Airlines up prices for standby, baggage, blankets

By Joe Brancatelli

All sorts of new fees and charges keep coming: Get out the scorecard
because that’s the only way you’ll be able to keep track of all the new
fees that the carriers are inventing (or increasing). Along with
Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines continues to offer all travelers one free checked bag. But Delta says that it has upped the second-bag charge to $50. … Frontier Airlines
has eliminated its free standby travel. Travelers looking to stand by
will receive a confirmed seat if available, but will have to pay any
applicable fare difference. Frontier’s ticket-change fee will also rise
to $150. … Hawaiian Airlines will now charge $10-20 for
tickets purchased by phone and$25 for airport ticketing. It will also
charge $15 for the first checked bag on flights
to and from the mainland, although the first checked bag will remain
free on inter-island flights. And, of course, you have heard that JetBlue Airways
has eliminated free blankets and pillows. On flights longer than two
hours, you can now buy a $7 eco-friendly kit that includes a blanket, a
pillow and a $5 coupon that can be used at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

ROUTE MAP

Midwest Airlines makes big cuts in Milwaukee: After Midwest Airlines
said a few weeks ago that it would retire about a third of its fleet,
we knew big cuts were coming. Effective September 8, its primary hub in
Milwaukee will shrink dramatically. Gone will be flights
to Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers, Florida; San Diego; Los Angeles; and
Seattle. And Orlando will only be served on a seasonal basis. Also gone
will be commuter flights from Milwaukee to eight cities: Baltimore;
Hartford, Connecticut; Louisville, Kentucky; Muskegon, Michigan;
Raleigh/Durham; St Louis; San Antonio; and Wausau/Stevens Point,
Wisconsin. … It didn’t take long for Midwest’s competitors to fill
some of the gaps. AirTran Airways, which tried to buy Midwest
last year, will add Milwaukee-Fort Lauderdale flights. And Northwest,
which bought a minority interest in Midwest last year, will launch
nonstops between Milwaukee and Los Angeles.

INTERNATIONAL AGENDA

OpenSkies adds a destination and dumps a class: For a tiny subset of a gigantic airline, OpenSkies, the British Airways boutique carrier, is certainly making a lot of news. This month it announced its second route: New York/Kennedy-Amsterdam, which is due to launch on October 15. (The carrier currently flies JFK-Paris/Orly and its new subsidiary, L’Avion, flies Newark-Orly.) Then it announced a major change in its in-flight configuration. It is dumping coach and concentrating on its business class with lie-flat beds and prem+, a near-business-class product with reclining leather chairs that offer 52 inches of legroom. The airline’s Boeing 757s will now offer 64 seats, 24 in business and 40 in prem+. … The oil-fueled airline crisis isn’t just affecting U.S. carriers. Smaller international airlines are also suffering. Malev, the Hungarian carrier, is killing its only two routes across the Atlantic. The Budapest-Toronto route ends September 21 and the Budapest-New York service disappears on October 25. Air Berlin, which took over LTU, is dropping one of LTU’s signature international routes. The airline is closing down its New York/Kennedy-Dusseldorf run. … Israir is permanently dropping its Kennedy-Tel Aviv service. The Israeli carrier has been on and off the route for several years, but now is blaming high fuel costs for the definitive end of the flights.

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