A friend of mine who frequently flies out of London/Heathrow wrote to me recently and wondered why my coverage had been so light on the new Terminal 5. I guess I was just waiting to see when things calmed down. I mean, everyone has been talking about how horrible the problems have been since it opened, and I didn’t think I had much to add. Just about every facility has teething problems, even huge ones like we’ve seen in this case.

So, he gave me some good fodder for a post. Instead of focusing on the opening problems, let’s look at the experience as it’s supposed to be. The verdict? My friend is not so happy.

1. Limited-to-no premium check-in - My friend always flies business class for his frequent work trips, and he noticed that while there was a “tiny first class check in area,” there was “no dedicated first/gold card security lane” and “no business class check in at all.”
   
   Hmm, that didn’t seem right to me, but sure enough, that was BA’s plan all along. I spoke with John Lampl, spokesman for BA here in the US, about these issues, and he confirmed that “one of the concepts is . . . no dedicated queues for premium travelers, because what we expect them to do is check in online . . . get to the airport in time for their flight, go through the bag drop [if necessary] and security and go up to the lounge.”
   
   How strange. John says this comes from a great deal of research, but I know there are premium travelers who prefer the personal touch and want a human being to take care of things for them. Unfortunately now, if you want help from a real person, you have to wait in line with everyone else. The goal is, of course, to have no lines at all, but that’s not always realistic.




2. Security validation - Apparently BA has set up a fancy pants system that makes you scan your boarding pass when you go through security. According to John, if you have a valid boarding pass and you’re there more than 35 minutes prior to your flight’s departure time, then you shouldn’t have any trouble. That didn’t work out so well for my friend. He says:
   
   “I checked in online and printed [my] boarding pass but had to go to [the] check in desk to have my [ticket] ‘validated’ or activated in the system. This was after stopping by the first check in area and having been told to proceed to security.”
   
   Hmm, this doesn’t sound very good either. I’m sure there are opening day glitches, but it’s not far-fetched for a boarding pass to get corrupted or a system to malfunction. Sending someone back to the general check-in area every time there’s a problem is not only aggravating, but it’s poor customer service.




3. Lounge locations - As a gold card holder on BA, he’s entitled access to certain lounges. Apparently, it’s not very convenient in his eyes. He says:
   
   “There is a door into the lounge area right by security but it is for pax booked in first only (a gold card won’t cut it…) so to access the lounge you have to walk in a loop, go downstairs, then back upstairs.”
   
   That seems rather strange to me, but John says there is some hope here. “We had elevator problems in the first few days. He may have been forced to go downstairs and then upstairs.” So hopefully this one isn’t a problem.




4. Security bins - “Everything has to go in a security bin - even your bags. Someone tried to get way too clever and design an automatic bin return. Needless to say that does not work to well. And my carry-on got stuck in the stupid bin.”
   
   Yeah, that’s definitely frustrating. Sometimes, the most simple things are the best way to go. Designing an automatic return system may sound good in theory, but it could end up being more trouble than it’s worth. Hopefully this one is just part of those “opening day jitters.”




5. Lounge quality - Apparently, once my friend found the lounge, it was fine, but that’s about it.
   
   “Lounge is nice - food is nothing special at all. Virgin still kicks their ass on this front - in fact I think BA will lose a lot of business to Virgin b/c the setup here for a premium pax is stupid. . . . Regular lounges have same and more food than first. I don’t think it qualifies as a coffee house if you have automatic machines that make marginal cappuccinos. Champagne bars with only 2 champagnes would not last long. Oh - why can they do decent fresh oj on plane but [the] lounge has concentrate?”
   
   Something tells me this could be an issue of overpromising with the brand. What do I mean? If they’re going to call it a “champagne bar,” which they do, then it probably should have more than 2 types of champagne. If it’s just a lounge, then 2 champagnes are fine.
   
   The orange juice issue is the one that is most likely to get action. When I told that to John, he said, “I totally agree with him. We will take that comment and that will be sent to the people catering the lounges.”




6. Arrivals lounge - Once my friend returned, he sent me a follow up note about the arrivals experience. Though many of those gripes were probably just “teething problem,” I think his notes on the arrivals lounge were interesting.
   
   “Classic BA. Indifferent staff, no warm greetings and same crap food. You really think they could make something better on the ground than in an airplane. I especially like the “self service” luggage check. You present your bags, the counter clerk open the little gate and says “Yep. Take them back there”. Staffing levels clearly low. No one at the spa area or shower check in.”
   
   Sounds adequate but nothing more, in his eyes.

So that was about it. My friend summed it up after his trip by saying “Compared to [Virgin Atlantic], I would say BA completely lost the plot and missed a huge opportunity to create a great space for premium pax. Watch their load factors drop.” That’s certainly an unfortunate opinion and not one that will please BA. I know they were trying to do something amazing here.

So, for him it was clearly a disappointing experience, but one man does not represent everyone. Who else has an opinion of the Terminal 5 experience? Anyone else have a different view on things?

So, it now looks like most legacy carriers have adopted the $25 fee for checking a second bag. Though United originally carved out some high fare customers from paying the second fee, most other airlines did not. Of course, seeing an opportunity for a little more revenue, United has now followed them. For a link on the United homepage.

UPDATE – On April 4, 2008, United revised its domestic checked baggage fees to include customers traveling on refundable fares, government fares and Standard Award tickets in Economy class in the policy charging a service fee for checking a second bag. Customers who purchased these types of fares on or after February 4, 2008 and prior to April 4, 2008 for travel on or after May 5, 2008 may request a waiver of the second bag service fee upon check-in with a Customer Service Representative at the airport. Alternatively, those customers may request reimbursement from United’s refund department.

Now, I understand that people on refundable fares probably aren’t checking a bag too often, but then why bother to carve them out in the first place, especially if your convictions weren’t strong enough to actually keep them carved out?

Ok, as requested (by at least one person), here are the rest of my notes from US Airways Media Day. I could try to make it all nice and pretty, but nah I’ll just try to make them legible and let you do the rest. These were taken in order during all the talks. I’ll only include the things I didn’t write about a couple days ago.

Overview from Doug Parker and Scott Kirby

• As of a couple of weeks ago, fuel was expected to cost $800m more this year. Fuel has now gone much higher, so that number will be worse if it holds.
• They’re going to test a new in-seat inflight entertainment system on one domestic plane this year. That may or may involve internet access, but they aren’t sure.

Schedule Planning/Fleet with Andrew Nocella

• The domestic network will either be flat or shrink a little. All the growth will be internationally.
• This year, there will be 10 767s and 9 A330-300s in the fleet, no change from last year. Next year, they’ll add the first 6 of the smaller and longer range A330-200s followed by 6 in 2010 and 5 in 2011.
• If demand starts going down or fuel gets to be too pricey, they have the flexibility to dump the 767s if they want.
• Between now and 2011, they expect to add 14 new flights to 9 new European cities.
• New destinations will be served from Philly, and they make a note to include the Middle East as being a possibility.
• Phoenix may get flights to Europe and/or Asia, but it probably won’t be until 2010 at the earliest.
• Charlotte flights to London and Frankfurt do well, and they will likely add flights from Charlotte to destinations already served from Philly. They are also looking at South America from Charlotte and have already applied for Bogotá. (my note: They just lost out yesterday and didn’t get awarded Bogotá.)
• They’re still trying to figure out how to serve Beijing. The plan was to use A340s, but they have yet to find any that they can get their hands on (cheaply, I would assume). They can serve the route with A330-200s, but they’d rather not.
• Vegas may get some international flights, but it’s not a focus.
• 737s will be gone by 2011. Only 18 757s will be kept, all for Transatlantic flying. So, you’ll see Airbus narrowbodies and Embraer 190s on domestic flights (plus Express carriers).
• They’d like to get rid of as many 50 seaters as they can

Envoy Enhancements with Kevin Jackson and Sherri Shamblin

• US Airways surveyed 636 Envoy customers who traveled in Feb 2007. 60% of them paid, so these were people they wanted feedback from.
• US Airways ranked slightly above American, Delta, and Northwest and slightly below United. Air France, Continental, Lufthansa, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic finished higher (unsurprisingly, I’d say).
• The number one most important factor was that “Flight attendants treat you like a valued customer.” Second was “Meal Quality.” That’s where the airline has been focusing.

Philly Hub with Suzanne Boda

• This year, they’ll be working to improve checkpoint staffing and improve international re-check of bags
• By next summer, they’ll have 3 to 6 new intl gates, bigger checkpoints at B and C, and improved airport signage
• By 2010, the F (Express) terminal will be redesigned and they will have inline baggage screening.
• In the long term they want 16 new gates (inclusive of the previous 3 to 6)
• They’d had 56 straight days without a transatlantic cancellation in Philly - over 1100 flights.

Finance with Derek Kerr

• $300m being spent this year on improving the airline.
• 30% of costs are fuel, 26% labor, and 13% aircraft/airport rents
• Every $1 increase in the price of a barrel of oil, annual costs go up $37m for the airline.
• It costs $31m per day to run the airline (at previously lower fuel levels, I assume).
• Combine $3b in cash with no major debt payments until 2014, and they’re ready to weather a poor economy if need be.

Government Relations with C.A. Howlett (Yes, he’s still there)

• Trying to get government to allow airlines to convert Washington/National flights from inside the 1,250 mile perimeter to outside
• Also trying to convince the government to let them trade 2 slots from inside the perimeter for one outside (as long as the new flight is on an aircraft smaller than a 757). This will help increase the size of aircraft and reduce the number of flights at LaGuardia. To use a 757, they’d need to trade another slot. If that happens, look for long haul flying out of LGA very quickly.
• Very concerned about all the states trying to enact different passenger rights legislations. It will be really hard to comply without a common standard.

Looks like US Airways has decided to match United’s effort to charge $25 to check a second bag. Raise your hand if you’re surprised. Hey you . . . yeah, the guy over there in Sheboygan . . . put your hand down. Nobody should be surprised by this.

If you buy your ticket from today forward and travel after May 5, you’ll pay $25 for that second bag. There are some important differences between the United policy and the US Airways policy, so definitely take note.

US Airways will not exempt refundable fares. Any fare pays. Oh, and this applies to the entire US Airways system and not just domestic flying like under United’s policy. First Class passengers and Elite frequent flier members will be exempt, of course, and so will active military personnel, unaccompanied minors, and “those checking assistive devices.” I assume that means a wheelchair or something else “assistive.”

I’m not quite sure why unaccompanied minors don’t have to pay, but the rest of the exemptions make sense. We all knew this was inevitable, especially for an airline like US Airways. The good news? Um. I don’t think there is any good news for travelers here. I’m sure the PR spin is that this will help keep base fares lower in the face of rising fuel costs, or something along those lines. Ultimately it’s just another way to extract money in the face of $100 oil.

The good news for me is that I get to head over to US Airways Media Day on Thursday, so I’m looking forward to hearing more about what they’re working on.

Time and time again, United has proven over the last few years that they really don’t want your business unless you fly a lot, and you want to use them every time. They’ve eliminated Economy Plus access to everyone but elite members of Mileage Plus. Not even elites of Star Alliance partner programs can get it anymore, nor can someone who pays a full fare to fly. The latest knock against non-elites involves a brand-spanking new $25 fee to check a second bag on domestic flights. Oh, where should we start on this one?

I suppose the good news here is that if you do buy an expensive refundable ticket, you may not get Economy Plus, but you won’t have to pay the fee for that second bag. Let’s be honest though, how many of those full fare business travelers are checking two bags anyway? Not many.

This is aimed squarely at the leisure traveler bringing presents home to grandma for the holidays. Or maybe it’s the college kid lugging his stuff out to school for the year. In other words, it’s the people who are likely price sensitive and pay in advance. For United, it’s just another possible revenue stream without any regard for the consequences of implementing such a fee. See, it’s not the $25 that bothers me but rather the added inconvenience that this brings. You can bet United wasn’t concerned about that.

Without question, this is going to make lines worse at the airport. Remember, it only applies to non-refundable fares. So now if you check a second bag, the already underpaid and overworked ticket counter agent will have to check to see what type of ticket you’re flying on in order to determine whether to charge you the fee or not. What’s the chance the airline has invested in automation to automatically make that call? I think it’s a safe bet to say that’s not happening. Turns out, it’s pretty good. United spokesperson Robin Urbanski says that yes, “the system will be automated to determine whether the fee applies to the ticket. This automation will be integrated into the system that the customer service representatives use and the check-in kiosks.” I’m pleasantly surprised. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but this is just going to create more work for someone who won’t get a single extra dime for doing it. You think they’re motivated to do it right or quickly?

So life goes on for the elite members of Mileage Plus who can sail through their own lines, but what about the non-elites like me? Why would I ever fly this airline? If the fares are the lowest, maybe, but I haven’t seen United at the low end of fares in a long time.

If I’m not an elite, this just pushes me further toward Southwest, JetBlue, Frontier, Continental or even Virgin America, because they aren’t going to make my life miserable as a second class citizen. Sure, other airlines are likely to match this, but those will the usual suspects like American, Northwest, and Delta (and yes, maybe Continental). You know how those lemmings are.

United is definitely leading the way here in making its overall customer offering one of the worst around . . . if you aren’t an elite. They’re making it clear that they have more seats than their elites can fill, so they need you to pay up until they can find more elites. How else would they fund their next shareholder dividend?

Edited 12/18 @ 826a to reflect that United will be automating the process.

Maybe Southwest really is taking this whole “Be More Productive” thing to heart. See, the airline is even changing their policies to help you. Effective January 29, baggage fees are going up, so you can be more productive by, um, packing less? (The Airline Biz blog out of Dallas and SkyTalk out of Ft Worth both picked this one up yesterday.) This little graphic I put together sums up what they’re doing nicely.

As you can see, there are two big differences between the old and new policies. In the past, Southwest was the only airline that allowed a third bag to be checked for free. They’ve now scrapped that and lined up with many of the other airlines, though the fee for a third bag is far less than on anyone else. Also, if you need to take more than 10 bags, you’ll have to pay $110. That rate only kicks in on the 13th bag now. This, I don’t see as much of a problem. I mean, come on. If you’re checking 10 bags, you need to hire a moving company.

Is this really Southwest’s attempt to help you improve productivity? Of course not. This is just a way for Southwest to get more money. I think they probably saw this as low-hanging fruit, because even with the changes, their policy is still more generous than that of anyone else out there. Not a big change, but it’s certainly symbolic of Southwest’s quest for cash and the slow erosion of their competitive advantages.

Happy New Year! Drink a little too much last night? That’s what I thought. Grab a cup of coffee (or a Bloody Mary), and hopefully I can take your mind off that pounding headache.

A month and a half ago, I noted that the UK would begin allowing airports to permit two carry-on bags per person. The big question was . . . which airports would be ready in time for the January 7 launch?

Well, we’re less than a week away now, and the news is mostly good. If you’re flying to London/Heathrow, two carry-ons will be allowed. That’s very welcome indeed, and it goes for London/Stansted, London/City, Manchester, Aberdeen, and Birmingham as well. Unfortunately, London/Gatwick and London/Luton aren’t on the list so you’ll probably want to avoid them if you were hoping to not check bags.

The rest of the airports that will begin allowing 2 carry-ons on January 7:
Benecula
Cambridge
Cardiff
Inverness
Islay
Kirkwall
Plymouth
Prestwick
Southampton
Southend
Stornaway
Sumburgh
Wick

You thought the big news was about a Delta/United merger? Nah, that’s not news . . . yet. Airlines talk about mergers all the time, and until I see an actual proposal, I’m not going to bother worrying about it. So far we have a hedge fund that has money in both airlines and wants to see them combine. They’ll make them a ton of money, and then it will turn into a huge mess for the airlines afterwards. This is all assuming that it actually happens at some point, and I’m far from convinced.

So for now, let’s focus on real news. This is coming from the UK. No, I’m not talking about the BA ghost flights. I’m talking about the end of the one carry-on rule at UK airports!

Now, don’t get too excited just yet. My exclamation point is a bit premature. If you’re flying today, you won’t see a difference, but change is coming. According to the BBC, on January 7 of next year, the requirement that airports only allow one carry-on bag through security will be eliminated. Now sadly that doesn’t mean that you can bring the standard 1+1 (purse, briefcase, etc) that you’re allowed in the rest of the free world right away. Each airport has to work to make the change.

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said, “We are inviting each airport to submit plans to take advantage of new technology, operational innovations, and unexploited capacity in the system to make a real difference to passengers as soon as possible.”

Blah blah. When will it happen?

The assumption is that UK airports will have all applied to do this within a few months, but there’s no indication how long it may take to get it approved. And really, most of the world outside of the UK just wants to know when the London airports (especially Heathrow) will change, since those carry the bulk of passenger traffic. Once that happens, people will have one less reason to avoid flying through London.

UPDATE Nov 19 @ 316p: Musings of The Global Traveller came across an article saying that BAA, which runs many of the UK’s large airports, won’t have the ability to take 2 carry ons per passenger at any airport. They will, however, allow First and Business class passengers to carry on a second bag at Heathrow. That’s it. Booooooooo! No wonder people hate BAA. Keep avoiding LHR for now . . . .

As promised, here’s how those same airlines from yesterday fare when it comes to international baggage check-in times (except Southwest, which doesn’t fly internationally). The situation here is much cleaner than domestic.

As you can see, most airlines say you must check bags 60 minutes prior to departure regardless of airport. United gets the gold star for actually have a flat 45 minute rule instead. And then there’s Delta.

Delta easily gets the award for most painful rules here. They actually have five different times here, and two of the airports (Bogotá and Nassau) have different rules depending upon whether you use the contract of carriage or the website. Ugh. Why does Delta require two (or three) hours in Bogotá when American only requires 1 hour? No idea. This should really be cleaned up.

• If you don’t know these airport codes, you can look them up here.




• Anything that is bold in the table means that the airline has differing rules for that airport on its website when compared to its contract of carriage. I would recommend obeying the more strict of the two, but if you find yourself stuck, you can try to fight for compensation from customer relations after the fact. (You’ll never get anything resolved at the airport.)




• International travel includes all flights going from the US to another country or vice versa. Flights between the US and Canada do not count as international.




• American and Northwest are the two airlines for which I could not find the contract of carriage. American has their conditions of carriage, but Northwest has nothing for international other than guidelines on the website.




• Neither United nor US Airways actually specify this information in their contract of carriage. It looks like United just forgot to include international information in their combined Domestic/International tariff.

Whew. I’m glad I’m done with this exercise.

Is there anything more ridiculous than the various baggage check-in time cutoffs that airlines impose? It’s not the idea that bothers me; it’s the hodge-podge execution that drives me crazy. Delta added to the fun by changing JFK’s cutoff from 30 to 45 minutes before departure, all in the name of improving customer service. Please, give me a break. Yes, it improves customer service in that they’ll hopefully lose fewer bags, but it hurts customer service by requiring people to show up earlier.

Life could be much easier. “Bags must be checked in 30 minutes or more for domestic flights and 60 minutes or more for international.” That’s easy to understand and to communicate, right? But of course, a policy that starts out that way turns into a nightmare as carve-outs occur.

I understand that some airports could benefit from more time. In that case, I’d suggest standardizing around the more strict cutoff systemwide. I’d much rather know that it’s a 45 minute cutoff at every airport. Instead, airlines decide to make little exceptions all over the place. The worst offender is easily American Airlines. They have an unbelievable 4 different cutoff times for domestic flights depending upon from which airport you depart. How are you supposed to keep that straight? If your standard is 30 minutes, does Minneapolis/St Paul really need to be 35 minutes? Come on.

And if that’s not confusing enough, some airlines have different rules on their website than they do in their contract of carriage. The contract of carriage is the document with the final say, so stick to your guns if you met the guidelines in that document but not on the website.

Who is the best at making this easy? Well, JetBlue has a flat 30 minutes domestic and 60 international. And they fly to some of the most painful airports around, so the temptation to make JFK earlier than Portland (Maine) has to be there. While they get thumbs up for making the policy simple, they get thumbs down for making it extremely hard to find this info on their website. I’ve linked to it (as well as the others) below. Here are the baggage cutoffs for domestic travel on select carriers.

*Edited 2/4/08 to add RNO/SMF for United website policy

• If you don’t know these airport codes, you can look them up here.




• Anything that is bold in the table means that the airline has differing rules for that airport on its website when compared to its contract of carriage. I would recommend obeying the more strict of the two, but if you find yourself stuck, you can try to fight for compensation from customer relations after the fact. (You’ll never get anything resolved at the airport.)




• US states and territories as well as Canada count as domestic here




• American is the only airline for which I couldn’t find the full contract of carriage. The conditions of carriage are close enough for this purpose.




• US Airways does not actually specify this information in their contract of carriage, and that is strange. What it does mention is that “If a customer with a seat assignment on US Airways does not obtain a boarding pass at least 30 minutes (60 minutes international) before the scheduled departure time, the customer’s seat assignment (including those seat assignments on continuing or returning flights) may be subject to cancellation. This policy does not apply to US Airways Shuttle flights.
  Passengers departing ATL/DEN/DFW/HNL/IAD/LAS/OGG/PHL/PIT/SEA must present themselves at the US Airways ticket counter no later than 45 minutes prior to departure. Passengers failing to comply will be re-accommodated on the next available US Airways flight.” That’s not the same thing.

You thought this was fun, just wait until tomorrow when I show the international policies for these airlines.