choster
Jul 26, 04, 1:06 am
This is overkill, but I figured some folks are curious about Independence Air.
-----
whyi...
My friend JJ is officially Dr. JJ, Ph.D. after a storied campus career. A farewell weekend-- also a reunion party for we his one-time cohorts-- was fitting and anticipated. And yet how unfitting it was that ten outwardly leisurely years accumulating academic credentials should culminate with such short notice of the final meeting of the friends of JJ: ten days, festivities to begin Friday evening in Ithaca, New York.
ITH is five hours' drive from Washington, but I don't own a car. I considered transit by rental car, plane, and bus in that order. Since I wanted to get in by about 10pm, driving was out. The bus was 10 hours and $60 each way, far worse. I am a United Premier and spend a lot of time on US Express and US Shuttle connecting to US Express as it is, US being the monopoly carrier at ITH. An award flight seemed obvious.
But US had no award availability to ITH, even at the 50K level, either for MP or DM miles (the latter I could have done via Amex MR). The short notice meant I was facing $600 for any flight remotely convenient. The fallback is SYR, over an hour away but a bigger city and airport. UX had a $180 nonstop round trip IAD-SYR. I thought we had a winner, but caught up at work I didn't have time to book, and when I did go back several hours later the fare was gone.
DH's model interested me in an academic sense before, but now they were actually my last hope. They, too had a $180 nonstop round trip, leaving a couple hours after the UX flight, but still early enough to get me into ITH by 10pm. And so I booked my first-ever LCC itinerary.
Indy on the ground at IAD
Running into the terminal I am horrified to see a rowdy, snaking line outside the Indy ticket counter... oh wait, the line is actually for Continental. There is no line at all for DH. I get my BP from the kiosk in about two steps-- the fastest I have ever experienced and far more sensible than US' ridiculous setup.
It is about 6:25pm. The weather has wreaked havoc with schedules up and down the eastern seaboard, but there is nothing to do in the Main Terminal at Dulles. I go through security and about ten minutes later ride into Terminal A.
Terminals A and B comprise the first midfield terminal at Dulles. Terminal B is spacious and relatively peaceful, so I usually prefer to wait there. The A side of the building is an unhappy place with low ceilings, stark amenities and a pervasive reek of cooking oil and chicken fat. Not sure whether to blame MWAA, UA, or ACA for that. But for the moment I am more concerned about the scene outside-- what looks like two dozen flyi planes packed against the gates, evidently unable to depart.
The inside is packed too, with stranded travelers even unplugging ticket kiosks to recharge laptop and mobile phone batteries. The far end of the terminal has been redecorated in ultramarine Indy blue and IKEA-looking counters. The gate monitors are very confusing as they seem to be missing flights supposedly departing out of them-- including mine. The main departure monitors along the center aisle claim my 7:05 flight is on time even at 7:07, but eventually it is announced that it will be delayed at least an hour. I almost miss the announcement given the din of the crowd and the weak speaker system.
Compare and contrast
Terminal A is an interesting place to visit as ACA transitions away from its United Express identity, on the west end, to its Independence Air identity, on the east end. Even though they are the same airline, the operations seem wide apart. Agents on the Independence side are carting free bottled water and Sun Chips around, trying to explain terminology like "ground stop" and making profuse apologies for the delays. As I head for the Starbucks in the B side, I pass through the UX area, where an agent is explaining to a passenger that since the delay is due to weather, the passenger is owed nothing and will like it.
After about two hours it is obvious I am going to miss Friday night's festivities and I think of requesting a refund and driving. But things are starting to move at Dulles. A delayed 3:30pm to BNA boards, followed by BOS, EWR, and RDU. The crowds thin a bit, but it is still noisy enough that I miss a gate change announcement. They are boarding two or three flights out of Gates 5/7 when I get therer for the original 7:05pm to SYR. Any semblance of a line fades, with passengers thrusting BPs into agents' faces as soon as they get within reach. But good riddance to bad Dulles.
Another friend of ours, heading for the same party, found himself on ACA, operating as United Express, on a codeshare ticket marketed as US Airways Express, IAD-LGA-SYR. He will miss his LGA connection and if he has to overnight there, will miss Saturday morning's activities as well as Friday night's. US sends him to UA for rebooking, and UA sends him right back. He finally cancels the outbound, but they are unwilling to retrieve his checked bag. He buys a DH one-way, the scheduled 9:20 departure which eventually leaves around midnight.
Aboard an Independence Air CRJ, IAD-SYR
It is my first time aboard the CRJ CL-65 in Independence Air livery and decor. The UX gray pleather has been replaced with ultramarine blue. The faint aroma onboard I puzzle over and finally identify as new car smell. Or new plane seat upholstery smell, at least. The flight is about three-quarters full.
My window seat, 9A, is a little clausterphobic, but has adequate ventilation. I gate check my duffel as it cannot fit in the RJ overhead mail slot, forgetting my camera is inside. We simply stack the bags onto a cart parked outside the aircraft. I am not given a claim ticket.
The captain informs us that they are a replacement crew and don't know what our flight number is or departure time was supposed to be. At least they seem to know where we're going. ATC has cleared us to SYR, but we spend another half hour on the ground waiting for fuel. There is also trash in the seat pocket. I am not inclined to overlook either situation considering how long our plane has been on the ground. While we are waiting to refuel, several more passengers join us, including my seatmate, originally bound for BUF. She is afraid of flying in little planes, but this is her only option. BUF is three hours' drive from SYR and her mom is picking her up. It is that kind of night.
The unfunny safety announcement is read unfunnily by Dennis Miller, but our FA is doing her best to be upbeat. Overall the passengers I can see range from skeptical to irritated until she utters magical words: "The captain has told me alcoholic beverages will be free on this flight," and she has 8 each of Bud, Bud Light, and Heineken, plus a merlot and a chardonnay. The meathead-type in 8A pumps his arm in approbation. The Heinie comes in a can and tastes metallic, but I am happy for it. It probably helps that the FA is a perky young blonde from southeastern Virginia.
In addition to the drink service, by tray, she comes by twice with a bowl of mints and once with a basket of snacks including Sun Chips and pre-packaged chocolate chip cookies. She comes by to offer refills on non-alcoholic beverages. She is working very hard to make up for all the delays getting off the ground... and it is working.
Total time in the air is forty-seven minutes, and as that time draws to a close, I get the first genuine surprise. Our FA is walking down the aisle distributing hot towels to all the passengers. They are appreciated to get the lingering Terminal A airborne scum off my skin.
Yay, arrival! There is a jetbridge at SYR, and I am instructed to baggage claim to collect my gate-checked bag. I start to become concerned as I was never given a claim ticket. None of the baggage claim boards hint at the existence of an Independence Air. My bag turns up after about fifteen minutes on the conveyor for Continental Express. I wonder if TSA should learn about this, but am not interested in doing so tonight.
The return
The return from SYR is much less eventful, but by the same token the employees seemed not as motivated, either. I offer it to provide a comparison and perhaps a picture of a more "normal" operation.
There are no kiosks for check-in at SYR, and checking in with a human is almost a foreign experience-- haven't done it on a domestic itinerary in three years or so.
The unfunny safety announcement is this time read unfunnily by Mia Hamm. I think I may actually prefer Dennis Miller's sarcasm to bad soccer puns. The captain's name is Kerry and the first officer's name is John, a coincidence not nearly as amusing as made out to be. We depart on time at 4:55pm.
On this more leisurely flight I notice things I did not on the hectic outbound. A pair of seats are mislabeled on the starboard side-- 1CD, 2AB, 3CD, 4CD-- which confounds the infrequent flyer assigned to 2D. There is no magazine or IFE; about half the seats have Skymall catalogs. The seats only recline about three inches, and though legroom was adequate for me on the outbound, this time I was unwilling to risk gate-checking so the duffel went under the seat in front of me.
The drinks available are Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, a bottle iced tea by a company in Gaithersburg MD, standard airline juices, and alcohol for $4. My snack was a fruit bar. There are no mints and no towel service on this flight. Still, the service was cheery without being obnoxious. Our FA is about my mother's age, a native of northern VA.
It is a little incongruous that we use a jetbridge at little SYR but take the steps down to the tarmac at IAD, but the flight has run like clockwork during our rare window of good weather and I cannot complain. The stars must be in the right configuration-- even the moon buggy and Metrobus arrive right on time.
My future on DH?
DH is the only LCC that flies nonstop WAS-SYR, a route on which its competition is US and UX. The latter two have matched fares but only on part of their inventory, so a last-minute booking could be much cheaper on DH. But, I almost always book 14 days in advance-- this party being a once-in-a-lifetime event. And DH's prices are not competitive on other routes I might fly-- why pay $180 IAD-EWR when at similar times I can pay $150 DCA-LGA on the US Shuttle? So I doubt price alone would compel me to fly DH in the future.
I rarely fly F or C and do not miss it. The DH service was unusually good on the outbound, adequate on the return. I admired the behavior of the agents on the ground at Dulles. But whatever the merits of hot towels, bottled water in the gate area, or my choice of fruit bar or Sun Chips, they're not a priority for me. On such a short flight, I do not expect a high level of service, just friendly service, and for the most part I get that on US and UX. So I do not think service, even relative to the price, would compel me to prefer DH to other carriers.
I'd consider it if they could compete with their rewards program-- either making it very easy to get awards or very easy to earn points. Neither is the case, unfortunately. Points in iClub accumulate based on spending rather than mileage; if I wanted to do that, I'd take Amtrak. Nor do they fly to destinations where I typically use award tickets. Nor is there an elite program which would save me time at airport security or give me priority seating.
I joined iClub to get $25 off my first ticket. But the first ticket may well be the last. Thank you, Independence Air, for opening up a new market for low-fare competition, and for providing me a new option should that rare last-minute booking be required again. But my loyalty remains elsewhere.
-----
whyi...
My friend JJ is officially Dr. JJ, Ph.D. after a storied campus career. A farewell weekend-- also a reunion party for we his one-time cohorts-- was fitting and anticipated. And yet how unfitting it was that ten outwardly leisurely years accumulating academic credentials should culminate with such short notice of the final meeting of the friends of JJ: ten days, festivities to begin Friday evening in Ithaca, New York.
ITH is five hours' drive from Washington, but I don't own a car. I considered transit by rental car, plane, and bus in that order. Since I wanted to get in by about 10pm, driving was out. The bus was 10 hours and $60 each way, far worse. I am a United Premier and spend a lot of time on US Express and US Shuttle connecting to US Express as it is, US being the monopoly carrier at ITH. An award flight seemed obvious.
But US had no award availability to ITH, even at the 50K level, either for MP or DM miles (the latter I could have done via Amex MR). The short notice meant I was facing $600 for any flight remotely convenient. The fallback is SYR, over an hour away but a bigger city and airport. UX had a $180 nonstop round trip IAD-SYR. I thought we had a winner, but caught up at work I didn't have time to book, and when I did go back several hours later the fare was gone.
DH's model interested me in an academic sense before, but now they were actually my last hope. They, too had a $180 nonstop round trip, leaving a couple hours after the UX flight, but still early enough to get me into ITH by 10pm. And so I booked my first-ever LCC itinerary.
Indy on the ground at IAD
Running into the terminal I am horrified to see a rowdy, snaking line outside the Indy ticket counter... oh wait, the line is actually for Continental. There is no line at all for DH. I get my BP from the kiosk in about two steps-- the fastest I have ever experienced and far more sensible than US' ridiculous setup.
It is about 6:25pm. The weather has wreaked havoc with schedules up and down the eastern seaboard, but there is nothing to do in the Main Terminal at Dulles. I go through security and about ten minutes later ride into Terminal A.
Terminals A and B comprise the first midfield terminal at Dulles. Terminal B is spacious and relatively peaceful, so I usually prefer to wait there. The A side of the building is an unhappy place with low ceilings, stark amenities and a pervasive reek of cooking oil and chicken fat. Not sure whether to blame MWAA, UA, or ACA for that. But for the moment I am more concerned about the scene outside-- what looks like two dozen flyi planes packed against the gates, evidently unable to depart.
The inside is packed too, with stranded travelers even unplugging ticket kiosks to recharge laptop and mobile phone batteries. The far end of the terminal has been redecorated in ultramarine Indy blue and IKEA-looking counters. The gate monitors are very confusing as they seem to be missing flights supposedly departing out of them-- including mine. The main departure monitors along the center aisle claim my 7:05 flight is on time even at 7:07, but eventually it is announced that it will be delayed at least an hour. I almost miss the announcement given the din of the crowd and the weak speaker system.
Compare and contrast
Terminal A is an interesting place to visit as ACA transitions away from its United Express identity, on the west end, to its Independence Air identity, on the east end. Even though they are the same airline, the operations seem wide apart. Agents on the Independence side are carting free bottled water and Sun Chips around, trying to explain terminology like "ground stop" and making profuse apologies for the delays. As I head for the Starbucks in the B side, I pass through the UX area, where an agent is explaining to a passenger that since the delay is due to weather, the passenger is owed nothing and will like it.
After about two hours it is obvious I am going to miss Friday night's festivities and I think of requesting a refund and driving. But things are starting to move at Dulles. A delayed 3:30pm to BNA boards, followed by BOS, EWR, and RDU. The crowds thin a bit, but it is still noisy enough that I miss a gate change announcement. They are boarding two or three flights out of Gates 5/7 when I get therer for the original 7:05pm to SYR. Any semblance of a line fades, with passengers thrusting BPs into agents' faces as soon as they get within reach. But good riddance to bad Dulles.
Another friend of ours, heading for the same party, found himself on ACA, operating as United Express, on a codeshare ticket marketed as US Airways Express, IAD-LGA-SYR. He will miss his LGA connection and if he has to overnight there, will miss Saturday morning's activities as well as Friday night's. US sends him to UA for rebooking, and UA sends him right back. He finally cancels the outbound, but they are unwilling to retrieve his checked bag. He buys a DH one-way, the scheduled 9:20 departure which eventually leaves around midnight.
Aboard an Independence Air CRJ, IAD-SYR
It is my first time aboard the CRJ CL-65 in Independence Air livery and decor. The UX gray pleather has been replaced with ultramarine blue. The faint aroma onboard I puzzle over and finally identify as new car smell. Or new plane seat upholstery smell, at least. The flight is about three-quarters full.
My window seat, 9A, is a little clausterphobic, but has adequate ventilation. I gate check my duffel as it cannot fit in the RJ overhead mail slot, forgetting my camera is inside. We simply stack the bags onto a cart parked outside the aircraft. I am not given a claim ticket.
The captain informs us that they are a replacement crew and don't know what our flight number is or departure time was supposed to be. At least they seem to know where we're going. ATC has cleared us to SYR, but we spend another half hour on the ground waiting for fuel. There is also trash in the seat pocket. I am not inclined to overlook either situation considering how long our plane has been on the ground. While we are waiting to refuel, several more passengers join us, including my seatmate, originally bound for BUF. She is afraid of flying in little planes, but this is her only option. BUF is three hours' drive from SYR and her mom is picking her up. It is that kind of night.
The unfunny safety announcement is read unfunnily by Dennis Miller, but our FA is doing her best to be upbeat. Overall the passengers I can see range from skeptical to irritated until she utters magical words: "The captain has told me alcoholic beverages will be free on this flight," and she has 8 each of Bud, Bud Light, and Heineken, plus a merlot and a chardonnay. The meathead-type in 8A pumps his arm in approbation. The Heinie comes in a can and tastes metallic, but I am happy for it. It probably helps that the FA is a perky young blonde from southeastern Virginia.
In addition to the drink service, by tray, she comes by twice with a bowl of mints and once with a basket of snacks including Sun Chips and pre-packaged chocolate chip cookies. She comes by to offer refills on non-alcoholic beverages. She is working very hard to make up for all the delays getting off the ground... and it is working.
Total time in the air is forty-seven minutes, and as that time draws to a close, I get the first genuine surprise. Our FA is walking down the aisle distributing hot towels to all the passengers. They are appreciated to get the lingering Terminal A airborne scum off my skin.
Yay, arrival! There is a jetbridge at SYR, and I am instructed to baggage claim to collect my gate-checked bag. I start to become concerned as I was never given a claim ticket. None of the baggage claim boards hint at the existence of an Independence Air. My bag turns up after about fifteen minutes on the conveyor for Continental Express. I wonder if TSA should learn about this, but am not interested in doing so tonight.
The return
The return from SYR is much less eventful, but by the same token the employees seemed not as motivated, either. I offer it to provide a comparison and perhaps a picture of a more "normal" operation.
There are no kiosks for check-in at SYR, and checking in with a human is almost a foreign experience-- haven't done it on a domestic itinerary in three years or so.
The unfunny safety announcement is this time read unfunnily by Mia Hamm. I think I may actually prefer Dennis Miller's sarcasm to bad soccer puns. The captain's name is Kerry and the first officer's name is John, a coincidence not nearly as amusing as made out to be. We depart on time at 4:55pm.
On this more leisurely flight I notice things I did not on the hectic outbound. A pair of seats are mislabeled on the starboard side-- 1CD, 2AB, 3CD, 4CD-- which confounds the infrequent flyer assigned to 2D. There is no magazine or IFE; about half the seats have Skymall catalogs. The seats only recline about three inches, and though legroom was adequate for me on the outbound, this time I was unwilling to risk gate-checking so the duffel went under the seat in front of me.
The drinks available are Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, a bottle iced tea by a company in Gaithersburg MD, standard airline juices, and alcohol for $4. My snack was a fruit bar. There are no mints and no towel service on this flight. Still, the service was cheery without being obnoxious. Our FA is about my mother's age, a native of northern VA.
It is a little incongruous that we use a jetbridge at little SYR but take the steps down to the tarmac at IAD, but the flight has run like clockwork during our rare window of good weather and I cannot complain. The stars must be in the right configuration-- even the moon buggy and Metrobus arrive right on time.
My future on DH?
DH is the only LCC that flies nonstop WAS-SYR, a route on which its competition is US and UX. The latter two have matched fares but only on part of their inventory, so a last-minute booking could be much cheaper on DH. But, I almost always book 14 days in advance-- this party being a once-in-a-lifetime event. And DH's prices are not competitive on other routes I might fly-- why pay $180 IAD-EWR when at similar times I can pay $150 DCA-LGA on the US Shuttle? So I doubt price alone would compel me to fly DH in the future.
I rarely fly F or C and do not miss it. The DH service was unusually good on the outbound, adequate on the return. I admired the behavior of the agents on the ground at Dulles. But whatever the merits of hot towels, bottled water in the gate area, or my choice of fruit bar or Sun Chips, they're not a priority for me. On such a short flight, I do not expect a high level of service, just friendly service, and for the most part I get that on US and UX. So I do not think service, even relative to the price, would compel me to prefer DH to other carriers.
I'd consider it if they could compete with their rewards program-- either making it very easy to get awards or very easy to earn points. Neither is the case, unfortunately. Points in iClub accumulate based on spending rather than mileage; if I wanted to do that, I'd take Amtrak. Nor do they fly to destinations where I typically use award tickets. Nor is there an elite program which would save me time at airport security or give me priority seating.
I joined iClub to get $25 off my first ticket. But the first ticket may well be the last. Thank you, Independence Air, for opening up a new market for low-fare competition, and for providing me a new option should that rare last-minute booking be required again. But my loyalty remains elsewhere.