United – Domestic Only from New York

In a previous post, we commented on United Airlines and its downsizing of its JFK hub. We commented on a prediction that United would cancel its New York to Tokyo service. In further review of this, we have discovered that they are indeed doing this. In this press release announcing United’s Tokyo and Dulles flight,…

Followup to Coping With Job Loss by Northwest Airlines

For those of you interested in our recent story about outsourcing at Northwest Airlines, here is a copy of the booklet that Northwest Airlines supplied to its soon to be outsourced ground workers. Here you will find some interesting commentary on the subject. In further followup news, the Memphis Business Journal reports here that as…

Living on the Air in Cincinnati

The Courier-Journal reported yesterday in this article that two years after Delta launched Simplifares, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport is the most expensive airport from which to fly. From 600 flights a day last fall to 430 this summer, the amount of available seats are fewer, and the amount of lower fare seats are fewer. With…

The Spoils of the War on Terror

MSNBC reports here on what happens to items confiscated by the TSA. As reported, Pennsylvania is even listing the items on Ebay, although generally they are sold at public auction in bulk. To view these items on Ebay, the Pennsylvania State Surplus list can be viewed here. The sheer volume of the items shown in…

The Roaming Gnome

Travelocity is one of the most popular of the online travel sites, having been around since the beginning of these types of sites. Travelocity is known for its commercials featuring the Roaming Gnome, enforcer of the Travelocity Guarantee. The provisions of this guarantee are found here. As Gridskipper reports here… the guarantee isn’t so much…

You Paid for It…

The JonBenet Ramsey case has been in the news a great deal lately, and the suspect is on a Thai Airways plane en route to the United States. According to the Houston Chronicle. The article reports that, “Before takeoff, Karr took a glass of champagne from a flight attendant and clinked glasses with Spray[An investigator…

Frequent Flyer History Lesson

Insideflyer.com has a fascinating article on the early days of frequent flyer programs here. The days of frequent flyers getting special discounted fares seem gone. The majority of frequent flyer programs are based on awarding mileage or points based on the distance traveled and/or the class of service. A certain number of points/miles allow you…

Laptop Travel Gear

Today we introduce the first of our travel gear recommendations. Look for an extended review and other reviews on our website in the near future. The Lapinator is a portable insulated laptop desk that prevents the heat of the laptop from hurting your legs. A hot laptop can run for hours on this and not…

Safety First

With all the recent security scares, it is important to keep in mind what security is actually doing to keep us safe. Airportbusiness.com reports here on the details of United flight 923, from London to Washington-Dulles Airport, which was diverted to Boston’s Logan Airport yesterday. Two F-15s were scrambled to escort this plane in. The…

Hub goes Superhub

United Airlines announced this morning they are boosting their presence at Washington’s Dulles Airport(IAD) by thirteen percent. By November 2006, this means 321 Daily Departures by United from Dulles Airport. This follows the announcement, as reported by The Chicago Tribune that a U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge approved a deal for Delta Airlines to buy United’s…

One Way to Save Money on Air Travel

Yesterday, it was reported that a twelve year old boy got onboard a Monarch Airlines flight from London Gatwick to Lisbon. This boy somehow succeeded in getting past security and getting on an aircraft without passport, ticket, or boarding pass and was only discovered by the flight attendant after he’d been seated and received a…

Staying in Touch In-Flight

Boeing announced today it would be shutting down Boeing Connexion, its In-Flight Internet service available on some long-range service. Unfortunately, Boeing could not find a buyer for the division, which only has ten customers: Lufthansa, Singapore, SAS, El Al, All Nippon, Japan Airlines, Asiana, China Air, Etihad Airways and Korean Air with a total of…

Guide to Coping With Job Loss by Northwest Airlines

Ground crews for Northwest Airlines were recently given a booklet by their employer, “Restructuring Q&A and Employee Support.” It contains information on their likely outsourcing as well as 101 Money-Saving tips. Tip #46: “Don’t be shy about pulling something you like out of the garbage.” Others include asking doctors for free drug samples, getting hand-me-downs…

Followup on Best Time to Purchase Airfares

As a followup to last week’s mention of the best time to purchase, we have this article from USA Today, written by Jessica Labrencis of Smartertravel.com. We have yet to give our thought on the best time to buy. We believe it is a bit more complicated than that, depending on the airline, the route,…

Laptop Checkin

Blaptops.com offers these tips for how to protect yourself if you are required to check your laptop. In addition to their tips, there are special padded slipcases, as suggested by Roadgladiator.com. But in the end, remember that the Montreal Convention, which replaced the earlier Warsaw convention, limits the liability of airlines for damaged luggage. Also,…

The Low Cost of Gas

As reported by Today in the Sky, Jetblue is having a promotion for travel from September 7th through November 15th. In honor of its new service to Houston, Jetblue is dropping one-way fares to the previous day’s price of a barrel of crude oil for the next week. Today’s fare is $73 for flights from…

All your travel needs, paired with all you need to know

The title of this post is the slogan for our expanded offerings. We are going to take this opportunity to discuss the Flightwisdom.com website, of which this is a part. Flightwisdom is a simple site. Our goal is to provide information and links. We add a little information each week, and in that way, we…

Misconceptions in Security

It seems that despite the availability of information, people are still hearing widely inaccurate rumors about the security situation at the airport. So, once again, we’re going to clear up myths. Not only that, there have been some updates to U.S. procedures. The following reflects the current TSA requirements as of this post. Myth: There…

The Best Place to Buy

Let’s talk about Kayak. Kayak is a travel search engine that searches other travel sites. They are our preferred travel partner. Why do we endorse them? It is very simple. They do not actually sell anything. They refer you to the places that do. We here at Flightwisdom believe in cutting out the middleman. Kayak…

Security Update

Our contacts at various airlines report individuals have been misinformed about the current security restrictions put in place effective this morning. So, a quick review. 1. You are advised to minimize the amount of carry-on luggage you carry with you. Many carriers are allowing you to check your carry-on bags in addition to your normal…

The Best Time to Buy

Airline fares are a hot topic with rising prices. Here’s a tip on saving money that was instantly seized upon by many. Tip for the Best Purchase Time of Airline Tickets And debunking the tip. Is Wednesday at midnight the best time to buy airline tickets?

The Promised Land of the East

Florida seems to be the land of low fares. When Jetblue came into existence, Senator Charles Schumer(Dem-NY), championed their cause…pointing out how it made no sense that it cost more to fly from one part of New York to another than it did to fly to Florida. It is hardly New York alone that has…

Why ask Y?

Let’s talk fares. In simple terms, fare is a fee paid by an individual to travel on an aircraft. Airfares are totally different than fares on your local transit system, where you pay the same rate to travel from point A to point B as everyone else on the train/bus with you, senior, children, student,…

Going My Way

The first step in being an intelligent flyer is knowing who flies where you want to go. In an ideal world, we’d all be able to get nonstops everywhere, but sometimes this isn’t the case. I once encountered someone who had an itinerary which read New York to Boston to Philadelphia. No one wants to…