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 [...]

Things have been incredibly busy here at ‘Blog Central’. Fortunately, the holiday season is upon us, hopefully bringing lots of time for us to catch up on all the airline news thats fit to blog. So here we are in no particular order(although newest ones will be first).

Jetblue is reminding people of its 144 [...]

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 [...]

US Airways will reduce the number of flights in January from its Pittsburgh hub, a move that will cut 450 airline jobs. It will reduce the number of daily mainline flights from 31 to 22 and regional service from 77 to about 46. It mid 2005, it had over 200 daily flights. The move means [...]

We’ve been a bit occupied of lot, and have a lot to catch up on. Rest assured, that while this is not our primary responsibility(we have jobs), we hope to be back on top of things soon, bringing the best in air travel developments in a timely fashion.

Hagerstown Airport, 80 miles northwest of downtown Washington [...]

American Airlines will add a daily flight from Chicago-O’Hare and Gulfport-Biloxi beginning December 13.
Pittsburgh International Airport has expanded its free wi-fi service to both pre and post-security areas of the terminal.
Continental has announced a major expansion at its Cleveland hub. The airline will grow its capacity at Cleveland by 40% in the next two years, [...]

Airlines have been making many changes in management of late. It inspired us to do a little review of what airline management has been saying, as well as some new initiatives.

Westjet

Westjet CEO Sean Durfy thinks the Canadian discounter could control as much as half of the domestic Canadian market by 2013. The airline currently [...]

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 [...]

Today in the Sky reports that, unannounced, Delta raised fees on August 1st. Same-day confirmed standby has doubled to $50, the direct booking fee has doubled to $20, their $50 change fee is now a $75 change fee. $75 is now also the charge for redepositing unused frequent-flier miles and for booking frequent flier tickets [...]

Frontier Airlines announced new nonstop service from Memphis to Ft. Lauderdale on November 15th. Service from Las Vegas will increase to five days per week on September 6th. On November 15th, a third flight to Denver will begin. Finally, on December 15th, a second flight to Orlando.
San Francisco has rolled out the red carpet for [...]

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. [...]

The Ithaca Journal reports that Delta Airlines is cutting all service to Binghamton, New York. The county was informed that service would end September 6th, surprising airport officials. Boardings are up 43 percent so far this year and Delta had just started service to Kennedy Airport. Flights to Atlanta and Kennedy have been running mostly [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

Easyjet is promoting its vision of a shorthaul aircraft that will generate half as much carbon dioxide and can be delivered by 2015. They are working with aircraft manufacturers to make their dream a reality.
US Airways won’t be allowed to serve alcohol once again in New Mexico, after being refused an extension on its 90-day [...]

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 [...]

Friday marked the inauguration of seasonal service from Montreal to Rome on Air Canada…with connecting flights on Air One out of Rome to onward destinations.
Air Canada Jazz launched two nonstops on Friday from Calgary to Prince George, British Columbia and Seattle, Washington, operating both with 50-seat CRJs…
American Eagle has added a weekly flight from Miami [...]

A man desperate to keep his girlfriend from boarding a flight from Ft. Myers to New York called in a bomb threat for her airplane Wednesday afternoon. Christian G. Mejia, age 23, was arrested after he dropped off his girlfriend and her travelling companion to an airport and drove to a pay phone and called [...]