[caption id="attachment_1737" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="JetBlue International Check-In - Terminal 5"][/caption] JetBlue and Lufthansa have signed a codeshare agreement which would place Lufthansa flight numbers on 12 destinations in the U.S. to Boston and New York. The agreement is pending DOT approval. JetBlue’s experience with interline and codeshare has been limited. It has put its flight…
Image by dyobmit via Flickr The FAA admitted last week that airlines whose flight attendants had been telling passengers to keep their items out of the seatback pocket were ‘following their guidance’. However, several carriers have never heard of this regulation and have no plans to enforce it. Even the FAA spokesman did not initially.…
Southwest Airlines has just arrived in Boston to a great fanfare, and is already expanding service. On January 9th, they will add two daily nonstops to St. Louis. The same day, they will also add St. Louis service to another of their newest destination…Minneapolis/St. Paul. Elsewhere, they are redistributing capacity by reducing frequencies by one…
Image by drewgstephens via Flickr This morning, Southwest Airlines announced it would offer an early check-in option for a $10 fee. For years, the Southwest Cattle Call offered a first-come/first-served option. Plastic cards were offered at the counter in order of check-in, and people lined up and boarded in check-in order. Then, when online check-in…
Image by nsub1 via Flickr The Boston Globe reports that a state representative has suggested renaming Logan Airport after the late Senator Ted Kennedy. It would be called Logan-Kennedy Airport. This is a bad idea. For one, there is already a Kennedy Airport in New York. Admittedly named after the late President, John F. Kennedy,…
We waited for JetBlue’s response to this incident, which occurred yesterday. Flight 1781, with 89 passengers onboard, departed Orlando at 12:34, scheduled to arrive at 1:35. A fire broke out in the left-hand side engine, and the plane made an emergency landing at its destination of Nassau, Bahamas. The plane taxied under its own power…
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We recorded a test podcast last week and spent some days soliciting commentary. It is a bit rough, and includes several elements.
A fee under consideration in Congress is getting strong criticism from the European Union. A $10 fee would apply to some visitors to the United States to secure a tourist visa. Visitors from most European countries have long enjoyed the benefits of the Visa Waiver program. Such programs allow tourists to visit for less than…
Image via Wikipedia On Friday, we posted about two JetBlue Embraer 190s that made emergency landings due to smoke and fire situations. In addition to Flight 654, which last Monday made an emergency landing at Kennedy after taking off for Rochester due to smoke in the cabin, and Flight 1781, which made a landing with…
Image by maddox via Flickr We’ve never been able to understand why the more expensive hotels charge for wi-fi and the less expensive offer it free, especially when those same hotels are trying to attract business travelers, who want to get work done. The simple answer, of course, is that they can. Many business travelers…
JetBlue announced today a fare sale. Book by 9/10/09 for travel between 9/15 and 12/16/09. Click on the banner above to purchase and support our blog. Fares start at $29 each way on some routes.
JetBlue inaugurated service today from its focus city at Boston’s General Edward Logan Airport to Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Airport. In honor of this inauguration, which is in direct competition with Southwest Airlines, JetBlue is offering a one-day only $9 each way sale. The offer ends September 9, 11:59 p.m. MDT and is for travel…
An Aeromexico flight carrying 104 passengers was hijacked on the tarmac at Mexico City Airport. At least three hijackers, who may be Bolivian or Columbian, are threatening to blow it up if they do not speak to President Felipe Calderon, who happened to already be at the airport, preparing to depart.
Our spin-off blog, Transit Wisdom, reported today on a vote on a proposed commuter rail extension to T.F. Green Airport. Once approved and completed, passengers would be able to travel from South Station in Boston to the airport in approximately one hour and fifteen minutes.
As we said yesterday, the age of traditional hijacking in North America is gone. Aside from 9/11, which ushered in a new age of hijacking for the purpose of using a plane as a weapon, the traditional hijacking, which involved individuals taking over a plane and holding the passengers hostage for a political agenda, is almost dead
We reported on this last week. But the “Travel Promotion Act” was approved by the Senate yesterday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid(NV) praised the job-creation of increased tourism to the U.S., calling it a “win-win-win.”
We haven’t done a service roundup in a while. Mostly because there hasn’t been as much news in this area as there once was. Airlines don’t announce discontinuance as much as they do inauguration. But this week had some interesting developments.
Saying something about 9/11 is almost obligatory, especially for a commercial aviation blogger. The scope of the tragedy was nearly unimaginable at the time…that such a thing could happen. Our hearts continue to go out to those who lost loved ones that day and we will never forget the sacrifice of those who rushed to assist. The two biggest security developments that came in a post-9/11 world were…
Ebags, the online luggage retailer, is offering a 20% off sale this weekend. To browse their selection, click the link below. Save 20% through Monday 9/14 at eBags.com
Lee Lipton, Southwest’s Director of Network Strategic Planning sees a future in low cost long haul in addition to its existing shorthaul products, but emphasizes there is no timetable for the move. Their chairman, Gary Kelly, said that the carrier is seriously considering operating flights to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean as soon as 2011.
American Airlines has given up on St. Louis’s Lambert Airport. Back in the day, TWA had an extensive hub operation at the airport. American has gradually reduced service and now after these cuts, the airport will have only 36 flights a day to nine cities, LAX, Chicago-O’Hare, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Miami, New York-JFK, Boston, New York-LaGuardia,…
United Airlines will retire the last Boeing 737 jet from its fleet on October 28th, after forty-one years of service.
Trans World Airlines was one of the great U.S. legacy airlines. In fact, until the 1970s, it and Pan Am(also now defunct), were the only U.S. airlines to serve Europe. For their flight attendants, however, the airline still lives, which prompted our reminiscence.
The Middle Seat Terminal blog reports that the rate at which passengers were bumped in the second quarter of this year increased forty percent compared with the same period a year ago. As carriers have slashed capacity to the bone, and with overbooking a common practice, there are too many people crammed onto flights.
Yesterday, we were reading Chris Elliott’s Travel Troubleshooter blog. He posted excerpts from letters sent and received by a regular flier and US Airways. And we started contemplating the issue of how airlines might handle things when the airline and the passenger cannot see eye to eye.