At least he did on his latest trip into Rome. From our new favorite iPhone-carrying tipster:
Saturday. 8 am Rome time. At Fiumincino, Anthony Bourdain gets his and his family's luggage. The stars are just like us. Flew Continental from Newark, my flight, saw him on it.
Clearly Bourdain should be happy that checked bags are free on transatlantic flights. Maybe he's in town to check out the awesome eats?
You'll only be able to try it at LaGuardia for now, but Delta has rolled out its first e-boarding pass. You'll now be able to check in and get past the TSA screeners using nothing more than your web-capable mobile.
Of course, a few airlines already have this service--including Air Canada, Continental and Japan Airlines. But it looks like it's really starting to catch on in the States, which begs an important reminder: Charge those phones before you head to the airport!
That didn't take long. After yesterday's capacity cuts by United, Continental has announced that it will trim domestic departures by 16 percent by the end of 2008. The carrier will lose about 3,000 jobs in the process, through both lay offs and buyouts.
Like other airlines that are slashing service, Continental also plans to retire some of its fleet. The carrier will get rid of 67 of its 737s by the end of 2009, and six have already been mothballed this year.
The Wall Street Journal also reports that the painful cuts are going straight to the top: Chairman and Chief Executive Larry Kellner and President Jeff Smisek are both giving up their salaries and bonuses for the rest of the year.
Forgive us if we haven't been breathlessly reporting all the latest merger gossip: All these rumors and anonymous sources have us more than skeptical. But since everyone seems to be involved in something these days, here's a cheat sheet for all the merger mania swirling in the industry:
Delta and Northwest: These two are getting together, pending approval from the US government. You can keep up on both carrier's plans at the pompously named newglobalairline.com. Oh, and before you believe the hype that nothing will change when they get together, Northwest CEO Doug Steenland just announced that, yes, they probably will be cutting some service.
Well. Two days after we call out Continental for throwing together a pointless website, the carrier releases a pretty definitive statement updating the world on its merger plans. Here's what the airline had to say:
You must be nuts to think we're hitching ourselves to a dumpy, cash-hemorraghing legacy carrier who's only hope for survival is us.
Wait. No. The real statement was much more measured, and despite its firm dismissal of a merger, Continental didn't say it would never happen. Here's the real word from CEO Larry Kellner and President Jeff Smisek:
In the current industry environment, the best course for Continental is to not merge with another airline at this time...[We] very carefully considered all the risks and benefits of a merger with another airline, and determined that the risks of a merger at this time outweigh the potential rewards, as compared to Continental's prospects on a standalone basis.
Nice that the carrier is making use of the new website, but couldn't this just go out as a regular press release? And will Continental ever set up RSS feeds on the merger page, or do we just have to keep going back and refreshing the page for further updates?
Was Continental in the minority, thinking the new American Airlines blog was any sort of decent? Must have, cause the carrier has fired up its own stand-alone mouthpiece to spout opinions about airline mergers. You'll find it at co-industryconsolidation.com.
Thing is--and this is right outta the AA playbook--the new site doesn't actually tell us anything worth hearing. Here's a snippet of the "helpful" info Continental shares:
As we've said repeatedly for more than a year and a half, our preference has been to remain independent as long as the competitive landscape remained the same. However, the landscape is changing. We will review our strategic alternatives and make sure we remain a strong long-term competitor.
Southwest should be selling these legacy carriers PR classes.
The worldwide leader in scandalously-named fare sales, Spirit Airlines, just locked down an interesting new route. The LCC will now get to operate seven flights a week between Ft. Lauderdale and Bogotá, Colombia, which is rapidly becoming 2008's It destination.
Spirit had to get Department of Transportation approval for the routes because they're regulated by a bilateral treaty. When the US and Colombia decided to up the number of flights between the two countries last year, a heap of airlines clamored to get in on the action. Delta, JetBlue and Continental will join Spirit in the newly-open skies.
American Airlines--which had a near monopoly on the route--still offers the most frequencies of any carrier. But when the low cost players start flying in April, it's almost a sure-thing that fares will fall. The only thing in doubt is what kind of off-color marketing campaign Spirit will use to hype the new flights.
You know what? Why don't we just assume everyone except US Airways is going to test out in-flight WiFi this year? Continental is the latest carrier to jump on the bandwagon. The airline will partner with JetBlue's subsidiary LiveTV to offer, ahem, live TV and airborne email and IM.
Don't expect to be pecking away at the keys soon, though. The system will appear on Boeing 737s and 757s beginning in January 2009. Access will be free in first class; suckers in coach will pay $6 to watch TV.
Honestly, we're getting a little tired of these breathless announcements. It's cool that everyone's getting on-board with the concept, but so far the only real testing we've heard about was on Beta Blue. It didn't go so well. When one of these airlines finally manages to get us liveblogging from 35,000 feet, then we'll get excited.
