Some Pictures of Lufthansa’s Renovated Business Lounge

Lufthansa announced earlier this week that it has completed renovations of its 15,000 square foot business lounge in Terminal B of Frankfurt. Of course you have all the usual lounge amenities that have received a refresh. But the big thing, I think is the new "JetFriends" area made specifically for children is a great idea for traveling families. The new area boasts activities for children of all ages, from drawing tables for toddlers to gaming areas for older children.

I think this is a great idea - business lounges generally aren't that kid friendly, so this is nice.

Here are some shots - thanks to Lufthansa for passing them along!

Some Thoughts on the Virgin Atlantic Delay

My guess is that if you follow travel news at all, then you've most likely heard about the Virgin Atlantic tarmac delay earlier this week. Flight 001 from London Heathrow to Newark diverted to Hartford due to the thunderstorms in the New York area. So the plane sat. For a few hours.

But regardless, passengers were (understandably) not very happy people. I can't say I can blame them, especially because supposedly the air conditioning onboard was not functioning. Eventually Virgin just gave up and let everyone deplane.

Long ground delays have been a hot topic lately, especially after the DOT banned tarmac delays longer than three hours. This Virgin incident does not violate that new rule as it does not apply to foreign carriers. The DOT has investigated doing something for international carriers, though, and I can't help but think that this incident might accelerate the process.

But will a government rule really do a whole lot? Not really. I know it sounds like common sense, but airlines never want to divert. Virgin really doesn't have a whole lot of control over the weather, and is at a disadvantage compared to domestic flying. Since they're flying seven-hour-ish trans-Atlantic flights, there still might not be a good prediction for weather.

So a rule really won't change diversions. Another option is to cancel but that's not a viable option either, since that means the  return flight gets canceled. When you're dealing with transatlantic routes that might only have one or two frequencies per day, that can be very annoying. Another issue for dealing with international flights is the need for customs officers. Again, not something the airline has a lot of control over.

But Virgin is in control of how the delay is handled. Naturally the air conditioning should have been working. I'm not sure what happened onboard, but in general it would be a good rule to start serving beverages pretty quickly, and make sure everyone is informed.

Either way, I don't see a new government rule doing a whole lot here.

Detroit Lowers Parking Rates

I never really thought that while I was writing for my site that I would be penning a post about how an airport authority is actually cutting its parking rates! One might initially think that an airport might have a lot of pricing power here. They do, but it vary by airport.

It all comes down to the switching costs involved for a passenger to from one form of transport to another. An airport could have very good mass transit links. In some cases a taxi or car service might actually come out cheaper than parking at the airport. And of course there's always off-airport parking.

The airport raided parking rates last year, and found that because of the increase, passengers just went to off-airport parking options that provided good airport access and were also cheaper. They just voted with their wallets, and hence the airport needed to lower prices to remain competitive.

The airport said that travelers have become more budget conscious. If you're one of those travelers, consider using our website to poke around many airports across the country. For example, even though About Airport Parking does not sell any parking spaces in Detroit, there are listings with prices and locations for some of the parking options available - and that's completely free to use!

Minor Indcident in Providence Today

Well, there was a minor incident at Providence (my home airport!) today. I say minor because not too many passengers were affected and there were know injuries. But if you're a passenger that has been delayed for a few hours...then this is a big deal for you.

But anyway. There was an Embraer 175 being pushed back for US Airways' first flight of the day to Philadelphia. The aircraft was operated by Republic Airlines as US Airways Express. The winglet on the 175 ended up clipping one of the horizontal stabilizers of a US Airways A321 nearby. The larger A321 was scheduled to depart for Charlotte later in the day.

So both flights were canceled for (obvious) safety reasons - both aircraft need to be inspected to see what maintenance issues need to be addressed, if any, before they start flying normally again.

US Airways tells me all affected passengers have been booked on other US Airways flights or on other airlines.

Lesson from this? Always have a backup plan. It's always helpful to have a rough idea of an airline's route network when you're getting booked on another flight to see what works for you. When gate agents are dealing with a situation like this, when they're booking over 100 people, they might not generate the best option for you. So having an idea of what you're looking for helps.

Free Wi-Fi Coming to SFO

Well here's some good news for Bay Area travelers - San Francisco International Airport (SFO) will begin offering free Wi-Fi on September 1st. Currently passengers only get access if they pay up. The other two Bay Area airports, Oakland and San Jose, have been featuring free Wi-Fi for a little while now.

So - why do this?  Naturally the airport has said this will make passengers happy. Which is true. But I have to think some other factors are at play here as well.

First, I think smartphones have changed the situation here. My biggest internet activities (of which e-mail is the biggest) can easily be done on my iPhone, and I have an unlimited data plan, so I don't need Wi-Fi like I needed to before. Sure, Wi-Fi is generally faster, but is it worth the cost? 3G gets the job done on basic Internet tasks with no major issues. When inflight Wi-Fi got going, there were less smartphone users out there, so when you're (essentially) the only game in town, people will pay for your service. But now things have changed.

Another (growing) factor I see here is the proliferation of inflight Wi-Fi. If I'm taking a transcon flight that lasts around five hours, that will cost me $12.95 on a Gogo-equipped aircraft. Why would I pay for Wi-Fi in the airport that I'm only going to use for a little over an hour if I have five hours of Wi-Fi bliss coming up on my flight? And inflight Wi-Fi continues to become a more viable option as it is installed on more and more aircraft nationwide. Plus, if one has a monthly plan the cost per usage goes down even further, making airport Wi-Fi look even worse.

So my guess is that SFO saw declining revenues from Wi-Fi purchases and had to make a decision. Free Wi-Fi will certainly make its travelers happy. Plus, my guess is that the service will still be supported with ads on the login page (I'm not sure though), and maybe the revenue from that will be more than what came from the purchases!

Either way, this is good news.

In the Strange News Department…

While one doesn't always think of it, passenger airlines make a good amount of money carrying cargo on their commercial flights. And it makes sense - that extra space can be used to generate additional revenue. Southwest is no different than anyone else. Except for the fact that one of their shipments has been in the news this week - human heads!

That type of medical shipment isn't too odd. Well, it is probably a bit weird to be shipping human heads but it's not uncommon for the medical industry. But Southwest says that the heads were not properly packaged. So, Southwest's employees did the right thing and contacted the police. They figured out there was no foul play involved...but it's still a pretty weird event!

The Volcano’s Effect on Airports

I've written here plenty of times before about the effects of the ash cloud on airlines' bottom line. But let's talk about airports - East Midlands in the UK has said they lost about one million pounds as a result of the natural event. Passenger traffic was down about 31% - and that would explain the lost revenue. When a big source of revenue is landing fees, and flights aren't operating...well, you have the picture.  That means people aren't parking if they don't have a flight to catch, and they're not spending money on concessions.

Not surprisingly, the airport is hoping that governments across Europe will lend airports a financial helping hand.

You can read up on it here.