Well, President Bush’s term might be winding down, but don’t think for a second he’s just sitting back and coasting through the next six weeks.
Bush yesterday unveiled a series of measures meant to ease the crowded Thanksgiving holiday rush and cut down on flight delays.
USA Todayreports that the president announced he’d ordered the military to open three new flight routes to commercial airlines in Colorado, Arizona and Southern California during the Thanksgiving travel period, and they will open again open additional routes, as they do every year, off the East Coast.
“A lot of our citizens are nervous about travel,” Bush said, as quoted in USA Today. “They are saying, ‘Will traveling home for the holidays be a wonderful life or will it be the nightmare before Christmas?’ “
Bush also wants airlines to file airport-specific plans for how they are going to deal with holiday delays, whatever that means.
Even though he’s a lame duck, critics nevertheless took the opportunity of these announcements by jumping all over him. Labor and consumer groups blasted Bush’s plans as moronic.
“This is a different year, same gift,” said Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. “I don’t think there is any relevance to today’s announcement. It’s all for show.”
I guess we’ll wait and see if this has any impact on our travels.
For me to get home for Thanksgiving, I’m lucky enough to only have to take Amtrak. Even though train stations are popping at the seams with travelers during the November holiday weekend, airports are even worse. And this year is no different.
As a matter of fact, during this year’s Thanksgiving and Christmas travel periods, airlines will operate about 2,500 to 3,000 fewer domestic flights than compared with the same periods in previous years. That means that one way or another, you’re probably going to be affected. To visualize just how your travel plans might be impacted, USA Today’s travel blog Today in the Sky has put together an interactive graphic to show how flight cutbacks by airlines could affect your travel choices.
The graphic can be used to find flight changes for select days from every domestic airport with flights to the following seven hubs: Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Houston (Bush) and Minneapolis-St. Paul. The map is dotted with red and green squares to signify fewer or more flights to the hub, making it pretty simple to see what routes are going to be more problematic. But if you’re lucky, you’ll find that your particular route has that great green box, meaning that you’ll actually be able to take advantage of more flights to get you home for the holidays.
To check out the graphic for yourself, click here.
Gadling has covered everything from travelers’ preferred airline seat positions to middle seat etiquette. But now we’ve discovered a traveler who has taken matters into his own hands and gone guerilla on people reclining their airline seats.
(Note: Gadling does not promote or condone any behavior that violates airline policies and procedures. We are, however, amused by this.)
Artist/Blogger Evan Roth really hates when people recline their seats on airplanes. So, with the help of a zip-tie and some good old fashioned ingenuity, he rigged the seat in front of him to remain upright. Rude? Sure. Vandalism? Maybe. Hilarious? Abso-f’n-lutely.
The plan is beautiful in its simplicity and it’s not like he endangered his fellow travelers or put the flight in peril. I’d be pissed if he did it to my seat but I can sleep just about anywhere, including upright plane seats, so I probably wouldn’t even notice. Besides, there are other ways to sleep on planes.
Kudos to you, Evan. And I hope the rest of you don’t get any ideas.
Either the LDS, The Salt Lake City Tourism Board or Northwest and Delta are up to something, because all of the sudden, prices out to SLC just tanked.
I’m pulling up tickets from about $100-$125 round trip departing from Detroit and Chicago respectively, with other cities across the country at fairly competitive rates. At this point, fares look to be good through early February.
“Why go to Salt Lake City in the middle of the winter,” you ask? One word: skiing. Park City is right around the corner from Utah’s capital city and for the money that you save on the plane ticket you can afford a nicer condo rental.
In case you’re really interested, what really happened is called The Southwest Effect. As the airline best hedged against fuel prices, Southwest has the wonderful position of setting the market rate on fares between many cities across the country. That is, as soon as they decide to publish a sale fare on tickets between Dallas and Los Angeles, everyone else has to follow suit.
Just today the airline published a 50% off coupon to Salt Lake City, so to stay competitive, Northwest and Delta matched the price. And that’s where we come in, my friends.
Book your tickets soon, I just booked a pair out for a weekend in January and availability already dried up for those days.
Wow, it’s here again. The holiday season so loved for the time off and family visits and so feared for miserable travel experiences. During no other time of the year are loads so high, people so anxious to get home and weather patterns so unfortunate.
But things are different this year. You’ve got Gadling on your side, watching the travel radar, ear to the ground, listening to low fares and proofreading your travel itinerary. Follow these ten tips below to make your holiday travel awesome. Buy your Ticket Early
If you haven’t already purchased your ticket, do it now. Right now. The earlier you buy your ticket the less expensive and the better routing you’ll get. That means more money for hard liquor and fewer layovers that could cause delays. Plan your Route
Any layovers on your way home are an opportunity for disaster. It might be nice in Tuscon, but once you land in Chicago on your way to Charlotte, the snowstorm of this millennium may hit the city and you could be stuck for days. So if you absolutely have to take a layover, try to make it in Atlanta instead of Minneapolis.
Similarly, highest load times are the days before and after Thanksgiving and Christmas, so if you want to avoid the heaviest crowds, travel the day before, after or (godforbid) the day OF. Get to the Airport Early
I can’t stress this enough. Everyone and their mother is going to be at the airport the day before Thanksgiving, security lines are going to be out the front door and the ticket line will be longer. Get there at least three hours before your flight and bring some reading material in your carry on (see below.)
In fact, get a ride to the Airport
All of those people in line at security and Starbucks got to the airport somehow. Chances are they’re parked in the last available spot at the cheapo-park. Call your best friend, bring over a case of beer and ask them to drive your family to the airport. As a bonus they’ll get a relieving kick of happiness when they pull out of departures and see you heading into pure bedlam inside.
Know your Baggage Allowance
Things aren’t the same as they were last year when you went home for Thanksgiving. Airline fees are everywhere, and chances are if you’re checking bags you need to pony up some cash at the ticket counter. Check your airline’s website to see what your quotas are, and if necessary, combine your bags into one checked or even one carry on bag. At the very worst, make sure you have twenty bucks in your bank account before you show up at the airport with a couple of carryons.
Engineer your Carry-on
If you must check bags, bring a carry on that contains important items for your time in transit. Prepare yourself for the worst case scenario, being stuck overnight or marooned in a foreign place for a long duration of time. Keep the things on you that will keep you functioning in a bind.
Mobile phone / laptop charger
Toothbrush & toothpaste
Fiction
Socks & underwear
Why “fiction,” you ask? Because in the event that you do get stuck somewhere overnight, you’re going to want something long and easy to read with you, not a periodical that will get old after two hours or something difficult that’s going to further stress you out.
Know your Airport
There are a lot of quiet corners to take a nap (try the chapel if you’re in a bind) internet hotspots and accoutrements available to you in the right airports. Take a walk around if you’ve got some spare time, figure out when the Chili’s closes and stock up for a long stay if you’re stuck for a while.
Join a Lounge
Most airlines have membership lounges that you can puchase day passes to. The $20-30 fee will usually get you free snacks, wireless internet a comfortable place to hang out and often some free booze. Any day of the week this might be a so-so deal, but when the airport is chocked full of screaming kids and is 95°, it’s totally worth it.
Don’t be afraid to wander into a lounge and ask either. Those agents behind the desk inside are paid to glare at you, but they’re also paid to sell you a day pass if their employer offers one. What you’re wearing, class of service (with exceptions that you probably don’t need to worry about,) what you paid for your ticket and who you’re with doesn’t matter either, so don’t feel excluded on that qualification.
Have your Airline and Hotel Phone Numbers Available
When your flight gets canceled and the line at the ticket desk backs up to Narnia, the only difference between YOU and Mr. Rill getting the last seat out to Ft. Lauderdale is who gets to the ticket agent first. If you’re in the back of the line, call the airline, give them your record locator ask to get rebooked and have a smoke while Mr. Rill waits in line.
Count your Kids
Hey, you wouldn’t be the first family to leave a child at home.