Shortly after notorious budget airline ValuJet crashed in the Everglades – where the bodies were supposedly eaten by alligators – I was on a United red-eye back to Boston from the West Coast. When the pilot got on to introduce himself, he thanked the passengers for flying United. Without naming names, he then pointed out that it might cost more to fly United, but you get what you paid for with respect to safety, as opposed to those shifty cheapo outfits, with their used planes, poorly trained pilots, shoddy maintenance, and propensity to carry poorly-stowed, poorly-secured chemical oxygen generators. The kind that could easily blow up in mid-flight.
Pilot Bob was clearly going off-script with his ad libbed ad for United, but we all got the point.
You’re taking your life in your own hands whenever you step out of the house, but you really don’t want to play fast and loose with air safety. (As Boeing is now finding out…)
Anyway, I did fly AirTran (which was acquired by not-so-great-ValueJet after the doomed alligator flight so that they would no longer have to use the ValueJet name) a few times, but always felt it was a bit sketchy. (Forget safety: on one flight the food service consisted of a human dog biscuit.)
But I haven’t flown a lot on discount airlines.
Not that they’re unsafe. Mostly, they’re fine. But you do sacrifice creature comfort. (Now that the best food you get in steerage on most flights is a human dog biscuit equivalent, that offering no longer distinguishes bargain airlines.)
All this said, if I lived in Europe, I’m sure I’d be barreling around on RyanAir, which is what my niece M did when she spent a college semester in Galway.
M’s latest trip was a spring break jaunt that combined Ireland and Iceland. (M is quite the contrarian. When hordes of college kids head for sun and fun, M is impervious to lousy weather.)
M didn’t fly WOW Air, a budget Iceland-based airline, on any of her legs, but some of her classmates did. Lucky for them, their spring break ended last weekend, so they all got home.
What I do know is that, when I head to Iceland this fall, it will most decidedly not be on WOW. That’s because yesterday, they ceased operations, stranding folks in Iceland trying to get out of Iceland, and folks in the US trying to get in to Iceland.
The travel advisory on WOW Air’s website also states that all of the airline’s flights have been canceled. The low-fare airline was founded in November 2011 and had its inaugural flight in May 2012.
“Passengers are advised to check available flights with other airlines,” the WOW Air statement said. “Some airlines may offer flights at a reduced rate, so-called rescue fares, in light of the circumstances.” (Source: Boston Globe)
Iceland Air – bless their hearts – was offering discounts to strandees. And those who canceled their plans outright, once they got canceled out from under them, may be able to get refunds. According to the WOW, depending on how you booked your flight, this m
Anyway, some airlines seem to be have found a way to offer bargain fares while building a sustainable business model, but with WOW European flights costing only $100 or so… Just doesn’t seem viable.
My first flight to Europe was in 1973. I paid $206 (under-26 discount) on BOAC (precursor to British Air). Even at the time, this was a bargain. And $206 today is worth a lot less than it was then.
I feel sorry for those whose trips got screwed up. But I guess this is the risk you you get when you fly bargain air, especially on an airline whose color is fuchsia. (At least there was a never any alligator risk…)
If something’s too good to be true, maybe it really is too good to be true
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