Deb has an interesting question. She and her husband openly admit that they’re too large to fit in a single seat, so they purchase three seats when they travel by air. The problem, she writes, is that is that even when airline customers are happy to buy more than one seat, they are not actually granted access to multiple seats. Unmovable armrests and other barriers keep passengers of size from actually using the extra seat they have paid for. So, Deb wants to know: what’s a fat frequent flier to do? [More]
airlines
A Chart Of The Myriad Airline Baggage Fees
By 1.20.10
DansDeals put together this massive chart of baggage fees from 21 American and Canadian airlines. [More]
American Airlines Raises Checked Bag Fees Effective February 1st
By 1.18.10
American Airlines announced today that they’re raising checked baggage fees by $5, effective February 1st. Your first bag will now cost $25, and your second one will cost $35. If you want to check a third bag, you will have to buy the airplane (cash or certified checks only), and if you want to check a fourth bag, you will have to endure a phone call from AA’s CEO Gerard Arpey, where he will cry at you and say he doesn’t know how to run a company and he’s scared. He only made $8.9 million in total compensation last year, so cut him some slack. [More]
A Priceline Email Address That Humans Sometimes Read
By 1.15.10
Priceline hates hates hates giving refunds. But if you need one, or some other aspect of their non-existent customer service fixed, you can email executive.services@priceline.com or OriginatesES@service.priceline.com. You will probably end up going to your bank to get the refund, but at least you know where to shove the cc. This information is also useful in case your 2-year old daughter is in the burn ward and you need to cancel a trip. [More]
JetBlue Gives You $400 In Credits You Didn't Ask For
By 1.14.10
Reader Ryan is happy. He is happy because JetBlue just randomly emailed him to give him $400 in credits he didn’t ask for. [More]
Flight Delays Jump
By 1.14.10
“Whether or not the new security is making us safer, it seems to be making us slower.” So says a pretty graph over at GOOD magazine shows the dramatic increase in sluggishness 10 major airports. Percentage of departures canceled or delayed has jumped up from last year. The worst offenders? Forth Worth, Dallas, and Kennedy, at 70%, 55% and 51%, respectively. We eke ever closer to a Soviet Russia model of air travel. Eventually we’ll have to bribe the pilots to take off. [More]
Delta Hikes Bag Fees: $23 For 1st, $32 for 2nd
By 1.12.10
Delta has increased its checked baggage fees, effective today. Your first bag now costs $23 and your second, $32, up from $15 and $25, respectively. [More]
Fight At Delta JFK Among Passengers, Not Directed At Airline?
By 12.30.09
Remember that passenger fight at Delta JFK last week? According to an airport employee who witnessed the fight, it wasn’t passengers venting on airport employees. Rather, the travelers (described as “the entire nation of Haiti”), who, yes, had been waiting for their flight to Haiti for four days, started to “brawl” amongst themselves. When a few TSA employees tried to break it up, “they got thrown around.” [More]
TSA Gets Some Damned Sense, Eases Flight Restrictions
By 12.28.09
Good news, people who are in the unfortunate position of having to do business with an airline in the near future: the TSA’s embarrassingly reactionary new “security rules” have been eased as of this afternoon. Now it is up to the captain whether they’re enforced on each flight, reports CBS News. [More]
Next Time You Fly, Prepare To Be Patted Down And Computerless
By 12.27.09
Are we not allowed to have electronics with us in the cabin when we fly now? Is it true that we can’t get up in the last hour of a flight, and everyone gets patted down now? Most importantly, what about the electronics? [More]
United Airlines Calls Up Delayed Traveler, Offers Compensation
By 12.24.09
We’ve brought you plenty of airline horror stories recently, but Marine officer Christopher’s experience is positively heartwarming in comparison. After the East coast snowpocalypse canceled his original flight and he was forced to wait on the tarmac for three hours due to a baggage handler shortage, United Airlines contacted him to offer a $250 travel voucher. No EECB needed. [More]
If Wall Street Ran The Airlines
By 12.23.09
The Baseline Scenario has written a pitch-perfect article that pretends financial industry types are now speaking for the airline industry. It’s filled with appeals to the free market, and lots of threats about how the American Way of Life will collapse if we can’t let passengers sit for more than three hours on tarmacs. [More]
Delta Responds To JFK Clusterfracas
By 12.22.09
Reached for comment about the big mess I and others observed at their JFK terminal today, Delta said they are working hard to add capacity and find flights home for the stranded passengers whose outpouring of anger at yet further delays required police intervention: [More]
JFK Delta Terminal A Living Hellhole, Cops Called To Quell Crowds
By 12.22.09
Around 9:30 this morning, NYPD descended on the JFK Delta Terminal to calm an unruly mob of holiday travelers. I myself escaped the same terminal 2 hours earlier, and I could already tell at that point that something was going to go terribly wrong. [More]
Master Chart Of Airlines Fees
By 12.21.09
Before you travel through the sky in the belly of a silver tube at hundreds of miles per hour, wouldn’t it be nice to know which extra fees you might be charged for doing so? Kayak has a great chart for doing just that. [More]
Tarmac Imprisonment Limited To 3 Hours
By 12.21.09
Airlines must let passengers stuck in airplanes stranded on the tarmac get off after 3 hours, the Transportation Department today ordered. They’re also now only allowed to starve you for 2 hours, after which they must serve pizza or a reasonable facsimile. Toilets must be functional during the entire time as well. [More]
Yeah, It's Pretty Much Chaos At Delta/Northwest Right Now
By 12.20.09
Adding to the problems caused by snowstorms, travel delays, and a general lack of communication in the skies today, readers report that Delta’s and Northwest’s computer systems are still not integrated, resulting in some completely un-hilarious travel snafus. [More]
10 Things To Know To Keep Your Luggage From Getting Lost
By 12.18.09
It’s late night at the airport and you’re the only one left standing at the baggage couresel, waiting for your luggage to arrive. The same blue duffel passes you like a broken record. Reality sinks in. Your baggage is lost. Tears form. Then, a rustling of rubber flaps. A form begins to emerge from the wall. Could it be, your lost bag? No, it is a man, a baggage handler man, covered in dust. He pats himself off and plants himself before you and begins a soliloquy. He is here to tell you you the 10 ten things you need to know to keep your bags from getting lost: [More]
