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

According to the BusinessTravelLounge, a Southwest Airlines passenger used their cell phone while the plane was airborne, wouldn’t stop using their cell phone, and got charged with disorderly conduct after the plane landed in Dallas.
As much noise as we’ve all heard about legalizing cell phone use in flight, it is still an FAA regulation that […]

Hey, got a complaint about Southwest Airlines you’re itching to get off your chest? Did something go dramatically wrong — were you done wrong? Share your stories about Southwest here.
This is the fifth in the “Airline Air Travel Complaint” series.

If you had a great customer service experience flying with Southwest Airlines, share your story here. This is the fifth in the “Praise an Airline” series, you can see the other posts (and the stories people shared) here.

The Consumerist blog figured out that while airlines may lie and waffle on the reasons your flight is delayed, they tell the truth to their cargo clients. And they also have a special website that tells what the reason for the delays are, for those cargo-fare folk. These are the cargo websites for the major […]

From the Mile High Club news wire:
A California couple are facing federal charges after allegedly refusing to stop “overt sexual activity” on a flight to Raleigh, North Carolina.
I don’t know who’s more at fault here: Southwest Airlines, the Raleigh airport police, or the couple. According to the article, the couple got rude with the […]

From last week’s New York Times (via TheLobby.com): Tips and strategy on what to do when you don’t make your flight.

1. Choose your airline wisely. Continental, JetBlue and Southwest are among airlines that re-book you manually, which puts your flight destiny in your hands (as in, whoever gets re-booked first, wins).
2. Call your airline or travel agency as soon as you know you got bumped.
3. Use the “Rule 240 transfer.” This is a remnant from the pre-1978 world of air travel, when things were more regulated, and airlines sort of had to book you with another airline if you were bumped and the other airline could get you where you were going faster.

Read the article here.

According to this year’s Airline Quality Rating study, that is.

Among the study’s conclusions:

• Southwest Airlines had the lowest rate of complaints, 0.18 per 100,000 passengers, while US Airways had the highest, 1.86.

• ATA had the highest rate of denied boardings, 2.75 per 10,000 passengers; JetBlue had the lowest at 0.

• AirTran had the best baggage handling rate, mishandling 3.43 bags per 1,000 passengers; and Atlantic Southeast had the worst, (mishandling 17.41 bags per 1,000 passengers.

Read the article summarizing the report: Report: Airline delays, complaints on the upswing.

Read the report itself

Sure, writing about stuff you like is cool. The lucky people get to do that for a living. Tom Parsons, an internet travel entrepreneur, is one of them. He runs a web site about cheap flights. He also gets a few less-than-choice quotes in a recent Southwest Airlines press release (http://www.travel.fresh-coffee.com/flights/286/southwest-airlines-subscriber-fares-ding.htm ).

Quote:

“[Southwest Airlines Product] is an air traveler’s blue light special in the sky,” Parsons said. “Only Southwest Airlines would dare to offer fares this low.”

How much did they pay him for that quote? And after this dedication of allegiance to Southwest, why would I trust him as a source of information about cheap flights on non-Southwest carriers? I know it’s a free world, and a free market. But quotes on behalf of corporations rather than customers compromise the integrity of all the services you offer.

Shilling for the man is a one-way a ticket to the no-credibility parade.