Flight Wisdom

With the announcement that Northwest would be charging for the first checked bag for all flights purchased on or after July 10th for travel on or after August 28th, it brings the total to four legacy carriers who charge for anything you put under the plane. The others are American, United, and US Airways(but they [...]

United Airlines matched American Airlines’ $15 fee to check a single bag today. US Airways announced the same on all reservations booked on or after July 9th.
US Airways will be charging $2 per nonalcoholic drink beginning August 1st. They’ve already rid themselves of free snacks in economy as of June 1st.
In addition, US Airways will [...]

Airline passengers think that their ticket gives them the right to have themselves and their luggage transported to their destination. They are wrong on both counts. Most recently, the legacy carriers have now imposed a twenty-five dollar charge for the checking of a second bag.
Chris Elliott, in his blog, commented that United’s chief revenue officer [...]

Effective May 5th, US Airways will charge a $25 service fee for checking a second bag. The fee is waived for qualifying frequent fliers and those who booked prior to today.
US Airways becomes the second legacy carrier to implement such a fee. United introduced such a fee on February 4th, referring to it as a [...]

Happy Eighth Birthday to JetBlue Airways. Who would have thought they’d grow so fast so quickly? Remembering the good old days when we flew them between Rochester, NY and JFK…

Alaska Airlines and Horizon have announced they have selected Seattle-based Jones Soda Co as their new drink partner. The airlines will offer customers complimentary canned Jones [...]

US Airways will be adding service to three Gulf Coast cities from its Charlotte hub. Service will begin April 6th to Ft. Walton Beach, FL and Panama City. Service to Gulfport/Biloxi, MS will begin May 6th. Service will be operated by subsidiary PSA Airlines using 5-seat CRJ-200s.
Horizon Air will begin Santa [...]

Here we are, the last roundup of 2007…

Discounter Zoom Airlines will be operating new service from London Gatwick to both San Diego and Ft. Lauderdale. From next May, Ft. Lauderdale service will operate Thursdays and Sundays and will be the first scheduled service from Europe to Ft. Lauderdale in ten years. Service to San Diego [...]

Eos Airlines announced that every guest who registers and purchases a round-trip ticket between October 31st and November 16th will receive either a Nintendo game system or bonus points in their loyalty progam. Fares of $4000 or above will get a Wii or 40,000 points. Fares below that will receive a DS Lite or 20,000 [...]

Air Canada will be offering nonstop service from Ottawa to Frankfurt beginning June 1st as well as nonstop service from Toronto-Dusseldorf six times weekly beginning May 1st…and a second daily nonstop from Calgary-Frankfurt on April 14th.
American Eagle began nonstop service today from Flint’s Bishop International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Service will be six [...]

Lots to cover…never enough time…

United Airlines announced new service from Los Angeles to Des Moines, IA and Austin, TX effective February 13th, and will be operated by Skywest’s CRJ-700 regional jets with 6 first class and 60 economy seats, including Economy Plus.
Beginning on March 3rd, Delta will be offering flights from Lawton/Ft. Sill, Oklaholma to [...]

Mesa Airlines announced an agreement with United Airlines to replace 8 50-seat CRJ-200 aircraft with two 66-seat CRJ-700 aircraft. United, as well as other airlines, are replacing the cramped 40-50 seater planes with larger more spacious regional planes which preserve the economy of smaller aircraft but add the comfort of mainline service.
San Francisco International Airport [...]

One can be shocked by the repeated stories of woe and disaster…here are some that are not to be believed. Airline complaints in the United States overall are up this year, increasing 47.2% in the first six months of 2007, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In order…the top five complained about U.S. airlines [...]

Security officials at Cairo airport were horrified when the search of a 22-year old passenger’s carry-on revealed live snakes, baby crocodiles, and chameleons. Transporting live reptiles out of the country is illegal in Egypt and the animals were confiscated. The Saudi man claims he was unaware of the ban and was transporting the reptiles for [...]

Frontier Airlines is expanding its service to Puerto Vallarta with flights from San Jose and Sacramento, beginning December 15th. Service will be operated three times weekly from San Jose, and four from Sacramento, with 76-seat Embraer 170 aircraft, operated by Republic Airlines. One of the San Jose flights will be operated by Frontier’s own A319 [...]

Northwest CEO Doug Steenland continues to apologize for Northwest’s flight cancellation. Northwest continues to blame the problem on pilots, however, instead of blaming their own practices. Northwest Airlines and the Airline Pilots Association confirmed an agreement on contract issues and work rules to help improve the problem, the agreement implements contractual changes on work [...]

China…land of a thousand aviation opportunities…and a lucrative destination to gain for an airline. The DOT is once again accepting bids for new service to China. We’ve put off talking about these developments…but it is time to review the candidates.

American Airlines has applied to operate Chicago to Beijing service. They even have a website, www.flytochinaonaa.com. [...]

American Eagle will add nonstop service from Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport and Raleigh-Durham beginning November 4th with six day a week service operated by 37-seat ERJ-135 jets.
American Eagle will also add service between Santa Fe, New Mexico and both Dallas/Ft. Worth and Los Angeles. Service will be operated with 44-seat Embraer 140 regional jets. Daily [...]

It is a question we often ask ourselves…Perhaps a few bits of info should give you pause…

The body of an Asian male in his 50s was found in the nose gear wheel well of a United 747 yesterday at San Francisco International Airport. Counting the most recent victim, the FAA has tallied 75 stowaway attempts [...]

On the lighter side of travel…teacher Dave Barclay flew from Toronto, Canada to Cardiff, in Wales to attend a wedding, only to discover that the wedding was scheduled for next July. Barclay, who spent $1015 on his flight, commented that on the bright side, his error has assured him a mention in the speech next [...]

We don’t appreciate the media reporting airline delays as Flights from Hell. It seems too much hype as opposed to more useful reporting.
Reuters comments that if airlines “want to ensure long-term survival, they say they have no choice but to restrain capacity, fill as many seats as possible and cut costs wherever they can.”
It is [...]

Amadeus has signed an international rail distribution agreement with Wandrian, a global rail specialist, to distribute rail content to travel agents outside Europe who want to book rail globally. Through the web-based Amadeus RailAgent, travel agents outside Europe will have online connectivity and tools enabling them to book global rail passes and point-to-point tickets [...]

Well, the flight still hasn’t left…It happens sometimes….so here we are for part two of today’s roundup…Let’s see what the other flight bloggers are up to…

Upgrade, Travel Better has a response to their recent query about United-US Airways codeshares…The codeshare program includes 2000 US flight numbers on UA, and an equivalent number of UA numbers [...]

For the first time, this Roundup was written while our editor was sitting at an airport, awaiting a flight. Hmm…perhaps a story on Airport Wifi is in order?

The Coalition for Luggage Security….don’t you love their press releases as much as we do? They reported(and we use the term lightly) on the 13th about a British [...]

USA Today has a good article today about very unhappy United Airlines passengers. United’s customer satisfaction rating dropped more than any other big US carrier this year. Check out the horror stories here. We think it is depressing it takes USA Today investigating to get United to do right by these people…
In a positive move, [...]

There’s a lot to catch up on…

Qantas is expanding its flight schedule to the United States, effective March 2008, bringing total flights to 46 flights per week. The increased schedule includes daily service between Los Angeles and Brisbane effective March 27th; Increasing to 17 weekly flights between Los Angeles and Sydney, effective March 30th; increasing [...]