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Flying the frugal skies can be fun

We fly five carriers, including newcomers Song and Ted, and find that the little things (jokes, entertainment) go a long way.

Rating the fare warriors
March 21, 2004

By Jane Engle, Times Staff Writer


Time was, Southwest was the only discount airline most people knew. No more. The "bus of the skies" has a host of imitators, all promising low fares and high fun.

Now the question is this: Who really delivers?

To find out, I rode four self-proclaimed low-cost carriers — Delta's Song, JetBlue, United's new Ted and Southwest — plus United on a cross-country barnstorming tour last month to compare service, entertainment options, food, comfort levels, fares and more.

My main impression of these five (chosen because they serve this market or they're new): Song was a standout, with its cheerfully corny crew, wacky color scheme, gourmet food and onboard trivia contests. JetBlue pulled up second. As for the rest, I found little difference in the flying experience — or sometimes even fares — from one to the next.

I chose a route that would take me from Los Angeles to the East Coast and back: Song from LAX to Orlando, Fla.; JetBlue from Orlando to Boston; United from Boston to Denver; Ted from Denver to Las Vegas; and Southwest from Las Vegas to LAX.

This was not a scientific sampling, certainly. Trip legs varied from 4 1/2 hours on Song and United to an hour on Southwest. I wasn't able to taste full menus on all flights. Even within the same airline, different crews may give different service. Fares, of course, shift constantly.

So I can report only what I found on my flights, detailed in the order flown:

Song
By Jane Engle, Times Staff Writer


Delta launched this low-cost carrier last April on a fashionable note: Kate Spade designer crew duds, organic buy-onboard menu by former W Hotel chef Michel Nischan and seatback TVs. All this plus extra legroom.

The airline shuttles mainly between the Northeast and Florida but also flies nonstop to Florida from the West, including Los Angeles. Its promise, on its website, http://www.flysong.com : "The song is personal. It's unique. Memorable. And brings a smile to your face."

It does just that, for the most part. My LAX gate crew for my morning Song nonstop to Orlando was subdued. But at 54B next door, a Song agent regaled — or tormented — his captive audience with jokes such as: "Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Shelby." "Shelby who?" "Shelby coming around the mountain when she comes."

"We try to make it fun," he said.

Inside the squeaky-clean B757 cabin, where the color scheme was bright blue with lime, purple and orange accents, the good humor carried through to the safety audio, set to salsa music.

"You're lucky," the crew told us: We were on one of the first Song planes to be wired for live satellite TV, with 24 channels.

Or not so lucky. For more than half the flight, my seatback monitor and some others cut out every few seconds. ("It worked perfectly" westbound, the apologetic crew said.)

A diverting bonus was an on-screen music-trivia contest with such questions as: "What was the name of Kid Creole's band?" and " 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was a super-hit for which group?" (Answers: the Coconuts; Nirvana.) Sign-on names and seat numbers were posted for the top 10 scorers. (My tally: an unhip 44%.)

You pay for food, and it's not cheap. But my gourmet vegan sandwich, a 7-inch-diameter lavash stuffed with grilled vegetables, tofu and rice, was worth the $8, and the Song Sunrise (vodka, orange juice and a splash of cran-apple), $5, wasn't bad either.

When I asked a shuttle van driver the next day what he'd heard about Song, he replied: "I hear mixed. There are no magazines and no [free] food."

Almost true. (There was a budget travel magazine in my seatback.) But I agreed with fellow passenger Ann Nethero of Moorpark: "When I was told I was flying Song, I thought, 'What kind of rinky-dink airline is that?' But it's really nice."

So was my one-way fare: $129.10 (including taxes), the lowest in the market the day I booked it.

JetBlue

By Jane Engle, Times Staff Writer


This 4-year-old New York-based carrier, with a West Coast hub in Long Beach, has enjoyed a meteoric rise, powered by low fares, roomy leather seats and 24 channels of satellite TV beamed to every seatback. It flies to 23 cities (including Ontario, Calif.) in 11 U.S. states and Puerto Rico.

It also sports a breezy, cheeky style.

When the door to the jetway kept setting off an alarm as I waited for my 7:35 a.m. flight to Boston, the JetBlue gate agent in Orlando made the sign of the cross and remarked, "That was just to make sure you guys were awake."

Directing us to pick up headphones from a box before boarding, he announced, "They're free now. But if you get on the plane, they're $5,000."

By comparison, the crew on our A320 played it straight. But flying was still fun.

My TV monitor worked, with occasional audio glitches. I'd been able to plan my viewing before flying by checking schedules on http://www.jetblue.com . Guides to travel manners ("Be nice"; "Pack your own meal") and "Airplane Yoga, or how to look like a real weirdo to your fellow passengers" were clever.

The downside on my nearly three-hour flight: no magazines and skimpy, albeit free, food offerings. The latter included the airline's reduced-fat "blue" potato chips, party mix and cookies. There was no buy-on-board program. The cabin was a vision in gray; I missed Song's hues.

Nonetheless, JetBlue has a near-fanatic following.

"They're wonderful," said Jen Savage, a passenger from Saco, Maine. "You get your own TV. They have good prices."

Yes they do. My one-way fare was $87.60, lowest in the market when I booked.

United Airlines


Ted

By Jane Engle, Times Staff Writer


I had high hopes for a fun date with Ted, the low-cost operation that United launched in February from its new Denver hub, serving Ontario, Calif., and other cities.

Sporting white, blue and orange plumage, Ted, which takes its name from the last three letters of United, is "warm, friendly and casual," its publicity says. It also seemed aggressively trendy. The onboard "Tedevision" and "Tedtunes" entertainment was getting enthusiastic reviews from teens.

But I was mostly disappoin-Ted.

It started with check-in at the Denver airport for my afternoon nonstop to Las Vegas, where I confronted a bank of automated kiosks. A couple of the staffers who worked the counters, tagging bags and giving tips on using the kiosks, wore Ted baseball caps, but they served United customers too.

When I asked a mostly monosyllabic Ted-cap wearer about the meal policy, she replied: "I don't know. You'll have to ask the gate agent." He told me there would be no meals because the one-hour, 49-minute flight was too short to qualify. (On longer flights, you can buy $7 club sandwiches and salmon Caesar salads.)

At the gate, there was a forest of orange signs, offering cheery greetings such as "It's a great day to be flying," and "Ted is happy to see you."

But onboard, it was much like flying United, with its pleasant but business-like crew and cramped legroom. Plus one unsettling oversight: a used tissue in my seatback pocket.

Ted's entertainment was hipper, of course. There was no seatback satellite TV, but drop-down monitors showed a Liz Phair music video, a profile of teen singer-actress Mandy Moore, an episode of NBC's "Scrubs" comedy and other shows. Music on 14 channels ranged from retro to house and trance mixes; classical was scarce.

We got little bags of party mix and beverages, including what Ted touts as Starbucks coffee. The anemic liquid in my cup bore little resemblance to that heart-racing brew.

When I asked a couple of passengers what they thought of their Ted flight, they shrugged, although acknowledging they liked the music.

"They've got to work on that coffee," added a woman across the aisle.

That and a couple of other things.

On the upside, Ted delivered the lowest fare of the five carriers I compared, $179.10, matching low-cost competitor Frontier

Southwest Airlines

By Jane Engle, Times Staff Writer


This granddaddy of discount carriers, launched in 1971 from Texas, pioneered "flying for peanuts" with a sense of humor.

Although Southwest's flights, once regional, now stretch from coast to coast, you'll still get only peanuts on shorter sojourns, and you won't get a reserved seat. Just hope you get into Boarding Group A.

But Southwest is looking a little tired these days, judging from the packed, hourlong flight I took from Las Vegas to LAX.

The repairman apparently hadn't made a recent pass through our B737 cabin. My reading light didn't work. The seat in front was locked in half-recline. A couple nearby shifted seats, complaining they couldn't turn off the arctic blast from their air vent.

Although the crew was pleasant enough, they weren't funny. Not one corny joke or silly guessing game. Just the standard safety announcements.

I was grateful for my two bags of free peanuts and an apple juice and for my $47.60 fare, the lowest on the day I'd booked it. Southwest still gets that right.

But for me, on this trip, there was little difference between flying Southwest or United or Ted.

For some, that's the point.

"I used to hate Southwest because it was a bus, and other airlines offered better service," said Martin Fung, a Los Angeles businessman waiting in the Las Vegas airport for his flight home. "But now Southwest is more consistent."

Nearby, Gail Orr, a lawyer from Calabasas also waiting to fly home on Southwest, commented, "They're cheap, and they get you there. What more could you ask?"

But some fliers do ask for more.

Allison Zahorik of Redondo Beach, a handbag designer who was in Las Vegas for business, is a fan of Southwest, having been on flights with more typically jolly crews.

"I like the people," she said. "They make a lot of jokes and make you feel comfortable." For a less-than-avid flier like her, "it makes a huge difference," she said.

Doug Benton, an engineer from Northampton, Mass., whom I met earlier in my journey, explained it this way: "Flying is inherently stressful to me. So any time they try to lighten it up, it's helpful." He "absolutely loved" having his own seatback TV on Song.

I hope the airlines are listening to customers like Zahorik and Benton.

Flying, after all, was once fun. As Song and JetBlue prove, it still can be, even when done on the cheap.