Flight Blog
News and Tips about Air Travel, Business / Industry, Flying, Airplanes, and other fun

Hi there. Notice a recent change in the number of airport security issues? Yup, either the TSA is feeling starved for attention or they’ve instituted a quota system. Or the terrorists are winning. Or, or, well, yeah. Here at Flight Blog action has been taken: A new category for blog posts. That’s what you do on the internet, you categorize stuff.

Our Security category wasn’t enough. Yes, now we have a new category: Airport Security Issues. Yes there’s nothing in it now. Just you wait.

Cheap Air reports an early-January airline fare war happening — a fare war that ends in about 28 hours, so if you’re interested you had better act soon: “It’s been a see-saw start to the year fare-wise. Last week, the airlines launched a three day Air Fare Sale. Once it ended, United led an across-the-board fare increase, which other airlines matched. Now, many routes are back on sale, for travel through May 26th and tickets purchased by midnight January 14th. This kind of volatility might be the norm for a while, as airlines try to balance the desire to fill their planes with the need to cover their fuel costs (which are once again rising).”

Search for flights on Cheap Air here, and see everything we’ve written on the Flight Blog about cheap flights here.

Six airlines of last resort on McSweeney’s.

Here’s a tale of how United Airlines made a passenger take apart their bass guitar before boarding.

After I checked in today at the airport I asked the attendant if I might have received the upgrade i asked for. Instead of just a simple no, I was suddenly told that the Bass Guitar on my back (in a soft case) would have to be checked in with the regular luggage.

Also part of this story: the UAL representative this passenger talked to on the phone suggested the passenger pay the gate attendants to bring the guitar on board: “The representative who talked to me on the phone suggested that I just needed to give the attendants some money ,that I needed to pay them to let me bring my bass on board as “carry on”.”

» WTF United Airlines made me disassemble my bass guitar

This story of a horrible Delta Airlines experience, in which Delta actually lies to a passenger so they can look like they’re in the right, comes from a reader (of course, this is assuming the reader’s story is true):

I booked a flight from SFO to Dublin, Ireland by way of Atlanta on Delta. I spoke with the reservations department myself as did the travel agent from Quinn Travel (San Francisco, CA). We were both told that I could bring my small cat as carry-on provided I obtain the proper health certificates. This was noted on my reservation.

I did all that was required and had all paperwork with me but was still refused boarding on the plane. The first “issue” was that the hard-side carrier was too large for carry on with a pet. The size of the carry on was well within the limits of regular carry on but I was made to purchase a soft-side carrier for the trip. After I had done that I was told that Ireland would not accept pets from in the cabin travel and that my cat must travel as cargo. Then I was told that Ireland had an embargo against pets traveling into the country from May to September 15, 2009. I contacted the Irish government and NO SUCH EMBARGO EXISTS. (Padraic Lavin, Animal Health & Welfare http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/pets)

I am out a great deal of expense due to Deltas misinformation and lack of professionalism.

My current out-of-pocket expenses total: $745.62

I am also severely inconvenienced as I am trying to move to Ireland and am currently stuck here. I have no income as I am relocating and this delay is a financial hardship.

**Documents faxed to Delta: My plane “ticket”, my parking receipt, the UPS receipt and the veterinary receipts as well as the soft-side case receipt from the store.

As of 09/01/2009 Diana M. Keller, Coordinator Customer Care has refused any/all compensation.

I’m trying out Kayak’s iphone app for flight + hotel searches. It’s easy to use — I’m pretty fast with a regular web browser, and things usually take longer to do on the iphone than they do with the non-iphone web. Not Kayak.

I’ve been using Bing Travel (formerly Farecast) for most of my cheap-flight and travel searches lately. I used to use Kayak, but Farecast was better. This app could change that.

Here’s a can-do tale of awesome from the BBC: Passenger fixes faulty airliner:

Passengers on Thomas Cook flight TCX9641 from Menorca were told to expect an eight-hour wait while an engineer was flown out from the UK.

One passenger then identified himself as a qualified aircraft engineer and offered to try to remedy the fault.

He was successful, and the plane landed in Glasgow only 35 minutes late.

From Reuters’ article, Frustrated tweets new headache for airlines:

…airlines are discovering that fuming passengers who have been stranded, delayed or just plain piqued are increasingly letting their undiluted rage fly around the Internet, often from the confines of their cramped airplane seat.

Twitter and other fast-growing social networking websites like Facebook and YouTube have sprung up as yet another front in beleaguered airlines public relations battle.

Of course, there’s the old-fashioned way of complaining about airlines: post your complaint on a blog.

File this one under United Airlines Complaints: United Breaks Guitars music video:

This American Airlines horror story comes courtesy of the comments on the (quite active) American Airlines complaint thread here:

As of last night, American Airlines has managed to lose my bag for the third time in 2 months! Twice in 2 weeks!! Counter people at airport don’t try to help you. They barely even look at you once you get upset. Called 800# last night three times. First lady hung up on me when I stated asking questions. Others sounded like they were reading scripted information. Miami is approximately 120 miles from Ft. Myers. They said next available flight is not until Monday night at 6:pm and then they get a 4 hour window to deliver. Well, this morning I have another trip for business and need contents of the bag. Also, have other business things in there. I understand things can happen. I understand maybe I should not check things. But 3 times in 2 months, and not so much as a sincere apology or offer of any compensation or anyone taking time to help find a solution that would make me feel better?? They could ground transport if theywanted to or re-route bag through a different city to reach Ft. Myers earlier. In the bag claim folder it says that “our baggage service department will contact you periodically to keep you informed of our progressinlocating your baggage.” I landed at 10 pm last night, it is now 9:40 am and nothing from them yet. The three people I spoke with made it very they would not be contacting me until it was ready for delivery tonight. One operator frankly replied to my request that they call me when it is located that”any joe blow out on the tarmac is not going to stop and call me when they find my bag. just not going to happen” I could go on and on. If this is how they treat “Advantage Priority” customers I would hate to see how everyone else is treated. I welcome suggestions on how to get the word out about how this has been treated.