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

I’ve got a three-prong strategy for finding the cheapest and best flight fares these days. It’s not complicated, but it takes a little effort.

Bookmark your town’s low-fare list on Air Fare Watchdog. Check it weekly, and when you’re ready to book a flight check it daily. This site finds fares you’re unlikely to get anywhere [...]

There’s some good stuff in Daily Candy’s Travel Commandments. My favorite:
You call it a romantic three-day weekend; the airlines call your Friday night departure a sitting duck. Keep a plan B at point A just in case a jauntily named storm comes between you and paradise.

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 [...]

They call it a “consumer guide to better airline travel,” and answer such questions as:

Which are the best seats in on United Airlines? (answer)
Which first class seats are good in American Airlines? (answer)
What is the seat legroom for British Airways 747-400? (answer)

» Get more air travel tips here.
» Check out their information on seat deals, [...]

Edward Tufte probably doesn’t need to see this, but you do. This is a funny, insightful and cute doodles-as-analysis / unsophisticated stat site: indexed.blogspot.com (via Information Aesthetics).

Other favorites of mine:

Pop Stars vs. Possums
Contraception for the lazy
Biological clock warning signs
The beer cycle

From Derek Willis’ excellent journalism blog,
Ronnie Greene of the Miami Herald used federal data and records obtained through FOIA for a three-part series on cargo plane crashes, finding that “from Texas to Alaska to Colorado and beyond, cargo pilots are dying in large numbers.
Read the blog post here, and read the Miami Herald’s report here.

I’m not making fun of airline safety or anything, but I’m intensely curious why the U.S. Transportation Security Administration felt the need to single out “Toy Transformer Robots” on their list of what you can and can’t bring in your checked luggage and in your carry-on.

Also, and this is something I didn’t know: It’s okay to bring saline or eyedrops with you, as long as the container is four ounces or less. Mascara and toothpaste are still no-nos, that is, unless you feel like putting them in your pocket.

» View the TSA’s full list of banned stuff here.

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.

From the BBC:
Aircraft hand baggage restrictions imposed after an alleged terrorist plot to attack airliners are likely to be eased next week, the BBC has learned.
Read the article here

This is a tip for the business and regular travellers out there who don’t want to buy toothpaste every time you fly somewhere: Put the stuff in your pockets. Yes, this won’t work if you don’t wear pants, if you have a metal container, and this won’t work if you get searched in the gate (which they hardly ever do anyway), but this will work most of the time.

Also, if you’re a smoker, go on and put your lighter in your pocket. Unless it’s a zippo it doesn’t have enough metal in it to trigger the metal detectors.