Recently, The Cranky Flier wrote about the airline El Al (which seriously sounds like it should serve flights to the planet Kypton) creating a super-low economy section by charging for services normally offered for free. This “unbundling”, as it’s known in industry parlance, would charge for things like snacks and drinks. I’m assuming there’s no upcharge for seat belts and barf bags.
And I just complained about the ludicrous prices of hotels in much of the First World – the United States is my most egregious example, but western Europe is hardly a bargain.
Why not put the ideas together? That is, unbundling hotel services. I can’t take credit for this idea – it was the ever-practical wife’s suggestion when I told her about El Al.
I’d completely be willing to forgo telephone services, irons in the room, cable TV and a bad continental breakfast. Hmm, I guess “bad continental breakfast” is redundant. I’ve always thought that first a pastry is a pastry – then it gets stale and becomes a “scone.” Once the scone solidifies into a rocklike mass surpassing diamonds on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, it winds up on a tray in a hotel’s continental breakfast spread; only the brutally acidic coffee on display is caustic enough to break it down for consumption by some humans. But I digress.
That seems a nifty solution to what I consider the really poor values that are most hotels.
Here’s a question for you: What standard hotel services would you forego to knock some [...]
El Al
What Hotel Services Could You Live Without?
US Airways Doing the Samba from Charlotte, Heading to Tel Aviv from Philly
Note from Wandering Justin: Since I live in Phoenix, which is a US Airways hub, I plan to keep a closer eye on its activities. I won’t regurgitate press releases, but rather analyze what it means from a traveler’s perspective. I am also not an industry expert, just a curious flying enthusiast. Feel free to debate or tap me wit the clue bat!
Back on May 26, US Airway announced that it would fly from Charlotte, NC, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
On the surface, I have to wonder how much sense that flight makes. Obviously, the airline is going to do anything rash. It wants to make money, so it’s going to analyze the numbers to see if this makes sense for them. So I guess they found some sense in a BBQ Belt to Sunny Samba flight. The flights will start on Dec. 2.
I’d love to read more than what’s in the press release (look for it here). I’m guessing US Airways is funneling passengers from other Eastern cities to this flight. Why Charlotte rather than Philadelphia, another nearby hub? I have no earthly idea.
Still, seeing Charlotte snag a major international destination fills me with some hope – hope that it will deem its Phoenix hub worthy of some major international destinations. Right now, we have the most boring big airport on the planet. Great for getting to Cleveland, but useless for getting to Copenhagen. So if a small city like Charlotte can land a good flight, let’s hope Phoenix [...]
