dlake02

I had the fortune of traveling to Vancouver (great place - friendly people, more European "feel" and lovely to hear French and English being spoken) this last week.

My first experience of Canada was superb - dulled by my second experience of flying United on "internal" flights.

I flew SFO T3/YVR - the contrast between the appallingly rude, stupid and surly staff at SFO, the complete lack of facilities at an airport that British Rail in 1973 would have been proud of as an station and modern, clean, elegant YVR was stark.

Couple with the fact that United fleeced me for $25 for a bag at SFO without so much as a smile, that the queue to check-in at SFO was 50 mins and NOTHING at YVR, that the gate at SFO looked like something out of the third world and that once on board, it was obvious that passengers are quite frankly a pain to the flight attendants who really just want a good chin-wag for 2 hours with their mates plus on a 2-hour flight, there was one small soft drink and no food, not even to pay for.

I flew London/Barcelona with EasyJet a couple of weeks ago - nice, friendly staff that really couldn't do enough for you, modern airports both sides (LGW North and BCN), cheap (MUCH cheaper than I've ever seen any fare for here).

Is it me, or is the US airline industry in need of a massive kick up the Bishop Brennan ? There appears to be no low-cost - granted there is SouthWest, but where is the equivalent of the 19-quid fare Ryan Air, FlyBe and EasyJet often advertise ?

Why can't Ryan Air or Stelios come here and introduce some true competition into this quasi state-run mess ? Is it obvious to the US government that all the US-owned carriers would be out-of-business in a few days if real competition and service was introduced ?

I thought the "land-of-the-free" was pro Free Trade - or is that only if it is loaded in THEIR favour ?

GeoffM

Hell no! My last few "episodes" on easyJet made me never to fly them again if at all possible. Ryanair were a bit meh but I only ever flew them a couple of times; after that they abandoned the local airport and the final price once you added on bags, checking in, the delight of having to pay for the convenience of paying for your ticket, meant it was cheaper on BA. Not that I like BA much either.

scrubbedexpat091

The new terminals at SFO are quite nice if you ask me. Anyhow I don't care if an airport is pretty and fancy, I would rather have functional and less money spent on what it looks like. I don't personally care for YVR, so much money wasted on things that serve no useful purpose.

There is Spirit Airlines in the US, but they are not the largest airline, but they serve a niche, there is Allegiant as well in select markets, but both only offer limited cheap fares.

The Ryan Air model just doesn't seem to be all that popular in North America.

French and English being spoken? Have you actually been to British Columbia and Vancouver? French isn't exactly a commonly spoken language in Vancouver, and is one of the least used languages.

I mean in the 2006 census only 24,000 people reported speaking only french and only 2,855 reported speaking English and french.

Its pretty exceptional if you were hearing French and English being spoken side by side.

Compared to the past, airfares in the US even with fees are lower then they were decades ago.

"Even with fees that averaged $21.66 last year for baggage ($13.78) and reservation charges ($7.88), the average total fare of $337.97 in 2010 was 43% below the 1980 peak of $592.55, and 16% below the $401.27 average fare in 2000."

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/10/...flight-is.html

Cost per mile, flying for 1 person is cheaper then driving for most trips. Last trip I flew was 1,300 miles and I paid 230.00 for that one way trip, so approx 18 cents per mile, I know I can't drive for so little.

dlake02

Yes - I agree. International is very nice. It's T3 that I hate the most.

Oh ? I thought it was lovely - some superb art-work, good natural lighting and very thoughtfully laid out.

I agree to a point, but they are CHEAP. Air travel here where fuel is essentially F.O.C. is EXPENSIVE. The only reason I can think of is that there isn't enough true competition.

But my biggest problem with United is the staff - they have a real attitude problem and the company should have been left to fold when it went bankrupt instead of being propped up and let a Far East or European company come in and show how to run a low-cost airline....

E3only

Yes
Yes
What?

lansbury

Welcome to Continental Airlines masquerading under the United name.

GeoffM

Cheap if you get the bargain fares, have no baggage, check in online, didn't mind risking being sat apart, and do everything else their preferred way. Not cheap for holidays anymore where you have to take baggage and can't necessarily do everything else their way. [Edit] Maybe it's the range that differs - wider in the UK/EU which includes cheap and expensive, but narrower in the US where most pay the about same - perhaps.

There was some unscientific survey a while ago (in the UK) where they compared prices for a family of four going to the Canaries or wherever. The differences between BA, BMI, easyjet, Ryanair, etc differed pretty much only by availability (ie bucket) - some days it would be cheaper on BA, other days on easyJet, for example. I'm not saying it was an accurate survey by any means, if such a thing were even possible, but it reflected my observations over the last few years.

washsaint

Bear in mind the distances out here and prices are not that unreasonable (some of the time) so long as you book a ways ahead.

We had 4 flights to Bozeman, MT which is 2,000 miles (bit further than London to Glasgow which used to cost me 300 GBP from Southampton) and the costs (with baggage) were $400 each round trip.

However, traveling for business - different matter entirely. United (which has a truly awful terminal at Dulles) charged me $1,400 for a return flight to Houston!!!!

Madness....

scrubbedexpat027

Ha ha. I opened up this thread expecting it to be slagging off Alex Ferguson

scrubbedexpat097

Well we could.....who wants to be first???

Scouse Express

Me - He's a Bacon-Faced, Whinging Old Twot.


Jim - YNWA,

scrubbedexpat097

Hmmm. That's an insult to bacon there matey

GeoffM

I assume you're being sarcastic there! 360 miles. But yes, I agree that distance is a factor - after all, low cost airlines love lots of flights per day, not just a couple.

Who?

civilservant

Most of the legacy mainline carriers are still really struggling under the weight of increasing fuel prices - particularly the likes of Delta who are still flying 40 year old ridiculously inefficient DC9s and MD80s. From what I can see I'm not entirely convinced the RyanAir model would work in the US, due to the long distances (few rotations a day, lower utilization of airframes) and the hub and spoke model being prevalent.

Zen10

YVR one of the nicest airports I have ever been to as well! Not been to SFO so can't compare. Aus probably even worse for low air fares. Branson has made a big improvement with the intro of the Virgin brand here but prices are still in the stratosphere.