Image via Wikipedia Delta Air Lines announced on Thursday that after years of complaints from customers preferring to speak to U.S.-based staff, they are no longer outsourcing calls to India. Customer calls were no longer forwarded to India as of the first quarter of this year. Foreign call centers remain in Jamaica and South Africa,…
Image by afagen via Flickr United Airlines, as you may have heard, has instituted a policy for oversized passengers. To quote United, courtesy of the Middle Seat Terminal: For the comfort and well-being of all our guests, today United has matched eight other U.S. airlines and adopted a new seating policy that requires customers to…
Image via Wikipedia Southwest, only a few days after announcing its schedule for new New York-Laguardia service, has announced a schedule for service to Boston’s Logan Airport. This continues a recent trend for the airline…opening up shop in larger markets. Southwest’s bread and butter for several years has been medium and underserved markets, opening up…
Image via Wikipedia Happy Holidays to those celebrating them. We’ll be trying to catch up with things as the holiday week comes to a close. Today, however, a tragedy was averted when a passenger landed a twin-engine turboprop in Ft. Myers after the pilot had a seizure and died. One of the passengers was fortunately…
Image via Wikipedia Previously announced service by Southwest Airlines out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport will begin June 28th. Southwest’s current gateway to the New York area is Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip, where the airline operates 26 flights a day. The airline added a flight there in November, but plans to cut two…
Image via Wikipedia Chris Elliott blogged today about airline taxes, a particularly thorny issue. He tells the story of Susan Cornell, who tried to claim a refund on the $42 in taxes on her cancelled ticket. When Spirit, unsurprisingly, failed to respond, she wrote to government officials and told her story on the radio to…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeXrMRf25U8 Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenburger , the pilot who landed a US Airways plane on the Hudson River, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the new Yankee Stadium. Last month, it was announced that he was writing two books, one on his life up until the events of flight 1549, in a deal worth…
We’ve been a bit busy the last few days. And there is always so much to read to keep up and talk about. We’re going to try to sit down for a few hours and catch up on the backlog. In the meantime, here are some of the things we’ve been reading. South African Airways…
AirTran Airways announced new nonstop service from Milwaukee to Washington’s National Airport. Beginning June 11th, they will offer two daily nonstops between the two airports. This continues AirTran’s buildup in Milwaukee after their failed attempt to merge with Milwaukee carrier Midwest Airlines. AirTran also announced service from its Atlanta hub to Atlantic City, NJ. Service…
Image by jnsabino via Flickr The first major parts for Dreamliner Seven are set to begin showing up in Everett when the horizontal stabilizer is flown from Italy. “The first flight test airplane, ZA001, is getting its paint touched up this week before finishing factory testing. Power was brought onto the second airplane, ZA002, in…
Joe Sharkey of the New York Times wrote earlier this week on the current glut of seat sales, maintaining it won’t last. The sales are breaking out mostly on routes where the competition is heavy or business travel has significantly decreased…but this has often been the case. The future, according to Sharkey, is as follows:…
Image by jasonEscapist via Flickr Effective today, the people at Virgin America announced changes to their fee structures. Their fee for changes will be reduced from $75 to $50. We’re hoping other airlines reduce their change fees as well. A $150 average fee for changes on reservations valued much less is ridiculous and hard to…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Michael Russnow over at the Huffington Post commented today that airline service is a sham. He maintains that first was a fee for a second bag, then a first, then for drinks on US Airways(which they recently reversed), then blankets and pillows, and movies. We’re not sure we agree…
Mr. T, we’re sure, would say, “I pity the fool airline who mistreats their passengers.” Once again, here are some recent tales we’ve noticed of travel experiences. When a man tried to check in for his flight on Spirit, he was told the flight was oversold. When he tried to fly the next day, Spirit…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife A Yale student is suing US Airways, claiming that they stole an Xbox 360 from his luggage. He is requesting $1 million in compensation. Jesse Maiman claims that when he took a Dec. 17, 2008, flight from New Haven, Conn., to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, he checked his Xbox…
We got a note of this over Twitter…check us out there… Ryanair today invited passengers to suggest the next ancillary revenue idea after their CEO confirmed that they might institute pay toilets. Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said; “Ryanair is Europe’s largest low fares airline and we plan to continue to reduce costs and fares by stimulating…
Delta has been up to a lot lately, and we’ve decided to devote an entire post to talking about several significant things they’ve done in the last week. Delta is expanding a marketing alliance with Midwest Airlines, best known for its fresh-baed cookies. The agreement extends Midwest’s marketing agreement with Northwest Airlines to Delta, which…
Here’s yet another roundup. Some interesting stuff. And check out this video we found showing Chicago’s Midway Airport in 1954. A little bonus in case the new service doesn’t benefit you. The Dulles Rail Link may start construction any day now.. An agreement has been signed to commit $900 million in federal funds to the…
Image via Wikipedia Two weeks ago, a captain of an El Al flight flying to Israel from an undisclosed city in Europe ordered the removal of a number of suitcases to allow two El Al employees to get on. Airline employees and their families are allowed to travel for a discounted or even free rate,…
Image by guspim via Flickr Budget Travel had an interesting report earlier today on new metatravel search sites run by Tripadvisor and Fly.com. Both sites use a layout almost identical to Kayak.com, the largest and most well known of these sites. Neither site is licensing anything from Kayak. They asked the CEO of Kayak, Steve…
As airlines fight for a shrinking number of first-class passengers, they’re prepared to lay out even more money to win their loyalty…which seems a risky business move to us. This week, Lufthansa unveiled a 12,000-square-meter first-class lounge at Frankfurt Airport, featuring a full-service spa, spacious bathrooms with whirlpool tubs, and a bar offering 84 different…
Image via Wikipedia We just posted on Spirit Airlines adding a convenience fee, and we thought there was more to say. And lo and behold, in searching for something relevant, we found another post by Cranky, on the subject of Tripadvisor’s new metasearch site. Now, we use Tripadvisor for checking on hotel reviews. Nothing like…
Image via Wikipedia The Cranky Flier noted today that Spirit Airlines, known for its lack of taste and ultra-low-fares philosophy is instituing a Passenger Usage Fee of $4.90 per person per sector for anyone who doesn’t book their ticket at a ticket counter. Spirit tried charging a $7.90 passenger usage fee last year, along with…
Image via Wikipedia We dislike Ryanair for their approach to business. We like hearing frm them though, as nothing is as amusing, or produces as much outrage. One in the United States, where we are, might choose to believe they are a joke…a fake airline people tell stories about, the way one does the Boogeyman.…
Image via Wikipedia Last week, Ryanair announced it was eliminating check-in desks, and we oddly enough, thought it would end at that for a bit. Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s CEO, told BBC Television that they are considering pay toilets. “One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility…