Yep, I was looking at their website and terms today, and noticed that they are defining themselves as a "point to point" airline. So if you want to fly from BLI to RIC you need to buy one ticket from BLI to CMH and a separate ticket from CMH to RIC. That's annoying.


My other favorite point is that they have no phone number - they are handling customer service through email and online forms only. Wait 'til the first big storm to see how well that goes over :D

And when you submit an online inquiry, here is the 'reassuring' response you get:

I can see that dealing with this company will just be literally impossible. At least they are honest about that. Best of luck to them; Virgin America might be getting some more newish A319s sooner rather than later :)

The point-to-point ticketing is annoying. Checking pricing on any flights requiring a connection is a pain.

You got it. Wife and I are scheduled CMH-BOS (Well, not really BOS, Portsmouth, NH) in July, $72 round trip for both of us. I'll let y'all know how it went.

Don't forget that in CMH you would also have to pick up your checked bags, pay for and recheck them, and go back through security.

Yeah, I commented about this on the Midwest board, and this business strategy seem insane to me. Trying this "no frills" model out of a Top 10 US city would be risky, but out of Columbus? Madness.

I still think the most telling sign of impending failure is America West's history at Columbus. They tried for YEARS to make it a hub, losing money repeatedly. But when Doug Parker and Scott Kirby took over the reigns, they realized it was hopeless, and pulled out.

If Parker and Kirby thought CMH could never work as part of a low fare national network -- and this was after successfully battling WN at PHX and LAS for years -- what are the odds for the newcomers? Almost nil, I would think.

BTW, somebody earlier knocked Columbus as a sightseeing destination. Unfair. I've ALWAYS enjoyed visiting Columbus. A very pleasant place to spend a long weekend. Their zoo is world famous, the German district downtown is fun, and the city is welcoming. So if you can snag a $10 fare there this summer, it's worth visiting a place you'd probably not otherwise get to (and won't have the opportunity again!).

http://frommers.com/destinations/col...603010001.html

I guess this explains the $25 each way DING fares in May on Southwest to/from CMH for various midwest cities ($84 all in r/t). Nice fare, too bad I have absolutely no reason to go to CMH. (Just as I'm sure others find no reason to come to Omaha, except CWS, BRK annual meeting, etc ;) ).

Why does everyone assume that all of their flying will be forever out of CMH? There is nothing to stop Skybus from flying (for example) MCI-BUR once they get enough aircraft. Also if you look at their website they view most of the state of Ohio as their catchment area; they have distances from CMH to CVG and CLE amongst other cities. Lastly never underestimate the willingness of people to go out of their way for a low fare. Just look at Ryanair and Frankfurt Hahn; who the heck had ever heard of that airport before Ryanair started their and now it is a good sized airport in terms of traffic despite being a good distance away from a major city. Yes I do know that FRA is much larger than CMH but the same basic idea is there and I would not be surprised at all to see Skybus establish other bases outside of CMH.

When it comes to having no phone number; I am not holding my breath to see that one as a permant move. What I can see happening is them not using a toll free number and charging lots more $$$$ when they people try and book over the phone.

What's with all the "Oh, they don't have this!" and "They'll never succeed, they don't offer adequate customer service!" and "Point-to-Point? That's a pain!"

What exactly do you think "no-frills" means? It certainly doesn't mean a customer-service-oriented business approach. This airline will thrive off of the market of people who just need to get places and aren't seasoned air-travelers with frequent flyer miles and expense accounts.

$10/segment + $10/taxes = $20 per segment total... i'm talking $80 round trip flights including taxes if you're not flying out of Ohio, half that if you are. HALF THAT. $40 round trip. College kids cram 6 of themselves into honda civics and drive for 18 hours straight to get that sort of cost per person. If SkyBus is half as comfortable as the middle seat in a Civic, it's worth it -- and a heck of a lot faster too.

...and predictable fares too, none of this $10-$400 price shifting over the course of 5 hours. I, for one, am looking forward to the new player in the game.

"Oh, and don’t sneak food onboard unless you brought enough for the whole plane." :confused:
I don't think I'd like to be a FA on this airline. Can you imagine having to tell someone they can't bring their own food on board??:eek:

The fact they they will appeal to inexperienced travelers is what makes me nervous. The first major storm in Columbus or elsewhere is going to be hell with no customer service number to call...

Things will go wrong--this is air travel we're talking about. They don't seem to have any interest in responding to problems.

I can think of approximately 65,000 full time reasons why Skybus could work well out of Columbus. Ohio State University.

The CMH Metro area is approximately 1.4 million people.

So do we think any of the bigboys (IE. UA) will match some of these fares. Ive seen a lot of 120 RT available all throughout the fall.

There are 10 seats per flight at 10 bucks. If you can snag one of those, God bless you. It will obviously be "a deal." A deal Skybus will lose money on (I assume they're doing it for promo reasons).

Once those seats are sold, the fares -- at least to the West Coast -- seem to jump to $50 each way. Certainly a deal, but not much better than the type of "junk fares" we see every day on the mileage run board.

And it's not like they plan to offer a lot of $50 fares, either -- they couldn't, nobody could make money at that price. Even the most efficient low cost carriers are going to have a CASM (cost per available seat mile) of about 8 cents these days (Southwest's this quarter was 9 cents, JetBlue 8.5 cents, and AirTran 9.5 cents). So flying you 1500 miles (say to the West Coast from CMH) is going to cost them about $120. For every one-way fare below that, they have to sell a fare above that, so each $10 fare has to be off-set by a $330 fare + tax -- assuming EVERY seat is sold! How many people are going to pay $330 each way to fly SkyBus? What about $190 + tax (to compensate for the more plentiful $50 fares)? Seems doubtful to me.