[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="US Airways New Gimmick"][/caption] US Airways has announced it will charge $7 for a pillow and blanket beginning February 16th. The service will not be offered on US Airways Express flights, but can be purchased immediately on their website. In a recent BNET article, Barbara Hernandez commented on the subject. She…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife We’ve really been trying to get into this Twitter thing, but it is a slow learning curve. JetBlue posted the following tweet: “We’re testing buy-onboard snack boxes and sandwiches in addition to our free snacks and beverages Let us know if you see some on your flight” Now, we…
Welcome to all those people who found us through the recent Middle Seat Terminal blog post. It is always nice when we notice that professional journalists are reading our efforts, and certainly it inspires us to post more. In writing about the early jet days, which admittedly are before our time, there were other aspects…
Image via Wikipedia We were catching up on our reading when we discovered a comment made by the Cranky Flier on the subject of an Op-Ed piece from the New York Times about the ‘good old days’ of travel. We have to agree with Ann Hood, the bygone age of air travel does seem glamourous…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife To start off the New Year, let’s remember those that are no longer with us…Every year, the Cranky Flier has a summary of airlines we have lost…Here’s his list and our summaries. If you aren’t interested, skip past it. There are more thoughts below. AlpiEagles – Didn’t have much…
Image via Wikipedia Happy New Year to all! We hope you had an enjoyable holiday season. Those of you who braved the airports during the season, we hope you had a relatively uneventful travel experience. We’ve made some New Year’s resolutions, including our continual resolution to post more. We do have jobs, and lives, and…
Image via Wikipedia In a recent post, we discussed Southwest’s desired expansion into New York’s LaGuardia Airport and its current New York City Area service into Long Island MacArthur Airport, aka Islip. Here’s what we said…. As for Long Island’s Macarthur Airport(Islip), we hope that Southwest maintains its commitment there and considers adding additional capacity,…
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Image by Getty Images via Daylife"][/caption] There is a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, despite the economic downturn. Here are some tales of people who haven’t done too well of late, and here’s hoping travel experiences improve in the new year. Thanks to Chris Elliott and the Consumerist…
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image by Eric E Johnson via Flickr"][/caption] For years, Southwest Airlines has been known for going outside the box. They flew to secondary airports, provided service where other carriers could not sustain a turboprop with sheer volume, and did not work with other carriers. Southwest has made moves away from that…
[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…
[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,…
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…
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…
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…
In a comment to a previous post on the Contract of Carriage of ExpressJet, the following was posted by Cecil Guerrero: I have vouchers worth $390 and I cannot take a flight anywhere! All flights are suspended. Can someone help me get a refund? I canceled flight to Spokane and was not informed flights to…
Infrequent Flier, our sister blog, has posted some useful tips for travelers. Why not check them out? Print Your Own Passport Photos – Why Settle for the Low Quality Photos often available at local stores? Why not do it yourself? Airline Fee Chart – Easily Compare Airline Fees of various types with a handy Airline…
In light of the news that US Airways would not longer provide even water on aircraft to passengers, we have been looking for ways to get around this. You can’t bring water from home because you are limited to 3oz or less of liquid. We began to think about some of the travel gear we’d…
As we have reported before, one of the first casualties of airline cutbacks is service to secondary cities. Early this summer, AT&T announced it was moving its headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas, stating that the lack of direct flights to other cities was a primary reason. Though there is some question whether this is…
Over a week ago, Chris Elliott pointed out a recent fee applied by ultra-low-class Spirit Airlines. Spirit had hidden a $10 Convenience Fee in their Contract of Carriage for booking anywhere but at a counter. Now, booking online is certainly convenient, but this fee seemed somewhat dishonest. Spirit’s site is, to quote Elliott, “awash in…
With the announcement that Northwest would be charging for the first checked bag for all flights purchased on or after July 10th for travel on or after August 28th, it brings the total to four legacy carriers who charge for anything you put under the plane. The others are American, United, and US Airways(but they…
The recent revelations of the end of a paper ticket have put us in mind of the way travel is going. Recently, Walletpop.com listed as #5 of 25 on Comebacks We’d Like to See as Pleasurable Air Travel. As they put it… Once upon a time, a traveler flying from Columbus to Denver arrived at…
The New York Post reports that a Manhattan lawyer is suing Delta Air Lines for one million dollars. He claims that their “absolute incompetence” ruined his elderly mother’s eightieth birthday celebration. Richard Roth says that he’d arranged for his entire family, including several cousins, to meet in Argentina. Roth started planning the trip in September…
American Airlines has announced this morning that it will begin charging for the first checked bag. American, the last carrier to jump on the bandwagon of charging for the second bag, has opted to be the first legacy carrier to charge for the first. American will not only be charging $15 for the first checked…
Recently, friend of the blog and syndicated travel writer Chris Elliott commented on buddy passes in light of a situation on JetBlue that occured last week. Gokhan Mutlu of Manhattan has filed a lawsuit stating that the pilot told him to “hang out in the bathroom” about 90 minutes into his flight from San Diego…
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…