Do you trust Delta Air Lines? It won’t really matter if the carrier succeeds in convincing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to approve Delta’s application for a trademark on that term. [More]
air travel
Delta Apologizes For Ghana Giraffe Gaffe On Twitter
By 6.17.14
Last night, the U.S. men’s soccer team edged out the team from Ghana for its first victory in 2014 World Cup play. People everywhere went online to congratulate the team, including Delta Air Lines, which didn’t do quite enough research about the wildlife in Ghana before it Tweeted. [More]
JetBlue Tells Little Girl She Can’t Use Toilet, Almost Throws Her Off Plane After She Wets Herself
By 6.16.14
It’s one thing if a passenger is denied access to a plane’s bathroom because the jet is taking off or landing, but JetBlue is having to do the “So Sorry” dance after cabin crew refused to let a little girl use the bathroom while the plane was just sitting on the tarmac — and then tried to kick her and her family off the plane when she urinated in her seat. [More]
United Flight Diverted Because Passengers Aren’t Supposed To Charge The Cockpit
By 6.2.14
What should have been a few-hour flight from Houston to New York City on Saturday evening turned into an 8-hour slog with a long stopover in Memphis for passengers of United flight 1435, which never made it all the way to its intended destination. All because a passenger decided to rush the cockpit. [More]
Dog Poo On Plane Leads To Emergency Landing
By 5.30.14
While human beings can apparently urinate in the aisle of a passenger jet without the plane needing to make a pit stop, and it’s fine and dandy to fly a plane full of people sick with the norovirus to their destination, a little dog poop on a US Airways flight is cause to bring a transcontinental flight to a screeching halt and bring in a clean-up crew. [More]
Musician Fiddles On Tarmac When US Airways Won’t Let Him Carry-On Violin
By 5.27.14
So you’re a musician who regularly flies with your violin as carry-on luggage, and then one day you go to board a US Airways flight only to be told you have to either stow your instrument in the cargo hold where it could be lost, stolen, damaged or you can forfeit your tickets. What’s left to do but play a tune right then and there on the tarmac. [More]
Final AirTran Flight Scheduled To Depart On Dec. 28
By 5.23.14
It’s been three years since Southwest Airlines acquired budget carrier AirTran, but the two airlines’ fleets have yet to be fully integrated. Southwest has finally put a Dec. 28 date on the ultimate AirTran-branded flight. [More]
The TSA’s ‘Randomizer’ Explains Why Some People Fly Through Airport Security While You Wait
By 5.9.14
Earlier this year, I wrote about a somewhat confusing (albeit pleasant) experience I’d had at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, where I and a number of other travelers were put through the TSA’s expedited PreCheck line — meaning no removal of shoes, belts or jackets — in spite of not being enrolled in the PreCheck program. At the time, the TSA didn’t offer too much insight into why this had happened, but a new report sheds some more light on the topic. [More]
Spirit Airlines Wants To “Hug The Haters,” Do Better Job Of Explaining Fees
By 5.7.14
After years of being far and away the airline with the highest level of passenger complaints, Spirit now says it wants to begin the healing by offering to “hug the haters.” Of course, what this really means is the company just thinks it can do a better job of explaining why it charges a fee for just about everything under the sun. [More]
United Airlines Pilots Call For CEO To Be Bumped From The Company
By 4.30.14
It’s been a rough few weeks for United Airlines; once again coming in dead last in an annual customer satisfaction survey of major U.S. carriers, and then posting a quarterly loss of nearly half a billion dollars while Delta and American earned huge profits. Now the leadership of the largest chapter of the United pilots union is making no attempt to hide their disapproval of CEO Jeff Smisek. [More]
Congress Wants To Restore Glory Days Of Misleading Airfares And Hidden Fees
By 4.28.14
Remember what it was like to book air travel way back in ye olden days of three years ago? You’d spot a really excellent online deal on a flight, only to discover at checkout that after the taxes and fees, it was $50 higher than you’d thought. The Dept. of Transportation changed all that in 2012 — but now, a bill rapidly moving through Congress could reverse that change entirely. [More]
Frontier’s “Ultra-Low-Cost” Fare Structure Includes Fees To Use Overhead Bins, Reserve Seats
By 4.28.14
Is Frontier Airlines the newest Spirit Airlines? Minus the always entertaining missives of Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza, the Denver-based carrier is taking a page from its cheapo fellow airline and changing up its price structure to include, among other things, a fee for carry-on baggage and a reserved seat. [More]
Woman Ticketed For Google Glass Says United Airlines Asked Her To Take Off Device For “Security Reasons”
By 4.25.14
You may remember the case from a few months ago of the California woman who received a traffic ticket for, among other things, driving while sporting Google’s wearable Glass device. That case was subsequently thrown out, but that same Glass wearer says United Airlines recently told her she had to take her device off while on the plane. [More]
Survey Says: People Still Hate The Airlines… Especially United
By 4.22.14
The folks at the American Customer Satisfaction Index have released their annual report on the airline industry, once again confirming that it’s awfully hard to please consumers when you treat them like cattle and charge a premium for the privilege. [More]
Airline Apologizes For Baggage Handlers Caught Dropping Luggage From Height Of 20 Feet
By 4.21.14
As airlines crack down on passengers’ attempts to shove too-large and overstuffed carry-on bags onto planes, a growing number of travelers are forced to gate-check their luggage, meaning it’s collected at the gate and put straight into the plane’s underbelly. But some baggage handlers don’t feel like carrying luggage down all those steps from the jetway to the ground and are just dropping passengers’ bags from heights of around 20 feet. [More]
Teen Stowaway Somehow Survives 5-Hour Flight Hidden In Wheel Well
By 4.21.14
In news that we fear might give cheapo airlines some ideas about how to squeeze more passengers on a plane, a teenage stowaway not only managed to sneak into the wheel well of a jet, but somehow managed to survive sub-freezing temperatures and super-thin air for more than five hours on a flight from California to Hawaii. [More]
Spirit Airlines: The Most Complained-About Carrier In The U.S.
By 4.10.14
Yes, we’ve repeatedly made fun of delusional Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza for his claim that his company is the “most consumer-friendly” airline around, especially when it comes in dead-last in traveler opinion surveys and is the only U.S. carrier to make a recent list of the world’s worst airlines. And a new study confirms that Spirit’s passengers are several times more likely to complain than passengers on any other domestic carrier. [More]
If You Get Caught Joining Mile-High Club, Don’t Kick The Officer Who Arrests You
By 4.2.14
We’ve never really considered a crowded plane to be the most conducive setting for amorous adventures, but maybe we’re just being square. We also use the term square, so that might be your answer right there. Regardless, we’re not the ones facing criminal charges after allegedly engaging in a public sex act then assaulting the officer who arrested us. [More]
