Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted ..

American Airlines's JFK-STN service seems to be doing well. A friend of
mine tried to make a reservation on it a month ago and found that
economy had completely sold out on her flight.
--
Michael Hoffman
 >> Stay informed about: Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted .. 

In message <flls5c$ptc$1@gemini.csx.cam.ac.uk>, at 17:59:05 on Fri, 4
Jan 2008, Michael Hoffman <cam.ac.uk.TakeThisOut@mh391.invalid> remarked:
>American Airlines's JFK-STN service seems to be doing well. A friend of
>mine tried to make a reservation on it a month ago and found that
>economy had completely sold out on her flight.

Was that to fly in early December, or trying to book in early December
for a flight over (eg) the Xmas rush period?

And was it *any* Economy seat, or just the discounted ones? (I was
trying to book an economy seat on a different route earlier this week,
for mid-Feb, and was surprised how the fares varied from £400 to £1400
depending on the day of the week.)
--
Roland Perry
 >> Stay informed about: Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted .. 

In article <B9eB4L5$F1fHFAd9@perry.co.uk>, roland DeleteThis @perry.co.uk says...
> In message <flls5c$ptc$1@gemini.csx.cam.ac.uk>, at 17:59:05 on Fri, 4
> Jan 2008, Michael Hoffman <cam.ac.uk DeleteThis @mh391.invalid> remarked:
> >American Airlines's JFK-STN service seems to be doing well. A friend of
> >mine tried to make a reservation on it a month ago and found that
> >economy had completely sold out on her flight.
>
> Was that to fly in early December, or trying to book in early December
> for a flight over (eg) the Xmas rush period?
>
> And was it *any* Economy seat, or just the discounted ones? (I was
> trying to book an economy seat on a different route earlier this week,
> for mid-Feb, and was surprised how the fares varied from £400 to £1400
> depending on the day of the week.)
>

A good site for working out the best fares is http://www.skyscanner.net/
It gives you a weekly or monthly histogram of the cheapest fares so you
can see the best days to travel. The day to day variations in cheapest
fares can be quite substantial.

--
Tony

"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
- George W Bush
 >> Stay informed about: Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted .. 

In message <MPG.21e97d053744753b9899be.RemoveThis@news.nildram.co.uk>, at 12:02:09
on Sat, 5 Jan 2008, Tony Raven <junk.RemoveThis@raven-family.invalid> remarked:
>>(I was
>> trying to book an economy seat on a different route earlier this week,
>> for mid-Feb, and was surprised how the fares varied from £400 to £1400
>> depending on the day of the week.)
>
>A good site for working out the best fares is http://www.skyscanner.net/
>It gives you a weekly or monthly histogram of the cheapest fares so you
>can see the best days to travel. The day to day variations in cheapest
>fares can be quite substantial.

Yep. I use that site quite a lot, although I often seem to be buying
routes with very little choice of carrier.

In this case the nearest airport they offered me was about 1,000 miles
the other end of the destination country
--
Roland Perry
 >> Stay informed about: Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted .. 

Roland Perry wrote:
> In message <flls5c$ptc$1@gemini.csx.cam.ac.uk>, at 17:59:05 on Fri, 4
> Jan 2008, Michael Hoffman <cam.ac.uk RemoveThis @mh391.invalid> remarked:
>> American Airlines's JFK-STN service seems to be doing well. A friend
>> of mine tried to make a reservation on it a month ago and found that
>> economy had completely sold out on her flight.
>
> Was that to fly in early December, or trying to book in early December
> for a flight over (eg) the Xmas rush period?

I misspoke, it was to fly in early November. She wanted to go to a
notable genomics conference in the New York area. I'm wondering whether
that alone is enough to make a real difference in ticket availability.

> And was it *any* Economy seat, or just the discounted ones?

The cheapest tickets available were business. I suppose it is possible
that these were discounted business tickets that cost less than
full-fare economy tickets. In any case, it indicates that they had
probably been selling a lot of economy tickets on that flight, and I had
never seen anything like it before when booking several weeks in advance.
--
Michael Hoffman
 >> Stay informed about: Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted .. 

In message <flqokr$1pf$1@gemini.csx.cam.ac.uk>, at 14:29:38 on Sun, 6
Jan 2008, Michael Hoffman <cam.ac.uk RemoveThis @mh391.invalid> remarked:

>>> American Airlines's JFK-STN service seems to be doing well. A friend
>>>of mine tried to make a reservation on it a month ago and found that
>>>economy had completely sold out on her flight.
>> Was that to fly in early December, or trying to book in early
>>December for a flight over (eg) the Xmas rush period?
>
>I misspoke, it was to fly in early November. She wanted to go to a
>notable genomics conference in the New York area. I'm wondering whether
>that alone is enough to make a real difference in ticket availability.

If there were a lot of colleagues from the Cambridge area who had all
decided to book that particular flight, maybe. However I go to quite a
lot of conferences (sometimes in quite odd places) and I'm normally
quite surprised how *few* people attending the same event choose the
exact same flights.

>> And was it *any* Economy seat, or just the discounted ones?
>
>The cheapest tickets available were business. I suppose it is possible
>that these were discounted business tickets that cost less than
>full-fare economy tickets. In any case, it indicates that they had
>probably been selling a lot of economy tickets on that flight, and I
>had never seen anything like it before when booking several weeks in
>advance.

Maybe that flight was full with a "coach party" quite unconnected with
anything else. My son is going on a German Exchange trip soon, and I
expect the number of kids from the same school all booking the same
flight (this time we know it will be the same one) will make quite a
dent.
--
Roland Perry
 >> Stay informed about: Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted .. 

Roland Perry wrote:

> If there were a lot of colleagues from the Cambridge area who had all
> decided to book that particular flight, maybe. However I go to quite a
> lot of conferences (sometimes in quite odd places) and I'm normally
> quite surprised how *few* people attending the same event choose the
> exact same flights.

I agree. But given that there was only one daily STN-JFK that has any
economy seats, it would be the obvious choice for Cambridge-based people
heading to New York. Of course given that service started in October,
not everyone would know about it.

> Maybe that flight was full with a "coach party" quite unconnected with
> anything else. My son is going on a German Exchange trip soon, and I
> expect the number of kids from the same school all booking the same
> flight (this time we know it will be the same one) will make quite a dent.

Very possible. I was once on a Qantas 747 LAX-AKL-BNE which was full of
People to People Student Ambassadors. Thank goodness they were
well-behaved, or it would have been an even longer flight.
--
Michael Hoffman
 >> Stay informed about: Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted .. 

In message <flqun1$fn6$1@gemini.csx.cam.ac.uk>, at 16:13:12 on Sun, 6
Jan 2008, Michael Hoffman <cam.ac.uk.TakeThisOut@mh391.invalid> remarked:
> I was once on a Qantas 747 LAX-AKL-BNE which was full of People to
>People Student Ambassadors. Thank goodness they were well-behaved, or
>it would have been an even longer flight.

I was once on a Dallas-London flight that included a large number of
young Evangelical Baptists on some kind of trip. They kept bursting into
song. It *was* one of the longest flights I've experienced.
--
Roland Perry
 >> Stay informed about: Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted .. 

On Sun, 6 Jan 2008 16:46:31 +0000, Roland Perry <roland.DeleteThis@perry.co.uk> wrote:

>I was once on a Dallas-London flight that included a large number of
>young Evangelical Baptists on some kind of trip. They kept bursting into
>song. It *was* one of the longest flights I've experienced.

You better hope Huckerbee doesn't become President of the US
such signing might become compulsory on all US bound flights as part of the
war on terror.
--
Lansbury (Retired)
www.uk-air.net
FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup
 >> Stay informed about: Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted .. 

hey, Lansbury - I live in Dallas and I fully agree, although I don't think
Huckebee is electable here. Most of us still remember the last
bible-thumper, Carter.

jeff

"Lansbury" <lansbury.TakeThisOut@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:19e2o3571d1enu1nm8p0ef11p61alprv2c@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 6 Jan 2008 16:46:31 +0000, Roland Perry <roland.TakeThisOut@perry.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
>>I was once on a Dallas-London flight that included a large number of
>>young Evangelical Baptists on some kind of trip. They kept bursting into
>>song. It *was* one of the longest flights I've experienced.
>
> You better hope Huckerbee doesn't become President of the US
> such signing might become compulsory on all US bound flights as part of
> the
> war on terror.
> --
> Lansbury (Retired)
> www.uk-air.net
> FAQs for the alt.travel.uk.air newsgroup
 >> Stay informed about: Bankruptcy for business airline (Maxjet) or: the Stansted ..