Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

blog.alaskaair.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 124 posts

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#71

Post by sokoloff »

danielvf wrote: post #9
ethbro wrote: post #2

Does anyone have pointers on where I could get an estimate on average maintenence costs / flight hour & fuel costs for a Boeing 737-900ER? Interested in working up a rough number for how much this cost to make happen. Can't imagine it was profitable. And very cool! Edit: Per Boeing [1], they quote $151 / flight hour in actual service on a 737-800. Random site [2] gives fuel on a 737-900ER as 0.17 km per litre / 0.40…

A small sized business jet charters for about $1,000 an hour. I'd guess a long 737 would go for between $10,000 and $25,000 an hour. Edit: Here are some charter prices: http://www.aircharterguide.com/Aircraft/Manufacturer/BOEING

Conklin and de Decker are a respected (though not perfect) source for variable operating costs for various airframes.

They list the various BBJs (which are based on 737s) at $5360-$5749 per hour.

https://www.conklindd.com/ReportTemp/ACEWebReports/_%20BBJ_%...

BBJ3 is based on the 737-900ER

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#72

Post by [deleted] »

KGIII wrote: post #61
mikeash wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious too. I wish I had something more concrete than "it's much higher than that." The best bet may be to look at charter prices, then divide by some small factor (2-4?) to account for profit margins and the better economies of scale an airline will have and such.

If you ping me tomorrow, I can try to get you those numbers. I know a bunch of pilots. They'll even let me fly the plane. I'm sure they will have some sources but it's too late to bug them tonight.

[deleted]

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#73

Post by sokoloff »

ethbro wrote: post #44
mikeash wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. On closer examination, that's specifically airframe maintenance. So that would exclude engines and probably other important and expensive things.

Good point. I was interested in how much Alaskan had to foot for pure curiousity reasons. I have no idea how much the actual cost of a flight is.

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15103535

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#74

Post by DigitalJack »

limeblack wrote: post #59

Here is a picture I took after messing with the aperture and having quite a long lense https://i.stack.imgur.com/YvyJB.jpg from Robinsville NC. I swear you can see stars in there but could be wrong.

Mercury was visible to the naked eye, but I didn’t see much else. Was not really looking for stars though.

Nice shot, btw.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#75

Post by joemag »

NoPiece wrote: post #53
kyleblarson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alaska is a great airline. I fly about 70k miles per year on them and am very rarely disappointed.

Sat in the back on an Alaska flight to Hawaii and they ran out of food a couple rows before me. Felt like a bad MBA optimization - save $20 on food by under buying at the cost of periodically making a few passenger unhappy for a 5 hour flight.

Same thing happened to us, also on a flight to Hawaii. Except we sat near the middle of the plane. We had to feed our two young kids using various snacks and cheese plates.

Seems like there is a systemic failure - their food oversubscription system doesn't correct for a fact that on a six hour flight almost every passenger will buy food.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#76

Post by DigitalJack »

njarboe wrote: post #52

I was watching the eclipse in Corvallis and, about 10 minutes before totality, a plane jetted around at high altitude and left a contrail[1]. The new cloud, in the otherwise perfectly clear sky, began to drift toward the sun and I thought, "There could be few better symbols of the attitude that some of %0.0001 have to the rest of us than this." Fortunately, even though the contrail did drift over the sun during total…

Saw that too, from Albany.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#77

Post by evincarofautumn »

njarboe wrote: post #52

I was watching the eclipse in Corvallis and, about 10 minutes before totality, a plane jetted around at high altitude and left a contrail[1]. The new cloud, in the otherwise perfectly clear sky, began to drift toward the sun and I thought, "There could be few better symbols of the attitude that some of %0.0001 have to the rest of us than this." Fortunately, even though the contrail did drift over the sun during total…

Strange, I was between Corvallis and Albany and don’t recall that at all. I must have been too distracted by the experience to notice much.

We put on Dark Side of the Moon as thematic music. By pure accident, the climactic finish of the album, “Eclipse”, just happened to start playing as totality hit, and ended as the “diamond ring” appeared. I’ll never forget those two minutes as long as I live.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#78

Post by rdiddly »

KGIII wrote: post #65
rdiddly wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I object to the phrase "great American" because it's hackneyed & trite.

This is America. You can complain, if you want. You have that right. We also have the right to laugh at you. It was a pretty great eclipse.

Yeah. I get it. It was great, like every eclipse is great. And it was visible in America. So strictly speaking it was indeed a "great American eclipse." But not everything that's technically true deserves to be turned into a Cheesy Marketing Buzzword Made Of Wishful Thinking.

America is on the down-slide of greatness. You can tell this by taking an honest look around, but also just by listening to the widespread shrill insistence on how great it still is. So "Great American This" and "Great American That" is not only played-out as I said, but probably inaccurate as there become fewer and fewer great things to be found in America.

Anyway. The phrase "Great American Eclipse" also sounds just a tiny bit like America is taking credit for the eclipse, when of course the eclipse didn't need any help from America. America just happened to be underneath it this time around.

Finally it reeks of the same old American self-congratulation (for things that are not at all unique to America) that you can see almost anywhere in America, including your comment, patronizingly reminding me of my rights.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#79

Post by ethbro »

sokoloff wrote: post #71
danielvf wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A small sized business jet charters for about $1,000 an hour. I'd guess a long 737 would go for between $10,000 and $25,000 an hour. Edit: Here are some charter prices: http://www.aircharterguide.com/Aircraft/Manufacturer/BOEING

Conklin and de Decker are a respected (though not perfect) source for variable operating costs for various airframes. They list the various BBJs (which are based on 737s) at $5360-$5749 per hour. https://www.conklindd.com/ReportTemp/ACEWebReports/_%20BBJ_%... BBJ3 is based on the 737-900ER

Thanks! So that looks like ~$26,125 for a 4.75 hr flight in pure costs (fuel, plane and engine maintainence) exclusive of crew pay. If the numbers are totalling the line items above.

So call it around $50k all included.

Depreciation doesn't look like it's in that number either, but I'd say that's probably ignorable when you're as heavily utilized as a major carrier plane is.

That seems like a good ballpark number for something a carrier would agree to. Not something to do every day, but arguably worth the PR and not going to torpedo the company either.

Re: Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet

#80

Post by ethbro »

KGIII wrote: post #61
mikeash wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious too. I wish I had something more concrete than "it's much higher than that." The best bet may be to look at charter prices, then divide by some small factor (2-4?) to account for profit margins and the better economies of scale an airline will have and such.

If you ping me tomorrow, I can try to get you those numbers. I know a bunch of pilots. They'll even let me fly the plane. I'm sure they will have some sources but it's too late to bug them tonight.

Based on sokoloff's source, it looks to be a bit under $50k in total cost (to the airline).

If you want to run that number by your friends for a 4.75 hr flight in a 737-900ER, it'd be nice to get confirmation.

PS: You lucky dog. I've been debating going for my pilot's license.

Post reply on HN