Winging It: Airlines' earnings news improves

The last two weeks have produced a plethora of news pertinent to travelers, making this a good time for a roundup of developments and to respond to comments from readers about recent columns.

First up are the airlines' 2009 fourth-quarter and full-year earnings reports, many of them full of better news than we've been hearing for the last 18 months.

Five of the nine largest U.S. airlines reported quarterly profits and the rest had manageable losses. That's a good result for shareholders, considering that airfares fell more than 14 percent last year, according to federal data released Thursday.

US Airways still had fourth-quarter and annual losses, but they were way down from 2008. AirTran, Alaska, Continental, JetBlue, and Southwest made small profits in the last three months of an otherwise grim 2009.

AirTran even set a record by making almost $135 million last year. Its results and a 37th straight annual profit for Southwest reflect how airlines that don't fly much internationally did better than those that do.

The International Air Transport Association, a trade group, said worldwide demand from passengers was down 3.5 percent in 2009, the largest annual decline in the post-World War II era.

As I mentioned last week, the airlines performed better financially mostly for two reasons. They cut capacity, or the number of available seats for sale, stuffing more people into already crowded planes, and most carriers are making a ton of money from fees for checked bags and other services.

As the column detailed, every airline is working hard to generate more revenue from sources other than selling tickets.

IdeaWorks, an aviation consulting firm, estimates that the five big network airlines (American, Continental, Delta, United, and US Airways) will have $1.76 billion in revenue this year from fees for checking bags, changing schedules, and other services.

Several readers responded to the column with stories of how they are dealing with - or suffering the consequences of - carriers' love affair with bag fees.

One reader, Scot Ziskind, a Center City resident who travels frequently as head of a company that builds personal wine cellars, said he didn't like to carry his bags onboard a flight or pay to check them and then wait for them on arrival.

Instead, for overnight trips he usually ships his suitcase and some bottles of wine via UPS several days in advance.

"It's about $45 or $50," Ziskind told me. "The convenience of not having to wait is worth the money."

UPS, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service are alternatives for those who don't want to pay checked-bag fees. In many cases, though, the cost exceeds the airlines' charges unless you ship the bags by ground, four or five days in advance.

Concierge services that pick up luggage from your home or office and deliver it to your destination are another alternative, but they are more expensive than using a package shipper. Those services can save money if you have more than two bags or the bags are over the airlines' weight limits.

More information about shipping bags before a trip can be found at www.seatguru.com (look for the "luggage shipping services" tab). Another Web site with a comparison chart of shipping vs. airline fees is www.airfarewatchdog.com (search for a Jan. 18 blog posting by owner George Hobica).

Another reader, Michael Howley of Woolwich in Gloucester County, a leader of a South Jersey ski club, has found that not all airline employees know all their own rules about bag fees.

Traditionally, airlines treated separate bags for skis and boots as one piece of luggage, and they didn't care if clothing was also packed in the same two bags, thus cutting down on other luggage, he said.

On a recent trip to Vail, Colo., United agents in Philadelphia followed that practice and charged only one fee for separate ski bags and boot bags.

But on the return, a determined agent in Vail required the skiers to pay $35 each for the two bags, and wouldn't allow clothing in either one, Howley said. While some club members were able to make their boot bags carry-on luggage, "most people ended up getting whacked with the $35," he said.

The Vail agent needs to look at United's Web site (www.united.com), and drill down to "baggage" and "U.S./Canada special items."

The rule states that only skis and boots can go in the bags, but the two bags are considered one for fee purposes.

Finally, my Jan. 11 column, about a proposal in the Pennsylvania General Assembly to create a regional authority that would own and run the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley airports as a way to cut air-traffic congestion, didn't mention two regional airports.

Several readers asked if the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station or Northeast Philadelphia Airport might be used for scheduled flights as a way to help reduce traffic at Philadelphia International.

The answer is no. Neither airport has the facilities to handle airline flights, and no airlines are interested in starting flights anyway.

Most important, neighbors of both airfields would strenuously object to more air traffic and would almost certainly sue to keep it away.