Virgin America: Hello MCO & YYZ, So Long SNA

Virgin America has announced plans to fly from Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) to both Orlando and Toronto starting later this year. Toronto will mark Virgin's first international service while Orlando will be Virgin's second foray into Florida - and a route that potentially strikes at the heart of JetBlue.

Toronto makes a lot of sense for VA - good demographics, little low-fare competition - a great extension of the brand.

Orlando, while a huge destination, isn't exactly known for high yields. It is also the heart of both JetBlue (which runs a large operation at MCO) and AirTran (which also runs a large operation and is headquartered there.)

So, how long before JetBlue announces service from SFO and LAX to Orlando? Last time, it only took a day for JetBlue to announce overlapping service from LAX and SFO to Fort Lauderdale as we discussed.

And so much for Orange County (SNA) - San Francisco (SFO) flights which we chronicled here. While Virgin did succeed in running American out of town, apparently Southwest and long-time incumbent United were too much....

Planet Hollywood Hotel Mirrors JetBlue's All You Can Jet Pass

Over the weekend, we noticed an interesting promotion from the Planet Hollywood Hotel in Las Vegas that reminds us of JetBlue's wildly successful (at least on the PR side) All You Can Jet Pass.

The Planet Hollywood "Phanatic Pass" offers consumers any ten nights between now and March 15th for $599 - in other words, just 59 bucks a night. Whats more, it is even valid during some of the biggest weekends in Vegas such as New Years Eve and Super Bowl Weekend. A quick check of the non-promotional rates shows the Planet Hollywood selling regular rooms for $310 on New Years Eve so the savings are huge if you are (or want to become) a regular in Vegas. What is more, the PH is waiving the resort fee that normally applies (don't get us started on resort fees - they are worthy of another diatribe.)

Obviously, Planet Hollywood is hoping for some breakage on this one, but we like the creativity they are using to generate buzz and interest. And if the goal is to keep customers coming back to the hotel and get them gambling, eating, drinking and hitting the shows etc, this is a pretty cool way of generating repeat business. We bet (as we've seen with hotel loyalty program redemption) that people staying on this deal will have a higher incremental spend than average. The logic goes that people who think they scored a great deal (or used points) on the room will be more inclined to spend on F&B etc.

More details on the PH deal here

JetBlue: $31 Fares on the 31st - Everywhere!

JetBlue is really starting to get creative in using unique pricing to generate consumer buzz - the latest is $31 seats on Halloween.

Using seats that would otherwise probably go empty to generate media excitement is a very smart strategy. It differs from Ryanair and others who often price at 1 Euro - consumers in Europe have grown accustomed to those"teaser" fares that actually end up being much higher after all sorts of fees and taxes are lumped on.

Rather, JetBlue is making the story the pricing with very targeted sales around specific holidays or ideas. We saw $9 fares on 09/09/09 and who can forget the media blitz that ensued after the All-You-Jet Pass.

Now JetBlue is offering seats on Halloween evening for just 31 bucks. Again, Saturday nights are generally pretty light in terms of traffic and that is probably even more acute this Saturday night as it is Halloween. So, rather than flying around a bunch of empty planes, JetBlue is going for another media sensation. $31 flights from JFK to the West Coast? Even if it is Saturday night, that is a an amazing fare - and here we are writing about it. Case closed. Nice move, JetBlue.

Boston - Baltimore: Low Cost Carrier Battle Royale!

The Boston to Baltimore air market is starting to look like the Boston to New York bus market with fares almost at the same level of the Fung Wah bus! Of particular interest, BOS-BWI is one of the few markets where all three of the nation's largest low-cost carriers compete head to head - and that will make it fun to watch.

Just last week, Southwest announced an increase in flights (to 7) in the Boston-BWI market starting in March. As you may recall, Southwest recently entered the Boston-proper market with 5 daily flights to BWI as well as several other cities.

Fellow low-cost carrier AirTran has served the Boston-BWI market for some time and now operates, count 'em, nine daily flights in the market.

Not to be out done, JetBlue also began operating four daily flights in September on the same route. And today, JetBlue announced a further increase in service next year by adding an additional round trip for a total of five daily flights. JetBlue's press release takes a funny swipe at Southwest: "Customers in Baltimore have discovered what those in Boston have known for years: JetBlue offers more than just an unassigned seat and a handful of peanuts to their destination"

This makes a somewhat incredible 21 daily flights in the Boston-BWI market. Unreal.

And these are not rinky-dink regional jets. Those have already been driven from the market with the exit of Delta and American over the last few years as AirTran in particular has ramped up service.

Translation of all this: get ready for a blood-bath. Fares, even without a sale, are often $39. We've seen them as low as $29 or even $19 during a sale. And JetBlue has offered a one-day sale with fares starting at $9 one way. AirTran is offering free wi-fi on all flights in the market. And Southwest is offering all the peanuts you can eat....

No Rest for the Weary: Virgin America Announces Florida Flights and JetBlue Follows

Yesterday, Virgin America announced new flights from Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to begin on November 18th. Virgin's press release was officially dropped this morning.

Not to be outdone, today JetBlue announced new nonstop service from, guess where, SFO to FLL. (As an aside, JetBlue already offers FLL nonstops from Long Beach, just down The 405 from LAX) And just to make it fun, JetBlue will start the route one day sooner, on November 17th.

The dogfight continues...............

$14 Transcon Flights? Really? Yes.

JetBlue launched a sale of sales today on the JFK-SFO and SFO-Long Beach (LGB) routes with a fare of $14. Not misprint, not a fare error but an actual $14 transcon flight!

Don't get too excited as it is valid only on very very limited dates in early April but it is certainly a amazing deal.

But, is JetBlue taking a page out of the RyanAir playbook? We don't think so.

RyanAir is obviously famous for very low (like 1 Euro or even 1 cent) fares but RyanAir is also equally famous for loading up fees after the booking for everything from using a credit card to buy your ticket, checking in with an agent, checking a bag etc. JetBlue is quite the opposite - there are still free drinks and snacks, free Live TV and, as appears to be the point of this promotion, the first bag is still free. In fact, the major airlines are all charging more for the first bag than the airfare in this case - therein lies the point of this promotion.

JetBlue will undoubtedly generate huge buzz - a veritable public relations bonanza - while calling attention to their lack of checked baggage fees. All for a few plane loads of $14 fares.

We'll go ahead and call it a brilliant marketing move - finally a US airline is using actual fares as an integral part of the marketing message. Bravo JetBlue!

Latest Salvo in Boston-LAX/SFO Virgin/American Airlines Fight: Triple Miles

American Airlines (AA) is pulling out all the stops to make life difficult for Virgin America on their new Boston to Los Angeles and San Francisco flights. First, as we already discussed, AA has already added flights and changed to larger aircraft on the LAX route.

Now American has added triple frequent flyer miles to the mix. American is clearly hell bent on defending their turf and making life as difficult as possible for little Virgin America. Harnessing the powerful AAdvantage program to drive and retain customers is a typical move for the major carriers but the amount of miles (triple) and the length of this offer (until the end of May) is unprecedented in recent times.

And, to add salt to the wound, notice that AA is using an image of Big Ben as a potential redemption destination! Maybe AA's customers can drop in on Sir Richard BrAAnson while they are in London?

JetBlue coming to LAX - lookout Virgin America

JetBlue has just launched the latest salvo in the trans-con wars. Following on the heels of Virgin America's announcement of two daily Boston-LAX nonstops set to begin in February, JetBlue just announced similar service launching on June 17th.

Not to be outdone, American Airlines has also announced an additional Boston-LAX flight to the the three they already operate.

Suddenly, Boston will go from 5 daily nonstops to LA (two on United and 3 on American) to 10 - a near doubling of capacity will create a capacity bloodbath - get ready for great deals Bostonians and Angelenos....... and to Virgin America, good luck.

United and Aer Lingus get closer

Today's WSJ is reporting that Aer Lingus and United are pairing up beyond their existing codeshare routes to/from the Emerald Isle to launch a new nonstop route from Washington Dulles (IAD) to Madrid (MAD). The flight will be operated by an Aer Lingus A330 aircraft and crew. Made possible by the recent open skies liberalization accord between the US and the EU, this new flight will be interesting to watch for a number of reasons.

Most efforts by the legacy carriers to expand beyond their current home bases have proved fruitless thus far. Air France gave up their 777 LAX-London Heathrow flights after a short while and OpenSkies from BA is rumored to be having a tough time with their JFK-Paris Orly and Amsterdam flights.

The WSJ notes that Aer Lingus' labor costs are below United's which is probably true - but how will United's notorious unions react to what appears to be a blatant outsourcing from one of United's largest hubs? This isnt like Lufthansa is simply adding another flight from FRA to Dulles that UA is codesharing on - this is flying that could have been operated with UA metal and crews. We applaud UA and EI for thinking out of the box - we just hope its worth the potential pain UA (and UA's passengers) may feel as a result.

And finally, if we needed any more indications that the airline industry suffers from schizophrenia, lets remember that Aer Lingus, in addition to codesharing with UA on flights it operates, codeshares on JetBlue operated flights. And Lufthansa, a key UA partner, owns a good sized chunk of JetBlue.