Lawyer Cole Finegan may be able to negotiate major legal settlements and overhaul Denver’s finances, but when his flight to Washington, D.C., was canceled Sunday, he was left helplessly waiting for another flight.
And it was going to be a long wait.
“I got on the phone with United, and the earliest they could get me there was 3:30 (p.m.) on Tuesday,” Finegan said, adding that other airlines were equally booked.
Undaunted, Finegan headed to Denver International Airport on Monday morning, figuring he could still make his meeting by flying standby.
Big mistake.
“There were probably about 100 people on standby, and no one got on the plane,” Finegan said.
He ended up canceling his trip and missing the meeting.
Finegan’s frustration was a result of simple economics.
Airlines are trying to make up for rising fuel costs while heeding competitive pressures that have suppressed efforts to raise fares. Since each empty seat decreases a flight’s profitability, airlines are trying to make sure more seats are filled.
“As fuel costs go up, if you’re not raising fares, you damn well better fill more seats,” said Joe Hodas, spokesman for Denver- based Frontier Airlines.
Full-plane frustrations
But the strategy leaves fewer options for standby travelers scrambling for a seat after a flight is grounded.
And there are other effects on air travel. Redeeming frequent-flier miles has become more difficult, and passengers find themselves jockeying for armrests or space in the overhead compartments.
“It’s just miserable,” said Sally Covington, a deputy manager at DIA. While the fuller flights make sense for the airlines, “it just adds to the stresses of traveling these days,” she added.
United Airlines, which has gradually recovered through Chapter 11 and post-bankruptcy, has reduced capacity at times and used more regional jets. In January, United flights averaged 78 percent full. Five years earlier, the figure was 69.1 percent.
Covington said she sometimes tries to fly standby, but she knows it’s becoming more of a gamble. “You just know that your chances of that are just decreasing daily.”
In the past, airlines might have been able to afford to have flights with dozens of empty seats, but many last-minute fares are less than they once were and fuel costs are much higher.
Greater competition, particularly from discount carriers, puts more pressure on all airlines. Frontier, for example, has seen its “break-even load factor” – which measures how full its planes must be for operating revenues to cover expenses – grow to 77.6 percent in the nine months ending Dec. 31, 2006. That’s up from 75.7 percent a year earlier.
But if you take a flight in the next few weeks, it’s likely you may have a little more elbow room. Traffic is not as heavy now as during the busiest travel periods, and competition in Denver has been driving some carriers – particularly Frontier – to add flights.
Of course, problems can still arise when bad weather hits.
“We saw that with the winter storms here, that the more people you’re carrying, the more even the slightest stumble can really impact the whole system,” Hodas said. “You don’t have as much breathing room.”
United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said the airline tries to create more standby opportunities when bad weather causes flight cancellations by routing connecting passengers through different cities.
Paying extra for standby
One factor making it harder to fly standby is the advent of “confirmed standby” options.
If some passengers pay for their standby seats, that leaves less opportunity for those who don’t pay extra. Frontier and United offer the option for $25.
Those thinking of flying standby can ask airlines how full a flight is to determine whether to try to fly standby.
When a family is traveling, however, Hodas recommends having a plan if only one or two seats are left.
“Do I take that seat? Do I send my wife? That’s stressful,” said Hodas, who recalled an occasion when he sent his wife and youngest son on a flight, and he waited for the next one.
“My oldest son just went ballistic,” Hodas said. “He was screaming and crying. Here I am, holding him saying, ‘I promise we’ll go on the next one.”‘
Most of all, Hodas recommends that standby travelers have as many alternative plans as possible, an abundance of patience, and “an ability to be flexible and roll with the punches.”
Finegan says he didn’t travel much when he was Denver’s city attorney, but now as a partner at Hogan & Hartson, he’s finding that airline travel is “a different world these days.”
“It appears that the planes are all full, so once they cancel the flight, there’s just nowhere to put you.”
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-954-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
