Image by SP8254 via Flickr Today, we are happy to announce we have spun off our limited reporting on issues involving Amtrak, buses, light rail, and all things transit-y to a new blog, Transit Wisdom. Unfortunately, our first story on the new blog was the latest thoughts on the DC Metro crash of yesterday. We…
Image via Wikipedia Effective November 1st, Southwest Airlines will begin its new Milwaukee service. 3 Daily Roundtrips to Baltimore/Washington – Marshall Airport 3 to Kansas City 2 to Las Vegas 2 to Orlando 1 to Phoenix 1 to Tampa Bay Direct or Connecting service to an additional 49 cities Southwest will be competing with Midwest…
Image via Wikipedia Southwest Airlines unveiled its schedule out until January of next year today. Southwest has, with the help of new scheduling software, been optimizing its flight schedule for increased efficiency. It was this gain that allowed them to open up several cities without any actual growth. On a typical, non-Holiday Sunday this November…
Image via Wikipedia Alaska Airlines announced today the inauguration of service between San Jose, California and Austin, Texas effective September 2nd. They will also be starting Austin to Seattle service on August 3rd. The flight will originate in Portland, replacing a Horizon flight from Portland to San Jose, and continue to/from Austin, using a 737-800.…
Image via Wikipedia Recently, a conversation(if the word is accurate), on Twitter sparked us thinking about the issues related to full flights. Airlines want the flights to be full. More passengers means more revenue. Conversely, we as passengers want the extra room a less than full flight brings. So, how can you enjoy yourself and…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife The recent crash of Air France 447 has created many questions about communications systems on aircraft. One of them being why GPS is not used to keep track of aircraft. The latest discussion involves the design and capabilities of the flight data recorders, also known as the black box(actually…
Air France will pay about $24,500 in initial compensation to the families of each victim of the crash of Air France Flight 447 this month and is providing them with counseling. So far, salvage operations have found around fifty bodies and dozens of pieces of debris, indicating they have pinned down the likely area where…
For those of you interested, an artist in Vancouver has created animations showing the flight paths of Twitter users, using the search term “Just Landed in…” and the home location of the Twitter user, creating the first map of the migration patterns of the traveling Twitterer. Certainly fun. 36 Hours of Twitter Migration [vimeo 4587178]…
Earlier, we were commenting on the lack of pride in customer service as a part of business, specifically referencing United Airlines, among others, and discovered this, a 1989 United commercial on the very same subject. It so perfectly illustrated some of our thoughts. We wonder if someone at United should see it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ6Z8kcoi-E
Image by Jennifer Pickens via Flickr “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!” In one of our earlier posts, we commented on the issues of customer service. Three years later, there are much to revisit. Why it is marketing departments…
Image via Wikipedia Boeing is expected to conduct the maiden flight of the 787 Dreamliner this month. The plane has been plagued by delays. When the A380 was plagued by wiring problems, we said that Boeing had to make sure that it got the Dreamliner out on time to ensure the lead it got was…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DagVklB4VHQ For those of you starting to feel concerned about the possibility of upcoming air travel, we have already addressed that issue. While searching for something appropriate for that post, we came upon the following Youtube clip of the late comedian George Carlin on airlines. Whatever you can say about him, amidst the occasional bit…
Here is a brief photo notation of our Multi-Part Series on the History of Aviation in Ithaca, NY. Part I can be found here, Part II here. After we finished that last entry, we did a google search for Robinson Airlines and discovered some interesting photos online. The images appear on the following site, assembled…
Image via Wikipedia The pilot of Continental Flight 61 has been identified at Craig Lenell by several news outlets. Lenell, age 60, lived on a farm outside Houston with his wife and more than 32 years of flying experience. A third pilot is required onboard all flights in excess of eight hours, and was certainly…
Image by caribb via Flickr (Updated 06/19 with corrections courtesy of Mr. Kamens) The issue of unaccompanied minors has come into the news lately, courtesy of Jonathan Kamens. Kamens put his daughter Miriam on a flight to Cleveland out of Boston on Sunday to visit her grandparents. He paid the unaccompanied minor fee. The fact…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Continental Flight 61 was en route from Brussels, Belgium to Newark Liberty Airport landed safely at 11:49AM local time today, after the 61-year old pilot died at the controls, apparently of natural causes. The flight included a relief pilot, who, with the co-pilot, landed the plane. To avoid panic,…
Image by matt.hintsa via Flickr JetBlue will be welcoming the inaugural flight from New York to LAX in a few short hours. At 10:45AM Pacific, at Terminal 6, Gate 69B at LAX. LAX is JetBlue’s 56th destination, and will be served twice daily from both New York and Boston. JetBlue also served Long Beach and…
New service is proudly announced, but cancellations are usually not. One day, we discover that a flight we recall is no longer on the books. Of late, many flights are being cancelled, airlines are slashing capacity. Air Canada launched its Portland, Oregon to Calgary, Alberta service yesterday. The service, operated by 50-seater CRJs, operates once…
Image by Ivan Makarov via Flickr We’ve been on a trip out to Northern California the last few days, which you may have noticed if you follow our Twitter account. We’ll have more on some new observations of JetBlue later. We have another trip cross-country planned for August, and we’re going to try to take…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Delta Air Lines, in a memo issued to its employees and released as a press release on their site, announced it would be making additional cuts due to the current global environment and oil prices once again rising. Delta will initiate the following cuts, reducing international capacity from 15%,…
The search for the wreckage of Air France 447 continues. Search teams found a large section of the plane’s tail section and additional large amounts of wreckage. The Brazilian military doesn’t have the means of locating debris underwater, however. “Brazilian military officials reduced the number of recovered bodies from the 17 announced Sunday, saying there…
Image via Wikipedia Yesterday, the Brazilian navy discovered the bodies of two passengers from the Air France flight, and three additional bodies today, as well as a number of items associated with the plane, including a ticket for the flight. Items recovered include sections of wing, seats, and luggage. The Brazilian officials said their first…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife The reason why we are often hesitant to comment on investigations in progress is that the information changes from day to day. The Brazilian air force has said that the debris they initially reported as being from missing Air France Flight 447 is in fact…not. It has been verified…
Image by randomcuriosity via Flickr Why bother with Travel Agents? That is the big question. We recall the experience, from long ago, of going to the travel agency. Sitting at a desk, paper tickets were brought out, a check given, and the transaction was complete. Nowadays, we have electronic ticketing, a myriad of travel agency…
Image by puregin via Flickr We spun off Infrequent Flier to provide basic travel tips and advice, allowing Flight Wisdom to be, as its tagline says, “News, Thoughts, and Advice on Air Travel and the Travel Experience.” Today, we’re testing out a new theme at Infrequent Flier. We like to mix things up every so…