Airfare prices drop: time to book your fall and winter travel

by Grant Martin on

Have you been holding off on purchasing your tickets this fall and winter? Well, that precipitous drop that we were all eagerly awaiting has finally taken effect, and there are some fan-freaking-tastic flights waiting to be purchased.

The whole fare tidal wave began with an outstanding Southwest Airlines sale kicked off this week, reducing fares to only $30 each-way among many routes. In turn, many of the legacy carriers dropped their fares to the same destinations, so if you fancy paying for your baggage or earning useful frequent flyer miles then you might be able to switch up.

Sample fares include tickets from Chicago to Minneapolis and Kansas City for only $84 round trip.

Needless to say, sites like Kayak and Travelocity don’t search both the legacy carriers and Southwest’s site, so if you are going to do some fare crawling make sure to check all of the sites. You’ve got until the end of the day on Thursday, October 28 2010 to book your tickets, with available travel dates of early December and January – Mid February.

“America’s Meanest Airlines” exposed

by Annie Scott on


Today on Yahoo Travel, “America’s Meanest Airlines” were revealed. The story, “based on the Airline Quality Rating (AQR) Report, which covers 18 domestic carriers,” lambasts American Airlines, United, Delta and several other airlines, including four regional carriers.

The Airline Quality Rating Report is conducted jointly by professors at Wichita State University and Purdue University. The report is generated using “subjective surveys of consumer opinion that are infrequently done,” with the goal of creating “a rating for individual airlines with interval scale properties that is comparable across airlines and across time.” The AQR Report has been around since 1991 and issues yearly results in a month-by-month format with data on the rate of customer complaints, denied boarding and more.

Sins such as baggage fees are cited in the Yahoo Travel article, as are additional sources of consumer complaints. For example, “this year AA has had frequent incidents of mishandled baggage with an average of 4.07 reports per 1,000 passengers, according to the Air Travel Consumer Reports.” That’s a brutal ratio by anyone’s standards.

The 2010 AQR Report is available online if you’d like to investigate further yourself.

[via Yahoo Travel]

[Photo by lazlo-photo via Flickr.]

Ryanair cuts 1000 jobs and 150 flights over German air tax increase

by Scott Carmichael on

When the German government recently announced a new tourist tax designed to offset their budget woes, many airlines announced they’d be forced to cut flights and jobs. So far, Irish low cost carrier Ryanair has been the only one to actually deliver on that threat.

Because of the upcoming tax, the airline is reducing its presence at Frankfurt Hahn airport. At the moment, Ryanair operates over 530 flights from Hahn, and will bring that down to 382. In the process, 1000 jobs will be lost. Three of the airlines Boeing 737 aircraft will be moved to other airports in their route network.

From Frankfurt, this also means the loss of routes to Berlin, Prague and Gothenburg. The size of the Ryanair operation in Frankfurt is massive – and this reduction in flights means the airline will handle 1 million fewer passengers a year.

If Ryanair is just the first of German based airlines to make cuts like this, the proposed €8 tourist tax will most likely all go to waste on unemployment benefits for fired workers.

[Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images]

Passenger put on No Fly List for using iPad

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Think only suspected terrorists and hardened criminals end up on the government’s infamous No Fly List? Well you best mind your manners on your next flight – in these days of heightened airline security, all it takes to end up in hot water is some seriously obnoxious passenger behavior and an iPad. According to a recent story on Jalopnik, an air traveler en route from Chicago to New York’s LaGuardia landed himself in trouble for refusing to turn off his beloved Apple device (and repeatedly pissing off the flight crew).

The trouble started when the flight pulled back from the gate, a period during which passengers are required to turn off any electronic devices. The offending passenger ignored multiple requests from the flight staff to turn off his shiny iPad, instead choosing to remark, “Wait, so you mean that if my iPad is on, the entire plane can’t take off? I had no idea I had so much power!”

The trouble did not end there. Once the flight had taken off, said passenger asked to be served alcohol and was rebuffed by an understandably annoyed crew. This led to a further heated arguments and eventually, a lecture from the captain himself. Upon landing in New York, the passenger was met by police, who were waiting at the gate to arrest the man. A flight attendant from the plane confirmed the angry flyer’s name was also being added to the No-Fly list for his coarse behavior.

Air travel often sucks these days. Passengers understandably lose patience. But if you think unfavorable conditions give you the right to preferential treatment, think again. Being a jerk on a plane is no different than being a jerk on the ground. You just lose the privilege of flying along with it.

[Photo courtesy Flickr user Rego Korosi]

KLM serves authentic Dutch food and wine during “From Holland” celebration

by Scott Carmichael on

The Dutch may not have a reputation for serving impressive food, but I for one am a huge fan of Dutch cuisine, and find it one of the most underrated in the world.

Sure, most tourists may only find themselves trying to get a fried snack out of an Automaat, or on the receiving end of an overpriced “tourist menu”, but the kind of food served in authentic Dutch restaurants is just fantastic.

Dutch airline KLM knows this – and is presenting Dutch food and wine to the world with their “From Holland” celebration. In October and November, passengers departing Amsterdam will be treated to a variety of Dutch dishes.

Coach passengers can enjoy a red cabbage and beef casserole or an Indonesian meal. In business class, passengers are treated to a Dutch meal developed by Michelin star chef Wilco Berends. As a snack, premium cabin passengers can even order an in-flight broodje kroket (croquette sandwich). The airline assured me that this snack would be served piping hot and crispy – just like on the ground.

Even the wine service comes from local Dutch wineries, including some from tiny cellars in the province of Zeeland. The thought of a nice glass of wine along with a traditional Dutch cheese platter really does sound very appealing.

So, if you are flying out of Amsterdam on KLM this month or next – be sure to try some of the in-flight Dutch food, and report back to us what you thought of it, and whether KLM really did manage to serve a crispy kroket at 33,000 feet.

%Gallery-106047%