• Even still, look over our shoulders as we do a private beta demo of Farecast, a service that lets you know when and where from to buy airfare, plus spiffy graphs, similar to Flyspy.
travel
Northwest Trimming Handlers Paychecks
By 5.23.06
As if baggage delays and maltreatment weren’t bad enough already, baggage handlers may soon even have less of an incentive for your luggage to arrive with all its Vuitons on its Louis.
Turning the Tables on the Hudson
By 5.23.06
Robert Norton is staying at the Hudson Hotel here in New York and his feet are cold:
Hotel Reviews and Travel Advice From Trusted Strangers
By 5.17.06
If you’re looking for sound travel and especially hotel advice from other engaged consumers, TravelPost may be a site for you to check out, as Lifehacker did.
Delta Go Videoblog Boom Boom
By 5.15.06
The Show with Ze Frank has a riff on some crappy Delta customer service he experienced this weekend, with bonus live-action footage of the total stranger Delta put him with after enjoying a multi-hour flying debacle. [NSFW]
Fly First Class For Cheap
By 5.8.06
There’s no need to lead an on-board mutiny or deploy Macchivelian mind-tricks, here’s how you get first-class airplane seats for cheap.
Better Bidding for Hotel and Airfare
By 5.5.06
A few days ago, we chatted about biddingfortravel.com,an online forum for people to share bidding strategies on travel auction sites like Hotwire and Priceline.
Flying Cheaper Than Driving
By 5.4.06
Oh to be a reporter, sporting a fedora at a jaunty slant (with that hat brim with which to stick our official reporter card in), glad-handing our sources, uncovering secrets at every turn… and getting paid to fly to Islip on an airplane and then drive back.
BiddingForTravel.com
By 5.3.06
One of the problems with travel bidding sites such as Priceline and Hotwire is that you’re betting blind. The house has all the stats, has already determined what they’re going to pay and it’s up to you to guess what might work.
HOWTO: Upgrade to First Class
By 5.3.06
Lifehacker offers up some tips on social engineering (the “cool” and “conscious” way to say manipulating) tactics to employ if you would like to get your airplane seat bumped up to first class. Note too, the comments. Some prefer the snug feeling of a warm blanket of honesty than the plushness of a wide leather site in the front berth.
United Lies To Another Customer. Also, Continental’s Bitch CSR!
By 5.2.06
Apparently, lying to customers is an integral part of United’s strategy for dealing with frustrated travelers. A fter Laura complained to us about United delaying her flight, losing her bags and then unblinkingly lying to her, we received this email from Brian,who details another experience in which United lied to a customer about a lost bag.
The Setting Sun of Delta, Ah! It Burns!
By 5.1.06
It’s not just cleaning the airplanes, now customer service appears to be on a volunteer basis as well. Dawn writes in a horrific tale of a flight from Dallas to Orlando that ended up taking over a day.
United To Reps: “Delayed Their Flight? Lost Their Baggage? Lie to Them.”
By 5.1.06
Outside of a small child incessantly kicking the back of your seat and being powerless to reach around and slug him, there’s few things more frustrating in travel than flight delays and lost baggage. No one really likes flying… it’s a slightly filthy, slightly scary, rather expensive cattle car experience that leaves even the most seasoned traveler feeling a bit drained. You just want the ordeal to be over, get home or to your hotel as quickly as possible.
Southwest Launches Corporate Blog, But Where’s The CS?
By 4.28.06
Southwest Airlines have launched a pretty respectable example of a half-decent, minimally-manipulative, somewhat-entertaining corporate blog. If you know what we mean. This isn’t McDonald’s stupid “Horse Whsiperer” Corporate Responsibility nonsense. For example, we got a kick out of the entry about a bee hive that was found in the tail of a plane that was being repaired and the bee keeper who was brought in to deal with the problem.
The Flying RyanAir Horror Show
By 4.27.06
Although I personally love RyanAir for allowing me to fly anywhere in Europe practically for free, I’ve known enough people who’ve worked behind the scenes to know it’s a pretty horrific company to work for — or even fly with — if you know what they know. Cheapness, apparently, doesn’t come cheap… it comes with a huge cost in customer service and, more importantly, competence and safety.
Man’s Airline Complaint Resolved (What a Juicy Headline)
By 4.26.06
Unfortunately for us, Dave went through the airport yesterday. After a surly customs agent behaved in an uncouth, yet ironic (situationaly speaking) manner, he called customs to complain.
