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

NPR breaks down a bunch of modern air travel myths. Seems that today’s airplane passenger has a few too many rusty ideas about the way things oughta work. These are a few of my favorites:

Nothing is more thrilling and glamorous than modern jet flight.
When you purchase a ticket, you expect to travel to the city […]

Ever get stuck in an airport, low on batteries, and all the available power outlets are plugged full? Air Power is a growing list of power places in airports. Of course, that won’t do your dead laptop any good, so it’s best to stock up on this data *before* you get all low on juice.
Right […]

The Associated Press put together a report with new information on where billions of the air travel ticket taxes and fees go. About $7 billion of the $104 billion collected since 1997 goes to airports “used mainly by private pilots and globe-trotting corporate executives,” says the article.
“They’re making out like bandits,” said Bob Poole, director […]

CNN reports on an Orbitz survey:
Asked to cite their “most problematic” trip experiences, 40 percent of those surveyed cited flight delays and 21 percent said airport security. Only 15 percent said hotel amenities and cleanliness, while 9 percent cited rental cars.
Other interesting bits from the survey:

59% say cheapest prices is the most important factor when […]

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 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 have never seen a flight-fare search program do this before: List the cheapest fares for one route for an entire month. This one does that, and it does more. Here’s a screenshot of the best deals when flying from Chicago to Denver in December:

You have to register before you can use it, and it’s free to use, and it’s well worth it. Check it out at http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/

Check out TravelPost’s list of wifi access locations and cost — it covers 218 U.S. airports. Useful information … if you’re looking for internet, that is. It was updated two days ago, which means this is something they keep an eye on. It looks like he information is pulled from TravelPost editors and readers…

Check out the list here, and view the full list 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.