Alternatives to the the Big Airlines
Sep 2, 2002 | 2:53 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Southeast USA
Posts: 1,253
Alternatives to the the Big Airlines
Please feel free to add to the list or correct me:
AIRTRAN (especially good for ATL and FL based flyers):
1. Change fee $50
2. Biz-Class upgrades for $35
3. 3 rountrips in coach to get 1 free (pay with AMEX)
4. Stand-by for free
5. 6 roundtrips in coach to get 1 free from ATL to anywhere in 48US on Delta- pay with AMEX (get the miles too).
SOUTHWEST:
1. No change fee
2. Stand-by: pay full fare (max $299 each way), but no change fee and entire value of ticket can be applied.
3. 4 roundtrips to get 1 free (buy online)
4. Southwest has pretty roomy, leather seating- even though no 1st class
AMERICA WEST:
1. $100 change fee
2. Stand-by for no extra charge
3. 3000 bonus miles for each online booking- thus with about 4 rountrips, you get 1 free (their award is 20K miles).
4. Max fare is about $400-500 OW, even walk-up.
Also to be considered: ATA (Chicago-Indianapolis), Frontier (Denver), JetBlue (JFK-OAK-LGB), Spirit...
AIRTRAN (especially good for ATL and FL based flyers):
1. Change fee $50
2. Biz-Class upgrades for $35
3. 3 rountrips in coach to get 1 free (pay with AMEX)
4. Stand-by for free
5. 6 roundtrips in coach to get 1 free from ATL to anywhere in 48US on Delta- pay with AMEX (get the miles too).
SOUTHWEST:
1. No change fee
2. Stand-by: pay full fare (max $299 each way), but no change fee and entire value of ticket can be applied.
3. 4 roundtrips to get 1 free (buy online)
4. Southwest has pretty roomy, leather seating- even though no 1st class
AMERICA WEST:
1. $100 change fee
2. Stand-by for no extra charge
3. 3000 bonus miles for each online booking- thus with about 4 rountrips, you get 1 free (their award is 20K miles).
4. Max fare is about $400-500 OW, even walk-up.
Also to be considered: ATA (Chicago-Indianapolis), Frontier (Denver), JetBlue (JFK-OAK-LGB), Spirit...
Sep 2, 2002 | 9:34 pm
#2
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: IAH
Programs: UA 1K/*G
Posts: 2,397
AirTran Airways is unsafe and should never be flown.
You might want to add to your list that AirTran has a fatal crash rate over 10 times that of any major carrier.
AirTran/ValuJet has a corporate culture of saving money at the expense of safety or lackadaisical maintenance. They use ancient aircraft with parts that are salvaged from third world airlines.
The 1995 crash
The 1996 crash
The 1998 crash
You might want to add to your list that AirTran has a fatal crash rate over 10 times that of any major carrier.
AirTran/ValuJet has a corporate culture of saving money at the expense of safety or lackadaisical maintenance. They use ancient aircraft with parts that are salvaged from third world airlines.
The 1995 crash
The 1996 crash
The 1998 crash
Sep 3, 2002 | 8:37 am
#3
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 1,139
Don't you think you are being a little rough, dbaker?
An infinitely small number that is ten times another infinitely small number is still an infinitely small number.
Plus, the Airtran fleet has been heavily switched from ancient DC-9s to modern 717s in the last two years. The 717 is an excellent, safe aircraft.
The management of Airtran is different than the management of Valujet. The new management promised to put safety first and seems to have delivered on their promise based on the record of the past few years.
Plus, the one Valujet fatal incident was largely caused by the actions of a contractor not directly related to the airline.
The three time I have flown Airtran, I was impressed.
With respect to America West, do they still have the 20,000 award. I thought they increased the minimum to 25,000?
Sep 3, 2002 | 9:42 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Southeast USA
Posts: 1,253
Sorry dbaker, but the 10 times higher risk of flying Airtran is simply due to a statistical chance. As the sample size of the # of flights flown is many times smaller than any of the majors, it only seems that AirTran is very dangerous.
In reality, they have only had one fatal crash, the one over the Everglades. If a JetBlue plane were to fall out of the sky tomorrow, JetBlue would become the most unsafe airline in the world!
This, however, will simply be due to a 'skewing' of the resultant frequency.
To sum it up, one crash is insufficient to conclude if an airline is safe or unsafe.
And yes, AirTran's DC-9s did have a tendency to burst into flames on the ground in Atlanta- but then have you recently flown on Delta's Murder-11s or Flying Coffins-88?
In reality, they have only had one fatal crash, the one over the Everglades. If a JetBlue plane were to fall out of the sky tomorrow, JetBlue would become the most unsafe airline in the world!
This, however, will simply be due to a 'skewing' of the resultant frequency.
To sum it up, one crash is insufficient to conclude if an airline is safe or unsafe.
And yes, AirTran's DC-9s did have a tendency to burst into flames on the ground in Atlanta- but then have you recently flown on Delta's Murder-11s or Flying Coffins-88?