Thanks, Jeff. I would like to go back to Europe and see other countries. I would consider Delta (I was wanting to avoid Atlanta originally). I flew Delta to Hawaii and it was not a bad experience (though not international). I flew American this trip as I had old FF miles from years back, and I wanted to combine the miles. I felt nickel and dimed to death on this American trip. Published fare seemed reasonable, then I realized decent seat were all extra, and for long haul flights I was certainly wanting a decent seat. The BA flight was better than its American counterpart, roomier seats and a nice little glove box of sorts beside my seat. Then, checking in online I was asked if I wanted to pay extra for earlier boarding and better access to overhead space. Then there were baggage charges (I was able to avoid checked bags by the use of one personal item and one carry on). My experience in Southwest is much more straight forward and overall a better experience. I hope they continue to expand here. I hope we are aggressively seeking this as KC folks certainly seem to think they are going to pull SW away from us.jeffrk wrote: ^ Ugh. Sounds miserable. For future reference - we have found that Delta via Detroit is a much better, and much smoother experience vs. Chicago, etc. And Delta offers the closest thing to an old school flying experience (especially with long haul flights) compared to UA and AA.
Jeff
You can get it here also. 2nd link down on the page.tztag wrote:Thanks! FYI- tapatalk is trying to embed the doc vs just publish the link, didn't work on Edge or Chrome for me...jshank83 wrote: Finished up my frequency spreadsheet for June.
I also added seat counts for the Legacys. I did seat counts for Mondays so they don't exactly tell you the full count difference YoY but it gives you and idea
MAX changes meant 29 fewer weekly flights from WN than were scheduled. I have the original MAX numbers in the final tab.
I also have used Detroit for customs and had no issues. I like that airport. Houston-Hobby customs was good also (but obviously no European flights). I oddly enough have never been to OHare for any flight.jeffrk wrote: ^ Ugh. Sounds miserable. For future reference - we have found that Delta via Detroit is a much better, and much smoother experience vs. Chicago, etc. And Delta offers the closest thing to an old school flying experience (especially with long haul flights) compared to UA and AA.
Jeff
Assuming you have flown China Eastern, what are your thoughts of it. I'll probably be taking a trip to Asia in the next year or so and just trying to get a feel for some of the airlines over there I don't know as much about.pmbender wrote: I fly on a fairly regular basis for work. Since about half of my travel is to Europe or Asia, I had to choose one of the three (non-Southwest) legacy carriers if I wanted all of my miles / status with a single airline, and I wound up going with Delta. I can second what everyone has said here about them being a very reasonable choice, and DTW being the best hub. They also have some amazing rates to China and very good coverage due to their alliance with China Eastern.
O'Hare's International situation is a bit of a mess right now. There is a train system which connect all terminals (albeit outside of security) but it is currently under renovation which results in the bus bridge they have set up which is a cluster f*ck.STLCityMike wrote: 1) Had a terrible international experience connecting to a BA flight in Chicago. We were delayed, deplaned AFTER 8 PM, when the secure bus shuttle between terminals had stopped running so I had to exit the terminal, use an unsecured bus shuttle and re clear security, almost missing my BA flight. BA ticket agents were not sure why STL gate agents did not give me a boarding pass for my BA flight. I was not the only one. The few of us pretty much pushed our way through security by saying our flight was moments away. At least people let us through.
This is why anyone who does not have elite status should get an airline co-branded credit card as it provides "elite-lite" benefits including free checked bags and priority boarding.STLCityMike wrote: I flew American this trip as I had old FF miles from years back, and I wanted to combine the miles. I felt nickel and dimed to death on this American trip. Published fare seemed reasonable, then I realized decent seat were all extra, and for long haul flights I was certainly wanting a decent seat. Then there were baggage charges (I was able to avoid checked bags by the use of one personal item and one carry on).
This happens very often to me when flying Intl via ORD, EWR, IAD.... I am not given the boarding pass for the Intl leg in STL, and need to get it at the connection airport.gregl wrote:O'Hare's International situation is a bit of a mess right now. There is a train system which connect all terminals (albeit outside of security) but it is currently under renovation which results in the bus bridge they have set up which is a cluster f*ck.STLCityMike wrote: 1) Had a terrible international experience connecting to a BA flight in Chicago. We were delayed, deplaned AFTER 8 PM, when the secure bus shuttle between terminals had stopped running so I had to exit the terminal, use an unsecured bus shuttle and re clear security, almost missing my BA flight. BA ticket agents were not sure why STL gate agents did not give me a boarding pass for my BA flight. I was not the only one. The few of us pretty much pushed our way through security by saying our flight was moments away. At least people let us through.
Coming back from Tokyo last summer was a complete and udder mess and that was with a flight arriving at 9am well before most international arrivals.
In a few years, Terminal 2 at ORD will be rebuilt to serve as the international arrival terminal and transit outside of security will no longer be needed.
Having said that, you should have requested the BA boarding pass in St. Louis or seen an AA or BA agent at ORD to have one issued.
Loads are pretty much the same as last year and that is with an extra flight so passenger numbers are up. They are adding another one in the fall. So they must be happy with it.wabash wrote: How do people more in the know than I am feel about that 64% Air Canada number?
Is that low or is it a sustainable level?
Wasn't it supposed to have been added in the summer but its been pushed back? I'm guessing its a chain reaction to the MAX issues. The added frequency does make me curious if maybe theres increasing demand from St. Louis to Canada overall and also if they are trying to pick off transatlanic and even transpacific traffic as well.jshank83 wrote:Loads are pretty much the same as last year and that is with an extra flight so passenger numbers are up. They are adding another one in the fall. So they must be happy with it.wabash wrote: How do people more in the know than I am feel about that 64% Air Canada number?
Is that low or is it a sustainable level?
Not a big deal as you can typically check in at the boarding gate, so I just head there at the connecting airport and get my boarding pass printed. Might only be annoying if you need a boarding pass to change terminals (i.e. if you want to change airside at EWR they sometimes ask for your boarding pass at the bus, but there is always a way to check in with some United employee).symphonicpoet wrote: ^Really? I've never had that problem. Mind you, I usually check in online and print my own boarding pass, but even getting them printed at the airport I've always been able to get my international leg, no matter the airline family. I suppose I've not gotten a Delta/Skyteam pass international pass printed at the airport, but both of the others. (And Skyteam I printed myself at home. Korean, technically. And I transferred at ORD that time. After an AA flight from STL. Long story.) I can't always check in for the final leg, as it's sometimes (often) more than twenty four hours in advance when I'm checking in for my first leg. (Which happens when you fly three-hopper Trans-Pac with a long leg of, oh, fourteen hours. If the second layover is even moderately long you'll have to check in in . . . China, S. Korea, Hong Kong, whatever.) But most airlines have been fairly accommodating and helped me check in for my last leg airside at some intermediate station. (In fairness, I do always try to check in as far in advance as humanly possible, and I tend to arrive early, since . . . . I like airports. Weird, I know.)
No, not at all. Sorry if I implied it was. I've checked in both at the gate (Tokyo Narita) and at landside desk. (Shanghai Pudung, where I've always had to leave airside for terminal changes. But I've usually also had long layovers and the place is pretty efficient, if . . . looooonnnnng . . . so no big.) Can't quite recall how I did it in Hong Kong last time. At the gate, probably. And last time I was in Seoul it was an overnight layover, so I got a hotel and got a pass at the airport in the morning. (Fantastic airport, by the way. If I haven't already said that. Incheon is the business. Airside mall. Nice little airside cultural history museum. Free traveler's rest. Airside hotel . . . that I didn't use. Cheap and tasty eats. Good coffee. Free showers. [typical for Asia, but not universal.] Everything is free, clean, and blooming fantastic.)kipfilet wrote:
Not a big deal as you can typically check in at the boarding gate, so I just head there at the connecting airport and get my boarding pass printed. Might only be annoying if you need a boarding pass to change terminals (i.e. if you want to change airside at EWR they sometimes ask for your boarding pass at the bus, but there is always a way to check in with some United employee).
I figured there are routes they planned on moving to the MAX and thus couldn't push smaller planes down the line. Ie Nashville and Memphis are supposed to go to E175s and I assume that is where our extra CRJ200 is coming from, but they didn't get moved to E175s when they were supposed to. So that means maybe the E175s are still on routes that were going to switch to MAXs but can't. Hence a domino effect down to us.gregl wrote: Considering that the Air Canada flights to Toronto are on 50 seat CRJ-200s, I sincerely doubt there is any relation to the 737MAX groundings.
I will take everyone who has ever posted on this thread out for drinks if a 2x weekly STL-SJJ flight happens before 2030 (and lasts at least a full year).Trololzilla wrote: Saw on A.net a thread about the new airline FlyBosnia, offering flights to Sarajevo. Currently, the operation only has an A319 but is looking to expand quickly with a few larger long-haul jets. Some posters in the STL aviation thread put forward the idea of an STL-SJJ flight considering STL has the largest population of Bosnians in the world outside of Bosnia. Not entirely sure if Bosnia (mainly, the Sarajevo airport) is quite up to the task yet, but at least a twice weekly flight there would be nice to see, especially for the Bosnian community.
