America West will test charging for food on selected flights out of Phoenix that normally don’t serve food. Priced from $3 to $10, the choices will range from a snack box with Rondele cheese, Wheat Thins crackers, nuts, teriyaki beef jerky and cookies to Chicken Kiev. It’s unclear how the airline will compete successfully with airport vendors — both in price and quality — but it’s an interesting experiment.
Yearly Archives
Yearly Archives for 2002.
Happy New Year. May your
Happy New Year. May your upgrades clear at booking, your mileage bonuses post promptly, and your pre-reserved exit row seats recline fully. Peace and best wishes to all my readers in the new year!
Play the Michael
Play the Michael Jackson Baby Drop game.
EDS baggage screening device
EDS baggage screening device has a 40% false-positive error rate.
President Bush exempts
President Bush exempts Area 51 from environmental laws. Just what disclosures are they afraid to file? 😉
Most airline mile credit cards
Most airline mile credit cards require pretty good credit. Here’s an exception. Korean Airlines offers a secured visa through US Bank. Guaranteed approval, 3000 miles to start, and Korean miles can be redeemed with Delta.
Don’t forget to check out
Don’t forget to check out Punditwatch, your roundup of all that happened on the Sunday talking head shows.
I also have
I also have a letter to the editor in the January 2003 Inside Flyer, but this is only available to subscribers (either to the magazine or the website). For the infinitely curious, my letter is about the special inventory of award seats that United sets aside for its top level elite flyers on domestic flights (booking code ‘NY’).
I’m one of “five distinguished
I’m one of “five distinguished experts” offering five tips each on how best to win at the miles and points game this year in the January 2003 issue of Inside Flyer magazine.
A Chicago Tribune piece predicts
A Chicago Tribune piece predicts that United’s bankruptcy will help drive down labor costs across the industry and places the blame for the industry’s current woes on a legacy inherited from the days of regulation. Many of the most onerous work-rule provisions date to the 1970s, when airlines had to fill only 55 percent of their seats to earn an 11.5 percent profit that was guaranteed by the Civil Aeronautics Board. As a result, there were few restrictions on the costs that the board allowed to be passed through to customers. I’m a bit undecided about this thesis. On the one hand, little has changed in the way airlines relate to their workforces since the regulated era. Moreover, labor-management relations are still highly regulated by the Railway Labor Act. The federal government has also consistently…
