Image by randomcuriosity via Flickr Why bother with Travel Agents? That is the big question. We recall the experience, from long ago, of going to the travel agency. Sitting at a desk, paper tickets were brought out, a check given, and the transaction was complete. Nowadays, we have electronic ticketing, a myriad of travel agency…
Image by puregin via Flickr We spun off Infrequent Flier to provide basic travel tips and advice, allowing Flight Wisdom to be, as its tagline says, “News, Thoughts, and Advice on Air Travel and the Travel Experience.” Today, we’re testing out a new theme at Infrequent Flier. We like to mix things up every so…
View Larger Map Last month, we reported on rumors that Ithaca-Tompkins Regional Airport was going to lose its regional service to Newark on Continental Connection.The story prompted us to break out some old material about Ithaca’s aviation history. In good news, Continental announced last week that it would retain the service. The airline had cited…
Here is Part Two of our Multi-Part Series on the History of Aviation in Ithaca, NY. Part I can be found here. We’ll see how it is received. It is exciting for us to use material we gathered years ago, when we used to spend a lot of time in Ithaca. Some of the material…
The New York Times reports that the Brazillian Minister of Defense has issued a statement that “without a doubt” the wreckage spotted by Brazillian military planes is indeed that of the missing Air France A330-200. The debris included an “an orange life vest, an aircraft seat, a drum, kerosene and oil,†according to an earlier…
Image via Wikipedia Delta was forced to cancel the launch of two new routes to Africa today. The airline was set to operate its inaugural flight between Atlanta and Nairobi, Kenya via Dakar, Senegal today, but cancelled after federal security officials denied approval. It was also denied for their flight to Monrovia, Liberia, set to…
In the aftermath of the most recent tragedy, Air France Flight 447, and a year that included a crash in Buffalo and a miraculous crash-landing on the Hudson, we may start to think that 2009 is an unlucky year for air travel, or that it is somehow unsafe. Those of you who are nervous, let’s…
Image via Wikipedia Our coverage of the Air France flight continues. We do not believe in speculation during such a serious situation, but intend to keep our readers updated. At this point, the plane has been missing for over twenty four hours. Four hours into the flight, and well over the ocean, the flight encountered…
View Larger Map US Airways flight 4423 was scheduled to leave Lynchburg, VA for Charlotte Airport at around 2:30PM yesterday, but was delayed due to an Act of God. God in this case was a 23-year old man who was overheard talking on his cell phone(we wonder what service provider He uses) commenting that the…
Image via Wikipedia Air France Flight 447, an Airbus 330 operating out of Rio de Janiero en route to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris hit a patch of turbulence. An automated message was received indicating an electrical failure. The plane is now missing with 228 souls onboard. More information as it comes in. Update…
Image by jasontho via Flickr Twenty-one passengers were injured recently after a TAM flight hit turbulence on a Miami to Sao Paulo flight. The plane went into a sharp dive, and three people suffered broken bones, and many passengers were slammed into the ceiling. While this situation is an extreme one, on almost every flight…
We’ve been a bit busy lately with ‘real life’, also known as that stuff we do when we aren’t acting as a pundit. We have a lot to catch up on still. But, we have been reading, and planning a series of new posts to invigorate our partner site, Infrequentflier.com. We want to address a…
Southwest Airlines today announced its intention to serve Milwaukee later this year. There are not specific details as of yet, but it plans to offer multiple destinations and will commence sometime after its Boston and New York launches. Southwest has not actually grown this year, but has added flights to these new cities by trimming…
Image via Wikipedia This evening, we made an appearance at the JetBlue-Southwest Guitar Hero challenge, a battle between Morgan Johnston (@JetBlue) and Christi Day (@SouthwestAir), the two airlines’ Twitter reps. Both put out wonderful examples of how Twitter can be used to enhance corporate communication by not only communicating the latest developments, but inviting an…
British Airways will be adding nonstop service from London Heathrow to Las Vegas on October 25th. The service will be operated with Boeing 777 aircraft. Virgin Atlantic currently operates service from London Gatwick to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic is launching service from San Juan, Puerto Rico from London’s Gatwick airport via Antigua. The service…
Image via Wikipedia Over the years, a large number of accidents were as a result of pilot error. Pilots are fallable…indeed all humans are fallible. It is why we have created safety systems…autopilot is the best example. The National Transportation Safety Board hearings on the Continental Connection flight that crashed outside Buffalo in February 12.…
Here is Part One of our Multi-Part Series on the History of Aviation in Ithaca, NY. We’ll see how it is received. It is exciting for us to use material we gathered years ago, when we used to spend a lot of time in Ithaca. Some of the material we had scanned already, and some…
View Larger Map Today in the Sky alerted us to the possibility that Continental would pull its service out of Ithaca-Tompkins Regional Airport in Ithaca, NY on June 11th. The airline offers several daily flights to its Newark Liberty hub. The most interesting part is flights after this point are still available for sale on…
Image via Wikipedia We’ve stayed somewhat quiet about wi-fi of late. Every morning we get a notice via Twitter from Alaska about which flights have wi-fi that day, and we admit we haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing wi-fi at 30,000 feet, but we are looking forward to it. AirTran announced plans to become the…
Image via Wikipedia Facing competition from both Southwest and JetBlue entering the Baltimore-Boston route, Delta Air Lines is cancelling its seven daily regional flights on August 18th. It is not surprising that Delta might want to remove its regional jets with all the capacity the competition is bringing in. Also, Delta has downscaled its Boston…
We went on the road last week for a few days, courtesy of JetBlue. We often use JetBlue, enjoying their combination of features. We don’t normally do trip reports, but as we sat there, many things occurred to us, and we thought we’d assemble them into this post. We tried, on previous flights, to print…
The Boston Globe theorized last week that JetBlue would soon match other airlines in charging for a first checked bag. Southwest and JetBlue are the only major carriers who do not charge for the first bag. Dave Barger, CEO of JetBlue advised that no decision had been made and that he was “wary of being…
Image via Wikipedia The Flight Wisdom blog has migrated to a new server. The old one was slowing down page loads. Now the pages load fast and will hopefully continue to do so. Hope everyone enjoys the improvement. Delta is continuing to adjust its Cincinnatti schedule. Effective July 1st, service to Asheville, Chattanooga, Valpariso, Westchester…
Image via Wikipedia JetBlue reported a first-quarter profit yesterday. JetBlue is Number 7 in the U.S. by traffic, despite having only been flying for a little under a decade and has not seen a profit in the first quarter since 2005. JetBlue expects profit to improve in the remaining quarters, attributing some of this to…
Image via Wikipedia JetBlue will be announcing today its service from Boston’s Logan Airport to Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The service will begin September 9th, and is the airline’s 32nd destination from Boston. The service is interesting in light of Southwest’s recent announcement of identical service, except in reverse. Southwest is flying from Boston, a new…