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and the Traveling Salesman |
To all of my readers, I’ve elected to pause my blog due to commitments related to work.. I’m presently burning the candle at both ends and much of what I am presently working on makes it difficult to be unbiased in my articles.
Certainly feel free to continue to follow me on Twitter @MrSkyGuy as I’ll still continue to share there during my travels!
I’ll try to get back soon!
Its been a few weeks since my last update, and a chaotic few weeks at that. We’ve been dealing with whatever nastiness has been floating around, and it worked its way through all four of my immediate family and a bunch of friends too. It’s never fun when a particularly bad cold gets in to your chest!
So what’s new since my last post? Quite a bit actually. US Airways admitted to be researching a bid for bankrupt American Airlines, American announced the cutting of at least 13,000 jobs, and the state-owned Hungarian Malev shut down. And while all of these (and many more) are each worthy of their own article, I’ve decided to celebrate my family’s return from the weeks of coughing and wheezing with a mid-trip article instead.
At this very moment I am sitting in seat 35G aboard United Airlines 891 from my home airport of Los Angeles enroute Tokyo Narita Airport. It’s been a little bumpier than I expected, and as Im writing this on my iPad, we’re dancing around between light and moderate turbulence south of Palmer, Alaska. The turbulence forecast showed some strong movement over Japan, but smooth skies for the majority of the flight. Oh well. It’s just a reminder that I’m still up in the air I guess.
The last time I was plying these skies was closer to 15 years ago, but I was aboard an L-1011 then and heading in the opposite direction. Back then, I was ending a 2 year tour overseas at Misawa Air Base, and was aboard one of ATA’s MAC-chartered “freedom birds” to begin a new assignment at Edwards Air Force Base. I was younger and dumber then, but most importantly I was love and home sick. I’d left the woman I intended to marry back in California when I was shipped off to Japan, and I was looking forward to getting home so we could begin our life together (married 10 years last month).
I miss some elements of my life then and I am eternally grateful for the life the Air Force kick started for me. I was intelligent, but flighty. Broke, but hopeful. The Air Force took me in, beat me down, built me up and patted me on the back when my tours were complete. I never thought I’d be excited to see Japan again thanks to the mental prison it represented when I was a slick-sleeved airman., but time helps build perspective. Now I’m wearing a company-branded fleece jacket and carrying a case full of suits enroute a week-long conference in Singapore. Who’d have thought?
As for now, I’m going to lean back and try to get in to this flick “Real Steel” United has loaded on its IFE system.
AirlineCrazy iOS App "Teaser"
iOS Application: I love the feedback we get from our readers, and to prove that we’re more than just a sounding board, we have elected to move forward on something that we’ve been hoping to release for some time: an iOS app for our iPhone, iPad (and possibly iPod Touch) users out there! The app has been developed in response to high feedback from our readers, and will include a mobile article reader, as well as embedded widgets to provide you with the latest AirlineCrazy social networking data. We’ve exited the alpha stage of development, and have just entered the beta testing stage. According to Shiny Development, the App Store app review time is approximately 5 days based upon crowd-sourcing data they’ve analyzed. Granted this seems a bit on the quick side, so it could be a while before the app is approved by Apple and available for download in the store. We’ll be sure to post when it does here and across our various feeds on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Stay tuned!
Fear of Flying Series: We’d posted in December that we were looking closely at a Fear of Flying course, which we’ve elected to move forward with. Granted this program is likely to take a significant amount of time to develop, so we expect that it will be released in stages. As mentioned before, we have first-hand experience with the sort of anxiety that plagues fliers (even frequent fliers), and we’ll be building this series around these first-hand experiences and potential solutions for dealing with them. Your feedback is absolutely welcome as we look closer towards the growth of this series—perhaps we’ll find a way to integrate your stories and solutions as well. If you have any feedback, don’t hesitate to click the “contact us” pull-out tab on the top-left of this page and send us a note.
Boeing 737-200 freighter in landing configuration
We talk a lot about the business of flying passengers, but there’s two sides of the commercial airline market and its only fair if we shine a light once in a while on the often-neglected dark corner of air freight. Many are familiar with the “big haul” freight airlines such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, Polar Air, Atlas Air, Kalitta, and Cargolux. Yet just a cut below these airlines is an entirely unfamiliar segment of the commercial airline business—the mid-sized mid-range independent air freight operators. It’s not uncommon to see these companies operating out of your airport’s “corrosion corner,” and piloted by almost dangerous-looking disheveled crews with a permanent 5 o’clock shadow on their chins. While that last statement might be a bit more on the dramatic side, it’s also not very far from the truth.
Kittyhawk Air Cargo is a great example of this often eccentric niche, and like so many others, Kittyhawk is no longer in business. The dark corners of the midsize air freight world are an important and largely unrecognized part of the global economy, but they also operate in a segment which suffers from wild gyrations in demand. Kittyhawk managed to ride these waves by utilizing what most would now consider to be “classic” airliners such as the Boeing 727. Freight doesn’t complain, so amenities aboard these former passenger workhorses were quite sparse. Amerijet was recently exposed by their frustrated flight crews when they made public the lack of a sanitary work environment (believe it or not, management issued plastic bags for the flight crew to “do their business” when on the job and up in the air).
Sadly, this ex-Kittyhawk Boeing 727's days of carrying freight are behind it.
Today’s retiring commercial passenger aircraft are tomorrow’s next big thing in the air freight market.
Why do older airliners continue to fly freight while the passenger airlines piloted by the same crews and burning the same fuel continue to modernize their fleets? Passenger airlines operate on very thin margins in frequent and predictable scheduled service, which is why there’s a higher demand for more efficient aircraft. In most cases, the small-to-medium freight business operates an on-demand low-utilization service which doesn’t require such strict adherence to aircraft efficiency due largely to the cost differential between say, a $2M USD 737-200F and a $7M 737-300F. The $5M difference between these aircraft is only a few months of fuel burn for a passenger airliner, but could represent 2 years worth for an infrequent on-demand freight airline operating the same aircraft.
The desert is filled with the last generation's airliners
Following the recession of 2008-2010, many classic aircraft (especially 737-300/400s, DC-9s and MD-80s) were parked in favor of more efficient aircraft. This reaction to the poor condition of the economy provided for a boom in demand for more efficient passenger airliners to replace them, such as the A320NEO and the 737MAX. The resulting availability of retired aircraft provided a fresh supply of second-hand airliners from which smaller freight operators could procure and retrofit for freight use. On the cutting edge of this market are a slew of aircraft conversion companies which specialize in the rebirth of former passenger airliners for freight use. One of these companies Aeronautical Engineers, Inc. (AEI) is known as one of the most efficient and reliable conversion houses, and has been winning plenty of recent orders to convert retired passenger 737 classics to air freighters.
Freighter modifications are actually quite complex
A typical conversion at AEI or ST Aero involves the removal of passenger amenities and replacement with a 9G barrier, cargo door, reinforced floor, and other refinements. In order to remain competitive, many freight conversion companies maintain STC’s to modify a variety of aircraft for freight-hauling. AEI for example, owns 120 different STCs and is actively marketing modifications for 737-200, -300, -400, and MD-80 series aircraft. Once a conversion company is finished with a modification, the aircraft which emerges looks largely the same on the outside (passenger windows are plugged either from the outside or inside but still very visible). If you’re lucky enough to catch an aircraft post-modifications before it’s rolled in to the paint shop, you can begin to appreciate the amount of work involved and why the FAA takes these modifications so seriously.
The funny thing about the air freight industry is the cycle in which it repeats. Names and aspirations come and go, but the flight crews and their aircraft remain largely the same—repainted or re-decaled to match their current operator. In fact, it is not uncommon for a skilled pilot working in similar segments to have been employed by 10 or more airlines in an equal number of years. [Recommended Reading: "The Rogue Aviator" by Ace Abbott] Some pilots jumping between operators have jokingly commented on the occasion where they have flown the exact same aircraft for as many as three different companies in three different livery brands!
While those in the industry often comment that today’s retiring aircraft are likely to be reborn as soda cans, that may not be entirely true. It is also entirely likely that the aging aircraft you are flying on today will soon return to your home airport with a much larger door and pallets full of freight!
Kingfisher CEO V. Mallya on a seatback screen
It’s no surprise to those close to the airline industry—the news in India is grim. However, much of that news is not being broadcast at large to the western nations, and as a result many are largely unaware of the dire situation currently affecting the airline industry in India and the resulting effect it is having on the world economy. The largest airlines in India are Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, and Air India. Jet Airways now operates 100 aircraft to 76 destinations. Kingfisher operates 66 aircraft to 71 destinations. Air India, the oldest airline of the top three, operates 100 aircraft to 75 destinations and has been in service since 1932. All told, these three airlines represented approximately five-and-a-half billion US dollars in revenue throughout the 2011 period, and each of these airlines are in financially-dire straits.
India (officially the Republic of India) is enduring a massive state of economic growth. It’s the 7th largest country by geographical area, the second most populated country (1.2B people), and the largest democracy in the world. India’s economy is the 9th largest in the world by nominal GDP and the 4th largest in purchasing power parity. In layman’s terms, India’s an economic powerhouse. Following economic reforms 2 decades ago, India became one of the most rapidly-growing economies in the world and is largely considered a newly industrialized nation, despite having the largest worldwide concentration of citizens living below the World Bank’s poverty line of $1.24 USD per day. What does all of that have to do with the airline business? Quite a bit.
This is not economically sustainable on a global level..
There are differing arguments regarding the overall economic impact that airline travel has on any respective country, so for the purpose of brevity and simplicity it is key to note that any boom in economic growth is usually either the cause or the result of an equivalent growth in trade. A growth in trade usually results in the travel of people, goods or both, which is where the airlines come in. A few years ago, India was noted as the world’s 15th-largest importer and the 18th-largest exporter of goods. Despite this, 7 of the world’s top 15 information technology outsourcing companies are based in India, which has led to India being viewed as the second-most favorable outsourcing destination after the United States. The impact this growth has on the demand for air travel is staggering. Yet despite this, the nation’s three largest airlines—Air India, Kingfisher, and Jet Airways—are all suffering financially (to say nothing of the 15 other airlines also based within India’s borders).
Despite carrying approximately 49 million passengers annually, load factors among the largest domestic carriers have swayed wildly over the past few years. Recent reports from the CAPA consulting firm indicate that India’s airlines lose at least $25 on average each time a passenger boards an aircraft in the country and were set to post a record loss of $2.5 billion in the 2011 fiscal year.
Seems a bit paradoxical, doesn’t it? With one of the fastest growing economies in the world posting major growth in demand for air travel, how is it India’s airlines are performing so poorly? The answer may be as simple as it is puzzling. Fragmentation. Believe it or not, the nation’s state-sponsored airline Air India had an average passenger load on domestic flights of 22.2% in 2010! In other cases, some flights have operated closer to 70-75% passenger load factor, or PLF. PLF at crisis-ridden Kingfisher has recently dropped more than 20% from it’s 69% average. Jet Airways is presently strongest with an average of approximately 70-80% passengers on every flight. Nonetheless, the current position could change at any of the country’s airlines at a moment’s notice. Demand for aviation is high, but it appears India simply has more available airline seats than it does demand for those seats. As a result, India’s airlines continue to trade blows in an attempt to pull passengers from one carrier to another. Airline travel is absolutely essential to the continued socioeconomic growth of the country, yet the airlines themselves seem to be unable to turn a profit thanks to extreme competition and a surplus of seats for sale.
A busy Mumbai Airport after a heavy rain — Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines aircraft pictured.
So what needs to change? Most likely a proverbial “thinning of the herd” is necessary to improve the situation in the short term. As happened elsewhere in the world during the global economic recession of 2008-2010, excess aircraft must be parked. ”An airline seat is highly perishable, it is worse than fruits and vegetables,” said a top airline official at Air India, and he’s absolutely right. A reduction in collective capacity will reduce operating costs and allow passenger load factors to stabilize, paving the way for organic growth vs. competitive reactionary growth. In the longer term, improvements in efficiency will also be important—especially where the cost of fuel is concerned. More fuel-efficient airliners are costly, but could eventually prove to be one of the key factors to a reorganization of the airline business in India.
Despite the crisis and the various reactions of India’s airlines, the situation shows few signs of improvement any time soon. “The appetite for losing money is the highest in India” [among airline owners], said K. Kaul, CEO of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. “We expect a very, very tough 2012.”
A buddy of mine works for Boeing, but doesn’t know a whole lot about planes. I like to tease him about it, as its akin to being a sailor who can’t swim or a skyscraper builder who is afraid of heights. In his defense, he doesn’t work for a division of Boeing that’s related to the manufacturing of commercial aircraft, but still. Thankfully he is looking to change that, and has turned to me for guidance.
Camarillo Airport, California (KCMA)
I took him down to Camarillo Airport today to start with the basics. I was actually planning to take him to the Sepulveda In-and-Out at LAX, but we didn’t want to commit that much time to the trip this afternoon. It turned out to be fortuitous, because Camarillo is a general aviation airport which sees plenty of smaller prop-driven aircraft vs. the big passenger airliners you’d see at a large airport like LAX. After a delicious burger and a beer at the Waypoint Cafe, we ventured out on to the ramp so I could give him a closer look and brief tour of the various aircraft. Camarillo is located south of Santa Barbara, north of Los Angeles, and is the closest airport to Malibu. Despite being smack in the middle of an agricultural community, it has quite the variety of people and aircraft.
While I was explaining the differences between the Cessna 172 (CIA had a lovely Garmin 1000-equipped 172 on the ramp for rent) and the Cessna 337 next it, an aircraft caught my eye. It took me only a second to recognize it as a DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver. Painted in a green and white livery, it was very clean and clearly well cared-for. Most DHC-2s I see are A) not located in Camarillo, B) dirty workhorses and C) not float-equipped. We quickly diverted across the ramp to take a closer look when a black Mercedez shot up to it, and a fellow hopped out to load up for departure. As he conducted his walk-around, I commented to him that it was a “lovely aircraft,” and he responded in kind with a “hey, thanks!” We were standing in the shade of his right wing, and decided that it would be appropriate to give him some space, so we stepped away.
As we were walking away, it occurred to me that this pilot/owner was familiar. He looked like the famous saxophonist Kenny G. My buddy Googled him on his iPhone as we looked at a nraby KingAir, and confirmed the similarities. On our way back to the Waypoint, we decided to see if we could catch the registration number before he powered that lovely radial up and sped off. My suspicions were confirmed when we squinted to make out the small N-number decal: “N6653K” The K to me seemed indicative of Kenny, so I Googled it and confirmed it’s owner “Gorelick Kenneth B.” I was right!
I had my Canon DSLR camera with me, but I felt it would be too intrusive to start snapping away as he fired up the massive radial engine for a warm up and mag check. Instead, my buddy and I quickly snapped 1 shot each on our iPhones, and put them away. Ken’s DHC-2 was simply amazing. It’s important to keep in mind that a fellow like Kenny G could essentially choose any aircraft he liked.. but he decided to choose one of the most famous and capable bush planes ever constructed. And his model had retractable wheel floats fitted! The DHC-2 is a man’s airplane, as they say.. built to haul people, buck meat, supplies, fuel barrels.. just about anything you can imagine. It’s a bush plane too, which means it was built to haul all of those things from some of the most inhospitable territory in the world–the Canadian outback.
I’ve got to hand it to Kenny G. Of all the planes out there, this one of the coolest and most capable aircraft to own. It’s not fast, but it makes up for it with extra capability. At a moment’s notice he could depart from a sophisticated general aviation airport like Camarillo, and land it less than an hour later on some obscure lake somewhere in the Sierra Nevadas. Now that is the definition of freedom. Judging from the condition of the aircraft, it’s pretty clear that Ken loves his DHC-2 as much as we do. He even featured it in his music video for his famous hit “The Moment” which I have provided below.
Kenny, if you happen upon this article, we’d love to get the back-story on your DHC-2! We’re only a short drive from your home, so if you’re open for an interview on your passion for aviation, please send us a note. We’d be honored.
Kenny rocks his Alto Sax with his de Havilland DHC-2 N6653K
This month I had the opportunity to utilize a service I’d been watching with interest―Brett Snyder’s Cranky Concierge. Cranky Concierge is an extension of the goodwill Brett has established over the years as a top [if not the top] airline blogger worldwide on CrankyFlier.com. The concierge service is something he developed as an answer to the “what do I do now” question travelers frequently ask when things don’t go as planned. They’re also there to provide personal feedback on seating, route planning and other pre-trip advice to help make the airline experience just a little less frustrating.
It's hard not to enjoy Virgin America's product, especially at economy-seat pricing.
Enter the opportunity. I had a business trip planned for the first week of December to fly from Los Angeles to Seattle. I’d be flying with my wife (10 year wedding anniversary) for a 2-day company-sponsored weekend, primarily to participate in an annual holiday party. As usual, I had the option to select my preferred carrier, and I selected Virgin America. Many of you know me as a “Southwest” nerd, but even I have to admit that Virgin’s got a good thing going with the mood lighting, quieter cabin, comfortable leather seats, seatback IFE with in-seat food and beverage ordering, live Dish Network programming, in-seat power and Gogo-powered WiFi. That’s hard to beat. Given the fact that I wouldn’t be as “travel flexible” as I usually am (due to us having only 2 days of arrangements for our family to watch the kids while we were away), I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to give Cranky Concierge a shot.
It cost $30 for the regional roundtrip, and about 2 minutes of my time to complete the form on the website. A few minutes later, the team had assigned Nate Vallier to my itinerary, and he emailed me only a few minutes afterward confirming my details. He locked down my quick contact data and informed me that he’d take the role of “big brother” for the rest of my trip. From that point on, Cranky’s work was on autopilot, at least from my perspective. As a kicker, Cranky has a deal worked out with Gogo which granted me a 24-hour pass on each of my flights―something I ended up taking major advantage of during the trip. I should point out that Cranky Concierge doesn’t usually assign concierges right away. They typically load us in to the system and then assign the concierge a couple weeks in advance of the trip. Any questions before this point are answered directly by Brett himself or his sidekick concierge Dave. Because I signed up closer to departure, it all happened at once.
Virgin was having a rough go of it following the transfer to Sabre
We hit our first snag 24 hours before departure when we attempted to check in. Due to the nature of the trip, my wife and I were booked on separate confirmation numbers which required 2 check-ins. Having been accustomed to flying Southwest so often, it’s an impossible habit to break the itch I get to check in exactly 24 hours before a flight. When we visited Virgin’s website to check in, we encountered a plethora of inexplicable errors. Nate and Brett were quick to point out that Virgin was [and sadly still is] suffering from major pains following their switch from aiRES to Sabre. The only solution was checking in at the airport when we arrived for our flights. This was a non-issue due to our confirmed assigned seating.. I just felt bare not going to sleep that night without the warm blanket of a confirmed ticket in my hand.
My wife and I arrived at LAX about 2 hours prior to our evening departure, parked at WallyPark as usual, had a quick dinner at Gladstone’s in LAX’s terminal 3 and headed up north to Seattle. The flight was smooth, the service good and the wi-fi code provided by CrankyConcierge worked flawlessly. The 2 day stint in Seattle was very relaxing, if not a little cold. For the flight home, we ran in to the same check-in situation we’d encountered a few days prior. Because we’d probably be cutting it close on our arrival at Seatac, I was trying to avoid checking in at the airport kiosk. Unfortunately this was unavoidable, though I must admit I was impressed at Nate’s thoroughness in trying the Virgin system utilizing a variety of computers and browsers both at his location and elsewhere, all while my wife and I were tied up during a cocktail party. (Thanks Nate!)
In retrospect, my personal review of Cranky Concierge is a bit weak due entirely to the fact that nothing serious went wrong during our trip. Despite the relative ease through which we flew to and from Seattle from Los Angeles, Cranky Concierge’s Nate was always on the lookout. I received frequent emails on the status of my inbound aircraft, weather expected en route, and of course the unexpected but treasured free Gogo access key (which came in handy when the IFE on our flight home failed). He jumped on the check-in issues within a matter of minutes, and made my wife and I feel like everything was under control. Sometimes that’s all you need.
Brett "CrankyFlier" Snyder
Naturally, for the purposes of this review, it would have been better for if our trip degenerated into a mess of delays, cancellations, and all that so Cranky Concierge could really shine. Our trip was certainly better off with that not happening, but to fill in the blanks I turned directly to the President and Chief Airline Dork of Cranky Concierge, Mr. Brett Snyder himself for a one-on-one interview.
MrSkyGuy: As an avid “Crankster,” I learned about CrankyConcierge (CC) through the self-advertising you dropped as the program was being developed. Given your extensive aviation footprint, word-of-mouth appears to be one of the most popular forms of marketing you have used to get the word out on CC. What other areas or incentives are you utilizing to draw more people in to CC?
Cranky: We actually don’t really go out and recruit business, believe it or not. We tried a little advertising via Google AdWords but had little success. Ultimately, we found that we were able to grow primarily through referrals and blog readers. It’s important for us to grow slowly, because we need to make sure we can continue to deliver the service properly. Fast growth would put that at risk, so we continue on the path we’re on, taking advantage of new opportunities as we can. For example, having been recently listed as a top travel specialist with Conde Nast has opened up new opportunities for us in the way of partnering with other specialists to help their clients.
MrSkyGuy: For our flight to Seattle, we flew Virgin America which utilizes the ground-based Gogo internet service aboard all flights. I noticed during the pre-briefing for our flight that Cranky had a free 24-hour pass for my day’s flights with Gogo. I found this to be especially worthwhile considering how plugged in I am when I travel. Is this a temporary promotion available for CC? How did this promotion come in to being?
Cranky: This isn’t temporary, and in fact, we just received our allotment for 2012 so we can continue to offer the service through next year. Whether we can offer it beyond that depends upon our discussions with Gogo each year, but we really think it’s a great thing for our customers. It actually came about after discussions with people I knew at Gogo.
MrSkyGuy: Virgin America is an “assigned seat” airline, which negates most of the need to rapidly sign-in precisely 24 hours before flight time (eg. Southwest). Do you provide check-in services for travelers flying Southwest to aid them in getting an A-boarding group when they fly?
Cranky: This is something we’ve actually been considering. We do offer this to our small business customers if they’re interested in the service, but it’s not something that we’ve yet offered to everyone else. It would require some potentially early wake up calls, so I think it might end up being an add-on service that we might offer.
MrSkyGuy: It’s clear that the benefit of CC increases with the complexity of the reservation. My flight to Seattle from LAX and back was simple, but international travelers (or travelers who must fly during peak periods) are often those facing the most issues during their travel. Can you share some of the crazy situations you and your team have been able to muscle through where your customer was stranded? Any CC war stories you can share?
Cranky: Oh sure, we’ve had some fantastic stories. I think one of my favorites was someone who was stranded in London during the ice problems last December. He had already been delayed a couple of days, but his new flight plan was to fly BA to Paris and then Air Tahiti Nui back to LA. BA ended up canceling his flight, but he was determined to still get to Paris for that trip despite no chance of getting on the Eurostar (which was operating a reduced schedule thanks to the ice) or on another flight. We went to work.
He left his hotel at 930p in central London via taxi. He went to St. Pancras where he caught a train down to Dover. From there, he had to take a shuttle of some sort to the dock and he took a late night ferry across to Calais. He then walked to the train station where he found a train to Lille. He switched stations there and took his last train to de Gaulle. He made it around 7a and hopped his flight home. He was obviously willing to get to his destination no matter the physical toll on his body, and we were able to make it happen.
Of course, that’s a pretty extreme example. I mean, we help people all the time with more minor issues. Just the other day, one of our small business clients was flying Pittsburgh-Midway-Nashville. We had alerted them that there were big delays in Chicago (even at Midway), but they weren’t delayed yet. Having finished up their work early, they asked for options. We found them a great connecting option on US Airways for only $173. This kept them away from the weather and got them home earlier than planned. And since they’re original ticket was refundable, this was a great option.
Sometimes even when we can’t help, we still provide great value. A couple weeks ago, we had clients going Newark-LA-Maui and the Newark flight was delayed to the point where they had a 5 minute connection in LA. Obviously that wasn’t going to work. While they were in the air, we did the research and tried to get them on a Delta flight going 30 minutes later. It would have been tight but there was a chance. The problem was that the Continental people said they’d have to print out the ticket, so she had to see a gate agent. The res agents said it wouldn’t be a problem, but the gate agent refused to help and sent them to customer service. They obviously missed the flight at that point and had to stay overnight. But the clients were really happy to have someone looking at options and guiding them along the way. They would have been far more confused and frustrated had we not been there to help them and were really pleased with the service.
MrSkyGuy: If you could give an unseasoned airline (domestic and international) traveler 5 brief tips or points of advice, what would they be?
Cranky: Hmm, that’s always a tough one. How about these: 1) Leave yourself extra time throughout the process. You might try to cut it close getting to the airport or have a really short layover, but building in a buffer can help a lot if things go wrong and there are delays. 2) Know your options. If your flight is running late, try to have some knowledge about what other connecting options might be available. Just having that kind of knowledge might get you the last seat over someone else who is relying on others to give information. 3) Be flexible. When things go wrong, people want the airline to just put them on the next nonstop flight. That’s ideal, but it’s not always possible. If you’re willing to consider crazy connections, that creativity might get you far. 4) Don’t pack important stuff. When things go wrong, you might not be able to be reunited with your checked bags for awhile, so definitely keep the most important stuff with you in a carry on bag. 5) Keep things in perspective. Flying can be really stressful for people, especially those who don’t do it often. If you are able to just back up and take a deep breath, often the problems you’re faced with aren’t that horrible. Even if they are bad, getting all wound up is only going to make things worse, so try to relax as best you can.
MrSkyGuy: My wife didn’t fully understand the sort of value CC held until she witnessed CC [Nate] working to check us in while we were unavailable during a company function. Had we flown Southwest, check-in would have been paramount and CC’s service in that regard would have been critical. What other behind-the scenes items are you and your team working on while your customers are out and about during their trips?
Cranky: Much of the behind the scenes work is really on a case by case basis. Some people just want to know that we’re watching their flights and sending them updates. We’ve had clients who don’t respond to any updates we send, and that’s perfectly fine. We know that if something goes wrong, then we’ll hear from them. But it’s amazing how often some little things go wrong. A great example just happened yesterday. We had a client flying on Air France/Delta who was relying on online check in to get the 20% discount on checked bags. She had 9 excess bags, so that was big money. The website wouldn’t check her in, so while she slept, we were trying to figure out the problem. After several iterations, Air France told us that it couldn’t be done, but they said that when she handled it at the airport, Air France would then go back and refund the difference to her. She probably wouldn’t have been able to get that kind of resolution on her own, at least not without significant investment of her time.
MrSkyGuy: The connected traveler has multiple tools today which weren’t available to the public at large even 3 years ago, such as smartphone-based apps like TripIt, TripCase, FlightCaster, and more. These services have allowed savvy travelers to put more information at their fingertips and bring along some of the services CC provides. Where to these apps/tools leave off and where does CC pick up the most slack?
Cranky: We find those apps to be complementary to our services in most cases. They are great for people who want to do it themselves, but they can’t match the collective brain power of a team of airline dorks in getting things done. They might be able to give alternates if you have a missed connection, but they won’t be very creative. Also, they all require the traveler to take action whereas our service really makes it so the traveler can just hand things off to us and not worry. Here’s a great example of how these work together.
We had a client a couple weeks ago who was on Delta from Phoenix to Orlando via Atlanta. His flight from Phoenix posted a four hour delay in the middle of the night, and he would have missed his connection. Now, these services like TripIt can alert the client to the problem, but then he’ll have to go to the airline himself and get it fixed. In this case, he can sleep through the night, only to wake up in the morning to find that we’ve already had him booked on the next best connecting option. By the time he work up, that option was completely full, so we really did add value. And to talk more about technology, Delta allowed us to rebook him using the website – we didn’t eve have to talk to an agent to get it done. So our services really do work well together.
MrSkyGuy: There are companies such as Medex and others which big companies utilize to ensure that employees have extra options available to them in the event of an emergency, such as medical evacuation, repatriation, etc. What sort of emergency services is CC prepared to provide in similar emergency-related events?
Cranky: We do not provide any sort of evacuation or medical insurance. We can certainly help people pick the right policy for themselves if they’d like such an option, but that is beyond our abilities to deal with situations like that. What we can do, however, is if someone calls and says they need to get a flight out quickly, we can certainly help with that.
We had someone call from Egypt during the uprising there saying that flights had been canceled and he needed to find a way out. We were able to see that Alitalia was still operating a flight to Rome, so we booked him on that flight and he got out of there while others were stuck. So if people want to take their transportation into their own hands, we can do it. But in terms of formal medical or evacuation insurance providers, that’s not our business.
MrSkyGuy: I’d like to personally thank you for allowing us the opportunity to take a deeper look in to CrankyConcierge. Any parting thoughts to leave our readers with? Any promotions we can share for the 2011 holiday season?
Cranky: Thanks, MrSkyGuy. I’d encourage readers to check out our website at CrankyConcierge.com and call us if they have questions at 888-747-1011 (or +1 707-797-7474 outside the US). It’s a service that a lot of people don’t know about, but it can provide a lot of great value. We understand that means there’s an education process, so calls are always welcome. We don’t have any particular promotions for the holiday season. This is our peak time, and we’re already pretty busy. But if people get stuck, then we can always help.
This is avoidable. Say no to travel madness!
In closing, I’d like to thank Brett and Nate for both their diligence in looking out for us during our trip, and the extra time they committed this review. In a stormy world of complicated airline rules, fees, procedures and unknowns, CrankyConcierge provides safe harbor. Is Cranky Concirge’s real-time airline travel management service worth it? I sure think so. My semi-unbiased advice? Give em’ a shot. The $30 you spend on a round-trip for Cranky’s travel monitoring and advice could save you hundreds, days of travel, and perhaps prevent you from blowing a mental fuse.
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