Cranky on the Web (January 10-14)

Southwest Learns the Dangers of Unbridled Enthusiasm With Its Frequent Flier Relaunch – BNET Headwinds
Southwest is excited about its new frequent flier program, and it should be, but not everyone feels the same way. Southwest, however, isn’t acknowledging that and it really should.

Making Your Travel Agenda More Efficient – Intuit Small Business Blog
One way to save money is by being smart with your travel budget, but you can also save money be just being more efficient with how you spend your time traveling.

Airlines vs. Airports: Virgin Atlantic Stiffs Heathrow After Icy Shutdown – BNET Headwinds
Virgin Atlantic is withholding all landing fees from Heathrow until it knows the result of the inquiry into what happened during the snow storm in December. This is not a great plan.

In the Trenches: Going Corporate – Intuit Small Business Blog
We’ve ramped up our small business efforts at Cranky Concierge, and it’s already paying off.

Southwest Keeps ‘Em Happy, but Its Late Flights Are Starting to Stack Up – BNET Headwinds
Southwest is not running the best operation these days, but its reputation keeps people happy anyway. I don’t know how long that can continue if things don’t improve.

Cranky Flier Radio Interview With Brett Snyder – Ask Mr Credit Card
I spent 90 minutes doing an interview with Ask Mr Credit Card about the industry. We talked a lot about current events and some of my personal background. If you’ve got time to kill . . .

JetBlue Blames Airport Construction for Late Flights. Um, No – BNET Headwinds
JetBlue is another airline that’s been struggling to run on time, and the excuse has been airport delays. I’m not so convinced.

Brett

3 responses to “Cranky on the Web (January 10-14)”

Bobber

Jan 15, 2011

Er, BAA ARE the villains here. Massive underinvestment in weather equipment compared with smaller capacity airports, they turned down government help to ease the problems at LHR, and yet they still charge huge amounts to airlines at LHR to basically fund the debt payments of Ferrovial. couldn’t give a sh1t about VS personally, but BAA deserve all the grief they get.

Reply
Dan

Jan 17, 2011

RE: Southwest and “not everybody will be happy”

The only time I ever really flew WN was when I lived in LA, and only then, I only flew them for intra-CA and LAS flights. Since I live on the other coast now, I don’t use them quite so much (ok, never.)

I realize I’m exaggerating when i say that WN has always been a short-haul airline, but they more or less are. Their FF program didn’t compete with major airlines on long haul routes, and generally speaking, neither did their onboard product. But they don’t fly transcons much these days, so perhaps my characterization is relatively accurate.

In any even, WN’s real strength was that they used to have an FF program that catered to the short-haul market, which was a gap that the majors simply missed. (For those short flights, it takes 25 round trip flights at the 500 mile minimum to get a free ticket on the majors. With WN, you could do it in 8 round trips, and even 4 back in the double credits days.)

Point is, they served a niche that the majors left behind. It’s a shame they’re vacating this and leaving the short haul flyers hanging. I think they missed the boat with this one.

Reply
ckd

Jan 18, 2011

I was at BOS Terminal C last night, and the construction doesn’t look anywhere near finished; don’t count on B6 getting better just yet….

Reply

Cranky on the Web (January 10-14)

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3 responses to “Cranky on the Web (January 10-14)”

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