US Airways and JetBlue are in a bit of a pissing match after JetBlue’s CEO said that passengers in Charlotte have "overpaid for substandard service," a likely reference to US Airways. In response, US Airways’ CEO sent a letter to employees that can be viewed here. In it, he says that JetBlue’s problems are "serious [...]
Read the Rest of the Story: US Airways to JetBlue: You SuckYou may remember that Northwest implemented a program where you could reserve exit rows and other desirable seats for $15 a pop. After much whining by frequent flyers, Northwest has dropped the fee for passengers with Elite status and is reserving some of its best coach seats for these same flyers (rather than selling than [...]
Read the Rest of the Story: Northwest Drops $15 Good Seat Fee for Frequent FlyersGood news if your’e a fan of airlines in Bulgaria (?). After a 3 year ban due to unspecified "security reasons", Bulgaria’s airlines are now allowed to fly to the US. This doesn’t mean that any Bulgarian airlines WILL fly to the US, but they can. OK, so it’s not a big deal to you. [...]
Read the Rest of the Story: US Removes Bulgaria from Airline BlacklistQuick note: in the New York Times this morning, Continental Airlines has an ad that reads: "Only one airline flies nonstop to the most cities in Europe from the New York area. And it ain’t Delta." Delta’s been touting their huge increase in New York flights lately. Well, it looks like their SkyTeam partnership does [...]
Read the Rest of the Story: Continental Snipes at Delta in AdsA couple of months ago I wrote a little blurb suggesting that MAXjet was not selling a particularly large number of seats (I estimated they were selling 40something percent of available seats). I thought I’d give a bit of an update: the company put out a release saying that March their load factor (their percentage [...]
Read the Rest of the Story: A MAXjet Follow-UpHere’s a disturbing one: Three former Boeing employees claim that the company knowingly installed bad parts in its 737 aircraft between 1994 and 2002. A lawsuit filed by the former staffers says that the company allowed workers to install thousands of parts that they knew did not meet specifications, and that Boeing then fired any [...]
Read the Rest of the Story: Did Boeing Use Bad Parts on Its 737?(Via Frommers) Tour company Chinaspree is offering a fantastic deal on their 12-day China Delights Tour. While it’s not as low as the prices we’ve seen in the past from Friendly Planet ($699 for 10 days), this tour offers more. For $999, you get a round trip flight from San Francisco (other cities available for [...]
Read the Rest of the Story: 12 Day Tour of China for $999Delta reached an agreement with its pilots, averting a strike. Feel free to book with them again…
Read the Rest of the Story: Delta Reaches Agreement with PilotsA soldier returning from Iraq was barred from getting on a plane to Minneapolis because his name was on a terror watch list. Staff Sgt. Daniel Brown said that he also had trouble boarding his plane TO Iraq because of the same issue (I’m not sure what the point is of having a common name [...]
Read the Rest of the Story: Soldier Returning from Iraq Finds Himself on Terror ListUnited Airlines plans to add 125 flights to its schedule without increasing the number of aircraft. How? They’re going to make their turnaround times more efficient. How are they doing that? They’re hiring NASCAR pit crews to train their baggage handlers. I think this falls under the category of an Idea So Crazy It May [...]
Read the Rest of the Story: United Hires NASCAR Crew Members