(Photo: eliazar)
gridskipper
That Airfare Site May Not Be As Impartial As You Think
By 10.23.07
The impression of airfare aggregator sites is that they’re mechanical purveyors of ticket information, but this is not always the case, writes Airfarewatchdog. Some sites won’t list some airlines, either permanently or temporarily, and for no reason transparent to the consumer. Case in point:
Tomato Juice Spill Causes Massive Delays At LaGuardia
By 10.22.07
Lines the length of city blocks filled New York’s LaGuardia airport Saturday morning after a careless worker spilled tomato juice onto one of the five x-ray machines in the American Airlines terminal. A TSA spokesman cast the tomato juice’s victory over the machines as a failure of science, saying: “That’s the risk you take when you deal with technology.” Passengers were understandably pissed.
When CBS 2 HD told one woman the reason for the delays, she asked if we were “kidding,” but it was no joke. The Transportation Safety Administration confirmed the spill knocked out one of the five units that screen thousands of passengers here each day.
Find The Real Reason For Delays With Airline Cargo Sites
By 10.19.07
It can be hard to get a straight answer out of airlines sometime about the real reason a flight is delayed. For some reason, though, they’re more straight up about their packages than their passengers. See, the airlines have special cargo websites which are supposed to be for people tracking packages they’re shipping through the airline. Here’s the cargo sites for some of the major carriers…
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.
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.”
8 Great Places To Travel On A Weak Dollar
By 10.2.07
The dollar has hit new lows, but fear not, thrifty globetrotters, there’s still countries with weaker currencies than ours. What they lack in fiscal might, they make up for in natural beauty and exotic locales.
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…
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
Top 10 Worst, Hidden, Airline Fees
By 9.21.07
Airfarewatchdog released a list of the Top Ten Most Obnoxious Hidden Airline Fees. We love:
6. Getting a refund when a fare goes down
Southwest Ends "Cattle Call" Seating In November
By 9.20.07
Starting November, Southwest will change its completely “grab any seat” policy. Instead, you will get assigned a letter and number. When your letter is called, everyone in that group lines up in order by number, boards, then grabs any seat they feel like. In case this is difficult to understand, Southwest has an interactive minisite set up to explain the process.
DC Madam's Favorite Hotels
By 7.16.07
Inside, an interactive Googlemaps Mashup showing the most popular hotels from the DC Madam’s phone records.
Top 10 Most "Ho-Friendly" DC Hotels, Based On The DC Madam's Phone Records
By 7.13.07
If you want to have sex with a prostitute in Washington D.C., try the Marriott.
How To Avoid Getting Bumped From A Flight
By 6.18.07
Tips for protecting against getting bumped from a flight, courtesy of the July issue of Kiplinger’s we found on the airplane this weekend.
Easy For Fraudsters To Fool E-Ticket Kiosks
By 6.11.07
It would be really easy for someone to steal your credit card and buy and use an airplane ticket.
Make Affordable Cellphone Calls While Travelling Internationally
By 6.5.07
Cellphone bills can put a serious crimp in your wallet if you’re an international man of mysteriousness. Here’s some ideas on making wireless calls without dropping too many deutschmarks:
