Image by Kevin Boydston via Flickr Passengers on a Continental Express flight from Houston to Minneapolis spent the night on a regional jet parked at Rochester MN Airport. The plane was operated by Expressjet, and Chris Elliott rightly asked who was in charge. The plane is branded Continental, it was sold by Continental, yet operated…
Image by Pylon757 via Flickr A Continental Airlines flight from Brazil to Texas hit turbulence early this morning, injuring at least 26 people, 4 of them seriously. Continental reports that the fasten seatbelt sign was on at the time. The aircraft, a Boeing 767, had 168 passengers and 11 crew onboard and made an emergency…
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 via Wikipedia Over the years, a large number of accidents were as a result of pilot error. Pilots are fallable…indeed all humans are fallible. It is why we have created safety systems…autopilot is the best example. The National Transportation Safety Board hearings on the Continental Connection flight that crashed outside Buffalo in February 12.…
View Larger Map Today in the Sky alerted us to the possibility that Continental would pull its service out of Ithaca-Tompkins Regional Airport in Ithaca, NY on June 11th. The airline offers several daily flights to its Newark Liberty hub. The most interesting part is flights after this point are still available for sale on…
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 via Wikipedia We held off a few days on this to see what developments came up, so we could do a proper review of the situation. We tend to agree with the Cranky Flier that there is a standard story everyone writes about this sort of issue. Like him, we have nothing of specific…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Best Western International has partnered with Southwest Airlines as a loyalty partner. Beginning February 15th, members of their reward program will be able to earn Rapid Reward credits. Portland-based SeaPort Airlines will serve the Oregon communities of Astoria and Newport beginning March 15th with service to Portland International Airport…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Ryanair has made another bid for Irish competitor, Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus is preparing its defense plan and wishes to remain independent. Continental announced it has completed installation of an Audio/Video on demand system on its fleet of 757-200s aircraft, with the last two reentering service by December 23rd.…
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] Here we are, once again discussing baggage and its associated costs. Usually, when we discuss baggage, we’re discussing weight and number of pieces. But what about size? It was reported that on November 1st, Continental reduced the maximum size allowed for carry-ons to 45 linear inches from 51.…
A while back, we commented on bereavement fares. Despite the popularity of this subject, as it comes upon people urgently, we haven’t revisited it since. USA Today’s Bill McGee recently did, and we decided it was good to update our rundown. Many airlines are not forthcoming about their policies, and require a call and specifics…
Continental Airlines will charge a $15 fee for the first checked bag. This fee applies immediately to tickets bought for destinations in the United States and to flights between the U.S., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Canada for travel on or after October 7th. Remember, those of you who purchased before Friday, September 5th…
Today is the fifth anniversary of 2003 Blackout, the worst in U.S. history. JetBlue will be adding daily nonstop service from Washington-Dulles to Tampa on December 18th and Saturday service to Cancun on December 20th. JetBlue will be launching twice daily service using its 100-seat Embraer 190s on October 18th between Long Beach and San…
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’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…
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…
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…
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…
American Airlines will add a daily flight from Chicago-O’Hare and Gulfport-Biloxi beginning December 13. Pittsburgh International Airport has expanded its free wi-fi service to both pre and post-security areas of the terminal. Continental has announced a major expansion at its Cleveland hub. The airline will grow its capacity at Cleveland by 40% in the next…
One can be shocked by the repeated stories of woe and disaster…here are some that are not to be believed. Airline complaints in the United States overall are up this year, increasing 47.2% in the first six months of 2007, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In order…the top five complained about U.S. airlines…
Airtran has signed a new three year contract with Coca-Cola. Onboard, you can get Coca-Cola Classic®, Diet Coke®, Sprite®, Sprite Zero(TM), Coca-Cola Zero(TM), Minute Maid® Lemonade, Dasani® Water, Cherry Coke(TM), Cherry Coke Zero(TM) and three types of Minute Maid® juices. Poor Pepsi. Has anyone signed with them lately? Air France-KLM announced last week they would…
Midwest Airlines is adding a fifth roundtrip to service from Milwaukee to both Philadelphia and Omaha beginning October 1st. The new service will be offered on 50-seat CRJ-200 regional jets, featuring brown leather seats, chef-prepared buy-onboard Best Care Cuisine meals and baked-on-board chocolate chip cookies. Continental Airlines has upgraded its website to allow passengers who…
Alaska Airlines opened a new reservations call center in Phoenix, replacing a facility in Tempe operated since 1989. It specializes in serving elite frequent fliers and Spanish-speaking customers. We are currently unaware where the facility for most customers is located. American Airlines will offer new service to Buenos Aires, Argentina from Chicago-O’Hare effective December 13th.…