Skybus trouble

[Dont call me Shirley]

Skybus cancels more flights
Wednesday, December 26, 2007 8:02 AM

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Discount carrier Skybus Airlines canceled ten flights Wednesday because of problems with two of its aircraft, a day after Christmas cancellations left scores of travelers stranded.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/conte.../26/skybus.html

They made US Today also:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/200...us-cancel_N.htm

With SX's limited flight schedules some folks may be in for a wait. Don't forget no res number and outsourced customer service in most of their stations.

Ho-ho-ho!

 

[chucky]

Skybus resumes full schedule after two days of cancellations
Skybus says it has fixed the mechanical problems that grounded two of its planes and forced the carrier to cancel as much as 25% of yesterday's schedule. Overall, the carrier canceled 18 flights during the past two days, affecting as many as 1,000 passengers, according to The Associated Press. Though the problems affected just two planes, that represented a sizeable portion of the start-up airline's seven-plane fleet. The company offered refunds or did its best to rebook fliers on later Skybus flights. "But Skybus was unable to transfer passengers to flights on other airlines because it does not have agreements with other carriers, (Skybus spokesman Bob)Tenenbaum said. The airline apologized to customers whose Christmas travel plans were ruined," AP writes.

"The people at the airport who worked for Skybus were no help," passenger Paula Kinsel tells The Columbus Dispatch. Kinsel says she paid about $350 for her round-trip ticket from Burbank to visit family in Ohio for Christmas. "They said I could reschedule, but I had to go over to their kiosk to do it. The next available flight out of L.A. was on Thursday by then." Kinsel ultimately booked a new one-way, one-stop flight on Southwest for about $350. For Skybus, she says this was her third -– and final -– trip on the airline. "I used them a couple of times before and was excited. It seemed easy and very reasonable, about $150 roundtrip in both those cases. But at this point, I've incurred $350 for a new ticket and $100 in taxi fares in L.A. going back and forth from the airport. It's just not worth it," Kinsel tells the Dispatch. yeah...right! Another affected passenger tells the Dispatch: "We'll never fly Skybus again. Things happen, but they have to have a backup plan. It's unacceptable putting all those people out." Velocity Group aviation consultant Doug Abbey warns "if passengers get a perception that this is a degraded level of service, this could be a real problem … They've been saying all along, 'We're a different kind of airline.' But now that people see how different it is, they could be facing a major PR nightmare." Skybus president Ken Gile spent much of the past two days meeting with affected passengers, but spokesman Tenenbaum says the carrier isn't about to change. "People need to be aware of Skybus' conditions (of carriage)," Tenenbaum tells the Dispatch. "If Skybus did things the same way the major airlines do, they wouldn't be able to offer low fares."[/b[b]]...translation "You Get What You Pay For"

 

[KCFlyer]

Skybus resumes full schedule after two days of cancellations
"If Skybus did things the same way the major airlines do, they wouldn't be able to offer low fares."]]...translation "You Get What You Pay For[/b]"

Kinda true, but they do the "no interlining" because Southwest does it. The difference is, Southwest may well have 7 flights a day between two points versus 7 planes in the entire fleet. When you operate with one daily flight, you'd better have a pretty good contingency plan in place.

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

Kinda true, but they do the "no interlining" because Southwest does it. The difference is, Southwest may well have 7 flights a day between two points versus 7 planes in the entire fleet. When you operate with one daily flight, you'd better have a pretty good contingency plan in place.

Why don't SX and WN interline? It's not as though it costs them anything, sorta seems like a no-brainer...?

 

[lpbrian]

Why don't SX and WN interline? It's not as though it costs them anything, sorta seems like a no-brainer...?

Probably because SX, WN and others fly out of different airports than the legacies, not to mention have non-comprehensive, point-to-point networks, so an interline agreement between an LLC and a legacy would most likely be moot.

 

[mga707]

Probably because SX, WN and others fly out of different airports than the legacies, not to mention have non-comprehensive, point-to-point networks, so an interline agreement between an LLC and a legacy would most likely be moot.

I think you misunderstood the question, although it was ambiguous as written. I think AAPA was asking why Herb and Bus don't interline with each other, as Herb does with ATA.

 

[Dan Webb]

I think you misunderstood the question, although it was ambiguous as written. I think AAPA was asking why Herb and Bus don't interline with each other, as Herb does with ATA.

Probably because Skybus is so small and has so few cities in common with WN that it wouldn't be of much use for either airline.

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

I think you misunderstood the question, although it was ambiguous as written. I think AAPA was asking why Herb and Bus don't interline with each other, as Herb does with ATA.

sorry for the ambiguity, lpbrian was right, I was asking why airlines like SX and WN don't interline with other airlines. Still doesn't make sense to me.