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…
BMI will start London Heathrow to Tel Aviv service on March 13th. The route will be operated by an Airbus 320 with 20 seats in business and 108 in economy. Connections will be available from Dublin, Belfast, Durham Tees Valley, Leeds Bradford, Manchester, and Scotland. VRG began daily operations from Sao Paulo to Mexico City…
2008 is Here, and we’ll only be able to use it as an opening thought for a few more posts. Many exciting things have happened to our luggage in recent weeks. Let’s talk about the security screening process a bit. The picture is from the TSA’s SimpliFLY page. The idea, and certainly better than some…
Here we are, the last roundup of 2007… Discounter Zoom Airlines will be operating new service from London Gatwick to both San Diego and Ft. Lauderdale. From next May, Ft. Lauderdale service will operate Thursdays and Sundays and will be the first scheduled service from Europe to Ft. Lauderdale in ten years. Service to San…
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…
The Christmas Season is here, as evidenced by the excess number of cars on the road and people at the airport leaving town. Our spinoff blog, the Infrequent Flier, had some tips during the last holiday travel season to make your holiday travel more pleasant. Travel Tips: Preparing on the Day of Travel But that…
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…
Christmas and the New Year fast approach. What hopes do we have for 2008? USAToday seems to feel it is full of hope for fliers. Their reasons? The Boeing 787 Despite delays, the plane is set to have its test flights and first delivery in 2008. The first delivery will be to ANA, and the…
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…
Horizon Air announced new nonstop service from Los Angeles to Loreto, Mexico. The flights will be operated by a CRJ-700 and begin January 19th. The flights will supplement Alaska’s existing service on the route. United Airlines inaugurated Los Angeles-Frankfurt on Saturday. American Airlines had a lot of new routes beginning this week Miami to: Barranquilla,…
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…
Things have been incredibly busy here at ‘Blog Central’. Fortunately, the holiday season is upon us, hopefully bringing lots of time for us to catch up on all the airline news thats fit to blog. So here we are in no particular order(although newest ones will be first). Jetblue is reminding people of its 144…
When we saw a recent commercial for the iPhone where a member of the flight crew uses his iPhone to find out the weather was not what he was told, and, breaking the news to the apparently clueless rest of the airline, air traffic control, and others involved and thus leaving early. Planebuzz has a…
Jetblue announced nonstop service between Orlando and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Service will be daily beginning March 6th. Service will be operated by Jetblue’s E190 aircraft. Delta will offer Saturday seasonal service beginning February 16th from Aspen/Snowmass, Colorado to Atlanta. Delta partner Skywest will operate the flights using CRJ700 regional jets. Seems a…
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…
Eos Airlines announced that every guest who registers and purchases a round-trip ticket between October 31st and November 16th will receive either a Nintendo game system or bonus points in their loyalty progam. Fares of $4000 or above will get a Wii or 40,000 points. Fares below that will receive a DS Lite or 20,000…
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.…
Airlines have, with few exceptions, adopted the hub model. They establish a hub, or a focus city(aka hublet – little hub), and build service to and from it to the point that you know if you want to fly with them, you’ll be passing through there. The hub model has many logistical issues as it…
USA Today has an article on three cities losing airline service after subsidy cuts. On October 1st, Hagerstown, MD, along with Lancaster, PA and Brookings, SD lost scheduled commercial service because they were deemed ineligible for subsidies because they are too close to bigger airports. The article goes into the calculations…but we are not surprised…
Air Canada will be offering nonstop service from Ottawa to Frankfurt beginning June 1st as well as nonstop service from Toronto-Dusseldorf six times weekly beginning May 1st…and a second daily nonstop from Calgary-Frankfurt on April 14th. American Eagle began nonstop service today from Flint’s Bishop International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Service will be…
It’s time here at Flight Wisdom to review the latest in airplane manufacturing… Airbus Airbus delivered the first Airbus 380 to Singapore Airlines last month. After delivering the first four superjumbos to Singapore Airlines, Airbus will have to redesign cabins and electrical layouts for Emirates Airlines and Qantas. It is scheduled to hand over 13…