Tag Archives: airline

Derrie-Air Ready for Take-Off

It’s an airline that would have been thoroughly embraced by Bart Simpson and his dad Homer, but alas it turns out that a new carrier called Derrie-Air, which purportedly charged passengers by the pound, is as fictional as the big-eyed, yellow-skinned characters from animated Springfield. Only not everyone who saw the ads for the fake airline knew they were a joke. D’Oh! Late last week millions of unsuspecting readers of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News opened their newspapers to see ads for a new airline called Derrie-Air, which offered a way to save big on summer travel. According … Continue reading →

Travel Insanity—Airline Charges for One Checked Bag

Not an extra bag. Not an extra carry-on. I’m talking about one single checked bag. American Airlines just announced it plans to start charging $15 for passengers to check in a single suitcase. INSANITY! Oh, and did I mention it also plans to cut flights and lay off thousands of workers too? The nation’s largest carrier blames the moves on record-high fuel prices. INSANITY! They are serious folks. Beginning June 15th—as in three weeks from now—if you are flying American you will be charged $15 for the first suitcase you check in and $25 for the second piece of luggage … Continue reading →

What to Know Before You Take Off This Summer

Bankrupt airlines, grounded planes, record high-fuel prices, and delayed flights. Those are just some of the issues you can expect to deal with during the busy summer travel season. If you are one of the millions of travelers planning to take flight in the next few months the outlook for a smooth ride looks bleak. Here’s what travel experts say you can expect if you’re departing on a family adventure this summer: DELAYS AND CANCELLATIONS The FAA’s maintenance audits will continue through June 30th meaning the possibility that your flight could be delayed or cancelled is quite high. For those … Continue reading →

Praying Passenger Gets Grounded

I willingly confess that I have said many, many prayers over the years prior to embarking on cross-country flights. Only I have never left my assigned seat to do so. That’s one of the differences between me and a man who was recently ordered off a United Airlines flight. According to news reports, an Orthodox Jewish man boarded a flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday night. However, shortly before the plane was set to take off the man left his seat to pray in the back of the plane. Witnesses say the guy, who had … Continue reading →

Digital Boarding Passes—Yea or Nay?

If you are arriving into or departing from Houston’s Bush International Airport on Continental Airlines anytime in the next three months you will likely be a part of an experiment that could help redefine boarding procedures. Continental along with the Transportation Security Administration is testing a new program that allows passengers to board flights using just a cellphone or personal-digital assistant (PDA) such as a BlackBerry instead of a traditional paper boarding pass. The system is activated when the airline sends a special bar code (basically a jumble of squares and rectangles) to a passenger’s cellphone or PDA. The unique … Continue reading →

Teen Flies High Without Parents’ Permission—Is The Airline To Blame?

By now I’m sure you’ve heard the story about the 15-year-old girl who bought a ticket and boarded a plane without ever being asked to show her ID. The teen from Alaska apparently neglected to ask her parents permission to take the flight and now the girl’s mom says the airline is partially to blame for her daughter ending up hundreds of miles from home. In all fairness to the mother, she’s not slapping the airlines with a lawsuit (at least not yet anyway), though she is lobbying to get the carrier to reconsider its current policies. For those of … Continue reading →

Eight Cent Airline Tickets?

Eight cents? If you’re wondering if it’s a typo, it’s not. Spirit Airlines is offering flights for as little as eight cents. They also have eight-dollar flights, and eighty-eight dollar flights. Crazy Eights! Or Loco Ocho in Spirit Air talk. Jump on this quick as they have to be purchased by June 20, 2007 at midnight, and all flights must be concluded before November 14, 2007. All available dates are Tuesdays and Wednesday, traditionally low occupancy days for airlines. The good news is that they’re not limited to airports in close proximity to each other. Do you live in the … Continue reading →

Airline Delays—Will This Make A Difference?

A few weeks ago I shared the unpleasant (that’s putting it mildly) experience of enduring a 5-hour delay at Chicago’s O’Hare airport with my 3-year-old. By hour three I had all but exhausted our entertainment options and tried not to glare at the United Airlines employee who kept repeating over the intercom that our flight would be departing “in approximately 15 minutes.” (Mind you she repeated this every 15 minutes for three hours.) Hours four and five of our delay were even worse as they were spent in the plane on the tarmac. (Have you been there? Have you been … Continue reading →

Airline Travel: “Seatmates of Size”

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I’ve blogged about smelly seatmates, seatmates with attitude, and talkative seatmates, but with spring break upon us I figured it was a good time to tackle the topic of large seatmates and the stereotypes that come with them. Admit it; I’m sure at one point or another you’ve experienced having the person seated next to you on an airplane take up not just their seat, but part of yours. Let’s face it; travelers come in all shapes and sizes, yet airplane seats don’t seem to accommodate that fact. What’s more, studies … Continue reading →

A New Tool In The Battle To Find Cheap Airline Seats

It happens to me all the time. In fact, it just happened again yesterday. I was shopping online for an affordable airline ticket. I found a decent price, but I didn’t book. Rather, I decided to wait and look around for a better deal. It’s a game we all play from time to time. We hold off on purchasing a plane ticket hoping that the price will drop, then as it often turns out the deals end up taking off—without us. If this scenario sounds a bit too familiar you may be happy to know that it doesn’t have to … Continue reading →