You’re more likely than ever to fly somewhere this summer, and when you do, you may find some surprises. As usual, for passengers, the bad surprises often outnumber the favorable, but either way, they’re coming at you.
Overall airfares are holding firm this summer. Airlines are better than ever at tweaking fares to meet changes in demand, so you'll see some great flash sale deals where they think demand needs a boost and some real sticker shock at popular times for popular places.
One big change that could ultimately make things a bit easier is that both airlines and security agencies are serious about using facial recognition to replace pieces of paper, app images, and physical screening. The confidence is high enough that facial recognition could actually be all you need to get through an airport and get on a plane. It’s in use in only a few places so far, but you might well encounter it this year and, for sure, will encounter it in following years. It could make the process easier—let’s hope it works out that way.
Everybody involved is expecting a record year for European travel. Among the low-fare options, Norwegian Atlantic remains a standout with its nonstops in 787s. The latest addition is Las Vegas-London, which adds to its impressive list of U.S. gateways: Los Angeles, Miami, New York/JFK, Orlando, and Washington. French Bee continues its nonstops to Paris/Orly from Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco. But beware: It flies some of the narrowest, tightest seats anywhere in the air. Meanwhile, the two lines based in Iceland—old timer Icelandic plus newcomer Play—continue to serve a bunch of transatlantic routes with one-stop connections at Reykjavik. As I’ve said before, these look best when you take advantage of an Iceland stopover—otherwise, you can usually get as good a deal on somebody’s nonstop.
Here at home, Frontier is tackling the challenge of “main cabin” misery by offering what the blogosphere calls “European-style business class.” That means ordinary economy seating but with the middle seat blocked off. In my view, Spirit’s “big front seat” is a better option—a few genuine first-class seats at the front. Pricing will vary depending on demand, but the idea is good.
Recent start-up Avelo seems to have struck gold at New Haven airport, with flights to an expanding bunch of cities mainly in the South. Its initial Los Angeles/Burbank base is expanding, too, but its big new winners are Sonoma, California, and Wilmington, Delaware.
Unfortunately, Avelo is guilty of an ongoing trend of deceptive airport names. It didn’t start the trend; we’ve had Chicago/Rockford, New York/Stewart, Boston/Manchester, and Frankfurt/Hahn for years now. Avelo has added Portland/Salem, Oregon, and Philadelphia/Wilmington. The good folk of Oakland are also thinking about renaming their airport as “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.”
In cases where an airport enjoys good ground transportation, the result is harmless and even beneficial: Getting to Manhattan from Newark isn’t much more of a problem than getting there from JFK, and if you live in North Bay, Sonoma beats San Francisco International by a wide margin. But some renames put a hapless arrival a long way from the major city and no easy way to get there. If you’re dumped in Rockford, you have a tough time getting into Chicago; ditto Manchester to Boston, Salem to Portland, and Stewart to Manhattan.
All is not well with other low-fare and niche lines. Newcomer Breeze is struggling to find the right way to use its extremely capable A220 planes. Although not a true low-fare line, JetBlue is also in big trouble. Carl Icahn just bought into the line, and Icahn’s record with TWA leads observers to think an Icahn investment means the vultures are circling.
You can’t spend more than a few seconds in airline-land without encountering some learned treatise or other on Boeing. The focus is understandable: safety, which beats even low fares and convenience. As a traveler, if you’re worried, you can often avoid Boeing planes. But the company needs a major reboot, which travelers really can’t provide.
