Comparison of the Airlines in the US
I know that many of You have been traveling in Europe regularly. It is truly a blast to have the Eternal City (Rome), the City of Love (Paris) and the City of London being reachable within three hours of travel time. But the present article is especially for those of You, who are interested to go above and beyond. I will try to summarize the most important You have to know about the airlines of the New World – America. Have You ever wondered if there are low-cost carries in the United States? Or where is the American “Brussels – Charleroi Airport”-equivalent located? I hope that the below laid guide and comparison of the airlines in the US will be useful to answer those questions!
Just before I start: my name is Daniel and this is my first contribution to the amazing blog of the always-fit couple of the world. I was also offered the honor of being the first invited external content creator. I should admit I am slightly nervous; thus, I picked a topic I feel relatively comfortable with. So please, overlook some hiccups of the newbie.
The big picture
The United States is a vast country – it spans more than 4500 kilometers (2800 miles) from coast to coast and more than 2600 kilometers (1650 miles) north-south. This does not include the state of Hawaii, which is located 2500 miles west of San Francisco, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Needless to say, often flying is the only option for the 350 million citizens to visit their friends and family. The high volumes of fliers drove a market for ten-ish airlines, that I will categorize in four different groups, namely “network carriers”, “low-cost carrier”, “ultra-low-cost carriers”, and “others”. Please bear with me, because it may sound confusing at first. The guide is written from the perspective of Economy class traveler. The airlines are compared with respect to their main hubs and focus cities, food and beverages, luggage policies and amenities.
Network Carriers
These are the well-known airlines that have been around for long time. Currently, there are three network carriers in the US – Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines. All of them partner with other network carriers, such as Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways, Iberia, Korean Air, JAL, ANA – to name a few. I will go into the details about each and every one of them next.
Delta Air Lines
It is often referred to simply as “Delta”. They are in the alliance “Sky Team”. They are founding partner with Air France, KLM and Korean. Delta has its hub for transatlantic flights (i.e., the flights to Europe, Middle East and Africa) in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta is their “fortress”. The state has sub-tropical climate and for most of the year they do not experience weather irregularities.
Other hubs of Delta are New York (JFK and La Guardia) – for domestic and “transcontinental flights” (i.e., flights from the East to the West coast), Seattle, Washington – for transpacific flights to Asia, Detroit, Michigan – for connections between the North-East and North-West region, as well as Salt Lake City, Utah – for connecting flights between the east and west coasts. Seattle weather is highly influenced by the Pacific Ocean – it rains often, but it does not snow. On the other hand, Detroit and Salt Lake City often face severe weather conditions. This can result in significant delays and cancelled flights for days in the winter months.
Delta Fleet
It is the first airline in the US that operates the new comfortable Airbus 220. It is to be noted, however, that Delta heavily invested in passenger experience – they retrofitted their airplanes with comfort high-end looking seats, they maintain the in-flight-entertainment (IFE) screen in each seat as an alternative to the streaming IFE via wireless connection. They also offer complementary snacks on flights over 250 miles in addition to water, soft drinks and Starbucks coffee and tea. Most of the airplanes of Delta offer Wi-Fi for purchase. If you are a loyal Sky Team flier, Delta will probably be your airline of choice when visiting the US.
American Airlines
The largest airline on the Earth in terms of number of airplanes – around 1000. American flies out of New York JFK (transatlantic and transcontinental), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (transatlantic and domestic), Charlotte, North Carolina (domestic), Dallas Fort-Worth, Texas (east to west coast and South America), Miami (South America), Chicago, Illinois (transpacific and North-East to West) and Phoenix, Arizona (domestic and flights to Hawaii). While Dallas and Phoenix have tropical/desert climate and do not have weather irregularities, this is definitely not the case for the others. Chicago and New York experience severe weather in winter. Miami and Charlotte are on the way of hurricanes.
American is the first airline that employed a color scheme of “cheat lines” under the windows of their planes and shiny exposed fuselage that was not painted otherwise. For good or bad, those days are over and now American has a contemporary silver livery.
If you are an avGeek, totally book a ticket on one of American’s soon-to-be-retired MD83s. If you are a tech-savvy, a 787 flight from Chicago to a destination in far east Asia will be your choice of plane. American is the biggest operator of European-built Airbus A320s. They serve complementary pretzels / biscuits on domestic flights, in addition to soft drinks and water. American serves “Java City” coffee on their flights – a coffee company from Sacramento, California. The airline offers personal universal power outlets on most of its airplanes. American is a founding member of “One World” – the alliance of British Airways, Iberia and JAL, amongst others.
United Airlines
United is the US airline that has strongest presence in Hawaii and Asia. It is the only legacy US-based airline that does not have a hub in New York City (NYC). Instead, their management opted for a hub in Newark, New Jersey (domestic, transatlantic) – an airport that is across the city from NYC. Other hubs they operate flights from are Chicago (east coast to west coast, north-east to west), Dulles, Washington D.C. (transatlantic and domestic), Houston, Texas (east to west, Latin America), Denver, Colorado (east to west), Los Angeles and San Francisco, California (transpacific and Hawaii), Honolulu, Hawaii (west coast and Asia, Guam). While the hubs in Texas and California do not suffer often from severe weather conditions, Chicago, Newark, Denver and Dulles often face high number of cancelled and delayed flights in the winter.
The airline proudly serves Illy coffee in addition to tea, water and soft drinks for free. The snacks they serve depend on the time of the day, but usually include only pretzels or biscuits. United is the airline that offers either streaming or in-seat IFE on most of their flights. United is a founding member of “Start Alliance” with Lufthansa and ANA. If you are collecting “Miles and More” or “Miles and Smiles” miles, this may be your preferred choice of airlines.
Comparison
As rule of thumb, the US market is very competitive. Often the three airlines match prices on particular routes and passengers make their choice, based on their experience and frequent-flier loyalty. I will summarize the luggage comparison in the following table.
The fees and the sizes of the allowed baggage are comparable. It is to be noted, however, that United is charging for carry-on item USD 5 in case you bought Basic Economy fare. All three airlines offer two checked-in bags for free when you fly Business (a.k.a Domestic First class). The first checked-in bag in other classes costs USD 30. The second bag will cost you USD 40. Furthermore, the weight limit is 23 kg for all classes of Economy and 32 kg for Business.
Low-Cost Carriers
This is the first point where European and American terminology does not match. What is referred to as “low-cost carrier” in the US are usually airlines that have lower cost structure and often offer superior service for less. I will cover three airlines in this section, namely Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue. Without further due, let me dive into the details of each one of them.
Southwest Airlines
This is the grandfather of all low-cost airlines worldwide. It started as an airline that offered cheap tickets for flights within the state of Texas – the triangle of Houston, Dallas and Austin. The airline grew significantly, and it now offers service throughout the United States. Last month (March 2019) they were granted the right to operate flights to Hawaii. The airline is favored by many Americans and You may fell in love with it easily. Southwest flies to secondary airports in few of the most popular destinations. For example, they operate flights to Fort Lauderdale in Miami area, Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas, Midway in Chicago, Illinois and Oakland, California in San Francisco. Their strategy is similar to the strategy of Ryanair in Europe. But this is one of the few similarities.
Southwest Fleet
Unlike Ryanair, passengers are offered limitless snacks (cookies and pretzels) and water, coffee, tea and soft drinks on board Southwest flights. Moreover, each passenger can bring one personal item and one carry-on bag on board for free. Last, but not least, each passenger can check-in two bags for free.
Yes, two bags of up to 23 kg each. Streaming IFE is for free on most of their aircrafts, but there are no power ports. Make sure your device is juiced-up before your flight. One thing the airline does differently is check-in and boarding. Passengers are not allocated seats on the plane. Instead, they are given position for the boarding process. There are three groups, namely A, B and C. Besides group letter, each passenger is assigned a number – 1, 2, … etc. The boarding process goes in increasing order of letter and number. Passenger who holds A41 boards before passenger, who holds B1 and so on. Once You get your foot on board, You are allowed to occupy any open seat.
Alaska Airlines
Alaska is an airline that once operated the “milk run” in Alaska – a sequence of short flights that aimed at delivering fresh milk to small remote communities. Thоse days are over. Alaska is an airline with hubs in Anchorage, Alaska and Seattle, Washington. The airline offers a plethora of flights between the west coast and Hawaii in addition to flights between Alaska and Hawaii.
The airline offers seats in all classes. Snacks, water, Starbucks coffee, tea and soft drinks are offered to passengers for free. Furthermore, the airline serves Mai Tai cocktails on the flights to Hawaii for free. The airline offers streaming IFE and power outlets at each seat. Passengers can also rent a tablet for the duration of their flight.
JetBlue
One of the newest and most innovative airlines that is based in the US. The airline offers superior user experience at competitive ticket prices. The airline operates hubs at NYC, New York (JFK), Boston, Massachusetts and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. You may experience some irregularities when flying out of JFK during the winter months.
All passengers are provided with limitless snacks, water, soft drinks, coffee and tea for free. Moreover, personal IFE is available on in-seat screens for free. All domestic flights offer Wi-Fi connectivity for free – great for checking the newest post on lilioftheworld 🙂
Comparison
Surprisingly, low-cost carriers are more generous with respect to luggage allowance, compared to the network airlines. If You plan to travel with vast amounts of luggage, Southwest may be your best bet. Alaska allows big carry-on bags aboard. Moreover, flights within the state of Alaska come with one checked-in bag for free. For one reason or the other, Alaska offers free checked bags to active military personnel. Please do not show up with your military ID to their check-in desks, unless you are an active US military person. Until recently JetBlue was offering free checked bags to all of their passengers. This perk is available to the more expensive Blue Plus, Blue Flexible (i.e., Economy Plus) and Mint (i.e., Business) class ticket holders.
Ultra-Low-Cost Carriers
These are the airlines that match the prices and service, provided by Wizz Air, EasyJet and Vueling in Europe. There are four ultra-low-cost carriers (ULCC) in the US – namely, Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant and Sun Country.
Spirit Airlines
Spirit is one of the youngest, but it is quite successful. It is very similar to EasyJet in Europe. The airline does not have true hubs, but they run “focus cities”. The main goal of the airline is to provide affordable flights from different cities in the USA to sunny and/or vacation destinations like Las Vegas, Nevada, Miami, Orlando, Florida, Los Angeles, California – to name a few. The company goes above and beyond, and it offers flights to some destinations in the Caribbean (like Dominican Republic). Additionally, the airline offers connecting flights on one ticket for some of their focus cities.
The airline is working hard to maintain costs low. The seats do not recline – they are pre-reclined – this eliminates the need of maintenance of the moving seat backs. There is no seat back pockets either – there are some elastic ropes that hold the safety information card. There are no seat tables either.
The airline offers food and drinks for purchase. The biggest advantage of the airline is that it offers dirty cheap tickets. Each passenger could bring a personal item for free. Carry-on and checked bags can be brought for fee. All passengers can use the overhead bins for their personal items and carry-ons. Moreover, the airline charges for printing your boarding pass at the airport (USD 2) and much more for check-in by their representative.
Frontier Airlines
Frontier operations are very similar to Spirit. The airline has many similarities with Wizz Air in Europe. The airline operates a fleet of A320 series aircrafts. The biggest focus city of Frontier is Denver, Colorado. The airline sells connecting flights on one ticket, as well. The seat pitch is very similar to the one, offered by Spirit and they use the same seats. The biggest difference, compared to Spirit, is the fact that personal items are not allowed in the overhead bins – passengers are supposed to put them under the seat in front of them.
The prices of Frontier are often comparable to those of Spirit. The airline offers food and beverages for purchase. Make sure you bring your own snacks and water on board, if you want to save some bucks. Frontier is the only airline in the US that asks passengers to tip the flight attendants for in-flight purchases.
Allegiant Air
Allegiant is one of the vacation airlines in the US. It is similar to Condor – offers packages of plane tickets and hotel accommodation. The prices are competitive out of the peak season and often comparable to the prices of other airlines in the rest of the time. The airline is retiring their MD83 aircrafts fleet and it is replacing it by European built A320 series airplanes. Their concept is also similar to Spirit and Frontier – nothing is for free, besides a personal item. The seats are in one class.
Sun Country Airlines
Sun Country used to be a full-service vacation carrier that offered the best of the Minnesota hospitality. Many consecutive years of poor financial results led to the election of new board that decided to turn the airline into an ULCC. The airline flies from its home airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota to a variety of warm and sunny destinations.
The airline operates a small fleet of 737 NG aircrafts. The new revenue management model called for “a-la-carte” booking, whereby the bare fare includes nothing more than a personal item. Food, drinks, carry-on, checked bag – all comes at additional cost.
Comparison
The baggage policies vary from airline to airline. The rule of thumb is that “personal item” is always part of your ticket price. Furthermore, it is always cheaper to buy carry-on and/or checked bag when you buy your ticket. If you decide to add it later, it will cost you more. If your plans change last moment and you want to pay for a bag at the airport, the price is even higher. Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant charge for luggage depending on the length of your flight. A carry-on bag will cost You anything between USD 30 and 55. The checked-in bag prices vary between USD 30 and 85. A summary of the sizes of the personal items in the table:
Others
I know that at this point you are probably done with this article. But for those of you who made it as far as this chapter, let me cover the rest of the airlines, which do not fit in any of the other categories. I will cover Hawaiian, Via Air and Silver Airways, as well as Southern Airways Express.
Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian is based in Honolulu, Hawaii. The airline operates intra-state flights between the Hawaiian Islands, as well as flights to the lower 48 states and Asia.
The airline operates a fleet of Airbus A330 aircrafts – for their flights to Asia, Boston and New York. The flights to California are operated by Airbus A321 NEO aircrafts. The inter-island hops are operated by Boeing 717 (MD83) aircrafts. The airline recently ordered some brand-new Boeing 787 aircrafts that will arrive several years from now. All passengers have snacks, water, coffee, tea and soft drinks for free. Mai Tai free of charge is offered on the flights to Hawaii too. The longest domestic flight in the US is operated by Hawaiian. That is the flight between Boston, Massachusetts and Honolulu, Hawaii and it the flight time on those flights is as much as eleven hours.
Air Via and Silver Airways
There are a number of small airlines throughout the US that offer services to “thin” routes that are not served by any of the airlines we have discussed so far. Usually those airlines operate 50-seat aircrafts. There is a fair chance that you will never use them, unless you look for them intentionally. They often offer convenience in return of non-competitive fares.
Southern Airways Express
The Federal Government funds a program that offers flights to small remote communities that do not have fast access to big airports. Southern Airways Express is an airline that operates such flights in the states of Pennsylvania, Texas and Hawaii. The airline operates 8 seat aircrafts (Cessna 208) where all seats are both window and aisle seats. The flights offer no amenities other than seeing what is going on ahead of the plane, as any passenger can peak behind the shoulder of the pilot.
Conclusions
In conclusion, there are a number of airlines that serve the US market and they come in all shapes and flavors. You should be able to find the one that fits Your needs best easily. Keep in mind that all of the airlines, discussed in the first three chapters, plus Hawaiian, offer solid phone applications for the most popular mobile platforms – iOS and Android. Make sure You have downloaded the latest version before your flight. The phone app is your best bet for checking in, paying for luggage, selecting preferred seats, enjoying the IFE on board, getting updates for delays, gate changes and others.
Also, keep in mind that TSA (Transportation Security Administration) agents make the security checks at most of the airports in the US. Bring Your government-issued ID (driver’s license or passport) with You and be prepared to remove your shoes, belt and some jewelry at the security check. Also, do not get surprised by the 3D security scanner that You have to be scanned at, rather than the metal-detector frame that you are familiar with. Now hurry up to book your next flight ticket, seat back, relax and enjoy the preparations for your next adventure.
I hope that You enjoyed reading this article and You find it helpful. Any notes/comments/remarks/suggestions and questions are welcome!
Yours,
P.S. Other articles from the same author:
- Hong Kong
- Pittsburgh – a city of great stories
- The Thousand Islands article
- Miami – My Independence Day Weekend in Paradise
- The story about the San Francisco Bay Area
