GGC 2006 - Getting There is Half the Fun?

Oy... you'd think it would be easy to get from the #1 US vacation
destination to a major US port, but it isn't. The only direct flights
eastbound were red eye ones, anything else entailed a long layover. So I
opted for the red eye and I will say that Song did a fairly good job with
it. Since I haven't heard anyone mention them, I thought I'd take the
opportunity to say a few things about it.

First, this is an airline with a sense of humor. The safety lecture was
actually a bit amusing, I don't remember ever smiling at one of those. There
is some food available for sale, this can be arranged for on line or in
flight. Menus are available. Television is free, as are the headsets. The
ones they use have a single prong and fit into the ear so can't be used with
ear plugs (I had ones to help with cabin pressure since I had hoped to
sleep). Individual screens, many entertainment choices including PPV movies,
customizable playlists for music and games along with flight info. No
pillows, plenty of blankets. Each of them sealed in a plastic bag. One pass
of the food/beverage cart early in the flight, another of water near the
end.

Flight was without incident, luggage arrived promptly and I went upstairs to
await my cabin mate.

It is not a lot of fun to be in a airport alone for an extended period of
time. These days one has to lug their luggage everywhere... and there is no
room in a bathroom stall for it... AND the chances of finding a seat when
one returns is slim.

But we did eventually meet up and shared a cab to the pier.

--
Marsha

It's good to be just plain happy; it's a little better to know that you're
happy; but to understand that you're happy and to know why and how... and
still be happy, be happy in the being and the knowing, well that is beyond
happiness, that is bliss.
- Henry Miller

Marsha L wrote:
Oy... you'd think it would be easy to get from the #1 US vacation
destination to a major US port, but it isn't. The only direct flights
eastbound were red eye ones, anything else entailed a long layover. So I
opted for the red eye and I will say that Song did a fairly good job with
it. Since I haven't heard anyone mention them, I thought I'd take the
opportunity to say a few things about it.

First, this is an airline with a sense of humor. The safety lecture was
actually a bit amusing, I don't remember ever smiling at one of those. There
is some food available for sale, this can be arranged for on line or in
flight. Menus are available. Television is free, as are the headsets. The
ones they use have a single prong and fit into the ear so can't be used with
ear plugs (I had ones to help with cabin pressure since I had hoped to
sleep). Individual screens, many entertainment choices including PPV movies,
customizable playlists for music and games along with flight info. No
pillows, plenty of blankets. Each of them sealed in a plastic bag. One pass
of the food/beverage cart early in the flight, another of water near the
end.

Flight was without incident, luggage arrived promptly and I went upstairs to
await my cabin mate.

It is not a lot of fun to be in a airport alone for an extended period of
time. These days one has to lug their luggage everywhere... and there is no
room in a bathroom stall for it... AND the chances of finding a seat when
one returns is slim.

But we did eventually meet up and shared a cab to the pier.

--
Marsha


Hi Marsha,

Song is a division of Delta.
It is supposed to be operated as a low cost airline for Delta.
Now, the reports I have read (I can't really point you at a website,
this is just reading them over time on the internet, and some aviation
trade journals I get my hands on sometimes)
is that the service on Song is better then the service on Delta.

That is a real subjective statement, and I cant quantify it. It is
just what I have picked up over time from some reading. YMMV.

roland

Roland... unfortunately it looks as though the Song name will be
disappearing "soon"... I don't know what effect that will have on service,
but it might not be a good thing.
The last time I flew to FLL it was on Delta (and from EWR) and I don't
recall anything about that flight that I found to be remarkable in any
sense.
Marsha

"piperut" wrote in message
oups.com...

Hi Marsha,

Song is a division of Delta.
It is supposed to be operated as a low cost airline for Delta.
Now, the reports I have read (I can't really point you at a website,
this is just reading them over time on the internet, and some aviation
trade journals I get my hands on sometimes)
is that the service on Song is better then the service on Delta.

That is a real subjective statement, and I cant quantify it. It is
just what I have picked up over time from some reading. YMMV.

roland

Marsha L wrote:
Roland... unfortunately it looks as though the Song name will be
disappearing "soon"... I don't know what effect that will have on service,
but it might not be a good thing.
The last time I flew to FLL it was on Delta (and from EWR) and I don't
recall anything about that flight that I found to be remarkable in any
sense.
Marsha

"piperut" wrote in message
oups.com...

Hi Marsha,

Song is a division of Delta.
It is supposed to be operated as a low cost airline for Delta.
Now, the reports I have read (I can't really point you at a website,
this is just reading them over time on the internet, and some aviation
trade journals I get my hands on sometimes)
is that the service on Song is better then the service on Delta.

That is a real subjective statement, and I cant quantify it. It is
just what I have picked up over time from some reading. YMMV.

roland

I also know that Song is going to be combined into Delta shortly. Once
Delta managed to get the Delta contracts in line with the Song
Contracts, they have no reason to operate two seperate airlines, so now
they can pay the lawyers to make it one airline.

We flew on American Airlines. They sold snacks for $3 or $4 depending
on the leg of the flight. It was not a remarkable flight.

Most the airlines are trying are attempting to cut corners every place
they can. They want to put the blame on the security after 9-11. The
government is charging additional fees to offset that, so I don't
understand this statement on the part of the airlines.

I really think it is years of bad management in a regulated
enviornment, and they didn't understand how to survive in a free market
place. Now they are having to make cuts to survive. The traveling
public is the driving force, not willing to pay for frills, or extra
for a ticket. Fuel costs going up, and labor costs going up. They can
give a little blame to the security problems, but they are looking for
a magic scapegoat there, and not dealing with their real problems.

Anyway, that is my view of the airline industry. But I don't really
know that much about the airline industry as a whole. I work in
another area of aviation.

roland

piperut wrote:
Most the airlines are trying are attempting to cut corners every place
they can. They want to put the blame on the security after 9-11. The
government is charging additional fees to offset that, so I don't
understand this statement on the part of the airlines.

I really think it is years of bad management in a regulated
enviornment, and they didn't understand how to survive in a free market
place. Now they are having to make cuts to survive. The traveling
public is the driving force, not willing to pay for frills, or extra
for a ticket. Fuel costs going up, and labor costs going up. They can
give a little blame to the security problems, but they are looking for
a magic scapegoat there, and not dealing with their real problems.

I also think fuel costs are an issue here. Jet Blue is losing money, and
they don't have the bad management under regulation excuse. United just
worked hard to fix all that managemnt stuff, but now they cannot really be
profitable in the current environment.

Prices must go up, or the airlines will become a thing of the past.

Julie

--
Julie
**********
Read my blog on the adventure of learning a second language as an adult at http://www.livejournal.com/users/zweisprachen
Web Page: http://www.dragonsholm.org/travel.htm

Juliana L Holm wrote:
piperut wrote:
Most the airlines are trying are attempting to cut corners every place
they can. They want to put the blame on the security after 9-11. The
government is charging additional fees to offset that, so I don't
understand this statement on the part of the airlines.

I really think it is years of bad management in a regulated
enviornment, and they didn't understand how to survive in a free market
place. Now they are having to make cuts to survive. The traveling
public is the driving force, not willing to pay for frills, or extra
for a ticket. Fuel costs going up, and labor costs going up. They can
give a little blame to the security problems, but they are looking for
a magic scapegoat there, and not dealing with their real problems.

I also think fuel costs are an issue here. Jet Blue is losing money, and
they don't have the bad management under regulation excuse. United just
worked hard to fix all that managemnt stuff, but now they cannot really be
profitable in the current environment.

Prices must go up, or the airlines will become a thing of the past.

Julie


Fuel cost are part of the pie, but not the only issue.
Some of the problem is the airlines don't want to look at the whole
picture at one time, just parts of it.
They need to take it all on, and not just parts of it.

Fuel costs - I have heard of a number of solutions but none in the
short term. Some are still experimental.
Hydrogen powered aircraft has some possibilites. This decreases the
weight of the aircraft, giving the loadmaster a higher payload. The
automotive engineers at BYU are experimenting with Hydrogen powered
automobiles. There are some problems to work out. This is an unstable
fuel is one of the problems. Distribution of the fuel is another
problem. Also the current technology for making the fuel costs as much
as getting fossil fuels. However, it is a clean fuel, by products are
H20 and O2 when burning this fuel. I think the last thing I read was
GM was looking into the work that BYU was doing. One of the major
carmakers was. I would have to do some research to find which one for
sure. That is where that was. The fuel is lighter, and that can
increase the payload. As the technology get better, the costs should
come down.

If you notice - pilots no longer try to make up time if they are late
by flying faster. This is a move to keep fuel costs down.
Flying faster increases fuel consumption. There are other things the
airlines can do to save fuel.
Keep the outside of the aircraft clean. A clean fuselage gets better
milage than a dirty fuselage.
Keep weight balanced. Balanced aircraft get better milage than an
unbalanced aircraft.
The airlines know these things, and that is one reason they are now
enforcing the 50 lb limit per bag on luggage. Weight is now important.
If fuel costs go up... one of the proposals I saw was to weigh the
passengers and assign your seats according to your weight to get the
best fuel consumption for the aircraft.

Labor costs - the airlines keep trying to get the unions to change
lower the contract rates. This is not really fair to the employees.
However, at some point in time you have to start asking yourself how
much money the job is worth.
Also, regional carriers pay lower rates then national carriers. There
may come a time when most flights are on regional carriers. Actually,
this is already taking place a little bit. It used to be I would fly
United to Denver. Now, I am on a regional carrier to Denver from Salt
Lake.

The security costs are paid for by a surcharge. The airlines claim
this does not cover all their costs. I do not know if this is true.
However, in this day and age the security problems are only going to
get worse, not better. The airlines have to deal with this, and be
prepared to arrange for problems with flights because of security
problems. So there could be additional costs to the airlines for
security.

Bad management over the years, and a large management staff. The
companies need to lean out the management layers.
Most companies over the years have become top heavy with management.
It is a corp. thing to do. They need to cut out a number of management
positions. Not a nice thing to do to the people, but they need to do
it to save money. Also bad management choices (was Delta closing the
Dallas hub a bad management choice?), some flights they have added,
and some they have canceled may have been bad management choices over
the years. The choice of Eastern to allow the stike years ago that put
them out of business... some of the bad choices over the years come
back to hunt the airlines.

Overtime, I think the airline tickets are going to go up. People are
not going to be happy with that, but it is going to have to happen.

roland

They are taking all the joy out of traveling,they will kill the goose
tha laid the golden egg

(.a cruise lover.)

What joy, lol. Airlines are the buses of the sky these days. Unless
you get lucky and get business class.

Jeff



Surfer E2468 wrote:

They are taking all the joy out of traveling,they will kill the goose
tha laid the golden egg

(.a cruise lover.)