Category Archives: News

Obese Have Rights in Canada

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] Obese people have the right to two airline seats for the price of one on flights within Canada…because they are “functionally disabled.” The decision, made by the Canadian Transportation Agency, was appealed by the major Canadian carriers, who lost their final appeal last week. The question is what…

New Indianapolis Terminal Opens

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] While the runways at Indianapolis Airport have remained the same, the airport experience for passengers is now completely different. They have a new terminal, completely replacing the old, as well as new approach from the local highways, and new parking facilities. The old terminal will be knocked down.…

Let’s Talk Baggage

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] Here we are, once again discussing baggage and its associated costs. Usually, when we discuss baggage, we’re discussing weight and number of pieces. But what about size? It was reported that on November 1st, Continental reduced the maximum size allowed for carry-ons to 45 linear inches from 51.…

Ryanair Discounts Transatlantic Service At this Time

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] In a post earlier, we advised that BBC News had reported that European discount carrier Ryanair was poised to live up CEO Michael O’Leary’s public statements about transatlantic service. However, the Associated Press, reporting on Ryanair’s quarterly report, advised the airline has discounted the report that this service…

Northwest is ‘joining’ Delta

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by matt.hintsa via Flickr"][/caption] We knew this was coming, but the day is finally here. This evening, Skymiles account holders that we are, we received an email from Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines, announcing that Northwest Airlines was now part of Delta, but it would be business as…

How the Airlines Have Betrayed Us

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Image by Getty Images via Daylife"][/caption] We stole the title for this post from Chris Elliott, whom we admire as the champion of fair disclosure and fees, although we admit to disagreeing with him at times. USA Today reported that while jet fuel is down, fuel surcharges have stuck. And this…

Feed Subscribers: Please Update

Our feed, managed by Feedburner, has been migrated to Google, which acquired Feedburner last year. This may cause some issues with some RSS readers failing to receive proper updates. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Oil is Down, Why Aren’t Fees and Fares?

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by Kaptain Krispy Kreme via Flickr"][/caption] Now, we’ve mentioned before a bit of this, but we thought we should devote a another specific post to the issue. Fuel is down, but many airlines weren’t doing wonderfully before it went up, and this put them over the edge. Fuel is down,…

Weekend Update

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] TAM will begin daily flights from Sao Paulo to Orlando on November 21st. TAM and Air Canada will be codesharing and expanding an effort to provide increased services between Brazil and Canada. A new partnership between Irish carrier Aer Lingus and United Airlines is available for sale on…

Midway Airport Sold

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] Chicago’s Midway Airport was privatized last week. A consortium consisting of Citi Infrastructure Investors, YVR Airport Services, and John Hancock Life Insurance bought the airport. YVR Airport Services, which is partly Vancouver(YVR) airport itself, will operate the airport for the consortium. The final price was $2.5 billion, and…

Airline Schedule Changes at 300 U.S. Airports

Those interested in mapping the schedule reductions at U.S. airports this fall should check out USA Today’s interactive map here. It incorporates what airlines had advised of their schedule on November 1st and will be updated periodically. Honolulu and Oakland Airports are the biggest losers, at 27.7% and 27.4% respectfully. Airlines are reducing service in…

Service Roundup – Flight Log

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by Luigi Rosa via Flickr"][/caption] For those of you who have noticed a change in our style over the last few entries, we’ve added Zemanta support to our blog. Zemanta is a blogging service that provides recommended articles and public domain imagery to a blog entry, giving you, our readers,…

Homeland Security Opens an Office on Sesame Street

When it comes time to secure the Homeland, who better to call than Grover? The Department of Homeland Security has partnered with Sesame Street and the Children’s Television Workshop to teach children about creating family preparedness plans in case of emergencies. “I, your furry, blue friend Grover, have a story to share. Are you wondering…

Spirit to Put Ads on Everything

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by vnvlain via Flickr"][/caption] The Cranky Flier brought to our attention a new push by Spirit Airlines to sell more ad space on their aircraft. They will now sell ads on overhead bins, seat backs, tray tables, the area above the windows, bulkheads, napkins, cups, menus, boarding passes, soap dispensers,…

Insuring Travellers Against Airlines Going Under

We follow several different blogs in search of stories. Recently, BNET’s Travel Industry blog, which is written by the same person who writes the Cranky Flier, commented on Travel Insurance in the current environment. Edit: During our initial read, we failed to notice that the post in question, while on Brett Snyder’s Blog, was actually…

United Doubles Second Bag Fee

United Airlines will double its fee to check a second bag to $50 one-way. The airline estimated this change will affect only one out of seven customers and that its ancillary revenue, including bag fees will be $700 million in 2009. We searched around to see what our fellow bloggers were saying on the issue…

Transportation Policy and the Presidential Candidates

We are usually apolitical here, but we’re impressed Obama actually has a transportation agenda. McCain, by comparison, is known for killing funding for Amtrak. We tried to find a policy on his website and failed. We’d love to see it though and analyze it similarly. We found a good analysis of the Obama policy on…

TSA Gives itself a 9/11 Present

Effective today, September 11th, 2008, transportation security officers at airport checkpoints all over the country will be wearing new uniforms and badges. The new uniform will be blue, and a gold badge will replace the patch. Plans for this were announced over a year ago, and have finally been implemented. At the time, it was…

Continental to Charge for First Checked Bag

Continental Airlines will charge a $15 fee for the first checked bag. This fee applies immediately to tickets bought for destinations in the United States and to flights between the U.S., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Canada for travel on or after October 7th. Remember, those of you who purchased before Friday, September 5th…