Song Airlines: It's Truly Delta But With Flashy Lime Green Clothing (Updated 2/06)
Written: Aug 25 '03 (Updated Feb 21 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: clean, decent overall service, friendly ground personnel at Fort Lauderdale
Cons: overpriced food, late, long baggage waits, unreliable entertainment system, price gouging
The Bottom Line: While Song offers a decent product, there are better airlines out there. In addition, they price gouge.
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| jetbluefan1's Full Review: Song Airlines |
Recently I went to Ft. Lauderdale. My wife and I flew down with Delta Air Lines from LaGuardia Airport in NYC. I found a fare through Delta’s travel planners for $205 round trip including all airport taxes and fees. I bough the tickets knowing that Song would be launching the route a few days after we came back home. I really wanted to try Song - Delta’s brand new subsidiary - and lucky for me - I did. Well, I really wasn’t that lucky...
While we were in Florida, there was a major blackout in the Northeast. When turning on CNN, it said to check with the airline to confirm all travel plans. So I called Delta and they told me that the flight back to LaGuardia was on-time as scheduled. After I hung up with them, I checked back on CNN and the reporters said to avoid LaGuardia.
I called back Delta and told them to put us on the Song flight to JFK International Airport. To put both my wife and I on a Song flight, we had to pay over $500 in cancellation and fare difference fees. Had I called back earlier in the week, I would have been able to avoid paying the $500 completely. This was because Delta and Song were allowing passengers affected by the blackout to change his or her travel plans without paying penalties.
The Song employees are former Delta employees. Song’s CEO and marketing managers decided to interview Delta’s friendliest workers and then hired them for Song. Also, Song’s planes are repainted Delta 757 planes.
Check-In
Our original flight on Delta was scheduled to leave Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport at 9:15am. The closest flight to that time on Song was at 9:50 am. We were dropped off at the airport by the limo at 7:15am. The curb-side check-in seemed to be moving very slow, so we decided to check-in inside instead.
When we entered, a Song agent told us to use the kiosks to check-in. We told him that we had had a problem on Delta with the kiosks, and he told us that an agent behind the counter would help us in case we needed help. We approached the kiosk and again had the same problem as on the way down to Florida - both of our tickets didn’t show up; only mine did.
We called over a Song agent who volunteered to help us. When she found that the kiosk was really messed up, she checked my wife in on her computer. While she was doing that, a friendlier agent had us help her weigh our suitcases and ticket them. Overall, it took us ten minutes to check-in. We had also asked for seats together, but they said that it couldn’t be done because the flight was full. I believed them at that moment, but - no - the flight wasn’t full. There were about 15 open seats.
Security
Security is not operated by Delta nor Song. It’s actually operated by the TSA. Ever since the TSA took over security screening, some of the passengers have to bring their check-in luggage to the machines to be screened. The owners of the luggage have to be at the screening center while they are searched for bombs and other deadly explosives.
After we did that, we went to the screening of our carry-ons and to the metal detector area. There was a very short line. We had to show our tickets to the TSA member. If one doesn’t have a ticket, then they cannot go through security and get into the gate area. The man looked at our tickets very closely to make sure that our flight was flying out of the terminal. At that time, only passengers leaving on flights until 10:00 were let into the gate area.
Both my wife and I had to take off our shoes before going through the metal detectors. When my wife went through, the machine beeped and she was ordered to clear her pockets. She did and she handed a TSA worker a pocket knife. The worker said that they were looking for Swiss Army Knives and said that he would have to take it from her. She asked if they could send it in the mail to her. They said that there was no way that could be done. However, that’s a lie. It can be done and has been done. I knew that and so did my wife, but we didn’t feel like arguing that early in the morning.
Boarding
Song occupies gate D1 and gate D2. It will soon by operating flights out of gate D3. Our plane was scheduled to leave from gate D1 which was decorated with fake fish heads sticking out of the ceiling. When we got to the sitting area, an announcement from the gate agents told us that the flight would be delayed until 10:00am. That meant a ten minute delay, but that’s no biggie.
We started boarding at 9:45. Since Song doesn’t have a first class, they started with pre-boarding for elderly people, children traveling alone, and passengers traveling with infants. After them, we boarded the plane from the back to the front in increments of three rows. This made the boarding process very slow and we actually departed at 10:20am. This made us a half an hour behind schedule.
The agents that were doing the boarding calls were also our ticketing agents who attempted to help us with the kiosk. The friendlier one remembered that she had trouble pronouncing my wife’s name, Toula. It’s not that hard: Too-la. She stood there talking to us for five minutes about the name as she tried getting it right. My wife and I gave her nervous smiles because we weren’t quite sure why she was holding us up even though the plane was already late. I guess it was ok though because she was trying to be friendly, so I give her credit.
Flight
There are four flight attendants per flight. All of ours were women and were wearing their brand new Song uniforms. When Song said that they were hiring Delta’s friendliest and best workers, I think they may have gone insane. Our flight attendants really weren’t too friendly and weren’t enthusiastic. However, they got their jobs done quickly.
Drinks are complimentary aboard Song. I had a Coke while my wife had a Sprite. Song doesn’t serve food for free, however. Since Song is supposedly a low-fare airline, they don’t serve food for free. We didn’t order anything, but the menu offered overpriced sandwiches and extremely expensive chips, cookies and chocolate. I never have heard of someone charging $2 for a Snickers bar. Song also has a signature drink called the Song Sunrise. We tried it for $3 a piece. It had vodka, orange juice, cranberry juice, and was mixed with tiny particles of ice. I liked it.
The seats were different colors such as orange, light blue, and Song’s planes’ color: lime green. They were also leather, but they weren’t cushion-y or anything. They actually were less comfortable than regular cloth seats. They were also very small, but then again, what else is new...The legroom was pretty good, however.
The planes were clean because the interiors have been changed around dramatically. It was freshly painted inside, but the isle has so thin that I could hardly role my carry-on down the isle to exit and enter the plane. There were four bathrooms - one in the used-to-be first class section when Delta still operated the plane, one in the front of the used-to-be coach section, and two all the way in the back. I’m happy to say that the bathrooms were clean.
Arrival
As a result of the delay in Ft. Lauderdale, we arrived 36 minutes after our scheduled arrival time. When we landed at JFK, we were at the end of Terminal 8. Song operates out of Terminal 2, so we had to taxi forever to get to the gate. Once we made it to the gate area, we found out that we would have to let several planes leave the gate area until we could pull in. I stepped foot out of the plane 55 minutes after scheduled.
When we got to the baggage claim area (about a 10 minute walk from the gate - I'm not even exaggerating), we found that we didn’t have an assigned conveyer belt. All 166 of us went to different baggage claims hoping that it was our flight. About ten minutes later, our flight number showed up above one of the conveyer belts. Baggage started circling for about 20 minutes after our conveyer belt was found. About 30 people had left when the conveyer belt stopped. There were still 130+ of us waiting for our luggage. About ten minutes later, the belt started up again and out came the rest of our luggage. When my wife and I found ours, we walked out of the airport slightly disappointed with our Song experience.
Conclusion
As you can tell, we didn’t have the best situation. Our flight was delayed for an hour, ticketing in Ft. Lauderdale took forever, we waited over a half an hour for the baggage claim to start, and we didn’t have a the most comfortable flight. The positives were that the ground service and Ft. Lauderdale were friendly and helpful. Also, the planes were clean and overall the service was decent.
*Update, March 7, 2005: I flew Song down to Fort Lauderdale this past weekend for a day-trip with a co-worker as she had never tried it before and was interested to see what it was like. Overall, our experience was similar to that of the one reviewed. Our flight down was on-time while our return was delayed about a half an hour. However, the entertainment system was installed which included 24 channels of TV, video games and a music selection. I concluded that their entertainment was really not that great when the service cut out for over 45 minutes on our return trip.
*Update, February 21, 2006: My dad recently flew Song down to West Palm Beach. He was originally scheduled to fly JetBlue out of JFK on Sunday, February 13, but his flight was cancelled because of a major blizzard. JFK was closed and he was not able to get another seat down to Florida until Tuesday. He called Song and they had a seat available for Monday, but the one-way price was an exorbitant $550. There were no other seats available on any other airline, so my dad was forced to pay the fare as he had to be in Florida by Monday night. This goes to show you that Song is really not a low fare airline; $550 for a 2.5 hour flight is by no means a decent fare. I don't care if all other flights are sold out, etc. - $550 is price gouging at its worst. By comparison, JetBlue's highest fare to Florida that Monday (they had a seat available to Tampa, but nothing on the eastern coast) was $294 - almost half of what Song was asking. I would compare this to 9/11 when gas stations were pricing their fuel $5.00+ just so that people could drive home. Disgusting.
Visit my Flysong.com Online Store review at: http://www.epinions.com/content_194853506692
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