Flight Wisdom

The Bargainist reports that when two or more travellers book a trip, you can save up to 20%.

Coupon code JETTWO10 cuts 10% off each way for 2 travelers
Code JET15THREE cuts 15% off each way for 3 travelers
Code JET20FOUR cuts 20% off each way with 4 travelers.

Book now for travel between September 3rd and October 31st [...]

In a move we applaud, today JetBlue announced the availability of refundable fares. Personally, we never understood why many low-fare carriers offer no refundable fares. It is a value added service. If you are willing to shell out more money for a feature, why not offer it? We’d love it if all fares were refundable, [...]

Good morning, class.
Today we are going to talk about fuel surcharges. This week, United Airlines announced they were increasing their domestic fuel surcharge to twenty-five dollars each way on all routes.
So, what makes this different than a fare hike? Well, a fuel surcharge is not part of the fare. It is separate. One could say [...]

The FAA has ordered the inspection of all wing slats on newer Boeing 737s based on findings about a fire that destroyed a China Airlines plane in Japan last week. Investigators have discovered that a bolt from a right wing slat had pierced the fuel tank. Thus, within 24 days, all US planes must have [...]

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 [...]

Dohop.com has upgraded its flight search engine at www.dohop.com.
Farecast launched new tools last month including Alerts that help consumers track their trip and save money. Farecast is also no longer considered a beta. As for Alerts, as they put it…”more than 50 percent of price drops disappear within 50 hours, illustrating the need for consumers [...]

Click the following link, enter in the promotional password SEVENTEEN, and you’ll be able to get a seventeen dollar each way discount on Jetblue.
The offer is available until February 14, 2007 at 11:59PM MST for travel to be completed by Feburary 14. Standard fare rules will apply and discount will not be applied if any [...]

The San Francisco Chronicle predicts that while airlines are upgrading seats and in-flight services…higher fares, hotel rates, and car rental rates will mark the year ahead in travel. The Travel Industry of America predicts only a half a percent of growth in domestic airline passenger traffic, and 5.5 percent growth for international traffic.
U.S. Airlines, who [...]

The Associated Press reports that a subsidiary of Shanghai based Spring Airlines, the Jinan Spring Holiday Travel Agency sold 400 tickets on flights between Shanghai and Jinan for 1 yuan…about 13 cents. A regular one-way ticket on that flight costs 910 yuan…$116.
Chinese airlines are barred from offering discounts of more than forty-five percent of the [...]

South African Airways issued a press release today offering a winter fare of $1350 for two people traveling in between New York-JFK or Washington Dulles to Johannesburg or Capetown. Taxes and fuel surcharges are additional on both tickets(Which is illegal in the US…fuel surcharges must be quoted as an add-on to the fare in any [...]

Not long ago, we commented on Air Canada’s innovative simplified ticketing system. Now TAM is launching a new fare platform, five new Fare profiles: Promo, Light, Flex, Max, and Top. Like Air Canada, each level presents clear characteristics and rules so that a passenger can make a choice based on their needs.
We have blasted Ryanair [...]

Southwest Airlines raised airfares $10 each on flights of more than 1000 miles, and $3 on fares between 750 and 1000 miles over the Thanksgiving weekend, Reuters reports. The increase was matched by American, United, and Continental. Jetblue said it had not matched the increase.
Southwest has been able to keep its fares low due to [...]

A few days ago, we reported El Al had reduced fuel surcharges. Cheapflights.com reports that two additional airlines have reduced the cost of fuel surcharges. It shows that two more airlines are willing to keep fuel surcharges linked to fuel increases and decreases. We salute them in that regard and reiterate…it is not a fuel [...]

In an inspiring note, an airline has actually reduced its fuel surcharge for all US flights. Usually, even though airlines raise their surcharges as fuel prices rise, they don’t give passengers the courtesy of reversing that when prices lower.
El Al Israel Airlines announced it is lowering its prices due to a decrease in the price [...]

One doesn’t normally think of Qantas as flying service from the United States to Canada. But during the busy travel season in December and January, they are offering fares starting at $119 each way and do not require round trip travel. The fares are only valid on Qantas Flight 73, departing San Francisco at 12:00PM [...]

As Upgrade Travel reports, Brataslavia-based discount airline SkyEurope is offering negative fares. This promotion, which started today and runs through the 22nd, prices their fare at -1 euro. Thus, not only do they make no profit, but they’ll pay one euro of your taxes. Even SkyEurope refers to it as the “most crazy promotion ever.”
Aside [...]

As Today in the Sky reports, more than 185,000 passengers were involuntarily bumped off airline flights during the second quarter of 2006, a 40% increase over the same period in 2005. It is the highest second-quarter figure since 2000. The number of fliers who gave up seats on flights rose 10%.
We suggest you read Mr. [...]

In a press release, Southwest announced the inauguration of service from Dulles airport today with twelve daily nonstop departures: Seven daily flights to Chicago-Midway, once daily to Las Vegas, and twice daily to Orlando and Tampa Bay. The service complements Southwest’s hub at Thurgood Marshall International Airport in Baltimore(BWI), and provides an alternative to Northern [...]

Another blogger, Tom Kyte, commented on his blog recently that he will never understand airline pricing. We can honestly say we don’t either. But we can shed some light on it to some degree. It is consistent in some ways, but ultimately inconsistent.
Ralph Hood, an AirportBusiness columnist, commented that he was shocked that on a [...]

A travel company to have a look at is cFares, which offers some services that are rather unique to the online travel market. We found a review of it on GigaOM.
We have in the past commented about our issues with online travel agents because we believe that there is a lack of good customer service [...]

Aviation Daily reports that after a ninth-month review, the US Department of Transportation decided not to make any changes in airfare advertising rules.
The current rules require airlines to list the full fare in advertisements, with several defined exceptions, allowing government taxes and fees to be broken out and put into the fine print. The rule [...]

The Cranky Flier blog focuses on the customer service experience of air travel, among other things. On Sunday, he posted a story about fighting USAirways on a fare downgrade.
A fare downgrade is the situation in which, after a fare is purchased, a lower fare becomes available, and you downgrade to that fare on your ticket, [...]

The LA Daily News had an article last week about a mother and her difficulty in getting understanding from Delta Airlines in a death situation. Betty Haack made arrangements in April to visit her son in July, and ended up moving them back a week…not to visit her son, but to bury him after he [...]

Airlines are scaling back service at smaller airports, driving up fares and driving customers to drive to airports with more service. Several years ago, carriers ordered a large number of 50-70 seat regional jets to replace its aging turboprop fleet on many routes. However, many of these planes turned out to be fuel inefficient and [...]

We recently reviewed CNN Money’s ‘5 dirty secrets of airfares’. We have added our own commentary.
1. Low cost carriers don’t always have the lowest fares - Remember, the legacy carriers are competing with them. If their fares were not comparable to their competiition, they’d lose all business. Revenue or yield management, which determines how many [...]