Check, Check, Flex

May 10, 2007 Scheduled to fly Denver to Dulles to Jacksonville, FL on United Airlines

Check in on line and print boarding passes 24 hours in advance. Check.
Arrive at DIA 1.5 hours before flight at 4:30 am. Check.
Get to gate at 5:15 am, flight delayed by 1 hour for mechanical reasons. That meant the down line connection would be missed. Time to be flexible.

United was able to reroute me on a Delta flight that would leave DIA at 6:30 am and arrive in Jacksonville at 2:10 pm, 10 minutes earlier than my originally scheduled flight on United. The only catch, according to the UA agent, was that my checked bag probably wouldn't arrive with me at 2:10 pm. Should I take the 6:30 am flight on Delta or wait around DIA for a later UA flight so that I could travel with my bag. The simple answer was that was I going to go ahead and get to JAX as quickly as I could, as I had plans to meet friends for dinner. Sure enough, I arrived and my bag did not. I had dinner with my friends and then got my bag the next day. My moral of the story is: keep moving towards your final destination - your bags will show up sometime later. If necessary, one can make it for a few days in Florida with a new pair of shorts and a few new t-shirts.

Changing With The Times

Fred Blume has a run a trip for several years with the Pensacola Ski Club. The process had been to put the trip together in the spring, pay a deposit for the group and then start selling the trip during the summer. For his next trip to Vail, Feb 2 - 9, 2008, he decided to take advantage of an airfare of $235 from Pensacola to Denver on Delta Air Lines, which was about 40% less than the going rate for this market. The only catch was that the tickets had to be issued within 30 days of making the reservation on Delta. He sent out an e-mail to all of the past participants on his recent trips on May 1st. By the 2nd, he had 16 people signed up for his trip.

The market for participants for leisure ski groups, as well as skiers to destination resorts in general, is relatively static. It's neither growing or shrinking much. To succeed, a trip needs to keep its share of the market. To do that, one has to move quickly and stay ahead of the competition. As soon as Fred got the final deal together, he started promoting it to his people. The immediate results were very positive. He's well on his way to his goal of filling up the trip with 42 people.