Photos taken in 2010 for the blog
I am not a huge fan of “Top ___” lists nor “Year in Review” stuff, but I was curious how the year went for the blog overall and decided to share. Looking back at my Flickr photos, I am amazed at all the wonderful opportunities I have been able to share in 2010. It seems you enjoy seeing and learning, since traffic in December 2010 compared to December 2009 was up almost 200% and traffic from all of 2009 compared to 2010 is up almost 900% — that is very exciting. As I go through the yearly stats here are some interesting ones I wanted to share:
Top 5 Viewed Blogs
It is difficult to get an exact count and I am a bit too lazy to 100% figure it out. With the Seattle PI syndication, email list and RSS feed, they might change these numbers, but this is what I am going with. Here are the top 5 viewed stories read just on AirlineReporter.com (in order of popularity):
1) PICTURES: Boeing 787 Dreamliner Flying With a Boeing 40C
2) Airline Livery of the Week: Full Allegiant Air Livery on Boeing 757
3) PHOTOS: United Airlines Boeing 747 Buzzes Over the Golden Gate Bridge at FleetWeek
4) VIDEO: United Airlines Boeing 777 Painted in New Livery
5) Checking out Air New Zealand’s New Interior on Their First Boeing 777-300ER
Having a story that spikes in traffic is always a good thing. However, it can be frustrating when I can spend time traveling, my own money and work hard to write up a blog and it gets very little traffic. Then I can post some photos or a video that took me 5 minutes and it turns out to be some of my biggest traffic. Eh, I see it as the high traffic blogs support some of the more interesting blogs. United’s new livery has been very popular and there are a few more of those blogs in the Top 10 for the year.
Top 5 Experiences
Sometimes I have great experiences that might not turn into the most read blogs. Picking only five wasn’t easy. This year, I got to ride in helicopters, see the inside of a Starship, tour Delta, trained with AirTran flight attendants, flew up to the San Juans and much more. I chose these five based on giving me the biggest smile when thinking about the experiences. Here are they are (not in any particular order):
1) Hanging Out at Oshkosh AirVenture 2010 with Southwest Airlines: Being able to fly in on a Southwest Boeing 737 in the middle of Oshkosh was quite the experience. Not to mention all the marvelous airplanes and people I got to meet there as well.
2) Touring Haneda Airport’s New International Terminal: Who doesn’t like a trip to Japan with All Nippon Airways to look at a new terminal, tour some lounges and eat wonderful food?
3) Video: Pushing Back a United Airlines Boeing 757: This was not planned at all and just sort of happened, but it was a unique experience and one I will not quickly forget. Hard to believe some people get to do this every day.
4) The Boeing Archives PART 1: Touring the Archives: What an awesome experience to be able to tour the Boeing archives and talk with the Boeing Historian.
5) My Interior Tour of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner: Being one of the first people to check out the interior of the Boeing 787 was surreal. It also opened my eyes to how being a blogger is different than being a member of legacy media.
Top 5 Cities Reading the Blog
Being based in Seattle, I definitely have a lot of great readers here. But there are also readers from other places in the world. Some of these surprised me (this is just based on my website, not other feeds):
1) Seattle, WA
2) New York, NY
3) London, England
4) Los Angeles
5) San Fransisco
I also want to give a shout out to Sydney, since they are #6. Readership in Australia and New Zealand has grown a lot over the year and is highly appreciated — G’day and Kia Ora. The blog is truly world wide. I have gotten at least one visitor from each country of the world, except from North Korea.
Top 5 Most Commented Blogs
One of the nice things in 2010 is the increase of comments. I always love it when people give an opinion on something or a conversation starts up. Here is a list of the blogs with the most comments (# of comments as of posting):
1) PHOTOshop: Boeing 747-400 in New United Airlines Livery (50 comments)
2) CONTEST: How many flowers does it take to lei an Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330? (47 comments)
3) My First Experience with Body Scanners Gets Me in Trouble with the TSA (43 comments)
4) We Do NOT Have All the Same Body Parts and Body Scanners Violates Your Privacy (42 comments)
5) Should Airlines Refund Tickets in Cases of Death, Illness or Running Late? I Say Nay! (41 comments)
I find it interesting there is no overlap with the blogs with the most traffic and those with the most comments.
Honestly, I can’t believe how great this year has been. I flew almost 50,000 miles for the blog, which is a good thing — hope it to be higher for next year.It has been challenging working an almost full-time job (30hrs/week) on top of the blog, but it is all worth it.
A huge thank you to all the readers, because without eyeballs reading what I write, airlines wouldn’t be willing to work with me to provide unique content. I already have a few things planned for 2011, but I can’t wait to see what happens.
View of Allegiant's entrance at their Headquarters in Las Vegas
I always enjoy it when I get the opportunity to check out an airline’s headquarters. It is an inside look at the airline’s culture and of course it is always nice to picture where they work when interacting with them as a media contact or customer.
Allegiant is located in a new business park just outside of downtown Vegas. It is away from the flashing-lights and casinos and in an area that just looks just a few years old.
When pulling up, it was not obvious it was Allegiant’s HQ since there was no signage outside, even though their roof prominently has “Allegiant” on it. However, after stepping into the lobby, there was no question.
Their lobby is two stories with two Allegiant sun’s on the floor. The best part was the replica of an MD-80 tail used as their front desk. Not too shabby. After checking in, I had the opportunity to sit down and wait on some airline seats. They were blue and leather like Allegiant’s, but quite a bit larger. They must have been taken from another airline’s first class or business seat — I wasn’t able to tell which.
Allegiant's MD-80 trainer for flight attendants.
I love walking through an airline’s operations to be reminded how most people there truly enjoy their job and have a smile. I always feel many passengers feel like there are airline people just waiting to screw them over. The nice part of Allegiant’s smaller operation is it didn’t take long to get through all departments. From those who take reservations to President and CEO’s Maurice J. Gallagher, Jr’s desk. Speaking of him, he doesn’t even have an office. All the Allegiant executives work in cubicles out in the open, bettering their interaction with other employees. Of course the executives have a little bigger than others, but they kind of deserve that.
There are also quite a few Allegiant models spread around the facility. Most are MD-80’s, but there were a few Boeing 757’s. The biggest 757 model was located right in the middle of all the executive’s cubicles (photo).
This is probably the coolest front desk ever.
A second building holds Allegiant’s training facility. They have the rear section of an MD-80 used for flight attendants. It is raised above a hole in the floor, where employees can practice evacuations. I need to find one of those for my home.
All through out the facility there was quite a bit of Allegiant spirit. Not only where many walls painted in Allegiant blue, but many desk areas were showing off holiday spirit with a decoration contest. Almost every area had decorations and one thrilled worker actually turned their cubicle into a ginger-bread house.
It is fun to imagine the folks sitting in the operation center while flying back home to Seattle, planning the aircraft’s flight and dealing deicing. I only wish they sold those tables they used as their front desk.
CHECK OUT ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF ALLEGIANT’S HEAD QUARTERS
Could you imagine having your very own Boeing 787 Boeing Business Jet to fly around the world in? Photo: Liz Matzelle
If you have your own plane I am jealous. Even if it is just an older Cessna 172, having your own plane to fly around in (or be flown around in) makes you rock. Even though any plane is a good thing, some personal planes are better than others. Sure, there are many different aircraft manufacturers that build multi-million dollar private jets for private citizens of the world to be flown around in style, but if you are going to do it, why not go all out? When conducting research, I realized there are currently 12 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 8 Boeing 747-8 Intercontinentals that are on order by private parties. Say what? Who needs such planes? Well normally either charter companies, governments or super dooper VIP’s will purchase these aircraft.
I contacted Boeing and turns out that all 8 of the 747-8I’s are for government purchasers. Even though not a bad ride at all, having a government purchase an aircraft is not as impressive as an individual. Out of the 12 VIP Boeing 787 Dreamliners currently on order, 2 are for charters, 4 are for governments and 6 are for private owners. Whoa! Of course Boeing can’t talk about who the owners are, but maybe I can try to talk to them myself. Here is an open letter to the six fine people who have enough taste (and money) to purchase one of these airplanes:
Dear Boeing Business Jet 787 Dreamliner Purchaser:
First of all I want to say congratulations for being at a point in life where you can afford your very own Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. I know myself and many others around the world envy your ability to buy such a machine and I salute your great taste in aircraft. As I am sure you know the Dreamliner is the next generation of airliner and one beautiful machine. I know it probably has been hard waiting to take your first flight with all the delays, but let me assure you, it will be worth it. I am sure you are use to the finest things in life and the VIP 787 Dreamliner will be no different.
If you are a person who loves to share unique experiences with others I would be honored to get a tour, maybe even a ride in your soon-to-be-delivered VIP Boeing aircraft. Sure you might have people from large-named TV shows who want to check out your plane for a show like “Check Out My Expensive Ride,” but they are looking for ratings. I would love to share your passion for beautiful planes with the world in a unique way.
You join only five others around the world to have such an amazing aircraft and I only hope you might want to share a bit of that with others. Thank you for your time and I hope you have an amazing year.
Sincerely,
David Parker Brown
Owner/Founder, AirlineReporter.com
da***@ai*************.com
Image: Liz Matzelle
American Airline MD-83 (N594AA) in Detroit
The battle between airlines and travel sites is starting to heat up, but for different reasons.
The relationship between airline and secondary travel sites is interesting. Most have a relationship like travel agents used to, where the site will get a referral fee for making the booking. However any additional money made from hotels or cars is kept by the outside site.
Back in October 2008, American Airlines went to battle with Kayak.com. Kayak.com is pretty darn cool and I don’t mind giving them a plug. You are able to say where and when you want to go somewhere and they will compare fares. They will also let you know if the cheapest fare is on the airline’s website (which I find it almost always is) or on another site like Orbitz or Expedia. Kayak doesn’t actually sell you anything, but just refers you to another site to make the actual purchase. Back in 2008, American was not happy since they wanted Kayak to only link to their site and not to third party sites like Orbitz, Expedia, etc for comparison. It appears that American won, since their site is the only one listed under American fares on Kayak.
More recently American is taking Orbitz head-on. American has required Orbitz to remove all their flights from the site. American is stating this is because Orbitz is not just a third party, but sort of a fourth party. American gives its flight information to another outside company and that company gives it to Orbitz, Expedia, etc. American has been asking Orbitz to work directly with American’s reservation system, cutting out one of the middlemen, but the two companies have not been able to make a deal. Even though that might be more of a public reason why American is cutting out Orbitz, I wouldn’t doubt they might be trying to make a more aggressive move against the third party vendors.
What makes this more interesting is Expedia is jumping in on the fun. Expedia, on their own, has decided to “bury” American’s listings on their website, making them very difficult for customers to find. Kind of like a preemptive “screw you,” for messing with Orbitz and possibly messing with them. American is not taking this without a fight. They have been vocal via their Twitter account telling customers they still have options, “Expedia made AA fares harder to find on Expedia.com. Go to AA.com, Kayak or Priceline for AA fares,” American posted recently on their Twitter account.
Now, Delta is feeling left out and decided to have their listings removed from three travel sites: CheapOAir, OneTravel and BookIt. As of now they still have their full listings on other sites, but this could possibly change.
Airlines like Southwest and Allegiant have not allowed other site to list their prices for a long time. They get the benefit of all passengers booking on their website and getting 100% of the ancillary revenue. Will this continue as other airlines look for ways to increase revenue? Will sites like Expedia and Orbitz be able to change their business model in a way that airlines will still work with them?
Honestly, I am not sure how this will all work out and if, in the end passengers will be better or worse off. I just hope something is figured out. Having to go to each airline’s website to figure out times and costs and compare them to others is not something I really want to go back to.
Image: Chrisl1024
United Airlines Boeing 757 at LAX
In April, the LA Times posted an anti-airline story that got me going. Now, the Washington Times has the airline business all wrong and I can’t stay silent. Armstrong Williams, who wrote the story, seems to mostly be a political correspondent, but decided to use his experience of flying to talk about the airline biz.
In a nutshell, Williams argues that airlines are in a race to the bottom. That they are some how all working together to provide the worse service possible to passengers, while earning the most money possible. Many of his arguments are weak and mis-informed, but they seem to be common arguments you see in the media against airlines. I think it is time to stand up to some of these points:
WILLIAMS:
No, the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the airlines. Also, the utter agony and different standards for every airport of what can and can’t pass through security screening is baffling.
MY RESPONSE:
Wait, how can the blame solely land on the airlines, but it also sucks at the airports? This is the only mention of hating on something other than the airlines, but he doesn’t mention that airport security has nothing to do with the airlines and everything to do with the US government. At least we can both agree that airport security is slacking.
WILLIAMS:
When do you last recall getting a meal or a cup of coffee without having to hand the flight attendant a major credit card? The seats are smaller, more uncomfortable, certainly more dirty than they have ever been… Want a blanket? That’s $5, please. Want to watch TV? Another $5, please.
MY RESPONSE:
Ah, the common argument that the airlines are packing the people in and charging for everything. Those evil, evil airlines, right? What Williams forgets to mention is the drop of average airfare for people flying around the country. Plus, food, drink, blankets, in-flight entertainment all cost the airlines money. If I do not want these amenities, why should I pay for them in my airfare? Sounds like Williams wants the cheaper fares and all those amenities that used to come free with lower fares.
WILLIAMS:
I’ve flown to New York only twice from D.C. since 9/11, and the Acela train is my only mode of transportation to and from the Big Apple. The Acela is truly a rare gift from heaven and Earth when you think hard and long about future travel plans.
MY RESPONSE:
We agree here — partly. I think taking the train to many east coast destinations makes sense. No big check-in process, no TSA and less hassle. Odd how Williams doesn’t seem to mention that meals in First Class on the Acela line is free, but people not in First Class have to pay for their food. Why doesn’t he get upset that he doesn’t get free food and drinks on the train, yet expects it in the air?
WILLIAMS:
To add insult to injury, major air carriers either don’t seem to notice the plight of travelers or don’t seem to care. What they care most about is fleecing your wallet for the cost of your airline ticket.
MY RESPONSE:
Why do so many people feel that airlines are not caring about the passengers? Sure, there might be some airlines that are less about a passenger’s well being versus profit, but surely not all of them. Plus I think Williams and many others forget that airlines are not charities. They are in the business to make profit and grow. Making profit (which has been difficult for many years for airlines) is not a bad thing and shouldn’t be treated like it. There is a lot of competition between airlines and if you do not like how an airline does something, do not fly them. However, you might find that cost of your ticket and level of service might be closely related — are you willing to pay more?
WILLIAMS:
When oil spiked at more than $155 per barrel years ago, airlines were first in line to complain they were going under if they couldn’t increase fares. They added surcharges for baggage to help defray the costs of the additional fuel. Today, oil is hovering around half the price of its all-time highs. Are the baggage fees gone? Heck, no.
MY RESPONSE:
Airlines lost a lot of money with 9/11 and the high oil prices and many went into debt or filed for bankruptcy. Although at this point most airlines are doing quite well, they need to pay back their previous debts. I have no misconceptions that these fees would go away. If passengers keep paying them, why should airlines remove them? Airlines do not function in a vacuum and just make up fees that hurt their business. Passengers continue to pay them and airlines make money off them.
WILLIAMS (quote from an AOL travel article he uses):
“But what you may not know is airlines are now considering flying during the holidays a privilege, and have instituted a surcharge for traveling on peak days. This ‘premium’ fee of $10 to $30 is added to the cost of your ticket if you fly throughout much of December and the beginning of January. Be wary of deceptively cheap fares, as these tickets are often driven up by add-on fees for holiday air travel.”
MY RESPONSE:
Supply and demand. Why the heck wouldn’t airlines charge more for tickets during busy times versus non-busy times? It is about being a smart traveler. Watch your final costs and make sure they are what you were expecting. That goes with any business.
WILLIAMS:
Signs now warn, “Doors close promptly 10 minutes before takeoff” so carriers can cancel seat assignments for confirmed passengers and offer them to standby passengers. At the same time, flight delays are at near-record highs, with average lapses inching toward hours, not minutes.
MY RESPONSE:
Wrong! Did he even look at airline delay statistics before writing this (I can tell you no, actually read-on he admits he didn’t either)? In 2010 there were more on-time flights seen since 2003. I am sure if Williams was a stand-by passenger waiting to get home early to his family, he might have a different opinion. Airlines do not have boarding rules just to screw over passengers. It is to make sure that planes leave on time so they do not get delayed and upset more passengers.
WILLIAMS:
Come to think of it, have you noticed that all the airlines seem to have adopted their own “race to the bottom”?
MY RESPONSE:
No, I have not. I have seen new low cost airlines offering amenities like LiveTV and in-flight internet. Heck even the legacy airlines are starting to provide more amenities to passengers to keep up with the smaller airlines. Airlines are trying to give passengers what they want: cheap prices and amenities, which is a difficult combination.
WILLIAMS:
Maybe I’m just complaining. I haven’t really offered statistics or any economic models to support my claims. But do I really need to?
MY RESPONSE:
Yes Williams, you do need to. I know I am “only” a blogger, but I surely do not post things that are inaccurate (at least I try not to and quickly update when it is pointed out to me). I prefer not to just join in common hype against airlines and spread hatred for an industry that doesn’t deserve it.
WILLIAMS:
I still take flights that make a refugee camp look like Club Med in terms of seating. I still have to pay resort-style prices for quickie-mart quality food.
MY RESPONSE:
Seriously? I am pretty sure that millions of people who have had to live in a refugee camp to survive would have a VERY different opinion than you. The amount of room you now have in airlines (compared to years ago) is directly related to consumer’s demands for lower fares. If you can fit in more seats, you can charge less per seat and still make more profit. If you want an airline experience like it used to be, pay for First Class. You will find the cost of a First Class ticket now is pretty comparable to what economy tickets used to be during what many people see as the “golden age” of airline travel.
Okay, I think I feel a bit better at least. Even though it seems obvious that Williams is misinformed and just doesn’t care, it bothers me since so many will share his opinion. I wish more people would take the time to learn about the industry before hating on it. I plan to email Williams and connect via Twitter, hoping he can learn a bit more about the airline business. If he responds, I will be sure to post an update, but I do not have high expectations.
