American Airlines cancelled 200 flights today, 10% of its flights, in order to allow for the inspection of its MD80 fleet for potential wiring issues. The planes constitute 300 of American’s 655 aircraft. The planes were previously inspected as per an FAA security directive, but a recent audit raised questions that led to this reinspection.…
We’ve been very behind lately. We keep saying we’ll catch up, but life happens. We are committed to providing the best in airline news and commentary we possibly can, but we do have day jobs, of course. Delta received preliminary approval to fly from New York’s JFK Airport to Bogota, Columbia. Spirit Airlines announced starting…
Effective May 5th, US Airways will charge a $25 service fee for checking a second bag. The fee is waived for qualifying frequent fliers and those who booked prior to today. US Airways becomes the second legacy carrier to implement such a fee. United introduced such a fee on February 4th, referring to it as…
New York based North American Airlines announced it will discontinue service between the United States and Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; and Georgetown, Guyana beginning May 19th, and redeploy the aircraft to its charter business, which is more lucrative. North American will not be refunding full roundtrips, only the discontinued portion, which will inconvenience many travelers.…
Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to fly a plane on biofuel, as it partnered with GE, Boeing, and Imperium Renewables. If babassu and coconut oil is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than jet fuel, then we’re all for it. Alitalia will launch nonstop Rome-Los Angeles service on June 1st. The service, the only nonstop…
An anonymous source at Delta has reported that the rumored Delta-Northwest merger will be announced next week. The merger will use the Delta name, and retain the Delta headquarters in Atlanta, as well as the Delta CEO. The consolidation, long rumored in the news, would unify the two carriers. The previous industry merger unified US…
Happy Eighth Birthday to JetBlue Airways. Who would have thought they’d grow so fast so quickly? Remembering the good old days when we flew them between Rochester, NY and JFK… Alaska Airlines and Horizon have announced they have selected Seattle-based Jones Soda Co as their new drink partner. The airlines will offer customers complimentary canned…
JetBlue announced a major expansion of service, and a new destination in the Western United States. JetBlue will be taking aim at Virgin America, along with the other carriers trying to eliminate the fledgling Virgin carrier. Beginning May 21st, JetBlue will add Los Angeles International Airport(LAX) as its fourth LA area airport. It will fly…
We’d like to remind our readers that the links embedded in each article go to a press release or news article with more details than our news briefs. Each week we scour the press releases and such for these articles. Regional airline SkyWest has sued Delta Air Lines over the airline’s withholding of $25 million…
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,…
We were intrigued when Southwest announced it will be testing inflight internet access hopefully this summer on four aircraft. The service, in partnership with Row 44 will give its passengers full access to Internet including e-mail, music, shopping, and work through a virtual private network(VPN). But why is Southwest doing this? Their press release on…
US Airways will be adding service to three Gulf Coast cities from its Charlotte hub. Service will begin April 6th to Ft. Walton Beach, FL and Panama City. Service to Gulfport/Biloxi, MS will begin May 6th. Service will be operated by subsidiary PSA Airlines using 5-seat CRJ-200s. Horizon Air will begin Santa Rosa-Las Vegas service…
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…
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…
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…
BMI will start London Heathrow to Tel Aviv service on March 13th. The route will be operated by an Airbus 320 with 20 seats in business and 108 in economy. Connections will be available from Dublin, Belfast, Durham Tees Valley, Leeds Bradford, Manchester, and Scotland. VRG began daily operations from Sao Paulo to Mexico City…
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…
Here we are, the last roundup of 2007… Discounter Zoom Airlines will be operating new service from London Gatwick to both San Diego and Ft. Lauderdale. From next May, Ft. Lauderdale service will operate Thursdays and Sundays and will be the first scheduled service from Europe to Ft. Lauderdale in ten years. Service to San…
Well, it is the holiday season, and nearly the end of 2007, and we thought we would briefly comment on the loss of airlines. The best review we’ve seen so far of the loss of airlines in 2007 is Cranky Flier’s Airlines We Lost in 2007. Cranky includes little graphic tombstones, symbolizing this year’s loss…
News Alert – Upgrade: Travel Better reports a working promo code for 5% off Continental Airlines travel. To redeem, go to Continental.com and choose “Advanced Search†at the bottom of the blue fare search box on the left side. On the following screen enter ZB2UAS82JH in the “Offer Code†box halfway down the page. Then…
The Christmas Season is here, as evidenced by the excess number of cars on the road and people at the airport leaving town. Our spinoff blog, the Infrequent Flier, had some tips during the last holiday travel season to make your holiday travel more pleasant. Travel Tips: Preparing on the Day of Travel But that…
Christopher Elliott, the syndicated travel writer, has come out on his blog with his list of the 20 Most Inspiring Travel Blogs of 2007. We knew he reads our blog for the ‘fun of it’, as he puts it, and we subscribe to his, and often put in our two cents. We thank him for…
Christmas and the New Year fast approach. What hopes do we have for 2008? USAToday seems to feel it is full of hope for fliers. Their reasons? The Boeing 787 Despite delays, the plane is set to have its test flights and first delivery in 2008. The first delivery will be to ANA, and the…
We remained quiet about the issue of in-flight internet of late. Certainly, it is controversial. We think it is a better alternative than allowing voice communication on aircraft. Let people quietly text away, send email, etc. Of course, people will abuse this service. We recently heard of a problem on a coach bus that provided…
Horizon Air announced new nonstop service from Los Angeles to Loreto, Mexico. The flights will be operated by a CRJ-700 and begin January 19th. The flights will supplement Alaska’s existing service on the route. United Airlines inaugurated Los Angeles-Frankfurt on Saturday. American Airlines had a lot of new routes beginning this week Miami to: Barranquilla,…