On the Road with Joe Brancatelli

Joe Brancatelliis editor and publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a
non-commercial Web site for business travelers.

SEASONAL STRATEGIST

You may want to rethink that Hawaiian holiday: The abrupt shutdown of Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines within 48 hours of each other earlier this month has caused a catastrophic drop in the number of available seats and flights between Hawaii and the mainland. Although its schedule fluctuated since it began serving the mainland in 2001, Aloha had flown to all of Hawaii’s major islands from a half-dozen West Coast cities. ATA operated to the major Hawaiian airports from Oakland, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It also flew to Hilo, which hadn’t had a mainland nonstop for decades before ATA launched service in 2006. Airfares to the islands are likely to rise sharply and frequent flier award availability may be all but nonexistent this summer. Worse, there is little chance that any of the major carriers or Hawaiian Airlines will add significant amounts of new capacity. For starters, the transpacific flights are gas guzzlers, no advantage with oil at $100 a barrel. Worse, the most efficient planes on the Hawaiian routes — two-engine jets with so-called ETOPs approval — aren’t easy to find or certify for over-water operation. Worst of all, Hawaii routes have traditionally been only marginally profitable. That’s because there are few high-yield frequent fliers on the routes and many vacation travelers try to use frequent flier awards on the trips. There is a bit of good news, though: Hawaiian Airlines will launch a daily Oakland-Honolulu nonstop on May 1 using Boeing 767s configured with 18 first-class and 242 coach seats. Both ATA and Aloha had operated on the route.

DOLLARS & SENSE

Watch out for those new fees: Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines are the latest carriers to add a $25 fee to your fare if you deign to check a second bag. Northwest also increasing the fees it will chargefor overweight bags and the third or additional bags checked. Elite frequent-flier program members and full-fare or first-class fliers are exempt from the second-bag fee. That means five of the six network airlines now have a $25 fee for a second bag. Only American Airlines is a holdout, but watch for it to match in early May. … Delta Air Lines has invented some new fees, too. Most notable: a $25 "handling charge" for claiming a SkyMiles award by telephone that includes a segment on a partner airline. That fee is atop the existing charge for booking travel on the phone and the existing phone fee is simultaneously rising to $25 from its current $20. Delta is also increasing the cost of carrying a pet in the cabin (to $100), the cost of flying an unaccompanied minor (to $100 for any flight) and the fee for oversized bags (to $150 from $100).

INTERNATIONAL AGENDA

An update on Terminal 5 at London Heathrow: London/Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 and it the lone tenant, British Airways, finally seem to be working normally. After almost two weeks of chaos surrounding the opening of the $8 billion facility late last month, BA is now running all of its scheduled flights. However, BA’s plans to move the bulk of its U.S. service into T5 on April 30 is now in question. As of now, only flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco operate from T5. Check with the airline for its plan if you’re booked to fly to London in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, BA has upped the minimum connecting time on flight transfers at Heathrow to two hours. And please be aware: The opening of Terminal 5 has made travel on the costly, but once efficient, Heathrow Express, much more time-consuming. The train formerly linked Heathrow Terminal 4, Heathrow Central (the stop for Terminals 1, 2 and 3) and Paddington Station in London. Now, however, the train goes from T5 to Heathrow Central to Paddington. Travelers who use Terminal 4 must switch at Heathrow Central for a separate train and that adds as much as 15 minutes to the journey. Heathrow Express officials never publicized the change in routing and the connection is poorly marked. You can examine the new schedule and the required connections here.

LOBBY LIFE

Orwellian — or ‘Seinfeldian’ — behavior at the front desk: When a hotel doesn’t honor your reservation and sluffs you off on another (usually lousy) property, it’s called "walking." And it’s happened to almost all of us. But one company didn’t take kindly to the Trump Taj Mahal casino’s walking them out of $30,000 worth of prepaid guestrooms before a Christmas party in 2001. The company, now part of Capital One, sued the Atlantic City hotel over its 60 guaranteed rooms, at least 26 of which were never provided. In a 24-day trial in 2006, the Taj Mahal’s lawyers made what a three-judge appellate court last week called an "Orwellian" argument. The hotel claimed the prepayment would only hold the mortgage company’s reservations, not any actual rooms. The court rejected the argument and ordered the hotel to pay $200,000 in damages and fees. That’s good news for all of us who’ve ever been walked, but the Taj Mahal’s defense wasn’t so much Orwellian as Seinfeldian. As you may recall, Jerry Seinfeld once uttered a memorable line after a car rental firm ran out of cars and wouldn’t honor his reservation. "You know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation and that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the holding," Seinfeld noted.

AIRPORT REPORT

Free wireless for United Club members: United Airlines now offers Red Carpet Club members free Wi-Fi access. The service at 27 clubs and five International First Class lounges is provided by T-Mobile. … San Diego fliers take note: Valet parking will be available at Terminals 1 and 2. The charge is $30 a day. … Noted: American Airlines returns to the Wausau-Chicago/O’Hare route on June 1. There will be three daily commuter flights using 44-seat ERJ-140 regional jets. Delta Air Lines continues to shrink its presence at Boston/Logan, New England’s primary destination. The airline is dropping flights to six cities. By May, it will eliminate nonstop service from Logan to Las Vegas; New Orleans; Greensboro, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Louisville, Kentucky; and Charleston, South Carolina. Delta is also cutting back to one daily flight from Boston to Los Angeles. … Doubletree Hotels has opened an outpost at West Palm Beach airport in Florida. The 175-room property has been operating as a Radisson. … Star Alliance carriers, including United Airlines, have moved into the new Terminal 3 in Beijing. The Star Alliance carriers are also moving to Terminal 2 in Shanghai/Pudong this month; United shifts on April 29.