U.S. Airlines hoping for a successful summer

by Scott Carmichael on

Let’s file this one under “boo hoo”.

U.S. Airlines are hoping that summer air travel will help dig them out of the slump they have been in for the past year(s). As business travel has plummeted, consumers trying to escape all the doom and gloom for a couple of weeks of R&R is pretty much all they have left to hope for.

So, if summer travel is this important for them, you’d assume they would take the time to load some juicy low airfare for us, wouldn’t you?

Sadly, they want to have their cake, and eat it, as airfare prices for the summer months are absolutely atrocious.

Some examples of the fares loaded at the moment:

United Airlines – Chicago to Las Vegas in June – $521
United Airlines – Chicago to Paris in July – $1054
American Airlines – New York to Paris in August – $939
American Airlines – Los Angeles to Hong Kong in August- $2054
Delta Airlines – Atlanta to Paris in September – $1023
Continental Airlines – Newark to Amsterdam in August – $948

None of those fares are exceptionally cheap, and in a time where the airlines claim to be hurting so badly, it isn’t exactly like they put effort into lowering prices to help passengers.

In fact, I’m guessing that the airlines just assume (and hope) that you and I will be so eager to travel, that we’ll pay anything.

These high prices will have a bad effect on summer travel – it will force passengers to sit and wait for fares to drop, making their vacation plans even more complicated. You’d think the smart airlines would want to offer something good now and lock passengers in as early as possible.

Of course, only finding bad fares may force people to completely abandon their plans and stick to a more budget friendly trip.

For tips on how to squeeze the most out of your trip, check out this handy guide by Tom, or go through the budget destination posts we’ve written for you.

Monumental “mixup” – US Airways delivers casket instead of tropical fish

by Scott Carmichael on

Sooner or later every passenger on an airline will run into some kind of issue with their luggage. But a recent blunder by US Airways makes everything I’ve ever endured look like a walk in the park.

When Northeast Philadelphia pet store owner Mark Arabia received a shipment of tropical fish, he knew something was wrong – instead of 3 boxes containing his shipment, the driver had been given a casket, containing the remains of 65 year old Jon Kenoyer.

Due to what US Airways called “an unfortunate mixup”, the casket was released to a driver, who loaded the box into his car, thinking he was transporting fish.

I’m sorry, but this is not a mixup – it is a blunder of epic proportions. I can understand an airline being sloppy with our personal baggage (and they are), but to actually release the remains of a deceased family member to the wrong driver is just a really sad case of incompetence.

US Airways picked up the coffin later that day, but the fish have still not been delivered, and have probably died by now due to a depleted oxygen supply.

All in all a disgraceful situation, and one that should make people think twice about sending a deceased relative with US Airways.

Check out these other stories from the airport checkpoint!

Delta to investors: capacity to be cut

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Yesterday, Delta CEO Richard Anderson and President Edward H. Bastian sent a memo to its 70,000 employees announcing passenger capacity cuts. Distributed with the subject line, “Responding to a Worsening Economy,” the memo outlines Delta’s proposed changes that were planned for announcement at an investor conference later the same day.

According to the memo, “In just the few months since we last announced capacity reductions, revenues have weakened, particularly in international markets. Once again, we must move quickly to adjust our capacity and stay in front of demand changes.” So, Delta is getting to trim international passenger capacity by an additional 10 percent – starting in September 2009. Flights across the Atlantic will get hit by 11 percent to 13 percent, with those across the Pacific losing 12 percent to 14 percent beginning this winter.

These cuts come on top of a previous announcement to reduce system-wide passenger capacity by 6 percent to 8 percent by December 2009. Nonetheless, capacity may be up slightly by December, as Delta takes advantage of “targeted growth opportunities through new routes and increased frequencies.”

UK Airports to face penalties when they screw up your trip

by Scott Carmichael on

The UK has a bit of a history when it comes to airports getting in the way of your vacation plans.

London Heathrow airport is where I’ve spent many a night waiting for air traffic to get back to normal while they attempt to fix whatever was interfering with my plans.

Last year was undoubtedly the worst period in the history of UK airport screw ups – the opening of Heathrow Terminal 5 was nothing short of a monumental disaster.

At one point, the airport operator was telling passengers to just stay home until the problems were fixed. And even when things got slightly better, the airport was losing 1000 bags a day.

Another great example of an airport messing things up occurred when Gatwick saw a little snow, and decided to shut down for the morning, stranding thousands of passengers, and forcing planes to divert to neighboring airports.

A new government proposal could help improve things – it plans to give the UK Civil Aviation Authority more power to issue penalties to BAA, who operate most of the airports. The penalties will be in the form of rebates for the airlines who were impacted. Of course, this may not always benefit passengers, as the proposal does not force airlines to split their penalty proceeds with passengers.

Still, it is a step in the right direction, and if the penalties are stiff enough, it might help the offending airports realize they can’t always get away with being incompetent.

Travel resources start exposing airline fees

by Scott Carmichael on

We’ve covered sneaky airlines fees in the past, and as airlines learn the tricks to adding more and more fees to your trip, some online resources are starting to fight back.

In the past, your ticket would consist of a base price, with some airport taxes, and a 9/11 security fee. Then airlines started whining about rising gas prices, so they added fuel surcharges. Then when gas prices went down again, they conveniently forgot to remove the fuel surcharge.

What we are left with nowadays is ticket prices where up to 65% of the fare is actually for fees, taxes, surcharges and other additional stuff.

The worst part of all these fees is that it is often impossible to get a clear picture what you are paying for. Your e-ticket will usually only show some cryptic codes, and most third party booking sites don’t let you view a price breakdown at all.

Then, to make matters worse, some airlines have started adding fees for things that used to be free – checked baggage, snacks, drinks and even preferred seating.

The tide is turning though – and several online services are helping you battle fee creep. The first of these services is FlyingFees.com, where you can find the add-on fees for most major US airlines, and several foreign carriers.

The site is pretty smart, and even lets you find the cheapest carrier sorted by additional fees. In addition to the basic fees, you’ll also find an overview of virtually every other fee airlines have come up with, including “telephone booking fees”, “ticket change fees” and even the price of a snack or headset once on board. It isn’t the prettiest site, but it is an extremely comprehensive resource.

The next new resource is TripAdvisor – they have been around for several years, but recently added airline price searches. In addition to showing the cheapest airline, they also claim to be the first to show exactly what your flight will cost, but I did not really find any fee information I couldn’t find on any of the other booking resources.

Bottom line is to do your homework before booking your ticket. It makes no sense to save $50 on your ticket, only to be charged $100 for checking a couple of bags.