What is “Phantom energy”?

Phantom Energy Use Drains Your Resources

Updated: Oct 6, 2005 12:23 AM PDT

by Mark Poepsel , KOLD News-13 Reporter

It’s called phantom electricity:  the power that drains when no one is home.

An article from the University of Oregon Environmental Issues Committee says electronics not in use can cost Americans $1 Billion each year.

“All those things that add convenience also add to monthly energy use. A lot of people think it’s all heating nd cooling, but it’s not,” said Linda Douglas an energy conservation spokesperson at Tucson Electric Power. ”The most important thing is for people to recognize there are items within the home that draw a continuous amount of power.”

Items including computers that still use power even when they’re asleep,power tools that still drain electricity when the battery’s charging, andanything with a built-in clock.  One study says these things cost the average homeowner 50 dollars a year.

“The amount of savings is variable and going to depend on the amount of toys they have in the house, things they can turn off,” Douglas said.

You can turn off the power strip to your TV and stereo.  Shut your computer completely down when you’re gone, and pull the chain on the ceiling fan too.

“A lot of people think ceiling fans help cool the house, but they don’t. All they do is move air,” said Douglas.

The study suggests homeowners lose 5% of their yearly energy costs to phantom sources.  It may cost the nation as much as $1 billion each year.

Douglas says that number seems high, but if homeowners can save money and electricity by clicking the power strip, she says, “Why not?”

Experts say homeowners may look back in time to save on power.  Electric clothes dryers can use more energy in a year than air conditioners.  Tucson is a prime location for line-drying clothes.  The use of dishwashers may be avoided altogether.  Experts also suggest you insulate your water heater, which is always on. 

Good green news for LA.  I miss the Old Spaghetti Factory but this is a great use of space!  Thank you Eric Garcetti!

News from the LAist:

The Greenification of the Neighborhood

The Old Spaghetti Factory on Sunset Boulevard is gone, leaving a trail of b’day party memories, indigestion and chain link fencing in its wake.

The Sunset & Gordon neighborhood has a big wide sidewalk but not much street life. The sound of the helicopter hovering overhead competes with the police sirens, the music pumping from the adjacent apartment building, the traffic on Sunset.

This neighborhood needs a park! All it takes is the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust working with City Leadership, a Developer, a Landscape Architect, Community Leadership and the people who live, work and play in the neighborhood. They came together and it’s happening. Welcome to the Greening of Hollywood!

The Old Spaghetti Factory at Sunset & Gordon

A friend of mine sent me this article on the cost of a new hybrid.  Whenever my car breaks down, I still want a new Prius but in the meantime, I’m sticking with the old one.  I think it’s greener to use something that has already been created rather than buy something “green” but new.

Don’t Buy That New Prius! Test-Drive a Used Car Instead

By Matt Power  05.19.08

 

In 2006, an Oregon market research firm released an incendiary 500-page report. Its claim: A Humvee (13 miles per gallon city, 16 highway) uses less energy than a Prius (48 city, 45 highway). Scientists quickly debunked the study, but the Hummer lovers got one thing right. Pound for pound, making a Prius contributes more carbon to the atmosphere than making a Hummer, largely due to the environmental cost of the 30 pounds of nickel in the hybrid’s battery. Of course, the hybrid quickly erases that carbon deficit on the road, thanks to its vastly superior fuel economy.

Still, the comparison suggests a more sensible question. If a new Prius were placed head-to-head with a used car, would the Prius win? Don’t bet on it. Making a Prius consumes 113 million BTUs, according to sustainability engineer Pablo Päster. A single gallon of gas contains about 113,000 Btus, so Toyota’s green wonder guzzles the equivalent of 1,000 gallons before it clocks its first mile. A used car, on the other hand, starts with a significant advantage: The first owner has already paid off its carbon debt. Buy a decade-old Toyota Tercel, which gets a respectable 35 mpg, and the Prius will have to drive 100,000 miles to catch up.

Better yet, buy a three-cylinder, 49-horsepower 1994 Geo Metro XFi, one of the most fuel-efficient cars ever built. It gets the same average mileage as a 2008 Prius, so a new hybrid would never close the carbon gap. Sure, the XFi has no AC or airbags — but nobody said saving the planet would be comfortable, or even safe.

I was like “wha?”

June 19, 2008, 7:59 am

In South Africa, Chinese is the New Black

A high court in South Africa ruled on Wednesday that Chinese-South Africans will be reclassified as “black,” a term that includes black Africans, Indians and others who were subject to discrimination under apartheid. As a result of this ruling, ethnically Chinese citizens will be able to benefit from government affirmative action policies aimed at undoing the effects of apartheid.

In 2006, the Chinese Association of South Africa sued the government, claiming that its members were being discriminated against because they were being treated as whites and thus failed to qualify for business contracts and job promotions reserved for victims of apartheid. The association successfully argued that, since Chinese-South Africans had been treated unequally under apartheid, they should be reclassified in order to redress wrongs of the past.

 

Jacob Zuma, President of the African National Congress, with Hu Jintao in Beijing last week (Reuters)

This is not the first time the classification of Chinese in South Africa has changed. In fact, the racial status of Chinese-South Africans has often shifted with the nation’s political climate and its international relations.

The first significant group of Chinese came to South Africa in the early 20th century, before a formal system of apartheid existed, to work in the gold mines. They were not encouraged to settle permanently and by 1910 almost all the mine workers had been repatriated. Those who remained struggled with racism and lived in separate communities based on language, culture and socio-economic status.

As apartheid became enshrined in law with the ascendancy of the Afrikaner government in the late 1940s, the Chinese were classified as “colored,” forced to live apart from whites, and were denied educational and business opportunities along with the right to vote. But after South Africa established an economic alliance with Taiwan in the 1970s, Taiwanese immigrants were welcomed as “honorary whites,” and other Chinese in South Africa began to be treated more like whites. Although they never attained the formal “honorary white” status of Taiwanese, Koreans and Japanese in South Africa and couldn’t vote, Chinese-South Africans were no longer required to use segregated facilities, and in the early 1980s they were exempted from some of the discriminatory laws that applied to other non-whites.

After apartheid ended in the early 1990s, the legal status of Chinese has remained in a gray area, though they’ve generally been lumped together with whites and denied the post-apartheid benefits available to other non-white groups.

South Africa has seen waves of immigrants and investment from China since 1994, and today there are as many as 300,000 Chinese living in the South Africa. But the new court decision is unlikely to benefit most of them or trigger another mass migration– it applies only to those Chinese who were South African citizens before 1994 (and their descendants), a much smaller number of around 10,000 to 12,000.

-Sky Canaves

Not that apartheid was anything but disgusting and heinous, but reparations are better than nothing…I guess. 

Recently, I have been trying to come up with ideas of places in LA to take out of towners in.  I know there are some traditional spots to take people but these aren’t the places that I want to show them (I think Venice is kind of gross and definitely overrated).  I have decided that LA is a great place to live, but not necessarily visit, so my choices vary.  This is a work in progress but here are places that I want to highlight in Southern California.  Some traditional and some not so much.

Attractions:

• The Getty
• Disneyland
• MOCA
• BCAM
• Cinespia
• Zuma Beach
• Griffith Park
• Huntington Library
• Dockweiler Beach for bonfires and airplanes

Food:

• King Taco
• Langer’s
• Father’s Office
• Samnamlung Cafe
• Soot Bull Jeep
• T.O.T.
• Pink’s
• Homegirl Cafe
• Crepe in the Grip
• In-N-Out
• Cielto Lindo
• Earthen
• Ocean Star dim sum
• Paradise Cove
• Pinkberry (not sure about this one)
• any taco truck
• any hot dog cart

 

Drink:

• Tiki Ti
• The Edison (weeknights only people!)
• Redwood Bar
• Red Lion
• Star Shoes
• Library Bar
• Cosmos
• The Standard roof bar

I went to 2 more this weekend!  Now 29 down, 70 to go!  This is getting expensive.

Abode

Alcazar

Angeli Caffe

Angelini Osteria

A.O.C.

Apple Pan

Attari (updated June 7, 2008)

A-Won

Babita

Bar Marmont

Beacon: An Asian Cafe

Bin 8945

Blue Velvet

Border Grill

Bulgarini Gelato

Caioti Pizza Café

Campanile

Canele

Casa Bianca

Chamea

Chichén Itzá

Chung King

Ciudad

Cora’s Coffee Shoppe

Cut

Daikokuya

Dino’s Burgers

Drago

El Huarache Azteca

El Parian

Elite

Euro Pane Bakery

Father’s Office (updated June 6, 2008)

Fogo de Chao

Foundry

Fraîche

Golden Deli

Golden Triangle

Grace

Green Village

The Grill on the Alley

Guelaguetza

Hatfield’s

The Hungry Cat

Il Moro

Jar

JiRaffe

Kagaya

Kiriko

Koi

Krua Thai

Langer’s

La Casita Mexicana

La Terza

Literati II

The Lodge

Los Balcones del Peru (updated June 20, 2008)

Lou (updated June 17, 2008)

Lucques

M Café de Chaya

Macau Street

Marouch

Max

Meals by Genet

Mélisse

Metro Café (updated May 2008)

Michael’s

Mimosa (updated June 13, 2008)

Musso & Frank Grill

Noodle House

Nook

101 Noodle Express

Oinkster (updated June 16, 2008)

Opus

Orris

Ortolan

Patina

Philippe the Original

Phillips’ Barbecue

Pizzeria Mozza

Pollo a la Brasa

Providence

Rajdhani

Royale

Sapp Coffee Shop (updated May 2008)

750ml

Simon L.A.

Sona

Spago

Square One

Tacos Baja Ensenada

Tama

Urasawa

Uzbekistan

Valentino

Village Idiot

Vincenti

Water Grill

Woodlands

[updated June 20, 2008...2 more this week!  Lou and Los Balcones del Peru.  Now 31 down.]

At this moment in time, these are my 10 “desert island” albums, the 10 that I could listen to forever, in no particular order:

1. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill
2. The Man Who, Travis
3. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
4. Up the Bracket, The Libertines
5. Parklife, Blur
6. OK Computer, Radiohead
7. Automatic for the People, R.E.M.
8. London Calling, The Clash
9. Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
10. Odelay, Beck

It’s a little hard to decide on the rest…I want to bring a Best of Morrissey and the Marie Antoinette soundtrack but I don’t think they can count.  The list should just be perfect albums…no compilations and no skips.

I keep hoping one day I will get bumped and reap the rewards.

How to win the airline bumping game

Savvy fliers take advantage of carriers’ overbookings to score free trips, hotel rooms and meals, and to ease the bite of rising airfares. Here’s how they do it.

By Melinda FulmerWhen Harvey Oreck hears “Ladies and gentlemen . . .” in an airline terminal, he rushes to the gate before the agent can finish the sentence.

Oreck and other frequent fliers know these announcements signal an overbooked flight, with free trips and/or cash vouchers for the first volunteers to change their travel plans. Airline over-sales swelled 12% in the first nine months of the year, giving flexible fliers a greater chance to land some of these freebies and offset the rising cost of air travel.

Oreck, a semiretired lawyer and former barrister from Vancouver, British Columbia, estimates he and his family have scored airline vouchers for about 30 flights from the bumps that he has taken over the past five years, paying for trips to Thailand, Mexico and other locales.

On a trip home from Las Vegas, he accepted a bump to a later flight and took a free flight voucher. Minutes later, someone backed out of his original flight, allowing Oreck to go home as planned and keep his already-issued voucher. Of course, he said, he wouldn’t have been allowed to switch back if he hadn’t asked.

“You have to be alert and proactive,” Oreck said.

Scoring freebies from the airlines is no sure thing. But experts say there are a few things you can do to increase your odds. First, look at which carriers are bumping the most people.

Regional carriers such as Comair and Skywest overbooked the most in the first quarter. Among the big guys, Delta Air Lines reported the most overbooking per passenger in the quarter, followed by Northwest and US Airways.

Best bets for voluntary bumps, January-March 2007:

Rank	Airline	Voluntary bumps	Involuntary bumps	Enplaned passengers	Voluntary bumps (per 10,000 passengers)
1	Comair	1,845	153	461,448	39.98
2	Skywest Airlines	5,430	496	1,814,434	29.93
3	Atlantic Southeast Airlines	2,808	527	970,316	28.94
4	Mesa Airlines	3,358	351	1,813,068	18.52
5	Delta Air Lines	27,374	5,516	15,904,335	17.21
6	Northwest Airlines	19,515	1,424	11,386,586	17.14
7	US Airways	19,348	2,182	12,994,097	14.89
8	AirTran Airways	6,484	107	5,080,108	12.76
9	United Airlines	17,517	604	15,013,562	11.67
10	American Airlines	22,133	2,213	20,850,796	10.61
11	Alaska Airlines	3,257	347	3,401,586	9.57
12	Continental Airlines	8,576	1,925	9,977,651	8.6
13	Southwest Airlines	19,222	2,874	22,903,022	8.39
14	American Eagle Airlines	319	67	561,144	5.68
15	Frontier Airlines	1,095	354	2,214,518	4.94
16	Hawaiian Airlines	408	85	1,674,816	2.44
17	Aloha Airlines	141	16	949,892	1.48
18	JetBlue Airways	0	19	5,090,815	0

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation

Each airline has different standards for what they will pay out. Some, such as Northwest, will give customers a $200 travel certificate if they are inconvenienced by a couple of hours or $400 for a longer layover. Others, like Delta Air Lines, usually offer a free round-trip ticket regardless of the situation. 

Of course, airline officials say, the pot gets sweeter if the gate agents have trouble finding volunteers.

Attorney Christopher Lotz, for example, scored a voucher worth about $1,000, enough for another European trip, by putting off his return from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to San Antonio, Texas, by one night. Northwest Airlines put him up in a hotel and gave him vouchers for food and round-trip airline transportation.

When to look for bumps

If you want to get bumped, analysts say, you should try to travel in peak times for your destination. Flights to and from business destinations such as Dallas or Atlanta fill up on Monday mornings and Friday evenings. Likewise, flights to touristy Orlando, Fla., often overbook on a peak Friday or Saturday. And the last flight of the day from most locations is usually full, said Josef Loew, the senior vice president of scheduled service for ATA Airlines. The peak summer season is full of overbooked flights, as are flights around holidays. 

Lotz, for example, knows that when he books his trips to Hawaii over the Christmas holiday or arranges flights back from Las Vegas on a Sunday night, he will most likely be offered a bump.

“I wouldn’t buy a ticket just to play the (overbooking) lottery,” he said. “But it’s almost always oversold.”

Some frequent travelers do see overbooking as a game, making specific travel plans because they think a flight will be oversold and that they can reap the rewards. Some turn to Web sites such as Bumptracker, which analyze the number of seats oversold on certain flights at certain times. Others analyze flight loads online and look at the number of competing flights from other airlines to make their selections. Bump strategy is discussed in great detail in a number of discussion groups on the Web, including the forums on sites such as FlyerTalk.

Sometimes patient travelers can score multiple tickets from a trip with a layover. Industry watcher Terry Trippler of Vacation Passport remembers when his daughter’s friend was bumped on her honeymoon from the four Northwest Airlines legs she took to Honolulu and back to her home in Minneapolis, Minn.

“They came home with four round-trip tickets to Honolulu and went back for their first anniversary,” Trippler said.

Those looking to cash in on airline overbooking should volunteer their names early. The airline can know as much as two hours ahead of departure time whether it will need volunteers to switch to another flight, said Loew, of ATA Airlines. Typically, most airlines offer compensation on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Oreck and Lotz also make it a practice never to check luggage. They said it makes them better candidates for a bump because gate agents don’t have to deal with hauling their luggage off of a plane.

It pays to be polite, they said, when a gate agent is frazzled, and it doesn’t hurt if you’re a member of some airline’s elite frequent-flier club. But even if you’re not, analysts say, try to negotiate a bit. Ask for an upgrade and a meal voucher to make the experience even more worthwhile. You won’t get these things unless you ask, Lotz said.

A free night on the town

When bumped from a Hawaii flight out of San Jose, Calif., Lotz asked for a next-day flight from San Francisco instead. He and his wife received a free ticket, a hotel night in a city they wanted to explore and $80 in meal vouchers. And they left for Honolulu the next day flying first class rather than coach. His only expense? He paid for a rental car to San Francisco. 

“You don’t want to jump at the first offer,” Lotz said. “You want to receive the best deal.”

If Lotz finds out someone else bumped from his flight had received $400 in vouchers and he got only $200, he will ask the agent to receive equal compensation. He also prefers to receive cash certificates instead of free round-trip tickets, so he can record the frequent-flier miles.

If you’re going to take a bump, be careful about how you handle the negotiation:

Make sure you’ve got a confirmed seat on another flight before you give up your reservation. You don’t want to wait days to fly out on standby.

Be clear on the restrictions, if you choose to receive a free travel voucher. Many are subject to blackout dates, and some trips must be booked at an airport instead of online or by phone.

Get your compensation in writing. Yoseph Goldstein of Flushing, N.Y., said he had agreed to a bump when his Delta flight from New York to Jacksonville, Fla., was overweight. He wasn’t given a travel voucher and was told instead that it would be taken care of at his destination. When he arrived in Jacksonville, his luggage had been loitering for more than an hour. And the agents there knew nothing about his change of plans. Goldstein ultimately had to contact Delta’s corporate headquarters and wait a few weeks for compensation.

Still, he said, he would choose to get bumped again, as long as he got compensation on the spot. And so would a growing number of people who are becoming familiar with the perks of being bumped. That’s why, Oreck said, it’s important not to push your luck when negotiating at the gate. Take what’s offered if you have the time, he said.

“My time is not so valuable when it’s not being used for a specific purpose,” Oreck said. Besides, he said, “Flying is a misadventure anyway.”

System works for airlines, too

There’s increased pressure for airlines to keep their seats full, and airline officials say they need to overbook to remain profitable. Flights are expected to be at 85% of capacity this summer, a 10-year high. 

Giving a $200 or $400 travel voucher is often less expensive for the airline than turning down a sale to a business traveler paying a much higher price — or taking off with empty seats because of no-shows and changed reservations, which typically account for 5% to 20% of a flight.

“This is entirely an issue of economics,” said ATA Airlines’ Loew.

If passengers make last-minute changes to their reservations, or just don’t show up and rebook later, they take away the opportunity to resell their original seats while filling spots on subsequent flights. In effect, the airlines can find themselves giving up two seats for the price of one ticket.

“Airline seats are perishable,” says David Castelveter of the Air Transport Association, a trade group for the industry. “When that aircraft leaves, the airline has lost the ability to sell that seat.”

Updated June 1, 2007

Some good information I just came across on the costs of flying: 

The secrets behind crazy air-travel prices

There’s a method to the seeming madness that prices the same ticket several different ways. Business and first-class travelers pay a premium that allows leisure passengers to fly for less.

By Karen Aho

Perhaps you’ve been here: You snag a flight cross country — and back — for just $320, board the plane and notice a bunch of empty seats. You think: How can an airline afford this?

A few months later, you repeat the trip on shorter notice. This time, you pay $1,200 for basically the same seat. You think: This airline is making a fortune off me.

But here’s the thing: Airlines are not crazy. They know exactly what they’re doing. They just don’t always tell customers.

And to some extent they can’t. The fares are so complicated, and change so often, that no travel agent — no computer, even — can tell you just what that ticket to Toledo will cost you next Tuesday.

“The yield-management system at the airlines has gotten so sophisticated,” said Victoria Wofford, the president of the business-travel firm Tri-Pen Management. “Travelers certainly don’t understand it, and the airline doesn’t want them to.”

Lesson No. 1: Flying isn’t cheap

The U.S. airline industry historically loses more than it makes — $35 billion in five years after 2000 alone — and is the butt of many a poor-investment joke. (The best may be from Virgin Atlantic Airways founder Richard Branson, who said that to become a millionaire, one must get a billion dollars and start an airline.) 

The problem lies in the convergence of two financial factors:

• Operating an airline is very expensive. 

• Its source of revenue, the airline seat, is highly perishable. The moment the plane takes off, that revenue opportunity is lost forever. It is often compared to a rotting banana. 

 

“It’s one of the toughest businesses I can think of to make money in,” said Daniel Petree, the dean of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s College of Business in Daytona Beach, Fla. “The landscape is littered with failures.”

No airline in the world has succeeded with a single-fare structure, said Peter Belobaba, a pricing management expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Global Airline Industry Program. They get beaten by the competition during off-peak travel.

“They learn pretty quickly that that’s not a revenue-maximizing, or profit-maximizing, way to go,” Belobaba said.

Take this hypothetical from American Airlines, the world’s largest airline and the only U.S. legacy carrier that hasn’t filed for bankruptcy. 

It costs American Airlines about 12 cents per available seat mile (that seat’s portion of all the airline’s costs) to fly a 757. With 188 seats, a 2,500-mile transcontinental flight on an American 757 must contribute $56,400 to the company’s coffers (188 multiplied by 0.12, then multiplied by 2,500). To do that, every seat must sell for $300 ($56,400 divided by 188), said Scott Nason, American’s vice president of revenue management.

Roughly two-thirds of that $56,400 is for fixed costs, such as equipment, labor and facilities, which must be paid whether that particular plane flies or not. Next, consider that because the plane is scheduled to fly, the airline is already committed to additional spending for fuel, landing fees and maintenance.

At that point, any additional costs associated with taking an extra passenger — the marginal costs — are extremely small, maybe a tiny bit of fuel and a can of soda pop. Industry analysts have put that cost at less than $30.

Now a low-cost competitor, able to shrink costs through new planes, lower salaries and a small route system, steps in and offers tickets for $250.

“What would you do?” Nason said. “I really need to cover the seat at $300. My choice is getting $250 or nothing. I’m better off getting $250.”

“That is a philosophy . . . that drives the industry to lose money,” Nason said. “There aren’t 188 people willing to pay over $300 for each of those seats.

“As long as the cost is above your short-run marginal costs, you’re better off lowering your fare than having that seat go empty. But if you do it everywhere, then you lose money.”

Who paid what

Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.			Los Angeles to San Francisco
Fare paid	Number of passengers	Percentage	Fare paid	Passengers	Percentage
$0 to $49	280	0.1%	$0 to $49	10,600	2.1%
$50 to $149	36,570	12.0%	$50 to $149	430,400	83.9%
$150 to $249	152,380	50.1%	$150 to $249	48,260	9.4%
$250 to $349	50,600	16.6%	$250 to $349	12,110	2.4%
$350 to $449	16,960	5.6%	$350 to $449	3,560	0.7%
$450 to $549	12,190	4.0%	$450 to $549	2,640	0.5%
$550 to $649	9,330	3.1%	$550 to $649	3,320	0.6%
$650 to $749	8,820	2.9%	$650 to $749	1,600	0.3%
$750 to $849	5,650	1.9%	$750 to $849	260	0.1%
$850 to $949	2,080	0.7%	$850 and up	230	0.0%
$950 to $1,049	1,440	0.5%	Total	512,980
$1,050 to $1,149	1,570	0.5%
$1,150 to $1,249	1,330	0.4%
$1,250 and up	4,740	1.6%
Total	303,940

Numbers are based on a 10% sample from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Origin and Destination Survey for the first quarter of 2007, then adjusted to 100%. Flights are one way and exclude frequent-flier seats. Source: Back Aviation Solutions

The answer: Product segmentation

Because a single price scheme doesn’t work, the airlines have pioneered an elaborate system to create different products, or fares, within a single flight, for which they charge different prices. Your seat might look the same as the guy’s in 15F, but he actually bought a different product. Most likely, so did everyone on the plane. 

Yield management, or, as it’s now called, revenue management, uses three general techniques:

• Entice passengers who are willing to pay to pay more for attractive amenities, such as comfort (extra legroom and bigger seats), speed (priority check-in and boarding), services (meals, beverages and additional flight attendants) and perks (lounge access and entertainment).
• Keep passengers who are willing to pay from buying discounted fares by imposing unattractive restrictions on those fares, such as prohibiting one-way combinations and layovers, adding stops, requiring advance purchase and minimum stays, and charging penalties for changes and extra amounts for peak seasons, days or times.
• Price remaining seats low enough to stimulate demand among those who otherwise might not fly, thus filling seats that would otherwise remain empty.

 

This is not a complete list of restrictions and perks. A single ticket’s fare conditions might run nine pages. Carl de Marcken, a co-founder of ITA Software, which writes airline shopping software for Orbitz and major airlines, computed 25.4 million possible fare combinations for one round-trip American Airlines route by allowing travel within one day on each end.

Open the possibilities — here’s where a math degree comes in handy — and it is considered effectively mathematically impossible to find the lowest available fare for a trip. There are simply too many combinations to multiply.

Why so many fares? Because each fare comes with its own supply-and-demand curve that helps the airline fetch the highest price. Powerful software tools forecast demand for each seat, then automatically recalibrate the flight, and those around it, when a ticket is purchased. This is why fares appear to change within days or even hours. Such revenue management is credited with helping the industry finally generate profits in the 1990s.

“If you can figure out how to get an extra buck on a seat you’re going to be doing well,” said Petree, of Embry-Riddle. “It’s actually down in the cents, the fractions of cents. That’s how tight the margins are.”

Cheap ticket? Thank a businessman

Any question you’ve ever had about why tickets are priced differently can be answered by asking not how much extra that fare cost the airline — maybe nothing — but by considering the demand for that seat. If someone else is willing to pay more for it, then it is priced higher. Simple as that. 

Take a particularly odd example: It can cost more to fly from Boston to Chicago than from Boston to Chicago to Los Angeles. Why? Because the demand is greater for the Boston-to-Chicago flight; it’s a popular business route.

Same for the old Saturday-night-stay requirement, which served no purpose other than to push business travelers toward the higher Friday fares, said MIT’s Belobaba. 

Internationally, business class generates 3.5 to 4.5 times more revenue than coach, where 5% to 20% of seats might be sold under cost, said industry analyst Henry Harteveldt of Forrester Research.

“Every travel manager out there I know for big corporations feels as if they are being taken advantage of,” said Brad Seitz, the president of Topaz International, a travel-auditing firm. It makes sense from the airline’s perspective, he said, but consultants who must travel on short notice are held captive. “They’re paying the highest fares at the last minute.”

Leisure travelers, treated as more elastic consumers, have benefited. From 1980 — shortly after deregulation in 1978 — to 2005, median airfares have declined 40%, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office study, with fares dropping even more in long-haul markets.

Thank the folks in first class, too

On a recent United Airlines flight from New York City to San Francisco, the lowest fare was $319, round trip. The highest, an unrestricted first-class seat, sold for $3,300, one way — about 20 times more. The data were presented by Tri-Pen Management and were not unusual, say analysts. 

So, what does a flier get for an extra $6,300 (assuming he or she makes the return trip as well)?

• Personal attention. A first-class cabin might have one attendant for every 10 or 15 passengers, as opposed to one for every 50 in coach. 
• More room. This includes legroom, wide, reclining chairs that might go flat, and laptop work space. The actual dimensions differ by airline. Check out SeatGuru for details on all kinds of airline seats. 
• Networking opportunities. “If you’re a businessperson, you meet a lot of interesting people, high-powered people,” said Bob Cowen of InternetTravelTips.com. You could land next to a champion road warrior, a frequent flier with good travel stories or even a minor celebrity.
• Quasi-fine dining. Complimentary appetizers, beverages or hot meals. And it’s OK to ask for more.
• A better movie selection. Easier access to the magazine rack.
• Shorter lines. First-class travelers need to arrive at the airport early, but they may use separate security gates with much shorter lines.
• Lounge access. First-class tickets typically come with a day pass to the airline’s club lounge. Lounges have a relaxed atmosphere, wireless computer access, food and sometimes complimentary drinks. International flight lounges might offer showers and gourmet meals. 
• Better help. The lounges are staffed with senior ticket agents who appear knowledgeable and unflustered. No huddling in the crowds at the gate counter.

 

If you’re back in coach, cramped in a seat and clutching your last bag of peanuts, you might well nod a friendly “thank you” to the high rollers on the way out rather than scowling.

After all, their bills help fund the airline and, in part, your ability to fly on the cheap.

Published Aug. 24, 2007

I had a pretty food filled few days…7 meals out from Wednesday night to Sunday morning.  Managed to hit some ”99″ places as well.  Also went to the Getty.  It’s been at least 8 years since I went last.  It wows.

Father’s Office - definitely lives up to the hype, which is rare.  The burgers are more like steak sandwiches.  Really incredible.  the only think I would have like more would be if there was more blue cheese.  I love blue cheese!  I was concerned about the sweet potato fries as I don’t like my food to be sweet but they were perfectly cooked and delicious.  Can’t want to go back and will recommend to everyone I know.

Attari - was pretty good.  The guy at the counter (I assume owner) was so nice and offered us free soup because we were first timers.  Everything was good but I wasn’t wowed but anything.  I may try it again.

Tried to go to Royale but it was closed on a Saturday at 7:30pm?  What’s up with that?  Also realized that I’ve been to Guelaguetza before and that we went to Metro Café before I left for the trip so I’ve updated the list.  27 down.

Abode

Alcazar

Angeli Caffe

Angelini Osteria

A.O.C.

Apple Pan

Attari (updated June 7, 2008)

A-Won

Babita

Bar Marmont

Beacon: An Asian Cafe

Bin 8945

Blue Velvet

Border Grill

Bulgarini Gelato

Caioti Pizza Café

Campanile

Canele

Casa Bianca

Chamea

Chichén Itzá

Chung King

Ciudad

Cora’s Coffee Shoppe

Cut

Daikokuya

Dino’s Burgers

Drago

El Huarache Azteca

El Parian

Elite

Euro Pane Bakery

Father’s Office (updated June 6, 2008)

Fogo de Chao

Foundry

Fraîche

Golden Deli

Golden Triangle

Grace

Green Village

The Grill on the Alley

Guelaguetza

Hatfield’s

The Hungry Cat

Il Moro

Jar

JiRaffe

Kagaya

Kiriko

Koi

Krua Thai

Langer’s

La Casita Mexicana

La Terza

Literati II

The Lodge

Los Balcones del Peru

Lou

Lucques

M Café de Chaya

Macau Street

Marouch

Max

Meals by Genet

Mélisse

Metro Café (updated May 2008)

Michael’s

Mimosa

Musso & Frank Grill

Noodle House

Nook

101 Noodle Express

Oinkster

Opus

Orris

Ortolan

Patina

Philippe the Original

Phillips’ Barbecue

Pizzeria Mozza

Pollo a la Brasa

Providence

Rajdhani

Royale

Sapp Coffee Shop (updated May 2008)

750ml

Simon L.A.

Sona

Spago

Square One

Tacos Baja Ensenada

Tama

Urasawa

Uzbekistan

Valentino

Village Idiot

Vincenti

Water Grill

Woodlands