Cracked on air travel

A fine Cracked complement to the piece on airline ticket prices I linked to the other day.

Hat tip: Scott Imberman

Airline competition in Canada (or the lack thereof)

Gulliver correctly describes the state of the airline industry in Canada, but fails to mention that the Canadians will not even let a US airline fly people between two destinations with a stop in between in the US (i.e. Toronto to Vancouver via Detroit on Delta).

Don't get me wrong - the Canadian airline industry is better off with Westjet than without it, but they really should open up to US airlines (as the US should open up to Canadian airlines). If the Euros, who really at bottom do not like or trust each other very much, can do it, we should be able to do it.

Hope and change in the skies?

Bad behavior at Easyjet

You never know when the customer you decide to dump on will have access to an internationally read blog.

Easyjet (and many other companies) should do a better job at training their staff to deal with unhappy customers. An astounding number of companies seem to think that either having staff repeat pre-written (and often inappropriate to the particular situation) messages as though they were human ipods, or, worse yet, lose their cool with the customer, is the best way to go. The Easyjet staff appear to have combined both approaches.

Elasticity of demand for soft drinks on planes

The economist remarks on the new US Airways policy of charging for water and soft drinks in coach. I learned about the policy on Friday night when I flew back from DCA on US Airways. The mid-sized plane was full. I think they sold 4-5 soft drinks. This seems like useful information for the airlines.

Back in my UWO days I did a lot of flying on Southwest from DTW to MDW. One time after an especially long delay the pilot offered free drinks (including liquor) for all. That is a very good way to improve passenger morale.

Airline executives embarrass themselves

I received an email today from Northwest Airlines containing a letter, signed by executives of many major airlines, exhorting me to oppose rampant speculation in oil and suggesting that I visit the website of SOS - for Stop Oil Speculation. If you visit the website at the link here you will learn that speculation is like gravity in its force, though apparently it is unlike gravity in that it was much less powerful a year or two ago. I suppose some credit should be given to the PR departments of the oil companies. Instead of having discussions about collusion among the oil companies (who seem to gain and lose their ability to collude in tandem with events in the middle east as well as other supply and demand shocks) this time around oil prices have gone up and we are talking about speculators instead. No doubt a new K Street office is being set up as you read this to defend the speculators - perhaps the "American Speculation Society (ASS)" or some such. You will also learn from the SOS link that some futures markets are - hold on to your seats and imagine scary organ music - foreign! Think of it: non-Americans have the nerve to buy and sell products that we also use. Worse still, even some Americans buy things who have "no intention of using the product". God save us!

This site is pathetic and the email is an embarrassment to both the executives and the airlines that employ them.