Screwed, Jet Blued and Tattooed? Amtrak to Benefit from Increased Charges?

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

New JetBlue charge: $7 pillow, blanket

Airline company says comfort kit is latest item to boost revenue amidst high fuel costs, joining charges for leg room, checked bag, and ticket change.

NEW YORK (AP) – JetBlue Airways Corp. said Monday it will begin charging customers for pillows and blankets.

The carrier has done away with the recycled blankets and pillows used on its flights, and will begin offering an “eco-friendly” travel blanket and pillow that can be purchased for $7 on flights longer than two hours.

The pair will come in a kit with a $5 coupon to home furnishings retailer Bed Bath & Beyond.

Special fabric technology

The carrier claims the pillow and blanket feature a fabric technology, developed by CleanBrands LLC, that blocks pesky critters like dust mites, mold spores, pollen and pet dander.

JetBlue (JBLU) already offers free “Snooze Kits” on overnight flights from the West that include an eyeshade and ear plugs.

But the blanket and pillow kit is the latest in a string of a la carte items the company says are providing a revenue boost to help offset the soaring price of jet fuel.

A JetBlue spokeswoman declined to predict how much the sale of these kits will bring in, saying that the company only provides revenue details for specific items in its quarterly earnings conference calls.

Fees add up

The carrier said last month it expects to collect about $40 million from customers buying seats with extra leg room this year. Its $15 fee for a second checked bag is expected to translate into about $20 million in additional revenue. A ticket change fee, which doubled to $100 in the second quarter, is part of a “basket of fee changes” expected to produce about $50 million in extra revenue in 2008.

Shares fell a penny to $5.25 in morning trading.

2

Interesting that Jet Blue announces a new revenue source (and the potential for profit) and still their stock goes down. Does Wall Street actually know something, like this isn’t going to fly with consumers??

3

This is not really a new idea for the airlines. For those who remember the early days of airline de-reg, Peoplexpress (hubbed out of EWR) had low fares and fees for almost every conceivable amenity. The airline collapsed after an ill-advised expansion by absorbing Frontier Airlines.

4

Just a musing: Amtrak may get a little bump from this latest air crisis, but still think most people will pay for a lot of the extra services rather than ride Amtrak. Airlines are still faster over most of the USA and people don’t want to take forever to get to their destination. Amtrak still isn’t all that cheap. Amtrak makes you sit with a lot of strangers for more time than air travel.

And when you figure that in a city the population of 250k to 550k - people will still battle city streets with their houses on wheels instead of mass transit because they can ride in their own little cocoon, set their own time schedule and drive right up to and into their domicile faster than mass transit or even car pooling - it is going to take a lot more than extra charges and $4 gas to make people look at alternative commute, travel, leisure, etc.

I am still getting over blue jeans going from $7 a pair to an obscene amount. No one ever batted an eye at the time and still don’t.

5

…From the figures I’ve been seeing recently…it appears the 4 dollar / gal gas is making some difference in Amrtak’s passenger load. More of it.

6

Isnt it interesting that personal transportation in this country such as airlines, railroads, and bus companies really struggle to make money? …or in the case of Amtrak and most airlines, struggle to break even.

ed

7

I can speak for Quentin when I say he and a few others of us can remember when not everyone had a telephone and some had to share a phone line. Now I can’t even visit the sandbox without someone on their cell phone next to me. We have gone from having to wait maybe all day to get to a phone to instant touching.

It is all about our comfort and convenience level. If you think about it, a cell phone is not necessarily a cheap play toy. People spend a lot of money just to be able to not have to go 5 min without reaching out and touching/photographing and we are willing to pay for that ability.

Same with personal transportation. We, as a country, aren’t going to give up our ability to get somewhere faster if not cheaper or even more convenient. All 3 types of transportation are boxes used to get us from point A to point B. They all put us in with a certain number of strangers. We have to give up our privacy (car) to use them. We have to conform to schedules and inability to vary the places we go. But even with all the complaining about the prices, inconvenience and invasion of privacy, we will still pick the ones that get us from A to B the fastest - cars and planes. And in the end, we will pay the money that is asked - just not happily.

Unfortunately, the buses and Amtrak aren’t up to competing with cars and planes.

8

I thought you were refering to my daughter’s recent trip from Tx to DC via BOS where the afor mentioned airline stranded her for a couple of days. Fortunately, she has a railfan for a dad who suggested that now might be a nice time to try Acela. Which is how she completed her trip. Amtrak + + + JetBlue - - -

dd

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What is the purpose of a blanket anyway? There isn’t room between you and the person sitting next to you to tuck in a blanket.[%-)]

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…and the skinflint beancounter that thinks he dictates policy on JetBlue has an employment time expectancy of ? The consumer will get some revenge soon enough.

11

I had that same seat a few years ago from Philly to Chicago. [:O]

12

As a retired business owner I can assure you that clients would be a lot happier if they raised the fare $7 and gave them the sleep kit free. People have cars, they know what is happening to fuel costs, they may not like it, but they will understand.

During the coffee shortage of the late '70s A restaurant owner I knew said the rising cost of coffee forced him to start charging for refills. 10 cents each. I tried to tell him to raise the price of the meal 50 cents and continue the free refills, but he thought that the higher price breakfast would drive the customers away. He lost his breakfast crowd to the Howard Johnson’s a half a mile up the street, who charged $1.25 for a bottomless cup of coffee.

Lowes Motor Speedway used to charge $5.00 for parking. People around the speedway charged $7. When inflation kicked in, the private lots went to $10, but Lowes raised their ticket price $2 and made speedway parking free. Eliminating the need to hire people to collect the money and keep 4WD cars from sneaking in cross lots actually saved them money.

Internet based telephones are killing the telephone company because Telco charges separately for long distance, call waiting, call answering, line access charges, franchise fee recovery, etc. The internet phone companies include it all in their base rate.

You look greedy to your clients when you nickel/dime them to death.

13

Just out of idle curiosity, what happens on the return flight. Are you allowed to bring the blanket and pillow back onto the plane, or are you expected to buy a NEW set every time you fly.

14

I don’t know what Jet Blue’s policy will be, but on a smaller scale, if you buy the headphones from American Airlines for their in-flight entertainment, you get to keep them and use them on future AA flights.

15

You can use it again, but it counts as your one free carry-on item.[:-^]