Sounds Good: Our Review of New Budget Carrier Song's Inaugural Flight

It's a scary time to start an airline.

The war and SARS have potential fliers huddling in their basements. Major airlines are barely staving off bankruptcy. As a challenge to this wintry climate, Delta has started a new airline flying to sunny destinations. Song promises bright colors, cheerful service, low fares and high technology on its New York-Florida routes.

If that sounds a lot like JetBlue, that's not a coincidence. JetBlue has cut into Delta's traditionally profitable Florida routes in recent years, and Song is Delta's riposte. If this new approach succeeds, you can bet American, United and the rest will unveil their own jewel-colored low-fare carriers faster than you can say "Chapter 11."

(Full disclosure, first: along with a slew of other press, I was flown down free on the first flight.)

Caviar and Vodka at 7:30...in the Morning

You want fun? How about a three-ring circus?

Arriving at JFK at a far-too-early 7:30 in the morning for Song's inaugural flight, I breezed through security and ran straight into a party.

In one corner of Gate 25, six wiry women were practicing yoga poses. In another, a ponytailed chef stirred up smoothies. And hidden behind the stage for the live band, a full bar served up signature cocktails. With Stoli vodka. At 7:30.

After half an hour, a band made up entirely of Song employees played terrifying wedding-band renditions of Billy Joel songs, as trays of scrambled eggs and caviar in little pastry boats sailed by. Flight attendants shook their booties, clapped and chanted "Zone 1! Let's go, Zone 1!" as each boarding group was called. A little girl grabbed two skewers of fruit and four sugar cubes for a snack. Elderly passengers looked a little bewildered.

As we taxied out of JFK, fire trucks gave the plane a celebratory send-off with their hoses, surrounding our lime-green jet with misty rainbows.

If this is the future of air travel, sure, sign me up.

The flight down to West Palm Beach was crazy -- not because of the jewel-colored seats or comfortable legroom, but because of the extended sense of hysterical happiness. At one point, the flight attendants called out that it was the passenger in seat 33C's birthday; Song CEO John Selvaggio reached up into the overhead compartment, got down his trumpet, and serenaded her. Then, perhaps to make up for the lack of an in-flight entertainment system, he started taking requests. The head of Song plays a pretty good Sinatra.

Sing a New Song

When it all comes down to it, what are Song's innovations? Rather than just copying JetBlue, they've decided to make improvements on several fronts.

• More than TV. When Song's seatback TV systems come online this fall, they won't just offer 24 channels of satellite TV. They'll also have pay-per-view movies, dozens of CDs worth of music and games that you'll play against other passengers. For now, flight attendants will hand out Nintendo Game Boy Advance handhelds with six games to anyone who asks.
  
• Tastes Good For the Soul. Song offers a menu of decent-quality food that you pay for: $2 for a giant Snickers bar, $1 for an organic yogurt and $5-7 for a pretty good sandwich. As the summer goes on, a consulting chef will come up with a range of unique foods with all-organic ingredients, sourced from local New York and Florida farmers. No limp, industrial sandwiches here.
  
• Junking JFK. A perplexing muddle of disconnected terminals with lousy connections to the rest of the city, JFK is a miserable introduction to New York. Later this summer, Song will start flying from Newark and LaGuardia -- both much more pleasant airports.
  
• Lots of Legroom. Song offers 33" of leg room per seat -- more than either Delta or JetBlue.
  
• The Delta Connection. Song flights offer Delta frequent flier miles, a big boost over JetBlue's rather limp frequent-flier program.

Back to Reality

The first flight of Song was gleefully hysterical, but on my return flight on Wednesday, reality began to set in.

At Palm Beach airport, a slight scrum developed in front of the check-in kiosks, where there was no orderly line. The plane back to New York was half-empty, and although service was cheerful and friendly, there was no CEO serenading passengers with his silvery sounds.

Still, the folks I spoke to on the flight enjoyed the legroom and the upbeat attitudes of the flight attendants, and the for-sale food was tastier than major airlines' nightmarish turkey sandwiches.

Would I fly Song again? If the price was right, sure. Would I prefer Song over JetBlue at the same price? Maybe not right now -- but when they start flying out of LaGuardia and get that entertainment system online, they'll have some compelling competitive advantages.

Beyond the glitz, Song now needs to prove itself as a reliable carrier. Phil Fraumeni, a retiree who splits his time between Brooklyn and Florida, put it this way: "JetBlue is always on-time, with on-time arrivals." More than anything else, winning over passengers like Fraumeni is going to be Song's test.

The Details: Flying Song

At the moment, Song flies only from New York's JFK airport to West Palm Beach, Florida. But by the end of the summer, they'll have 23 routes, all from the Northeast to Florida except for a Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas route. Find the full list here: www.flysong.com/home/new_cities.jsp.

Song fares range from $79 to $299 one way, with the lowest fares requiring a 14-day advance purchase. You can buy tickets up to a year in advance. The fee for changing a ticket is $25, much lower than Delta's change fee but the same as JetBlue's. You can use and redeem Delta SkyMiles on Song flights.

Buy tickets for Song at www.flysong.com.