Visting the US? Remember to register with ESTA before you leave!

by Scott Carmichael on

If you live in one of the countries participating in the US Visa Waiver program, pay attention, as things just got a little more complicated for you.

As of January 12th 2009, all visitors to the US who are eligible for the visa waiver program will have to apply for travel authorization at least 72 hours prior to their trip.

There are 35 countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), and if you have ever come to the US on the VWP, you’ll have probably filled in one of those annoying green forms on your flight here.

Those days are now officially over, and the US Government wants to know who is coming here, before they get on the plane.

Statistics from the Department of Homeland Security claim that 99.6% of all people who apply for travel permission get it granted within seconds, which still leaves a fairly decent amount of people who do not get it, for any number of reasons.

The new authorization system is called ESTA – Electronic System for Travel Authorization. The site is available in 16 different languages. To apply for permission to fly to the US, you enter all your personal information, passport data, and flight numbers. You then get to answer the same questions you probably remember from the VWP form, which are there to determine whether you are a Nazi, drug dealer or other nasty kind of person.
If all works out, and you are not on a terrorist watch list, you’ll receive an authorization number. If the system declines your request, you’ll be required to apply for a regular visa through your local US Consulate or Embassy, which will most certainly take some time, so be sure you don’t wait too long!

Of course, as with all new systems like this, there are going to be some glitches, but the most worrying statistic is that far too many people had not heard of the new rules, and arrive at the airport unprepared. Thankfully, the US government has allowed for a short grace period.

The hardest hit are going to be people without Internet access as there is no offline application process. There will be no terminals at the airport, and people in a VWP country who arrive at the airport without an ESTA authorization number may be denied boarding.

Once you register for ESTA, the authorization is valid for 2 years, or the life of your passport (whichever is shorter). As with all international travel, you will need at least 6 months duration left on your passport if you want authorization.

The official ESTA site can be found here, just make sure you don’t fall for the tricks of paid services like Esta.us, who’ll do “all the hard work” for you, for a mere $249!

Frontier not as shaky any more

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Frontier Airlines had a tough year last year. A generally tough market, made worse by a bankruptcy filing, called the airline’s viability into question. But, a strong December could be just the light at the end of the tunnel that this company needs. If all goes well, according to the Rocky Mountain News, it could hit its goal of pulling out of Chapter 11 this summer. In November, Frontier actually turned a profit. While this may not sound like much to you, think of the bump in morale, not to mention that it’s a visible sign of progress.

The only stumbling block left is the slow winter season and finding some financing to help the airline exit bankruptcy. At the end of November, the company only had $57.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, a number that will have to go up. But, if Frontier can fix that situation, The Tampa Tribune reports that the skies could be clear by June.

[Via USA Today]

He apparently really needed that smoke

by Annie Scott on

Everyone knows that smoking is not allowed on Delta flights — including passenger Henry McDowell, Jr., who lit up in the bathroom and then started a fight so brutal the FBI got involved.

Here is the sequence of events. Backwards:
12. The plane lands, and McDowell is charged with interfering with a flight crew.
11. McDowell apologizes to the flight attendant he smacked twice.
10. McDowell is moved to the front of the plane, away from the people he was fighting.
9. McDowell smacks a flight attendant twice.
8. McDowell goes postal on a passenger, the passenger’s girlfriend, and the passenger’s girlfriend’s brother.
7. A different passenger expresses his displeasure in a comment to McDowell.
6. The crew decides to land the plane and get rid of Henry McDowell in Raleigh, North Carolina (because it wouldn’t be fair to take him to his destination after he broke the rules? WTF, Delta? If I’d been a passenger on that plane who needed to catch a connecting flight or had an appointment I’d have been irate. Irate.).
5. Henry McDowell is caught smoking.
4. Henry McDowell lights a smoke.
3. The airplane takes off.
2. Henry McDowell says that the “airplane sucks.”
1. Henry McDowell is a loud, aggressive douche at the gate.
0. Henry McDowell’s life sucks. (We figure).

You can read the whole FBI account here (.pdf).

I really disagree with Delta’s call here. The flight was only going to Savannah, Georgia, and the fact that they made an emergency landing for this dude probably just added to his inflated sense of himself.

[via Wired]

Fly OpenSkies in the new year on new sale rates

by Grant Martin on

If you’re still itching to get in on the new premium airline, OpenSkies but have so far been a little gun shy at the cost of tickets, you now have a new excuse to indulge: with the new year, the airline put their Prem+ cabin on sale, cutting the fare down to only $1,000 round trip.

Through January 26th and for travel through the spring you can take advantage of the offer, which puts you in plush, leather seats and a quiet, personal cabin with superior service on your transatlantic journey.

Why pay a few hundred bucks more than the competition to fly on OpenSkies? Quality. Overnight economy flights on other carriers leave you uncomfortable, tired and unhappy when you touch the ground in the EU. With these tickets you can hit the ground running, refreshed, happy and well taken care of. It’s an easy call if you have sensitive work to do the next day.

Check out their homepage at flyopenskies.com to book tickets.

Continental Airlines experiments with algae jet fuel mix

by Scott Carmichael on

On Wednesday, Continental Airlines flew a Boeing 737 from Houston in a circle over the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing too special about that. Except that this flight was a test of a new 50/50 jet fuel/biofuel mixture, powering one of the engines.

The bio portion of the fuel was a mix of algae and jatropha oil, an alternative fuel that can be grown in poor soil, yet is able to produce more yields than soybean. The fuel was approved for aviation use last year, and meets or exceeds all requirements for a jet fuel.

The jet was not the first biofuel powered airplane. Early last year, Virgin Atlantic flew a 747 from London to Amsterdam powered partially by coconut oil.

Most experts agree that the aviation industry will have to invest heavily in finding alternative fuels, but given how much is at stake during these trials it is understandable that they take things kind of slow.

This trial was a huge success, and the test pilot called it “textbook”. Whether or not we’ll start flying in coconut and algae powered jets any time soon, will all depend on how quickly these new crops can be grown on a massive scale. The amount of biofuel required to become a really viable alternative is quite staggering.

(Via: BBC News)