Yuck might be the work for it. I called for the Disney World "vacation package", and sure enough, it includes a mandatory time share presentation. The guy on the phone tosses that in there very late in the process.

It might be legal, but it's yucky all right.

Good Ideas for Skybus to use as Alternative Airports like there bellingham idea

Rochester, MN - Twin Cities less then 80 miles
Rockford or Gary Airport - Chicagoland
Long Island or Westchester (I think it's that but might be wrong) - NYC area
North Las Vegas Air Terminal - Lol, man that would be nasty
Tijuana (San Diego) - Joking
Birmingham - Market as Atlanta and the Entire South

That would be me. I have a ticket to LEB scheduled for next week that cost me $275 - I think the cheapest fare on US for the CMH->LEB route.

I'm scheduled to visit my girlfriend three times next quarter through PSM. Total cost... $110. For that price, as long as I get there and get back alive, they can put me in an overhead compartment. :D

On another note, has anybody figured how many planes they'll be flying with this initial schedule and what routes each one will take? If somebody wants to schedule their own connection with them, having it posted in plane 1, plane 2 format would be great. That way if a plane is flying CMH-BUR-CMH-PSM you know you have a pretty good shot of not missing a connection, sans checked bags, of course.

Anybody notice this rule?

In other words, by paying the extra $10 for priority, you limit your options in the event your plans change! You run the risk of forfeiting your entire fare and then having to buy a full fare new ticket without priority to replace the worthless priority ticket. Good grief. But then they sell insurance. So the insurance is really mandatory, if it covers this situation, which isn't clear.

I suspect that was just poorly worded on their part. I'll bet that what they meant to say was that your priority boarding status will carry over only if it is available on the other flight. It wouldn't make sense for them to punish those paying them extra.

Maybe. But they say the same thing on at least two different pages of the web site, and each time the word "limited" is used twice. The contract of carriage doesn't mention this rule explicitly, although it does say reservation changes are "subject to availability".

They must be putting on a marketing blitz because I live in LA, and today two of my friends mentioned this new company to me. I guess CBUS has got billboards everywhere and its being promoted on the radio.

That $10 from early boarding is pure profit for Skybus and if do not get it they don't get it; it is an easy way to attract a lot more revenue. I bet they are going to see more checked luggage than you expect. If you can pay half as much on Skybus as you otherwise would on a legacy wouldn't you be willing to pay $5 a bag? Just as you assert that Skybus will have few business travelers lesiure travelers going to FL for a week of fun and sun need more luggage and will pay that $5.

Regarding hotel/car rental/etc comissions you are forgetting that FTers tend to be very travel savy and have no problem taking 5 extra minutes to book a hotel through the company's website for exta points but when (to use the FT term) Ma & Pa Kettle are booking travel they see the options right there and can get it all down quickly and easily; that is where the revenue is derived from. Even if Skybus refers them to another website, say hotels.com for example, they most likely will get a fee for sending the passenger to the site; especially if they book.

Lastly never underestimate a small business trying to save money on air travel. Skybus will not have $10 fares 6 hours out from departure; their last minutes fares, while not bargain basement, will be cheaper than the legacies which will most likely result in one of two things. The first is that the legacies will be made to compete at levels that are not profitable for them. The second is that the legacies do not price match and price sensitive businesses will start flying Skybus; especially on shorter trips.

Are you really a student, as in college student? You've got a quite a mind for this stuff.

Well, look at the shape America West was in when Parker took over. It may just have been a case where they couldn't make it work given the condition they were in at the time. Also, Skybus has a very different business plan than America West did. Just look at the seating to see what I'm talking about. America West has 124 seats in their 319's (12/112), while Skybus plans to put 156 seats into the same plane type. I will, however, concede that trying this out of Columbus is batty, just because of the size of the city.

Keep in mind that most airlines also get revenue from freight in the cargo hold - although I question how much they could carry while carrying that many passengers. Also, could the shear number of seats that they are cramming into the planes bring the CASM down? Does anyone know easyJet's CASM for their 156 seat 319's? I tried to Google that, but found no relevant information.

Speaking of easyJet, you can probably get a sense of what Skybus will charge for their in flight sales from this section of easyJet's website.

Right now there is an ad on Spirit's website promoting airfares to Honduras for 8¢. Just Saying.

A few months ago, Skybus announced that, while they hadn't finalized their destinations yet, they had ruled out Las Vegas and Chicago. I kind of got the feeling that that was a polite way of telling Rockford to piss off :D .

One thing that causes me some concern is the range of the 319 with that many passengers. The range of the 319 is 3700NM, but that is with 142 passengers. The longest flight by easyJet with the 319 is 1363NM (LTN-IST), while the longest flight by Skybus is 1833NM (CMH-OAK). Does anyone here know weather or not that is a problem?

My guess is that this Skybus should also operate as mainly an airline for leisure travel. WN for years attracted that class of travel through its "down home" humor (quite honestly not something I really want out of an airline). As WN has moved into bigger airports and began attracting last minute business travelers looking for cheaper altneratives their "good old boy" corporate facade has changed a bit. Skybus good do well creating a positive image with the ma and pa kettle crowd. Believe if my company told me to fly Skybus I would very quickly tell them where to stick that 156 paxs A319. And I would have no desire to travel with them when it is on my dime, $10 fares or not.

The key difference is that Southwest actually executes their model very well - and strives to take very good care of their customers. Call 1-800-Southwest, for example, and you're talking to a human faster than when I call either the UA or AA elite lines. Plus, any fare I buy on Southwest is completely changeable. Flying them, even with the cattle call, is better than flying any legacy carrier without elite status.

Skybus is jumping out of the box almost taking pride in a surly, unfriendly demeanor. It's the opposite approach to WN. The $10 fares earned them some media run, but this thing isn't going to last.

I agree that WN does take good care of its customers unlike legacys that only really care about the top elites or premium (paying) paxs. Notice that WN is not having hordes of paxs living at MDW for several days after weather issues in Chicago but you see it with AA at ORD. The issue for Skybus is the first time there is major weather issue in Columbus Skybus' lack of infrastructure to handle planes full of displaced paxs will show immensely. And then in order to quite the storm of media, government, and regulators they are going to need to put that infrastructure in place. And that will become costly and there goes their "operating at a five cents a mile per passenger" business model.

I can't help but wonder if Skybus has an unlisted phone number that they will distribute in the event of weather emergencies. Of course that raises the question of how do you staff said line.

As much as I love the basic model of what Skybus is doing the idea of not having a call center at all, in any form, is IMHO pushing the envelope just a little too far.

That's a very good observation. We're all focusing on the business models, but it's worth remembering that no model can overcome poor execution. I do think that Skybus can make this work, but we'll see how they do when it comes to actual flight operations.