Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: April 2008 Archives

Silverjet, an all-Business-Class airline serving the New York to London route, is known for its exceptionally quick check-in (you can check-in at the Silver Lounge just 30 minutes before departure if you only have hand baggage and 45 minutes if you have bags to check, and you're taken through a dedicated security line).

It's also known for superior food. This month's New York to London menu is a light supper consisting of tender braised lamb with colcannon and carrots, a grilled fillet of North Atlantic salmon with spiced lentil salsa and rocket, or penne with wild mushroom sauce served with shaved parmesan. For dessert, enjoy Häagen Dazs ice cream. Breakfast can be either served onboard or packed up to take away, and consists of fresh fruit and orange juice, with a choice of a warm croque monsieur or raisin bagel with cream cheese.

I had to look up colcannon and found that it's an Irish dish consisting of mashed potatoes with kale or cabbage. The British have a similar dish called bubble and squeak. Gods knows why the Irish insist on calling theirs colcannon - wouldn't you rather eat something called bubble and squeak? Along with a side order of spotted dick. I'm still not sure what the latter dish is and I really have done my best to avoid finding out. I can spend hours pondering what's in spotted dick and those lazy afternoons would be lost forever if I ever discover the truth.

Anyway, you have until April 18 to take advantage of Silverjet's special early summer $919 (one way, excluding taxes) flights to London in May and June. Starting April 19, fares will return to the usual starting price of $1099 (one way, excluding taxes). This will leave you with enough money, after taking into account how far the dollar has fallen versus the pound, to buy a half packet of stale crisps. But still - they're English crisps, dammit!

Minutes after I finished posting the last note on airline bankruptcies, along comes Frontier Air with their bankruptcy. I really hate it when everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

One difference and this is probably major for those holding Frontier Air reservations, is that they did not discontinue operations. They just filed for Chapter 11 protection while they inevitably reorganize and secure new lines of credit and the executives hoover up their bonuses before the coffers run dry.

And in undoubtedly related news Northwest and Delta have agreed to a merger. I'm not sure where on the list of largest American airlines this will place them but it probably will be slightly ahead of Frontier.

So in the past week or so a number of airlines have given up the ghost as it were. Let's see what the rollcall is at this time:

Skybus - a super cheap carrier based in Columbus, Ohio of all places. Probably most famous for having a few $10 fares on each plane. Apparently one cannot actually make money charging less the price of three gallons of gas per flight. Who'd a thunk it?

ATA Airlines - we really knew nothing about this airline as they seem to have specialized in the northern tier of routes which we hardly ever fly. And now we'll never know them unless someone buys the name at the bankruptcy auction. Hopefully not - ATA seems more like the acronym for an association than an airline.

Aloha Airlines - we were familiar with this airline though we never actually flew them since our first trip to Hawaii was only this year. And then we took Hawaiian.

The loss of the two latter airlines will supposedly impact Hawaiian air travel as both were carriers for that market. I somehow doubt that all of the remaining airlines servicing Hawaii are going to have much of a problem obtaining additional aircraft and gates. In any case, I would certainly expect higher fares in the near future. But then that was a forgone conclusion anyway with rising fuel costs and such.

So far it seems to be the smaller regional low cost airlines that are experiencing problems. Of course these are the companies that normally have less resources to weather major increases in fuel costs and other economy driven issues. Me, I'd probably think strongly about trip insurance if I were to book on smaller regional airlines for the foreseeable future.