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Alaska, Southwest fight for California with new flights

May 19, 2016

Alaska Airlines will begin two new intra-California routes early next year. (Image: Alaska Air)

Both Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines this week announced they will add new routes from California airports. This is likely just the beginning of a battle for the hearts and wallets of California’s frequent flyers as Alaska absorbs Virgin America and takes on Southwest for dominance in the Golden State. For the short term, travelers should benefit with more options and lower fares.

Alaska set a March 17, 2017 start for new Sacramento-San Diego and San Jose-Burbank service. It will offer three roundtrips a day in both markets, using its new 76-seat E175 jets operated by SkyWest Airlines with first class, premium economy and economy seating. (More on the E175 here.)

Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines will increase its growing presence at Mineta San Jose International Airport by adding nonstops to Baltimore/Washington International and Salt Lake City International, both starting on November 6 of this year.

Southwest will operate one daily roundtrip between SJC-BWI and two a day between SJC and Salt Lake City.

Officials at the airport noted that there is currently no non-stop service between San Jose and the metro Washington D.C. area, which was the second most requested domestic destination in a Silicon Valley corporate survey.

We checked times and prices on the new San Jose-Baltimore nonstop. Here’s what we found for an early November roundtrip:

The new flights will give Southwest 76 weekday departures from SJC to 15 destinations. Plus it will give San Jose another much-needed nonstop connection to the East Coast.

San Jose has made huge gains this year with flights to several long-haul destinations. British Airways just launched new 787 Dreamliner flights to London. On June 16, Air China inaugurates nonstops to Shanghai, followed by Lufthansa nonstops to Frankfurt later this summer.

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Deal Alert: California Corridor goes dirt cheap

September 27, 2017

Fares have plummeted for fall and winter flights as airlines battle for Golden State (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

UPDATE: This fare sale expired at midnight Weds Sept 27. Roundtrip intra-California fares are now in the $100 range. Not bad, but not $57! As competition continues in the battle for the Golden State, we expect more fare sales like this during slower fall and winter months so stay tuned to TravelSkills.

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There’s a good old fashioned fare war happening in the California Corridor this week with roundtrip fares on several airlines as low as $51 on most NorCal-SoCal routes.

It appears that the war got started when Southwest Airlines deeply discounted round trips between its big Oakland hub and southern California cities. Spirit jumped in, too with its low fares and high fees.

Then it moved across the Bay to San Francisco and San Jose, where United and Alaska Air jumped into the fray in the battle for the Golden State.

Here’s how Southwest is pushing its sale which sparked a fare war in California

How low are we talking? Here are some examples- but there are so many that you need to check yourself. I’ve posted roundtrip fares, but the sale applies to one-way fares, too.

Note that these roundtrip fares are available on the morning of Sept 27 and subject to change:

SFO-Burbank on United: $55 roundtrip
SFO-LAX on United: $57
San Jose-LAX/Burbank on Alaska Air: $57
LAX-Orange County on United: $57
SFO-San Diego on United: $57
Oakland-LAX on Spirit: $57
Oakland-Long Beach on JetBlue $57
SFO-Burbank, LAX, Orange County, San Diego on Southwest: $57
Oakland/San Jose-Burbank, Los Angeles, Orange County, Ontario, San Diego on Southwest: $57
Sacramento-Los Angeles, San Diego, Ontario, Burbank on Southwest or United $57

It appears that the $57 roundtrips are only available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Fares apply to flights now through mid-February. The are not available for peak holiday season flights. We found these fares on Southwest.com and Google Flights.

Note that the lowest United fares could be low-frills basic economy– awful, but acceptable for such short flights.

When roundtrip fares between SFO and LAX go below $100 round trip, it’s time to pay attention. But just $57 round trip? Wow. $57 is less that what many of us pay for a ride to or from the airport in Lyft, Uber or taxicab.

Will you take advantage of this sale? What’s the lowest fare you’ve ever seen in the California Corridor? Leave your comments below.

U.S. routes: Southwest, United, Alaska, AA, Delta, JetBlue + more

September 5, 2017

Southwest Airlines is adding new San Jose routes next spring. (Image: Chris McGinnis)

We have a lot of airline route news to catch up on following our August break, so we’ll start with domestic developments. Southwest’s spring schedule additions include several new routes out of San Jose and Sacramento; Alaska also starts new service at San Jose; United will join Alaska in flying out of a new Pacific Northwest airport, and adds a seasonal ski market from San Francisco; American will start new service from Denver, and will put a wide-body on a San Francisco transcon route; Delta’s Salt Lake City hub gets a new spoke, and Las Vegas gets more Hawaii flights; JetBlue grows at Atlanta and Boston; Spirit adds a Las Vegas transcon route; and Frontier expands at San Antonio.

The battle for California is paying off for Golden State travelers with tons of new routes and low fares. Southwest Airlines last week unveiled plans for significant expansion in California next spring. On April 8, the airline will kick off new daily service from San Jose to Boise, St. Louis, Austin, Spokane and Houston Hobby, along with new daily flights from Sacramento to Austin and St. Louis. Southwest will follow that up on May 6 by launching new daily service to Orlando from both San Jose and Sacramento. Officials at SJC said Southwest will also expand existing routes there starting April 8, adding a second daily roundtrip to both Chicago Midway and Dallas Love Field, a fifth to Seattle, a sixth to Phoenix, and a fifth and sixth daily flight from SJC to Portland., along with new Sunday-only service to Albuquerque and New Orleans.

In Florida, Southwest on April 8 will add three daily roundtrips between Ft. Lauderdale and Jacksonville and daily non-stops between Milwaukee and Houston Hobby. On March 8, Southwest is due to discontinue its non-stop flights between Dallas Love Field and Milwaukee, and between Philadelphia and West Palm Beach, and will seasonally suspend service between Oakland-Tucson, Washington Reagan National-Ft. Myers, and Minneapolis/St. Paul-Ft. Lauderdale.

United will join Alaska in flying out of Washington State’s Paine Field next year. (Image: Alaska Airlines)

Travelers in San Francisco and Denver will get a new option for flights to the Seattle area next year with United’s announcement that it will add service from those cities to Paine Field, 23 miles north of Seattle. Starting in the fall of 2018, United said, it plans to start offering six flights a day from Paine to its SFO and DEN hubs. Last spring, Alaska Airlines announced plans to begin the first commercial airline service from Paine Field in the fall of next year, although it didn’t say which routes it would serve. In other route news, United will begin twice-weekly seasonal service on December 18 between San Francisco and Vail/Eagle, Colorado, with CRJ700s operated by SkyWest. Elsewhere, United/SkyWest on November 1 will begin service six days a week to Clarksburg, West Virginia, from both Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles with CRJ200s.

Speaking of Alaska Airlines, that carrier last week kicked off new routes at San Jose, adding daily flights to both Austin and Tucson, using the popular Embraer E175 regional jets. That gives Alaska 31 daily departures at SJC to 18 destinations.

SJC is expanding, adding two new gates (29 & 30) at the southern end of the Terminal B for use by Alaska Air (Image: SJC)

On October 5, American Airlines is planning to replace the A321 currently used on one of its daily Philadelphia-San Francisco flights (AA722/723) with a wide-body Airbus A330-200. The bigger plane is currently scheduled to keep flying the route through December 14. Next year, beginning June 7, American plans to operate a daily summer flight between Denver and New York JFK with a 737-800. In other news, The Dallas News reports that American will offer 2-4-2 premium economy seating on its Hawaii routes from Dallas/Ft. Worth, using retrofitted 777-200s. The roomier seats are available from DFW to Honolulu and Maui starting in December, and from DFW to Kona beginning next June.

On December 21, Delta plans to begin new daily service between its Salt Lake City hub and Milwaukee, using an E175 operated by SkyWest. Delta is also extending its planned Las Vegas-Honolulu 757 service, which was originally scheduled for daily holiday flights from December 21 to January 14. Now they will continue as Saturday-only service from January 15, increasing to three flights a week February 16.

JetBlue is adding three more Atlanta routes. (Image: Jim Glab)

JetBlue finally broke into the Atlanta market last March, when it started flying five times a day from ATL to its Boston focus city. And now JetBlue has plans to double its Atlanta presence by adding five more daily flights there. Effective March 8, 2018, JetBlue will start flying from Atlanta to New York JFK twice a day, to Ft. Lauderdale twice a day, and to Orlando once a day. Elsewhere, JetBlue announced it will begin new service between Boston and Syracuse on January 4, offering one daily roundtrip with an Embraer 190.

In the ultra-low-cost carrier arena, Spirit Airlines on November 9 will begin daily A320 service between Las Vegas and Newark. And Frontier Airlines will start operating four flights a week from San Antonio to Washington Dulles on October 6, followed by four a week between San Antonio and Ontario, California beginning October 13.

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Routes: Southwest, AA, Delta, Alaska, + a new 787 route

June 5, 2017

Southwest just added several new California routes. (Image: Jim Glab)

In domestic route developments, Southwest adds Cincinnati to its route map and adds service in several new California markets; American adds some regional routes and will put a wide-body on a SFO transcon; Delta adds more Comfort+ seats to regional aircraft; Alaska starts up its latest East Coast route; Spirit grows at Oakland; Frontier comes to Providence; and Air Canada pits a Dreamliner on a key SFO route.

Southwest Airlines this week added Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to its route map with an initial schedule of eight flights a day – five to Chicago Midway and three to Baltimore/Washington. At the same time, the airline’s route map eliminated Dayton, where Southwest had been running a few flights a day to Midway.

As the airline’s summer schedule kicks in this week, Southwest also inaugurated new non-stop service in several California markets, including San Francisco-Portland, San Jose-Reno, San Diego-Boise and San Diego-Salt Lake City. New seasonal summer routes active as of this week include Oakland-Newark, San Diego-Newark, San Diego-Spokane and San Diego-Indianapolis. Elsewhere, Southwest started daily service between Denver and Charleston, S.C.; weekend flights between Denver-Pensacola; and seasonal flights between Denver and Norfolk. At Nashville, Southwest kicked off new daily flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul and seasonal service to Seattle.

After all the hubbub about airlines putting flat-bed seating into the front cabins on more domestic routes – notably Boston-San Francisco – readers of Flyertalk discovered another entry into the fully-reclining transcon competition: An American Airlines listing for A330-200 service between San Francisco and its Philadelphia hub starting in early October. Could this be just a seasonal redeployment of excess transatlantic aircraft, or a permanent thing?

American has new Eagle service at Billings and Medford. (Image: American Airlines)

Meanwhile, American just added some new regional service, including daily flights between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Billings, Montana using a 76-seat American Eagle E175; and new Eagle service from Medford, Oregon to both Phoenix and Los Angeles.

Delta continues to roll out its Comfort+ extra-legroom economy seating to more regional aircraft. Earlier this year, it finished installing the seats on its CRJ-200s, and now it has started selling Comfort+ on its E-175s and CRJ-900s. The extra-legroom seats are also now on sale for travel starting June 15 on Delta’s E-170 and CRJ-700 aircraft. “Delta remains engaged with distribution partners to allow Delta Comfort+ to be purchased through travel agents and in consumer direct shopping displays,” the airline said.

Alaska Airlines has started flying its newest transcontinental route. The carrier is offering daily seasonal non-stop service from Portland to Philadelphia, using a 737. The Portland-PHL flights will continue through August 26. It’s Alaska’s 58^th destination from Portland.

Air Canada has deployed a new 787 Dreamliner between SFO and Toronto (Image: Air Canada)

There’s something new in the skies between San Francisco and Toronto : Air Canada has just put a 787-9 Dreamliner into service on one of its six daily flights in the market. It’s scheduled on the airline’s 11:55 a.m. departure from SFO and its 8:15 a.m. westbound flight from Toronto. See more about this beautiful bird here.

Spirit Airlines introduced a number of new domestic markets. (Image: Spirit Airlines)

Spirit Airlines has kicked off new seasonal service from Oakland International to Baltimore/Washington and to Detroit, along with seasonal flights between Detroit and Seattle. New year-round markets just introduced by the low-cost carrier include San Diego-Baltimore/Washington, Seattle-BWI, New Orleans-BWI, New Orleans-Cleveland and New Orleans-Orlando. Spirit has also added Pittsburgh to its route map, launching new daily flights to Dallas/Ft. Worth, Orlando, Las Vegas, Houston Bush Intercontinental and Los Angeles, along with three flights a week to Ft. Lauderdale and daily seasonal service to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Low-cost Frontier Airlines has announced some new routes starting in mid-August. The carrier will start flying out of Providence’s T.F. Green Airport on August 14 with daily flights to Denver and Orlando, and out of Islip, Long Island’s MacArthur Airport August 16 with daily service to Orlando.

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Routes: Alaska, Southwest, Finnair, United, American, Air India, Avianca

May 22, 2017

Alaska Airlines will start Mexico City nonstops from SFO and LAX in August. (Image: Alaska Airlines)

In international route developments, Alaska unveils plans for its new California-Mexico City flights; Southwest will add more international service from Ft. Lauderdale; Finnair is about to launch San Francisco flights; United schedules aircraft changes for some transpacific markets from SFO and launches more seasonal Europe service; American puts its code on new flights from the West Coast to Barcelona; Air India adds two U.S. gateways; and Avianca Brasil adds a U.S. route.

Alaska Airlines has won Transportation Department approval for Mexico City routes thanks to slots at MEX that Delta and joint venture partner Aeromexico had to give up, and now Alaska has released schedule plans for its new service. On August 8, Alaska will start flying one daily roundtrip from both San Francisco and Los Angeles to Mexico City; on November 6, it will add a second daily LAX-MEX flight, plus one a day from San Diego to Mexico City. The SFO flight and the first LAX flight will use 737s; the second LAX flight and the San Diego service will use E175s.

Southwest Airlines is due to cut the ribbon in a couple of weeks on a new international concourse at its Ft. Lauderdale base, when it will also add service from FLL to new international destinations including Montego Bay, Cancun, Belize and Grand Cayman. Now Southwest has announced two more international destinations from Ft. Lauderdale. In early November, it will begin daily flights from FLL to San Jose, Costa Rica and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. And on November 11, the carrier will also start Saturday-only service to Cancun from Nashville and St. Louis.

Finnair will use an A330 on its San Francisco route. (Image: Finnair)

June 1 is the launch date for seasonal Finnair service from San Francisco to Helsinki, operating three days a week through the end of September with an Airbus A330-300. Finnair is a member of the American/British Airways Oneworld alliance, and Alaska Airlines this week announced a frequent flyer partnership with Finnair as well. “Members of Alaska Mileage Plan can begin earning miles on Finnair starting today,” the airline said. “Award redemption will commence later this year. Finnair Plus members can begin earning and redeeming points on Alaska Airlines starting today.”

United Airlines is planning some equipment changes on transpacific routes from San Francisco this winter, according to Routesonline.com. On August 1, United will pull the 747-400 from its daily SFO-Taipei flight, replacing it with a 777-300ER. Starting October 28, one of United’s two daily SFO-Shanghai Pudong flights will use a three-class 777-200ER instead of the previously planned 787-9; the other will use a 787-9. On December 16, United will boost SFO-Auckland schedules from seven to 10 a week as previously announced, but will use a 787-9 instead of a 787-8 for the winter season. And starting December 20, United’s daily 787-9 service from SFO to Tokyo Haneda will switch to a 777-200ER.

Meanwhile, United on May 24 is due to kick off its next round of seasonal transatlantic service, including flights from Newark to Athens continuing through October 4; Washington Dulles to Barcelona through October 27; and San Francisco to Munich through September 3. On May 25, United adds Chicago O’Hare-Shannon service continuing through September 5, and Chicago-Edinburgh flights through October 4.

Level will fly A330s from Oakland and Los Angeles. (Image: IAG)

Remember that new low-fare service from the West Coast to Barcelona that we told you about in March on a carrier called Level? That’s a new low-cost operation from International Airlines Group, the parent of British Airways and Iberia, and it’s due to get off the ground next week, with twice-weekly Los Angeles-Barcelona flights beginning June 1 and three flights a week from Oakland to Barcelona starting June 2, both using two-class A330s. And now Routesonline.com reports that BA/Iberia’s joint venture partner American Airlines will put its AA code onto the Level flights.

Air India’s SFO-Delhi flight proving very popular (Image: Peter Biaggi)

Air India is said to be doing so well with its San Francisco-Delhi service that it plans to add two new U.S. gateways later this year, according to The Times of India. The carrier has already announced plans to start flying to Washington Dulles in July, and the newspaper said Air India now expects to begin non-stop Los Angeles-Delhi service September 1, followed by Dallas/Ft. Worth service sometime later this year. The report said Air India is seeing a surge in passenger demand for U.S. service now that travelers cannot take their laptops into the cabins of the big Middle Eastern airlines on non-stop flights to the U.S. Besides its SFO service, Air India also flies to Delhi from New York and Chicago, and to Mumbai from Newark.

Avianca Brasil is due to kick off new daily flights between Miami and Sao Paulo June 23, with red-eye service in both directions.

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Routes: Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest, Delta + seaplanes to Tahoe!

May 18, 2017

Alaska Airlines will offer the first commercial service out of Paine Field next year. (Image: Alaska)

In domestic route developments, Alaska Airlines will start flying out of a new Seattle-area airport; JetBlue kicks off its newest transcontinental Mint route from San Francisco; Southwest adds some Milwaukee routes and drops one; Delta will enter a New England market from JFK; and Blackbird starts flying seaplanes from the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe.

Travelers who live in Washington State’s northern Puget Sound region will get a new air travel option starting next year when Alaska Airlines begins operating out of Paine Field in Everett, Wash., also known as Snohomish County Airport. The carrier hasn’t yet announced routes, but said it expects to begin flying at Paine Field by the fall of 2018, operating nine flights a day with 737s and E175s. Alaska, which will be the first carrier to offer commercial service from Paine Field, said construction of a passenger terminal there will begin next month.

In other news, Alaska last week started service on the newest spoke from its Seattle hub, operating one daily 737 roundtrip to Indianapolis.

JetBlue’s front-cabin Mint service is expanding to more transcon routes. (Image: JetBlue)

JetBlue this week deployed a Mint-equipped A321 on another transcontinental route: San Francisco-Ft. Lauderdale. According to the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, advance-purchase one-way fares on the route are in the $599 range, but can be found as low as $499. Two months ago, JetBlue introduced Mint service on its Los Angeles-Ft. Lauderdale route, and more Mint expansion will come later this year, including San Diego-New York JFK, San Diego-Boston and Las Vegas-JFK.

Southwest Airlines will make some changes to its Milwaukee operations starting November 5. The carrier will begin new service in two markets: Milwaukee-Nashville, with two flights a day; and Milwaukee-Cleveland, with two daily flights Sunday-Friday and one on Saturdays. At the same time, Southwest will boost Milwaukee-Denver frequencies from three a day to four, and will add a second daily Milwaukee-St. Louis flight. However, Southwest’s two daily Milwaukee-Minneapolis flights will be eliminated.

Delta plans to add another spoke to its New York JFK hub later this year, according to Routesonline.com. On September 10, the carrier is planning to begin one daily roundtrip between JFK and Portland, Maine, operated as a Delta Connection flight by Endeavor Air with a CRJ-900.

Blackbird’s seaplanes will fly from Sausalito to Lake Tahoe. (Image: Blackbird)

Who needs an airport? Blackbird Air, which offers small-plane service on several intra-California routes from the Bay Area, will introduce something new and totally different this summer: seaplane service from Sausalito to Lake Tahoe. Or as the company puts it, “Take off on the bay and land in the lake.” Blackbird has a downloadable app that can be used to book the service, which it says will start June 16 with fares from $124.

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Routes: Delta, JetBlue, United, Virgin America, Alaska, Southwest, American

May 4, 2017

Boston will get new Delta Connection service to four cities. (Image: SkyWest)

In domestic route developments, Delta and JetBlue both announce more service out of Boston; United expands Basic Economy to more routes; Virgin America starts flying new A321neos; Alaska adds a pair of Seattle markets; Southwest adds service at Sacramento; and American grows at Santa Rosa and Charlotte.

Boston travelers are the beneficiaries of an ongoing battle for market share between Delta and JetBlue. In the latest round, Delta unveiled new or expanded service on several BOS routes, in addition to its previously announced plans to start Boston-San Francisco flights on June 8. The carrier said its summer schedule this year will include new mainline service from Boston to Austin, along with new Delta Connection flights to Kansas City, Jacksonville, Buffalo and Norfolk. And on September 10, Delta will add a second daily roundtrip between Boston and Nashville.

And there’s more to come next winter: Delta said effective December 21, its Boston-West Palm Beach and BOS-Ft. Myers service will increase from weekend-only to daily, and Boston-Ft. Lauderdale will increase from weekends-only to twice-daily. The expanded schedule will give Delta 12 new destinations out of Boston since November of last year.

A few days later, JetBlue announced its own expansion plans for Boston-Florida routes, including the addition of one more seasonal daily roundtrip from Boston to Jacksonville, to Palm Beach and to Ft. Myers. JetBlue had already announced that it will lay on a fourth daily Boston-Los Angeles Mint roundtrip in October, and will start Boston-San Diego Mint service in December. At Ft. Lauderdale, meanwhile, JetBlue said it will begin a daily roundtrip to Salt Lake City beginning November 16.

Lie-flat front cabin seating on a Delta 757-200. (Image: Delta)

Speaking of Delta, we noticed a couple of unusual entries on Routesonline.com, which tracks all airlines’ filings of new routes and service changes. Routesonline said Delta plans to put a 757-200 with flat-bed Delta One seats into service on one of its daily Boston-Minneapolis flights starting January 3 of next year. And from this month through October, Delta will use the same aircraft on one of its three daily New York JFK-Philadelphia flights; the other two still use Endeavor Air regional jets. Are these domestic legs of international flights? Any ideas, readers?

When United started offering bare-bones Basic Economy fares earlier this year, it did so mainly on routes between Minneapolis-St. Paul and its major hubs. But now United has started selling the ultra-low, no-frills fares in more than 100 domestic markets, mainly from its hubs to leisure destinations and to other hubs, for travel beginning May 9. That includes routes like Newark-Orlando, Chicago-Denver, Washington Dulles-Orlando, Denver-Houston, San Francisco-Orlando and Chicago-Ft. Lauderdale. We’ve even heard they are in markets without ultra-low-cost-carriers such as LAX-SFO.

An Airbus A321neo in Virgin America livery. (Image: Virgin America)

Although it’s now technically part of Alaska Airlines Group, Virgin America remains a separate brand and operating unit with its own new aircraft deliveries. And over the next several weeks, Virgin will put its newest aircraft type into service – the Airbus A321neo. (The neo stands for New Engine Option.) The company said the new A321neos – it has ordered 10 of them – will have 185 seats. That will make it the largest in Virgin’s fleet; its current A320s have 146-149 seats, while its A319s have 119. The first A321neo will go into service May 31 between San Francisco and Washington Reagan National, and the second will start flying June 14 between SFO and New York JFK.

Speaking of Alaska Airlines, it recently started service on a pair of new routes out of its Seattle hub. That includes one daily roundtrip from Seattle to San Luis Obispo and one between Seattle and Wichita. Both routes are operated by SkyWest with 76-seat, three-class E175s.

Southwest Airlines is growing at Sacramento. Besides new twice-daily flights between Sacramento and Long Beach starting August 1, the airline will also start daily Sacramento-Spokane service on the same date. And on June 5, Southwest will add more frequencies in two other markets, boosting its Sacramento-Seattle schedule to as many as six flights a day, and increasing Sacramento-San Diego to as many as 11 a day.

American Airlines’ new service (started in February) between its Phoenix hub and Sonoma County, California’s Charles Schulz Airport in Santa Rosa has been filling up fast, so the carrier plans to add a second daily flight in the market starting July 5. The Santa Rosa flights use American Eagle 70-seat, two-class CRJ-700s. Elsewhere, American plans to add two new American Eagle routes out of its Charlotte hub on August 22, with two flights a day to Shreveport, La., and two a day to Toledo, Ohio. Both will use CRJ-200s operated by PSA Airlines.

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Routes: New Alaska transcons + Delta, Southwest, AA, Frontier

April 5, 2017

Alaska Airlines keeps adding more transcontinental routes. (Image: Alaska Airlines)

In domestic route developments, Alaska can’t seem to get enough transcontinental routes; Delta extends a new seating option to smaller regional jets; Southwest takes on another intra-California market; American drops a key Caribbean route but adds a Michigan link; and Frontier expands to Puerto Rico.

Alaska Airlines is getting into several new transcontinental markets thanks to its acquisition of Virgin America, and it has been adding some of its own, like the San Jose-Newark, Portland-Orlando and San Diego-Baltimore/Washington flights it started last month. But that’s not enough for Alaska: It just announced plans to add new daily transcon flights from Portland to New York JFK and from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. And it’s not quite a transcon, but Alaska also announced plans to start flying once a day from Portland to Detroit.

The Portland-Detroit service starts August 30, followed by one daily LAX-Philadelphia flight September 1 and one daily Portland-JFK roundtrip beginning November 6. All the eastbound flights on the new routes will be red-eyes. The two Portland routes will use 737s, while the LAX-Philadelphia route will use an Airbus from the A320 family (i.e., a Virgin America plane). LAX-Philadelphia was previously served by Virgin America from 2012 to 2014.

Delta Connection CRJ-200s are getting Comfort+ seats. (Image: SkyWest)

Major carriers have been transitioning their fleets away from smaller regional jets to the larger ones preferred by passengers. Delta still has some 50-seat CRJ-200s operated by Endeavor/SkyWest, and it just announced it has started selling its extra-legroom Comfort+ seating on those planes, effective for travel beginning May 1. With this enhancement, Delta said it “will now offer Delta Comfort+ on nearly all single-cabin delta Connection aircraft, in addition to its two-cabin aircraft.”

Delta’s announcement didn’t say how many Comfort+ seats the CRJ-200s would have, or how much extra pitch they would offer, or what would happen to seat pitch for the regular economy seats on those aircraft.

Southwest is starting service from Long Beach to Sacramento. (Image: Long Beach Airport)

Southwest Airlines, which started flying out of southern California’s Long Beach Airport last year with several flights a day to Oakland, has been eager to expand at Long Beach if only it could get more slots there. Well, it recently picked up a couple of slots given up by American, and said it will use them to begin twice-daily flights from Long Beach to Sacramento starting August 1.

American Airlines has been flying from New York JFK to San Juan, Puerto Rico for more than 45 years. But it has decided to give up that market on August 22, when it will eliminate its two daily flights on the route. AA still will fly to San Juan from several other hubs. Elsewhere, American Eagle has started up new service from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Washington D.C.’s Reagan National Airport, operating 12 flights a week.

While American is cutting capacity to San Juan, Frontier Airlines is adding it. Frontier is due to begin daily flights from Philadelphia and Orlando to San Juan on June 11, operating one daily A321 roundtrip on each route.

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Routes: Delta, Alaska, AA, JetBlue, United, JetSuiteX

March 27, 2017

Delta’s A319s have nine-inch screens at every seat. (Image: Delta)

In domestic route news, Delta will start multiple daily flights between two key business centers; Alaska eyes deployment of new E175s this spring and summer; American adds spokes from its Miami and Dallas hubs; JetBlue invades Delta’s hometown; United drops an East Coast route; and JetSuiteX steps up for music lovers.

Delta set June 19 for the start of new service from its growing Seattle hub to the largest city where it doesn’t yet fly from SEA. The carrier said it will inaugurate service between SEA and Chicago O’Hare, offering three flights a day with Airbus A319s. Departures in both directions are scheduled for early morning, midday and late afternoon, and tickets are on sale now. Meanwhile, later this year Delta will revive service on a route it dropped years ago: Salt Lake City-Tampa. Service will begin December 21 with one daily 737 roundtrip. And effective July 9, Delta will deploy a second daily roundtrip on its Atlanta-Rochester, Minn. route, using a CRJ-700.

Alaska’s Horizon Air subsidiary is deploying new three-class E175s. (Image: Alaska Airlines)

Alaska Airlines has ordered a bunch of new Embraer E175s, and several of them are being delivered this spring and summer. Routesonline.com reports that Alaska’s Horizon Air unit has started scheduling the new planes onto its route network, initially operating one daily roundtrip in each market. You’ll see the new E-175s staring May 4 on the Portland-St. Louis route, followed on May 18 on routes from Seattle to Oakland, Ontario, Portland, San Francisco, and St. Louis. The plane debuts June 4 between Portland-Salt Lake City; June 15 from Seattle to Calgary, Colorado Springs, Santa Barbara and San Jose; July 17 from Portland to Dallas/Ft. Worth; July 18 from SEA to Fresno and San Luis Obispo; August 17 from Seattle to Bozeman; August 18 from Orange County and Portland to Albuquerque; September 18 from San Francisco to Albuquerque and Kansas City; and October 18 from San Diego to Albuquerque.

The new aircraft are part of Alaska’s largest order ever for Horizon – a total of 30 new planes. And they will come with a three-class seating configuration including 12 first class seats, 16 in Alaska’s new Premium Class and 48 in the main cabin. The premium class seats will have a 34-inch pitch, vs. 36 to 38 inches in first and 31 inches in the main cabin. The planes will also have Wi-Fi, power outlets throughout, and free streaming entertainment.

American Airlines plans a July 5 start for new service between its Dallas/Ft. Worth hub and Spokane. The carrier will operate one daily roundtrip using a 124-passenger A319. On the same date, American will add another spoke from its Miami hub with the inauguration of one daily roundtrip to Omaha, Nebraska. MIA-Omaha will be an American Eagle operation, using a 76-seat E-175.

JetBlue and Delta are adding a new competitive arena as JetBlue invades the Boston-Atlanta market. (Image: Jim Glab)

We’ve mentioned this before, but just a reminder: This Tuesday (March 28), JetBlue is set to jump into a market thoroughly dominated by Delta and Southwest: Boston-Atlanta. JetBlue plans five flights a day on the route. The carrier planned on operating out of ATL’s Terminal E, but the airport reportedly wanted JetBlue to split its flights between Terminals D and E – prompting a JetBlue complaint to the FAA.

With a big hub at Newark, United Airlines doesn’t have much of a presence at New York LaGuardia – and that presence is about to get smaller. United Express/Republic Airlines operates up to three flights a day between LGA and Raleigh-Durham, but those flights are scheduled for termination effective June 7. United already serves RDU from Newark.

Music fans who want to get to the renowned Coachella Festival next month without a long drive through the desert have a new option. JetSuiteX, which operates small-jet scheduled service on intra-California routes, is planning to run special flights on two April weekends from Burbank to the Jacqueline Cochran Desert Resorts Regional Airport in Thermal, California. The service is scheduled for April 14-17 and April 21-24; tickets start at $199 each way at www.JetSuiteX.com.

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Alaska Airlines adds 6 more California nonstops

March 15, 2017

Alaska will deploy three-class E175s on new San Diego routes. (Image: Alaska Airlines)

Just a week after announcing 13 new nonstop routes from the Bay Area starting in late summer and fall of this year, Alaska Airlines is aiming to strengthen its grip on the California market even more by launching service on six new routes from San Diego.

The expansion calls for daily service from SAN to Omaha and to Austin starting August 27; to Albuquerque beginning October 18; to Minneapolis-St. Paul as of November 18; and to Kansas City and St. Louis beginning December 15.

All routes will be flown once a day with the popular 76-seat, three-class E175s (12 seats in first class, 12 seats in premium class and 52 seats in the main cabin). Once a day is not really enough to entice business travelers who love multiple options when plans change, but at least it’s a new nonstop option. In many of these markets, Southwest also operates one or two nonstops per day.

Alaska has been gradually building up its presence at California’s second largest city. Some of that growth begins this week, including new daily San Diego-Baltimore/Washington flights and three daily roundtrips between SAN and Sacramento. Alaska also recently won authority for new service from San Diego to Mexico City, but schedules haven’t yet been set.

New Alaska routes coming at San Diego. (Map: Alaska Airlines)

It’s a busy week for Alaska inaugurals in other markets as well. In addition to the San Diego flights mentioned above, the airline this week is kicking off a daily San Jose-Newark roundtrip; a daily Portland-Orlando flight; and three flights a day between San Jose and Burbank.

Alaska said that over the past five years, it has added 18 non-stop destinations from San Diego; by late August of this year, it will be operating 40 daily flights from SAN to 28 destinations.

“From San Diego, guests can make convenient connections to Tokyo and London, served by partner carriers Japan Airlines and British Airways,” the company noted.

Last year, Alaska’s Horizon Air unit placed an order for 30 new E175 jets, with options for 33 more. Deliveries are due to begin this year. SkyWest Airlines also operates some E175s for Alaska.

As it grows its own brand presence, Alaska must also figure out how to blend its network together with Virgin America’s. In last week’s announcement of new service from the Bay Area, Alaska said that all the new mainline routes would be flown with A320 family aircraft. That’s the type used by Virgin America – although the company didn’t say they would be operated by Virgin America. Alaska is expected to decide later this month what it will do with the Virgin America brand– so stay tuned!

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Routes: United, Alaska at San Jose + American, Delta, Spirit

February 24, 2017

United will use 737-800s for new San Jose routes. (Chris McGinnis)

In domestic route developments, new transcontinental flights are due to start at San Jose over the next few weeks; United kicks off a transcon to Florida from San Francisco International; American launches a new California route from its Phoenix hub; Delta links two southern business centers; and Spirit comes to Pittsburgh.

Previously announced plans by United and Alaska Airlines to expand at Mineta San Jose will get off the ground next month. United’s schedule calls for the launch of new service from SJC to two of its hubs: Chicago O’Hare and Newark. The carrier will operate two flights a day between SJC and O’Hare, and one daily roundtrip to Newark Liberty International, using 737-800s. Both routes begin March 9. SJC-O’Hare is already served by American, and Southwest flies from SJC to Chicago Midway.

Just three days after United starts its SJC-Newark service, Alaska Airlines is due to begin service on the very same route, with one daily roundtrip. Both the United and Alaska flights will have early-morning eastbound departures. The only other New York-area non-stop service from San Jose is a JetBlue redeye to JFK. Alaska is also slated to klick off new service from San Jose to Hollywood Burbank Airport on March 16, with three daily roundtrips.

United also started SFO-Tampa service. (Image: Tampa International)

San Jose-Newark isn’t the only new Bay Area transcon route for United. The carrier recently began a daily 737-800 roundtrip from San Francisco International to Tampa, with an 8:30 a.m. departure from SFO. Chris was on the inaugural flight; you can read his report here. In other news, United plans to beef up capacity on its San Francisco-Boston route by using a 777-200ER for two of its six daily flights, up from one flight today, according to Routesonline.com.

California’s Sonoma County got a new air link recently when American Airlines kicked off new daily American Eagle service to its Phoenix hub from Santa Rosa’s Charles M. Schulz Airport. American uses a two-class, 70-seat CRJ-700 on the route.

Delta has set a June 12 start for new service linking Nashville with Raleigh-Durham. The Delta Connection service will operate twice a day with SkyWest Airlines CRJ-900s that have 12 seats in first class, 12 in Delta Comfort+ and 52 in the main cabin. It’s Delta’s latest announcement of increased service at RDU; the carrier is due to begin RDU-Austin flights in March and RDU-Seattle in June; last fall, it added daily service from RDU to Newark and to Washington Reagan National.

Spirit Airlines is adding new service from Pittsburgh to seven cities. (Image: Spirit Airlines)

Spirit Airlines said it will add Pittsburgh International as the 61^st airport on its route map this spring, with plans to start flying from PIT to seven cities. On May 25, the carrier will begin daily PIT-Dallas/Ft. Worth year-round service, as well as seasonal daily flights from PIT to Myrtle Beach. It will add three weekly flights from PIT to Ft. Lauderdale on June 15, followed by daily service to Orlando and Las Vegas beginning June 22, and daily flights to Houston and Los Angeles starting July 13.

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Fare war: California-Chicago $100 roundtrip

February 21, 2017

Chicago continues to block Uber airport pick-ups. (Image: Jim Glab)

Chicago-California nonstops hit rock bottom for spring trips. (Image: Jim Glab)

There’s a fare war festering between major airlines and ultra-low-cost carriers between the West Coast and Chicago with fares as low as $120 round trip.

What’s best about this deal is that it is good for spring break travel– we’ve found super low, sub $150 roundtrip fares on SFO-ORD and LAX-ORD from now through the end of May.

The cheap fares are lead by the ultra lows: Spirit Air and Frontier. Both are offering fares as low as $100 round trip on this busy route, which is crazy. But keep in mind that you end up paying a price for using these guys…you are dinged for carry-on bags, seat assignments, and don’t get much love (or alternatives) if your flight is canceled or delayed. You might have to take a red-eye. But still, $100 round trip is tough to resist!

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We used March 1-March 8 as sample here (Google Flights)

We used March 1-March 8 LAX-ORD as sample here (Google Flights)

Majors have responded with ultra low fares of their own– we found nonstop deals on United, American, and Virgin America for as little as $120 round trip. We found American’s code share on new Alaska Air operated nonstops between San Jose and Chicago as cheap as $128. And these are regular economy fares, not the new stripped down “basic economy” fares loaded with restrictions and fees. Plus most of these flights are at decent times, you’ll still earn miles or points, and are not saddled with too many restrictions.

$200

Get $200 when booking your next trip: Use code: TS!

Southwest does not appear to be engaging in this fare war– its cheapest Oakland-Chicago Midway flights are still in the $300 roundtrip range.

Anytime we see roundtrips between California and Chicago running less than $200, we know it’s time to jump. So if this works for you, jump! It won’t last for long.

NOTE: These fares were available using Liligo and Google Flights on Tuesday, Feb 21 and subject to change. We also confirmed fares on individual airline sites.

Let us know if you have been successful or unsuccessful in finding these fares–put it in the comments.

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Routes: Delta, Frontier grow Cincinnati + Southwest, Alaska, Spirit

February 8, 2017

Delta is growing again at Cincinnati. (Image: Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport)

In domestic route news, Delta will grow at Cincinnati, and keeps a key Dallas route for now; Southwest adds new routes from Long Beach and Ontario; Alaska enters a new market from Orange County; Frontier adds new service in 10 markets; and Spirit Airlines expands in the northeast.

For years, Delta has been scaling back operations at Cincinnati, which was once one of its hubs. But now the airline plans to grow there, citing 15 straight months of increasing passenger numbers. Delta said its plan calls for a capacity increase of 6 percent in total seats flown out of Cincinnati, including the addition of more frequencies in five key business markets, with additional daily flights from Cincinnati to Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Orlando and Toronto.

It will also upgrade Cincinnati-Denver service to mainline aircraft, and will offer first class seating on all flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Its seasonal winter service from Cincinnati to Ft. Myers will continue to operate daily through the summer, Delta said, and its seasonal Seattle flights will extend into the fall and spring. Finally, departures from CVG to Charlotte, Hartford, Newark and Philadelphia will be retimed to permit easy same-day trips out and back. The airline will have a total of 82 peak-day departures at Cincinnati this summer, to 35 destinations. (More Cincy news below!)

Dallas Love Field will keep Delta service to Atlanta — for now. (Photo: Chris McGinnis(

In other news, Delta has won a court victory – for now, at least – that allows it to keep operating five flights a day between Atlanta and Dallas Love Field. Southwest has been eager to kick Delta out of the Southwest gates it has been subleasing at DAL, in a court fight that is going into its third year. A district court has blocked Southwest from doing so until the matter goes to trial, and this week an appellate court upheld that ruling. So Delta’s DAL-ATL route is safe for the time being. Delta offers even more service between ATL and Dallas/Ft. Worth.

Southwest Airlines is adding two new routes out of southern California. From Long Beach, Southwest just started operating twice-weekly 737-700 service to Denver. The flights operate on Saturdays and Sundays. Southwest has also kicked off new daily 737-700 flights between Ontario, California and Dallas Love Field.

Continuing its growth at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, Alaska Airlines has set an August 18 start for new service from SNA to Albuquerque. The flights will operate once a day, using Horizon Air E175 jets with 12 first class seats, 12 in premium class and 52 in regular economy. That’s the same date that Alaska will begin recently announced new service between Portland and Albuquerque.

Frontier Airlines is adding 10 more routes this spring. (Image: Jim Glab)

Frontier Airlines plans to kick off new daily service between Cincinnati and New York LaGuardia on April 21, and it also announced new service with less-than-daily frequencies on nine other routes. From Austin, Frontier will begin four flights a week to Washington Dulles on April 21, and three a week to San Diego beginning April 23. Other new service from Cincinnati includes four flights a week to Minneapolis beginning April 21 and three a week to San Diego starting May 21. From Cleveland, Frontier will add four weekly flights to Charlotte on April 21, three a week to Minneapolis starting April 23, four a week to Houston Bush Intercontinental and four a week to San Diego, with both routes starting May 22. Also on the schedule is new service three days week between Chicago O’Hare and San Antonio starting April 23.

Spirit Airlines will add new service out of Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport to sun destinations this spring. On April 27, Spirit will launch daily service from Bradley to Orlando, and four flights a week to Myrtle Beach, S.C. On June 15, the airline will add daily service from Bradley to Ft. Lauderdale.

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Popular: ‘Do Not Disturb’ | New Zealand deal | AAdvantage | Southwest routes

January 8, 2017

Air New Zealand flies a 777-300 like this on its LAX-AKL run (Photo: Air New Zealand)

Air New Zealand New Year’s sale fares start at less than $900 roundtrip (Photo: Air New Zealand)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 What “Do Not Disturb” really means at hotels

2 Deal Alert: Australia/New Zealand for less than $900

3 Big changes start for AAdvantage members

4 Southwest announces 22 new routes

5 New East Coast-U.K. 737 flights for $69

6 Alaska kicks off new Premium Class, ‘Free Chat’ and more

7 Airbnb finds hotel loyalists aren’t so loyal

8 Is a boom in supersonic travel coming?

9 Trip Report: QANTAS 747-400 business class San Francisco – Sydney (Photos)

10 New York State eyes huge reconstruction of JFK Airport

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

Business class on Air France’s 787-9, which starts flying to Cairo next week and to Montreal in May. (Image: Air France)

First look: Air France’s new 787-9 Dreamliners start flying soon

Wired looks at innovations coming to the economy cabin

Orkin lists the top 50 cities with a bedbug problem

Driver’s licenses from eight states won’t be accepted by TSA as valid IDs after this year

Virgin Atlantic will overhaul Upper Class cabins on its A330s

Innovative vending machines proliferate at airports

California’s Orange County is seeing a boom in new hotels

China opens the world’s highest bridge

Opening of new Berlin airport, already six years behind schedule, is delayed again

Airbus thinks outside the box on future passenger cabin designs

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Routes: Alaska/Virgin at SFO + American, Delta, Frontier, OneJet

December 22, 2016

Virgin America will add SFO-Orlando flights next year. (Image: Virgin America)

In domestic route news, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America provide details of their new San Francisco flights; American Airlines adds routes at Washington Reagan National and Phoenix, but drops one from Los Angeles; Delta adds a pair of Florida routes; OneJet expands at Pittsburgh; and Frontier will resume seasonal Cleveland-West Coast service.

Alaska Airlines has announced details of the new San Francisco services it mentioned earlier this week. On June 14, Alaska’s Virgin America unit will begin daily A320 flights from SFO to Orlando – but you’ll have to wake up early, because they depart SFO at 6:30 a.m.

On June 15, Alaska will expand its California Corridor presence by launching three daily SFO-Orange County roundtrips, increasing to four on July 18. (You might recall that Virgin America jumped into the SFO-SNA market in 2009, only to jump back out less than a year later in the face of stiff competition from Southwest.). Also on July 18, Alaska adds a pair of daily San Francisco-Minneapolis-St. Paul roundtrips. The Orange County and MSP flights will use 76-seat SkyWest E175s with first class, premium class and main cabin seating.

Delta is beefing up its east coast presence with new service from Boston to Florida. On February 18, Delta will begin twice-daily service from Boston to Tampa, and on February 17 it starts weekend-only (Saturday and Sunday) flights from Boston to Ft. Myers. (JetBlue also flies both routes.) Both routes will use Airbus A319s.

Republic Airways flies E175s like this one for American Eagle and Delta Connection. (Image: American Airlines)

An American Eagle/Republic E175 will fly from Washington D.C. to Northwest Arkansas. (Image: American Airlines)

American Airlines plans to expand at Washington Reagan National in the spring. On April 4, it will kick off new daily American Eagle/Republic Airlines service from DCA to Northwest Arkansas Airport in Fayetteville (near Walmart headquarters) with an Embraer 175. And on the same date it will begin twice-daily American Eagle/PSA Airlines service from DCA to Grand Rapids, Mich., with CRJ 200s; and daily Eagle/Republic roundtrips from DCA to Pensacola, Fla., with an E175.

Meanwhile, American this month began new American Eagle/SkyWest daily CRJ 700 service between its Phoenix hub and Santa Fe, N.M. American used to fly to Santa Fe from Los Angeles, but discontinued that service in 2015. It also serves Santa Fe from Dallas/Ft. Worth. And speaking of Los Angeles, American has decided to discontinue its three-year-old non-stop service between LAX and Pittsburgh as of February 14.

OneJet uses small Hawker 400XPs on short-haul routes. (Image: OneJet)

One airline that’s growing at Pittsburgh is OneJet, which operates small business jets in regional markets under public charter rules. OneJet plans to begin daily PIT-Richmond service March 1, followed by daily PIT-Albany flights March 22. It already flies from Pittsburgh to Hartford, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Louisville and Cincinnati.

Frontier Airlines, which introduced seasonal flights last year from Cleveland to four West Coast cities, is bringing them back in 2017. In April, Frontier will add service from Cleveland to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland, with flights operating three or four days a week and fares starting as low as $79 one way.

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Another small-plane alternative for California: Blackbird

November 17, 2016

Blackbird promises a small-plane experience at a budget airline price. (Image: Blackbird)

Blackbird promises a private-plane experience at a budget airline price. (Image: Blackbird)

Californians are getting plenty of alternatives to commercial airline travel these days. There’s Surf Air, which uses an all-you-can-fly, membership-based model; there’s JetSuiteX, which has a growing network of intrastate flights with 30-passenger aircraft; and now there’s Blackbird. The question becomes, How many airlines can the market bear?

Blackbird calls itself “a new, technology-driven airline delivering a private flight experience at a budget airline price.”

The company is partnering with independent charter operators to offer small-plane service, with its first scheduled flights due to begin January 12 between Palo Alto and Truckee near Lake Tahoe. (The big airport alternative to that would be Southwest’s OAK to Reno flight, Alaska’s SJC-RNO flight or United’s SFO to Reno flight.) It’s website says, “Imagine skiing in Tahoe until 4pm on Sunday and back home to the Bay Area by 5:30. Blackbird is the cure for Sunday night driving dread.” Depending on traffic, the slog between the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe can run from 4-7 hours.

Blackbird said it will initially operate between the two cities from Friday through Sunday at fares starting at $125 per seat, with no sign-up or membership fees. Flight frequencies will expand to more days as customer demand picks up, and “Blackbird will add six additional routes throughout California in 2017,” a spokesperson said.

Other cities under consideration for Blackbird service (Blackbird website)

The company promised its flights would operate on a regular schedule, and said seats will be bookable through a mobile app, “just like Uber.” (Well, it’s obviously not just like Uber because it’s not an on-demand service, but many start-ups these days can’t seem to resist the Uber comparison.)

While the app is not yet operations, Blackbird has a website at www.flyblackbird.com. A spokesperson says that the app will be available for reservations starting in early January.

The new entrant’s competitors seem to be doing well so far. JetSuiteX recently announced an equity partnership with JetBlue, and Surf Air (which already flies to Truckee from three Bay Area airports) said it is expanding its all-you-can-fly concept to Europe.

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Routes: Southwest, JetBlue, Delta, American, Surf Air

November 9, 2016

Southwest has added two more California routes out of San Jose. (Image: Jim Glab)

In domestic route developments, Southwest kicks off new service out of San Jose; JetBlue sets one new transcontinental route and plans the extension of Mint service to another; Delta and American establish new spokes from their Seattle and Charlotte hubs respectively; and all-you-can-fly Surf Air has a new way for customers to meet its membership fees.

Southwest Airlines this week launched service on a pair of new routes out of Mineta San Jose Airport. The carrier started flying once a day from SJC to Baltimore/Washington International and twice a day to Salt Lake City. The eastbound BWI flight is not a redeye, but it departs very early – at 6:35 a.m.

JetBlue’s front-cabin Mint service is coming to San Diego-JFK next year. (Image: JetBlue)

JetBlue Airways has announced plans to add yet another transcontinental route next spring. The airline set a May 3 start for once-daily service linking its Long Beach, California focus city with its Florida counterpart at Ft. Lauderdale. The new flight – which operates as a redeye eastbound – will give JetBlue a total of 35 daily flights to 13 destinations out of Long Beach. Earlier this year, it started new service form Long Beach to Reno/Tahoe and to San Jose. Meanwhile, Routesonline.com says that JetBlue is targeting its San Diego-New York JFK route for the next expansion of its Mint service. The site said the carrier has tentatively set August 15, 2017 for the introduction of Mint service on one of its two daily JFK-SAN flights.

Delta’s next expansion of its growing Seattle base will be a daily flight linking SEA with Milwaukee, due to begin operating on March 9 – a route already served by Alaska Airlines and Southwest. Delta plans to use a Delta Connection/SkyWest Embraer 175 on the route.

American Airlines this week inaugurated service on a new spoke out of its Charlotte hub, offering twice-daily flights to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The service uses CRJ-700s operated by American Eagle/PSA Airlines.

Surf Air offers private aircraft flights around California. (Image: Surf Air)

Want to try out Surf Air, the all-you-can-fly membership club that offers small-plane flights on a California intrastate network? If you’re a member of Lufthansa’s Miles & More loyalty program, you can take advantage of a special promotion through the end of March 2017. The company said it is inviting Lufthansa frequent flyers to try out a single roundtrip flight for 25,000 award miles, or an all-you-can-fly membership for travel within California (and to Las Vegas) with redemptions starting at 50,000 for a one-month participation.

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Most popular: Longest flight + California airlines + Best credit card + New lounge + Qantas

October 30, 2016

Chris excited and looking fresh before this week’s 17-hour flight from SFO to Singapore- and back in just 4 days (Photo: Charles Schuler)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 17 moments in 17 hours on Singapore Airlines Airbus A350

2 Singapore Air opens up about longest nonstop

3 Routes: United at San Jose + Delta, JetBlue, American, Virgin America

4 Trip Report: The long flight home SIN-SFO

The JetSuiteX Terminal at Concord, CA, east of SF- a nice break from the craziness at OAK or SFO! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

5 Big news at two small California airlines

6 First look: LAX’s fancy new Terminal 6 (photos)

7 9 key phrases every traveler should know

8 How to choose the best travel credit card

National is installing free popup lounges with wifi like this one at Washington Dulles (Photo: Jeff Pearce)

9 Airports: Screening upgrades, Oakland lounge, National Car pop-ups + more

10 A new look & feel for Qantas

What do flight attendants love most about SFO? A fun new promotional video from San Francisco International Airport, introduced by Tony Bennett, offers personal accounts from flight attendants representing a number of airlines about the interesting things to see and do at the airport. See video What do you love most about SFO? Leave your comments below.

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

US State Department orders departure of family members at Istanbul consulate

DOT: Average U.S. air fares down almost 10 percent year over year

Got 2.5 million SkyMiles to burn? You can fly Delta Private Jets

Use your SkyMiles for a ride on a private jet? Yep. (Image: Delta News Hub)

Southwest eyes new fees, but not for bags or ticket changes

JetBlue introduces fancy new amenity kits for Mint cabin passengers

Air India re-routes its SFO-DEL nonstop

Air India's first flight from New Delhi arrived at SFO before dawn. (Image: Peter Biaggi)

Air India’s flight path has changed (Image: Peter Biaggi)

Lowest airfares since 2009

Latest on Alaska-Virgin deal: Close, but still, no cigar

Delta app enhancement lets users follow their checked bags

Want to find your Uber rating? Here’s how

United introduces improved earbuds for economy passengers

AA/BA partner Iberia will get on board with premium economy seating next year

U.K. government backs plan to build a third runway at London Heathrow

Austrian Airlines promises instant replies to customer queries via Facebook Messenger

14 new Boeing 747-8 aircraft ordered, but you’ll never get to fly on one

Does that flagged winglet look familiar? (Photo: Brandon Farris)

Alaska Airlines reveals new military inspired special livery

This week Alaska Airlines revealed a new paint job, or livery, on a new 737-900ER. At first glance, that American flag wingtip may look like a move to integrate Virgin America design elements (see its flagged winglet here) into the look of Alaska Airlines, but it’s part of a new initiative called “Alaska Airlines Salutes,” to support and honor those who serve. The design features an Alaska Airlines Salutes medallion and a fallen soldier badge, with the Battlefield Cross to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. The plane also features five rings surrounding the engine, representative of the five branches of the United States military, and American flag winglets.

Don’t miss out on these popular TravelSkills posts:

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New California routes: Southwest, AA, Delta, JetSuiteX, Mokulele + more

October 13, 2016

Southwest will add two more California routes in March. (Image: Jim Glab)

In domestic route news, much of the action is in California, including a pair of new Southwest routes, new American flights from northern California and LAX, a new Delta market from Los Angeles, and new intrastate service from JetSuite and a small Hawaiian carrier; meanwhile, Alaska upgrades its equipment on two California routes.

Southwest Airlines, which has focused much if its recent growth on California, plans to add another pair of routes there. The carrier said that beginning March 9, it will start new service to Salt Lake City from both Sacramento and Burbank. Southwest is offering introductory fares starting at $59 one-way for booking through October 20.

American will begin Phoenix flights from Santa Rosa’s Charles M. Schultz Airport. (Image: Charles M. Schultz Airport)

On February 16, American Eagle/SkyWest will kick off new daily non-stops between Sonoma County’s Charles M. Schulz Airport in Santa Rosa and AA’s Phoenix hub. The carrier will use a CRJ-700 on the route. Elsewhere in California, American plans to initiate summer seasonal service next year from Los Angeles International to Grand Junction, Colorado. The flights will operate from June 3 through August 19, also with an American Eagle/SkyWest CRJ-700.

Outside of California, American will begin new regional jet service on February 16 from Phoenix to Bullhead City, Arizona; and AA this month began American Eagle/Envoy Air flights twice a day from its Chicago O’Hare hub to Akron/Canton.

As we mentioned the other day in a post about the expansion of lie-flat premium seats on transcontinental routes, Delta plans to launch new service on April 24 between LAX and Washington D.C.’s close-in Reagan National Airport, using a 757-200 equipped with fully-flat seats in the front cabin. At the same time, Delta will drop one of its two daily Salt Lake City-DCA flights, replacing it with a Salt Lake-Washington Dulles service.

This Phenom 100 jet from JetSuite seats six (JetSuite)

A Phenom 100 jet from JetSuite (JetSuite)

JetSuiteX, which offers small-plane public charters within California, will begin new service October 17 between San Jose and McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, north of San Diego. The company will use a four-seat Phenom 100 to fly the route four times a week, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On the same day, JetSuiteX will boost frequencies between San Jose and Burbank to two flights a day– and currently flights from both Concord and San Jose to Burbank are on sale for just $59 each way (for November trips) and that includes checked bags and wi-fi.

Following United’s recent decision to stop flying between San Francisco and Santa Maria, California, that town just got new service from an unlikely source: Hawaii-based Mokulele Airlines. The carrier is flying four times a day between Santa Maria and Terminal 6 at Los Angeles International Airport using nine-passenger Cessna Grand Caravan turboprops.

In nearby Santa Barbara, meanwhile, Alaska Airlines has started to use new 76-passenger Embraer 175s on its routes to Seattle and Portland, replacing 70-passenger CRJ-700s. The new planes have first class, Preferred Plus and regular coach seating, and are equipped with Wi-Fi service.

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Routes Roundup: United, Delta, JetBlue, AA, Southwest, Alaska, Frontier

September 6, 2016

United & Delta adding even more flights at SFO (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

There’s plenty of domestic route news to catch up on from the last few weeks. United and Delta are adding routes from San Francisco; Alaska and Delta are doing the same at Seattle; United is growing at San Jose; JetBlue is adding service at Long Beach; and new routes are coming at American, Southwest and Frontier. (We’ll post an international routes update later this week.)

At San Francisco, United plans to begin service next spring to both Detroit and Cincinnati. Effective June 8, the airline will operate one daily A319 roundtrip in each market, competing against Delta. And from December 17 through April 1, United will fly once a week (on Saturdays) with a CRJ-700 from San Francisco to Kalispell, Montana.

United also revealed plans to bulk up at San Jose by adding new 737-800 flights starting March 9 from SJC to its hubs at Chicago O’Hare and Newark. The carrier will fly twice a day to O’Hare and once a day to Newark. (United’s planned San Jose-Newark flight will begin just three days before Alaska Airlines’ recently announced new service on the same route, which will have the same departure time from SJC.) American and Southwest both fly from SJC to Chicago, and JetBlue serves the SJC-New York JFK market. Meanwhile, United on September 7 is due to launch new service to Chattanooga, Tenn., from both Newark and Chicago O’Hare, with two daily flights in each market.

In October, United will discontinue its existing twice-daily intra-California service between San Francisco and Santa Maria, which is operated by United Express/Skywest with a CRJ-200. On the other coast, United set a November 29 termination date for its twice-daily United Express service between Newark and Binghamton, New York. But on December 16, United plans to resume seasonal flights between its Washington Dulles hub and Ft. Lauderdale, with one flight a day through January 4, then two a day until May 4.

(We’re back from summer vacation! In case you missed our other recent round-up posts, here they are: Tips from a Hawaiian Vacation | August’s most important travel news)

Delta's premium economy seat, Economy Comfort (Photo: Delta)

Delta adding SFO-Boston nonstops using a 757s (Photo: Delta)

Delta has unveiled plans for a growth spurt at Boston next spring, including a resumption of Boston-San Francisco service. The carrier will offer two BOS-SFO flights a day, using 757-200s, beginning June 8. On the same date, Delta will double its Boston-Seattle schedule from one daily flight to two. Delta will also begin new Delta Connection/Endeavor Air service between Boston and Nashville, with one daily flight using a two-class CRJ-900. Also coming from Delta is new service from Seattle to Eugene, Oregon, with three daily CRJ-700 flights beginning April 1; and a new daily roundtrip between Seattle and Raleigh-Durham effective June 8.

Long Beach, California will get more service from JetBlue next year. The carrier set a January 4 launch for new Long Beach-San Jose service, where it will offer four daily roundtrips. The airline will also beef up its schedules on existing Long Beach routes, adding three more flights a day to Las Vegas, one extra departure to San Francisco, and one more to Salt Lake City. (The Bay Area will also get new service to Long Beach from Southwest in June, when the carrier is set to launch four flights a day from Oakland.) Elsewhere on its system, JetBlue plans to add new daily service on January 12 between Chicago O’Hare and Ft. Lauderdale, but on January 11 it will discontinue service between O’Hare and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

JetBlue will begin San Jose-Long Beach flights in 2017. (Image: Jim Glab)

JetBlue will begin San Jose-Long Beach flights in January. (Image: Jim Glab)

Alaska Airlines will continue to build up its Seattle hub next spring with the addition of two more routes to the Midwest. On April 13, Alaska will kick off new daily service from SEA to Wichita, Kans., with a SkyWest Embraer 175; and on May 11 it will add new daily 737 roundtrips between SEA and Indianapolis.

The spring schedule from Southwest Airlines, which begins in March, includes new daily service between Houston Hobby and Omaha, along with new twice-daily flights between Newark and Ft. Lauderdale. At the same time, the airline will begin seasonal daily service linking Las Vegas with Minneapolis-St. Paul.

SkyWest, operating as American Eagle, will begin new daily service November 4 linking AA’s Phoenix hub with St. George, Utah. The flight will use a 50-seat CRJ-200. On the east coast, American has scheduled a December 15 start for new American Eagle/Republic Airlines service between New York’s Westchester County Airport and Miami, offering two flights a day with two-class E-175s.

Ultra-low-cost Frontier Airlines plans a December 6 expansion at Phoenix, where it will begin service to Milwaukee and St. Louis, each with four flights a week; and to Nashville and Des Moines, each with three flights a week.

On December 15, American will launch daily roundtrips from Phoenix to Santa Fe and Sioux Falls. The Santa Fe flights will use a SkyWest CRJ 700, and the Sioux Falls service will be operated by a Mesa Airlines CRJ 900.

–Chris McGinnis

(We’re back from summer vacation! In case you missed our other recent round-up posts, here they are: Tips from a Hawaiian Vacation | August’s most important travel news)

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Popular: LAX update + Asia fare sale + New United 3D video + Cheap airports + Alaska Air pondering

July 24, 2016

Delta’s crowded Terminal 5 at LAX on a busy summer day- soon a thing of the past! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 Delta’s stunning plan for Los Angeles – LAX

2 DEAL: Amazin’ Asian discounts (UPDATE: Currently $533 round trip to Hong Kong from East & West Coast cities on United, Cathay Pacific)

3 Tokyo Haneda daytime rights: The winners are…

4 Astonishing! A class action that actually paid off for flyers

5 Delta’s striking new plans for New York – LaGuardia

Slick ceilings inside JetSuite’s Embraer planes where overhead bins are removed (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

6 Routes: Alaska transcons, Jetsuite in California, Southwest, United,American

7 United gets on TSA’s speedy screening lines bandwagon

8 Top 10 cheapest airports in U.S.

9 Travel start-ups: Another one bites the dust

10 Thought-provoking: Business travel burnout is a thing

Take this slick 360 degree tour of United’s Polaris experience- it’s interactive!

United has created a whole new site devoted to its new Polaris Business Class. Although we won’t see it until December, it’s cool to check out what’s coming soon. For example, the video above is actually a 360 degree tour! Take a look by clicking the arrow above

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

Delta’s new business class lounge at Dublin

Major upgrade planned for Chicago O’Hare

Unlimited Cheez-It Crackers now on JetBlue

American Airlines Slashes Partner Mileage Benefits

Falling fares taking a toll on airline profits

Details of United’s bribery scandal

Interesting planespotting at SFO: An Emirates A380 with a LA Dodgers livery. Thoughts? (Photo: Jonathan Khoo)

United giving away a billion miles to Chase MileagePlus cardholders

Air New Zealand’s new Safety Video

Delta is no longer Memphis’ largest carrier

Paris Hilton to launch her own hotel brand

Delta hires an outside agency to manage its social media accounts

Curb, a ride-hailing app for taxis, expands to five more cities

What’s this all about? Earn $$ for booking package deals? Yep. Click for more info

Do you have the freedom to select your own travel suppliers on business trips – and are you flexible when it comes to your airline and hotel arrangements? Would like like an Amazon or Best Buy gift card with your next travel booking? If so, you’re the target for a new travel booking and rewards company. Find out more about Upside here– sign up for the beta and get $150 gift card!

Delta-Southwest feud over Dallas Love Field is nowhere near resolution

Choice Hotels is the latest to offer direct-booking discounts for loyalty members

Air fares by 6-8 percent cheaper this summer

Southwest invites customers to share stories, advice online

Cathay Pacific will introduce a credit card for U.S. travelers

CEO says Alaska Air “spending a lot of time pondering” how to merge w Virgin America

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: How to get the BEST summer fare deals | One airline fee fading fast | Trip Report: Aer Lingus Economy Class | 5 top jobs for frequent travelers | First class phase out coming soon

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Routes: Alaska, JetSuite, Southwest, United, American, Spirit, Frontier

July 23, 2016

Alaska Airlines will add several routes into Newark (Image: Alaska Air)

In domestic route news, Alaska will add several routes into Newark; JetSuite plans a new California Corridor route; Southwest has its eye on Long Beach-Las Vegas service; United and American grow at Memphis; and Frontier and Spirit expand their Florida presence.

Taking advantage of the FAA’s decision to open up more takeoff and landing slots at Newark Liberty International Airport this fall, Alaska Airlines said it plans to add new flights there from four West Coast cities. On November 10, Alaska will begin one daily roundtrip from Portland to Newark, followed on November 21 by a new daily flight from San Diego to Newark; neither of the eastbound flights will be red-eyes. Then in 2017, Alaska will add a daily flight from San Jose to Newark on March 12, along with a third daily Seattle-Newark roundtrip beginning May 14.

Alaska also said it will begin twice-weekly seasonal service between Portland and Sun Valley, Idaho, operating from December 17 to April 1 and again from June 14 to September 16, 2017, using a Horizon Air Q400 turboprop.

JetSuiteX will add another California Corridor route. (Image: JetSuite)

Earlier this year, a private jet operator called JetSuite launched a new service between Burbank and Concord, California (just east of San Francisco) called JetSuiteX, selling single seats on scheduled departures of 30-seat Embraer 135s. And now the company plans to add a new JetSuiteX route on August 15, linking Burbank and San Jose with 12 weekly roundtrips and introductory fares as low as $99.

Last month, Southwest Airlines added Long Beach, California to its route map, launching four daily roundtrips to Oakland. And now Southwest plans to add daily Long Beach-Las Vegas flights beginning September 18, with introductory fares starting at $39. But the Long Beach-Las Vegas service is only scheduled to continue through the end of December.

American and United are planning to increase capacity out of Memphis, according to the Memphis Business Journal. It said that on August 23, American will replace smaller regional jets and an MD-82 with 160-seat 737s for its two daily Memphis-Dallas/Ft. Worth flights; and on October 6, it will add a fourth daily weekday flight between Memphis and Washington Reagan National. On October 31, the publication reported, United plans to replace a CRJ-700 with a 166-seat 737 for one of its two daily Memphis-Denver flights. This month, American eclipsed Delta as Memphis’ largest carrier.

Spirit Airlines is expanding its Florida network. (Photo: Spirit)

Spirit Airlines will boost its presence at Orlando this fall, adding daily service to five cities, including Boston and Philadelphia starting October 7; Kansas City beginning November 10; and Niagara Falls and Plattsburgh, N.Y. as of November 17. Also on November 10, Spirit will kick off new daily non-stops from Baltimore/Washington to both Tampa and Fort Myers, Fla.

On October 30, Frontier Airlines is planning to launch daily roundtrips from San Diego to Orlando, as well as three weekly flights linking Orlando with Des Moines, Iowa. Meanwhile, Frontier will also trim its schedule at Pittsburgh at the end of October, discontinuing service to Atlanta and to Chicago O’Hare.

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Southwest Airlines adds new Mexico flights from Bay Area

July 13, 2016

Southwest Airlines jets at Oakland International Airport. (Photo: Port of Oakland)

Members of Southwest Airlines’ Rapid Rewards loyalty program who live in and around the Bay Area will soon have access to new international vacation destinations in Mexico

The carrier said this week it has applied for government approvals to start operating the first non-stop flights from Oakland International Airport to Puerto Vallarta and San Jose del Cabo/Los Cabos, Mexico, targeting a February 2017 launch for both routes. (Fare information not yet available)

Since its merger with AirTran, Southwest has been slowly adding international destinations to its route map, all of them in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. But from California, the transborder route growth so far has all been from Los Angeles and Orange County.

There’s already service to Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta from San Francisco International and Mineta San Jose airports offered by United, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America, but Bay Area flights there from Southwest are a first for Rapid Rewards members.

Southwest’s current Latin American route map

Bryant Francis, the Port of Oakland’s aviation director, said that Los Cabos, in particular, “is the most requested international destination from the East Bay and North Bay that does not have a non-stop option.” Southwest’s plan to add Mexico routes from Oakland will dovetail nicely with the airport’s big Terminal 1 renovation, which will bring a new security checkpoint and international check-in and arrivals area to the facility by the second quarter of next year, followed by an expansion of federal inspection services a few months later.

Oakland has been Southwest’s airport of choice for much of its Bay Area growth. Currently, it flies to OAK to: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boise, Burbank, Chicago (Midway), Columbus, Dallas (Love Field), Denver, Houston (Hobby), Kansas City, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Los Angeles (LAX), Nashville, New Orleans, Ontario, Orange County/Santa Ana, Phoenix, Portland (PDX), Reno/Tahoe, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Seattle, Spokane, St. Louis.

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California competition heats up

June 9, 2016

Alaska is taking on Southwest in a battle for California dominance. (Image: Jim Glab)

Bay Area travelers have some new airline options this week as carriers add more routes in a growing competition for California customers.

Alaska Airlines has taken on the daunting task of horning in on a pair of Southwest Airlines’ intra-California monopoly routes out of San Jose. Alaska just started up three daily flights between San Jose and Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, as well as three daily roundtrips between San Jose-San Diego. The flights will be operated for Alaska by SkyWest, using 76-seat E175s with first class, Preferred Plus and main cabin seating, as well as Wi-Fi access and free streaming entertainment. They’ll be facing Southwest’s heavy daily schedules of multiple 737 flights in both markets.

At Oakland, meanwhile, Southwest this week launched nine new daily flights, including new intrastate service to Long Beach four times a day, along with three new daily flights to Reno-Tahoe and one to St. Louis. Southwest also boosted its Oakland-Baltimore/Washington schedule from one flight a day to two.

Southwest Airlines jets at Oakland International Airport (Photo: Port of Oakland)

With the new service from Oakland to Long Beach, “Oakland and Southwest will offer more daily departures by a single airline from a Bay Area airport to Southern California with 43 peak non-stop flights per day,” according to a spokesperson for the airport. With the latest additions, Southwest now has more than 120 flights a day out of OAK – with half of them going to airports in the greater Los Angeles region plus San Diego.

The new routes are just the latest escalation in a growing battle for the California market between Southwest and Alaska, which should get really interesting when Alaska merges with San Francisco-based Virgin America. And more new routes are coming from the two carriers, including Alaska’s plan to begin Sacramento-San Diego and San Jose-Burbank flights next winter, and new Southwest flights from San Jose to Baltimore/Washington and Salt Lake City coming this fall.

Cruising over Oahu on Virgin America (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Speaking of Virgin America, that airline is due to add another new Hawaii route next week (June 14), when it kicks off daily service from Los Angeles to Maui’s Kahului Airport. Early last month, Virgin started daily LAX-Honolulu flights. It also flies to both islands from San Francisco.

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Routes: American, Delta, United, Southwest

June 4, 2016

American's new service to Seattle from LAX in June will find plenty of competition. (Image: Jim Glab)

American’s new service to Seattle from LAX has plenty of competition. (Image: Jim Glab)

In domestic route news this week, American has a big growth spurt at Los Angeles International, and adds new routes from Dallas/Ft. Worth and Tucson; Delta announces a pair of new markets in the western U.S. and adds an East Coast route; United revives some Cleveland routes but drops two California flights; and Southwest plans five new non-stop routes this fall.

It’s a big week for American Airlines at Los Angeles International, where the carrier has started more than 20 new flights to a number of domestic destinations. As part of its build-up at LAX, American is adding two more gates and hundreds of employees there this year. New destinations added to its LAX schedule this week include Seattle (five flights a day in a busy market already served by Delta, Alaska, Virgin America, United and Spirit), Portland (three a day), and Minneapolis-St. Paul (two a day), as well as single daily roundtrips from Los Angeles to New Orleans, Kansas City, Omaha and Hartford. American also added seasonal daily flights from LAX to Anchorage, and weekend service to Durango, Colorado; and will operate summer flights to Jackson Hole, Wyoming every day and to Montrose, Colorado and Vail/Eagle, Colorado on weekends. With the schedule additions, AA now operates more than 220 flights a day at Los Angeles.

At its Dallas/Ft. Worth hub, meanwhile, American just started new daily flights to Montana’s Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport and to Boise, Idaho. And in Arizona, American plans to offer the only non-stop service from Tucson to New York, with a daily daytime flight to JFK beginning October 6.

Delta will use E175s for new San Diego-Las Vegas service. (Image: Delta)

Delta Air Lines has set a December 17 start for new service linking San Diego and Las Vegas, a market thoroughly dominated by Southwest. Delta plans to operate three flights a day on the route, using Embraer 175s. And at its Salt Lake City hub, Delta plans to revive service this winter to Aspen, Colorado after a six-year hiatus. The Delta Connection/SkyWest flights will operate once a day with a CRJ700, starting December 17. On the East Coast, meanwhile, Delta just announced plans to begin flying between Newark Liberty International and Raleigh-Durham beginning November 6, using two-class CRJ-700s for three flights a day, operated by Delta Connection/GoJet.

United has been seriously downsizing the former Continental hub at Cleveland Hopkins, but it plans to operate seasonal flights to Florida again this winter, in spite of new competition from several low-cost carriers, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It said the airline will offer seasonal service from CLE to Ft. Lauderdale and Ft. Myers from December 16 through early April. Meanwhile, United will end a couple of California routes, according to Routesonline.com. It will drop its daily Los Angeles-New Orleans service effective August 16, and its daily flights between Ontario and Houston Bush Intercontinental (operated by SkyWest) at the end of June.

In addition to the two new routes it will add from San Jose starting November 6 – to Salt Lake City and to Baltimore-Washington International – Southwest Airlines said that on the same date it will begin new service between Washington Reagan National and Providence, Rhode Island; Washington Dulles and Orlando; and Kansas City and San Antonio. The airline has already started taking reservations on all the new fall routes.

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Most popular: Airline ticketing tricks + Alaska/Virgin + NZ deal + 787 + California corridor

April 10, 2016

Delta among major airlines pushing pricing shenanigans on multi-city trips (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1> Airlines hosing us again? Warning: Be careful pricing multi-leg trips (readers sound off in comments!)

2> More new Routes: Southwest, American, United, Alaska, JetBlue

3> Consolidation drama Alaska Airlines + Virgin America: What you need to know now / Reactions to Alaska Virgin merger vary widely

4> Stunner- Deal alert: US to New Zealand for $898 roundtrip! (book by April 14)

KLM’s new 787-9 Dreamliner (Photo: KLM)

5> Blue bird! KLM’s first 787 Dreamliner route to U.S. (photos)

6> Positive reader comments on this: New California corridor small-jet service: $109 each way

7> Some worse than others 8 European cities most affected by terrorism

8> America’s most unloved airport: United could face more competition at Newark

9> SPG not for everyone: Starwood surprise in latest JD Power survey

10> Sorry, folks. Seat size regulation killed in Congress

In this CBS 5 TV interview, Chris likens the the Alaska-Virgin merger to combining IBM & Apple. And don’t say anything about his ski-burned face! He was straight off the sunny Lake Tahoe slopes 🙂

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

Relax. No combined Marriott-Starwood loyalty program until 2018

New: US Embassy in Turkey warns Americans in Istanbul, elsewhere

Why the heck is United flying a new 787 Dreamliner between LAX and Newark?

How to get the best flight deal to Europe

Delta shuts down, moves @DeltaAssist Twitter handle

Confessions of an airport thief

Inside the big bright new Queen’s Terminal (T2) at London Heathrow (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

World’s two busiest air routes? Surprising answer

United, Delta drop plan for JFK-Newark slot swap

How airlines are using post-booking emails to sell things to customers

Atlanta’s airport looks for ways to speed up security screening lines

Poll: Most hotel guests go online within seven minutes of checking in

These design innovations could improve the air travel experience

New study rates airports’ Wi-Fi performance

Survey finds road warriors are stressed out by international trips

Company develops 21-inch seatback touchscreens

Most popular Instagram photo this week is a photo of a photo on the wall at San Francisco International- an overhead shot of SFO’s international terminal in the 1960s.

Click to follow Chris on Instagram!

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Routes: Southwest, American, United, Alaska, JetBlue

April 8, 2016

Southwest will jump into the Oakland-Log Beach market. (Image: Oakland Airport)

Southwest will jump into the Oakland-Long Beach market. (Image: Oakland Airport)

In domestic route developments, Southwest expands within California and adds several other markets; American adds three routes from the Midwest; United adds a spoke from its Denver hub and drops one from Dulles; Alaska tries a new Kona gateway; and JetBlue adjusts the launch of LAX Mint flights.

Southwest Airlines will add Long Beach, California to its map on June 5, when it begins operating four flights a day from there to Oakland. The carrier is offering $49 one-way fares for travel through November 4, with an April 14 booking deadline. Southwest also has new service starting April 12 on several routes, with one daily flight in each market, including Atlanta to Greenville-Spartanburg; Baltimore/Washington to Minneapolis-St. Paul; Chicago Midway to Dayton, Ohio and to Flint and Grand Rapids, Mich.; Newark to Las Vegas and to Orlando; Phoenix to Wichita, Kans.; and St. Louis to Wichita and to Des Moines, Iowa.

With the Republican Convention in Cleveland coming up in July, American Airlines this week kicked off new Eagle service to Cleveland from Washington Reagan National with three flights a day (at the same time. American dropped its Cleveland-Phoenix service). Other new American Eagle service that started this week includes three flights a day from Washington Reagan National to Minneapolis-St. Paul, and two a day between Chicago O’Hare and Providence.

United is adding two new routes from Denver International to the East Coast this spring. (Image: Jim Glab)

United is adding two new routes from Denver International (Image: Jim Glab)

United has added a new spoke from its Denver hub, launching daily service to Richmond, Virginia; it’s the longest flight and the westernmost point served no-stop from Richmond. Meanwhile, United has set June 8 as the last day for United Express service between its Washington Dulles hub and Moline, Illinois.

Bellingham, Washington isn’t all that far from Seattle, but Alaska Airlines decided the city needs its own service to the Big Island of Hawaii. Alaska said it will operate once-a-week seasonal service (on Saturdays) between Bellingham and Kona from November 12 through April 1, using a 737-800.

According to Airlineroute.net, JetBlue has moved up the starting date for putting a Mint-equipped aircraft onto its Boston-Los Angeles route. The first Mint-equipped A321 will start flying LAX-Boston on October 20 instead of October 30. By November 17, the premium cabins should be on all three of JetBlue’s three daily flights in the market.

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Reactions to Alaska Virgin merger vary widely

April 7, 2016

Alaska’s big buy stimulated plenty of reaction. (Image: Jim Glab)

This week’s big news of Alaska Airlines’ pending acquisition of Virgin America Airlines spurred plenty of commentary from all sides. Here’s a roundup of reactions from various media and other sources.

First, there’s this: Late yesterday JetBlue, the failed suitor in the deal, responded with its own new promotion, offering “JetBlue virgins” — i.e., those who have never flown the airline – a chance to win one of 500 free roundtrip flights in exchange for their contact information.

_____

Sit back, relax. It’s going to take a while.

Stuart Dinnis, VP of Loyalty at Virgin America in an email to Elevate members:

“There will likely be no significant changes to your flying experience for as many as 18 months or more …Until the transaction is officially approved – typically a process that can take upwards of six months – both airlines will continue to operate independently and there will be no changes to our flight schedules, the Virgin America product and guest experience, Elevate Status levels or your ability to earn and redeem points… there will be no disruption to your earnings or redemptions. Your Points balance and Status level will be honored in Alaska Airline’s Mileage Plan, which has been rankedthe #1 airline rewards program by U.S. News and World Report for the past two years. In addition, you will be able to use your Status levels and earned Points across a significantly expanded network.”

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Virgin’s Richard Branson

He might be baaack!

Sir Richard Branson told Conde Nast Traveler he’s determined the Virgin America name will live on:

“Virgin America will never disappear from the United States,” the Virgin Group founder told us yesterday… The billionaire added that he will back a new airline to carry on the Virgin name, if it comes to that. “People love Virgin with a passion that hasn’t existed since the early days of aviation, and I am certainly not going to let it go to waste, even if it means starting all over again” as a new domestic airline. At least for now, Branson said he is hopeful that Alaska will preserve the Virgin name—and reputation… “Ideally, Alaska will treat Virgin “as a small independent company within a bigger company,” he said.

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Does that hipster look like an Alaska Airlines customer? (Image: SFO)

Alaska Air needs to get hip to the cool California kids

Fortune magazine said Alaska needs to upgrade in absorbing Virgin:

With new entrants threatening to destabilize Alaska’s dominance in the Pacific Northwest, it was high time that the airline did something to diversify its route network beyond its core market. But if the airline wants to hold on to Virgin America’s customers and effectively compete against the other mainline carriers on a national level, it not only needs to up its game in terms of on-board service and amenities, it also needs to rethink its marketing to appeal to a younger and more urbane customer. Simply put, Alaska’s wintry and nature-focused image, bare bones service, and confusing regional name isn’t going to cut it in the big leagues.

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JetBlue better watch out

The New York Times sees a big challenger to JetBlue:

Alaska Air must now be careful in how it integrates a brand beloved by its cadre of customers who adore its cheeky image, onboard Wi-Fi and soothing onboard purple lighting. For Alaska Air, buying Virgin America was in some ways a natural consequence of the successive mergers that have already concentrated domestic air travel in four primary airlines: American, Delta, United and Southwest…Putting together Alaska and Virgin America will not create a new airline that can stand toe-to-toe with those bigger companies. But it will create a tougher competitor for JetBlue, with which Alaska competed fiercely to win over the smaller airline, and which it will displace as the country’s fifth-biggest airline.

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American Airlines A321T now flying SFO-JFK (Photo: AA)

American Airlines likes it

Seeking Alpha sees American Airlines as a beneficiary of the deal:

American Airlines and Alaska Airlines have an extensive partnership in place that allows the two airlines to transfer passengers onto each others network and gives members of American Airlines that have status the equivalent on Alaska Airlines and vice versa. It gives American Airlines access to Alaska Airlines extensive network on the West Coast of the United States/Canada and in Alaska, both areas American Airlines is much weaker. A deal between Virgin America and Alaska Airlines will expand the Alaska network substantially, especially in San Francisco and give American Airlines indirectly also a much larger network.

______

Risky business

Business Insider cites three reasons why Virgin is a smart buy for Alaska:

At first glance, forking out $4 billion for some terminal space, landing rights, and a few jets makes little sense, but a deeper analysis shows that Alaska’s move, though risky, may be a smart buy for three key reasons. First, the acquisition of the San Francisco-based airline keeps Virgin America and its sizable West Coast presence out of JetBlue’s control… Second, Alaska’s acquisition of Virgin America makes it an instant powerhouse airline that’s a viable competitor to juggernaut Southwest…Alaska, the seventh-largest airline in the US, now has additional resources to scale up operations in key markets around the country, such as Dallas and New York… Third, Alaska Airlines is a major brand and big-time player in the western US. But it remains relatively unknown to a lot of travelers on the East Coast and abroad. The acquisition of an airline tied to a world-renowned brand allows Alaska to make a big splash outside its traditional market.

So what about YOU? What’s your reaction to the merger of Virgin America and Alaska Airlines? Please leave your comments below.

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Routes: Alaska, United, Southwest, AA, Virgin + more

February 18, 2016

United plans to fly 757-300s from Washington Reagan National to San Francisco and Denver. (Image: BriYYZ/Wikimedia Commons)

In U.S. route news, Alaska Airlines plans to expand at Mineta San Jose Airport with new intra-California service, and it is also growing at Portland; United trims its Cleveland schedule and puts larger aircraft on two Washington Reagan National routes; Virgin America makes a seasonal SFO route year-round; Southwest plans to fly to another Los Angeles-area airport; American adds a new spoke from LaGuardia; and a small niche carrier targets Pittsburgh for expansion.

Alaska Airline's mod new look. What do you think? (Image: Alaska Air)

Alaska Airline’s mod new look. (Image: Alaska Air)

Alaska Airlines announced an expansion in the Bay Area, with plans to add service from Mineta San Jose Airport starting June 5 to both San Diego and Orange County/Santa Ana, Calif. The carrier will operate three daily flights in each market, using 76-seat Embraer 175s from SkyWest Airlines. The planes have 12 seats in first class, 12 in preferred class and 52 in the main cabin, and are equipped with Wi-Fi and free streaming entertainment. Meanwhile, February 18 is the launch date for three new Alaska Airlines routes out of Portland International. The carrier will begin once-daily service from Portland to Kansas City, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Omaha.

Effective May 4, United Airlines plans to drop two routes from Cleveland Hopkins Airport, ending its service to Las Vegas and to St. Louis. That brings United’s presence at Cleveland down to 15 destinations, from 58 two years ago. Meanwhile, United also plans to expand capacity on a pair of routes out of Washington Reagan National by switching to 213-seat 757-300s from smaller aircraft. The 757s will replace 737-800s starting March 23 on the San Francisco-DCA route, and A320s and 737-800s on the Denver-DCA route beginning March 3. In other developments, United plans to discontinue service April 4 from Chicago O’Hare to Elmira/Corning, N.Y., and to operate Saturday/Sunday seasonal service from O’Hare to Great Falls, Montana from June 11 through August 14.

Southwest Airlines, seeking to expand its network to “five for five in Greater L.A.,” has applied for takeoff and landing slots at Long Beach Airport. The airline already flies out of Los Angeles International, Burbank, Orange County Airport and Ontario. Southwest didn’t say where it wants to fly from Long Beach, but California and Nevada media are speculating that it might have its sights on the Bay Area and/or Las Vegas. The airline said it hopes to start service at Long Beach later this year.

According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, American Airlines plans to start daily non-stop service from that Kentucky city to New York LaGuardia effective June 2. It said American will operate one daily roundtrip with a 50-seat regional jet.

A red carpet welcome under wintry skies at Palm Springs International

Virgin America’s inaugural flight to Palm Springs got the red carpet treatment (Chris McGinnis)

Virgin America Airlines said that its seasonal service between San Francisco and Palm Springs will be operated year-round from now on. The airline said it will fly the route four times a week through the fall. Virgin’s Palm Springs-New York JFK flights will remain seasonal, continuing through May.

OneJet, a small but fast-growing niche airline that operates seven-passenger Hawker 400 jets on routes in the Midwest, said it plans to make Pittsburgh its next focus city. The little airline, which already flies from Pittsburgh to Milwaukee and Indianapolis, plans to start twice-daily Pittsburgh-Hartford flights on May 9, and then to add four more destinations from Pittsburgh in the second quarter, although it didn’t day which ones.

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Routes: Delta mini-hub? + Alaska Air in Calif + Spirit in Seattle + More

November 12, 2015

Is Delta creating a mini-hub at Mineta San Jose? (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Is Delta creating a mini-hub at Mineta San Jose (pictured)? (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

In domestic route news, Alaska is growing at Orange County Airport; Delta starts a non-hub route in the West; Spirit Airlines adds a new city to its network; Southwest eyes new service at Minneapolis/St. Paul; and American will add a Memphis route.

Delta doesn’t often schedule new service on non-hub routes, especially in the domestic market, but that’s what it will do on December 30 when it adds Las Vegas-San Jose flights to its schedule. Delta Connection partner Compass Airlines will fly the route three times a day with 76-passenger E175s. San Jose-Las Vegas is currently a monopoly route for Southwest, which offers multiple daily fights. In addition to this new flight, Delta also operates nonstop flights between SJC and Atlanta, Los Angeles, Minneapolis St. Paul, Salt Lake and Seattle. Starting to sound like a mini-hub to us!

Alaska Airlines plans to boost its presence at California’s Orange County Airport next year with a pair of new routes. Effective March 16, Alaska will start once-a-day service from Orange County to Santa Rosa/Sonoma County, California and to Reno/Tahoe, Nevada. The flights will be operated by Horizon Air with 76-seat Q400 turboprops. Meanwhile, Alaska this month started flying four new previously announced routes. Daily Portland-Austin flights are operated for Alaska by SkyWest with a 76-seat Embraer 175; the other three routes — Eugene-San Jose, Los Angeels-Monterey and Boise-Reno — are flown by Horizon Air with 76-seat Q400s.

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Low-cost Spirit Airlines will add Seattle-Tacoma International to its route map next year, making it the first new U.S. airline to start flying there in eight years. The carrier plans to start flying twice a day between SEA and Los Angeles in March, followed by twice-daily SEA-Las Vegas flights in April. Spirit Airlines commenced two daily non-stop flights between Oakland International Airport (OAK) and LAX this week, and has a name for the new route: the “Bay-to-Basin” corridor.

Southwest Airlines will grow at Minneapolis/St. Paul on April 12, 2016, when it adds two daily roundtrips to Baltimore/Washington International.

American Airlines will add new non-stop service on March 3 between Phoenix Sky Harbor and Memphis, a route that currently has no non-stop service. The daily American flight will be operated by Mesa Airlines under the American Eagle banner.

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Delta-Alaska Airlines ‘partnership’ getting colder

October 21, 2015

Alaska and Delta are battling for the Seattle market. (Image: Jim Glab)

Although Alaska Airlines and Delta are engaged in a battle for passengers and market share at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, they still remain partners on one level. But that partnership seems to be getting increasingly frayed as Delta adds more routes at Alaska’s SEA hub.

In the latest development, members of Alaska’s Board Room airport lounge program will no longer have access to Delta Sky Clubs after the first of the year, according to information on Alaska’s website. (When we looked at Delta’s website, it still showed Alaska Board Room locations as being available to Sky Club members with no cutoff date. But we have to believe this change is reciprocal. Maybe Delta just hasn’t had time to update its website yet.)

Alaska’s members may not need Delta’s lounges any more anyway; in August, Alaska started a reciprocal lounge-use relationship with American’s Admirals Clubs, and it just announced an expansion of its partnership with United, giving Alaska Board Room members access to United Clubs in Philadelphia and Minneapolis-St. Paul as well as Phoenix effective December 1.

Delta is busy constructing one of the largest Sky Clubs in its network in the main terminal at SeaTac, which is expected to open next year. But Board Room members won’t get reciprocal access to it.

Speaking of Alaska Airlines Board Rooms, the carrier announced it will open a new one November 7 in Sea-Tac’s North Satellite terminal. It will offer work stations, free Wi-Fi, and big-screen TVs, along with free snacks, beverages and cocktails. On the same date, it will offer expanded hours at Board Rooms in the Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland and Anchorage airports.

Alaska and Delta do still maintain a frequent flyer program partnership — for now, at least.

On the route competition front, Delta just announced it will begin four daily flights between Seattle and Orange County, California on May 1 — a market currently dominated by Alaska and Southwest. Delta noted that with this latest addition, it plans to add new service to 10 destinations from SEA between November 2015 and May 2016. The other markets, previously announced, include Billings, Boston, Cancun, Edmonton, Kona, Missoula, Orlando, Pasco (Wash.) and Victoria, B.C.

Alaska keeps growing at SEA as well. It just started new service to Raleigh-Durham, N.C. this month; last month, it added new flights to Nashville and New York JFK.

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New intra-California options + more route news

July 1, 2015

Update: San Francisco hotels NOT most expensive after all

Southwest will start San Francsico-Burbank flights in January. (Image: Jim Glab)

Southwest will start San Francisco-Burbank flights in January. (Image: Jim Glab)

If you hate flying from San Francisco into busy, congested LAX, Southwest will start offering a new option next winter: The carrier said that on January 6, it will start flying three daily roundtrips between San Francisco and Burbank, with fares as low as $49 one-way.

In other domestic route news:

Other new routes from Southwest starting January 6 include daily flights between Sacramento-Boise, Indianapolis-Chicago Midway and St. Louis -Little Rock. This week, Southwest kicked off new daily service out of Austin Bergstrom to California’s Orange County Airport, St. Louis, and Portland.

In another intra-California market, Alaska Airlines on November 5 will begin daily roundtrips between LAX and Monterey. On the same date, it will introduce daily Boise-Reno flights; and in mid-December, it will start twice-weekly seasonal service between LAX and Gunnison, Colorado, the gateway for the Crested Butte ski resort. And this week, Alaska launched new daily flights between Seattle-Milwaukee, Seattle-Oklahoma City and Portland-St. Louis.

United plans to begin twice-daily service on October 25 between Newark and Akron-Canton, preserving New York service for the Ohio airport. (Southwest, which currently flies between Akron-LaGuardia, plans to drop it around the same time.)

JetBlue will put Nashville back on its route map next spring, with plans to fly there twice a day from Boston and once daily from Ft. Lauderdale.

Delta adds another spoke to its growing Seattle hub on December 19, when it will begin daily CRJ700 flights to Billings, Mont.

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Southwest adds Oakland-Atlanta, other nonstops

May 18, 2015

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: Delta’s first class fare sale + Aircraft size and flight delays + First class summer fare sales+ Chris’s summer travel outlook + United’s plans for LAX overhaul + Hertz’s fleet renewal

Oakland Airport is getting more new service from Southwest, including Atlanta. (Image: Oakland Airport)

The latest route announcements from Southwest Airlines, starting this fall, include new service between Oakland and Atlanta; new flights at Austin and Orange County, Calif.; more presence in Latin America, and more. But Ohio’s Akron-Canton Airport will lose some key routes.

November 1 is the launch date for Southwest’s Oakland-Atlanta service, its 24th non-stop destination from the California airport. The carrier started flying from Oakland to Baltimore/Washington and Dallas Love Field earlier this year, and is due to begin Oakland-Nashville and Oakland-New Orleans flights on June 7, followed by Oakland-Columbus service August 9.

At Austin, Southwest on November 1 will kick off new daily service to Seattle-Tacoma and to Boston, competing against Alaska Airlines and JetBlue respectively; and it will add a second daily roundtrip to Newark. On the same date, it will launch twice-daily Indianapolis-New York LaGuardia flights.

Last month, Southwest started flying from Kansas City to New York LaGuardia, and on November 22 it will begin new daily flights from Kansas City to southern California’s Orange County Airport. On the same date, the airline will also start daily flights from St. Louis to Orange County.

At Akron-Canton, Southwest’s schedule as of November 2 will eliminate service to Boston, LaGuardia, Washington Reagan National and Denver. The Denver-non-stop will be moved from Akron to Cleveland Hopkins Airport.

Southwest also unveiled plans to add a number of destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean from Houston’s Hobby Airport later this year. On October 15, it will start twice-daily Houston-Cancun flights and daily service from HOU to Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos in Mexico; Belize City, Belize; and San Jose, Costa Rica. On November 1, Southwest will add daily service from Houston to Montego Bay, Jamaica and to Liberia, Costa Rica.

Southwest (but not AirTran) joins PreCheck

November 15, 2013

TSA PreCheck lanes (Chris McGinnis)

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) today announced the expansion of TSA PreCheck to Southwest Airlines, Atlanta’s second largest carrier.

Important: This does NOT apply to flights on AirTran Airways, which Southwest Airlines purchased in 2011. Why? A Southwest spokesperson told The TICKET: “It’s a function of technology. We are on two different reservations systems. With AirTran flights decreasing each schedule release, the technology was only enabled on Southwest.”

Today’s announcement makes a total of eight domestic carriers including: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways and Virgin America.

As most frequent travelers know, PreCheck allows pre-approved travelers to leave on their shoes, light outerwear and belt, keep their laptop in its case and their 3-1-1 compliant liquids/gels bag in a carry-on in select screening lanes at 100 airports nationwide.

Passengers who are eligible for TSA PreCheck include U.S. citizens of frequent traveler programs — including Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards — invited by participating airlines. Additionally, U.S. citizens who are members of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Trusted Traveler program and Canadian citizens who are members of CBP’s NEXUS program qualify to participate. Later this year TSA will launch an application program, allowing more U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to enroll in TSA PreCheck.

If a Southwest Airlines passenger is eligible for expedited screening, a TSA PreCheck indicator will be embedded in the barcode of the boarding pass so that when scanned at the checkpoint, the you’ll be granted access to a TSA PreCheck lane. Southwest Airlines will also print a TSA PreCheck indicator directly on the boarding pass so passengers will know in advance that they have been cleared for expedited screening. But remember, the TSA warns that is will always incorporate random and unpredictable security measures throughout the airport, and no individual will be guaranteed expedited screening. (which is why I still carry a CLEAR card, which works at both SFO and San Jose)

Here’s how it works:

Elite level Rapid Rewards members will receive notification that he/she is eligible to opt-in to the program and chooses to participate or a passenger includes a Known Traveler Number within a reservation, Southwest Airlines will share certain information with the TSA Secure Flight System.

Note: Only reservations booked after opting-in are eligible for TSA PreCheck.

Global Entry or Trusted Traveler participants will need to provide their CBP-assigned PASS ID number in the “Known Traveler #” field during the booking process at southwest.com andswabiz.com. The passenger’s Trusted Traveler information will be submitted along with reservation information to TSA’s Secure Flight system. Trusted Traveler program members should also remember to enter their full name, date of birth, and PASS ID exactly as it appears on their membership card.

tsa_precheck_whosflying

IMPORTANT: Global Entry and CBP Trusted Traveler participants can add their PASS ID number to their Southwest Rapid Rewards Member profile to have the number automatically sent to TSA when booking reservations.

For more information, see www.southwest.com/TSAprecheck.

—Chris McGinnis

*****

In case you missed it:

ATL ranks last + more Delta devaluations + 747 refurb complete + loaded guns

Holiday travel advice fit for a Queen

New rules about using electronics onboard

ATL Valet Parking + IHOP + SkyMiles downgrade + 717 delay + Double miles + Hot Nuts

8 things to like about Delta’s new California Shuttle

****

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So long, Bob Hope. Hello Hollywood Burbank!

December 14, 2017

Burbank Airport got a new identity this week. (Image: Hollywood-Burbank Airport)

Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport is no more.

Well, the airport is still there. But it’s no longer called Bob Hope Airport.

Following up on a change approved by airport officials earlier this year, the Bob Hope Airport signage came down this week, replaced by the facility’s new name: Hollywood Burbank Airport.

Located northwest of downtown Burbank, the airport is about the same distance from Beverly Hills as LAX is. But it’s even closer to Hollywood, and hence its new name.

Burbank’s airport, formerly called Bob Hope, is 16 miles northwest of downtown LA. (Image: Hollywood-Burbank Airport)

“The Hollywood Burbank Airport identity was selected in order to give passengers, especially those originating from east of the Rockies, a stronger sense of where the Airport is geographically located,” a spokesperson said, noting that the airport had been known as Hollywood Burbank from 1967 to 1978. After that, it was called Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport before picking up the Bob Hope moniker in 2003.

Most Burbank routes are in the California Corridor, with service from Southwest, United, Alaska and JetSuiteX. But it also has flights from more distant airports, including New York JFK, Austin, Seattle, Portland and Salt Lake City.

The airport’s existing terminal is due to be replaced with a new 14-gate facility in a $400 million construction project that should take place from 2018 to 2022.

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Popular: Hawaii sale + More United + Real ID + Delta first class + Cathay A350 + SFO-Tahiti

November 26, 2017

Fares to Honolulu take a dive on Virgin America & other airlines (Photo: Chris McGinnis

Flying to/from SFO today? Sorry about that. Rain starting now, already 2.5 hour delays 🙁 https://t.co/c8Z9nDSZik
— Chris McGinnis (@cjmcginnis) November 26, 2017

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 Fares still available Sunday 9 am PT> Fare sale to Hawaii – $337 roundtrip from 7 cities

2 Routes: United beefs up + Alaska adds PIT + American in DC + Spirit’s newest city

3 Relax> Frequent flyers may need a new driver’s license – but when?

4 Another player in the wings> More competition landing in the California Corridor?

5 Delta upgrades first class on some domestic routes

Remember: If you are conditionally approved for Global Entry, you can do your interview upon arrival! No long waits or extra trips to the airport. Easy! Pictured: SFO arrivals hall (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

6 C’mon along for a nice ride> Trip Report: Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 SFO-Hong Kong

7 Planespotting 101: Boeing 737 vs Airbus A320

TravelSkills editor Chris McGinnis offering up some travel tips for the holidays on ABC 7 – KGO in San Francisco

8 4 cheap-but-indispensable things to pack in your “go-bag”

9 Confirmed: Southwest to fly to Hawaii. Unconfirmed: Lower fares

10 Routes: SFO-Tahiti + Lufthansa, AA, WOW, Aeromexico, Volaris

On the way to #LAX #roadtorewards #lufthansa #A380 #travel #uber #avgeek
A post shared by Chris McGinnis (@chrisjmcginnis) on Nov 19, 2017 at 12:52pm PST

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Another big fare sale starts today

October 10, 2017

Southwest Airlines kicked off a fall winter fare sale good for trips thru Feb (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Travel demand and fares typically tumble during the slower fall and winter months, and this year is no exception– we saw some remarkably low fares from United last week, and as expected, there’s more to come…

Today, Southwest Airlines kicked off the first big late fall and winter fare sale, and I expect other airlines to start matching these low fares in the next 24-48 hours. (see below for links)

So if you felt priced out of peak summer season, take a look at what Southwest has on offer during the “dead weeks” between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and into the cold, dark early winter months.

Southwest kicked it off today with with fares starting at $100 roundtrip. From there, roundtrip fares rise in several steps to around $260-$280. Many of these fares are about $30-40 cheaper than a similar sale Southwest offered in October 2016– good evidence that fares are trending downward.

While these fares are slightly higher than those we’ve seen in previous un-announced spot sales, what’s better about this is the big window for travel, which extends all the way through the end of February.

UPDATE: Several readers report finding even lower fares than the ones publicized by Southwest, so be sure to check around.

Sample approximate round trip fares include:

$100: All intra-California and CA-Las Vegas flights, Atlanta-Chicago, Raleigh or Richmond; Washington DC-Boston

$160: SFO/OAK/LAX-Denver, Atlanta-most cities in Florida, New York LGA-Chicago,

$185: SFO/OAK/LAX to Dallas or Denver; Atlanta-Boston, Chicago, Dallas or New York

$240: Houston-Phoenix, Atlanta-Los Angeles/Las Vegas; Denver-Atlanta; New York to Chicago or New Orleans; SFO/OAK-Chicago

$280: Most transcon flights between New York, Baltimore, Atlanta or Boston and LAX, SFO/OAK, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle

There are also several good deals on flights to Mexico in the $200-$250 round trip range.

Expect other major airlines to match these low fares over the next 24 hours. (We’ll update this page with competitive matches as they roll out…see below). Keep in mind that even with matches, Southwest’s fares are cheaper if you plan on checking baggage- it offers two bags for free.

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You can party on the rooftop of the new Virgin Hotel in Chicago this fall or winter (Nancy Branka)

This sale is good for flights during what’s known in the biz as the “dead weeks” when travel demand plummets to annual lows– this means that hotel and car rental costs are also at annual lows, so it’s a great time to take a cheap trip. It’s also a good time to get home and see the family if pricey peak holiday season fares keep you grounded.

For business travelers who have not been able to get out and see clients due to this year’s high fares, this is a great opportunity save by traveling when most folks are staying at home. You can take off for a quick visit just before Christmas or drop by during the cold dark months of January and February.

Details of Southwest’s 72-hour sale:

>Must buy your tickets between now and Thursday, October 12 at 11:59 p.m. (in originating city).

>Travel windows: October 31-December 19; January 3-February 14, 2018

>Not available on Fridays or Sundays (bummer for business travelers or weekenders)

>Black out dates: Christmas/New Years peak season from December 20- January 3

>Very limited time: Only a handful of seats on each flight are on sale- you snooze, you lose.

>See Southwest website for other rules and restrictions, or to book trips.

Stay tuned for UPDATES: Airlines matching this sale so far include: Alaska Air, Delta, United (with slightly higher fares), JetBlue added a deeply discounted 24 hour sale good for late Oct/Early Nov trips only.

–Chris McGinnis

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Catching up after time off: What happened in August

September 5, 2017

I spent the last week of my summer break on assignment in Mexico City. Photo taken at Contramar where I had my best meal

I’m baaaack! Tanned and relaxed after a nice, long late summer vacation. Hope you’ve been able to take the time to have a good one, too!

Our break ended with a quick trip to Mexico City– a remarkably upscale, interesting, inexpensive and easy trip– stay tuned for our full report later this week.

Even when I’m taking time off, I can’t keep my eyes off what’s happening in the travel world. Over the last few weeks I’ve trolled the headlines, and taken some time today to catch up on what I missed.

Here’s a roundup of important stories and deals that caught my eye- in no particular order. Lemme know if I missed anything!

Delta’s newest baby: The Airbus A350 (Photo: Airbus)

DELTA’S NEWEST PLANE: Delta has taken delivery of its first shiny new A350 and will put it to work in Asia later this fall> Delta’s first Airbus A350 routes

PARTNERS: Now you can earn Alaska miles when flying Singapore Air (and vice versa). Redemptions will come later> Alaska Airlines and Singapore Airlines partner up

STATUS MATCH: In its battle for the hearts and wallets of California flyers, Southwest is currently offering to match your elite status with other carriers. Want to get on Southwest’s A-list? Register here.

VOICE ACTIVATION: A cool new addition- especially helpful with those early morning flights> Hey Alexa: What’s the status of my United flight?

MORE SPACE: A nice upgrade for Alaska Air elites… Virgin’s Main Cabin Select is a very nice upgrade on a long flight> AlaskaAir elites flying Virgin America get free upgrades to Main Cabin Select

Cabin offers sleep pods for overnight trips. (Image: Cabin)

SLEEPER BUS: LA Times reporter liked the experience. But I wonder about sleep quality. And the $115 price. Still I need to give it a try. Would you?> Review of Cabin, the new sleeper bus service between SF & LA

$1 BILLION: That’s what restaurants and shops at the world’s busiest airport grossed last year! PF Chang’s is at the top of the heap> Busiest restaurants at ATL gross $5-$10 million per year

CHINA: Since it’s located just down the road a piece from Shanghai, we wondered why United added this one in the first place. Wondering if Xian might see same fate> United exits SFO-Guangzhou

GERMANY: SJC has paid many airlines (via reduced fees) to serve Silicon Valley. Now that those discounts are drying up will airlines flee?> San Jose-Frankfurt on Lufthansa goes seasonal only

RENTAL CAR REWARD: National’s popular One Two Free promo is back for the fall/winter. You get one free rental day for every two rentals now thru Feb 28,2018. Book 3x and you get bonus points. Register here

Special lanes marked by floor signs at SFO (Photo Chris McGinnis)

FASTER ARRIVALS. Global Entry is not just for Americans– citizens or nationals from 10 countries can participate> Indian citizens to get access to US Global Entry

SOUTHWEST STEPS IT UP AT SJC: Battle for California continues bringing more flights at lower prices to the Golden state> Southwest adds 8 new cities from San Jose

EARN MONEY FOR FLEXIBILITY: If you are a “rogue traveler” and make your own travel arrangements, you’ll save by using these> 3 new incentive platforms reward business travelers for taking cheaper options

DEATH BY 1000 CUTS: I’ve been writing about this for 30 years and the story remains the same. Our only hope is that a downturn in the economy will force airlines to use programs as marketing tools again> Another Delta SkyMiles devaluation

HILTON BONUS. Now thru the end of the year, Hilton Honors member get double points. Diamond members get even more> Register here

A mock up of Qantas’ new upper deck lounge on its A380 (Image: Qantas)

NICER A380s: As Qantas slowly phases out its 747s, A380s are becoming its new flagship- check out the upgrades its making to these big birds> Upgrades in 4 classes coming to Qantas A380 fleet

BEST RESTAURANTS: Our favorite new restaurant recommendation site. We agree with all its SF recos and will use it when on the road this fall> The Infatuation: Our favorite new restaurant recommendation site

DARK SHADES. Remember our review of the new AC Hotel Atlanta where we mentioned it’s new electrochromatic windows? Or the first time we saw them on an ANA Dreamliner? Now the same tech is coming to SFO’s new Terminal 1> Electro-chromatic glass on Dreamliners coming to SFO Terminal 1

LITTLE BUSES UNDER THE AIRPORT. Once again, United is running out of space at SFO’s Terminal 3. Where to go? Back to Terminal 1> United adding gates at SFO to accommodate growth

Is your inclination to tip drivers changing? (Photo: Uber)

TIPPING ON UBER. If you’ve been wondering why your Uber drivers seem more friendly these days, consider this> Uber drivers have already bagged $50 million in tips

HOW TO NOT TICK OFF YOUR UBER DRIVER. Since the departure of Uber’s embattled CEO this summer, it’s been getting a lot more driver-friendly. First we saw tipping added. Now drivers don’t have to accept unusually long rides> Uber to notify drivers when customer requests “long trip”

A BETTER WAY TO GO? The Wall Street Journal reports on why flying Air Canada via its international hubs makes sense for bargain hunters from the US> Why Air Canada’s the best way to get to Europe or Asia

Flying out of Mexico City last week, I saw the outline of its new spider-like airport (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

AIRPORT LOVERS: At TravelSkills we love a big new airport and we know you do, too. Here are a handful that are coming relatively soon> 3 new airports to get excited about

RETIRING QUEEN: This week Delta is celebrating its final domestic Boeing 747 flight on a leg between LAX and Detroit. EVA retired its Queen in August> EVA Air retires its last Boeing 747

ICYMI, see the 25 most recent TravelSkills posts right here

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Popular: Cheaper fares + Hilton penalty + Airline fees + JD Power surprise + Global Entry

July 23, 2017

All Hilton brands move to 48-hour cancellation policy, including the slick new Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills (Image: Waldorf Astoria Hotels)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 Cheaper one-way or roundtrip? The old rules are changing

2 Hilton joins Marriott in restrictive 48-hour cancellation rule

3 Which airlines earn most from fees, frequent flyer programs?

4 Routes: More JetBlue Mint + Southwest, Delta, American, Alaska

5 Major Frontier expansion at San Jose, Denver, 19 other airports

Frontier shook up the airline industry last week with plans for big expansion. (Image: Frontier)

6 Routes: Delta to China, Mexico deals, Cathay upgrades, Saudi, WOW, United

7 Surprises in new JD Power hotel survey

8 Seriously: An airline for Millennials

9 Have dinner in a 70’s-era Pan Am 747

10 How to get Global Entry faster

Have you ever been on a flight that got a “wet salute? Share your story!

United Airlines getting a wet salute for inaugural SFO-Tampa flight last winter (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

Alaska likely to stick to all Boeing fleet- but Virgin’s Airbus fleet will fly away slowly

Delta is better at taking your money

Get your $25 airline bag fees back with new BestWestern promo

How to earn 2x or 3x points at Holiday Inn Express this summer

Near disaster at SFO worse than expected- see animation

Hungry? Grab a juicy Gott’s burger at its new SFO location in International Terminal A (Image: Gotts)

A better burger lands at SFO: Gott’s Roadside opens in International Terminal A

Atlanta hoping to land nonstop flight to India

DHS says world’s airlines have complied with its stricter security standards

SkyTeam adds two-stop option to its round-the-world pass fare

Avis upgrades its mobile app with new features, services

The Ritz-Carlton Chicago finishes a $100 million overhaul

Follow Chris on Instagram!

Big changes in the #SF skyline #travel #travelskills #california #skyscraper #sanfrancisco
A post shared by Chris McGinnis (@chrisjmcginnis) on Jul 21, 2017 at 3:03pm PDT

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Most popular: Marriott policy change + Domestic 747 + Cheeseburgers + American inch

June 18, 2017

Starting June 15 a new cancellation policy went into effect at all Marriott and Starwood properties like the Le Meridien in Atlanta (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 Marriott/Starwood confirms restrictive new cancellation policy

2 United adds 11 new nonstops to Hawaii

3 Routes: United, Domestic Delta 747 flight, Virgin America, Southwest, Frontier

4 Alaska’s new double miles partner promotion

5 Cheeseburgers, pizza take off in economy class

A back of the bus burger on United– very good! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

6 Another Mideast carrier cuts U.S. service

7 Airport news: Denver, LAX, San Diego, Houston, Las Vegas

8 American gives back an inch

9 Delta, TSA test fingerprints as boarding passes

10 Reader Report: Final ride on a Delta 747

Watch Boeing show off its sleek and nimble new jets in this video released for this week’s Paris Air Show.

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

Beware when connecting through Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport! Here’s a tip from reader D.M.:

You may have addressed this earlier and I missed it but Europe travelers need to know to avoid connections at CDG at all costs. I recently went to Venice, via CDG, and even though it was through Delta (and adhered to their minimum connection times at CDG) it still took nearly two hours to connect to an Air France flight into VCE. Needless to say, we missed the original connection and had to take a later flight. Upon returning to ATL, I discussed this with three other frequent Europe travelers who confirmed that they had the same recent experiences in CDG. Part of the problem is the layout and part is the fact that, with about 200 people attempting to connect to other concourses, the French police only had two agents checking passports and documents for intra-airport passengers.

Air France’s bhub at Paris Charles de Gaulle. (Image: Parisinfo.com)

Trump’s new travel ban- on Americans

“Manspreading” banned in Spain

Take a look at Delta’s newest bird: The Airbus A350

Expansion plans Atlanta’s popular Concourse T, housing United, American & Delta gates

Oy: United flight attendants to earn $50 for hawking Chase cards on planes

United: More than 30 percent of main cabin customers are buying Basic Economy

DOT saw a spike in passenger complaints after release of United ‘dragging’ video

Southwest tests dual-door deplaning at two California airports

See a United 767 spewing fuel from a wing just before takeoff at Newark

First look: Cabin designs for El Al’s new Dreamliners

How hotels are upgrading their fitness facilities

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Big late summer/fall airfare sale takes off

June 6, 2017

Southwest kicks off big summer sale- we expect others airlines to match it (Image: Southwest Airlines)

While fares to Europe have tumbled this summer, domestic tickets have remained stubbornly high on many routes.

If you feel priced out of peak summer season, or have plans for trips in late summer or fall, Southwest Airlines has an airfare sale for you– on its domestic as well as its growing list of international destinations.

Southwest kicked it off today with with fares starting at $100 roundtrip. From there, roundtrip fares rise in three more steps: $160, $200, and $260.

As usual, expect other airlines to match this sale. TravelSkills will monitor their responses at the bottom of this post. (Scroll down…)

What’s nice about this sale is that it’s good for late summer trips starting as early as August 22— keep in mind that Labor Day is on Monday, September 4 this year.

And summer is not officially over until September 21. That’s a nice window for a late summer trip!

Take a look at what Southwest has on offer during the slower fall months as well as the “dead weeks” before and after Thanksgiving.

Sample approximate round trip fares include:

$100 Between San Francisco & Oakland and Burbank, Los Angeles, Portland, Reno, San Diego (and most other intra-California and Vegas routes)
$116 Boston-Atlanta
$160 Atlanta-Washington DC Reagan National, Orlando, Ft Lauderdale
$200 New York LaGuardia-Nashville, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St Louis, plus Sacramento-Portland, Austin-Atlanta
$208 between Oakland and Puerto Vallarta
$260 between Houston and Phoenix, or Oakland, Austin
$300 between Oakland and Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans (Most transcon in the $300 range)

Keep in mind that Rapid Rewards redemptions are cheaper now, too because the SWA program is based on ticket prices.

Southwest Airlines jets at Oakland International Airport (Photo: Port of Oakland)

We expect other major airlines to match these low fares over the next 24-48 hours. (We’ll update this page with competitive matches as they roll out…see below)

Note that Southwest does not charge for the first or second bag, and does not impose change fees like most other airlines. When major airlines match these fares, they’ll likely do it with “basic economy” fares that have even more fees and restrictions.

Details of Southwest’s 72-hour sale:

>Must buy your tickets between now and Thurs, June 8 at 11:59 p.m. (in originating city).

>Travel window: August 22- December 13

>Lowest fares not available on Fridays or Sundays

>Blackout dates for domestic flights: September 1 and 4, and November 17-28, 2016 (this varies on a handful of routes)

>International fares are only available on Tuesdays and Thursdays; blacked out Sept 4-6, Nov 25-28

>Only a handful of seats on each flight are on sale- you snooze, you lose.

>See Southwest website for other rules and restrictions, or to book trips.

Stay tuned for UPDATES: Airlines matching this sale so far include: Alaska Air | Virgin America (with slightly higher fares) | United

ICYMI, see the 25 most recent TravelSkills posts right here

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Most popular: United mess + New Hawaiian planes + Low fare flying + Best mileage deals

April 16, 2017

A very dark week for United Airlines (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 United: Will 3 wrongs make a right?

2 Hawaiian Airlines unveils new A321s for west coast routes

3 The problem with low fare flying

Low fares are great, but what happens during irregular operations? (Image: Oakland International Airport)

4 Alaska targets Texas for latest expansion

5 Travelers’ rights: Involuntary bumping & the United drama

6 Routes: Airberlin delays at SFO/LAX, Virgin Australia, Austrian, AA, United + more

7 Uber faces shut-down in 2 European countries

Finding a ride on Uber getting tougher in Europe- but there are alternatives (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

8 First look deep inside a Delta 747-400 [PHOTOS]

9 How to get the most for your miles this summer

10 British Airways’ posh plans for business class [PHOTOS]

Do you follow TravelSkills on Facebook? It’s a great way to tune into breaking news. CLICK!

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

How much could David Dao get from United lawsuit?

Delta raises cap on bump compensation to $10,000 in flight vouchers

Which is California’s most loved airline?

Delta quietly increases award prices (again)

Delta raises rates, devalues SkyMiles again. Surprised? (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Driving to the airport? SFO knows your number & keeps it for four years

Under Trump, Bay Area tourism could take a hit

A pilot explains what he thinks really happened on United flight

Airlines argue against calls for a ban on overbooking

Travelers almost $1 million in loose change at TSA checkpoints last year

Customs & Border Protection sharply increases digital searches of personal devices

New FCC chief kills proposal to allow in-flight voice calls

Delta has new policy for guns in checked bags

Hyatt adds in-room streaming of Netflix, Hulu, etc.

United’s new wine flights on Polaris flights are popular… maybe too popular? (Photo: Scott Hintz)

United’s Polaris passengers are drinking too much wine

Scorpion stings passenger on United flight to Canada

Air Asia X starting low-fare Honolulu flights, but has eyes on LAX, SFO

ICYMI, see the 25 most recent TravelSkills posts right here

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The sooner the better for summer travel planning

April 13, 2017

With more nonstops to more places than ever, San Jose’s striking Terminal B is the first step to a great summer vacation! (Photo: SJC)

Several factors are coming together in 2017 to make this one of the busiest summers ever for vacation travel: tough fare competition among airlines, low fuel prices, and an improving economy. But don’t make the mistake of waiting too long before you firm up your plans.

Airlines are adding more flights and destinations from the Bay Area’s airports – especially Mineta San Jose International (now the nation’s fastest growing airport)– giving travelers a better selection of non-stop vacation possibilities. (Check its rapidly expanding destination roster here)

But increased demand means those flights will fill up fast, and so will the most desirable hotel rooms and rental cars. So as soon as you’ve settled on a destination and approximate dates (flexibility in your days of travel can work to your advantage), get on your mobile phone or laptop and start investigating options for all the elements of your trip. A delay in planning and booking could mean settling for a connection instead of a non-stop flight, a room facing the parking lot instead of the ocean, and a rental car that’s bigger or smaller than you really need.

Keep in mind, too, that prices for the various elements of your vacation are likely to increase the longer you wait. Airfares, hotel rates and rental car prices are not fixed; they change every day based on fluctuations in supply and demand. So as more air seats, rooms and cars are booked up for the summer, the cost of the remaining ones tends to go up.

Air China now offers nonstops to Shanghai from San Jose International (Photo: SJC)

The peak time for summer vacations is July through mid-August, so you might save some money and find greater availability if you schedule your trip before or after those times – before June 15, say, or after August 15.

Got a big international trip in mind? There are several new non-stop destinations from Mineta San Jose in 2017. Last year, British Airways started flights from SJC to London, Lufthansa began flying to Frankfurt, and Air China added non-stop service to Shanghai. If you want to head south of the border, look for new Aeromexico daily flights to Guadalajara beginning July 1- the city’s high altitude makes for a cool summer destination. To the north, Air Canada’s service from SJC to one of Canada’s hottest destinations – Vancouver – will be increased with a third daily roundtrip starting May 2.

United and Alaska Airlines now offer nonstops between Silicon Valley and the Big Apple- check out Brooklyn while you are there! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Closer to home, there are lots of new options. If the Big Apple is on your wish list, both United and Alaska Airlines started daily flights to Newark in March. United also added daily SJC-Chicago O’Hare service. If southern California’s your preference, JetBlue recently started four flights a day from SJC to Long Beach, and Alaska last month introduced three flights a day to Burbank (both of them nice alternatives to overcrowded and under construction LAX).

Southwest will add San Jose-Reno to its network on June 4, with one daily roundtrip. And American Airlines will kick off seasonal daily flights from SJC to its Charlotte hub on May 5.

So get off the fence, check your calendar, and nail down your summer vacation plans before it’s too late.

Have you flown in or out of San Jose lately? Why or why not? Are you more likely to give SJC a try now that it’s added this slew of new flights? Please leave your comments below.

This post is sponsored by Mineta San Jose International Airport

Disclosure: Thank you for reading TravelSkills! We will periodically create posts or send out messages like this one from commercial partners about topics relevant to frequent travel. Our sponsors’ support, and yours, help us keep TravelSkills a free publication.

Mineta San Jose Airport: New transcon routes and more

March 23, 2017

San Jose getting even more new nonstops to East Coast! (Photo: SJC)

Bay Area business travelers are seeing new flights at all three major airports in the region as passenger traffic keeps increasing, but one of them is adding new capacity at a faster rate than any airport in the country.

That airport is Mineta San Jose International (SJC), where total passenger traffic last year soared above the 10 million mark to 10.8 million, a gain of more than 10 percent over the previous year. For international passengers, the annual increase was more than 68 percent over 2015 as more carriers added transatlantic and transpacific service from SJC.

The number of airline seats flying in and out of SJC during March was up almost 20 percent over the same month a year ago. The average increase for U.S. airports was under 5 percent.

The capacity boom at Mineta San Jose is continuing this month with new transcontinental service – in fact, the same route — from two airlines. March 9 was the launch date for United’s new daily non-stops to its Newark Liberty hub, and three days later, Alaska Airlines inaugurated its own daily flights to EWR. United also started up twice-daily service to its big hub at Chicago O’Hare.

You can find more details about new San Jose routes here.

More planes, more flights, more passengers than ever at SJC (Photo: SJC)

With the tremendous growth in the nation’s technology sector, Mineta San Jose is positioning itself as the gateway airport for Silicon Valley business travelers, since the companies that collective name refers to are mostly just a few miles up the Highway 101 from SJC in towns like Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto. It’s closer not only in highway miles, but especially in drive time thanks to its distance from the congested San Francisco peninsula (and its crowded airport).

Those new transcons from United and Alaska are just a few of the new services coming to SJC in late winter and spring. In mid-March, Alaska added California Corridor service between Mineta San Jose and the Los Angeles area’s uncrowded Hollywood-Burbank Airport, with three daily roundtrips. And in May, SJC will welcome seasonal daily service from American Airlines to its Charlotte, N.C. hub, as well as a third daily roundtrip to Atlanta being added to Delta’s schedule. On June 4, Southwest is due to begin daily roundtrips from Mineta San Jose to Reno.

And later this year, Alaska Airlines will begin new daily E175 service from SJC to Austin and Tucson (both starting August 28), and four flights a day to Los Angeles International (beginning September 20).

On the hunt for colorful planes? Look no further than San Jose! (Photo: SJC)

More international flights are coming as well. Aeromexico is set to start flying once a day from SJC to its Guadalajara hub on July 1. And on May 2, Air Canada will add a third daily frequency to its SJC-Vancouver route. That’s all in addition to the big bump in international options for business travelers that came to SJC last year, including Air China’s non-stops to Shanghai, British Airways’ flights to London Heathrow, and Lufthansa’s to Frankfurt.

It’s easier than ever now for South Bay road warriors to get to Europe or Asia from SJC without a connection.

Have you flown in or out of San Jose lately? Why or why not? Are you more likely to give SJC a try now that it’s added this slew of new flights? Please leave your comments below.

This post is sponsored by Mineta San Jose International Airport

Most Popular: New deck + Cheap Europe + United B777 + Lie-flat + Delta 747

March 19, 2017

Dublin, Ireland was awash in smiles and greenery this week for St Patrick’s Day. With the euro low ($1.07), it’s a great time to go! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 Look! SFO gets public outdoor observation deck

2 Most deals expired, but likely to come back Rare business class fare war erupts

3 Cheapest summer ever for Europe? New $149 California-Spain flights – and it’s not Norwegian

34 inches of pitch in United Economy Plus- 31 inches in regular economy (Chris McGinnis)

4 Behind the curtain: Reader Report: United Economy Plus on new B777-300ER

5 Super elite smiles: Marriott upgrades some United frequent flyers

6 Big news 13 new nonstops with Alaska Airlines’ big Bay Area bump

7 Routes: Norwegian, WOW, Emirates, United, Air China + more

8 Oh, come on! Delta’s new fees for earlier flights

9 California never saw it so good: Alaska Airlines adds 6 more California nonstops

10 Luxury on a long transcon: Boston basks in lie-flat comfort

Surprise hot samosas on Aer Lingus (Chris McGinnis)

Don’t miss one of our most popular Trip Reports ever: Aer Lingus New Business Class SFO-DUB

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

From the San Francisco Chronicle: The Bay Area’s busiest gathering of designers right now might be tucked inside a hangar on the outskirts of San Francisco International Airport. That’s where 200 or so architects, engineers and other kindred spirits gather each weekday to chew on the details of a $1.5 billion project that won’t be finished until the end of 2022. And the first tangible result of their efforts — to rebuild an entire terminal without ever closing it — is the room where they work each day, a 33,000-square-foot, free-standing structure that was conceived and constructed in less than nine months. Full story and more photos here: Glimpse behind scenes as architects rebuild SFO terminal

Here’s the look of what’s to come at SFO Terminal 1 by 2022 (Photo: Gensler)

Say what? 87% of United revenue comes from those who fly just once a year

7 things you didn’t know about the ultra-exclusive Amex Black Centurion Card

China no longer needs Hong Kong as gateway, so Cathay Pacific suffers

Wanna get married inside a Delta 747? Now you can

Delta will open a special 747 exhibit later this month at its Atlanta Museum (Image: Delta)

United drops duty-free program

Passenger’s headphones catch fire in-flight

Boeing talks with airlines about what a 797 aircraft should look like

U.S. airlines’ passenger numbers hit a record in 2016

United doubles its planned capacity increase for 2017

Study: Southwest dominates rivals in social media presence

Trump budget would end subsidies for small-town air service

Get the app and get $10 off your first Lyft ride!

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Boston basks in lie-flat comfort

March 15, 2017

JetBlue’s front-cabin Mint service is expanding to more transcon routes. (Image: JetBlue)

Thanks to JetBlue, flat-bed seats on transcontinental flights are spreading from the New York market to Boston. And that is music to the ears of West Coasters who have to endure those six-hour hauls. Boston is so. far. away! And so is California…

When JetBlue introduced its Mint front-cabin service, which offers lie-flat seats and other perks to premium passengers, it was initially limited to the highly competitive New York-Los Angeles and New York-San Francisco markets dominated by United, Delta and American.

What started out as an experiment by JetBlue – offering biz-class service with a lie-flat seat comparable to its competitors but at lower fares – became a huge success for the carrier’s bottom line. So it started fitting out more aircraft with flat-seat Mint cabins and expanding the service to more transcontinental markets – starting with its three daily San Francisco-Boston flights.

First class lie-flat seats in Delta’s BOS-SFO 757-200s starting in June. (Image: Delta)

Last September, Delta announced plans to re-enter the San Francisco-Boston market on June 8 with two daily roundtrips, using 757-200s. Delta has four models of 757-200s, one of which offers lie-flat seats in its first class cabin. And those are the 757s Delta will use on the BOS-SFO route.

And something else is happening June 8: United reportedly plans to change the aircraft mix on its San Francisco-Boston flights from the current 757-300s, 777-200s and 737-900s to just two types: 777-200s and 757-200s, all with lie-flat seating in the front cabin.

JetBlue, meanwhile, plans to boost frequencies in the BOS-SFO market by adding a fourth daily Mint roundtrip in July. Game on.

Looking ahead to June when the competition heats up, business class fares on jets with lie-flat seats in the Boston-San Francisco and Los Angeles market are currently running at about $1,200 roundtrip. Flights with standard recliner seats are as low as $892 roundtrip.

JetBlue’s current and upcoming Mint routes. (Image; JetBlue)

Meanwhile, JetBlue has also put Mint-equipped A321s onto its Boston-Los Angeles flights as of last fall. So far, we haven’t see any front cabin flat-bed response from its competitors on that route. United, Delta and American all use 737-800s on their BOS-LAX flights. (However, Delta plans to use flat-seat 757-200s on its new transcon route from Washington Reagan National to LAX that starts next month.)

(Note: Virgin America is in all these transcon markets, but it doesn’t offer true flat-bed seats in the front cabins of its Airbus jets.)

If JetBlue’s competitors decide to offer a comparable premium product on BOS-LAX, this flat-seat fight could spread to even more markets.

JetBlue’s longer-term plan for Mint includes deployment of the flat-bed front cabin on more transcon routes in the months ahead including Boston-Seattle, Boston-San Diego, New York-San Diego and New York-Las Vegas, along with San Francisco-Ft. Lauderdale and Los Angeles-Ft. Lauderdale.

What do you think about the emerging lie-flat wars? Is lie-flat really necessary on a domestic flight? Which airline do you use for transcons and why? Please leave comments below!

ICYMI, see the 25 most recent TravelSkills posts right here

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Getting easier to fly to Mexico City

March 4, 2017

Alaska Airlines will use 737-900s for new Mexico City flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

The U.S. Transportation Department has issued a tentative decision awarding Mexico City airport slots to six airlines, with U.S. carriers winning rights for new service to the Mexican capital from California, Florida and Texas.

The takeoff and landing slots at Mexico City became available after DOT required Delta and Aeromexico to give them up if they wanted antitrust immunity for their joint venture partnership. The government wanted the slots to go to low-cost airlines to counteract the increased market dominance that Delta and Aeromexico would gain from the joint venture.

Subject to agreement by Mexican government authorities and final DOT approval, the transfer of slots to new carriers will come in two phases. The first new services are expected to begin this summer, and the second phase should take effect before summer of 2018.

In the first phase, Alaska Airlines was a big winner, gaining tentative approval for everything it requested. The slot awards will let it begin flying to MEX once a day from San Francisco, once a day from San Diego, and twice a day from Los Angeles International. Alaska said it will use 737-900ERs for the SFO and LAX service, and regional jets from San Diego. Schedules will be announced after final approvals, Alaska said.

Aeromexico and Delta had to give up slots at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez Airport (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Also in the first phase, JetBlue won enough slots to operate two daily roundtrips from Orlando and two from Ft. Lauderdale. And Southwest received slots for two daily flights from Houston Hobby.

Mexican carriers in the first phase include Volaris, which won slots for daily service to Mexico City from Los Angeles, San Antonio and New York JFK. Interjet also got a slot pair for JFK-Mexico City service, and VivaAerobus won rights to a daily roundtrip between MEX and Las Vegas.

Slot awards in the second phase will give Southwest one daily roundtrip between Ft. Lauderdale and MEX and one between LAX and MEX. JetBlue will get slots for two daily roundtrips between LAX and MEX. Volaris is the big winner in the second phase, with slots that will allow new roundtrips from MEX to Denver, Washington Dulles, San Jose, Oakland, Ontario and Chicago O’Hare. VivaAerobus will get rights to two daily flights from MEX to New York JFK.

Have you been to Mexico City before? To me it’s one of the best places to go in North America- great food, robust cultural offerings, cool hotel scene… what about you?

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Burbank loses Hope but gains flights

February 21, 2017

Burbank's airport is 16 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. (Image: Bob Hope Airport)

Bob Hope Airport is getting a name change. (Image: Hollywood Burbank Airport)

Burbank’s airport may be small, but with a name change, a new terminal and an increasing roster of flights, it could be a viable alternative to Los Angeles International for a growing number of passengers.

Located northwest of downtown Burbank, the city’s Bob Hope Airport is about the same distance from Beverly Hills as LAX is. It’s even closer to Hollywood, and hence its new name, which was approved last spring and will soon appear on airport signage: Hollywood Burbank Airport.

Actually, it was called Hollywood Burbank Airport before 1978, and then was renamed Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport. In 2003, it was renamed for Bob Hope. But since that actor’s name didn’t say anything about where the airport is located, officials decided a geographic reference was needed once again. And Hollywood Burbank probably has more cachet than Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena.

The little airport is gaining traction among business travelers as Los Angeles International becomes more congested and more bogged down with massive construction projects. It’s also closer to the west side hotels that many road warriors prefer.

Hollywood Burbank Airport is 16 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. (Image: Google Maps)

Passenger traffic during November 2016 was up more than 11 percent over the same month a year earlier, and the airport was poised to show a 12-month total for the year of more than 4 million. Southwest dominates the airline roster at BUR, carrying about half the total passenger count.

The airport is also served by Alaska, American, JetBlue, Delta and United. Route options in the California Corridor are the strongest at BUR, with Southwest flying to San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento. United also flies BUR-SFO, and Alaska Airlines is due to launch three daily roundtrips between BUR and San Jose in mid-March. Small-jet operator JetSuite X also started operating at Burbank last year, with service to San Jose and to Concord, CA in the East Bay area. United has recently up-gauged some of its DEN-BUR and SFO-BUR flights from regional jets to mainline, according to Live & Let’s Fly.

$200

Get $200 when booking your next trip: Use code: TS!

Burbank has attracted nonstop flights from as far away as New York-JFK (JetBlue), and Austin, TX. Alaska flies in from Seattle and Portland. Delta used to offer a convenient nonstop from Atlanta.

Southwest will add new service from Burbank to Salt Lake City next month, a route already served by Delta. Service is also available to Seattle on Alaska and American; to Portland on Southwest, Delta, American and Alaska; to Phoenix on American and Southwest; and to Denver on Southwest and United. JetBlue offers a red-eye from BUR to New York JFK, the airport’s only transcontinental non-stop.

The airport is planning for future growth with a new terminal. Last fall, voters approved construction of a 14-gate terminal that is farther from the runways than the existing facility, which will be torn down after the new one opens. Design and construction of the $400 million terminal is expected to take place from 2018 to 2022.

Readers: Do you consider Burbank a viable alternative to LAX? What do you consider Burbank’s advantages and/or drawbacks?

ICYMI, see the 25 most recent TravelSkills posts right here

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Mineta San Jose airport adding even more flights in 2017

January 17, 2017

United Airlines Boeing 737-800s will soon fly nonstop to New York and Chicago from San Jose (Image: Chad Slattery / United)

With major U.S. airlines adding more flights at Mineta San Jose International this winter and spring, and with international flight options taking off, the airport has been making substantial improvements to handle increased passenger traffic.

New domestic flights starting in the first half of the New Year include:

A new route for JetBlue between SJC and its Long Beach focus city, where it started operating four daily roundtrips during the first week of January.

A pair of new nonstops for United Airlines, both starting March 9. United will begin twice-daily flights to its big hub at Chicago O’Hare, and one daily roundtrip to its East Coast hub at Newark Liberty International. United will use 737-800s on both routes.

Staking a bigger claim in California, Alaska Airlines will inaugurate new transcontinental service on the SJC-Newark route on March 12, operating one daily roundtrip, followed by new intrastate service three times a day from San Jose to Hollywood-Burbank beginning March 16. These are the fourth and fifth new Alaska Airlines routes at SJC since late 2015, giving the carrier a total of 16 destinations.

On May 1, Air Canada is due to add a third daily frequency between San Jose-Vancouver.

American Airlines’ seasonal service between San Jose and Charlotte is set to resume May 5.

Delta will boost its presence at San Jose beginning May 25, when it expands its schedule to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson from two flights a day to three.

And Southwest will kick off daily San Jose-Reno service June 4.

You can find more details about new San Jose routes here.

First stop: SJC's new business class lounge

SJC’s popular business class lounge awarded “Priority Pass Lounge of the Year for North America.” (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Even without these new flights, SJC has been experiencing healthy growth in passenger numbers. Through the first 10 months of 2016, the domestic passenger count topped the 4 million mark, an increase of more than 7 percent year-over-year. And thanks to new flights across both the Atlantic and Pacific, international traffic at SJC jumped more than 68 percent during that period.

New and improved passenger amenities at Mineta San Jose make life easier for travelers. The three-year-old Club at SJC in Terminal A, a lounge open to all travelers on a paid basis and also a part of the Priority Pass network of airport lounges, was recently named the Priority Pass Airport Lounge of the Year for North America.

International travelers at SJC are finding their lives a little easier thanks to recent improvements that help them to speed through passenger processing. Many domestic travelers rely on TSA’s PreCheck program to move through security screening more quickly, but now some international travelers at San Jose can also take advantage of that benefit: Lufthansa – which began San Jose-Frankfurt flights last summer – recently became the first European airline to begin participation in PreCheck.

International travelers at SJC can now download Customs and Border Protection’s free Mobile Passport Control app on their phones or tablets and use it to submit their passport data and Customs declaration form to CBP. A coded electronic receipt shown to the CBP officer lets them move quickly through the arrivals process. And the airport also offers CBP’s Global Entry kiosks for international arrivals who belong to that trusted traveler program, allowing them to bypass lines. Also available at SJC are Automated Passport Control kiosks where arriving travelers can submit their entry information.

No need to fill out paper customs and immigration forms when you have the new Mobile Passport Control app

And more enhancements are on the way. This spring, the airport is expected to finish a renovation of its International Arrivals Building that will add 5,600 square feet along with a second baggage carousel and an enclosed waiting area.

A look at what the new International Arrivals lobby (Image: SJC)

A image of the future International Arrivals lobby (Image: SJC)

On a lighter note, Mineta San Jose has garnered attention and acclaim for its recent deployment of three interactive customer service robots – an appropriate innovation for an airport that serves as the gateway to Silicon Valley. Even more interactive robots – smaller ones – are featured in the airport’s new play area for children in Terminal B.

You can find more details about new San Jose routes here.

This post is sponsored by Mineta San Jose International Airport

Disclosure: Thank you for reading TravelSkills! We will periodically send out messages like this one from commercial partners about topics relevant to frequent travel. Our sponsors’ support, and yours, help us keep TravelSkills a free publication.

Roundup: San Jose’s flourishing flight options

December 14, 2016

British Airways added San Jose-London service last spring with a new 787-9. (Image: British Airways)

Mineta San Jose International Airport is entering a real boom period, with both domestic and international airlines adding new routes right and left. With a growing regional population and a perfect location as the gateway to one of the world’s biggest technology hubs, Mineta San Jose is well positioned for continued growth into the 21^st century.

That technology hub, of course, is Silicon Valley. Some of the world’s leading tech giants have offices no more than a dozen miles from SJC, including companies like Apple, Google, Symantec, Intel, Cisco, Adobe Systems, Netflix, SanDisk and many more. Not only is a trip to Mineta San Jose a fraction of the distance to San Francisco International Airport for these companies, but SJC’s smaller size makes the airport experience less hectic for passengers (through the first nine months of 2016, SJC boarded fewer than 4 million passengers, vs. almost 20 million at SFO).

With all those business travelers close by, and with its fast-growing, high-income population (San Jose is the 10^th largest city in the U.S., and its metropolitan area has a median household income of $100,385), it’s not surprising that airlines are eager to accommodate that market.

Lufthansa uses an A340-300 on its new San Jose-Frankfurt route. (Image: BriYYZ/Wikimedia Commons)

In recent months, Mineta San Jose has attracted new routes from several international airlines, among them:

Lufthansa this past summer began flying non-stop to Frankfurt five times a week, using a 298-passenger, three-class A340-300. Through its Frankfurt hub, the German carrier offers connections to 100 cities in Europe and beyond.

British Airways last spring kicked off the first non-stop service from SJC to London Heathrow, using a brand-new, 216-passenger, four-class Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. It’s BA’s fourth destination in California, along with Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.

In September, Air China launched a new transpacific route from SJC to Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, making San Jose the airline’s 10^th North American gateway. The Chinese carrier uses a two-class, 237-seat Airbus A330-200 to fly the new route three days a week. SJC Aviation Director Kim Becker said the new route is expected to bring $65 million a year in economic investment to the San Jose area.

It’s not as far away, but another new international destination for SJC that started this year is Vancouver. Air Canada last spring kicked off twice-daily service between the two cities, using Bombardier CRJ-705s. Airport officials noted that Vancouver is sometimes called Silicon Valley North, since more than 200 Silicon Valley companies have offices there.

While the Lufthansa and British Airways flights represented SJC’s most recent transatlantic non-stops, it already offered transpacific service to Tokyo with All Nippon Airways (ANA) and to Beijing with Hainan Airlines.

Alaska, Southwest, United and JetBlue are all growing at SJC. (Image: Jim Glab)

New domestic routes are also proliferating. San Jose got another new transcontinental flight last month, when Southwest Airlines began a daily roundtrip to Baltimore/Washington International. At the same time, Southwest also started new twice-daily SJC-Salt Lake City service. And American Airlines this past summer added daily seasonal service between SJC and its Charlotte hub.

In March of next year, both Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are set to begin new daily non-stops from SJC to Newark Liberty International, and United will start twice-daily flights from SJC to its big Chicago O’Hare hub as well. In mid-May, Delta will add a third daily SJC-Atlanta flight.

Intra-California traffic is also booming, attracting new service in the California corridor. Last summer, Alaska Airlines started flying three times a day from SJC to both San Diego and Orange County’s John Wayne Airport. And on January 4, JetBlue will kick off SJC-Long Beach service, offering four daily roundtrips, followed by three daily Alaska Airlines flights to Burbank beginning in mid-March.

You can find more details about new San Jose routes here.

This post is sponsored by Mineta San Jose International Airport

Popular: Surfing + Free Vegas + New United fare + Lie-flat to Hawaii + Become a travel writer

November 20, 2016

First winter storms slow air travel as the holiday season commences (Image: Pixabay)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 Dude! How to go surfing in California & Iceland in one day

2 5 fabulously free things to do in Las Vegas

3 New York City to Honolulu in lie-flat comfort

4 United adds ultra-cheap Basic Economy fares

5 Fare sale to Asia from Cathay Pacific, Singapore Air

A United 747-400- enjoy it while you can. (Image: United)

6 Countdown is on for United’s final Boeing 747 flights

7 Deep Dive: United Polaris business class (Part 1 of 3)

Music and dancing are ubiquitous on this island of 11 million- that’s me arriving in Cuba in May (Chris McGinnis)

8 How I quit my job to become a travel writer and see the world

9 Another small-plane alternative for California: Blackbird

10 Routes: Delta, United, Alaska, Southwest, Spirit

Don’t miss: Why holiday travel is going to be different this year

Lyft is dumping the pink moustache for a new look, and its pick-ups will soon be color-coded. The new dash-mounted Lyft Amp will glow orange, pink, purple, silver, teal or yellow which will help riders more easily spot their ride. See the video for how it will work:

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

Delta raises the price of Sky Club membership to $495

Clever, cuddly holiday travel video from Heathrow Airport

Japan’s ANA new “Experience” campaign makes splash in US

British Airways to use newly acquired Aer Lingus in battle with low fare competitors?

Air Lingus will begin A330 service from Miami next year. (Photo: Aer Lingus)

Aer Lingus said to becoming part of Oneworld soon- (Photo: Aer Lingus)

Sneak peek of new Oakland pay-per-day business class lounge

Way cool: Samsung’s long-rumored FOLDABLE smartphone

AMEX: Airfares will continue to get cheaper in 2017

Washington Post: Trump International suddenly the hottest hotel in town

Gridlock: Secret Service wants to shut down 5th Ave in NYC when Trump is in town as prez

Delta is passing along some profits to employees (Photo: Delta / Flickr)

Bigger smiles: Delta to give employees 6% raises next year

Uber offering free rides to/from 11 airports for AMEX cardholders

Lufthansa develops a ‘chatbot’ to help customers find the lowest fares

Artificial intelligence powers a new personal travel assistant app

Qantas will soon begin tests of high-speed in-flight Wi-Fi

Omni sets winter sale for 60 U.S. properties; November 29 booking deadline

United might have some problems sharing a brand name with a all terrain vehicle. Click on video below to see how that is already happening.

Which polaris you talkin’ about?

This just happened on @espn. Hilarious brand overlap. pic.twitter.com/dPgDmTBMRj
— Casey Norton (@CaseyNorton72) November 18, 2016

ICYMI, see the 25 most recent TravelSkills posts right here

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Bay Area to Barcelona, nonstop, $199 + more low fares to Europe

September 7, 2016

Barcelona El Prat's big bright and gorgeous international terminal (Chris McGinnis)

Barcelona El Prat airport’s big bright and gorgeous international terminal (Chris McGinnis)

Norwegian Air will add the Bay Area’s first nonstop service to Spain when it launches Oakland to Barcelona flights next summer. Introductory economy fares on the route are as low as $199 each way, including all taxes and fees. Norwegian has announced that it will also add new nonstops between Oakland and Copenhagen in March (starting at just $179 each way), with both routes using its fleet of new Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

The schedule is a little thin, though– flights to Barcelona and Copenhagen from OAK will run only twice per week during the peak summer months.

This expansion makes it clear that Bay Area travelers are responding well to Norwegian Air’s low-fare, low-frills service. With Barcelona and Copenhagen, Norwegian now flies to five cities in Europe from Oakland. (It does not offer service from SFO or San Jose). With the addition of these new flights, Oakland will become California’s third major gateway to Europe, beating out San Diego.

In addition to Oakland, Norwegian will offer nonstops to Barcelona from Los Angeles (starting June 5 2017), Newark and Ft Lauderdale. Oakland to Barcelona starts on June 7, 2017; Copenhagen starts March 28.)

Norwegian Air will fly a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner between Oakland and Barcelona next year. (Photo: Oakland International Airport)

This low-cost carrier flew into the Bay Area in two years ago with nonstops to Stockholm and Oslo from Oakland. Then earlier this year, it added nonstops from Oakland to London-Gatwick. Gatwick (LGW) is 28 miles south of central London but still convenient–the easy 30-minute, approximately $30 Gatwick Express will whisk you from the airport to Victoria Station in the heart of the city.

Don’t miss: Trip Report: Oakland>London Gatwick on Norwegian Air

On its 787 Dreamliner, it only offers seats in economy class (259) and premium economy class (32). All premium economy seats offer in-seat power outlets if you want to stay up and work across the pond. Norwegian refers to its premium economy seats as simply, “Premium.” Premium fares to Barcelona will start at $1698 round trip. Plus in-flight wi-fi is free on its intra-Europe flights.

Take a look at how Seatguru describes economy and premium economy seating on Norwegian Air’s 787 Dreamliner.

But limited recline is disappointing for those expecting lie-flat.

Limited recline in Norwegian’s premium economy seats might be disappointing for those longing to lie-flat. (Photo: Nancy Branka)

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Economy cabin has a clean look and decent seat pitch on Norwegian Air

Norwegian 787 economy class cabin has a clean look and decent seat pitch, configured 3-3-3. (Photo: Nancy Branka)

We checked today and the $199 fare is indeed available for SFO-Barcelona in June (see below). However, the least expensive return from BCN to SFO in June is $256, making the lowest round trip $455 all in– that’s quite a deal and it won’t last long.

Fare check on Weds Sept 7

Have you flown Norwegian Air yet? What did you think? Please leave your comments below.

–Chris McGinnis

(We’re back from summer vacation! In case you missed our other recent round-up posts, here they are: Domestic Routes Roundup | Tips from a Hawaiian Vacation | August’s most important travel news)

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Popular: Cheaper phone roaming + Delta spat + More at SFO + Quiz + Norwegian Air + United secret

May 22, 2016

Can you name this business class section? Hint: Look at the big windows! Plus it’s included in our fun quiz! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 Must sign up to get it: AT&T follows Verizon, T-Mobile to more roaming

2 Nonstop ribbon cuttings Slew of new flights at SFO

3 Oh, pulleeaze! Inside Qatar Airways event that sparked Delta tantrum [PHOTOS] (See comments)

Don’t miss the AJC editorial about the Delta-Fox brouhaha which starts out like this: Atlantans were aghast last week when the body of the beloved Fox Theatre was found in a car trunk, bound and gagged, a single shot to the back of the head.

4 Battle begins Alaska, Southwest fight for California with new flights

5 Try it, you’ll like it Are you a business class seat expert? Take our fun quiz! Come on, 2,000+ readers have taken it so far!

6 Oldie but goodie remains popular TSA explains confusion over PreCheck policies

Premium Economy seats on Norwegian Air (Image: Norwegian Air)

7 New nonstop Oakland-London on Norwegian: Low fares, low frills

8 Routes: Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, Chicago, Newark, Honolulu, JFK

9 Check ’em out, then check in 4 brand new hotels in New York City

10 Members only Hilton’s big summer sale

TravelSkills was invited to a big United Airlines event in NYC in early June which requires signing a non-disclosure agreement to get in the door. Regrettably we can make it due to a prior commitment (flying Turkish Airlines to Istanbul!), but we’ll keep an eye out for the news. Rumor has it that United will reveal a new BusinessFirst seat design at the event. But who knows? What do you think it could be? Leave your prognostications below.

United is rolling out a new first class seat for its A319, A320 and some 757 aircraft (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

United revealed this new first class seat for its domestic A319, A320 and some 757 aircraft last year. Will a new BusinessFirst seat be revealed next week? (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

Atlanta Airport director Miguel Southwell sacked

Beware Delta’s new middle seat “upgrade”

United offering mystery elite status upgrades. Get one?

Scariest item ever seen by TSA? Gruesome

Summer sale at Kimpton hotels: 25% off + double points

Smarter to use ATL’s international terminal to avoid TSA security lines? Maybe. Maybe not.

San Francisco’s newest tourist attraction: The Apple Flagship store on Union Sq

Delta’s new CEO Ed Bastian in his office at ATL HQ (Image: Airline Guys)

VIDEO: See inside Delta CEO Ed Bastian’s office at Delta HQ in ATL

Delta optimizes ‘SkyMiles Experiences’ website for mobile

Uber tests self-driving car in Pittsburgh

Eight low-cost Asia-Pacific airlines form an alliance

Falling fares will bring a record number of U.S. air travelers this summer

These are the most popular U.S. cities for meetings and conventions

American discontinues in-flight announcements of connecting gate information

(Image: Big Imagination Project)

In case you missed Saturday’s post about one of our favorite subjects, the much-loved Boeing 747: The 747 Project

Do you follow us on Twitter? It’s a great way to keep up with the latest news!

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Popular: Uber tipping + New lie-flat seat + China contest + Delta spat + Denver train

April 24, 2016

Surge pricing benefits drivers and Uber but what about you? (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Tipping Uber drivers likely to become more common (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

News broke Friday regarding the controversial issue of whether or not to tip Uber drivers— something TravelSkills covered in a post and poll last month. From Bloomberg: “…Uber has agreed to notify customers more clearly that tips are not included in fares and give tacit approval for optional gratuity. Drivers can now solicit cash tips by asking passengers or posting signs in their vehicles…riders should start seeing gratuities as a major part of an Uber driver’s income. In other words, more like a cabbie….With this information, many riders will begin tipping their drivers, which will increase drivers’ pay substantially.” Check out the full story here…and see where TravelSkills was cited!

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 Who knew this would be such a hit? A new lie-flat seat on busy California corridor

2 Venomous Delta-Qatar Airways spat gets uglier

3 Entered yet? Tick-tock! Contest: 2 free United BusinessFirst tickets to China 西安

4 Routes: AA, Alaska, United, Delta, Frontier, OneJet, JetSmarter

5 A great thing! Denver International Airport rail line opens

6 Date set for new United Club LAX: United progress + Delta move + Southwest + American

7 The little plane New California corridor small-jet service: $109 each way

8 Lyft surges. Taxis drop. And we love Delta, National and Hampton Inn

9 Timely Should I tip my Uber or Lyft driver? [Poll] (Check out the contro comments!)

10 Airports: Delta Sky Club re-do, Hotel at MSP, United Club CLE, JFK nap pods

In case you missed it: The Barclay is back in NYC plus other shiny new hotels!

XIAN CONTEST! Thanks to all the eager TravelSkills readers who have submitted entries to our contest for two free United BusinessFirst tickets to Xian, China! We are busy reading thru hundreds of clever entries and look forward to announcing the lucky winner this week! Very exciting! Here’s your last chance to enter.

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

The new Hyatt House in Seattle sits in the shadow of the Sapce Needle. (Image: Hyatt)

The new Hyatt House in Seattle sits in the shadow of the Space Needle. (Image: Hyatt)

Hyatt joins other chains offering members-only discounts

Taxi trips in LA down 30% since arrival of Uber, Lyft

Airlines in court over recent multi-city fare shenanigans

Getting out of the dreaded middle seat

Hey Virgin America fans: JetBlue is after you

Time to give Lyft a try? (Use our link and get $50 in free ride credit!)

Kuwait to require DNA testing of all visitors

Delta is most reliable airline, but least economical

The console provides plenty of storage space both above and below- enough space for laptop and contents of pack or case (Chris McGinnis)

Aer Lingus’ new business class seat on an A330 (Chris McGinnis)

The fine art of deciding which passengers to kick off a flight

Survey finds road warriors are generally happy with business travel

Twenty-one kinds of bad behavior at the airport

The U.S. is no longer the world’s biggest market for business travel

New Istanbul airport is expected to be the world’s largest

Do you follow us on Twitter? It’s a great way to keep up with the latest news!

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Most popular: New routes + Fare sales + Little things at hotels + Uber at ATL + Sydney

March 20, 2016

Spring has sprung along California's western edge- Devil's Slide, 30 mins south of SF (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Spring has sprung along California’s western edge- Devil’s Slide, 30 mins south of SF on Saturday! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 Airline Briefs: AA bags, Alaska miles, Delta PJs, Virgin courses

2 Routes: Virgin, JetBlue, Southwest, American, Frontier

3 Big airfare deals from SFO: Denver, Boston, New York, Vegas

4 Developing: Starwood + Marriott on the rocks?

5 6 things about JetBlue

6 10 little things few hotels get right

7 Routes: Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Salt Lake, Toronto

8 Delta eyes a big new China route

9 Newest hotels: NYC, San Francisco, DFW, Houston, Scottsdale

10 Poor showing for U.S. in global airport honors

Don’t forget! We are in the peak of the peak spring break travel season for the next two weeks. Prepare for delays by building in a fatter time cushion than usual. More advice here.

Sydney’s highest rated brand new hotel according to TripAdvisor. CLICK on the pic to learn which one!

Taking a trip to Sydney (or dreaming about one!)? Then don’t miss Chris’s Trip Report about the six brand new hotels he toured last week! Read this post to find out about an art deco gem in Sydney’s old water works building, another in the executive offices of a brewery, a Starwood property poised to become Australia’s largest hotel, plus a great value in a converted mid-century mod office tower.

Links to stories from other sources that we thought you’d like to read:

Why United’s use of biofuels on SFO-LAX is a big deal

Earn up to 2,750 United miles for a Hertz rental

Senate panel nixes proposal to limit excessive airline fees

British Airways renovates Club World lounge for business travelers at its Heathrow T5 hub

KLM increases checked bag fee for intra-European flights

Atlanta’s airport wants to see legal ride-sharing pick-ups start by July 1

British Airways brings hypnotherapy to its in-flight entertainment options

Oakland Airport installs lactation suites

Westin Hotels introduces new menus to help you sleep

Swiss will sell special-edition watches on its new 777-300ERs for $8,000

Fake coyotes keep birds off runways at SFO: Chris’s most popular Instagram from last week. CLICK on pic to see all photos & follow

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: Should I tip my Uber driver? + Boeing 747 nearing its end? + Bargain hunters travel guide for 2016 + World’s best airline lounge? + Fares to Europe tumble

Do you follow us on Twitter? It’s a great way to keep up with the latest news!

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New ATL-Bay Area flight + SIA trip report + Global Entry + Airfares fall

November 1, 2015

New Southwest Airlines nonstop flights between Atlanta and Oakland start today (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

New Southwest Airlines nonstop service between Atlanta and Oakland starts today (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Today Southwest Airlines begins new nonstop service between Oakland and Atlanta. The Boeing 737-700 flight departs OAK at 12:25 pm arriving in Atlanta four and a half hours later at 7:55 pm. The flight to Oakland departs Atlanta at 8:35 am and arrives at 11:10 am. Southwest no longer flies nonstop between SFO and ATL leaving the route to Delta and United. Will Virgin America move in? See below…

TravelSkills’ 10 most popular posts over the last week (descending order):

1 Gotta see this: Trip Report: Singapore Airlines’ NEW business class [PHOTOS]

2 Airline updates: Alaska Air’s new partner + United trims Mideast + Lufthansa Denver + London

3 Shorter lines, please! Global Entry gets more global

4 We see the future: Stunning new airport designs: FRA, SLC, PDX (images)

5 Airport expansion: How to unclog Chicago O’Hare

6 New routes: New Southwest routes + Virgin expands at Dallas + Alaska, AA add more

7 A war of words: Delta dumps Dubai, blasts Mideast carriers

8 Great reader comments here: Want more business trips?

9 Nothing official yet, but Will Hyatt buy Starwood?

10 Most readers want New Orleans Where will Virgin America fly next?

Did you choose a custom background yet?

Did you know that you can choose the background on the new United. com website? I chose “random for each visit.” Which one did you pick? And what do you think about the new site? Leave your comments below!

A few newsy nuggets from other sources that we missed on TravelSkills this week:

Here’s an inside look at how United prepares in-flight meals.

New carry-on bag design has link to phone, Wi-Fi, battery pack, USB port and more

JetBlue will introduce a new co-branded credit card in 2016.

United expands code-sharing with Brazil’s Azul.

Airfares coming down slightly. Here’s why

FlyteNow, the Uber of private aviation, fighting court order

The real reason Delta dumped Dubai

Why federal air marshals should be grounded

Parking at ATL will be a hassle for next 8-10 years!

Delta to exit big airline trade group

United losing momentum due to C-suite drama?

Delta vs United in New York City

Lyft beats Uber to the airport in Las Vegas

Get your flu shot at the airport- multiple locations

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: Global Entry gets more global + New York’s lowest ranked hotels +Best/worst hotel programs for awards + More flat seats

Do you follow us on Twitter? It’s a great way to keep up with the latest news!

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Big fall-winter airfare sale takes off

October 13, 2015

A Southwest Airlines 738 in new livery takes of from Midland, Texas (Photo: Felipe Garcia / Flickr)

Southwest Airlines big fall/winter fare sale starts right now! Other airlines will soon be matching (Photo: Felipe Garcia / Flickr)

Travel demand and fares always tumble during the slower fall and winter months, and this year is no exception.

Today, Southwest Airlines kicked off the first big late fall and winter fare sale, and I expect other airlines to start matching these low fares in the next 24-48 hours. (see below for links)

Southwest kicked it off today with with fares starting at $100 roundtrip. From there, roundtrip fares rise in several steps to $300.

Sample approximate round trip fares include:

$100: All intra-California and CA-Las Vegas flights, Atlanta-Raleigh or Richmond; Washington DC-Boston

$150: Atlanta-most cities in Florida, New York LGA-Chicago,

$200: SFO/OAK or LAX to Dallas, Chicago or Denver; Atlanta-Boston, Chicago, Dallas or New York

$260: Atlanta-Los Angeles (very good deal!); Denver-Atlanta; New York to Chicago or New Orleans

$300: Most transcon flights between New York, Baltimore, Atlanta or Boston and LAX, SFO/OAK, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle

Expect other major airlines to match these low fares over the next 24 hours. (We’ll update this page with competitive matches as they roll out…see below)

This sale is good for flights during what’s known in the biz as the “dead weeks” when travel demand plummets to annual lows– this means that hotel and car rental costs are also at annual lows, so it’s a great time to take a cheap trip. It’s also a good time to get home and see the family if pricey peak holiday season fares keep you grounded.

For business travelers who have not been able to get out and see clients due to this year’s extraordinarily high fares, this is a great opportunity save by traveling when most folks are staying at home. You can take off for a quick visit just before Christmas or drop by during the cold dark months of January and February.

Details of Southwest’s 72-hour sale:

>Must buy your tickets between now and Thursday, October 15 at 11:59 p.m. (in originating city).

>Travel windows: December 2-December 16; January 5-February 10 2016

>Not available on Fridays or Sundays (bummer for business travelers or weekenders)

>Black out dates: Christmas/New Year peak season from Thursday December 17- Monday, January 4

>Very limited time: Only a handful of seats on each flight are on sale- you snooze, you lose.

>See Southwest website for other rules and restrictions, or to book trips.

Stay tuned for UPDATES: Airlines matching this sale so far include: Alaska Airlines | American | United

–Chris McGinnis

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: New Two brand new United Clubs + Jennifer Aniston needs a shower + Best Megahub? + Big Hilton/SkyMiles bonus

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Delta ekes out some good SkyMiles news

March 9, 2015

Flying the Delta California Shuttle from SFO to LAX (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

It seems that every time Delta has announced updates to its SkyMiles program recently, we all braced for bad news.

But today, Delta rolled out come changes for the good…for a change. Here’s what’s in store:

New one-way award tickets for 10,000 miles plus taxes and fees, available through Dec. 31, 2015 for travel in select U.S., Mexican and Caribbean markets– these appear to be only short-haul markets like Atlanta-Florida, Los Angeles-Las Vegas, or San Francisco-Los Angeles. Catch: there’s a 21-day minimum advance purchase for most of these awards. But still this is good news since the previous minimum was 12,500 miles– too much for a short flight.

Improved award redemption on more airline partners when booking on delta.com in addition to the new Fly Delta app. [UPDATE:] However, Delta quietly cut the number of MQMs earned on Alaska Airlines flights to as little as 50% and won’t offer MQDs on Alaska flights at all starting April 1.

Delta is now offering MQDs, regardless of ticketing carrier, for travel on most of its airline partners. And it’s making the MQD offer retroactive back to January 1 of this year. Delta says that MQD earning varies based on carrier, percentage of distance flown as determined by Delta and fare class paid.

Here’s how Delta detailed and expanded upon its press release on FlyerTalk today:

Increased award availability
When we announced the SkyMiles 2015 program we committed to making more award seats available at the lowest prices and since the start of 2015 we have expanded award availability at the lowest prices by greater than 50%. We are seeing a double digit increase in award redemptions since January and other customer-positive award redemption trends in terms of the average number of miles redeemed, partner awards, and one-way award usage.

New (lower) One Way Award
In 2015 we will be offering One Way Award tickets beginning as low as 10,000 miles (plus taxes and fees) in select markets in the contiguous 48 United States and between the 48 contiguous United States and select Mexico/Caribbean destinations. Travel will be valid through December 31, 2015 with a 21 day advance purchase.

Bloodbath for airlines a boon for travelers

Award shopping calendar additions
We are pleased to confirm that we have added four new airline partners to our award shopping engine over the past few weeks following a quiet soft launch. You can now book awards online with China Airlines, China Southern, China Eastern and Gol. We will be adding more partners in the coming weeks and even more by summer of 2015.

Mobile award shopping
In January, we added the ability to book Awards from your smartphone. You can shop for our new One Way Awards, our new partners and other Award Tickets using the Fly Delta mobile app. We are seeing great usage of this new and easy to use feature right out of the gate.

Restrictions on free-flowing airport booze?

Earn MQDs on most partner-ticketed flights, exception fares
New for 2015 when you travel on flights ticketed by most of our airline partners you will now earn MQDs, which will help you qualify for Medallion status faster. This change will be retroactive to January 1, 2015 to include your travel from this Medallion year. Flights marketed and ticketed by partners may earn MQDs based on a percentage of distance flown as determined by the fare class paid. You can visit www.delta.com/partnerairlines for details by carrier. It’s going to take us a little bit of time to process retroactive credit for past flight activity, but they should post to your accounts between now and March 20. You can also earn MQDs on most exception fares, such as bulk, consolidator and group tickets. Learn more by visiting www.delta.com/exceptionfares. In addition to the MQD changes we’ve also made minor changes to the way you earn Medallion status on Alaska Airlines flights, effective April 1.

Diamond Medallions now board first
Many of you have caught on to this already, but as part of our branded products experience that launched on March 1, we are pleased to confirm that Diamond Medallion members are now invited to board the aircraft with customers in Delta One or First Class as part of our Premium boarding zone.

So what do you think? Does any of this make you feel better about SkyMiles?

–Chris McGinnis

Why you should change the credit cards you carry

In Case You Missed it…

>Which cities worldwide have the best (and worst) quality of life?

>United renovates airport clubs, boosts food quality.

>Virgin Atlantic will boost San Francisco schedule with a 787.

>Hilton finally jumps on the free Wi-Fi

Did you missed TravelSkills Weekend editions? No probs! Here they are:

Don’t buy Gogo onboard + Virgin to Hawaii? + Clever Delta ad + LaGuardia slots

$64,000 roundtrip + Bevy of new flights + Southwest bag fee + Lufthansa update + Kimpton nightcap

World’s 10 highest (and lowest) quality cities
How to enjoy dining alone
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New jets SFO-LAX + Europe summer deals + United move at ATL + Delta wi-fi progress + Cathay biz class sale

January 31, 2015

Delta’s new Boeing 717s used to belong to AirTran (Photo: Delta)

AIRLINES

Delta eyes 717s for LAX-SFO. Delta will put larger Boeing 717s onto eight daily Los Angeles-San Francisco “California Shuttle” flights starting June 4, retaining Embraer 175s on the other seven of its 15 daily flights, according to the website Airlineroute, which tracks planned service changes across the industry. Delta obtained scores of former AirTran 717s from Southwest and has been phasing them into service; last fall, it replaced some of the 76-seat E175s on its LaGuardia-Boston shuttle with 110-seat, two-class 717s. And Delta plans to put 717s onto its LAX-Portland and LAX-Las Vegas routes in June as well. Been on a Delta 717? What did you think?

Storm warning. Yet another big winter storm (this time named “Linus”) is expected to hit a wide swath of the northern US and could affecting flying this week. Details. Plan accordingly.

United on the move at ATL. United is moving its Atlanta operations from distant Concourse D to close-in Concourse T at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson. The T-gates are located alongside the main terminal building, which means that passengers can walk from the curb to the plane without having to descend into the giant airport’s bowels for a ride on the “Plane Train.” A United spokesperson told TravelSkills that the United Club on Concourse D closes this weekend and that it is “in the process of evaluating potential opportunities to build a new United Club in the T Concourse.” From ATL, United flies to Newark, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington Dulles and Houston.

United bows out in Dallas Love battle. Southwest Airlines has nabbed two more highly contested gates at Dallas Love Field, giving it 18 of the small airport’s 20 gates. It subleased the gates from United, which will move out of Love to concentrate its operations at Dallas Ft Worth. (United used the Love gates for a handful of regional jet flights to Houston.) Delta currently has temporary authority to serve Love Field with five daily nonstops to Atlanta, but only until July 6. Southwest plans to use the new gates to add nonstops to Memphis, Milwaukee and Seattle and beef up frequencies to cities it already serves.

The noodle chef at Cathay Pacific’s business class lounge at SFO (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Cathay biz class sale. Cathay Pacific is offering some decent discounts for business class flights from the US to several cities across the Pacific. Examples: West coast US to Australia in biz class is running about $8,000 round trip. From the US to most cities in Asia, business class is running around $5,200. Worth a look if you or your company can spring for biz class. The catch: You must book 90 days in advance.

Must see reader comments on this TravelSkills post! My two favorite airlines. Yours?

Fares to Europe are not as high as we expected, but probably won’t stay this low for long

Europe fares for Summer. We keep hearing about how expensive it’s going to be to fly to Europe this summer due to high demand from Americans with fists full of strong US dollars. BUT, we’ve seen some very good deals for summer trips if you book now. Using the new FLYR site we found these examples: Aer Lingus nonstops between New York and Dublin were running at just $762 for June roundtrips this week, and just $1050 in the peak month of July. From San Francisco Bay Area, SAS or Norwegian Air are currently the cheapest way to get to Europe this summer– Norwegian out of Oakland is pressuring all carriers to discount fares, and we are seeing some roundtrips to Europe running as low as $1,000 to $1,200 during peak summer months. Considering Europe this summer? Might want to check fares now because US-Europe roundtrips during peak summer could easily exceed $2,000 in coming months.

In Hong Kong, coffee is mixed with tea to make yuanyang

Drink coffee like a local, or seek out Starbucks when overseas? Tell us!

Alaska extends free entertainment. Passengers on many Alaska Airlines flights will continue to get free premium movies and TV shows streamed via their personal electronic devices for another two months — i.e., through the end of March. (That’s in addition to the usual no-fee list of some 100 titles.) More than half of the airline’s fleet is currently equipped with streaming technology, and all aircraft should have it by April, Alaska said. And on its long-haul flights, the company has started renting Microsoft In-flight Entertainment tablets (available free to first class flyers and MVP Gold 75Ks) with a selection of films, games, magazines, music and Internet access. The fee is $8-$10.

From Delta regarding international wifi progress

Here’s the latest on Delta’s rollout of inflight wifi on its international fleet, which is progressing more slowly than expected. Among US carriers, Delta has about 37% of its international fleet outfitted with wi-fi— primarily on its 747s and A330s but coverage is sparse on its much larger fleet of 777s and 767s.

In-flight innovations: Southwest, Virgin Atlantic. Airlines have been known to host band performances at the airport — JetBlue does this regularly at its JFK terminal — but in the air? Southwest is carrying the band Imagine Dragons on a four-city tour, and as part of the hoopla, the group will perform an in-flight concert later this month aboard a flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta. If your in-flight preferences are more cerebral, Virgin America this month started offering in-flight audio and video academic lectures on a variety of subjects, provided by The Great Courses. The curriculum covers everything from cosmology to cooking, history to music. Readers: What’s your in-flight preference? Rock concerts or learning enhancement?

New fangled inflight entertainment aboard Qantas.

Qantas tests VR headsets. Virtual reality (VR) is primed to be the next big thing in entertainment technology, providing an immersive, 3D experience. Qantas is getting a jump on the trend by offering Samsung VR headsets to first class passengers on some of its Los Angeles flights starting in March, and at its first class lounges in Melbourne and Sydney.

BA revamps mileage plan. British Airways is coming out with a big overhaul of its Executive Club loyalty program effective April 28. Among the changes: The number of Avios earned (that’s Executive Club’s “currency”) will basically be increased for passengers in business and first class — especially in the higher fare classes — and decreased for those flying on the lowest economy fares. The cost of reward travel is also being restructured with the introduction of peak and off-peak pricing. You can see all the details on the airline’s website

+++

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United’s state of the union

January 24, 2014

Jeff Smisek, United chairman, president and CEO addresses crowd at Houston Intercontinental Airport on May 20, 2013 (United Airlines)

Here are some highlights from United CEO Jeff Smisek’s presentation during the carrier’s 4th quarter 2013 conference call on Thursday.

Much of it you may already know (or have read about in TravelSkills!). But it’s a good round up of what’s going on at the largest carrier in the Bay!

Take a read through and please leave your comments below!

>United earned a $1.1 billion profit in 2013.

>There are now over 35,000 Economy Plus seats in United’s fleet.

>All international long haul aircraft now have the new lie-flat business class seat.

>170 aircraft now have satellite based wifi onboard and it’s adding wifi to one aircraft per day.

>There is now access to in seat power on on half its mainline fleet.

The BEST credit cards for TravelSkills Readers

>Newer, larger overhead bins have been installed on the majority of its Airbus fleet.

>The upgrades on all p.s. flights between NYC and California are complete.

>A brand new terminal opened at Houston Intercontinental Airport last year.

>It opened three brand new United Clubs in 2013.

>The new United iPhone app rolled out and customer feedback about it is positive. The Android version should be out in May.

>Revenue tracking of PQMs is now available online and on the app.

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>Customer satisfaction scores increased 25% in Q4.

>United is opening the “ultramodern Boarding Area E at our powerhouse west coast hub in San Francisco.”

>United will move into Concourse B at Boston Logan and into the new T2 at London Heathrow in Q2 2014.

>New United Clubs will open in Boston and London Heathrow.

>United is installing more power poles and power bars at all gate areas.

>Manufacturers will deliver 63 brand new aircraft (mainline and regional) to United in 2014.

— Chris McGinnis

And just in case you missed it, here’s what else you need to know about Bay Area Travel over the last month:

New Year. New credit card?

American & US Airways at T2 + Sonoma airport expands + UberX + Delta/Virgin + EVA expands

United transcon bonus + United 787 domestic + Fewer 747s + Delta vs Alaska

The BEST credit cards for TravelSkills Readers

Anticipating T3E + Google Int’l + New Virgin Visa + More Southwest nonstops

Southwest: Blackfish backlash

United: T3E & UA500 & 49ers-Seahawks Game fares

What to do if pulled over by the police [Infographic]

***

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American & US Airways at T2 + Sonoma airport expands + UberX + Delta/Virgin + EVA expands

January 21, 2014

Have you ever been inside American’s Admiral’s Club at SFO Terminal 2? Nice! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

US AIRWAYS-AMERICAN AT SFO. We asked our airport contacts when we might start seeing operations of merged American and US Airways at SFO’s Terminal 2, but consolidation does not sound imminent. A spokesperson told TravelSkills: “The airlines will run separately for some time, so no word yet on combined operations.” Also, only six days to go and neither SFO or United has revealed what the first arrival or departure will be from the new T3E (opens Jan 28). Any guesses? Ours would be a flight to/from United’s home base of Chicago… but who knows? Please prognosticate below.

MORE FLIGHTS FROM SONOMA? The Charles M. Schulz (Snoopy) Airport in Sonoma County is getting a makeover that could result in more nonstop flights. With the biggest expansion since World War 2, the airport could soon see nonstops to Denver, Phoenix and Guadalajara in addition to the current Alaska Air flights nonstops to Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and San Diego.

UBERx CUTS PRICES. I dunno about you, but UberX has become my most frequent choice for transportation to and from the airport in SF and elsewhere. It’s just so easy. And now, it’s getting cheaper than cabs! In a new effort to be “the cheapest ride in town” UberX has cut its rates by 20%. Uber says that uberX rates are now 26% cheaper than cabs. Currently UberX from downtown SF to SFO is $25-$33; black car service is $65. From downtown SF to Oakland Int’l Airport, the fare is as low as $39. What do you think about Uber and UberX? Save $20 on your first Uber ride by clicking here.

Shiny new EVA Air 777-300ER flies SFO-TPE (Photo EVA Air)

EVA AIR INCREASING. Taiwan’s EVA Air will bump up its weekly SFO-Taipei frequencies to 14 from the current 12 on July 3. EVA told TravelSkills that since joining Star Alliance last year, demand from business travelers flying EVA to Taipei and beyond has increased. EVA gets three more brand new Boeing 777-300ER in the second quarter which it will deploy on all its North American routes. We included EVA Air’s business class seat in our Business Class Sampler story from 2013. Have you flown EVA Air? What did you think?

American Eagle’s new name and logo

NEW NAME. SAME PLANE. American Eagle, the commuter partner of American Airlines, has announced it will change its name to Envoy (which, not coincidentally, is what US Airways calls is business class product).

Delta’s arrival kiosks at its new JFK Terminal help reduce immigration wait times (Photo: Delta)

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NEW PASSPORT READERS AT ORD AND JFK…So, you may have heard about these new passport readers popping up in places like Delta’s terminal 4 at JFK and ORD, and wondered, “Why did I pay the $100 for Global Entry.” Well, there is a difference…these are totally separate systems. With this passport scanning system (free, no $ or interview required) , new arrivals insert passports, answer similar questions to what is found on the traditional blue landing card, and then wait in line to show a receipt to the CBP official who verifies that it is indeed you. So unlike Global Entry, kiosk users don’t bypass that step completely although it is much faster. The time spent with the CBP agent is reduced because users have already entered passport info into the system.

DELTA AND VIRGIN ATLANTIC LINK SCHEDULE. As we reported late last year, Delta and Virgin Atlantic have launched a joint venture, which officially started on Jan. 1. It includes all flights between the U.S. and the U.K., including Virgin’s daily flight from SFO to Heathrow. This means Bay Area flyers can now book SFO-London Heathrow nonstops on Delta.com, even though the flight will be operated by Virgin Atlantic. Benefits for travelers include access to Virgin’s impressive lounge network and earning and redeeming SkyMiles on either carrier. We hear mixed reviews about Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class seats on the SFO-LHR run on its 747-400… many love them, others say they are a bit tatty and in need of replacement. (Virgin’s newest version of Upper Class is currently only available on its A330s and 747-400’s flying to/from London Gatwick.) Have you flown Virgin Atlantic lately? How was it?

Looking out the window from landing jet at Asiana crash last summer (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Looking out the window from landing jet at Asiana crash site last summer (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

SAFEST YEAR EVER? Despite the Asiana tragedy at SFO last summer, 2013 clocked in as the safest ever for air travel. In related news, last week the San Francisco Fire Department released gruesome video of the Asiana crash rescue scene, which clearly shows the body of one of the teenage victims and early attempts to keep fire trucks away. Very sickening and sad.

FLY OVER CANADA MUCH? Then you’ll be pleased to know that Gogo recently flipped the switch on its new Canadian network, which means more connectivity onboard Air Canada flights. Currently, only two Air Canada Airbus A319s have Gogo onboard testing out the service. Even if you don’t fly Air Canada, you’ll get better reception when, for example, you are on a Virgin America flight to Boston that flies over southern Canada to get there.

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PLEASE, RECRUIT YOUR FRIENDS. If you like TravelSkills, would you please tell your friends and colleagues about it? The ONLY way we grow is via word of mouth from happy readers. Like every online publication, we need more eyeballs and appreciate your support. Here’s something you can copy and paste into an email TODAY!

Have you ever heard about TravelSkills—TravelSkills– for frequent travelers? It’s a free local travel blog that I subscribe to. It’s full of helpful news and advice for frequent travelers who live in the Bay Area…just like us. I think it’s definitely something you could use. See “Subscribe” in the upper right margin of the blog, or just sign up right here. Thanks! [ADD: *Your signature*]

— Chris McGinnis

And just in case you missed it, here’s what else you need to know about Bay Area Travel over the last month:

United transcon bonus + United 787 domestic + Fewer 747s + Delta vs Alaska

*How to earn a quick 40,000 United miles*

Anticipating T3E + Google Int’l + New Virgin Visa + More Southwest nonstops

Southwest: Blackfish backlash

United: T3E & UA500 & 49ers-Seahawks Game fares

What to do if pulled over by the police [Infographic]

***

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United: T3E & UA500 & 49ers-Seahawks Game fares

January 13, 2014

New art installation “Sky” at SFO’s T3E (Photo: SFO)

WE’RE COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS…until the opening of United’s shiny new Boarding Area E in Terminal 3 (with a shiny new acronym: “T3E”). When TravelSkills took a hard hat tour last month, things were still very much under construction, but we are starting to see and hear about more of the finished product, including some of the unusual art installations. Last week United posted a press release about the new terminal (but still has not revealed which flights will be the first to arrive or depart when it opens on Jan 28.) And then there’s this from the San Mateo Daily Journal:

At the waiting area at the end of the terminal lies the suspended light sculpture ‘Sky’ by Merge Conceptual Design. The artist team Franka Diehnelt and Claudia Reisenberger created the sculpture, which is made up of 27 mirror-polished stainless steel spheres of different sizes. The globes are hollow with circular openings oriented at various angles and their interiors are painted a matte blue. They are also illuminated by LED lights to create a soft interior glow, while a computerized program causes these lights to brighten and dim at intervals creating a changing pattern of light.

GETTING BETTER? Included in United’s press release about T3E was a blurb claiming, “United’s operational performance [at SFO] has improved significantly, with baggage-handling reliability up 25 percent in 2013 versus 2012, and ‘controllable delays’ – those not attributed, for example, to inclement weather – down nearly 50 percent for mainline flights and more than 40 percent for regional flights. Satisfaction among San Francisco customers, as measured from post-travel surveys, has increased six-fold since mid-2012.” Then there’s last weeks damning Bloomberg story about how United is still wracked with computer malfunctions affecting its performance. Do you agree with United’s assessment that things have improved at SFO over the last 18 months? Please leave your comments below.

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SEE IT BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE. GET FREE GOGO WIFI. Would you like to see the new Boarding Area E before it opens on Tuesday, Jan 28? Then RSVP for the “T3E Community Day” on Saturday, Jan 25. Attendees can crawl all over the modern new terminal, soak up the new (and old) art installations, check out the terminal’s dramatic runway views, and enjoy food and entertainment for the whole family. It’s from 12 noon until 5 pm—admission is free, but you must reserve a ticket ahead of time. (The first three BATs who submit photos of the new terminal get one free Gogo inflight internet pass! We’ll create a slideshow for the blog with your photos. Send here.)

FORTY NINERS VS SEAHAWKS FARES. As of this morning, fares between Bay Area Airports and Seattle are running in the upper $300’s for those headed to the playoff game scheduled for 3:30 pm Sunday Jan 19. Alaska and Virgin seem to have to lower fares of the bunch, coming in at about $390 for trips northbound on Saturday and southbound on Sunday night. United and Delta nonstops are already priced over $500 roundtrip. Are you going?

Frozen first flight (Photo: SFO)

UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT (INDY) 500. Deep beneath the blizzard of news about the Polar Vortex and how it was affecting air travel, United pulled off the inaugural nonstop flight between SFO and Indianapolis on Tues, Jan 7. As the Airbus A319 readied for departure on time at 1:35 pm, the temperature in Indy hovered at a bitter 4 degrees F and the city was at the tail end of a “level red” emergency, which forbade all driving except for emergencies. Undoubtedly, those flying into SFO from Indy were happy to escape the winter blast and enjoy some of our disturbingly sunny, dry California weather! Clever: The flight number for the IND-SFO leg is UA500 (Think Indy 500 race). The SFO-IND leg is flight UA317– and 317 is the area code for Indianapolis.

— Chris McGinnis

And just in case you missed it, here’s what else you need to know about Bay Area Travel over the last month:

What to do if pulled over by the police [Infographic]

What winter storm?

12 wishes for better Bay Area travel in 2014

*How to earn a quick 40,000 United miles*

Are you a “data traveler?”

Virgin SFO-LaGuardia + AA’s newest jet + Global Entry delays + more

New terminal at SFO: hard hat tour (photos)

16 brand new, must see NYC hotels

Update: United p.s. fleet SFO-JFK

***

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12 wishes for better Bay Area travel in 2014

December 31, 2013

Looking out at the bowed wing of ANA’s 787 to Tokyo and pondering 2014 (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

1-That airlines come to their senses and strive to be the first to offer low-cost texting during flights instead of feeding the media frenzy over the possibility of inflight phone calls.

2-That Virgin America continues its recent string of quarterly profits so we don’t have to worry about it disappearing and leaving us without an airline that makes us smile. Nonstops from SFO to New York La Guardia would be nice, too!

3-That United is able to smoothly roll out dependable inflight wi-fi on its entire fleet, as some of its competitors have already done. It would also be nice to see United respond to competitors and bring its SFO lounges up to international standards.

4-That airlines quickly dump their uncomfortable “angled lie flat” business class seats, and bring them up to the new “true-lie-flat” standard offered by the likes of United, which now offers one of the best business class seats flying to/from SFO. (Lufthansa could take care of this quickly by deploying its new Boeing 747-8 on SFO-Frankfurt!)

5-That all hotels adopt the reasonable practice of offering basic wi-fi for free to all guests, limiting charges only to those who want to pipes fat enough to stream movies, or send/receive very large files.

6-That competition between Alaska, Delta, United and Virgin America continues to make travel up and down the West Coast cheap, frequent and full of unusual extras.

7-That new planes, new seats and new technology on the busy SFO-NYC corridor helps drive down business class fares, which now hover around $3,000-$4,000 roundtrip.

8-That upstart companies like Uber, Lyft, FlightCar, RelayRides and SilverCar continue to disrupt the staid, overpriced and over-regulated ground transportation business and make it easier and cheaper for us to get to/from airports and around town.

9-That all credit card companies dump irritating foreign transaction fees and add chips to cards to make them cheaper and easier to use overseas.

10-That airlines stop chipping away at their frequent flyer programs, making it tougher to redeem miles, and ticking off their best customers.

11-That San Jose and Oakland International Airports can add frequent and reasonably priced nonstop flights to more key destinations, which will help make them viable alternatives to increasingly crowded and delay-plagued SFO. Norwegian’s new nonstops between Scandinavia and Oakland and ANA’s nonstops between San Jose and Tokyo are a great start.

12-That all our cherished Bay Area Traveler blog readers continue to engage and interact with TravelSkills and tell at least FIVE FRIENDS to check it out and sign up!

What would YOU like to see in 2014? Please leave your comments below!

Happy New Year! — Chris McGinnis

And just in case you missed it, here’s what else you need to know about Bay Area Travel over the last month:

Are you a “data traveler?”

Virgin SFO-LaGuardia + AA’s newest jet + Global Entry delays + more

Best/worst days for holiday trips

New terminal at SFO: hard hat tour (photos)

16 brand new, must see NYC hotels

Update: United p.s. fleet SFO-JFK

Asia on sale + PreCheck newbies + United wi-fi + Free airport parking + Nancy Pelosi

Virgin first class sale + Hilton HHonors downgrade + Chase Sapphire w chip + United dumps ExpertFlyer

More A380s + Cathay discounts biz class + SJC courts Asia + Double Elevate pts

>Southwest FINALLY joins PreCheck

>United to allow handhelds below 10K feet

>Travel advice fit for a Queen (Latifah!)

***

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Track MQMs + Coach upgrade + Economy Comfort MQDs + Delta’s secret 360 club + More

December 21, 2013

2014 MEDALLION TRACKER NOW ONLINE…No need to worry about Delta keeping tabs on your status for the New Year. A new tracker is now available on Delta.com under the My Delta section of your SkyMiles profile. It keeps check of your Medallion qualification metrics: MQMs (miles), MDQs (dollars), and MQS’ (segments)… it will also keep track of your Delta American Express credit card spend (as you remember, spending $25,000 in 2014 will provide a waiver for meeting Medallion Qualification Dollar spend next year). Effective Jan. 1, the tracker will also appear on the Delta app. Happy flying (and spending) in the New Year!

MORE ECONOMY CLASS COMFORT…Delta has boosted its international economy class with some nice recent enhancements. Delta offered many of these benefits nearly a decade ago, but cut back in economic hard times. The goodies are back for travelers though. In addition to recently announced free cocktails for economy passengers, now everyone will receive a large bottle of water and small amenity kit with eyeshades and socks among other travel items on long-haul flights. Delta is the only North American airline to offer these added benefits to coach passengers.

DELTA SEAT PURCHASES QUALIFY FOR MQD SPENDING…Purchasing Economy Comfort or a preferred exit row/bulkhead seat on your next flight in 2014? Well, you have more incentive now. That purchase will count toward your MQD spend. Previously, Economy Comfort brought more than added legroom; on international flights, it also brought free cocktails. This new MQD perk sweetens the pot, especially if you are getting close to hitting a threshold.

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DELTA CEO SAYS NO TO LOUD TALKERS…In a sigh of relief for most airline passengers and crew, Delta CEO Richard Anderson has publicly stated that there will be no in-flight cell phone calls permitted aboard Delta aircraft, even if other airlines decide to allow it. Other airlines, including Southwest, have also come forward saying they would not allow it on their flights. (Texting during flight? Bring it on, airlines. But please keep it cheap.)

LESS BUSINESS, MORE ECONOMY SEATING…Delta is pulling BusinessElite seats from several of its 777 and 767 aircraft in the coming year to make room for extra rows of Economy. Certain routes stimulate more demand in the back of the aircraft, and this will give Delta more flexibility to maximize revenue in certain markets. Certain 767s will lose 14 seats up front and gain 20 in Economy while 777s will lose 7 seats up front and gain 24 in Economy. There is already a subset of 767s in the Delta system that has fewer BusinessElite seats.

Delta 360 members are likely the ones getting views like this (from a Porsche on the tarmac) (Photo: Delta)

DELTA 360 TESTED FOR TOP ATLANTA FLYERS…Delta has been quietly sending out invitations to Delta 360, its high-revenue, elite offering (similar to United Global Services and American Concierge Key). There is no published revenue amount to qualify, and invitations were only sent to a subset of customers mostly in the Atlanta area. If it goes well, Delta hopes to expand the program, which comes with a dedicated reservations line and special monitoring of flights on the day of travel to proactively assist with connections and rebooking, if necessary. It seems to be a super-secret trial program right now reserved for Delta’s highest mileage, biggest spenders. Surprised TICKET reader (and 2 million miler) LR provided us with a heads up on the program last month. He wrote: “Did I miss the article on Delta’s new 360 Priority program? I got an invite to 360 about a month ago, and when I called the Diamond line last night I was routed to a very competent 360 operator. Pretty interesting.” Have you received an invitation? Noticed anything different when you travel so far? Please leave your comments below.

MORE SEATTLE FLIGHTS…New Delta flights from Seattle bound for Juneau, Alaska and San Jose, California will keep flyers on the go. Also planned is an extra Seattle-Anchorage flight to leading to three daily nonstops in the peak summer season. This furthers the battle between Delta and hometown carrier Alaska Airlines. This Delta/Alaska tussle has re-kindled talk of an eventual Delta takeover of Alaska Air… what do you think?

AVOID HOLIDAY HASSLES WITH VALET PARKING AT ATL! Have you noticed the flurry of men and women in green blazers on the lower level passenger pick up areas at ATL? They are new parking valet attendants from GreenCoat Auto Concierge & Valet service. For $20 per day, you can now drive to the airport, leave your car with a GreenCoat at the terminal, and head off on your trip. The valet will drive your car to a secure, indoor, off-airport lot and park it. When you return, just call GreenCoat and let them know you’re coming, and an attendant will bring your car back to the airport terminal, hand it over to you, and you drive home. Nice! GreenCoat has just signed on as a sponsor of The TICKET so you’ll be hearing more about the service in coming months. Give it a try and let us know how it goes! NOTE: ADVANCE RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Special for TICKET readers: First timers get 1,000 Delta SkyMiles!

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HOLLYWOOD SNEAK PEEK…During December passengers aboard Delta flights are enjoying a sneak peek at the new movie, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” Lucky TICKET contributor Ramsey Qubein chatted with one of the movie co-stars, Kristen Wiig, in Seattle as she returned from filming in Iceland earlier this year. Visitors to Delta’s Facebook page between Dec. 4-27 have the chance to win up to 50,000 SkyMiles through the Mitty-inspired “Stop Dreaming and Start Doing” sweepstakes.

NEW SPIRIT OF SEATTLE PLANE…Delta has dubbed one of its newest Boeing B737-900 aircraft, the “Spirit of Seattle,” in honor of local customers and employees. The plane features a special livery and promotes its recent expansion at Sea-Tac. Flight attendants are also wearing pins commemorating the Spirit of Seattle. Expanded service from Seattle includes new flights to Fairbanks, Alaska and Vancouver, Canada, both of which will begin next summer. Have you flown on the 737-900, Delta’s newest aircraft? What do you think? By the end of the year, Delta will have a dozen of the shiny new jets in operation.

TICKET NEWS HITS FACEBOOK FIRST. When there’s news you need to know, The TICKET frequently posts it on our Facebook page first (and eventually it makes its way into a The TICKET.) So if you want to be among the first to know, join the thousands of TICKET readers who get a regular dose of fare deals, travel news, and advice via our Facebook page. Come on and join the fun…and stay informed.

GERMANY GOES ALL LIE-FLAT…If you are traveling between the U.S. and Germany on Delta, all business class seats now feature the latest flat-bed product with staggered single seats by the windows and two seats in the center section. Delta flies to Germany from Atlanta, Detroit, and JFK. From Atlanta, Delta flies to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, and Stuttgart.

KLM New business class

FLAT-BED SEATS COMING TO KLM’s ATL FLIGHTS…Eventually. SkyTeam partner KLM is rolling out new flat-bed business class seats on its aircraft beginning with the Boeing 747 fleet of aircraft. Five aircraft feature the new seating and are appearing on routes like San Francisco and JFK to Amsterdam. The new seats extend to sleeping cocoons with larger entertainment screens than business class on Lufthansa and British Airways. By late spring 2014, the entire fleet of jumbo jets will be retrofitted guaranteeing flat-bed seats up front on 747 flights from Houston, San Francisco, Chicago, and JFK to Amsterdam among other international destinations in the KLM route network. Next up for the new seating will be the B777-200 fleet. Plans are in place to have flat-bed seating on all KLM long-haul aircraft in the coming years. For now, KLM flies the Airbus A330 to Atlanta, which still has the angled flat seats, but these will be updated over time as well.

DELTA TO BOOST DALLAS FLIGHTS…Delta is planning to expand its operation at Dallas Love Field should it get the green light from the U.S. Department of Justice. It has to bid on the gates, which are being made available thanks to the merger between American and US Airways. The new flights would include nonstop service to Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and New York LaGuardia. Additional frequencies on the existing route to Atlanta would also be added.

—Chris McGinnis & Ramsey Qubein

In case you missed it:

Best & worst days for holiday trips

SkyMiles upgrade (seriously) + Buying MQMs + Southwest shrinkage + Delta’s big bump + Southwest surprise

Free booze + Airport roads + TSA tax + CNN @ATL + Delta #1

16 brand new must-see NYC hotels

Try the new Greencoat Valet Parking at ATL and earn 1,000 SkyMiles

Did I get it right about Atlanta?

Southwest, but not AirTran, joins PreCheck

ATL ranks last + more Delta devaluations + 747 refurb complete + loaded guns

Holiday travel advice fit for a Queen

New rules about using electronics onboard

ATL Valet Parking + IHOP + SkyMiles downgrade + 717 delay + Double miles + Hot Nuts

8 things to like about Delta’s new California Shuttle

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Airline cat fight benefits Bay Area travelers

October 20, 2013

United’s spiffy new Club at SEA-TAC (United)

Hello BATs! We’ve been on the road and in the skies over the last week, so we’ll spend this week catching up on Bay Area Traveler news! Here goes:

DELTA-UNITED CATFIGHT BENEFITS BAY AREA. TravelSkills Readers (BATs!) are benefitting big time from the Delta vs United cat fight over West Coast airports in the Bay Area, Seattle and Los Angeles.

As we’ve reported, Delta has bulked up on flights between San Francisco/San Jose and Los Angeles. Delta says it will add six new Embraer 175 nonstops between SFO and its rapidly expanding Seattle hub starting next March.

In a move that reminds me of how airlines behaved in the 1990s, United reacted by announcing new flights into Delta hubs like Atlanta, Seattle and Minneapolis.

Seen Atlanta's giant new Ferris Wheel located in downtown's Centennial Park? (Photo: AJC.com)

Seen Atlanta’s giant new Ferris Wheel located in downtown’s Centennial Park? Click to enlarge (Photo: AJC.com)

Starting April 1, United says it will use 737-800s to revive its nonstop service on SFO-ATL, a market already well served well by Delta, Southwest and AirTran.

United also said that it would remove those dreadful CRJ’s on SFO-SEA and convert the route to all-mainline flights —with a whopping 11 flights per day in each direction, which will increase its seat capacity on the route by 50% by next April. United also sports a very nice new 6,100 square-foot United Club at SEA-TAC Concourse A. Have you visited yet?

Alaska Air also competes in this market, and is not sitting idly by… it will add three more nonstops on the route, too, for a total of 11 daily.

With Delta, United, Virgin America and Alaska competing on this route, fares are already low, and should remain low for a while. According to the Centre for Aviation, Alaska currently has a 40% share between Seattle and San Francisco, followed by United at 37% and Virgin America at 23%.

UNITED’S CONVENIENT SFO-ATL SKEDS. United’s new San Francisco-Atlanta flights using Boeing 737-800s are timed to please business travelers. Starting April 1, they will depart SFO at 8:30 am and 4 pm and arriving at 4:07 pm and 11:37 pm. Returns from ATL depart at 7 am and 4:55 pm and arrive at 9:16 am and 7:11 pm.

DOUBLE MILES. In the latest tit-for-tat, Delta announced this week that it would offer double SkyMiles from now through October 2014 (a full year!) on its SFO-Seattle flights. (You must register and book by Dec 31 2013) While United has not yet matched this offer… stay tuned… I would not be surprised if it does as this catfight continues….

NEW SKY CLUB? We’ve also hear rumors from Delta insiders (currently unconfirmed) that a new Sky Club is in the works at Delta’s Terminal 1, Boarding Area C…The current Sky Club is inconveniently located outside the security screening area. The new club will reportedly replace a luggage store near gate C41.

—Chris McGinnis

>8 things to like about Delta’s new California Shuttle

>Clock is ticking on latest Fall/Winter nationwide fare sale

>United’s newer, thinner seat

>Delta dumps SFO-Tokyo flight

>Slideshow of the swish new Star Alliance lounge at LAX

SAS arrival + Fight over Jersey + Taipei Delei + United woes

April 14, 2013

The first SAS A340 arrives at SFO to a water cannon salute (Photo: Joe D’Alessandro)

SKAL TO SAS. SAS touched down at SFO last Monday at around 2:30pm. While TravelSkills was unable to attend the airport arrival celebration, reader Joe D’Alessandro sent along the above photo of the first SAS A340-300 getting a water cannon salute. Within 10 minutes, we posted the photo on TravelSkills Facebook page and our sister column on SFgate. D’Alessandro is the head of San Francisco Travel, and was at SFO to give a welcome speech, during which he mentioned the quickly posted photo as an example of the power and reach of social media in the Bay Area! Cool! (TravelSkills’s onboard SAS this week bound for Copenhagen, so stay tuned for our review!)

Pete Cashmore (Mashable) and Richard Branson on the Virgin America Inaugural LAX-EWR flight.

VIRGIN AMERICA IN JERSEY. Another inaugural this week: Virgin America jets touched down in Newark, New Jersey, with Richard Branson and Mashable’s Pete Cashmore onboard in a Google+ Hangout, in which Branson shared that fares between California and Newark are down 40% since Virgin’s entry into the market. In later interviews, Branson talked about the possibility of filing an antitrust complaint against United for its overwhelming buildup of flights in response to Virgin’s entry into the market, which TravelSkills pointed out in early March. United was quick to point out that its response was nothing more than business as usual. What do you think?

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TAIPEI DELEI. United has postponed the start of its nonstops between SFO and Taipei for a full YEAR– until March 2014. Originally, flights were to have started this month, but that was then pushed until June. Routes Online reports that the delay is due to “market seasonality and the availability of wide body aircraft as a result of the ongoing Boeing 787 delays…. Due to the 787 issue, the Boeing 777 that we would use on the SFO-TPE route is now needed to support other existing routes that we planned to transition to Boeing 787s.” Speaking of United’s 787’s, the currently grounded plane is now back on United’s schedule starting May 31, flying between Denver and Houston. However, the FAA has not yet given airline the green light to fly 787s, but it’s expected soon. (United’s new flights to Paris, announced at the same time as Taipei, crank up on April 26.)

UNITED CEO PAY CUT. The Miami Herald reports that CEO of United Airlines saw his total 2012 compensation shrink 41 percent last year after stumbles in the airline’s merger with Continental. Compensation for Chairman and CEO Jeff Smisek was $7.9 million last year, down from $13.4 million after a cut in his incentive payments.

MEGA-MILEAGE BONUSES. Did you check out our post this week on two new sites offering big bonuses for hotel stays… how about 15,000 United Mileage Plus miles for a three night stay in NYC or Chicago? Not bad. But not for everyone. Read about it here.

Virgin America’s newest A320’s have sharklets on the wings. Seen em? (Photo: Virgin America)

BEST AND WORST OF TIMES. Interesting to note that the much-ballyhooed (but generally ignored by consumers) “2012 Airline Quality Rankings” came out this week with the Bay Area’s two largest airlines at opposite ends. Virgin America ranked #1… and United ranked dead last at #14. Virgins’ win was attributed to its smaller, more manageable size, newer planes, wi-fi, fun crews, etc. Most of the blame for United’s dismal showing was based on its computer switchover and consolidation with Continental woes. Do these survey results make you MORE likely to choose Virgin and LESS likely to fly United? Please leave your comments below.

Here’s how the airlines ranked in 2012, as well as their position the previous year.

1) Virgin America (new to the ranking this year*)
2) JetBlue (3)
3) AirTran (1)
4) Delta (6)
5) Hawaiian (2)
6) Alaska (5)
7) Frontier (4)
8) Southwest (7)
9) US Airways (8)
10) American (10)
11) American Eagle (15)
12) SkyWest (9)
13) ExpressJet (new to the ranking this year*)
14) United (12)
*In order to qualify for inclusion in the report, an airline must carry at least 1 percent of domestic passengers.

ELEGANT EVENING. On Tuesday, SAS threw an elegant dinner party for about 150 at the Asian Art Museum. Among the dignitaries on the dais, SAS CEO Rickard Gustafson and ex-SF-mayor Willie Brown, who’s energetic and spot on speech brought the relatively buttoned up house down. What a show! Bay Area Traveler editor Chris McGinnis was honored to be among the attendees.

—Chris McGinnis

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Catching up on Bay Area Travel News (March 10 2013)

March 10, 2013

Virgin America wingtip over downtown San Francisco (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

AIRLINES (OVER) REACT TO VIRGIN MOVES? It’s interesting to see how other airlines have reacted to Virgin America’s recent, and relatively minor expansion plans.

>For example, a day after Virgin’s announcement of plans to serve the San Jose-Los Angeles LAX market, Delta announced it would jump on the route, too, but with regional jets versus mainline aircraft offered by Virgin and Southwest. Alaska serves the route with a turboprop.

>Within days of Virgin’s announcement of a single daily nonstop between SFO and Austin, United countered with the addition of TWO more nonstops on the route, for a total of six daily (beware, most of those 3-4 hour hauls are on United’s regional jets). JetBlue also jumped into the fray with one additional daily SFO-AUS flight with continuing service to Ft. Lauderdale.

>Anchorage? After Virgin announced a single daily flight, United came back by increasing its daily summer season flights from just one to two daily.

>Back in December, Virgin announced new nonstops (3x daily) to United’s fortress hub at Newark starting on April 2. Notice how United (over) reacted to that? It increased daily SFO-EWR nonstops to 16 each way (!) from the current seven per day starting June 6. (Hat tip to routesonline.com for staying on top of all these changes!)

VIRGIN CONTRACTING TOO. Despite new routes, Virgin, which is still struggling to get into the black, is trimming schedules to cities it already serves. Examples: Starting May 1, SFO-Cancun is reduced to once weekly; SFO-Ft Lauderdale reduced to once daily instead of twice; SFO-New York JFK down to four daily instead of five. Orlando down from daily to just 4x per week. Philly: once daily down from twice. Washington Dulles down to three daily from four.

NEW NONSTOP TO SHANGHAI. Currently, only United offers nonstops (on a B747) on the red-hot route between SFO and Shanghai. But China Eastern Airlines cranks up new daily nonstop service between SFO and Shanghai (PVG) on April 26 using an Airbus A330. Currently, it’s US website is down and its San Francisco office is just getting established, so stay tuned for more information as we get it. SFO-PVG Fares are already declining—coach is down to just $1100 round trip compared to about $2,200 prior to MU’s arrival. Business Class is now about $4,500 round trip. China Eastern recently joined the SkyTeam alliance. Last year it won “World’s most improved airline” from the SkyTrax World Airline Awards. Have you flown China Eastern? How was it?

TIPS FOR USING PHONES OVERSEAS. One of the most-viewed posts on TravelSkills over the last year was our primer on saving money when using smart phones overseas. CNN liked it, too, and interviewed BAT editor Chris McGinnis about it at SFO. Check it out here:

VIRGIN AMERICA, SINGAPORE RECIPROCATE. Starting this month, members of Virgin’s Elevate program can earn and burn their points when flying Singapore Airlines. Since Virgin’s program is revenue (points)-based…and Singapore’s is miles-based, it gets complicated. Here’s a helpful breakdown of the deal from The Wandering Aramean blog. To celebrate the launch of the partnership, Virgin America is offering the chance for one Elevate member to win two round-trip economy class tickets on Singapore Airlines to Hong Kong or Seoul. You’ll earn 500 Elevate points just for entering the Win a Stylish Ride on Singapore Airlines contest on Virgin’s Facebook page.

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NICE WORK, UNITED. Did you catch this bittersweet tale about how United held a flight for a San Francisco man whose mother was dying in Texas? He made it to Lubbock just in time, thanks to the work of United crews.

NO HASSLE TRAVEL TRIFECTA ON KCBS. My post last week about how using the “no hassle travel trifecta” could alleviate worry about impending slowdowns at airport security and immigration lines due to the sequester received a ton of play locally. KCBS called BAT editor Chris McGinnis for a chat about the strategy. You can listen in here!

BRITISH AIRWAYS A380. British Airways is deploying its first big Airbus A380 to California on October 15. Alas, it’s going to LAX instead of SFO. But nonetheless, BA’s Executive VP Simon Talling-Smith reached out to TravelSkills with some interesting info: When it comes to configuration, BA is putting all premium class seats (14 in first and 97 in business) at the front of the plane, on both the main and upper decks—this makes for a quieter flight, and faster boarding/deboarding. (Most other carriers have business class on the upper deck—front to back.) BA says that it knows that premium passengers don’t like to fly at the back of the plane, even if in a business class seat. BA’s move represents the first time an A380 will be deployed between the US and London. LAX is BA’s second largest market after NYC. Introductory roundtrip business class fares between LAX and London will be just $3,800 round trip. Premium economy is $1380; coach is $830. Currently, BA does not have plans to bring its A380 to SFO. Would you add an extra leg from SFO to LAX in order to jump on this big new bird?

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Have you ever heard about TravelSkills—TravelSkills– for frequent travelers? It’s a free local travel blog that I subscribe to. It’s full of helpful news and advice for frequent travelers who live in the Bay Area…just like us. For example, I first learned that PreCheck was coming to SFO, or that Virgin America was matching United Premier status from TravelSkills. I think it’s definitely something you could use. See “Subscribe” in the upper right margin of the blog, or just sign up right here. Thanks! ADD: *Your signature*

Catching up on Bay Area Travel news (Feb 10)

February 10, 2013

New fees on the way at Southwest Airlines (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Here’s what TravelSkills Readers (BATs!) need to know this week….

United Mileage Plus in court. A federal judge has rejected United’s attempt to throw out a lawsuit accusing the world’s largest carrier of taking benefits away from some of its most loyal fliers. The suit claims United revoked Million Milers’ “Lifetime Premier Executive” status, which entitled them to favored treatment in bookings, seating priority and upgrades, and demoted them to lower-tier “Gold” status.

Superstorm Nemo forces airlines to waive fees. The giant snowstorm that swept through the Northeast this weekend forced airlines to waive change fees for travelers holding tickets for air travel through Monday Feb 11. United was the last major carrier to join the gang offering to waive the fees, and then had to expand the window for waivers from 8-9 Feb to 8-11 Feb. Remember, if your flight is canceled and you decide to not take a trip at all (instead of accepting the airlines’ offer to re-accommodate you on another flight) you can ask for a full refund.

Spring break could be pricey, dicey this year. An early Easter (Sunday, Mar 31), that cold winter back East, and an improving economy means that travelers should brace for an expensive and crowded Spring Break travel season this year. Whether you have business trip plans or beach trip plans, if you plan to travel during the last two weeks of March—you need to make reservations now… and plan to deal with crowds and high prices. Listen to BAT editor Chris McGinnis discuss this news on KCBS last Friday.

Earn Virgin Elevate points when dining out. Virgin announced a new partnership with Mogl, allowing Elevate members earn points for something we all do a lot of in the Bay Area—dine out. All you have to do is register your credit card with Mogl, and then dine out in participating restaurants (good selection in SF and other California cities) The offer’s a bit complicated, but why not sign up? Details here.

American + US Airways merger expected this week. It’s been a long time coming, but most industry watchers say that a merger between American Airlines and US Airways will finally be announced this week. Most expect the new airlines to be called American, but the new CEO will be US Airways current CEO Doug Parker. The airline will be based in Dallas. Since both American and US Airways have little presence in the Bay Area, the impact here will be negligible.

Winter hotel promos: Marriott’s Megamiles promo is back—you can earn double airlines miles for every stay through April 30. Stay at Best Western three times between now and April 14 and you’ll get a certificate for one free night good for those price spring or summer peak season stays later this year.

Fly American from the Bay to Hawaii? An enhanced codeshare agreement between American and Alaska Airlines will allow American to put its code and sell tickets on the 22 Alaska Airlines flights from the Bay to Hawaii. For those of you with big banks of unused AAdvantage miles with dreams of tropical paradise, now’s the time to redeem.

ANA Dreamliner cancellations at San Jose extended. Until the root cause of battery malfunctions and fires can be determined, the Dreamliner will not fly to San Jose (or anywhere.) While investigators seem to be making slow progress, ANA decided to go ahead and cancel Dreamliner flights all the way through March 30 (That’s nearly 10 weeks of no flights.) TravelSkills asked ANA why they don’t substitute another aircraft on the route, they said that they only have certification to fly the 787 on the route and that applying to use another aircraft could take weeks or months. In addition, ANA is likely having a tough time filling the holes in its schedule by the grounding of 17 of its aircraft, and for now, its easier to bus San Jose passengers up 101 to catch their flights at SFO.

New fees at Southwest. Southwest Airlines passengers who are used to not showing up for a flight and then requesting full credit for that flight for future use later are in for a surprise. Southwest says it will soon impose a no-show fee on cheaper restricted tickets if you don’t contact the airline and cancel your plans within 24 hours of flight time. Southwest’s “Early bird” check in fees have increased to $12.50 from $10. In addition, if you want to nab an open position in the first boarding group, Southwest now charges a $40 fee for that. In addition, the fee for oversized or overweight bags, or a third checked have increased from $50 to $75 each. Southwest still does not charge for the first or second checked bag…but industry scuttlebutt is that Southwest will likely join other carriers in charging bag fees starting next year.

Business class to Orange County. Did you know that AirTran flies daily a 2-class Boeing 737 (business and coach) with Gogo wi-fi between SFO and Orange County? Coach class roundtrip fares are in the $150 range, and business class is only $315. (The flight stops at SNA, then continues on to Cabo)

BAT headlines from this week:

10 things about Singapore Airlines A380 at SFO (Photos)

United maintains dominance at SFO

Virgin America CEO David Cush: Why San Jose?

ALERT: United has moved flights to Terminal 1 at SFO

June 7, 2012

[UPDATE: June 21: UAL’s Terminal 1 mess is getting even messier. Readers now report to TravelSkills that UAL is now running flights from airports such as DENVER and LAX through T1 with no advance warning. ]

The following confirms information in an earlier post about United moving flights to Terminal 1.

Starting today (with no formal announcement or instructions to its customers or the media) United Air Lines moved flights to/from several southern California cities and Las Vegas to Terminal 1 at SFO.

Despite several requests to United and airport officials to verify start dates for this significant change, I learned about this from a surprised reader who sent the following via email today:

I read your announcement that United would use SFO Terminal 1 for certain flights. Today, we left SFO on such as flight, and it was awful. We had to check-in at United’s regular Terminal 3 area, then walk to Intl Gate 92 where we caught a bus over to Terminal 1 gate area. This took a long time and was unpleasant. I couldn’t believe the procedure involved … Now, the long walk to gate 92 and then waiting for the bus, the bus ride, etc. Terrible start to a trip. I assume it has to do with cost; United wants to avoid setting up a check-in and baggage operation at Terminal 1. Also, the bus came quickly, although there was a long line, and the United personnel were friendly and nice. So, my compliments to the staff. However, it’s an awful plan, and we’re certainly going to choose a different airline for any United flight that leaves Terminal 1. The staff told us this plan would be in effect for 18 months.

Why United has chosen to keep this major change and inconvenience for its customer under wraps when we are at the outset of the peak summer travel season is beyond comprehension. I’m not the only observer who is awestruck.

“United’s silence on this matter is very alarming to me,” said Atmosphere Group analyst Henry Harteveldt, who is based in San Francisco. “It just looks like the Keystone Cops. It’s not complicated or expensive to do this right. United is going to end up with many confused, unhappy and irate passengers if they don’t get their act together on communicating this properly. This is a classic example of how an airline loses business,” he said.

**SEE BELOW FOR UNITED’S OFFICIAL RESPONSE WHICH CAME AFTER THIS POST PUBLISHED**

I’ve been able to piece together the following information based on what I’m hearing from customers, and the early draft of an alert sent to me by SFO officials late today:

>Starting June 7, if you are flying from SFO to Las Vegas, Orange County (SNA), San Diego, Ontario, Burbank or Santa Barbara, your flight will depart/arrive at Terminal 1 starting today. (Those cities are subject to change since United has not verified this information.)

>United will NOT have check in facilities at Terminal 1. All United passengers MUST check in, check baggage and enter security at Terminal 3.

>If you are flying to one of the above cities, the gate number on your boarding pass will be either 87A or 92.

>You will enter check in, check bags and enter airport security at United counters or kiosks at Terminal 3.

>You will walk to the gate, then walk outside, down some stairs and board one of several 19-passenger shuttles for a ride underneath the airport to Terminal 1.

>Airport authorities claim that the transfer will take 4-5 minutes and that busses will run every 4-5 minutes.

>Upon arrival at Terminal 1, you will then exit the shuttle, walk up a set of stairs and enter the terminal at gate 32. There is no need to pass through security again.

>You will then board your flight from Terminal 1.

>When RETURNING on a United flight to Terminal 1 with carry on luggage only, you may exit at Terminal 1. (If you are being picked up, be sure your ride knows to look for you at Terminal 1.)

>When returning on a United flight to Terminal 1 with CHECKED luggage, get ready for a hassle. You must go back to gate 32, take the shuttle back to gates 87 or 92, and then walk to baggage claim– and exit at Terminal 3. (Which is where your ride should pick you up.)

So that’s the drill for locals….

But there’s a whole other set of unwieldy new rules for passengers connecting through SFO. Here’s what the airport has provided:

Domestic Connecting Passengers.

If your connecting boarding pass has Gate 92, proceed to gate 92 to catch the transfer bus. If your connecting boarding pass has gate 87A, proceed to gate 87A to catch the transfer bus. Please allow yourself a few extra minutes for the transfer bus to Terminal 1.

If you arrive to Terminal 1 on United Airlines, US Airways, Alaska Airlines, AirTran Airways, or Southwest Airlines AND your luggage is checked to your final destination AND you are departing from gates 92A, 92B, 92C, 92D, 92E, or 92F, you do not need to exit Terminal 1. Please proceed to your gate.

If you are connecting to a United Airlines flight not operating from gates 92A, 92B, 92C, 92D, 92E, or 92F follow the signs to the United Airlines transfer bus at Gate 32. Please allow yourself a few extra minutes for the transfer to Terminal 3.

If you are arriving on any other airline, you will need to clear security at Terminal 3 or the International Security Checkpoint for the G gates.

International Inbound Connecting Passengers.

After clearing Immigrations and Customs, please drop any luggage checked to your final destination at the United Airlines re-check counter immediately to your left outside the Customs Hall. After re-checking your luggage, continue down the corridor and up the escalator to the International Security Check Point for the G gates. Once through security, please proceed to the gate printed on your boarding pass. There is a post-security secure connector that allows you to walk to Terminal 3 after clearing security.

International Outbound Connecting Passengers

If you arrive to T1 and are connecting to an International Outbound Flight, follow the signs to the United Airlines transfer bus at Gate 32. Please allow yourself a few extra minutes for the transfer to Terminal 3 and then follow the signs to the connecting gate printed on your boarding pass.

Confused yet? I bet. Good luck out there!

Why do you think United has not chimed in with any alerts or instructions about this major move? Please leave your comments below.

**UPDATE: Official response from United on Friday June 8**

We added new gates in San Francisco to support the additional service for our customers. Since 2010, we have announced the launch of seven new markets from SFO in addition to adding departures to existing markets.
Transfers between the terminals will occur during renovations to Boarding Area E, which will provide the airline with more gates and enable us to offer customers a better overall travel experience. We expect to complete the renovations in 2O13.
We have also added several hundred customer service agents and offer bus service between the terminals every four to five minutes to assist our customers using the new gates.
UPDATE 2: United has confirmed to me that passengers with carry on luggage and pre-printed United boarding passes for gates 87 or 92 may enter at Terminal 1 instead of having to enter at Terminal 3 and take the shuttle. — chris

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Airline/Airport Update

May 30, 2012

TICKET reader DW sent us this photo showing a spelling error that needs fixin’ at ATL’s new International Travel Complex at Concourses E and F.

ATL’S NEW CONCOURSE F: As expected, travelers are experiencing a few kinks as ATL’s newest concourse makes its debut. In the midst of the hoopla surrounding the opening of ATL’s new International Concourse F, gripes we are hearing at The TICKET include the unusually LONG walk from Concourse E to Concourse F. Now, all Atlanta-bound passengers arriving at either Concourse E or F are funneled through customs and immigration at Concourse F. That means those arriving at Concourse E must walk from their arriving gate to the central spine, then hike the 1000 or so feet through the underground tunnel (or take a moving sidewalk) leading to immigration at Concourse F—the Plane Train is not an option. More evidence that the new terminal was built with a lot of thought for CONNECTING passengers—less so for Atlanta residents. What’s been YOUR experience at Concourse F? Please leave your comments below.

MORE ECONOMY COMFORT. Just in time for peak summer season, Delta’s entire mainline fleet and its Delta Connection planes with first class are now outfitted with Economy Comfort. On domestic flights, the extra four inches of legroom is a huge plus, and on international flights, the free cocktails are an added bonus. Zone 1 boarding is nice, too, especially on full flights. Until now, not all Delta planes offered Economy Comfort– and the seats were not available for sale until the entire fleet was upgraded. Now, non-Medallion travelers can purchase these extra legroom seats for $19-$99 depending on the length of the flight. Gold, Platinum and Diamond Medallion members get these seats for free—Silvers get a 50% discount. Have you tried Economy Comfort yet? Would you pay extra for it? LET US KNOW. Leave comments below.

DELTA / AIRTRAN DEAL. AirTran’s Boeing 717 fleet will not leave Atlanta as soon as expected. The slender jets will get some new paint and switch terminals to become part of Delta’s fleet beginning as soon as next year. The move is dependent on the ratification of a pilot’s contract that will allow them to fly the smaller jets. This fleet upgrade will lower the average age of Delta’s fleet by accelerating the retirement of its aging DC-9s. They will also replace many of the inefficient Delta Connection CRJ-200 aircraft. The 717 fits well between a regional jet and smaller mainline plane like the DC-9 allowing Delta to adjust aircraft to capacity and provide more first class seats (yay!) in certain markets. Delta will make the replacements on a capacity-neutral basis meaning that the retirement of CRJ-200s and DC-9s will be in line with the 717s based on the number of seats still available in the fleet.

FLY SOUTHWEST AIR TO LATIN AMERICA? Just today Southwest Airlines has obtained approval from the City of Houston to build a $100 million international hub at its Houston Hobby airport facilities. This means that ATL travelers will soon have a low cost option for flights south of the border via a connection in Houston. Flights could start as soon as 2015. It’s a move certain to ruffle the feathers of United and Delta which now pretty much own the US-Latin America market. Federal approval is still pending.

CLEAR Card COMING BACK? This month the CLEAR card began operations at all terminals at San Francisco International. Since the company was resuscitated by new investors in 2009, CLEAR has come back to only three airports: SFO, Orlando and Denver. Dallas is next on the list, although no firm date for installation of kiosks has been announced. We are hopeful for a return at ATL, but there is no strong indication that ATL is on CLEAR’s radar, for now at least. In case you don’t remember, CLEAR offers members access to special biometric-kiosk-controlled fast lanes at airport security for a $179 annual fee. It’s currently honoring any time left on previous memberships, and has a two-month free trial.

NEW SUMMER SNACKS ON DELTA. New seasonal food-for-sale items aboard Delta mainline flights include Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia or vanilla ice cream, Blue Moon beer, and Tequila Avion. To kick off the new summer menus, Delta offered free chips and salsa and margaritas to passengers on select transcon flights over the Cinco de Mayo weekend. All of these items are available for purchase in the main cabin. Specialty beverages are complimentary in first class, but there’s still a charge for ice cream. Also making a comeback this summer for Caribbean and Latin American routes are the popular mojitos. Other new items on the EATS menu for the main cabin include a smoked turkey and egg salad sandwich on breakfast flights and basil pesto chicken sliders with asiago cheese on a pretzel roll. What are your favorite…or least favorite… Delta meals? Please leave your comments below.

Delta’s new “Dine Up” meal– Cost: $17.99. “Flavorful trio starts with thinly sliced salami, peppers, wedges of smoked Gouda and brie cheeses, fresh strawberries and red grapes. Alongside sliced seared beef tenderloin, with roasted bell peppers and cippolini onions, and grilled rosemary shrimp with fresh jicama slaw. Creamy horseradish sauce on the side. Served chilled.”

DINE UP AT DELTA. Delta is testing “DineUp” a new concept allowing coach passengers to pre-buy premium meals online (up to 48 hours before flight time) on its transcon flights between New York City and California. The meals look tasty… and range in price from $12 to $20. If you end up with an upgrade, your meal will be delivered to your first class seat—no refunds. For now, DineUp is limited to NYC-CA flights but might expand. What do you think… would you dine up?

HOTEL BONUSES: Multiple Hyatt stays earn 4x or 5x Delta SkyMiles (2,500 max) bonuses between now and August 31. Marriott Rewards is offering one free night for every two paid stays between now and August 31. IHG’s Priority Club is offering 1000 bonus points or 200 bonus miles per night through September 3. Also, in a new twist, Priority Club now allows members to redeem points for digital downloads such as music, games or even foreign language lessons.

DELTA-SUNTRUST CHECK CARD. Yet another miles-earning opportunity is available with a new check card from SunTrust bank. As the only check card to earn SkyMiles, this is a great option for those who do not want to apply for a credit card. It comes with a $75 annual fee, but also gives applicants the opportunity to earn as many as 30,000 SkyMiles when they sign up. More details can be found here.

PRE-CHECK EXPANDS. Have you enjoyed TSA’s amazingly swift and convenient Pre-Check program at ATL’s south concourse entrypoint? Well, it is now available at Orlando and Portland (PDX) as well. Special pre-check lines are reserved for invited Delta Medallions and Global Entry members—they get to speed through security without removing liquids, laptops, and shoes. The TSA hopes to continue expanding this program across U.S. airports in the near future. Luckily, Atlanta (and Delta) were chosen to beta-test the concept, and as we know from fellow TICKET readers, it was a roaring success (see our post and reader comments here). But…do good things last forever? We are hearing that the program’s become so popular, that PreCheck lines at ATL are sometimes LONGER than others. Tell us about your recent experiences in the comments box below.

ALASKA AIRLINES UPGRADES. Flying out west? Don’t forget, when traveling on Alaska Airlines, you are eligible for Medallion upgrades to its first class cabin. While its MVP elites receive priority, the odds of scoring a premium seat on Alaska are much better. Many gate agents and passengers are still forgetting about this perk for Delta flyers, so do not forget to ask about it, as they sometimes do not process automatically. In a throwback to the glory days, Alaska even serves splits of champagne and full bottles of beer in first class with printed menus on transcon routes—including its single daily flight between ATL and Seattle.

DELTA AXES MORE ROUTES. The current economic roller coaster and a steady stream of gloomy news from Europe has Delta making adjustments to its long-haul flying schedule, axing routes like ATL-Accra, ATL-Monrovia and shifting routes like ATL-Milan and JFK-Athens, Nice, and Rome to seasonal (summer) service only. Overall, capacity across the Atlantic will be down 3-4% for 2012, more than Delta had originally planned. Delta is also reducing frequencies on many overseas routes with multiple daily flights. As reported in The TICKET earlier this year, Delta is yanking nonstops between ATL and: Copenhagen, Athens, Prague, Moscow, Tel Aviv and Shanghai.

MORE ON TIME AT ATL. Delta barely squeezed into the top ten list of on-time performance for North American airlines in April—it ranked #9, but ahead of many of the other major U.S. airlines like American, United or Southwest. In the airport category, Atlanta came in at #3 in on-time performance among the world’s major airports with 88.5 percent of flights arriving on time. Only US Airways’ hub in Charlotte had a better ranking among U.S. airports.

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Airline News

March 12, 2010

FREE WI-FI ON AIRTRAN MAR 13-27. To draw attention to its new partnership with AirTran (see below), American Express is sponsoring free Wi-Fi on all AirTran flights for two weeks: March 13-27. Sweet! That’s an immediate savings of $5 to $13 depending on flight length.

AIRTRAN MEANS BUSINESS. AirTran has recently teamed up with American Express to offer some really nice bennies and discounts to business travelers. Thanks to TICKET reader NHK for tipping us off to this with the following email: “Have you seen the new promo from American Express? They are offering 5 percent cash back to cardholders on all AirTran ticket purchases using the OPEN Business Platinum card.
Since Delta ceased to offer the rebate on its branded and platinum cards last May, this may change travelers’ loyalty. What do you think and what are you hearing from other travelers? P.S. Before Delta canceled the benefit last year, I received more than enough in cash savings to cover the card fees.”

We looked into this and NHK is right on. Those who charge their AirTran tickets on any American Express OPEN Business card now get an automatic 5 percent discount. What’s even better for travelers is that the card offers the same automatic 5 percent discount at several Marriott brands, and with Hertz. (With Hyatt, you get a 3% discount.) The annual free for an Amex OPEN Business card is $125, but the fee is waived for the first year. No coupons, no special codes…just sign up for the card, use it, and you get the discount. Not bad!

BIZ TRAVEL IS BACK? Delta raised its profit forecast for this quarter citing a 34 percent jump in corporate travel ticket volume and a 32 percent rise in corporate travel revenue in February versus a year earlier. What about YOU? Are you flying more than this time last year? LET US KNOW! Leave your comments in the box below.

AIRTRAN ADDING NEW FLIGHTS. But not in Atlanta. According to this article in the AJC, AirTran has scaled back its expansion in Atlanta and is instead focusing on smaller cities such as Des Moines, Tunica and Huntsville, AL. And instead of routing those flights through Atlanta, they are adopting the Southwest Airlines strategy of going point-to-point. Interesting stat: Two years ago, AirTran had 260 daily flights out of ATL. Now it’s got closer to 200.

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DELTA DOWN UNDER. In addition to its daily ATL-Sydney flight (via LAX) Delta will add a new JFK-LAX-SYD flight on June 1.

EXUMA ANYONE? Delta is launching new twice-weekly flights between ATL and Exuma in the Bahamas on June 13. Talk about a pretty place! Not a bad idea for SkyMiles redemptions. Intro fares are just $129 each way.

IN-FLIGHT WI-FI UPDATE. As you know by now, AirTran has in-flight Wi-Fi on 100 percent of its fleet. Delta’s scrambling to be able to say the same thing, and it’s getting close. As of now, Delta’s got it on 73 percent of its mainline fleet—nearly 400 of its 528 aircraft. It says it will be on 100 percent of mainline fleet by end of summer. Right now, it is on ALL MD88, MD90 and B737 jets. It’s also on most (120) B757s and on 37 Airbuses. Nice!

IT HURTS TO BE DEMOTED. From TICKET reader TM: “My business travel severely declined last year and I lost my Medallion status as of 3/1. I purchased a ticket last night for travel ATL-DFW this Sunday in category ‘Y’ – full fare for the outrageous sum of $1,141! When I went to the Delta website and attempted to choose seats, the outbound flight showed four seats available – all on the exit row and they were marked ‘Preferred.’ I selected one and answered all of the questions and the page refreshed and I didn’t have a seat. I tried that a few times and gave up and called Delta. I was told that they couldn’t assign a seat at this time since the only seats available were Preferred seats. It didn’t matter to Delta that I paid for a full fare coach ticket – they told me that only their Elite members may choose those seats.”

FLAT BEDS TO TOKYO? We’ve heard rumors that the next Delta route to get those nice new “herringbone” style lie flat business class seats on a B777 will be ATL-Tokyo starting in June. We’ve tried unsuccessfully to get Delta to confirm. This is great news for travelers headed to Asia and then beyond from Delta’s hub at Narita. Starting in August, SkyMiles partner Korean Air will offer its brand new lie-flat “prestige” sleepers (click for video) on its nonstops to Seoul and beyond. (And we think a connection in the amazingly serene Seoul-Incheon airport is going to be a lot easier than in congested Narita.)

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IT’S GETTING CROWDED IN HERE. Business Travel News posted an enlightening nugget about something we’ve known all along. “Domestic airlines last year served the fewest passengers since 2004, but recorded the most crowded planes ever, according to data released this week by the DOT. Nearly 40 million fewer domestic and international passengers took to the skies on U.S. carriers last year than in 2008, marking the lowest annual total since 2004. However, thanks to dramatic year-over-year capacity cuts of 6.3 percent in 2009 for domestic and international services, the U.S. industry’s aggregate 81.1 percent annual load factor is the highest on record.”

NORCAL: NEW GATEWAY TO HAWAII. If you’ve had trouble earning and burning SkyMiles on flights to Hawaii, a new gateway to the islands has opened up in the Bay Area. SkyMiles partner Alaska Air is aggressively expanding in California, and has recently added a slew of new 737-800 nonstops to Kona and Maui from Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento. Since these Alaska Air flights depart California cities in the early morning, you might have to fly in the night before and stay over. But hey…it might be worth it. (Delta’s got nonstops between ATL and Sacramento and San Jose; one stops to Oakland.)

GO ON AIRTRAN. Have you taken a look at Go, AirTran’s in-flight mag lately? It’s just won the big prize in the “best inflight magazine” category from the North American Travel Journalists Association. This year, the magazine celebrates its five-year anniversary. Interesting stat: Go snags TWO MILLION readers a month! Compare that to Fortune magazine, which gets about 850,000 readers per month. What do YOU think of GO? How does it compare to Delta’s SKY or other in-flight magazines you read? Please leave your comments below!

FLYING BRITISH AIRWAYS THIS SPRING? Then you need to see this video regarding the possible strike by flight attendants, starring BA CEO Willie Walsh.

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