While 2012 may have been the safest year in decades, the Department of Transportation levied a record number of fines against airlines for consumer rules violations, assessed 49 fines and $3,610,000 in penalties, up from 47/$3,264,000 in 2011, and…
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…
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…
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)…
Fare mistakes are very dangerous. At least once every few months, some airline makes a typo, and sells tickets at a price no rational person could think was correct. Yet they jump on it, post it to forums and blogs…
While most airlines have been adding new fees, no American carrier has been more aggressive about doing so than Spirit Airways. Spirit ‘s strategy has been to tease outrageously low fares with obnoxious and vulgar advertisements, but charge exorbitant fees…
It was over ten years ago that online ticket purchases were in their infancy. We remember ordering tickets from these new online travel agents and having the tickets mailed to us, even a few years into the e-ticket revolution, when it was still advised that paper was safer. Now, it is starting to look as if the age of online travel agents may come to an end. Maybe that is overly pessimistic, but airlines are looking to cut out the high cost associated with selling tickets through a Global Distribution System(GDS).
American Airlines is offering flights to and from New York from 30 cities starting at $49/each way in January and February. Tickets must be purchased by December 13. $49 fares are availaible to/from Washington, Boston, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. Want to visit New York? Live in New York and want to get away. Go to American Airlines website, and save.
American Airlines has announced it will now charge for seats in the first few rows of aircraft. The price for this new charge is $19 to $39 and will only be available for purchase at airport kiosks from 24 hours to 50 minutes before domestic flights. The price will include being in the first boarding group of passengers.
JetBlue has brought back the All You Can Jet pass, offering two options.
Yesterday, Chris Elliott posted an article on his blog which asked the question…Do Frequent Flier Programs Make You Dishonest. We thought we would respond where we felt he did not, and talk about the issue of frequent flier programs in general, which we don’t quite cover as much.
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Our parent, the Weneca Media Group, unveiled its own custom URL shortener for our blogs, n9n.us. All of our posts will now feature n9n.us URLs. We are looking for bloggers wishing to do editorials on the briefing. If you are interested, please contact us.
Effective July 1st, for travel beginning August 1st, Spirit Airlines will now charge for carry-on bags. You will still be able to take your small personal item onboard, but if you wish a carryon bag in the overhead, that will be $30 before departure. If you are member of their $9 Fare Club(which oddly enough costs $39.95 a year), you get to pay only $20. And if you forget or miss notice of this new rule, you can pay $45 at the gate.
We’ve spoken on the issue of Bereavement Fares before. Bereavement Fares are discounts offered by the airline to those traveling in a death situation.They were usually flat-rate discounts off the unrestricted(highest) fares. In the old days, that could be a significant savings. Now, with such a wide gap between lowest and highest…not so much. You might as well pay the normal fare.
So, you’ve booked through a travel agent. That can include Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz…these are giant travel agencies, but they are still travel agencies, in terms of functions. They make reservations, issue tickets, change reservations, reissue tickets, etc. To put it into one simple term: they are authorized to act as sales agents for one or more airlines.
JetBlue is having a Cyber Monday Sale Today Only till 11:59PM MST.
CheapOair is, as we define it, an online travel agency. To be precise, CheapOair is the brandname, Fareportal, Inc. is a Technology Company and Travelong, Inc. is an accredited ARC/ Travel Agency. As they put it, Fareportal, Inc. is the operating fulfillment company for CheapOair, and Travelong, Inc. is the travel agency.
JetBlue is having a One Day Sample Sale, Today only until 11:59PM MDT. Sale fares are valid for travel December 2nd through December 16th, and January 6th through January 28th. Fares on some routes as low as $29/$39/$49. Cross the country for $99 or less one-way.
JetBlue’s Island Joy Sale. Book before midnight on October 30th.
JetBlue Sample Sale Till Midnight Tonight