• Feb

  14

  This Week on BNET (Feb 8 - 13)

  Filed under: Advertising, AirTran, BNET, Continental, Inflight Entertainment, MKE - Milwaukee, Schedule Changes, Seats, Southwest, Technology, US Airways, V Australia, Virgin America;

  Should Continental Continue to Host Events for Its Best Fliers?
  Continental just finished up its annual FlyerTalk event. It’s not cheap, but should they continue to spend this money on their best customers?
  
  V Australia’s Decision on Which Business Class Seat to Use
  You would have thought that V Australia would choose the seat Virgin Atlantic pioneered, but they didn’t, and there had to be good reason.
  
  US Airways’ Strong December On-Time Performance
  December was a miserable month for just about everyone thanks to awful weather, but US Airways ended up outperforming.
  
  AirTran Adds Flights in Milwaukee
  Midwest keeps shrinking but AirTran is jumping in to pick up the slack. The airline announced a slew of new flights.
  
  LAX and United Agree to Free Up Gates
  United and LAX have finally settled their long running dispute over gates and more. This can only improve things for passengers at the airport.
  
  Finding Good Usage Numbers for Onboard Wireless Internet
  Airlines are cautiously rolling out tests of onboard wireless, but when will we see reliable usage numbers so they can make decisions? Soon.
  
  Is Southwest’s SI Swimsuit Model Airplane Backfiring?
  If you see a half-naked woman on a Southwest airplane, it’s not an illusion. It’s an SI swimsuit model, but was it a good idea?
  
  Virgin America Should Be Considered “American” for Now
  Alaska is questioning Virgin America’s “American-ness” but I find myself defending the airline. This is just an attempt to push them out of business.

  No Comments
• Feb

  9

  V Australia Welcomes Us Onboard at LAX

  Filed under: Inflight Entertainment, Seats, V Australia;

  Friday marked the first aircraft delivery for V Australia, Virgin Blue’s long haul arm that will inaugurate service on February between Sydney and Los Angeles. On the way down from Boeing, V Australia brought the plane to LAX for a reception and viewing of the onboard product, and I was able to get on board. First thoughts? Coach and Premium Economy seem to be quite good, but Business, while good, is not quite best-in-class.
  
  Usually we get picture-perfect Southern California days for these events, but Friday was filled with cloudy skies and rain. That didn’t stop V Australia from throwing a heck of party. There were free drinks, trendy seating areas, loud music, and of course, famous folks (I’m pretty sure I saw Chase from House there). In other words, it’s exactly what you’d expect from a Virgin airline, though probably not the best way to spend money in these lean times.
  
  Though there was a lot to like at the event, it started out on a sour note when they brought members of the USC marching band and cheerleading squad out to greet the plane. As a UCLA fan, I couldn’t support that at all. (Ok, maybe the cheerleaders did look pretty good.)
  
  Finally, the plane arrived and Sir Richard Branson went into PR mode. He came out on to the wing with some members of the crew and popped open a bottle of champagne. At that point, it started to rain so people started to retreat into the tent where LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa fawned all over Branson for bringing jobs to the area, and Branson announced on stage that the airline would begin 3 times weekly flights from LA to Melbourne in addition to the already announced flights to Sydney and Brisbane. Flights from Sydney to Johannesburg were also announced.
  
  After that, it was time to go on the plane. I joined Grant Martin from Gadling (click for Gadling’s coverage) and Juliana Shallcross from Jaunted (click for Jaunted’s coverage) along with the rest of the media in a preview tour. First impression of the airplane? It looked like a Virgin bird, and that’s not a bad thing at all.
  
  As usual, there was mood lighting in full effect. We settled down at the bar toward the back of Business Class as Branson and Villaraigosa popped another bottle of champagne and made a toast to the airline. At that point, they turned the lights down and showed off the nighttime lighting which projects stars on the ceiling. Branson actually said that he wanted to get a skylight in the bar, but Boeing told him that wouldn’t happen.
  
  Another reason it seemed like a Virgin plane? Padded toilet seats. I’ll let you connect the dots on that one.
  
  Let’s get to what matters here. The Business Class product was nice, but it isn’t the best in its class. Despite what you might expect, the airplane does not have the herringbone configuration that Virgin Atlantic pioneered. Instead, they’ve opted for a 2-3-2 configuration that is forward-facing and is said to go fully flat.
  
  My friend Paul and I tried the seat out (you may remember him from previous events at LAX), and while it was comfortable, the bed didn’t feel completely level to me. That could have just been me though, but it wasn’t bad. The biggest problem? If everyone is sleeping, there’s a lot of climbing required to get to the aisle from the window seat. And nobody is going to want to be in that dreaded middle seat. The footrest was also sort of awkward and I couldn’t quite figure it out.
  
  One quick tip - if you’re flying in Business, I’d go for row 5. It’s separated from the rest of the Business Class, and it’s very private back there.
  
  If you’re flying Premium Economy, you’re going to get a very comfortable leather seat with 38 inches of pitch. I personally liked the little flat square at the end of each armrest that acts as a cupholder when the tray isn’t being used.
  
  Coach has about 32 inches of pitch, so it’s about average (though better than United’s Economy Minus by an inch). My friend noted that the color scheme was going to show a lot of dirt, and these aren’t leather seats. So there could be some cleanliness issues here. Overall however, it was a relatively normal-feeling coach seat with decent legroom. So why do I say it’s best in class? The inflight entertainment.
  
  Every seat has Red, the same system Virgin America uses, though it won’t have live television. Oh, and unlike Virgin America, coach seats don’t have power outlets (Business and Premium Economy do). Very lame.
  
  But overall, I’d say the seats were good and relatively comfortable, something that’s very important for the long haul flights they’ll be operating. Hopefully this added competition will help keep prices lower on a route that has historically been filled with high fares. I’m glad to see V Australia flying this route, and I think they’ll do well.
  
  Stay tuned for part two to be posted soon with my interview with Brett Godfrey, CEO of Virgin Blue Group (owner of V Australia).
  
  To see all my pictures from the day, visit my Flickr Photoset.

  11 Comments
• Jan

  7

  Followup on United’s 777 Reconfiguration

  Filed under: Inflight Entertainment, Seats, United;

  Yesterday’s post on United’s upcoming 777 reconfiguration generated a bunch of emails and comments. After sifting through everything, it appears that things will be slightly different (and better) than what I wrote yesterday.
  

  • Inflight entertainment has to be standard throughout the plane, so there will be audio/video on demand in coach (they may charge for it in coach, but that’s unclear)

  
  

  • This upgrade requires new screens to be in coach, so there will be bigger, better screens

  
  

  • The new screens require entirely new seats which will be the latest of the slimline variety

  
  

  • I’m still not sure of the exact reasons other than for standardization and probably cost saving purposes, but they will be switching to a 3-3-3 configuration in coach

  So if you’re in coach, it looks like the 777 will finally (eventually) be up to international product standards. Of course, now each different widebody will have a different experience in coach. The 767s will still have small personal screens but they’ll keep the looping movies instead of on demand. The 747s will still have the overhead screens only.

  16 Comments
• Dec

  13

  This Week on BNET (Dec 6 - 12)

  Filed under: AirTran, BKG - Branson, BNET, Delta, Lufthansa, Northwest, Pinnacle, Schedule Changes, Seats, Virgin America;

  November Airline Traffic Numbers
  Traffic numbers for November are in, and man is it ugly.
  
  Pinnacle Improves Delta Connection On Time Performance
  It wasn’t long ago that Delta was looking to ditch Pinnacle as a regional carrier due to poor performance. It’s a completely different story these days.
  
  Delta Northwest Merger Enables Matching Capacity to the Right Aircraft
  The merger has allowed Delta to finally start flying a large fleet of smaller long haul aircraft. LAX-Tampa is the first route to see the change with more to come.
  
  Zero Star Hotel Opens Near Zurich
  The world’s first zero star hotel has opened in an abandoned nuclear bunker in Switzerland. Oh yeah, you know you want to stay here.
  
  Lufthansa Joins Social Network Xiaonei, “Facebook of China”
  A couple months ago we talked about Lufthansa’s misguided efforts to build their own social network. Now they’re changing their tune.
  
  Virgin America’s Main Cabin Select Capitalizes on Corporate Contracts
  When Virgin America launched Main Cabin Select, its premium coach product, I thought that price was too high. According to the airline, that’s not the case.
  
  Branson Airport Gets Its First Tenant: AirTran
  AirTran announced it would be the first tenant at Branson’s new airport which opens next year. This is only a slight surprise to me, but it’s a good move for both.
  

  No Comments
• Oct

  28

  United Details Plans for Ted’s Death

  Filed under: Seats, Ted, United;

  United has internally released its plans for how it’s going to handle the dismantling of Ted, and as usual, copies are circulating. I know that some planes have already been painted over, but that’s just the beginning. Here’s what we’re going to see. Let’s start with the biggest news.

  • United will be creating another subfleet. The Ted A320 aircraft had a closet and galley removed from the front of the plane when they were converted from mainline A320s. Without those monuments, they can now fit more seats on those planes. The Ted planes will have 12 First Class, 42 Economy Plus, and 90 Economy seats. That’s 6 more seats (or one row) in the Economy Plus cabin than the existing A320s. This reconfiguration will start in March and be done by the end of 2009. It appears that these aircraft will continue to show the code “32S” while the mainline A320s show “320.”

  
  

  • So far, eight of the 56 Ted planes have been painted in United colors with the rest being finished by May.

  
• Starting today, all former Ted flights beginning on January 6 will be renumbered with United flight numbers. This means it won’t say “operated by United for Ted” or whatever that was, and it won’t be in the 1400/1500 flight number range. It’ll just be a regular United flight.




• It says the FlyTed.com will redirect people to United.com starting tomorrow as well, but it’s been doing that for some time so I’m not sure why they’re saying this now.




• All Ted branding in the airports will be gone during the first quarter of 2009, and Ted uniforms will not be worn by anyone beginning January 1.

The only thing that really stands out here as problematic is the introduction of another A320 seat configuration. I have to wonder if this is the full story here. On one hand, United continues to fly two different configurations on each type of 737, and that’s a 10 year old relic of the Shuttle days (that is soon coming to an end when they’re retired). So with that mindset, is it in any way surprising that United would not bother to standardize the A320 fleet?

On the other hand, maybe management is now enlightened. Maybe we can expect to hear an announcement that a galley and closet will be removed from the other A320s in order to standardize the fleet. (You know it’s not going the other way, that’s for sure.)

[Original Photo via Wikimedia]