Flight attendants duct taped an unruly passenger on a United flight from San Juan to Chicago yesterday, forcing the flight to divert to Charlotte, where the woman was arrested.  The passenger, who apparently had been drinking quite a bit before the flight, hit a flight attendant and repeatedly pulled the hair of the person sitting [...]

Just a few months ago there appeared to be a large number of newspaper articles discussing how brilliant Southwest was for hedging fuel prices and then suggesting (at least hinting) that every other airline were fools for not hedging their fuel prices.  Well, it turns out we now know why other carriers didn’t hedge:  because [...]

(Thanks, USA Today…)
Looking for a fun spot to use your United Mileage Plus miles?  Does Baghdad sound good?  I mean, everyone says the so-called Surge has made it safe there, right?  Certainly you can travel there no problem.  And if you have 40,000 Mileage Plus miles you can go there for free:  Turkish Airlines announced [...]

United has heard your griping about checked bag fees and in response they’ve made some changes.  Specifically, the response was “Go Screw Yourself, We’re Doubling the Fee.”  United has joined Delta in charging $50 for a second checked bag.  As today’s Wall St Journal points out, Southwest hasn’t gained any extra business because they aren’t [...]

You may have noticed that United’s stock dropped from $12 to $3 briefly yesterday after an erroneous report that it filed for bankruptcy.  If you dumped your stock at $3, you’re out of luck – NASDAQ says that it won’t cancel trades based on faulty info.  Oops.
So, how did this happen?  Nobody’s quite sure.  For [...]

There’s an old journalism line about how if something happens 3 times, it must be a trend (except in the NY Times Sunday Styles section, where if something happens once it’s a trend…but that’s for another blog…)  So here’s a trend:
In the past week I’ve heard of 3 people who have booked and ticketed [...]

Good news for all of you who love airline food, United has changed its mind after hearing consumer complaints and it will not charge for food on trips to Europe.  It also has decided to offer hot meals (not just cold food) on those trips (to quote Mr. Burns, “let them have their TarTar sauce…”).
I [...]

United has admitted that it temporarily misplaced a 10-year old unaccompanied minor who was flying from Dulles from Boston.  The girl’s parents arrived at the gate to find that their daughter had been allowed to walk off the plane and down to the baggage claim area without a United staffer.  Oops.  United, for its part, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]