Yearly Archives: 2012

New Interline Baggage Rules Make Sense

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Earlier this month, Janice Hough at Consumer Traveler wrotethat coming anti-consumer “interline” baggage rules were worse than baggage fees. With all respect to Ms. Hough, who is a travel agent, in this regard, we believe she is wrong, although we…

Airplane Seatbelts are Pointless?

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Is there anything Michael O’Leary won’t do for publicity? He’s gone on record claiming that seatbelt rules for aircraft are pointless. Apparently, he’s never heard of something called turbulence, or thinks it doesn’t apply to him…This is surprising. Back in September…

Let’s Not Talk about Rule 240

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  In April of 2007, we wrote on the subject of Involuntary Reroute, in response to an article in the Consumerist. Now, popular advice site Lifehacker has picked up on the Rule 240. They reference our friend over at the…

Codesharing: Why Bother?

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Back in July of 2011, we made the Case against Codesharing. But lately, we’ve seen a few articles that have made us revisit the issue. Codesharing is where the airline that operates a flight(operating carrier), allows a second airline(marketing carrier)…

United Reservations System Unsurprisingly Crashes

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In December 2010, United announcedit was leaving Apollo, the reservations system it had used for decades, to switch to HP’s Shares, which Continental used. United actually created the Apollo Reservations system in 1971. The airline evaluated Apollo, SHARES and “several other…

FAA Seeking Public Comment on Portable Electronics

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The FAA announced that they are forming a working group to study current policies related to portable electronic devices(PED). The group will review the FAA’s policies on devices and the procedures for determining whether they can be used during various…

Flight Attendant Sues JetBlue over Dismissal

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JetBlue Flight Attendant Roberto Rodriguez is suing JetBlue, claiming he was unfairly dismissed from his job. According to Rodriguez, he and a fellow flight attendant he’d shared a room with arrived late at the airport for a flight due to…

United Loses Children

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In June of 2009, we reported on how Continental Airlines had lost a young girl who was travelling under its unaccompanied minor program. Another similar situation has arisen with United Airlines, which merged with Continental, to the point that there…

TSA Rescues Kidnapped Woman

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A woman is safe because Transportation Security Officers interceded and rescued her from her abductors at Miami International Airport. We often find ourselves in the position of criticizing the TSA and their employees. A lot of this stems from the…

United Flight Diverted to Boston Due Bomb Scare

NYCAviation is reporting that United flight 956, Newark to Geneva, was off the coast of Nova Scotia when it turned back toward the United States, due to a suspicious package. Update: 9:26PM – According to @crimeboston, the United flight has…

Comair to Cease Operations

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  It is always sad when we lose another airline.   Delta will shut down its subsidiary Comair as of September 30th. The writing has been on the wall for a long while. Comair primarily operates 50-seat regional jets, an…

Welcome to the Self-Service World

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Everything in this world changes. As time goes by, we discover that more and more business interactions are being automated. This is simply the way things are going. Talking to a human being is now a perk, a frill. In…