HOME    E-MAIL JOE    PRINT    SEND MOBILE LINK    2010 COLUMNS    JOE'S ARCHIVES   SEARCH NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT ... By Joe Brancatelli June 17, 2010 -- Nobody asked me, but How much don't you want to talk about business travel this week? Yeah, me, too. Which is why we'll talk about cabbages and kings more than airlines and hotels. The worst thing about the Spirit Airlines strike? The thousands of people stranded in mid-journey around Central and Latin America. None of the Transportation Department's proposed new regulations covers that. Maybe it's time we require airlines to at least fly passengers home if they disrupt their itineraries. Nobody asked me, but You know what is really sad about the actions of Spirit Airlines management? The chief executive, Ben Baldanza, is the good cop. The guy who funds the airline, Bill Franke, is the investor who almost drove America West into the ground. He makes Baldanza look like Mahatma Gandhi. Franke's America West was in such miserable shape (see Tactical Traveler here or here) that almost anyone could have improved the airline when he left. That anyone was Doug Parker, who cleaned up America West and merged it with US Airways. Parker has been desperately trying to get US Airways merged into a bigger airline so he could run it ever since. In other words, another thing for which we can blame Franke. Baldanza first came to "prominence" in 2002 at US Airways. He was the guy who fronted the suicidal changes that the airline tried to impose. Needless to say, Baldanza had to back off almost immediately. But, you know, he had the mindset that appealed to Franke. And thus airline hell was born. Nobody asked me, but My wife and I are going to the James Taylor-Carole King concert in Newark next weekend. I think I paid more for a pair of floor seats than I earned in 1970 and 1971, the years that the joined-at-the-hip Sweet Baby James and Tapestry were released. On the other hand, we'll be spending two nights at Hyatt hotels in New Jersey to make a weekend out of it. Since the second-quarter hotel promotions are still in effect, I think the two stays will earn me 4 million Gold Passport bonus points. That should generate enough free room nights to allow me to afford the vigorish charged by Ticketmaster for the concert tickets. Nobody asked me, but In case my sister and brother-in-law are reading: Yes, this is the first rock concert we've been to since Bonnie Raitt in 1993. We're old. Deal with it. We've reached the point where a jazz club seems so much more sane But I'm not totally divorced from new music. I like Snow Patrol (listen to this) and The Shins (try this). And my goddaughter gave me a mix that had some really cool tunes from a British artist named Adele. Nobody asked me, but I'm good with my BlackBerry Bold, but everyone I know who's purchased a Droid from Verizon adores it. It's not as sleek-looking as an iPhone, but it does the same thing. And it's backed with a mobile-service provider that actually completes a call. Remember calls that don't drop, iPhone users? I can't for the life of me understand why I need an iPad, but I will admit that business travelers seem to be among the earliest adopters. On a flight back from Seattle last month, three of the eight people in first class had one. And I do note: It seems like a stunning device for displaying video. Nobody asked me, but So I'm in the new Andaz Hotel on Wall Street and I go to the door to grab the newspaper. A canvas bag is hanging off the doorknob. The bag says: All of yesterday's news fits in this bag. Okay, so much for my career. Next time you read some mindless newspaper story about how high employee salaries and benefits are crushing airlines, consider this: Oliver Wyman, an aviation consulting firm, says labor now costs airlines 3.57 cents for every seat mile they fly. That's down to 23.6 percent of total costs compared to 36.2 percent in 2000. Nobody asked me, but I won't repeat my opinion of Starbucks coffee--Really, what are you guys thinking?--but credit where credit is due: The omnipresent coffee chain is switching to free WiFi on July 1. Starbucks first announced this change on Twitter. Do you have a Twitter account? Can you tell me what you do with it? Nobody asked me, but This should be fun: The Chicago City Council has approved a new fee on car rentals. The $8-a-day ding is meant to fund a consolidated rental facility at O'Hare Airport. What could go wrong? I mean, they've been charging $3.75 a day at Midway since 2005 and Midway's consolidated rental facility is already 0 percent complete. Worst major airport facility in the nation? Delta's creaky, old terminals at New York/Kennedy. There may be, finally, some movement toward a new terminal. Look for an announcement soon. Delta won't survive the brutal four-way battle for the New York Metro market without better terminals. Nobody asked me, but My friend Ralph Raffio has started a blog called Mister Meatball. C'mon, tell me you're not intrigued already. Just go visit. It's food. It's good. It's (mostly) Italian-American. Been trying hard to watch the soccer at the World Cup in South Africa. Once I figured out that the noise was the vuvuzela, I could go back to concentrating on the fact that no one has scored yet. I mean, has anyone seen a goal? Nobody asked me, but JoeSentMe member Michael Cappuccitti graciously forwards this link to the SITA baggage-tracking site: http://www.worldtracer.aero/filedsp/143.htm. It's a brilliant way to trace your bags if your carrier loses them en route. Alaska Airlines raised its checked-bag fee to $20 this week. But they also softened the blow. The airline has a service guarantee: If your bags don't arrive "on time," you get 2,000 bonus miles and a $20 discount coupon. The "on-time" number used to be 25 minutes. When the fee for a bag went up to $20, Alaska reduced the on-time number to 20 minutes from 25 minutes. Nobody asked me, but BP chief executive Tony Hayward testified before a Congressional hearing today. He was so evasive and so dogged in his claims that he knew nothing about April's oil rig explosion and the subsequent environmental damage in the Gulf of Mexico that one frustrated Congressman literally asked Hayward if he could confirm that it was Thursday. Hayward did agree that it was Thursday. Mark my words: Hayward will end up running an airline after he is cashiered by BP. Of course, he will have to learn to be a little less specific as an airline boss. Most airline CEOs I've known would never confirm what day it was. HOME    E-MAIL JOE    PRINT    SEND MOBILE LINK    2010 COLUMNS    JOE'S ARCHIVES   SEARCH

ABOUT JOE BRANCATELLI Joe Brancatelli is a publication consultant, which means that he helps media companies start, fix and reposition newspapers, magazines and Web sites. He's also the former executive editor of Frequent Flyer and has been a consultant to or columnist for more business-travel and leisure-travel publishing operations than he can remember. He started his career as a business journalist and created JoeSentMe in the dark days after 9/11 while he was stranded in a hotel room in San Francisco. He lives on the Hudson River in the tourist town of Cold Spring. THE FINE PRINT All of the opinions and material in this column are the sole property and responsibility of Joe Brancatelli. This material may not be reproduced in any form without his express written permission. This column is Copyright © 2010 by Joe Brancatelli. JoeSentMe.com is Copyright © 2010 by Joe Brancatelli. All rights reserved.