Allegiant Earnings Down on Lower Fares, Flat Ancillary Revenue – BNET
Allegiants earnings were down in the fourth quarter. Should we panic?

Episode 83 – Aviation Jetpardy – Aviation Geeks Podcast
For those who missed our fun-filled game of Aviation Jetpardy, you can listen to me take the crown. That was fun.

JetBlue Finishes Converting to Sabre Reservation System – BNET
JetBlue has finished its conversion, and it looks like they’ve come through relatively unscathed. Very impressive.

choose your bin space wisely – antibride
You probably have plenty of things that you think about when you pick a flight, but bin space may not be one of them. If you have a lot to bring, you should consider it.

Grand Rapids Airport Says Abused by Legacy Airlines – BNET
I can understand why Grand Rapids is happy to have AirTran come in, but I’m not sure why they feel the need to rip everyone else that serves the airport.

The Death of the Press Release – BNET
Press releases no longer make sense to me in this day and age. I’m calling for an end to them.

TSA Tells Richmond Airport to Give Convict Full Airport Access – BNET
TSA hires convict. TSA tells airport to badge him. Airport not happy.

As I mentioned yesterday, Southwest has been circulating a survey to a bunch of fliers to try to explore all sorts of ways to make changes to their offerings. This explores change fees, bag fees, standby, Rapid Rewards changes and more. Yesterday we talked about Rapid Rewards and same day changes, but today I want to look at the bigger picture.

Before we get started, I’d like to remind everyone once again that this is just a survey. It doesn’t mean that these things are imminent, nor does it mean that it’s even being considered the way it has been presented. Surveys are always constructed to try to figure out what matters most to people, so I imagine that the results here would give Southwest an idea about what it can and cannot charge for in the future. I would be surprised to see something like this happen exactly as they’re showing it.

The survey itself threw out a bunch of different fare scenarios for hypothetical trips. There’s no need to post them all, so I’ll just show one and then we can take about it below. (Click to blow it up so you can read it.)

As you can see, there’s a lot to talk about. The idea here seems to be along the lines of Air Canada – fare families where people can pick and choose the fares they like to get the benefits they want. Let’s talk about a few of these.

• Check-in Time – I doubt we’ll see them reduce the check-in time for cheap fares, as they show here. Southwest is more of an airline to add benefits to higher fares than to take away from lower ones. I do like the idea of not offering EarlyBird to the lowest fares, however.
• Bags – I actually would be fine with offering only 1 bag free to everyone, but I think it does make sense to differentiate what’s allowed depending upon your fare class.
• Fare Reusability – This really isn’t something I even thought about changing. Now you can change your fare to be used for another ticket anytime within a year, but this proposes potentially restricting that further for cheap fares. I don’t like that idea. It’s very customer unfriendly.
• Change Fee – This particular example doesn’t show any change fees, but other scenarios had them ranging from $25 to $100 for the cheap fares. I’m in favor of a small fee, as I’ve noted before.
• Same Day Changes – This is one of the biggest complaints I hear about Southwest. People hate that you can’t standby for an earlier flight without paying the difference in fare. They are clearly exploring alternative options.
• New and Improved Rapid Rewards – Those are their words, not mine. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m not sure how new and improved this will end up being, but I do think that the plan to award different multipliers of miles depending upon which fare you buy makes sense.

What do I think about this whole package? I think Southwest needs to be very careful not to become another legacy carrier. A lot of the policies that they are exploring have the potential for them to align a lot of their policies with the legacy guys, and that would be a mistake. That being said, I think there’s a lot of good in here as well.

Whether they act on any of this remains to be seen, but I imagine that we’ll be seeing some changes along these lines before the year is out.

I feel like I’ve approached this topic before, but in light of the airlines raising bag fees once again to $25 for the first bag and $35 for the second, I thought it was worth revisiting. There are a lot of people complaining about bag fees going up, but that’s not going to do any good. You need to take action if you’re not happy.

It’s a time-honored tradition for travelers to hate everything that airlines do. Airline management knows that and has to take all feedback it gets as part of a larger picture. So just because you say you hate bag fees, doesn’t mean they’ll believe you. Let me explain.

People say they hate things but then they don’t change their behavior. This has happened with nearly every change that has stuck in the airline industry. People always complain, but if they keep flying, then the revenue is usually worth it in the mind of the airline manager. Airlines also tend to move in packs, so you don’t often have much time to switch your business to show your displeasure. When one moves, they all move.

But there’s a unique opportunity when it comes to bag fees because of a couple of holdouts. Southwest won’t charge you for your first two checked bags and JetBlue won’t charge you for the first. If you really aren’t happy with bag fees, you should switch your business to these guys and then write a letter to your previous favorite airline letting them know. If enough people do that, the airlines will reverse where things are going with bag fees. If not, then they’ll just keep jacking them up until they can’t anymore. It’s that simple.

Ready to change the world? This won’t be easy, because remember, elite frequent fliers don’t pay bag fees. That means that the people the airlines deem to be most important aren’t going to care if there are bag fees or not. So it’s just the unwashed masses who have to get together to fight the power. And it’s only some of the unwashed masses who check bags. Families with kids, people going on long vacations, etc – they’re the ones impacted the most. That’s an uphill battle.

So, if you want to fight the power, stop complaining and change your behavior instead. And when you do it, tell someone with specific details. You can start with the comment section on this post. Airline people read this blog, so this is one way to reach them. Or, if you’re looking for something more effective, send them an email, give them a call, or send them a postcard from the trip you take on another airline. If you don’t like bag fees, that’s the way to get them changed.

Complaining about it won’t be enough.

We’ve seen a million different boarding schemes over the years. First there was boarding by rows, then came group boarding, and now many are going to the all-at-once cattle call strategy. But Virgin America is trying something different. They want to let you board first if you don’t have a carry-on. Smart idea, but something tells me the execution is going to kill this one.

Just to be clear, this isn’t a systemwide policy yet, but rather a test. According to spokesperson Abby Lunardini:

We’ve actually advised the teams in certain airports to adopt the ‘board without carry-on first’ approach to see if it makes the boarding process more smooth. We’ve not officially adopted this as a standard practice, but we’ve begun to explore it selectively.

I like the idea. Those without carry-ons can board quickly and not get stuck while others clog up the aisle while they try to stuff their worldly belongings into the overhead bins. Theoretically, it should speed up the boarding process. I say “theoretically” because I just can’t see it working considering customer behavior. And those people with carry-ons will be pissed.

Let’s think about this. You’ve brought your standard roll-a-board carry-on along with your purse. All you’re thinking about is finding your own piece of bin space so that you don’t have to wave goodbye to your bag at the bottom of the jet bridge as it finds its way into the belly of the airplane. If Virgin America announces boarding for those without carry-ons, are you going to try to get on anyway?

Not everyone will, of course, but there will be at least a few people who will try to sneak on. Then it becomes the gate agent’s job to enforce it, and that can get ugly. Also, what if you just have your purse? Does that count as a carry-on? What if you have a shoulder bag that you want to throw under your seat. Is that a carry-on or is it like an overgrown purse?

My guess is that while it probably seems obvious what should count and what shouldn’t, people will try to push the limits. The enforcement process might end up eating up more time than it saves by boarding this way.

Still, I like the idea in theory. I’m just really curious to see how it works in practice.

[Updated 10/20 @ 949a to remove photo]

Why Comair’s On-Time Performance is More Concerning Than Atlantic Southeast’s – BNET
Comair and ASA both sat at the bottom of the July on-time performance derby, but the airlines appear to have two different problems.

Meaningless Mishandled Bag Numbers Plunge in July – BNET
Bag mishandlings are down, but the strange method of calculating the number makes these numbers pretty useless.

The Longest Delays Are In the Northeast – BNET
This is no surprise, but for those wanting a passenger bill of rights, I have a better idea.

Midwest Starts Milwaukee – St Louis on American’s Turf – BNET
Before American announced its St Louis pulldown, I wondered about this move. Now with hindsight, it makes sense.

Update: American Eliminates St Louis Hub – BNET
Just a quick update on my previous post.

American Raises $1.3 Billion in Cash – BNET
It wasn’t just route announcements that had American making news. They also raised a bunch of cash.