quickly. Unfortunately, clouds stayed under us for much of the trip toward the Great Lakes, an area over which I had never flown before.

Onboard, I planned on using wifi, and it was lightning-fast. Probably helps to be in a part of the country where very few airplanes are flying.

But I also got myself a DigEPlayer onboard – one of those standalone movie players. This was pretty good, and I enjoyed watching X-Men First Class, but there were a couple problems. The biggest issue was that I hardly had room for two devices on my tray. I needed a place to hang the DigEPlayer. But more concerning was the cost – it was $14 to rent that thing. Sheesh. I watched one movie and then couldn’t finish the second. That’s a lot of money to pay for 1.5 movies, even if it can access the internet as well.

After we went just north of Chicago, we aimed for Newark. A front was rolling through so there were a lot of clouds, some rain, and a bunch of wind. Our pilots deftly weaved us through the traffic, plunking us down hard on the runway nice and early . . . in Newark . . . when the weather was bad. Crazy.

I took the AirTrain to New Jersey Transit into the city and spent a couple of great days in New York. Thank you to everyone who chimed in with suggestions on Trippy.

After heading up to Tarrytown for a wedding, we headed to Westchester Airport for our flight home.

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September 19, 2011
Delta 4951 Lv Westchester 1030a Arr Atlanta 1248p (operated by ASA)
Westchester (HPN): Gate C, Runway 16, Depart 4m Early
Atlanta (ATL): Gate C42, Runway 8L, Arrive 3m Late
N605QX, Bombardier CRJ-700, Standard Delta Colors, ~99% Full
Seat 13A
Flight Time 1h57m

It was a beautiful day in New York as we headed to the airport. Westchester is such a tiny terminal, undoubtedly due to rich residents nearby refusing to build an adequate terminal to service the traffic. Instead, the check-in area is tiny with lines criss-crossing all over the place.

We went through the small security area fairly easily, but then we were sitting in the one big hold room where seats were just about completely full. There were four of us traveling together on this flight, and we had to settle for two seats in the waiting area until another flight boarded and seats opened up.

Our airplane, a former Horizon bird that’s now with Atlantic Southeast, pulled up right on time and we boarded the newly Delta-fied aircraft.

There are a few things I hate about the CRJ-700, and the biggest one is the tiny size of the bins. My bag was able to be wedged into the bin, but from the looks of all the open space, not many others were successful.

After a short air traffic control delay (which the captain dutifully kept us up to date on), we took off to the south and I took notice of the significant cabin noise from being in the back. We were just one row behind the exit, but it was really noisy.

We sat in light chop through a high cloud layer much of the way down to Atlanta. The seatbelt sign stayed off, however, and I was able to use the lav. It’s not really that small, but the engine noise is deafening, and this one was pretty dirty.

We landed almost on time despite having to loop around to land from the west. At that point, our two friends went off to their flight to San Francisco and we went to try to get an earlier flight home.

When I originally booked these tickets, the flight was a 757 with wifi. I was looking forward to being able to get some work done after pushing things off all week long as I traveled. That didn’t happen.

Our airplane was replaced with a 777. That’s usually not something to complain about, but I really needed to get work done. When the swap was first made, I called Delta to see if I could change my flight. The agent said I could, but she said that the earlier flight was an illegal connection with just under an hour. That’s actually completely legal, but I got busy with something else and never followed up again. So we stuck with our flight.

But when we got to Atlanta, we figured we’d try to stand by. We went from our C arrival gate to the B gates only to find an agent unwilling to even put us on the standby list it was so full. So we trekked back to the E gates for our original flight.

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September 19, 2011
Delta 637 Lv Atlanta 305p Arr Los Angeles 447p
Atlanta (ATL): Gate E12, Runway 9L, Depart 5m Late
Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 57, Runway 25L, Arrive 2m Early
N701DN, Boeing 777-232LR, Spirit of Delta Colors, ~99% Full
Seat 45J
Flight Time 4h1m

If there’s one thing I really don’t like about flying, it’s flying through storms. Yet sure enough, there was a big line heading east over Mississippi, and I was getting anxious about it.

This was not helped after we boarded the aircraft and the flight attendant repeated every 5 minutes that the captain said everyone would have to stay seated for the first hour due to rough air, so if anyone needed to go to the lav, they should go before we departed.

She was actually very good at keeping people informed, but it just raised my anxiety. (Yes, I know it’s silly, but I’ve yet to figure out a way to get my fear instinct to accept that.) When we took off, we pointed west and climbed to reach cruising altitude before we got to the weather.

In the end, it was a total non-event. We flew right in the cloud tops, and there was barely a bump. About 45 minutes in, the seatbelts signs were off and it was smooth sailing.

We went just north of Dallas and waited for drinks and food to arrive. It took well over an hour after the seatbelt sign went off before they reached our row in the middle of the coach cabin. I have no idea why they were so slow, but it was frustrating We were really thirsty, and I was hungry so I had a tasty roast chicken and red pepper sandwich.

I flipped on a movie but got bored quickly. The screen was a real pain to use anyway because the touch sensitivity seemed to be about an inch to the right from where it should have been.

But that was fine – I could still get some work done while not connected to the web, so I did that and watch out the window as we went far south, barely skirting along the Mexican border over El Paso.

We came up just north of Tucson and landed in LA a couple minutes early.