In an attempt to stay competitive in the ever-evolving world of movie rentals and downloads, Blockbuster is testing several new concepts in Dallas.

A Dallas Morning News story I ran across says the chain is attempting to find news ways to make money in the face of potential obsolescence.

Here's some of what the chain is testing, according to the story:

• Whether customers want to rent movies as early as 6 a.m. on their way to work, instead of after work.

• Including the option to buy a cappuccino or a fountain drink.

• Offering new technology for watching movies, reading books or shooting video at a Blockbuster.

• Whether customers would stop in more often if they or their children were entertained with a game of Rock Band on a 62-inch screen or they had access to free Wi-Fi.

Book an overseas flight with United Airlines or Lufthansa this year and then decide you want to leave a day earlier or go in August instead of July.

You'll pay dearly for your indecision.

Both airlines have upped their change fees for overseas flights from $150 to $250. That's just the change fee. If the new fare is higher, you'll have to pay the difference in fares too.

That move is all part of the airline industry's effort to raise revenue to pay for fuel price increases by raising not only fares but the price of other services. It doesn't cost the airlines $250 to change your ticket, but it's an opportunity to raise revenues without affecting the price that appears on the computer screen when you're hunting for low-cost fares.

It should have been a great quarter for Alaska Air Group.

Just look at the figures at its principal subsidiary, Alaska Airlines:

Passenger traffic: Up 11.3 percent
Percentage of seats filled: Up 3 percentage points.
Operating revenues per seat/mile: Up 3 percent.
Operating costs per seat minus fuel: Down 3.4 percent.

But the SeaTac-based airline holding company, parent of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, today announced a first quarter net loss of $35.9 million.

The boogey man in this whole picture: Steeply rising fuel costs.

Even with the second-best fuel hedging in the domestic airline industry, Alaska Airlines' fuel costs rose from an average of $1.87 a gallon in the first quarter of 2007 to $2.72 a gallon in the first quarter of 2008. That represented $76.1 million in extra cost for the airline. The story was similar at Alaska's regional partner, Horizon Air.

"Although Alaska Air Group is in a good position relative to the rest of the industry, high fuel prices are eroding our profits and revenues are not increasing fast enough to offset them," said Bill Ayer, the airlines' chairman and chief executive officer.

To counter the rising fuel costs, the airline group announced changes designed to cut fuel consumption, boost revenues and trim expenses.

It will:

*Sell off its fleet of Horizon Air Bombardier 70-seat CRJ jets within the next two years and replace them with more fuel efficient Bombardier Q400 turboprops. The airline is already scheduled to replace its smaller Q200 turboprops with Q400s. The resulting fleet, which may be smaller than the present 65-plane fleet, will consist of a single aircraft type, the Q400, reducing maintenance and training costs.

CRJ700

Q400

=> Read more!

I got a strange e-mail from Click! last night called "16 16 16 16 16 16 16"

The cable company wants us all to tune into "Click (channel) 1" today at 8:16 a.m. to see a special surprise. The company promises to transform one of its channels for 16 hours.

The e-mail asks: "Why are we doing this? Will it change cable television in the South Sound like never before?"

Yes, why are they doing this? Spokeswoman Diane Lachel wouldn't say so I will speculate. Is it a new channel? Is it the number of hours you should watch TV per day? Is what percent your cable bill will go up? Or maybe down? Is it the number of doughnuts each customer will get with their bill?

What do you think?

Coming to a televised Mariners' game or a local TV news broadcast near you – the latest set of commercials from Columbia Bank.

Designed by Seattle agency hadleygreencreates (which began the relationship with Columbia back when it was the only hometown bank left around here, and called itself Puget Sound Bank), the commercials were premiered (to applause) at the bank's annual meeting Wednesday.

Take a look at: http://www.columbiabank.com/Page.aspx?hid=749

Amazon.com Inc. fell 4.8 percent in trading before the open of the Nasdaq Stock Market after forecasting profit margins narrower than its projection in January.

The online bookseller declined $3.86 to $77.14 as of 8:35 a.m. New York time. The retailer climbed 14 percent this month before today, Bloomberg News reports.

Operating income in 2008 may be as much as $940 million, less than the $985 million it predicted earlier this year, the Seattle-based retailer said yesterday in a statement. Full-year revenue may climb faster than Amazon.com originally forecast.

"Amazon continues to turn in better-than-expected revenue growth, but still management is showing little inclination to improve margins," Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, said yesterday. He recommends investors buy the shares and doesn't own any.

Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos has added less- profitable groceries, jewelry and exercise equipment and promoted low-cost shipping to lure cash-strapped customers and boost revenue, raising concerns about its short-term earnings goals.