Commentary

Category Archives for Commentary.

Customer Influence

by Gary Leff on February 23, 2005

Feb 23 2005

Keith Alexander, whose Washington Post columns I generally quite like, this week reviews the recent history of customer activism and their successes in changing the policies of travel providers. Last week, numerous complaints prompted Hertz to back off a plan to introduce a $2.50 reservation fee on all of its vehicle rentals in the United States. …Hertz acted on the reservation fee after several large clients organized an e-mail campaign and other regular customers posted a “boycott Hertz” message on FlyerTalk.com, a popular Internet message board made up of some of the nation’s most frequent — and influential — travelers. …In 2002, Delta’s frequent fliers were outraged when the airline reduced mileage awards on steeply discounted tickets. They created a Web site called SaveSkyMiles.com and raised money to send a truck-mounted billboard protesting the change…

Southwest and American Posturing in Dallas

by Gary Leff on February 23, 2005

Feb 23 2005

Arguments over the Wright and Shelby Amendments restricting flights out of Dallas-Love Field are reaching absurd proportions. For years Southwest, which is based at Love Field, has maintained official neutrality to the federal rules which limit flying out of the airport to contiguous states. It took years of litigation for Southwest to even be able to use the airport, which had otherwise been abandoned for the Dallas-Fort Worth facility. I’ve assumed that Southwest’s newfound desire to overturn these restrictions is mostly a matter of posturing. I don’t think Southwest really wants substantial new flying out of Dallas. There’s not much room for expansion out of Love Field. They’re pretty close to maxed out in their existing terminal space. New flights to further away destinations could certainly displace existing flights, and those might well be more…

Likely Offline Until Tuesday

by Gary Leff on February 17, 2005

Feb 17 2005

Uncharacteristically, I don’t plan to be online during my travels for the next few days. See you all Tuesday.

Tidbits from Joe Sharkey

by Gary Leff on February 16, 2005

Feb 16 2005

Yesterday’s Joe Sharkey column in the New York Times contained a couple of interesting tidbits. First, according to an American Express survey[M]ore than a third [of respondents] believe it is either “somewhat” or “quite” common for business travelers to submit expense accounts with “one or more completely false or bogus charges.” This does not surprise me in the least. Taxicab receipts are usually provided blank to travelers. Other receipts are easy to fudge. And travelers find it easy to justify ‘a little extra’ in their expense report as compensation for long days and time away from home. When oversight is poor, and there’s the expectation of insufficient scrutiny, even the best and most honest travelers may fudge. I see it every day. (One small part of my job is making sure it doesn’t happen where…

The sad state of airport security

by Gary Leff on February 8, 2005

Feb 08 2005

When India’s Minister for Civil Aviation can say with a straight face that India’s airports are more secure than US airports, I view that as a strong indictment of US security policy. Anyone who has traveled through a major Indian airport must shake their head, though more at the chaos than the security. And it’s true that there haven’t been major recent security incidents there that I’m aware of. But the US should be looking pretty hard at itself when claims like these are made openly. (Comments are open, feel free to flame away.)

Why Couldn’t I Have Been on THAT Flight?

by Gary Leff on February 8, 2005

Feb 08 2005

Lara Flynn Boyle flashed her breasts and tried to climb into bed with a male stranger on board a British Airways flight in first class from Los Angeles to London.Passengers say they saw the star naked and “wild-eyed” as she leaned over a male passenger, tried to get into his bed, pushed up the window blind next to the man and shouted: “We’re landing, get your clothes on” – even though the flight was still more than four hours away from Heathrow. The cabin crew gave the actress a blanket to cover herself. But the show continued as she ripped out a reading light from her seat, thrust it at a steward and demanded: “Get rid of this and get it out of my sight for ever and ever.’ She then walked to the lavatory,…

Pork for Alaska’s Airports

by Gary Leff on January 29, 2005

Jan 29 2005

John Stossel’s ABC News piece last night contained some interesting nuggets, including this about proposed changes to the Ketchikan International Airport in Alaska: Years ago Congress gave money to the little tourist town of Ketchikan, with only 14,000 residents, for an airport on a nearby island. Ketchikan International has six to eight flights a day, and people get there by taking a short ferry ride — which they love. The scenic ride takes 500 air travelers a day to or from the airport in just seven minutes Alaska resident Mike Sallee likes the ferry ride. He said, “I think our existing ferry system is just dandy and it doesn’t cost $200 million.” The $200 million refers to the fact that Young recently persuaded legislators that Ketchikan needs a bridge to the airport. And Young doesn’t…

Bush Administration to Raise Taxes on Travelers

by Gary Leff on January 28, 2005

Jan 28 2005

The Bush Administration is proposing to more than double the airline security tax under its budget for the Homeland Security Department. Bush’s plan calls for boosting the security fee from $2.50 to $5.50 for a one-way airline ticket and from a maximum of $5 to $8 for multiple legs. The hikes are expected to generate $1.5 billion. I know this makes sense to me, since the Department of Homeland Security gets so much value out of the budget they have now. Any money will surely be well spent. Heh.(Hat tip to Tripso Daily.)

Surely this must make sense in some parallel universe

by Gary Leff on January 22, 2005

Jan 22 2005

The Hagerstown, Maryland airport currently serves an average of fewer than 45 passengers a day. So it may be no surprise that the airport is currently slated to lose commercial service on April 30. But they’re spending $60 million to upgrade the runways for bigger planes starting in April anyway. And bizarrely enough, the fact that they’re losing all service is seen as bolstering the decision to invest in support for larger aircraft.

Time to Vote for the Freddie Awards

by Gary Leff on January 15, 2005

Jan 15 2005

Balloting for the Freddie Awards has begun. For 17 years, frequent travelers have been asked to make their picks for the best frequent travel programs via the Freddie Awards. Introduced by InsideFlyer magazine publisher Randy Petersen in 1988, the Freddies allow consumers to rank airline and hotel programs from their point of view. The awards have grown in stature and importance and are the most prestigious consumer-generated awards in the industry. The nice thing is that the Freddies are voted on by hundreds of thousands of real travelers. I get rather sick of having to roll my eyes at the hotels and airlines that claim to be world’s best this and that as determined by an award they’ve funded themselves. When a program wins a Freddie Award they tend to trumpet it pretty loudly. I’ll…