Airlines, Airlines, Airlines

Well, I was going to start off with my usual bemoaning of the airlines because we are only 13 days into the New Year and they have already announced increased fees. However, we also got some exciting news to report as well!

Southwest and United Airlines are offering a two for one sale for Colorado Customers. The United deal is this: 1) Tickets must be purchased by Feb 15th for travel by March 5th, 2) Travel must originate and end in Colorado and 3) It must be booked in a certain class of service meaning it may not be the cheapest flight out there. For Southwest you must purchase a Business Select fare in order for the two-fer promotion to be used.

In other good news, JetBlue has been offering a fantastic New Year promotion with $29one way fares. If you want to go somewhere, hurry up because you must book by 11:59pm tonight.

Ok,so now for the not so good news...both Continental and Delta have announced increased baggage fees. If you check in online 24 hours prior to your flight on their websites you can pay for your checked baggage in advance and it will be a discounted fee. And while Frontier did lower their change fee, it was conveniently offset by an increased baggage fee.

Airline Wrap Up for the Week

There's good news and bad news, so let's start with the positive. There are expected to be fewer travellers this holiday season, so hopefully that will cut down on the lines at the airports, taxi cabs, hotel check-ins, etc. Even better, the airlines are all offering last minute fares! For example, I just booked a ticket for a client looking to travel this weekend to Denver and returning home to LAX on Tuesday...just $199 where as a week ago the price was closer to $300.

On the plus side, United is giving its image a complete overhaul from planes to customer service areas to Red Carpet lounges. According to the Chicago Tribune, United will be giving each airplane in its fleet a total makeover...this is the first one of this decade. The "tequila sunrise" theme will be thrown out; as well as any reminiscences of the Ted carrier. The previous one-cabin aircraft's will now offer a roomier first class seating and the 80's and 90's style overhead bins, and coach class seating will also be updated. Airline executives hope the image re-haul will help buffer it from poor customer service ratings and bashings receive by The Onion and YouTube.

Now on the bad side, I hope that many of you flying can steer clear of the New York area's three airports and any of its limited air space. For the first nine months of 2009, all three NYC airports respectively placed 1, 2, and 3 in the industry's worst on time arrivals rating scale. This rating compared all 31 major US airport hubs. In 2007, three quarters of all delays were traced back to issues surrounding these 3 airports alone. Modifications have been made from opening up additional airspace, changing the take off time between airplanes; but even on busy days planes waiting to land at La Guardia alone are often in line for a 40 mile stretch. Maybe DOT can add this to its list of current industry issues.

For all those who are flying this Thanksgiving season, I hope the skies will be friendly to you.

Airlines Add Fees for Holiday Travel

American and United both added a $10 surcharge for flights around Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve. American announced their new policy Wednesday and United matched it on Thursday. The fee is technically a fuel surcharge but obviously its a way to charge more for premium travel. The three days surrounding Thanksgiving and January 2nd and 3rd are the highest most travelled days of the year. Other major carriers may announce higher fees as well in the coming weeks. In better aviation news, Frontier reduced their change fee from $150 to $100 last week. However, the carrier did raise its first checked bag fee.