Song’s legacy will live on, even as the carrier bids adieu

OK, I admit it. I have a soft spot for Song, the stylish low-cost carrier that Delta Airlines launched in 2003 and that it now plans to terminate in May.

With its wacky tropical colors, witty crews, seatback TVs, extra legroom and gourmet sandwiches and salads, Song struck all the right notes when I rode it last year on a barnstorming tour to review low-cost carriers. Pitted against JetBlue, Southwest, United and United’s low-cost offspring, Ted, Song and its consumer-friendly coach service topped my charts.

Forgive me if I can’t accept that Song will be silenced. Happily, that’s not quite the case. Travelers may even benefit from Song’s demise.

That’s because Song isn’t entirely going away. The brand will disappear but not the innovations, Delta says. Many are getting new wings.

By spring 2007, Delta says, all its transcontinental flights will have personal seatback monitors with 24 live-TV channels and 10 on-demand video channels; MP3 programming with 1,600 music choices; and other echoes of Song throughout the cabin.

Eventually, these perks will appear on all Delta domestic routes of more than 1,750 miles and on more than 100 Boeing 757-200s, double the number of Song planes now. Delta says it will be the largest fleet of aircraft in the U.S. with on-demand video.

In another innovation, 26 first-class seats will be added to Song’s cabin, currently all coach.

Not all of Song’s benefits will be recycled.

As part of cabin reconfiguration, the economy sections on converted jets will lose legroom. Half the seats will have 33 inches of pitch -- the distance between seatbacks -- and half will have 32 inches, compared with 33 inches throughout Song, said Paul Matsen, Delta’s chief marketing officer.

No decision has been made, he added, on whether to keep Song’s cutting-edge, buy-on-board menu, created by celebrity chefs and heavy on organic ingredients.

As for future fares, which have been as low as $99 each way, coast to coast, on Song, Matsen would say only that “our fares are always competitive.”

Overall, however, if Delta’s plans pan out, “everybody wins,” said Mike Boyd, president of the Boyd Group, a Colorado company that provides analyses, forecasts and market-development services to the airline industry. “Delta will try to expand a higher-level coach product.”

Harry Kassap, administrator of market development at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport, is enthusiastic about Delta reclaiming its offspring.

He called it “the single best marketing move they’ve made since going into bankruptcy.” (Delta, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, was scheduled to be back in court last week, trying to wrest wage concessions from its pilots.)

Not everyone is a fan. Some critics view the recycling of Song as Delta putting a positive spin on the failure of a brand that couldn’t make it on its own.

Although declining to say whether Song has made money, Matsen said, “We achieved what we hoped to achieve with Song.”

Jeff Green, spokesman for rival United, whose own low-cost Ted was launched last year, is among the skeptics.

“As Song is being grounded, Ted is growing,” Green said.

By the end of next month, he said, Ted will be flying 56 A320 aircraft, 20% more than a year ago.

Filling an average of 80% or more of its seats compared with a percentage in the low to mid-70s for the rest of the fleet, Ted is “absolutely” profitable, Green said.

Although Ted and Song are both spinoffs of bankrupt airlines, they’re different animals.

Song is closer to being a separate airline within an airline. It has more unique features than Ted, which sports orange, blue and white colors, hip slogans and rockin’ audio but uses United ticket agents, cabin equipment and services.

As a coach passenger, I found Ted and United similar. The seat pitch on both is 31 inches, unless you upgrade to Economy Plus, which offers more legroom.

Analyst Boyd dismissed Ted as “just a paint job.”

But Song and Ted both have been proving grounds in which their parents tinker with service to compete with low-cost rivals such as Southwest, JetBlue and Frontier.

“Song was a success,” said Ray Neidl, airline and aerospace analyst in New York for Calyon, an international corporate and investment bank based in France. “The rest of the company learned how to provide more customer-friendly service.”

Matsen said Song’s twin missions were to be “an immediate competitive response” to JetBlue and “a learning laboratory” for Delta.

“One of the things we learned is that we need to provide an upgraded economy experience,” he said, with more entertainment and food options, “an engaging style of service” and lighter-colored cabins. (Delta is installing Song-style light-blue leather seats throughout its fleet.)

The lessons learned from Ted are more subtle. Among Ted’s innovations that have gone fleetwide: $5 buy-on-board snack boxes and reducing flight speeds to save fuel.

“It allows us to test out a bunch of concepts,” United’s Green said of Ted.

Steven Casley, managing director of Back Aviation Solutions, a consulting company in New Haven, Conn., thinks that the so-called legacy airlines (such as United and Delta) may eventually run two very different systems. The domestic one would mimic low-cost carriers’ stripped-down, self-service operations, but with personal TVs and added legroom. The international operation would offer meals and hand-holding.

Few experts expect legacy carriers to ditch first and business classes entirely on domestic routes and go all-coach, as Song and Ted did.

Besides losing potential revenue, they would be left without any seats for frequent-flier upgrades.

McCarran’s Kassap sees another problem with single-class domestic service: It confuses and irritates premium international customers on connecting flights.

Kassap fields complaints on this issue, he said, because Ted, not United, serves Las Vegas. A European, for example, who flies business class from Brussels to Washington, D.C., on United, then connects to Las Vegas on Ted, may spend $7,000 on the air ticket -- only to get dinged $5 for a snack box on the domestic leg.

United’s Green agreed that “there are some people who would prefer first class all the way.” But, he added, “we’ve had very little negative feedback.”

Will Ted survive? Will Song really die? No one can say for sure. But you don’t need a crystal ball to see that these spinoffs have made their mark on aviation history, helping reshape coach service for years to come.

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Jane Engle welcomes comments but can’t respond individually to letters and calls. Write to Travel Insider, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.