Why do I love the airline industry again?

Story 1: DFW has been insanely stormy this spring...it seems like every other day we're under severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. Along with storms comes flight delays. I was flying to Houston for my old roommate, Deborah's wedding on Wednesday and there was a huge storm that morning so everything was delayed. Luckily, I am platinum on American so the gate agents were quick to find me an earlier flight (AKA a flight that should have left already but was still there because of the delays so actually left at the time I was supposed to leave) but there were people who had been stuck at the airport since that morning (it was 4:00pm). The exact same thing happened on the way home and I was able to actually get home earlier than I was supposed to.

I wish I could say I felt bad about using my privileges to get a confirmed seat on a flight with a 25 person standby list, but I really don't! :) But seriously, why do I love an industry that constantly disappoints customers over things that can't be controlled like the weather?

Story 2: Next Friday, I leave for Stockholm, Sweden to speak at a conference. Yesterday, I got an email from one of our sales directors in Europe saying that we had gotten to the second round on a proposal we submitted to an airline in Norway and wanted to know if I could leave two days earlier to take a meeting in person. I called our corporate travel department and it would cost $2000 to change my ticket to leave two days early. $2000! The original plane ticket only cost $1500! You'd think that working with airlines we'd be able to get some sort of break, but no. (Needless to say, I am not traveling to Norway on Wednesday!)

Why do I love an industry that charges one customer $100 for a ticket and the person sitting right next to them $500 for the exact same product? No other industry could get away with that! (Of course, my company is the one enabling to them to do that, so I guess I can't talk too badly about it! Ha!)

Sometimes I really think I'm crazy to love the airlines as much as I do, but right now I can't imagine working in any other industry. I must just be a glutton for punishment. :)

Interesting Experiment

I was talking to my friend John yesterday before he left for his parents' house in Detroit, Michigan. He is connecting through Chicago first because although he can get a direct flight to Detroit from DFW, his sister who lives in Austin can't. So they are connecting together. This is when my mind starts formulating a hypothesis: people who live in major hub cities are at a disadvantage because of the prices of direct flights.

To test my theory, I began looking at fares on American Airlines. I set the date to depart on Dec. 27th and return on Dec. 29th. Here are 3 flights that I looked at:

DFW to Chicago (direct flight): $743

DFW to Detroit connecting in Chicago: $547

DFW to Milwaukee connecting in Chicago: $318

And the now for the REALLY amusing part - the "connecting flight" to chicago is the exact same flight that I chose for the "direct flight."

Moral of the story: If you're flying into a Chicago, save yourself $400 and buy a ticket to Milwaukee and just never get on your connecting flight. Show back up at the airport when your 2nd "connecting flight" is supposed to land. Of course, this would only work if you aren't checking luggage because they tend to check luggage all the way through to your final desination now....

Happy Traveling!

2nd Busiest Travel Day of the Year

This week, I acted as Emily's Airport Shuttle to my friends who live out of state. So I battled airport traffic on Wednesday afternoon - not fun. But even more not fun was yesterday. I picked up my first friend at 8 am at Love field. Traffic wasn't great there. But then I got to go to DFW! The wind was really strong, so all of the flights got delayed, which was nice in one manner because people who weren't supposed to get in at the same time landed within 15 minutes of each other, but the last flight for me was supposed to come in at 9:30 and it came in at 11:04pm. I felt so bad for my friends - one sat boarded on the airplane in Baltimore for an hour before it took off and then had to sit for 35 minutes after they landed before they were taxied to the gate. Having bad traffic at the airport is bad under any circumstance, but on the 2nd busiest travel day of the year....it is absolutley horrific. Cars were lined up in every lane in the passenger pick up areas so no one could move. I was smart and went into the parking garage, so there was no traffic. But in the end, it was all worth it to see my friends again and get them home safely. Happy Monday-After-Thanksgiving!

Mr. Discount Airline Pilot Guy

Because of a consulting job I'm starting this month, I have taken a particular interest in the airline industry recently. In my research, I came across an ad by Bud Light in their "Real Men of Genius" campaign called Mr. Discount Airline Pilot Guy. That is what I want to talk about today.

I am not a discount airline lover. In fact, I'm pretty close to the opposite end of the spectrum, especially since Southwest has been pushing this whole Wright Amendment stuff trying to seem like the poor abused child on the playground when they are really the big bullies. So this commercial had me laughing so hard I nearly fell out of my chair. 1 week later, I opened the Wall Street Journal to find an article saying that AirTran is threatening to pull all Anheuser-Busch products from their flights because they were offended by this commercial. Other low-cost carriers have followed suit, acting appalled at this commercial. To briefly summarize my feelings about this without boring my readers too much, I will just say GET OVER IT! Humor in advertising has been used for many, many years, particularly in the alcoholic beverage market and companies need to realize that getting upset just makes them look stupid and petty. I mean, are Usher's backup dancers boycotting Bud because of the "Mr. Gangsta Rapper Posse Member" ad in the same campaign (which is also really funny by the way)? It would be like politicians getting mad for being made fun of on SNL - it just comes with the territory.

The saddest thing about all of this is that the commercial has been pulled from every source of media, including the Andy Award Winners site where it won 1st place in the Radio Ad category. You can still find the other 2 ads in the campaign though, and i would recommend checking them out. I finally found a copy of the good ad, along with the text, on this site. Stick it to stupid airlines with me - listen to it and laugh! But hurry, I don't know how long it will last before they completely rid the world of all evidence like Nixon and his shredders. But they can't stop me! To close out this ridiculously long post, I will end with the written transcript of the commercial entitled "Mr. Discount Airline Pilot Guy."

ANNCR: Bud Light presents…Real Men of Genius.
SINGER: Real Men of Genius.
ANNCR: Today we salute you… Mr Discount Airline Pilot Guy.
SINGER: Mr Discount Airline Pilot Guy.
ANNCR: Your minimal experience flying a plane will never land you at a reputable airline. Luckily, you don’t work for one.
SINGER: Look at me, I’m flying.
ANNCR: Sure, we’re concerned for our lives. Just not as concerned as saving nine bucks on a round trip to Fort Myers.
SINGER: Whoah!
ANNCR: The most direct route to Houston? Through Ft. Lauderdale. With layovers in Detroit, Vancouver and Kalamazoo.
SINGER: I can’t feel my legs.
ANNCR: So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, oh, Skipper of the Skies. You put the ‘fly’ in ‘fly by night operation’.
SINGER: Mr Discount Airline Pilot Guy.
ANNCR: Bud Light Beer. Anheuser Busch, St. Louis, Missouri.