BR715-A1-30 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (3 years 5 months 4 hours ago) and read 2330 times:
Can anyone tell me "the story" of Reno Air?
How they were started... where the first airplanes came from... Did they order their MD80s/MD90s new, or did they come from another carrier....destinations served... in-flight service... Experiences... and I already know AA got them, but how? Any info would be appreciated.
AY104 From Canada, joined Nov 2005, 442 posts, RR: 8 Reply 1, posted (3 years 5 months 3 hours ago) and read 2281 times:
Unfortunately, Reno Air's existence was short-lived. I believe they started up
service in 1993 and merged, or were bought out by American Airlines in 1999.
During most of their operation, I was working for Delta Air Lines at YVR. I remember when I heard that they were going to start up service to YVR I was absolutely delighted. Reno is one of my favourite small cities, and I have had many a happy experience there, playing the slots and just walking aroung the city. We were also very fortunate to have a wonderful lady for the Station Manager, who granted just about every airline employee who wanted fly with them a free ticket.
The inflight service was pretty basic, although they did not have long flights. In economy, just pretzels, peanuts etc. and charge for alcohol. Fortunately, they had about 24 First Class seats on every plane, and their policy was to upgrade airline employees anytime there was space. First, of course, was the usual 2+2 seating, decent leg room, free booze, and a small snack basket with half a sub and an apple, or in the morning a danish, fruit and some yogurt.
The crew was always great on those flights! Never a problem asking for anything that they served, always cheerful with a good sense of humor. The front end crew was the same. I really got a soft spot for the airline, not just because of the free tickets, but because of the real old-fashioned western type of hospitality. As a matter of fact, I did work for Western Airlines from 1975 to 1986 (when they merged with Delta), and I often compared the Reno Air service to the old Western days, which were great. Not as elaborate in the catering maybe, but definitely most hospitable.
I actually was so fond of them, that I did buy full-fare tickets with them on numerous occasions, especially travelling with my aunt to Las Vegas (they connected from YVR to LAS in Reno. The fares were more than reasonable. I only wish that I had saved a timetable. I think San Jose CA was also a hub for them, they flew from RNO to PDX, SEA, YVR, DEN, TUS and Los Angeles, and numerous other places over the years, I don't remember which airport in the LA are, though. In the last couple of years I believe they started service from RNO to ORD, quite a lond distance, I was never on one of those flights but they did have a meal service I believe.
I know the MD80's were not new, and they had 2 versions, one slightly smaller than the other. The few MD90's were new, though, and seems to me they only had those the last couple of years.
Anyway, I had been laid off from my job at Delta in 1998 when they pulled out of YVR. When I heard the next year that Reno Air had gone out of business, it was a sad day for me indeed. I felt so bad for all the employees who seemed to go out of the way to make everyone's journey as pleasant as possible. I still miss them to this day, there is no longer any direct service from YVR. If I can think of anything more, I will post it.
Cheers,
AY104
The only thing a customer should expect for his/her loyalty is good service
AY104 From Canada, joined Nov 2005, 442 posts, RR: 8 Reply 2, posted (3 years 5 months 3 hours ago) and read 2272 times:
I forgot the most important part in my reply. I remember seeing a website months ago, a history of Reno Air, and now I found it again: http://www.renoair.net/
It's a really well put-together site - enjoy!!
AY104
The only thing a customer should expect for his/her loyalty is good service
Wedgetail737 From United States, joined Aug 2003, 3980 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 2182 times:
I flew QQ pretty anytime I had the opportunity. My first flight on QQ was SFO-SEA. During their existence, I had flown QQ on SJC-LAX, SJC-RNO, SJC-SEA and SJC-RNO-SEA on MD-80's, MD-90's and MD-87's.
RoseFlyer From United States, joined Feb 2004, 5614 posts, RR: 27 Reply 5, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 2149 times:
I flew Reno Air once. I went to Lake Tahoe with my family when I was younger, and we flew Reno Air from Seattle to Reno. They seemed like a nice little airline. I can't remember much about it, so they must have been pretty good. I was pretty young at the time.
I always find their history to be interesting. They bought facilities from American when AA downsized SJC. Reno Air turned SJC into a working hub for them, and then AA ended up buying back Reno Air and regaining SJC as a hub, but within a few years every Reno Air route was dropped that AA had not operated at the time of the merger.
I also remember a story from when my mother flew Reno Air from Los Angeles to Seattle via Reno. Her travel agent booked her on them since they had cheap first class. However the weather in Seattle was bad, and she ended up getting stuck in Reno for 5 hours. In order to appease the passengers, they actually brought out a galley cart and left it in the gate area and let people help themselves to any drinks that they wanted.
Quoting Gunsontheroof (Reply 3): I remember seeing their jets all the time at SEA back in the mid-90s. I believe they used the old A gates.
When I flew them, they used the B gates. I can't remember which one, but it was near the end and next to Continental.
ABQopsHP From United States, joined May 2006, 481 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 2006 times:
RenoAirs flight from LAX-ABQ was always full in F/C, and the loads in Y were great as well. There were a lot of people that prefured assigned seating and F/C that they couldnt get on WN. I once flew QQ from ABQ-DRO and back for the day just for the fun of it. It was a pleasant 40 min flight in both directions and got F/C since it was a thru flight from LAX. When QQ merged with AA some of their employees in ABQ went to work at HP/CO/DL and AA, the ones at AA quit because they found AA to be too militant and rigid. Those that stayed with HP(US) have been a blast to work with. Also a little note to mention, QQ had a stand alone operation from GPT-SFB, and I never found out how well that operation did.
F9Animal From United States, joined Dec 2004, 3384 posts, RR: 35 Reply 7, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 1969 times:
I flew QQ several times, and had very close friends that worked for QQ in several positions from reservations to pilots. QQ was a great little airline. If I am not mistaken, they had close to 30 aircraft in their fleet during their prime time. Good inflight service. FC was very nice, and the MD-80 and 90's were comfortable. They had a good route system, and had very good employees.
When I heard AA was taking them over, I was very saddened. Unfortunatley, many of the old QQ's got the axe in LAS. They had a reservations center in LAS that was closed down. Many of them were from QQ.
I was actually hired by QQ, and while packing my bags to go to RNO for training, I got a call from UA. Of course, it was not a difficult decision to make at that point in my career. QQ was great even when I worked for UA. When we had a flight cancellation, QQ was always the first airline to call for anything on the west coast. They took the tickets at face value.
The airline was great, and I miss those QQ days. Wish they would have hung around and stuck it out, but sadly it did not.
QQ was a nice little airline, not especially known for being ontime though, grrrr, and it was sad to see it become another AirCal, bought up by AA and dismantled.
Searpqx From United States, joined Jun 2000, 4331 posts, RR: 28 Reply 10, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 1862 times:
Just some assorted memories. Overall I really liked them, and they treated non-revs well. At SEA, they flew out of the B gates, at the end of the concourse, coincidentally same area as the old AA gates before AA moved to C. They also had a small crew base in SEA. Their ticket counter was between BA & NW, in the space that MAC is in now. Seattle was always one of their premier stations, though service fluctuated as they played with their system. Like all start-ups, they went through several iterations trying to decide who they wanted to be, and where they wanted to fly. At one point they shifted most of their hub flying to SJC, then a few months later shifted it back to Reno. As Westy mentioned, they had some issues with schedules, but I think that was as much heavy fleet utilization as anything.
My partner worked for them their last two years, and loved it. He'd been with AA in ORD and DFW and when AA bought them out, he quit rather than go back to AA (plus his hours were going to be chopped by 2/3). His last day was the last day QQ operated independently.
"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity"
Vegasplanes From United States, joined Jun 2005, 683 posts, RR: 3 Reply 11, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1814 times:
Quoting Mlsrar (Reply 8): and I believe DTW for a short while as well.
They served DTW, around 94 or 95, also MSP. They had a bit of a problem with a certain airline dumping flights and cheap seats on the market just as they started service. AA/UA from ORD did not seem to mind QQ as much, in fact AA supported QQ as you could earn AAdvantage Miles on QQ for intra-west coast flights, maybe even the ORD-RNO flight. QQ sort of ran the SJC west coast ops. for AA ala Midway II in RDU. Always thought AA buying QQ was a waste of money, they dumped all the planes and routes, not sure what exactly AA's strategy on that one was.
Chugach From United States, joined Dec 2004, 1041 posts, RR: 3 Reply 12, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1811 times:
They flew to ANC and FAI in their last few years of existence; in fact, I think AA was introduced to ANC when they bought out QQ. I remember they used gate A8 in Anchorage (the current CO gate).
Supposedly, their Alaska flights were quite successful. I believe they flew ANC-SEA and ANC-PDX nonstop, with tag-ons to Fairbanks.
Junction From United States, joined Mar 2005, 604 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1766 times:
Quoting Chugach (Reply 12): Supposedly, their Alaska flights were quite successful
QQ was the first airline to "rationalize" fares between SEA and ANC. They offered walk-up fares of only $99 one way coach, and $200 first class. The Alaska service was very successful for Reno Air, and AA did keep the route for a short time after the merger (only much later did they bring in DFW-ANC). It was my understanding AA wanted Reno Air mostly to build on the SJC hub, and like AirCal, any trace of the rest of the company was ultimately eliminated. AA always had grand plans for the AirCal and Reno Air routes to build up their west coast presence, but their mergers are know for really bad timing. The Gulf War messed up the QQ plans, WN intra California expansion messed up their AirCal plans, and 9/11 messed up any meaningful TW plans. AA probably would have been better off leaving them all alone in the long run.
Searpqx From United States, joined Jun 2000, 4331 posts, RR: 28 Reply 14, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1711 times:
Quoting Chugach (Reply 12): Supposedly, their Alaska flights were quite successful. I believe they flew ANC-SEA and ANC-PDX nonstop, with tag-ons to Fairbanks.
The loads on the Alaska flights were always very good and from what I heard, very profitable. My partner hated working them though, he said they had more inflight 'incidents' with pax on the SEA-ANC run they had with the entire system combined.
"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity"
Flashmeister From United States, joined Apr 2000, 2572 posts, RR: 11 Reply 15, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 1649 times:
Where did the ex-QQ, now ex-AA MD-90s ever end up? I seem to recall that due to the anodized skin of the MD-90s, they where white birds when they flew with American.
Chugach From United States, joined Dec 2004, 1041 posts, RR: 3 Reply 19, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 1564 times:
Quoting Searpqx (Reply 14): The loads on the Alaska flights were always very good and from what I heard, very profitable. My partner hated working them though, he said they had more inflight 'incidents' with pax on the SEA-ANC run they had with the entire system combined.
I suspect it had something to do with the long-standing Anchorage tradition of getting loaded at 'Koots and then hopping a redeye to the lower 48. I've been on a couple redeye flights out of here where drunk pax had to be pulled off before pushback.
DC10Widebody From United States, joined Apr 2006, 110 posts, RR: 0 Reply 21, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 1354 times:
I remember flying QQ from SEA-ANC, was during the summer and that flight was packed TIGHT. However QQ had pretty awesome service, they even served a cold sandwich, chips, and a cookie and two drink services. The first class upgrades were a nice perk but hard to come by on the SEA-ANC-SEA routes, I do remember the crews being a lot of fun. I remember one flight from RNO-SNA and they let some guy who really wanted to be a flight attendant pass out beverages and snacks, everyone had a lot of fun on that flight. I miss them, on the downside, I heard that AA would not take most of their planes because they were in such bad mechanical shape, does anyone know about that?
N200WN From United States, joined Feb 2005, 720 posts, RR: 9 Reply 22, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 1328 times:
I was living in COS in 1994 when the new terminal was getting ready to open. The city held an open house for the public and thousands of people came to see the new terminal and several aircraft that were in display out on the ramp (the public was allowed out onto the ramp). Reno Air had recently announced new service to COS and they sent an MD-80 to the party.
The COS terminal opened on October 24th 1994 and Reno Air started service on November 3rd I believe. They operated out of COS up until the AA buyout and the various non-stop routes over the years included LAS, RNO, SJC, and LAX. All four were never operated at the same time. I had lots of great flights on them as a revenue customer and then later as a non-rev after I started working for WN at SJC.
It was a great little airline.
Edit: COS flights started on Nov 10th...just found the timetable.
Ckfred From United States, joined Apr 2001, 3038 posts, RR: 2 Reply 23, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 1301 times:
When AA decided to close the SJC hub for the first time, it sublet many of the gates and equipment to QQ. The business model was that QQ could take north-south traffic and feed it into AA's flights to ORD and MIA.
Interestingly, when AA bought QQ, to get back its SJC hub, some airlines wanted to take QQ's slots at ORD away from AA. AA is still flying ORD-RNO.
N200WN From United States, joined Feb 2005, 720 posts, RR: 9 Reply 24, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 1289 times:
Ten years ago!! From the June 6th 1996 Reno Air timetable:
From RNO to:
ABQ (One 1-stop via LAX) (Two xfers via LAX)
ANC (One 1-stop via SEA) (One xfer via PDX with 1-stop via SEA) (Two xfers via SEA)
ORD (Three NONSTOPS)
COS (Two NONSTOPS)
DEN (One NONSTOP)
FAI (One 2-stop via SEA and ANC) (One xfer via SEA)
LAS (Five NONSTOPS)
LAX (Seven NONSTOPS)
SNA (Three NONSTOPS) (One xfer via SJC)
PDX (Five NONSTOPS)
SAN (Two NONSTOPS) (Two 1-stops both via SJC)
SJC (Three NONSTOPS)
SEA (Seven NONSTOPS)
TUS (One 1-stop via LAS) (One xfer via LAS) (One xfer via LAX)
YVR (Two NONSTOPS)
Uadc8contrail From United States, joined Sep 2003, 1782 posts, RR: 14 Reply 25, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 1286 times:
2 questions for any ex-reno or anyone for that matter.....i could have sworn i flew on a qq md90 that had a "orange county flyer"painted on the side....also didnt the md87s come from the orig midway airlines????iirc i was talking to a qq pilot back in the mid 90s and he told me that the md87s came from ml.....
bus driver.......move that bus:)
26 N200WN: More from the June 6th 1996 Reno Air timetable: From SJC to: ABQ (One 1-stop via LAX) (Two xfers via LAX) ANC (Two 1-stops via SEA) (one xfer via SEA)
27 HPLASOps: " target=_blank>http://www.renoair.net/ Actually that site is still under construction but the framework is laid out. I did notice something though fr
29 RoseFlyer: It amazes me that they could fill 7 daily MD80s between Seattle and Reno. But my favourite thing about the airline was its slogan since it is a take o
30 Mikesairways: Back in '99 I had a job offer for a CSA positioin at SJC but I had to turn it down beceause of school - a week later the merger was announced and I we
31 Drewwright: Nice airline. I always wanted to fly them and did kinda once. I booked a ticket from OKC-DFW-SNA-SJC just so I could get one ride in the MD-90 before
32 Jeremy: It used to start with a B when it was BHC. Now it is: International Fun Place QQ also flew into ATL.
33 MalpensaSFO: You swore correct... How long did the SFO QQ operation last?
34 SJC-Alien: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...id=3986301987142928133&q=tom+vance here is a short Vid of an MD-90 at SJC I took one morning before work. This
35 Dsuairptman: Best I recall, this operation ran for one year. It was prior to the first terminal expansion at GPT that occured in 1997. QQ was originally providing
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