More economical airliners?

OK. I see the problem.

Of course you can use the cards to build status with your spending. If you are Premier Gold, no matter how you earned it, you board in Group 1. Having the card only gets you Group 2.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Each flight, UAL strongly pushes the credit cards before landing with announcements over the PA and flight attendants walking through the aisles with applications.
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Yuck. As if I needed any more reasons to avoid United.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Yuck. As if I needed any more reasons to avoid United.
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I think you'll have a hard time finding a large US carrier that doesn't push their branded credit cards. The Majors each book several Billion per year of revenue from their card agreements.
 
Larry in TN said:
I think you'll have a hard time finding a large US carrier that doesn't push their branded credit cards. The Majors each book several Billion per year of revenue from their card agreements.
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Yep, and at least at AA, there's a not insignificant monetary incentive for the FAs to get folks to sign up. Some of the ones that put in the effort can bring in an extra few thousand per month (or more) on credit cards alone.
 
EvilEagle said:
I'm all for travelling via GA (I also prefer it) but we all have to be honest - there are times when GA just won't get it done. If there had been RVR 006 at your destination, real icing or imbedded thunderstorms all along the route, the Mooney would be at home or tucked in a hangar somewhere short of the destination. GA "always" beats the airline. (*assuming the weather is good, the winds aren't terrible, there's a good GA airfield option at the destination, my airplane isn't in annual or other mx needed*)

When it works, it's glorious. When it can't work, I'm glad to have the option of a "smoker".

What's the cost for a Mooney trip like that vs airline?
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But easier with GA to wait a day. And I have had a number of commercial flights that did not fly or did not make the destination that day or were substantially delayed due to weather.

I have no idea what my total cost per hour is. But I consider hangar and insurance as sunk costs. I pay those whether I fly or not. Fuel cost for Fort Worth to NE MD was about $400.
 
Pinecone said:
But easier with GA to wait a day. And I have had a number of commercial flights that did not fly or did not make the destination that day or were substantially delayed due to weather.

I have no idea what my total cost per hour is. But I consider hangar and insurance as sunk costs. I pay those whether I fly or not. Fuel cost for Fort Worth to NE MD was about $400.
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Sure, if you have that luxury to wait a day; that is rarely the case for me.
 
Pinecone said:
But easier with GA to wait a day. And I have had a number of commercial flights that did not fly or did not make the destination that day or were substantially delayed due to weather.

I have no idea what my total cost per hour is. But I consider hangar and insurance as sunk costs. I pay those whether I fly or not. Fuel cost for Fort Worth to NE MD was about $400.
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I figure is cost me $X to own the airplane—hangar, annual, insurance, etc., and $Z per hour to fly it/-fuel, oil, etc.

I don’t remember what X and Z actually are, because a while back I decided to not care. ;)
 
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Pinecone said:
I try to plan to have an extra day possible even when flying commercial. :D

I have had a good number of one day delays.
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We have had an inversion here in Idaho for the last 8 days. OVC002 with less than 1/2 mil vis and freezing fog; pretty much straight through for the last 8 days. If you had a GA trip planned, you would have a lot more than a one day delay in 99% of the piston GA fleet.
 
Pinecone said:
That is a good way to put it. :D
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It helps to use the plane when you only count the incremental cost. When my wife asks how much a trip is going to cost, I'm sure not going to answer with "Well, we only flew the plane 50 hours last year, so our 12-hour trip to Florida is going to be $6,000."

Most of that cost is being paid either way, the out-of-pocket that we're actually going to see this month for that trip is really only about $750 worth of fuel and fees. Maintenance could be higher due to 12 hours of wear and tear, or it could be lower because everything is getting exercised and lubed up. Someday I'll have to pay for an engine overhaul, maybe. Everything else, we already bought.
 
EvilEagle said:
We have had an inversion here in Idaho for the last 8 days. OVC002 with less than 1/2 mil vis and freezing fog; pretty much straight through for the last 8 days. If you had a GA trip planned, you would have a lot more than a one day delay in 99% of the piston GA fleet.
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Definitely looks like it's been crappy there, but I just pulled the last 182 METARs from KBOI and only 73 of them had FZFG ("only" lol), and looking at the last 24 hours there was a good 6-hour window yesterday late afternoon/evening where it was clear. Seems to be a repeating pattern where it's better at that part of day, unsurprisingly.

So while it's been predominantly crappy, it's not like you'd be stuck there for 8 days. Once you can get out, you can point in any direction to get to better weather and then get going in the direction you want to go, and it looks like better weather in this case exists about as soon as you're off the ground - There's nearly a 10-degree spread by 2000 AGL and it looks like you'd be well in the clear by pattern altitude.

I'm not telling anyone to go in bad weather, but weather is pretty transient most of the time, even when the overarching pattern sucks there are still small changes that can allow for a go if there's a willingness to be very flexible on time.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Definitely looks like it's been crappy there, but I just pulled the last 182 METARs from KBOI and only 73 of them had FZFG ("only" lol), and looking at the last 24 hours there was a good 6-hour window yesterday late afternoon/evening where it was clear. Seems to be a repeating pattern where it's better at that part of day, unsurprisingly.

So while it's been predominantly crappy, it's not like you'd be stuck there for 8 days. Once you can get out, you can point in any direction to get to better weather and then get going in the direction you want to go, and it looks like better weather in this case exists about as soon as you're off the ground - There's nearly a 10-degree spread by 2000 AGL and it looks like you'd be well in the clear by pattern altitude.

I'm not telling anyone to go in bad weather, but weather is pretty transient most of the time, even when the overarching pattern sucks there are still small changes that can allow for a go if there's a willingness to be very flexible on time.
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Yesterday was the first day in a week that anyone with a brain flew a SE piston. Regardless of what the FZFG reported, it was freezing fog everywhere. You would DEFINITELY have been stuck for at least 6 days.

My point is, nothing is 100%. GA or airlines.
 
EvilEagle said:
Yesterday was the first day in a week that anyone with a brain flew a SE piston. Regardless of what the FZFG reported, it was freezing fog everywhere. You would DEFINITELY have been stuck for at least 6 days.
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Fair enough. I can't see METARs in the future nor Skew-Ts in the past so it's hard to get a complete picture, but there are windows of SCT or less every day that I can see.

However... I looked at KBOI departures, and at least one non-deiced piston single has managed to depart every day. I don't know what their weather information looked like so I cannot vouch for the presence of brains. ;)
EvilEagle said:
My point is, nothing is 100%. GA or airlines.
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Absolutely true.

BTW, I love how the big airport by you is BOI and the little one is MAN. :rofl: Why yes, I am easily amused.
 
Meathook Airlines. They would inject you with a sedative and hang everybody on a rack like the dry cleaners. No meals, inflight entertainment or flight attendants. Hell not even any seats. They could fly straight through thunderstorms because there would be no terror or trauma and you'd arrive at your destination feeling fresh and unwrinkled instead of nappy haired with your underwear bunched up your crack. Complete win-win for everybody.
 
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