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America West’s presence in Billings adds more options, more possibilities
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After nearly a month of flying passengers between Phoenix and Billings, America West is happy with the public’s enthusiastic response to its new service.
by Christene Meyers
Gazette Entertainment Editor
Janice Monahan, spokesman for America West, said the flights, operated by Mesa Air Group, have been successful. "We’re very pleased with the bookings for the Billings service," she said.
Since America West is based in Phoenix with hubs in Las Vegas and Columbus, Ohio, it might possibly expand its Billings service, perhaps to Las Vegas, Monahan said.
Especially with winter upon us, frequent travelers between the two cities are thrilled to have four direct, non-stop flights per day – two northbound and two southbound.
On my two recent roundtrips, the 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet Aircrafts were nearly full, service was efficient and friendly and travelers based in both states found their transit time cut in half or more.
The new flights are 2 hours and 20 minutes, which means with travel time from my house here to my house there is less than 3 1/2 hours. That’s a huge time savings on a long weekend or a business trip where every hour is precious.
Even with good connections on the other options – Delta via Salt Lake City, United via Denver or Horizon via Seattle – the trip easily stretches up to six hours. That’s just in-air and in-airport time. Factor in the time from the airport to your home, or your hotel and you’ve shot the better part of a day.
I’ve been making the commute a dozen or more times a year for nine years and I have spent a total one or two nights a year on unplanned and exasperating overnights in Salt Lake City, having missed connections because of inclement weather.
Not having to deal with a connecting city is wonderful, and America West will transfer Elite status with another airline to a similar level on their Frequent Flier program. This allows for upgrades and other perks. (Their program is called FlightFund.)
I’ve tried all four of the flights now and can’t praise them highly enough.
Ken Fagan, a former Billings resident completing his master’s degree in film arts at Arizona State University, joins me in his praise of the new route.
He flew the inaugural flight Oct. 27 and pronounced it "just great. I left Phoenix at 10:20 a.m. arrived at time for lunch, at 12:40 p.m," Fagan said. "It’s changed my whole routine. No more Seattle or Denver or Salt Lake. Terrific."
Fagan returned to Phoenix a few days later, leaving Billings on the 1:55 p.m., which arrived in Phoenix at 4:15 p.m.
An early-morning Billings flight gets business travelers to Phoenix in time to do business, leaving here at 8:17 a.m. and arriving Phoenix at 10:37 a.m.
The new Phoenix flight connects beautifully, too, with flights to Atlanta, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and many points in Mexico. And for Anglophiles, British Airways code shares many America West flights including a connection to London Heathrow. Travelers to Asia can use Northwest Airlines, which code shares certain America West flights.
Competition is good for business. Especially since 9/11, the airlines need to cultivate loyal customers, let them know they appreciate the business and show some effort to make travel a pleasant experience again.
Perhaps the other airlines have thought they had a captive audience, that Phoenix-bound travelers were stuck with the connecting city bit. Now there’s a new, quicker way to get to Phoenix, and once there, to the east coast or even Hawaii (there’s an America West non-stop to Honolulu.) Hawaiian Airlines is a code share partner and so is Big Sky.
I’m already earning points, having signed up for FlightFund before my first flight. I’m flying a couple times over the holidays. So far, the flights have been cheaper than Delta, too, another incentive.
On my most recent America West trip to Phoenix, I flew with golfers, a family on reunion, a couple attending a funeral, a mother visiting her newly married daughter and a lot of businessmen and snowbirds. On the return flight to Billings from Phoenix, several travelers hopped off in Billings and went on their way to Havre, using the Big Sky code share.
If you travel a lot, you may want to consider joining the America West club, the equivalent of Delta’s Crown Room, United’s Red Carpet or Northwest’s WorldClub. The Phoenix club is lovely and offers the usual club amenities: complimentary snacks, beverages, espresso and cappuccino, magazines and satellite TV. There are conference rooms, data port hook-ups, FAX and e-mail services and a complimentary copy machine.
And there are nearly three dozen America West clubs around the world, from London to San Francisco.
The efficient America West Canadair jet is small, granted. But the flight attendants are personable and those of us with Elite status found it little good on Delta to Phoenix anyway, since the large-jet service is all but phased out, leaving us with Skywest’s small aircrafts and no way to use our first-class upgrades.
These four daily nonstop flights change the complexion of air travel for Billings travelers. More options. More possibilities. A less parochial, bigger city approach. So we applaud America West and hope they’re around for a very long time.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
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