As Steve Allen said, you can’t make this stuff up: Airlines to begin selling ads on boarding passes
Airlines
Small airline plans big VI service boost
Cape Air plans to increase its daily service between St. Thomas and San Juan by 71 percent, according to a report by the Virgin Islands Daily News. (Read it here.)
The small airline’s vice president of planning said increasing the number of daily round-trips to a dozen is a move to capitalize on the flight cuts being made by other, larger, airlines serving the Territory. Cape Air is based in Cape Cod and its primary business is serving New England vacation spots like Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. But it’s being flying in the Caribbean for nine years between Puerto Rico, the VI’s and Tortola.
The airline flies small planes. So small, you probably never get to 5,000 feet. It is a wonderful ride! I took a flight from San Juan to St. Thomas a few years ago, and the plane probably held no more than a dozen people. It flies so low, you have an unbelievable view of the coral reefs, sparsely inhabited islands and cays, sailboats and yachts, and so much more. It is a lot of fun.
Cape Air’s decision to add service is one good thing that’s coming out of the current squeeze on airlines, fuel, and wallets. Here’s another reason to applaud Cape Air’s expansion. It already has a co-marketing agreement with Jet Blue, transferring passengers from its own planes to Jet Blue from new England to the mid-Atlantic. Oh, wouldn’t’t we like to see Jet Blue see Cape Air do even better in the VI’s, and decide to make its own foray into the marketplace.
American agrees to exempt liquor boxes
The territory’s largest airline has reportedly said it will not count a duty-free box of liquor as a second piece of luggage, and therefore will not charge an extra fee for them. St. John Source reported that the exemption from AA came after Delegate Donna Christensen wrote a letter to an American Airlines executive. She said taxing liquor boxes as luggage would have a “disastrous impact on the tourism economy.”
It’s good to see AA make this move and even better to see that the Delegate made her move. Executives pay attention when they receive requests from Members of Congress. The island’s economy is fragile enough without the kind of blow to retail sales the baggage fee would have been. And a downturn in sales of rum would doubly hurt, because the VI’s receive as much as $80 million a year in excise tax rebates from the US government. So the liquor box exemption by AA is a triple-A good thing.
Airlines drop 2nd and 3rd shoes
Two more airlines servicing St. Thomas have announced cutbacks.
Besides American Airlines, which announced its moves last week, now United and Continental will lay of employees, mothball old airplanes, and reduce flight schedules.
Bloomberg News reports:
VIs trying to replace AA flights
While American Airlines has announced staff layoffs and flight schedules affecting Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands Governor is trying to soften the blow. The Associated Press reported, “talks have started with small regional carriers to expand service to the U.S. Virgin Islands.” The report said the Gov. John deJongh hopes that new airlines might begin service to the territory or expand existing flight schedules to lessen the blow reduced tourism would deliver to the economy.
THIS JUST IN … American to charge for ALL baggage
Joe Brancatelli, the savviest business traveler I know, runs a great blog and has just reported …
"American Airlines has announced that it will begin charging $15 to check ANY bag on a domestic flight. That’s for checking the FIRST bag, folks, not a second bag. American already charges $25 for a second bag.
"This is a NEW fee to charge ANY bag on a domestic flight.The fee is effective for domestic tickets purchased on or after June 15 and will hit most travelers. The exemptions: full fare coach, business and first-class customers and AAdvantage Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum members. Flights to Canada and U.S. territories are also covered by the new fee. International flights will not have the $15 first-bag fee,
"Frankly, I expect the other Big Six carriers to match American’s move with lightning speed."
- Read more from Joe at joesentme.com
- American – one of the VI’s main air links, also an announced it it slicing capacity by 12%, according to this story from Reuters: http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080521/amr.html?.v=4
Getting the best air fare
Just came across a neat feature from Hotwire.com. It’s called Tripwatcher. Similar to other services, I’m sure. I like it because when I tell it the dates I want to travel, it watches airfares and alerts me when prices change. I think Expedia has a similar service, but it seems to be more complicated to get an update. With Tripwatcher, I just click an alert e-mail to gather the latest data.
Another good service is Airfarewatchdog.com. If you ENTER your departure airport, it will show you the best deals of the day from various cities around the US. Maybe even St. Thomas, in which case you can jump on a deal. ‘Course, you have to check it frequently.
Do you have another favorite fare watcher service?
Pick the best airline
There are half a dozen ways to fly to St. Thomas from the mainland. Prices can vary, and so can your experience. Some airline trips are good, some you don’t want to remember. If you were asked which is best airline to fly to the island, what would say?
Christmas in April
Villa rental rates drop after April 15 and bring a swarm of bargain hunters to the island, according to one management company owner. The crush of people is similar to that at Christmas time. While the impact on St. John’s beaches and restaurants is one thing, the effects at the St. Thomas airport are quite another.
Returning Saturday on a 12:25 p.m. US Airways flight, it took 90 minutes to get out of the cab, checked in at the airline counter, to begin winding through an un-guided, hydra-headed, conga line of people – with baggage – into the Customs area, through another line to get to an inspector, drop bags at one of several x-ray machines, then to another ID and boarding pass check, before getting into line to take off our shoes, put carry on bags on the belt, and walk through the metal detectors.
The process took so long that our plane was 30-40 minutes late departing because ticketed passengers were still not through security at take off time.
Coincidentally, a reader, Carol, posted a relevant comment over the weekend. She had a similar experience: "We’ve just returned from our 15th visit to STJ and never before have we experience the check in chaos that we encountered at the airport-lines snaking the entire length of the terminal and doubled back causing flight delays, children exhausted, people cranky."
Moral of the story … when the attendant welcomes you to St. Thomas and tells you to be at the airport two hours before your return flight, it may pay to follow that advice.