Monthly Archives: January 2008

New Year…New Security Rules

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…

Let’s Talk About Fuel

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…

Incident at Heathrow

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…

Service Roundup – Seattle-LA/SFO Shuttle and More

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…

JetBlue Offering Refundable Fares

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,…