Philosophy on airline choice, vouchers, rewards etc

[Shaddie 1632]

Plane was only a few months old. 
The area that blew out is a “plug”. 
Depending on customer config that can be an exit door. 
 

Rumor on Flyertalk is it had pressurization issues and was taken off NEO routes. Luckily no one was sitting in that seat. Scary shit. 

[HenryJames 65814]

And that’s why you keep your seatbelt buckled.

[Guest]

Looks at tickets for tomorrow's flight...

"let's hope the Dutch and Brazillians are better craftsmen."

 

[HenryJames 65814]

[elfenix 34157]

FAA grounds 171 737s for inspections

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67903655

[midtown 3341]

What a mess of an airplane

I flew on at least 3 the week of Christmas.  Lucky to be alive

Edited January 6 by midtown

[closetohumping 17339]

Just flew delta.  Toilet rim was noticeably chipped.  Come on man

 

 

on the way back I flew AA.   They overbooked and were offering 1k vouchers for those that would give up their seats

[Guest]

1 minute ago, closetohumping said:

Just flew delta.  Toilet rim was noticeably chipped.  Come on man

 

 

on the way back I flew AA.   They overbooked and were offering 1k vouchers for those that would give up their seats

They offered me a "Change flight incentive.  Instead of getting in at 2PM, I get in at midnight... LOL fuck that.

when they ask you to bid on the amount to change, I always choose $650 or above.  That ain't even worth it for a midnight arrival.

[closetohumping 17339]

2 minutes ago, slorch said:

They offered me a "Change flight incentive.  Instead of getting in at 2PM, I get in at midnight... LOL fuck that.

when they ask you to bid on the amount to change, I always choose $650 or above.  That ain't even worth it for a midnight arrival.

I was tempted at 1k but wanted to get home in time for work

[Sam Lin 3539]

I got bit by the Alaska flight groundings due to the door blowout.

Arriving from international connection at night to find flight canceled, and they rebooked me one day (same flight, 24hr) later. Waited in 2hr line to get hotel and food voucher. While in line, bought a ticket on SW for early next morning adding one connection. (I had no faith they would actually fly the next day.) While in line I watched SW options fill up and Delta options fill up. There were no flights available on other carriers by the time I got to front of line. Slept for 2.5hrs on the voucher. Gave up a free bag allowance that I had via the intl transfer, paid for additional bag on SW. Eventually got home, 36hr transit time from first flight to arriving at my door, on about 6hrs of total sleep. The flight Alaska tried to rebook me on did eventually fly, but 3hrs delayed. It landed 3am this morning.

If I didn't need to be back for work it wouldn't have been bad, I would have just rebooked an additional day out to let things stabilize, and just explored Seattle a bit.

Of course my credit card stopped their travel insurance years ago.

If this post is incoherent it's because I am exhausted and incoherent.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19016]

I'm in Singapore at the moment.  Headed to Siem Reap.  Some of the people meeting up for our trip got caught in all the grounding.  My two Singapore Air flights are on 737 Max planes, but not the 900, the 800.  So, I guess I've got that going for me.

[52-80 19041]

Kinda funny IAH today is completely full of Michigan gear but all the Huskies dudes are too shamed to wear theirs

[DallasGatr 216]

I'm in Singapore at the moment.  Headed to Siem Reap.  Some of the people meeting up for our trip got caught in all the grounding.  My two Singapore Air flights are on 737 Max planes, but not the 900, the 800.  So, I guess I've got that going for me.

Where did you stay in SIN? I’m going NRT-SIN this afternoon. Hardcore Fairmont guy here.

[midtown 3341]

I'm in Singapore at the moment.  Headed to Siem Reap.  Some of the people meeting up for our trip got caught in all the grounding.  My two Singapore Air flights are on 737 Max planes, but not the 900, the 800.  So, I guess I've got that going for me.

Siem Reap is awesome

[seven 1366]

On 12/13/2023 at 10:44 PM, mchookem said:

anybody have experience with Icelandair and/or airport? 🤔

i hate flying with a passion but we're planning a family trip to Germany and France late spring, first time, so no choice there. due to my general airline hate and tendency to have claustrophobic reactions on any flight longer than about 5 hours, i've been banking Chase points for a while to be able to splurge on business class. Icelandair keeps coming up with multiple options, Denver>Frankfurt.

i'm not a surly 1%er 😋 and our international travel has been limited to Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean, so European travel is all new ground.

really...i just don't want to get served surstromming or be trapped with any other kind of fermented fish during food service 😝 😜

should i just stick with United? 🤔

Bit late on this but... 

I flew Icelandair round-trip mci-ams a few years ago with a connection at kef. It was the only transatlantic flight from mci at the time. Coach on the way out but upgraded to business on the return. It's not lay-flat as mentioned earlier but no different from domestic business. Yes some sort of fish was served but I don't like fish so I didn't eat it. It was nice to have two medium length legs rather than a short and long leg. Kef is very small (similar to popular Caribbean locations) but a really nice airport. Feels kind of like a mountain lodge. Viewing Iceland from above is pretty cool too. Overall I'd rate it as a positive experience for the price. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19016]

On 1/10/2024 at 7:55 AM, DallasGatr said:

Where did you stay in SIN? I’m going NRT-SIN this afternoon. Hardcore Fairmont guy here.

The new EDITION.

[royiv 9123]

2 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

The new EDITION.

[shakahorn 1622]

On 1/9/2024 at 12:43 PM, 52-80 said:

Kinda funny IAH today is completely full of Michigan gear but all the Huskies dudes are too shamed to wear theirs

glass houses and all.  I went through IAH on 12/28, sporting a Texas Alumni shirt and shot the horns to a few others wearing burnt orange.  Went back through again on 1/3...not so much.

[52-80 19041]

At my nieces house wondering when/why she got a japanese plane as a gift until i realized…

[RollLeft 5039]

 Picking an airline is like picking the tallest midget....err little person. 

[Blotto 23352]

The proposed merger between Jet Blue and Spirit was shot down by the judge yesterday, with the rationale being the merger would lessen competition and raise prices for the customer base that utilized Spirit today. Spirit's stock has tanked, and I've read a few  articles that suggest Spirit will likely almost certainly head to bankruptcy and possible liquidation if they cant find another buyer. But how likely is it that another carrier thinks they can gain approval if Jet Blue could not? 

So if bankruptcy/liquidation is the result of this decision, it doesn't really seem that the judge did the Spirit customer base any favors, although I would argue he did do the JetBlue customer base a solid. But more importantly (from my standpoint), I hope that judge considered whether the other budget carriers can absorb the crazy if Spirit goes under. Watching people crap and piss in the aisles out of anger when they are refused their 5th double vodka is something I would prefer to see on the internet rather than on my next Delta flight. There better be a plan in place at Frontier and Allegiant to capture all the riff raff or flying will become even more miserable. 

Quote

Jan 17 (Reuters) - Shares of ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines (SAVE.N), opens new tab fell 17% in morning trade on Wednesday, a day after a U.S. judge blocked the airline's planned $3.8 billion merger with rival JetBlue Airways (JBLU.O), opens new tab.

Spirit's stock shed nearly half of its market value on Tuesday after a federal judge agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice that the airline's deal with JetBlue would harm ticket buyers. The decision has left the company in limbo, with analysts saying it could seek out another buyer or consider a bankruptcy filing.

Spirit has had a hard time remaining profitable due to increased operating expenses and ongoing supply chain problems, raising concerns about the company's ability to repay its remaining debt due to mature next year.

Some analysts said the company might contemplate a bankruptcy filing to streamline its balance sheet and reorganize into a financially robust airline.
The best-case scenario for Spirit would be a Chapter 11 filing, followed by a liquidation (Chapter 7), according to TD Cowen analyst Helane Becker.

Each airline now seems to face crucial strategic and financial decisions, Citi analyst Stephen Trent wrote in a note while maintaining neutral ratings on both stocks.

A deal with JetBlue would have created the fifth-largest carrier in the U.S. and would have been a shot in the arm for Spirit. JetBlue shares, which closed 5% higher on Tuesday, were also down 6.2% in morning trade. "We now see a very, very low probability of the merger being consummated," Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a note citing regulatory hurdles, even if the carriers decide to appeal.

Spirit has been among those airlines hardest hit by an issue with RTX's (RTX.N), opens new tab Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) engines, resulting in the grounding of several of its jets and which is only expected to increase in 2024.

Excess capacity in some of its key markets is hurting Spirit's pricing power too, forcing the company to indulge in steep discounting to sell enough seats, making the road to recovery bumpy. "We see little valuation support for Spirit in the absence of a merger," J.P.Morgan equity analyst Jamie Baker said.

 

[52-80 19041]

That should have been the argument appealing the merger: higher prices lead to more civility at the airport. 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10065]

So prices will rise anyway, but now I'm going to be sitting among ex-Spirit customers.  Wonderful

[midtown 3341]

On 1/12/2024 at 10:54 AM, 52-80 said:

At my nieces house wondering when/why she got a japanese plane as a gift until i realized…

So this is actually and Indian Airline model plane?

[Firemans4Horn 17696]

50 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

So prices will rise anyway, but now I'm going to be sitting among ex-Spirit customers.  Wonderful

[midtown 3341]

So my sister recently moved to TPA. Thinking about going to visit spring break.  I am UA and their price is insane but google flights showed me Spirit at $250 vs $490 for AA and like $800 for UA.  So wth.  FOr $250 how bad can it be?  Well by the time you add a carry on and pay $70 per seat each way its basically the same price as AA.   So whats the point of Spirit?  How is it even cheaper?

[sidis 9686]

27 minutes ago, midtown said:

So my sister recently moved to TPA. Thinking about going to visit spring break.  I am UA and their price is insane but google flights showed me Spirit at $250 vs $490 for AA and like $800 for UA.  So wth.  FOr $250 how bad can it be?  Well by the time you add a carry on and pay $70 per seat each way its basically the same price as AA.   So whats the point of Spirit?  How is it even cheaper?

because if you are a stripper/escort trying to get from austin or l.a. to vegas for the weekend to work, you don't care what seat you get and you don't have any luggage so it actually is cheaper.

[gmr548 16392]

1 hour ago, midtown said:

So my sister recently moved to TPA. Thinking about going to visit spring break.  I am UA and their price is insane but google flights showed me Spirit at $250 vs $490 for AA and like $800 for UA.  So wth.  FOr $250 how bad can it be?  Well by the time you add a carry on and pay $70 per seat each way its basically the same price as AA.   So whats the point of Spirit?  How is it even cheaper?

Know what you're getting to and don't pay $140 to pick a seat that is identical to all the rest?

[Born to Run 6417]

So my sister recently moved to TPA. Thinking about going to visit spring break.  I am UA and their price is insane but google flights showed me Spirit at $250 vs $490 for AA and like $800 for UA.  So wth.  FOr $250 how bad can it be?  Well by the time you add a carry on and pay $70 per seat each way its basically the same price as AA.   So whats the point of Spirit?  How is it even cheaper?

It's not really unless you don't have more luggage than just a personal item. We had to use them once as it was the only flight into Costa Rica at Christmas. No problem as it was a beach vacation and I was bringing boards. The whole experience was terrible. Long lines, a bunch of inexperienced angry travelers, horrible seats.

I'll fly Frontier anytime, or Allegiant. Not much difference from AA or United, but fuck Spirit.

I miss Virgin. Alaska is pretty decent but not the same.

[sidis 9686]

49 minutes ago, Born to Run said:

I'll fly Frontier anytime, or Allegiant.

[Chopper 17043]

On 12/14/2023 at 2:59 PM, Sam Lin said:

United premium product is fucking trash.

Which product are you referring to?

United Polaris is pretty good. It's the second best international premium product flying out of Denver, behind the seasonal Air France flights but ahead of what BA or LH flies from DEN.  The new Polaris lounge at DEN is also pretty great. But any seat, particularly premium, is going to vary based on several factors: Manufacturer and jet, seating configuration, and route.

[52-80 19041]

it's over a full decade since the transition from recliners to layflats.  there's some non-pods still floating around, but theyre not so bad.  if theres a 747 available ill grab it for the novelty but other than that its all the same and i stopped giving a shit about the hard product.

[Sam Lin 3539]

20 hours ago, Chopper said:

Which product are you referring to?

United Polaris is pretty good.

I'm referring to Polaris. The off-plane experience is quite nice. New lounges are solid. The on-plane experience is such trash, seats are horrid, service and food are way behind.

[Chopper 17043]

30 minutes ago, Sam Lin said:

I'm referring to Polaris. The off-plane experience is quite nice. New lounges are solid. The on-plane experience is such trash, seats are horrid, service and food are way behind.

I take it you're talking about domestic service. Still, if you're comparing it to AA, I'll laugh; it's basically the same. If you're comparing it to Jet Blue or Delta, okay...I have no recent experience with Delta, have heard a lot of good but also that they've taken a step back in the last 2 years or so.

[royiv 9123]

1 hour ago, Sam Lin said:

I'm referring to Polaris. The off-plane experience is quite nice. New lounges are solid. The on-plane experience is such trash, seats are horrid, service and food are way behind.

Wife and I had a trip to Europe back in November. BA Club World on the way over and UA Polaris on the way back. Polaris was 1000% better than what BA trots out as a premium product. BA is an embarrassment of an airline.

[kevwun 15540]

We went to London in 2018 and flew BA direct from Austin to Heathrow.  I checked in to upgrading to first.  They wanted 27k per person and that was only the Austin to London flight.  It’s a 9 hour flight.

Edited January 20 by kevwun

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

Question for those who know a lot about American.  
 

My wife has had two trips on American in the last 5 months. Picked American mostly for the schedule.  Both trips were Houston to Dallas then change planes at DFW.  
 

Both times (Asheville and NYC) she got to DFW fine, but both trips the second plane did a thing where it would taxi away, sit on the tarmac for hours, come back to the gate, sit in the departure area for hours, then cancel and AA gave her a voucher to a shit hotel and said try again tomorrow.  Various inconsistent explanations for why the plane didn’t go depending on who you asked.   No known weather issues on either end, though.  
 

I fly a lot on everything from Spirit to Emirates, but not much on AA since we moved to Houston.   When we lived in Dallas AA was my go-to, partly because hub and partly because I had a company AA visa so expensing was easy.  For a lot of people I know and work with in Dallas that’s still pretty true.  

But anyway I have never had anything like that happen to me unless there was some raging storm or clearly explained mechanical difficulties.  And never have I sat on the tarmac for hours and not eventually taken off  

So I have asked a bunch of Dallas friends an colleagues and quite a few of them say AA pulls this kind of shit all the time.  Since they fly AA nearly exclusively, they just assumed all airlines did it. 

Have I just been unreasonably lucky and people like to bitch, or is this actually some AA DFW thing? Asking because wife right now refuses to ever set foot on an AA plane again. 

[Mo Horn 8774]

AA has been my preferred for years and I flew much more in the past than I do now. Maybe things are different now but that has never happened to me. The only time we sat on the tarmac was because of weather. I have had times where the flight keeps getting delayed by 15 minutes or so at a time, and then canceled, but that's before we even board. 

[Brisketexan 104215]

We are invested in two airlines’ point systems: SWA for domestic travel, and BA for international.
SWA covers most of our domestic needs. I fly in and around Texas for work. For domestic leisure travel, we go to California and New Mexico relatively often. So, it serves us well for those purposes. And the longest we’re on a plane is 3 hours. As long as the flights are on time, it’s easy.
For international, we wanted to pick something that 1) has direct flights out of Austin, and 2) works for our kids (the boy is in school in the UK, and daughter is looking for a job there). BA it is. Transfer AMEX points over to Avios when there’s a transfer bonus, we’ve got enough points for a good chunk of free flights (including flying business when we go that direction, for my wife and me - sorry kiddos, if I’m paying, you fly coach). It’s a 9 hour flight, it’s nice to get to sleep for some of it. The return flight is through the day, so not as important. BA has been fine, nothing special, nothing awful.

[Gil Bang 25831]

I posted about it on the Movie/TV board (because I met "Bania" from Seinfeld) but I recently flew AA  LAX-LHR RT.  Premium Economy on the way over, Business back. 

PE on a widebody is really pretty decent. Not much different than 1st on a narrowbody.   Business is pretty, pretty, pretty good.   I got quite a bit of sleep, and i rarely sleep on airplanes. 

On some of the AA aircraft, they also have a very small 1st class.   This one didn't have that.   I've flown 1st on the 777 LAX-NRT, and it was a "bit" better, but there's nothing wrong with that AA business product.

[RDCanecutter 26176]

On 1/6/2024 at 7:57 PM, closetohumping said:

I was tempted at 1k but wanted to get home in time for work

With 1k free money you could just lay around at home and drank.

[closetohumping 17339]

On 1/6/2024 at 5:54 PM, slorch said:

They offered me a "Change flight incentive.  Instead of getting in at 2PM, I get in at midnight... LOL fuck that.

when they ask you to bid on the amount to change, I always choose $650 or above.  That ain't even worth it for a midnight arrival.

Even at 1k per ticket for an extra day in Hawaii there was only one taker.   I’m not sure if they would’ve covered hotel and transportation 

[closetohumping 17339]

On 1/18/2024 at 12:09 PM, midtown said:

So my sister recently moved to TPA. Thinking about going to visit spring break.  I am UA and their price is insane but google flights showed me Spirit at $250 vs $490 for AA and like $800 for UA.  So wth.  FOr $250 how bad can it be?  Well by the time you add a carry on and pay $70 per seat each way its basically the same price as AA.   So whats the point of Spirit?  How is it even cheaper?

Spirit and frontier only work for short trips.  So for a guy like me, oc to Vegas for 70 round trip?  Ok.  
 

btw they measure every got damn bag but even with that the boarding process moved quickly as most don’t have bags.  

[Your Mom 4766]

6 hours ago, Liquor and Poker said:

Question for those who know a lot about American.  
 

My wife has had two trips on American in the last 5 months. Picked American mostly for the schedule.  Both trips were Houston to Dallas then change planes at DFW.  
 

Both times (Asheville and NYC) she got to DFW fine, but both trips the second plane did a thing where it would taxi away, sit on the tarmac for hours, come back to the gate, sit in the departure area for hours, then cancel and AA gave her a voucher to a shit hotel and said try again tomorrow.  Various inconsistent explanations for why the plane didn’t go depending on who you asked.   No known weather issues on either end, though.  
 

I fly a lot on everything from Spirit to Emirates, but not much on AA since we moved to Houston.   When we lived in Dallas AA was my go-to, partly because hub and partly because I had a company AA visa so expensing was easy.  For a lot of people I know and work with in Dallas that’s still pretty true.  

But anyway I have never had anything like that happen to me unless there was some raging storm or clearly explained mechanical difficulties.  And never have I sat on the tarmac for hours and not eventually taken off  

So I have asked a bunch of Dallas friends an colleagues and quite a few of them say AA pulls this kind of shit all the time.  Since they fly AA nearly exclusively, they just assumed all airlines did it. 

Have I just been unreasonably lucky and people like to bitch, or is this actually some AA DFW thing? Asking because wife right now refuses to ever set foot on an AA plane again. 

I suspect your wife wasn’t paying attention when the explanation for the delay was given.  These days there would be a riot if you sat there for hours with no explanation. Maybe she had her earbuds in.  Even when the captain isn’t being very forthcoming, eventually enough people start bugging the stews that the stews start bugging the captain to say something.  

At a massive airport like DFW the delays can easily extend hours or even all day after the weather moves through.  If there’s storms or fog in the morning they will shut down the airport until they pass.  They probably land 2 or 3 planes a minute on average at DFW so a 2 or 3 hour weather event can effect hundreds of planes from all over the country along with some mid-way over the oceans.  When they reopen the airport they can’t let all those planes arrive at once so they space them out and start assigning takeoff times to everyone, often hours beyond departure time.  The airport can still only handle the same arrival rate as normal and now they’re trying to mix in all those delayed flights sitting on the ground everywhere with the normal scheduled ones too.   I have no idea if that was the case that day but that’s how it often goes. 

[thunderlounge 7688]

Also, you know it wasn’t weather related, because they had to pony up rooms/etc. 

[Firemans4Horn 17696]

7 hours ago, Liquor and Poker said:

Question for those who know a lot about American.  
 

My wife has had two trips on American in the last 5 months. Picked American mostly for the schedule.  Both trips were Houston to Dallas then change planes at DFW.  
 

Both times (Asheville and NYC) she got to DFW fine, but both trips the second plane did a thing where it would taxi away, sit on the tarmac for hours, come back to the gate, sit in the departure area for hours, then cancel and AA gave her a voucher to a shit hotel and said try again tomorrow.  Various inconsistent explanations for why the plane didn’t go depending on who you asked.   No known weather issues on either end, though.  
 

I fly a lot on everything from Spirit to Emirates, but not much on AA since we moved to Houston.   When we lived in Dallas AA was my go-to, partly because hub and partly because I had a company AA visa so expensing was easy.  For a lot of people I know and work with in Dallas that’s still pretty true.  

But anyway I have never had anything like that happen to me unless there was some raging storm or clearly explained mechanical difficulties.  And never have I sat on the tarmac for hours and not eventually taken off  

So I have asked a bunch of Dallas friends an colleagues and quite a few of them say AA pulls this kind of shit all the time.  Since they fly AA nearly exclusively, they just assumed all airlines did it. 

Have I just been unreasonably lucky and people like to bitch, or is this actually some AA DFW thing? Asking because wife right now refuses to ever set foot on an AA plane again. 

No idea. But why the hell is she booking a connecting flight from Houston to NYC?

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

1 minute ago, Firemans4Horn said:

No idea. But why the hell is she booking a connecting flight from Houston to NYC?

I don’t know why she picked that.  

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

No weather issues at DFW.  Clear skies both times and she watched other planes take off.  She was paying attention-she asked a ton of times and got different stories, sometimes from the same person.  
 

But that’s not really what I’m asking.  I get that they might just say whatever if they don’t know to get people off their backs.  But I’m really asking if it’s some AA thing because other people related similar experiences flying AA out of DFW specifically.  

[conVINCEd 21468]

5 minutes ago, Liquor and Poker said:

No weather issues at DFW.  Clear skies both times and she watched other planes take off.  She was paying attention-she asked a ton of times and got different stories, sometimes from the same person.  
 

But that’s not really what I’m asking.  I get that they might just say whatever if they don’t know to get people off their backs.  But I’m really asking if it’s some AA thing because other people related similar experiences flying AA out of DFW specifically.  

I’ve never had anything other than a minor inconvenience flying AA out of DFW.  I do it 15-20 times a year.  Certainly not the flight count of some our hardcore business travelers on this thread, but over the years if there was a systemic weakness I feel like I would’ve had to deal with it at some point.

[Hornius Emeritus 12358]

On 1/18/2024 at 12:59 PM, MonkeyDoughnut said:

So prices will rise anyway, but now I'm going to be sitting among ex-Spirit customers.  Wonderful

Think of it as part of the adventure.