Airlines

Oslo for Christmas? $145 Nonstop from JFK

Norwegian Air Shuttle Route Map
Norwegian Air Shuttle Route Map

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen fares this low from New York to Scandinavia!

$145 nonstop JFK-OSL, including taxes and fees!

To be fair, a round trip ticket is $467.30 — still a terrific bargain, especially since it includes fuel surcharges.

This week’s Bloomberg Business Week featured an interview with Norwegian Airlines CEO Bjørn Kjos, about the airline’s bid to launch low cost service to Europe.

Norwegian Airlines placed orders last year for an astounding 222 787 Dreamliners and Airbus A350s!

Will it work? Previous low-cost, low-fare ventures have consistently faltered because the cost of fuel for transoceanic flights is enormous. Kjos, an attorney and former fighter pilot for the Norwegian military, has heard the skepticism before. ‘They haven’t had the tools to do it,’ he says. ‘The Dreamliner is the first airplane that can do it.’

The Business Week article prompted me to take a look at upcoming fares.

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Major Devaluation of Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Miles

Boo Hiss.  Southwest Airlines has just announced a major devaluation of the Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program:

Wanna Get Away® reward flight bookings made on or after March 31, 2014 will require 70 points per dollar. This is an increase from the 60 points per dollar currently required.

In other words, the miles will be devalued by 15 percent.

Alaska Airlines #1 in Fuel Efficiency

International Institute for Clean Transportation Airline Fuel Efficiency Study
Source: International Council on Clean Transportation
U.S. Domestic Airline Fuel Efficiency Ranking 2010

A new study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), finds that Alaska Airlines is the most fuel efficient domestic airliner, while Allegiant Air is the least fuel-efficient, among 15 domestic air carriers operating in the U.S. in 2010.  In other words, of the 15 airlines analyzed, Allegiant Airlines generates the most greenhouse gas emissions to provide a comparable level of service.

The International Council on Clean Transportation, a nonprofit research organization, used publicly available data to compare the efficiency of the airlines independent of size, network structure, or type of service.

The figure highlights the large gap between the most and least efficient airlines serving the U.S. domestic market.  The analysis found that Allegiant would have used 26 percent more fuel than Alaska Airlines to provide a comparable level of transport service.

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Where to Find First Class Lounge Passes at Bargain Basement Prices

Delta-Skyclub PassIf you are trawling for passes to gain access  to those “swank” airport lounges reserved for the airlines’ best customers, you are in luck!

The big three U.S. airlines sell one-day lounge passes for $50 — a steep price to pay for relaxing in a “club” before your flight.

There are a lot of passes in circulation because several airline credit cards throw in lounge passes as incentives for applications.

Passes for the United Club, the Delta Sky Club, and the American Airlines Admiral Club are readily available on the Ebay auction site.

I checked the prices of “completed listings” on Ebay and found a big price variation depending on the airline club.

Can you guess which club passes command the highest prices on Ebay?

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What is Peter Cottontail Doing at Midway Airport?

Here comes Peter Cottontail

Hoppin’ down the bunny trail …

Frontier Airlines Airbus 330 Photo by Joel Shprentz
Frontier Airlines Airbus 330
Photo by Joel Shprentz

With only had 30 minutes to change planes in Chicago last week, we were in a bit of a rush.  I looked out the gate window for a glimpse of my plane and couldn’t believe my eyes.

It wasn’t Peter Cottontail, but Stu the Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, the mascot for Frontier Airlines’ Airbus 330.

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Southwest Airlines Triggers Most Positive Sentiments in Survey of Twitter Chatter

Southwest Airlines had the most consistently positive profile in an analysis of  strongly worded tweets about U.S. airlines. The analysis of social media responses to various airlines considered both strongly positive and strongly negative messages posted during December 2011.

77 percent of the strongly worded positive messages were associated with Southwest, followed by JetBlue with 73 percent strongly positive messages.  Only 42 percent of the strong comments about U.S. Airlines were positive.  Delta Airlines had by far the largest number of strongly worded tweets, over 2,500, with 61 percent of the messages positive.

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The Airlines: Then and Now

The print edition of the today’s Washington Post has a great full page spread of infographics comparing  the airline industry of today to the days before deregulation in 1978.

Airplane
© Goehrum Christian, Dreamstime Stock Photos

Frequent flyer programs emerging since deregulation generate customer loyalty among hundreds of millions of people, reports Dwuan D. June.

“There are trillions of miles out there — 85 percent of which have never been redeemed,” according to Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst cited in the article.

This statistic demonstrates the potentially large cost that airlines are carrying on their books, if consumers can figure out clever ways to leverage their miles.

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