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Post by PBonphy on Feb 5, 2013 7:43:40 GMT -5
If it makes anyone feel any better we were delayed 7 hours on our friends flight options share yesterday then cancelled returning from the Super Bowl. We are leaving this morning. My guess is they are all overwhelmed during during the Super Bowl and peak times.
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Post by MMcD on Feb 6, 2013 9:16:33 GMT -5
My service has been excellent over the last three weeks. I had one half hour delay which was no big deal. Very pleased.
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Post by Admin on Feb 6, 2013 12:05:19 GMT -5
Traveled out last week on a Thursday and returned Super Bowl Sunday. Both flights had minor delays <1 hour but communication was much better than in recent months. I don't mind a minor delay if I know about it far enough ahead to adjust my plans. Things seem to be getting better.
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Post by Bae on Feb 11, 2013 7:18:06 GMT -5
I followed up the post on Flight Optiins with my contacts there as I use them as well They had no knowledge of a 7 hour delay and did some checking for me. I also wondered where the newsletters from Clint Allen have been?
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pintom
Junior Member
Posts: 71
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Post by pintom on Feb 14, 2013 17:59:16 GMT -5
I flew from Denver to Naples last Thursday, and back home this past Monday. Both flights operated on time, without incident and on a Piaggio. Same with my flight from Denver to Cabo yesterday. That makes three flights in a row that have gone as planned. And as an aside, I was speaking with one of the pilots, who told me that on his last "tour" of seven days flying, and several flights a day, not one of those flights was delayed. Steve seems to have stopped responding to these posts, but I wonder whether the wi-fi installation is continuing. He said there were twelve done with three more in process a month ago. Hopefully there's now fifteen with more in process, but I suspect we would have gotten an update had the news been positive. But it's nice to see the basic service a bit more consistent.
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pintom
Junior Member
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Post by pintom on Feb 16, 2013 2:10:39 GMT -5
Based on a quick reading of a Form 8-K Avantair filed today, it looks like the Avantair pilots successfully voted to unionize.
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Post by skiphauser on Feb 19, 2013 19:54:42 GMT -5
Pilots voting to unionize- one more indication of the ongoing problems at Avantair.
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pintom
Junior Member
Posts: 71
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Post by pintom on Feb 25, 2013 12:13:21 GMT -5
We were supposed to fly from Cabo to Denver at noon today. We got a call at 10 am saying the flight would be delayed by five hours. First a "weather" delay, then some intermediate airport is out of fuel and then there's a crew duty-time issue.... If the weather delay is really a weather delay, that's obviously understandable. But same old stuff again, and as I tracked the flights and spoke with Owner Services, they were trying to reposition the plane this morning an hour's flying time in the opposite direction to get one paid leg in this morning and then a three-hour reposition to Cabo, all in time for a noon departure from Cabo. Seems like they're cutting it too close, although I understand the desire to maximize paid legs. As I've been tracking the flights since the stand down, I'm wondering why they don't reposition the planes to where the passengers are the night before. In our case, this plane sat unused yesterday and then if everything would have gone as planned, they hoped for about five hours of flying this morning in advance of a noon departure from Cabo. And things had actually been going ok before this latest debacle.
Update: What started as a weather delay then ruled out Piaggio #1 because now we would be flying at night, and its nav lights didn't work. Then came rescue Piaggio #2, which had some issue with its radio. But that apparently got fixed, so #2 took us home, and the five-hour delay grew by another hour or so.
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pintom
Junior Member
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Post by pintom on Mar 3, 2013 13:01:29 GMT -5
Have a 1.5-hour flight out of Denver today, and it was initially delayed 1.25 hours and now another one hour, and obviously maybe more to come. The reason: "they're busy today". It feels to me like there's still some substantive systemic problem in how they operate (beyond simply not being profitable). Every time I get a call or an e-mail from OS these days, my assumption is that they're calling with a problem. Steve had said that he was going to be responding to things on this board, and also setting up their own Owners' Forum, but neither of those things seem to be happening, and the volume of activity on thus forum has decreased significantly. I wonder whether that's because most everyone is getting good service or whether they've simply resigned themselves to the current situation and are shopping the alternatives.
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Post by dknight on Mar 21, 2013 13:32:40 GMT -5
My last two flights have been cancelled. In each instance they just say they are over booked. We are paying for service and they are not providing it on a consistent basis. That is worse than just telling us that they don't intend to provide it unless it works with their daily schedule. My guess is that few of us can make alternative plans at the last minute. The price paid for private air travel is supposed to make it more convenient and pleasant than commercial travel. At present, Avantair is certainly not providing that for me. I continue to think that owners need to find some course of action.
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theoe
New Member
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Post by theoe on Mar 21, 2013 14:58:16 GMT -5
I agree totally that somehow all owners collectively can make a difference. Not sure why Steve is not responding to us, and remember all the board members are in the end liable as well. We continue to book commercial rather than get stranded
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flyer
New Member
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Post by flyer on Mar 22, 2013 8:46:38 GMT -5
Any one know where their maintenance bases are located?
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flyer
New Member
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Post by flyer on Mar 23, 2013 16:25:52 GMT -5
Avantair apparently still having maintenance and aircraft availability issues. Leg 1 on a two day trip operated on schedule, however, original aircraft had maintenance issue and Avantair found another aircraft which operated as scheduled. Second day, Leg 2 was not so fortunate. Called with a 5 hour delay due to tight scheduling. At least they were honest and forthcoming. However, aircraft had maintenance issue and they cancelled flight and provided commercial transportation. No chartering due to tight budget, but customer service did provide car service to commercial airport and first class tickets for all pax and car service home.
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pintom
Junior Member
Posts: 71
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Post by pintom on Mar 25, 2013 3:00:16 GMT -5
Had a flight today from Denver to Bozeman, and it went great. No delays. It was one of the dozen or so planes Steve had earlier told us was wi-fi equipped, but the wi-fi wasn't working. And while all unverified, over the past several flights I have heard that:
1. The new COO (David) had been placed in his position by majority shareholder and similarly major source of funding, Lorne Weill. Similarly that he (David) was making some major internal changes and some tough decisions. Don't know if any of that is true, but his "interim" solution of advising of potential delays at the time of booking seems like a practical solution to an unpleasant situation. I'm still far from clear on what exactly is supposed to happen in the next twenty days (thirty or so days from the "give-us-thirty-days" e-mail) to fix things, but I'm hoping it works.
2. Many of the planes currently off-line have been cannibalized for parts, and that it's a $15+ million proposition to get the entire fleet back where it needs to be.
3. After asking some pilots about the business in general, the sense seemed to be that the flight cards are like crack to operators, because they were largely "free" (or at least very-low-cost) money with a low incremental dollar cost of providing the hours but with a high operational cost in terms of the stress it puts on the existing fleet (and presumably added depreciation/wear & tear on our aircraft assets) and its ability to serve the needs of the owners. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I believe my original contracts dating back to 2005 had some contractual limit on the number of annual hours they could fly each plane (something like 800 hours plus demo flights, etc.), but I think that provision was eliminated in my renewal contract.
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theoe
New Member
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Post by theoe on Mar 25, 2013 12:02:25 GMT -5
You are correct on the 800 hours plus demo and re positioning. We started in 2005 with 3/16 interest. We also expressed the card sales immediately and the answer was that additional aircraft were added to service the hours. We heard 9 aircraft are parted out and not coming back. I could not fly this week and actually happy that I found out early. I have three flights booked so let's see. Since contracts are not being followed, and chartered aircraft not an option, I am for card holders not flying. They are the first line of disposable customers. I think owners and especially long term investors should be scheduled first during these times. The board is suppose to oversee safe operations and customer service. I hope they are actively trying to help us all be successful, after all that is the goal for customers, pilots, management and employes.
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