2008 is Here, and we’ll only be able to use it as an opening thought for a few more posts. Many exciting things have happened to our luggage in recent weeks. Let’s talk about the security screening process a bit. The picture is from the TSA’s SimpliFLY page. The idea, and certainly better than some…
BMI will start London Heathrow to Tel Aviv service on March 13th. The route will be operated by an Airbus 320 with 20 seats in business and 108 in economy. Connections will be available from Dublin, Belfast, Durham Tees Valley, Leeds Bradford, Manchester, and Scotland. VRG began daily operations from Sao Paulo to Mexico City…
Good morning, class. Today we are going to talk about fuel surcharges. This week, United Airlines announced they were increasing their domestic fuel surcharge to twenty-five dollars each way on all routes. So, what makes this different than a fare hike? Well, a fuel surcharge is not part of the fare. It is separate. One…
British Airways Flight 38 from Beijing to London Heathrow landed short of the runway on arrival, injuring almost 20 people. The pilot indicated there was a complete failure in the plane’s electronic systems, forcing the plane to make an unpowered landing. It is currently unknown what caused the situation, but more information will no doubt…
Lot Polish Airlines has signed a deal for 12 additional Embraer 175 jets plus two options and ten purchase rights. The layout of the aircraft will include 82 elite seats, and the plan is to use them to ‘right-size’ aircraft based on seasonal or specific time-of-day influences on routes. Jetblue inaugurated its St. Maarten-JFK service…
US Airways will be adding service to three Gulf Coast cities from its Charlotte hub. Service will begin April 6th to Ft. Walton Beach, FL and Panama City. Service to Gulfport/Biloxi, MS will begin May 6th. Service will be operated by subsidiary PSA Airlines using 5-seat CRJ-200s. Horizon Air will begin Santa Rosa-Las Vegas service…
We were intrigued when Southwest announced it will be testing inflight internet access hopefully this summer on four aircraft. The service, in partnership with Row 44 will give its passengers full access to Internet including e-mail, music, shopping, and work through a virtual private network(VPN). But why is Southwest doing this? Their press release on…
In a move we applaud, today JetBlue announced the availability of refundable fares. Personally, we never understood why many low-fare carriers offer no refundable fares. It is a value added service. If you are willing to shell out more money for a feature, why not offer it? We’d love it if all fares were refundable,…
We’d like to remind our readers that the links embedded in each article go to a press release or news article with more details than our news briefs. Each week we scour the press releases and such for these articles. Regional airline SkyWest has sued Delta Air Lines over the airline’s withholding of $25 million…
JetBlue announced a major expansion of service, and a new destination in the Western United States. JetBlue will be taking aim at Virgin America, along with the other carriers trying to eliminate the fledgling Virgin carrier. Beginning May 21st, JetBlue will add Los Angeles International Airport(LAX) as its fourth LA area airport. It will fly…
Happy Eighth Birthday to JetBlue Airways. Who would have thought they’d grow so fast so quickly? Remembering the good old days when we flew them between Rochester, NY and JFK… Alaska Airlines and Horizon have announced they have selected Seattle-based Jones Soda Co as their new drink partner. The airlines will offer customers complimentary canned…
An anonymous source at Delta has reported that the rumored Delta-Northwest merger will be announced next week. The merger will use the Delta name, and retain the Delta headquarters in Atlanta, as well as the Delta CEO. The consolidation, long rumored in the news, would unify the two carriers. The previous industry merger unified US…
Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to fly a plane on biofuel, as it partnered with GE, Boeing, and Imperium Renewables. If babassu and coconut oil is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than jet fuel, then we’re all for it. Alitalia will launch nonstop Rome-Los Angeles service on June 1st. The service, the only nonstop…
New York based North American Airlines announced it will discontinue service between the United States and Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; and Georgetown, Guyana beginning May 19th, and redeploy the aircraft to its charter business, which is more lucrative. North American will not be refunding full roundtrips, only the discontinued portion, which will inconvenience many travelers.…
Effective May 5th, US Airways will charge a $25 service fee for checking a second bag. The fee is waived for qualifying frequent fliers and those who booked prior to today. US Airways becomes the second legacy carrier to implement such a fee. United introduced such a fee on February 4th, referring to it as…
We’ve been very behind lately. We keep saying we’ll catch up, but life happens. We are committed to providing the best in airline news and commentary we possibly can, but we do have day jobs, of course. Delta received preliminary approval to fly from New York’s JFK Airport to Bogota, Columbia. Spirit Airlines announced starting…
American Airlines cancelled 200 flights today, 10% of its flights, in order to allow for the inspection of its MD80 fleet for potential wiring issues. The planes constitute 300 of American’s 655 aircraft. The planes were previously inspected as per an FAA security directive, but a recent audit raised questions that led to this reinspection.…
We were never more disappointed as we were when we heard Skybus was starting flights. Our post on the subject was entitled, It’s the End of the World as We Know It. Why was this? Skybus’s philosophy was not one we appreciated. Ten dollar fares sound good, but what was the real cost and quality…
Airline passengers think that their ticket gives them the right to have themselves and their luggage transported to their destination. They are wrong on both counts. Most recently, the legacy carriers have now imposed a twenty-five dollar charge for the checking of a second bag. Chris Elliott, in his blog, commented that United’s chief revenue…
Today in the Sky reports that Skybus founder John Weikle is working on a plan to revive the carrier. While we commend the saving of 450 jobs lost when bankruptcy was declared, one should not compound a mistake with more mistakes.
We’ve been checking out new sites to add to our list of recommendations, being that the industry is subject to constant change. One of the most potential useful, without significant caveats, is Delaycast(currently in Beta). It makes no guarantees, but it uses mathematical modeling and historical data to predict potential delays. It certainly can’t predict…
Delta and Northwest have put up a website, announced a merger, , and are scheduled to webcast their official press conference on Tuesday morning. Such a move can trigger a wave of additional consolidation within the industry, as airlines line up to compete with a new mega-carrier. The consolidation of services, like with USAirways, once…
Eos, the first of the luxury transatlantic carriers, followed MAXjet in declaring bankruptcy. The company’s financing to prevent this fell through, and ceased operations last night. They owe money to Servisair, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and JFK Airport, to name a few. Eos boasted reasonable business class fares on an all business class plane flying…
The biggest question we’re asked is how to save money. People want to save money on their airline tickets. We don’t blame them. With the current increased charges for incidentals coming through, here is our advice for you. Book directly with the airline. Avoid the middleman. He has to make money too. And even with…
Recently, friend of the blog and syndicated travel writer Chris Elliott commented on buddy passes in light of a situation on JetBlue that occured last week. Gokhan Mutlu of Manhattan has filed a lawsuit stating that the pilot told him to “hang out in the bathroom” about 90 minutes into his flight from San Diego…