We recently received two very different stories of people who had booked tickets on discount carrier Spirit Airlines. One involves a terrible family tragedy and the other occurred when a fading formality turned into a red tape nightmare, but in the end they both ended up facing the stone-faced (and possibly stone-hearted) Spirit refund policy. [More]
air travel
ExpressJet Pilot Just Says No To Full-Body Scan Or Pat-Down
By 10.20.10
A pilot of Continental’s ExpressJet line has stirred up a ruckus after refusing to submit to either a full-body scan or the alternative, a hands-on pat-down from a TSA screener. [More]
Airlines Want Air Marshals To Stop Flying First Class
By 10.19.10
The airlines are fed up with with seeing armed air marshals taking up free seats in first class. A trade group representing the major U.S. carriers has asked the Federal Air Marshals Service to consider putting their agents in coach. [More]
U.S. Airways Tells Man In Wheelchair He's Too Disabled To Be A Passenger
By 10.18.10
A man with cerebral palsy had recently boarded a U.S. Airways flight in West Palm Beach, FL, when he was approached by the plane’s flight crew and told he needed to vacate the aircraft. The reason? He is too disabled to fly. [More]
Pilots Confess: We're Tired, Hungry & Just As Confused As You
By 10.18.10
For many of us who travel on planes, believing the pilots are well-fed and rested is a necessity. But according to some of the industry secrets that airline pilots have divulged to the editors of Reader’s Digest, the men and women behind the controls are — for better or worse — just like the rest of us. [More]
PETA Ad Nixed By Airports & In-Flight Magazines
By 10.12.10
On the heels of Scottevest CEO Scott Jordan’s rant about Delta denying his ad in their in-flight literature comes news that PETA is having trouble finding airline magazines and airports that will run the ad seen here. [More]
Bob Saget Disapproves Of Your Parenting Techniques
By 10.12.10
Leave it to former sitcom dad Bob Saget to give air travelers even more of a reason to demand a families-only section of the airplane. [More]
U.S. Airways Gives Employees Misinformation About 'Mad As Hell' Petition
By 10.4.10
In September, a combination of advocacy groups banded together to launch the Mad As Hell petition in an effort to alert regulators about consumers’ dissatisfaction with the trend of charging fees for just about everything that used to be included in the price of an airline ticket. But if you ask U.S. Airways, they’ll say it’s the people that they hint may be behind the petition who are really the greedy ones. [More]
JetBlue Bringing Broadband WiFi To Planes… Eventually
By 10.4.10
The good news for air travelers: JetBlue has just announced a plan to install satellite-based WiFi internet access on their planes that it promises will deliver “the industry’s best in-flight broadband for commercial aviation.” The not as good news: It’s going to take a while. [More]
Passengers Forced To Stand During Flight Because There Weren't Enough Seats
By 10.1.10
While airlines like RyanAir mull over “standing-room seating” and designers create plane seats that will bring tears to your eyes, one airline in Russia figured out how to get passengers to stand up during a flight — just tell them to. [More]
Continental & United Make Their Union Official
By 10.1.10
Just two weeks after shareholders for both United and Continental Airlines gave their blessing, the two carriers snuck off to city hall this morning to officially say “I do” so they can get around to screwing… up the airline industry. [More]
VIDEO: Watch Sparks Fly During Emergency Landing At JFK
By 9.27.10
Over the weekend, a Delta flight en route from White Plains, NY, to Atlanta was forced to make an emergency landing that had the plane’s wing dragging on the runway in a shower of sparks. Luckily, the whole thing ended safely for all on board — and it was caught on video. [More]
US Airways: Sorry Your Sister Is Gravely Ill. $30 To Sit Together, Please.
By 9.24.10
Bernadette writes that when sister-in-law was gravely ill on the other side of the country, her husband booked an expensive last-minute flight to bring her back to the East Coast. He was alarmed to learn that U.S. Airways couldn’t guarantee that he and his sister would sit together on the flight from California to New Jersey…unless he paid an extra $15 “choice seating” fee on each ticket. It’s a relatively small amount of money, but the family found it heartless under the circumstances. [More]
Updated List Of Airports With Full-Body Scanners
By 9.17.10
Just in case you had thought/hoped/prayed that the use of full-body scanners at airports was going to be a passing fad, you should know that the devices continue to sprout up at security checkpoints everywhere. In just the last few months, seven more airports have joined the roster. [More]
Shareholders Say "Voltron Unite!" To United-Continental Merger
By 9.17.10
United and Continental are oh so close to merging, now that shareholders for both airlines have approved the deal. [More]
I Don't Care Who Screwed Up My Flight Plans, I Just Want My Money Back
By 9.16.10
Rick writes that he booked flights for a family trip using Expedia. Due to an apparent mistake at Delta Airlines, his ticket and his wife’s were canceled out from under them for the first leg of their trip, but their daughter’s wasn’t. Rick has been pursuing a refund for the last-minute tickets he had to buy, but no one seems to know who should be issuing that refund. [More]
Homeland Security Wants To Look Deep Into Your Eyes… To Scan Them For Their Records
By 9.13.10
Screw fingerprints. That’s so 2009. That’s the attitude the Homeland Security Dept. is taking in Mexico, where it will be testing out a new iris-scanning technology that it claims is faster than old-fashioned fingerprinting. [More]
Meet The Airline Seat That Will Destroy Your Crotch
By 9.10.10
Though most airline manufacturers and insiders have scoffed at the idea of “standing room” seats on jets, someone has come up with an airplane chair that is simultaneously more feasible and more uncomfortable. Meet the crotch-crushing SkyRider! [More]
