The OTR is closing up shop and heading to the beach (and so should you).  We’ll be back after Labor Day (in need of a vacation after 8 days at the beach with two 2-year olds.)

One quick note on the tragic Spanair crash yesterday that killed more than 150 people.  As is the norm when a plane crashes, early news stories speculate about the cause of the crash and the age of the aircraft.  Unless two planes collide, early speculation is nearly always wrong.  Eyewitness reports are notoriously inaccurate, often [...]

Cranky does a full overview of the changes United is now implmenting in its service, but here are the low…er…highlights:
- No more free food in coach on trans-Atlantic flights.
- Raised prices on buy-on-board meals.
- Removing pretzels and biscotti on flights up to 1149 miles.
- Basically eliminating business class on aircraft configured as 3-classes in the [...]

For some reason a TSA inspector decided to check out 9 American Eagle aircraft on the ground a O’Hare overnight on Monday and in the process managed to damage 9 planes and cause 40 flight delays.  From reading this thread at Flyertalk, the TSA shouldn’t have been out there on the first place.  But they [...]

FROM: Dr Howgul Nyerere
Central Bank of Abuja
Abuja, Nigeria
TO: ALL OTR READERS
Dear Sirs and Madams:
I have been requested by the Nigerian National Airline Company (DBA Virgin Nigeria) to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter. Our parent company, Virgin Atlantic, has [...]

This is completely anecdotal, but a number of people have mentioned to me lately that they have rented a small car only to have the car rental company offer them an SUV for no additional fee when they get to the counter.  My wife had this happen last night at Enterprise and when she balked [...]

(Via WSJ and Christopher Elliott)
On odd one:  A woman who filmed an altercation between two other passengers during a JetBlue flight to Las Vegas was hauled off the plane in handcuffs when they arrived.  It’s a long story (you can read it via the link), but in short, a passenger heard an argument breaking out [...]

I have no idea why I care at all about Joel Osteen’s wife being sued by a Continental flight attendant but, in good news for her, me, and you readers, Victoria Osteen was found not guilty, so you’ll never have to hear about this nonsense again (I know, this is probably the 3rd or 4th [...]

Whenever there’s a story about Southwest Airlines’ much-publicized fuel hedging strategy, there are lots of questions about why other airlines don’t do it.  The answer?  It can be risky.  The example?  This Houston Chronicle report notes that Continental’s most recent fuel hedges have a price floor of about $121 – around $8 higher than the [...]

That’s the question this Business Week column asks and the answer they conclude is (of course) that United should be broken up and sold.  The reasons aren’t particularly compelling – in fact, it appears that the reasons given are:
1) The pilots aren’t happy;
2) One of the columnist’s co-workers had a delay last week.
I’m not sure [...]