Airline News

AIRTRAN AND DELTA REPORT PROFITS. The two largest carriers at ATL reported second quarter profits, which is great news for the ailing airline business. But it’s not such great news for travelers who are paying substantially more than they were this time last year. For example, AirTran says that its average one-way fare in the second quarter increased 10 percent to $97. Overall, summer airfares are 24 percent higher than last summer according to Bing Travel.

FEES HERE TO STAY. Airline revenue from ancillary fees totaled $7.8 billion in 2009, a 42 percent increase from 2008. That fat number includes $2.7 billion in checked bag fees, $2.4 billion from reservation change fees and $2.7 billion from miscellaneous fees. Delta alone raked in  $1.6 billion from ancillary charges in 2009.

MORE AIRPORT PERKS FOR AMEX PLATS. If you fork over $450 per year for your American Express Platinum card, your benefits just got better– cardholders now get access to US Airways airport clubs, as well as those from American, Delta and Continental airlines.

DELTA BEEFS UP IN NYC & DC. Stung by the feds disapproval of its slot-swap scheme with US Airways, Delta is nonetheless charging forward toward its goal of “dominating the New York market.” Beginning Sept. 7 it planes to add flights from New York (either LaGuardia or JFK) to  Nashville, St. Louis, Norfolk, Richmond,  Kansas City, San Antonio, Cleveland, Charlotte, Orange County, Baltimore, Montreal and Toronto. More details. And don’t forget that Delta recently expanded its Delta Shuttle operation with 11 new daily flights (and fat mileage bonuses) between New York-LaGuardia and Chicago O’Hare. Delta’s also expanding at Washington Reagan National airport with a total of 22 destinations served, up from the current 16.

GET DELTA HELP VIA TWITTER. If you are one of those whose eyes glaze over at the mention of Twitter, consider this: Delta has wrangled a team of social media and customer service reps to try and solve problems via Twitter. Delta asks that users to “tweet your questions, comments, concerns, praise – we love praise ; ) – etc. to @DeltaAssist.” And as long as you are on Twitter, be sure to follow my updates! @cjmcginnis

TIRED OF BAD COFFEE IN THE SKY OR ON THE ROAD? Our new sponsor Starbucks VIA plans to help out good-coffee-starved TICKET readers with an exclusive giveaway in a coming issue. Stay tuned!

VIRGIN AMERICA TO ATLANTA? Don’t get your hopes up yet, but sassy California startup Virgin America just picked up 40 new Airbus jets at the Farnborough Air Show and is looking to expand to several major business travel markets over the next year. For example, it just announced new flights between SFO, LAX and Orlando. “Atlanta is definitely on our prospective cities list,” said Virgin spokesperson Abby Lunardini when contacted by The TICKET. If Virgin jumped into the Atlanta market, it would likely add flights to both San Francisco AND Los Angeles (LAX) where it operates nearly as many flights as it does at its home base at SFO. Would YOU fly Virgin America if it came to Atlanta, or would you stick with Delta and/or AirTran? LET US KNOW! Leave your comments below.

APPLE TO THE RESCUE. There’s a very helpful new iPhone application from the TSA that allows users to check airport security wait times and flight delays in real time.

FREAKISH FEES? While Congress and the airlines battle it out on Capitol Hill over new fees and transparency, the smart folks over at TripAdvisor have fashioned a very helpful “fees estimator” to its search engine– allowing users to enter the number of bags they plan to check as well as their frequent flyer program affiliation and status. Then the site calculates the TOTAL fee you’d pay and presents it for comparison on a matrix. Nice! See www.tripadvisor.com/flights and try it yourself.

AMERICAN BACK ON ATL-LGA. Earlier this month, American Airlines launched five daily roundtrips between ATL’s Concourse T and New York’s close-in La Guardia airport. It’s using smaller CRJ-700 “Barbie jets” on the route, but they all have first class sections, which helps. From now through September 30, AAdvantage members earn double miles. Register at www.aa.com/offers

HEATHROW EXPRESS DISCOUNTS. The fast and easy rail link between London’s Heathrow airport and Paddington station is half price (9 pounds instead of the normal 18) for groups of two or more through Sept 5. Details here.

EASIER SEAT SEARCHES. We love us some Seatguru.com when trying to pick the perfect seat for a long international or transcon flight. In the past it was tough because there are so many different configurations flying around out there. Seatguru’s solved that by letting you enter your airline flight NUMBER first, which means you’ll always see the exact layout of your flight.

THE TICKET GOES TO NBTA. Your TICKET editor will be hitting the tradeshow floor and checking out all the latest news and trends at the annual National Business Travel Association convention in Houston this August. Stay tuned for reports and videos! Interesting: I booked a standard car from Enterprise for three days in Houston via Hotwire for just $104 all in. Not bad, considering Hertz wanted a whopping $375 for the same car class!

RADICAL DESIGNS ON COACH CLASS. Check out this well done CNN video report on Air New Zealand’s radical designs on coach class seating for long haul flights.

WATCH THOSE VALUABLES. A 47-year-old Air France flight attendant is facing 10 years in jail after pleading guilty to stealing from business class passengers sleeping on long haul flights. She targeted passengers who would fall asleep after a big meal with lots of alcohol.

AIRTRAN TO THE D.R. AirTran will fly to another warm-weather destination, Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, starting February 16. Punta Cana is closer to the D.R.’s increasingly popular all-inclusive resorts and is easier to navigate than Santo Domingo, the capital. And in case you are geographically challenged, the D.R. shares the island if Hispaniola with Haiti. It’s located between Cuba (to the west) and Puerto Rico (to the east). It’s AirTran’s fifth Caribbean destination. No word yet on fares.

NEW AIRPORT IN INDIA. Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport just opened Terminal 3, a much needed 6.4 million square foot addition that includes 78 gates and 168 check in counters.

DELTA + GOL. Delta and Brazil’s GOL Airlines have linked the SkyMiles and SMILES programs allowing members to earn miles on both carriers. Redemptions are expected later this year.

SADNESS OF THE SILVERS. We received quite a lot of responses to our post about Silver status with SkyMiles. Check them out here—by far the longest list of comments we’ve EVER seen on The TICKET.

DOUBLES AT HILTON. HHonors members earn double points OR double airline miles for each stay between now and September 30, but you must register first.  (As always with Hilton, you earn both airline miles and HHonors points at qualifying rates, but in the case of this promo, you must choose which one you want to earn the bonus.)

VACATION BARGAINS? If you are still wondering where you’d like to go for a summer break, consider Florida where hotel prices have crashed due to the oil spill, even though most beaches remain unaffected. Expedia reports that average daily rates crashed nearly 30 percent in popular summer destinations such as Miami, the Florida Keys, Ft Lauderdale and New Orleans. On the other hand, don’t expect the place to be deserted. Smith Travel Research reports that hotel occupancy in the region was up 7 percent in June year-over-year and will be up around 4 percent in July.

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