Country music star John Rich — formerly half of the duo Big & Rich — was escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight Sunday from Las Vegas to Nashville before it took off. [More]
air travel
Baggage Handler: I Was Fired For Helping Sick Dog
By 12.5.11
Usually when you see a Consumerist headline that involves a baggage handler and a pet, it means the furry friend is lost or dead. But here’s one that’s more uplifting… except for the fact that the handler says she was fired for doing a good deed. [More]
TSA Thinks Fake Gun On Your Handbag Is A Security Threat
By 12.2.11
While gun replicas have been outlawed on planes since 2002, should that include miniature designs of pistols that are part of your handbag? This is the question that vexed a teenager who was stopped by TSA agents and told that her weaponized handbag was some sort of illegal security risk. [More]
Study: Virgin America Keeps Customers On Hold Longer Than Any Other Airline
By 11.23.11
Holiday travel plans change all the time, meaning lots of people will be spending lots of time on the phone trying to speak to a human being. And according to a new report, passengers on Virgin America should have something to occupy themselves with while waiting on hold, as the average wait time for the carrier is longer than 20 minutes. [More]
Senator Introduces Two Bills To Curb Checked Bag Fees
By 11.23.11
With so many people lining up at the airport today and tomorrow to fly home to stuff their stomachs with, well… stuffing, one U.S. Senator has introduced two pieces of legislation aimed at reining in the checked bag fees charged by airlines. [More]
Who Knew U.S. Airways Had Standing Room Only Tickets?
By 11.22.11
Okay, so the airline doesn’t actually sell standing room only tickets, but they might as well have for one passenger who was forced to stand for most of a seven-hour flight — and who only received a $200 travel voucher for his troubles. [More]
Are Airport X-Ray Machines Killing Kindles?
By 11.21.11
The Amazon Kindle and other similar e-readers can be quite convenient for frequent air travelers who want to fly without packing heavy or bulky books. But some European jet-setters are reporting that run-ins with airport X-ray machines are killing their Kindles. [More]
Anti-TSA Complaints At All-Time Low
By 11.18.11
Even as there has been growing concern about full-body scanners and grope-y pat downs at airport security checkpoints, the actual number of complaints against the Transportation Security Administration hit an all-time low last month. [More]
Passengers Refuse To Leave Delayed Plane Until Airline Pays Up
By 11.18.11
Yesterday, we told you about an Austrian airline that held its passengers for ransom until they paid an additional $31,500 for fuel. But here’s a story of passengers leveraging their numbers against the airline in order to be properly compensated. [More]
Airline Forces Passengers To Cough Up $31,500 For Fuel Or Get Off Plane
By 11.17.11
No one likes fuel surcharges and no one likes being stuck on a tarmac for six hours. Now imagine what it must be like to be stuck on that tarmac for six hours because the airline refuses to take off unless you and the other passengers can pool $31,500 to pay for fuel to get to their destination. [More]
Southwest Passenger Says Airline Owes Him 45 Free Drinks
By 11.17.11
Once upon a time (i.e., up until August 2010), people who bought Business Select tickets on Southwest Airlines flights were treated to free drink coupons that didn’t have an expiration date and could be used at a later date if the passenger didn’t feel like tippling on the day of the initial flight. But now that these coupons are only good for the date of issue, one Southwest traveler with a stockpile of now-useless paper is suing the carrier. [More]
Some Full-Body Airport Scanners Banned In Europe
By 11.15.11
The full-body scanners being rolled out at security checkpoints in U.S. airports are either of the millimeter-wave type, which uses radio frequency waves, or the backscatter X-ray type, which uses ionizing radiation — and which has effectively been banned from use in European airports. [More]
TSA Warns Passengers: Wrapped Gifts May Need To Be Unwrapped
By 11.14.11
If you have to fly this holiday season and you were planning on wrapping any presents before you get on the plane, the folks at the TSA have issued their annual word of caution on the matter: They may need to unwrap those carefully packed gifts. [More]
Packing Valuable Items In Your Luggage? Check Your Bags Before You Leave The Airport
By 11.11.11
If you’ve got to take something valuable — especially something fragile and valuable — on a plane, it’s best to try to carry it on. And as Consumerist reader Cathy learned, if you must check those items, be sure to look at your bags before you leave the baggage claim area, just in case that item has gotten damaged or disappeared. [More]
United CEO: Airfares Are Only Going To Get More Complicated
By 11.10.11
While regulators continue to push through rules intended to make airfares more transparent, airlines continue to pare base ticket prices down while charging fees for everything else that used to be included in the listed cost. Given all the potential permutations, it’s not surprising that Jeff Smisek, CEO of United Airlines, doesn’t see things getting simpler anytime soon. [More]
Ryanair's In-Flight Porn App Would Let You Join The Mile-High Club All By Yourself
By 11.9.11
Michael O’Leary, CEO of cheapo European airline Ryanair, is taking a break from his plans to remove toilets from his planes to talk up his idea for an app that would allow passengers to do everything from gamble to watch porn. [More]
Passenger Lives In Airport For 8 Days Instead Of Paying Bag Fees
By 11.3.11
A woman who was set to fly out of San Francisco with only $30 to her name ended up living at the airport after being told the fees for her checked bags were going to be double that amount. [More]
Southwest Passenger Uses Craigslist To Track Down Stolen Laptop
By 11.3.11
This story is useful in two ways. First, as an example of how you can utilize freely available online tools to help yourself when others won’t. And second, as yet another example of why you should never, ever check your laptop on a flight. [More]
