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Posted May 30, 2007, 7:30 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Seattle
Posts: 3,751
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Anyone Flown Skybus?
Skybus is coming to Seattle (well, Bellingham actually). Sounds horrible - anyone taken it?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...heapair30.html
Low-cost, no frills flights at just $10, but the pillow is $15
By Los Angeles Times and Seattle Times travel staff
How low can airfares go?
Try $10 for a one-way ticket from Bellingham to Columbus, Ohio. Better yet, a 1-cent fare for flights from Los Angeles to Guatemala.
Yes, those are actual fares offered by a new generation of airlines redefining budget travel by taking low-cost, no-frills service to new heights.
You'll pay -- and pay -- for "extras." Like $15 for a pillow. Or two bucks for water. Don't want a middle seat? Pay $10 and you can jump ahead of the line to board a Skybus Airlines flight.
And the flight attendants are paid partly on commission based on in-flight sales.
"It's the extreme example of à la carte flying," said Michael Boyd, an airline-industry consultant.
Skybus, which began flying out of Bellingham to Columbus on Tuesday, offers a limited number of $10 teaser fares.
That'll cost you
Skybus passengers may buy items that are sometimes free on other airlines.
Checked baggage: $5 each for first two bags ($50 for each additional)
Pillow: $15 (you get to keep it)
Blanket: $8
Bottled water and soft drinks: $2
Trail mix: $2
Breakfast sandwich: $5
Lunch sandwich: $10
Meatloaf plate: $10
Los Angeles Times
"The seats were comfortable, and the flight went pretty well," said Allyx Kronenberg, a Santa Monica, Calif., resident who recently paid $105 for her round-trip ticket on an inaugural Skybus flight from Burbank, Calif., to Columbus. "But you do have to pay for everything."
Such ultra-budget carriers have been flying in Europe for years; Ireland-based Ryanair is one of the biggest.
Skybus, which began operating in May, says it offers 10 seats on every flight for $10, although the vast majority of the fares range from $50 to $175 one-way. And Spirit Airlines, which flies out of L.A., has had promotional fares that range from 1 cent to $24. The Skybus fares were so much less expensive than other carriers' that Shahla Salamat decided to fly her family to Columbus and then drive eight hours to Atlanta for her cousin's wedding during Memorial Day weekend.
Renting a car and driving that distance with her sister and three young sons was worth the estimated $2,000 in savings, the Chino Hills, Calif., resident said.
"It's kind of crazy, I know," Salamat said, explaining how she chose the $200-round-trip fares on Skybus. The least-expensive alternative she could find from Los Angeles to Atlanta was $600.
The savings were so substantial for the Salamats that they didn't mind paying $2 for bottled water.
Besides, Skybus had warned them ahead of time in a stark reminder on the company's reservations Web site: "No, the drinks aren't free. Give us a break -- some of you paid $10 for your seat."
Skybus says it gradually will expand its network to Oakland, Calif., among other cities, as it gets new Airbus A319 planes on order.
"Major carriers are going to say Skybus is going to have terrible service because you have to buy everything," said Bill Diffenderffer, Skybus' chief executive and former attorney for now-defunct Eastern Airlines. "But what makes passengers happy is having low fares and on-time, nonstop flights to their destinations. They don't need all that free stuff."
To generate additional revenue, Skybus is selling ads on its plane exteriors; a company can have its logo painted on a plane for $500,000.
To keep costs down, Skybus doesn't have a telephone service center. Everything, from booking a flight to changing or canceling a reservation, must be done online (at www.skybus.com).
The airline flies only to secondary, less-crowded airports (it bills Bellingham as a gateway to Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.) that have lower fees and can turn Skybus planes around in fewer than 25 minutes. Major carriers typically have their planes at the gate for about 45 minutes to an hour. The longer the plane stays on the ground, the less passenger revenue it generates.
Skybus also flies new, fuel-efficient Airbus planes, which keep maintenance and operation costs down.
Its labor costs are among the lowest in the industry. It has one of the lowest hourly rates for its flight attendants, but they get a 10 percent commission on what they sell on the plane.
Consultant Boyd said he was skeptical that Skybus could survive, arguing that low-cost carriers such as Southwest are going the other way by beefing up service and amenities.
"Once you start nickel-and-diming things and having flight attendants hawking food, passengers might not want to try it again," Boyd said. "It's novel -- but most pipe dreams are."
Moreover, the eye-popping fares can be hard to find and often have caveats that could create ill will. For instance, the 1-cent deal from Los Angeles to Guatemala on Spirit Airlines was available only on certain days and didn't include a bevy of taxes that totaled $84.70. A flight to Guatemala recently was available for 1 cent but the return 1-cent fare was sold out. The next-best fare was $109.50. In the end, the total round-trip fare was about $200, about half the cost at other airlines.
Even with the super-low fares, some passengers wondered if they had saved as much money as they had initially thought.
As Andrew Jones of Thousand Oaks, Calif., carried his 9-week-old son through security at Burbank airport, he began mentally adding up other costs like the $99 DVD player he bought before the flight for his 3-year-old son because the airline has no entertainment system. And then there was the $20 charge for checking an infant seat and two pieces of luggage as well as snacks on board.
"We saved $700 on the airfare," he said, "but at the end of the day, it'll probably come out about the same."
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