Delta and Northwest have put up a website, announced a merger, , and are scheduled to webcast their official press conference on Tuesday morning. Such a move can trigger a wave of additional consolidation within the industry, as airlines line up to compete with a new mega-carrier. The consolidation of services, like with USAirways, once…
We’ve been checking out new sites to add to our list of recommendations, being that the industry is subject to constant change. One of the most potential useful, without significant caveats, is Delaycast(currently in Beta). It makes no guarantees, but it uses mathematical modeling and historical data to predict potential delays. It certainly can’t predict…
Airline passengers think that their ticket gives them the right to have themselves and their luggage transported to their destination. They are wrong on both counts. Most recently, the legacy carriers have now imposed a twenty-five dollar charge for the checking of a second bag. Chris Elliott, in his blog, commented that United’s chief revenue…
We were never more disappointed as we were when we heard Skybus was starting flights. Our post on the subject was entitled, It’s the End of the World as We Know It. Why was this? Skybus’s philosophy was not one we appreciated. Ten dollar fares sound good, but what was the real cost and quality…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
We know many of you are planning your trips and holiday purchases right about now., so we checked in with our affiliates to see what they were offering in terms of holiday promos. Skymall, those people whose catalogs we love to peruse at 30,000 feet, is running a weekend special starting Dec. 7 thru Dec.…
Overbooking is annoying. With the exception of Jetblue, which does not, airlines typically overbook by 33%. Find another industry where, with the approval of the government, a company is allowed to knowingly sell more of a product than they know they have. What reaction would this have if it were done at the theater, for…
Last month, we berated Cheapoair for fake positive comments on our spinoff blog, Infrequent Flier in a post entitled Cheapoair Fakes Positive Comment on Site. Apparently, they didn’t get the message. We received two comments on this post. Comment from Cheapoair Customer Assistance Time: October 22, 2007, 9:32 am If you find a lower fare…
Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama and his aides were surprised when no one met him upon landing in Iowa Tuesday night. They quickly discovered that the plane had touched down at Des Moines Airport, 100 miles west of their actual destination…Cedar Rapids. It is not the first time an airplane has landed at the wrong…
Jetblue will be inaugurating service from Buffalo and White Plains to Ft. Myers. Both routes will operate once daily from January 8th through April 30th, using the E190 regional jets. This continues Jetblue’s philosophy of this year of route-building by connecting existing stations. Jetblue has many deficiencies in its network. These include: No Midwestern focus…
The last time we spoke of Southwest, they were changing their open seating policy. Pre-boarding for families now comes after the A group, passengers are numbered within their letter class in order of check-in. Families were upset. Suddenly, they were told they were not as important anymore. But…now they’ve made another bunch of rapid changes.…