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You’re more likely to get sick in an office building than in an airplane. [Rick Seaney]
airlines
Southwest Gate Agent Entertains Passengers With Ukelele
By 10.12.07
Plug in your work headphones and get ready to rock out classic-easy-listening-style.
ATA Tries To Have You Arrested For Using Your iPhone In "Airplane Mode"
By 10.10.07
The iPhone has a setting that makes it safe to use on an airplane. So-called “airplane mode” disables cell phone, radio, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth signals, thus allowing you to watch movies staring Jennifer Love Hewitt while flying through the air.
FlightStats.com Trumps Other Flight Status Services
By 10.9.07
FlightStats.com is the best flight status service, WSJ reports. In a test of several different sites and services, WSJ gave “excellent” marks to FlightStats for giving out lots of different updates and for telling when flights actually arrive and depart. Sites FlightView, FlyteComm, FlightArrivals, FlightAware, and FlightExplorer all missed crucial pieces of information in the test, while the airline’s services often gave too few updates (though Delta was rated “very good.”) If you, understandably, don’t trust the airline and need to know where an airplane really is, advertising-supported FlightStats.com is the place to go.
US Airways Rewards Customers By Threatening To Charge Them $25 For Inactivity
By 10.9.07
A reader has forwarded us an obnoxious notice from US Airways that explains how they “reward” their frequent flyer program members: by charging them $25 if they’re not active enough. So what are the best ways to remain active without spending $25 or making an unnecessary ticket purchase?
Delta Downgrades Frequent Flyer Miles
By 10.6.07
Upgrade: Travel Better informs us that ever so lightly, Delta adjusted its frequent-flyer redemption policy to make it worse for travelers:
Effective December 1, 2007, SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will no longer be available on every Delta flight in which a seat is available for sale. SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will continue to be available on most Delta flights, but seats will be limited and possibly unavailable on some flights.
Nudge. Nudge. Nudge. At this rate, some day you’ll actually have to pay a fine for accumulating frequent flyer miles.
Southwest Airlines Tries To Make Passenger Change "Masterbaiter" Shirt
By 10.5.07
Southwest again tried to make a passenger change his clothes and again has been forced to apologize, reports the St. Petersburg Times. Flight attendants asked Joe Winiecki, 39, to remove a shirt promoting “Captn. Jack Hoff’, MasterBaiter,” a fictional fish store located in the “Virgin Islands.”
Holiday Airfare Prices Needn't Drain Holiday Cheer
By 10.5.07
It may not cost as much to to fly to family and friends for the holidays as much as some doom and gloomers might have you think. Airfarewatchdog sniffed around and turned up itineraries no more pricier than they would be any other time of the year:
By 10.4.07
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Federal employees wasted over $145 million in taxpayer dollars by bumping themselves up to first-class seats. [NYT via Rick Seaney]
By 10.4.07
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If you’re drinking on the plane and tip your flight attendant, they’ll be extra attentive and maybe throw you a free round. But you have to keep insisting they take the money, they’re not allowed to accept it on the first attempt. [BudgetTravel]
By 10.4.07
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10 credit cards that give you fat airline mile bonuses for signing up. Also, 9 more that do the same, but have an annual fee. [FiveCentNickle]
First Class Now Includes A Private Cabin?
By 10.2.07
Nowadays it isn’t enough for first-class passengers to separate themselves from coach, they need to hide from each other.
What The Airlines Are Feeding You
By 10.2.07
If we ran airlines, we’d serve passengers saltines and install a water hose to drink from, and then funnel the saved money into, oh, reducing flight delays. However, the airlines obviously care more about your well-being than we do, because they’re all competing to see who can offer the most chef-tastic on-flight meals these days. It also probably helps that in lots of cases, they’re charging for these meals for a bit of extra profit. Here’s a quick run-down of what some of the major airlines now offer.
America's 10 Worst Airlines
By 10.2.07
We don’t mean to spoil the suspense, but Forbes agrees with us that Atlantic Southeast Airlines (Delta) is the worst airline. They’ve compiled a list of the 10 worst airlines along with information about on-time percentages and baggage handling miscues. We like it.
What To Do When Your Flight Is Cancelled
By 10.1.07
Itenarant IT consultant James Brockman was sitting outside gate 44 at Reagan airport, and after seeing a gaggle of travelers flip out over their canceled flight, decided to put together a flight cancellation primer based on his eight years of heavy air travel experience. One piece of advice, after getting in line for the gate ticket agent with a pen and paper in hand…
A Big List Of Airline and Airport "Tarmac Stranding" Policies
By 9.28.07
We’ve been looking over the Department of Transportation’s spiffy new report about “tarmac strandings” (or “long on-board delays” as their now being called,) and have located some pretty interesting stuff.
Virgin America Is Trying Too Hard
By 9.28.07
According to OK! magazine, Virgin America will be hosting “the first-ever supermodel in-flight pajama party this November,” with the Victoria’s Secret models. No, you’re not invited. Yes, someone else is. Yes, that person probably has a camera.
Airlines Renege On Stranded Passenger Plan Promise
By 9.27.07
- No plans for supplying emergency food and drink
- No time limit for how long passengers are kept on plane
- No plan of how to get passengers off
