Traveling Thoughts - Jamon

The most wonderful sight today.

Jamon Ibiricos

US Airways Club Changing Rooms

Due to scheduling complexities, I often need to travel on an overnight flight from Denver to the east coast for work.  I need to land fresh and ready for a full day of meetings.  This is challenging because Denver is less than three hours from the east coast, too short to sleep well.  It is further complicated because I need to look sharp in business attire.  The latter is solved by the US Airways Club changing rooms.   The rooms, located before the bathrooms, provide a large space to change from comfortable overnight wear into fresh business garb.  There is a chair, coat hooks, counter, tissues, and a mirror.  They are also kept very clean, offer good lighting, and a full door.  I love them and try to connect in CLT so I can use them. 

US Airways Club Changing Room in CLT

United Clubs don’t have these rooms, but I hope they are added to make overnight flying more tolerable.  The alternative is flying dressed up and landing wrinkled or changing in a bathroom stall, neither a good solution.  US Airways used to be my least favorite airline to fly (though I would fly them, unlike Spirit), but they have improved significantly over the past few years and are now at least tolerable.  

US Airways Airbus 319

United Orders New 737's

United ordered (full press release here) 100 of Boeing's new fuel efficient 737 MAX airplanes to start updating the current fleet.  Deliveries will begin in a few years.  United also ordered 50 737-900ER jets to replace some 757's in the fleet with deliveries starting next year.  This is a good move for United to lower operating costs and I bet they got a great price on the planes because Boeing is hurting for narrow body orders.  I prefer the Airbus interior so I'm not jumping for joy on this move.  Also the 757 has 4 more first class seats than the 737-900ER and boarding is done through the middle door, so first class has a very private feel.  

United 737 MAX, photo from United Airlines

Strange that this was not announced at the Farnborough Air Show going on right now.  Airbus loves to announce orders at airshows to show off in front of the press.  Boeing prefers to announce orders as they come, but the timing and order size would make this an air show highlight.  Maybe a missed opportunity by United and Boeing.

WestJet Has Been Profitable Every Quarter for 7 Years

WestJet today announced its selection by Aviation Week as a top 10 international airline. The study ranks airline carriers across the world by their annual revenues, using financial and operational data to rate publicly traded airlines in five different performance categories. WestJet is the only Canadian airline and one of only two North American airlines to appear on this year's list.  In May, WestJet announced record first-quarter net earnings of $68.3 million, the airline's 28th consecutive quarter of profitability.

WestJet 737 Taking Off

I doubt any airline will win the Nobel Prize for economics any time soon.  But WestJet, Canada’s “preferred airline” (their words), has been profitable every quarter for the last 7 years and that is something special.  WestJet operates a fleet of 737 to 76 cities.  No CRJs and no wide bodies.  Sounds like Southwest.  Unlike Southwest, they fly to several countries allowing them to serve additional profitable markets for both business and leisure (you can be a pure play domestic airline in Canada, but you need to focus on the way up north, like First Air and Canada North).  WestJet also codeshares with American and Delta to bring in more traffic and offer more destinations for customers without changing their fleet make up.  These WestJet guys have quietly found the formula for a profitable airline.  That might be worth a trip to Stockholm after all, on a code share partner of course.  

ITA Matrix Search Game - Most Minimum Connections

I read that some airport pairs require a minimum of 20 stops to travel between.  This seemed stunning, so I went to ITA Matrix flight search trying to see how many minimum connections I could find between two cities.  My personal best so far is 9 connections for Grayling, Alaska (KGX) to Tezpur, India (TEZ).  

Canada may be a good place to start looking

Can you do better? The ITA Matrix search game is born. Post your best pairings in the comments; it’ll be a fun game.

California Pacific Airlines - Who?

There’s a new airline in town, well in Carlsbad (San Diego north), California.  California Pacific Airlines (CPA) is a startup looking to make Carlsbad the low cost airport for San Diego.  They plan to have service to Vegas, Phoenix, Cabo, San Jose, Oakland, and Sacramento.  The airline will operate E170 jets in an all coach configuration.  I’ll put the over under on their survival at 14 months, if they ever get off the ground.

Great Lakes Puddle Jumper, Close Enough

The SoCal air market is already very crowded and filled with low fares and high frequencies.  CPA seems unlikely to generate much connecting traffic or traffic originating at their spokes.  They do have an interesting marketing position focused on Carlsbad’s low costs to customers and convenient location to people north of San Diego; SAN is amazingly convenient for locals.  I don’t think there will be enough traffic though to sustain their operation.  The big airlines all work out of SAN (40 mins south), Long Beach (75 mins north) and LAX (90 mins north) with more destinations and frequencies and unless you live right in Carlsbad, it will most likely be worth the drive to catch a flight.  I haven’t written an obituary yet, but I’m tempted to start soon.

UPDATE 12/14/14:
I have a feeling the airline is done before it ever took off.  The flycpair.com domain name expired and is now up for auction, current price $65.

Delta Skymiles Amex Card Fills Mileage Balance Gaps

I am not the biggest fan of Delta, but SkyMiles are becoming more useful as Delta’s domestic network grows.  I’m not going to be flying Delta to collect SkyMiles (all my Delta and American flights are credited to Alaska), so their Amex card seems like the best route to earning miles. 

There is currently a lull in the credit card sign up game.  No one is offering the 50,000 to 100,000 point sign up bonuses any more.  Since I am unable to grab large numbers of miles, my new strategy is to strategically fill some gaps in my miles balances (I have a large pile of Starwood points that transfer to most airlines, so I’m never really in trouble, but I am hesitant to use them unless as a last resort).  SkyTeam is my largest gap so I picked up the Delta SkyMiles Amex to fill that gap.  It has a decent sign up bonus and no fee the first year.  It is a perfect fit for my needs. 

Delta Flight at MKE

I still recommend the Starwood Hotels Amex above all others.  If you don’t have it, you should grab it first.

Delta CRJ Needs a Visit to the Paint Shop