I thought it might be useful/depressing to pass along a quick overview of the horrible/annoying/depressing things we’ve seen happen since the fuel hike:
Northwest/Delta merger (less service + higher fares = unhappy flyers in Minot)
American’s $15 first bag fee
Everyone else’s $25 second bag fee
US Airways removes snacks from domestic flights
American cuts domestic capacity 12% and decimates [...]

I’m not even sure this story makes any sense, but here goes:  A pilot and flight attendant for Pinnacle Airlines (Northwest) were in Harrisburg, PA, the night before working a flight.  They went to a bar, got drunk, headed back to the hotel, decided to hook up in the woods, somehow got separated, and the [...]

A Compass Airlines (Northwest) flight attendant set a fire on a flight he was working because he was upset he had to fly the route.  The 19-year old idiot was not happy about having to fly from Minneapolis to Saskatoon, so he set a small fire in the aircraft, which cause a diversion to Fargo, [...]

Continental Airlines gets all the credit in the world for their announcement yesterday that they will not continue their merger talks with United Airlines, instead they will persue some sort of vague alliance involving American Airlines and British Airways.  Until that’s a done deal, it’s not really worth speculating about (you can find that elsewhere), [...]

Former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall and I DO have something in common:  we both think the idea of airlines merging in this environment to be nutty.  In an op-ed in the NY Times, Crandall bashes the proposed (and rumored) mergers writing, “The case for mergers is unpersuasive. Mergers will not lower fuel prices. They [...]

OK, I lied.  I have a few more notes on the merger.  Today I wanted to mention what I call the Fallacy of the Larger Route Map.  One of the key benefits that Delta is mentioning in the merger talk is that there is little overlap in the Delta and Northwest route maps.  This would [...]

I’m not going to write much about the Delta – Northwest merger because you’ll find plenty about it elsewhere, but there are 2 points I’d like to make:
- This is not a done deal. There will be significant pilot opposition to this, and that should not be discounted.
- In theory – theory – I [...]

You’ll read about this everywhere else, so I just wanted to make sure you saw that Delta and Northwest could announce a merger as soon as Tuesday.  Blah blah blah pilots seniority, blah blah blah consolidation, blah blah blah crazy idea, blah blah blah two wrongs don’t make a multi-billion dollar right.

The modern-day US airline industry, which allowed people to fly all over the country for roughly the same price as a couple of steaks at Morton’s, died last week after a long illness. It was 30 years old.
The cause of death was oil. And irrational pricing. And low fare carriers. And [...]

(Thanks, as always, View from the Wing):
Northwest Airlines is offering $50 cash back when you use PayPal to buy a ticket of $250 or more for travel between April 1 and June 14.  Tickets must be purchased by March 27th.