Michael Phelps flies Northwest

by Grant Martin on

Another boring flight to the East Coast suddenly perked up when I looked up from my iPhone on Monday’s Northwest flight to Baltimore and saw Michael Phelps standing in front of me. Apparently, after everyone had boarded the plane the Olympic swimmer was snuck on to prevent any swooners from interfering.

Sporting a Baltimore Ravens jersey and Tigers baseball cap, Phelps quickly darted over to seat 2D, the seat right in front of me and hunkered into the corner — only myself, my intern and the guys sitting behind me seemed to notice.

Naturally, being the kind, respectful passenger that I am, I kept to myself and didn’t raise a fuss. I only spent, oh, about 70% of the flight peering through the seat crack to see if Phelps was smashing atoms with his bare hands or solving the world’s economic woes with an abacus.

On pushback, Phelps immediately put away his Blackberry and switched gears to this month’s Esquire for about 60 seconds before falling fast asleep. Throughout the flight he only moved a few times to close the window shades before landing in Maryland. Once phones were allowed again he immediately jumped on the line to discuss the six flat panel TVs that were being installed in his place then bolted out the front door on arrival — before I could get a proper photo.

I suppose as a celebrity you try to keep a low profile when on the road, or else nutjobs like Gadling Bloggers make a big ruckus and try to take your picture. Really I was most surprised to just see him on any old Northwest flight after watching him on television last month — or as our friend and contributor Matthew Firestone put it:

“I find it hard to believe that Michael Phelps flies in an airplane – I heard he just dives into the open sea and follows oceanic currents around the globe.”

Farewell, Michael Phelps. Sorry for taking your picture on the plane, but Gadlingers wouldn’t have believed it was you if I didn’t have evidence.

Competition is keeping some airfares in check, and in some cases, cheaper than you think

by Jamie Rhein on

From what I’ve been reading, despite the talk of how airfares are increasing, it’s wise to keep checking for the travel deals. They can be found.

According to this AOL Money and Finance article, depending on where you are heading, you can find a reasonable rate. Heading to Europe, for example, may score a bargain because there has been an increase in flights which means more seats to fill which means cheaper fares. Last month I checked out ticket prices from Columbus, Ohio to Copenhagen, Denmark and found a fare on Northwest just over $700. Not cheap, but cheaper than I expected.

A friend of mine flew from Boston to Columbus the end of August and paid a little over $200–another surprise. Some cities are bargain destinations: San Antonio, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Phoenix, for example.

In order to find deals, the article presents the recommendation that you search out the airports as well as the cities. Depending on what airport you use, you could save hundreds. If the fare to Newark makes your heart stop, check out JFK, for example. A flight from Minneapolis to Newark, a fare that used to be cheap, has now jumped to $1,600, but to JFK, the flight still hovers around $300.

When we have flown towards Montana, we looked into the cheapest flights within a 12 hour driving range. Denver was a bargain three years ago. Seattle was it summer before last. (Since once in Montana we would have needed to rent a car, renting a car in Seattle or Denver saved money in the end. Plus, it gave us a chance to visit friends and see other sites along the way.)

I’d also keep checking back since prices jump so frequently, and don’t assume. Two years ago my family and I were driving to Florida for Christmas because I assumed flights would be expensive since we were making our plans last minute. When I found out they were less than $200 a piece, we flew instead. Driving would have cost more, not to mention the time factor.

Why does Gadling seem so fond of Virgin, OpenSkies and Southwest?

by Grant Martin on

If you’ve been around the blog for more than a few weeks, you may have noticed that we seem to cover some of the newer and edgier carriers a bit more often. Virgin America and Atlantic, Southwest and OpenSkies seem to edge into our network fairly often and it seems like there’s always a Gadling blogger close at hand (usually with a vodka tonic) to report on the hijinks.

Why is this? Are these companies secretly paying for extra exposure? Do Gadling bloggers get free tickets any time they want to jet set across the country supporting their vokda binged lifestyle?

The simple answer is Public Relations. Every day Gadling bloggers are out, scouring the interwebs, newswires and telephone lines finding out new information for you, the reader, and reporting on daily developments. And what we learn and how we report is directly related to how friendly, prolific and open the PR staff is. Contacts and friends that we’ve made at the above carriers keep us in the loop, let us know when things are happening and occasionally send us piles of spam. Unfortunately, that’s about all we get for free.Conversely, most legacy carriers don’t give a rip about what Gadling writes or what we publish – so they’re not interested in talking to lowly bloggers.

From what I can tell, PR warmth is directly related to marketing strategy. Hipper, younger airlines trying to cater to the Gadling demographic (you know who you are) know they have to keep the blogosphere positively spinning. Older, more established carriers who may cater to more of an elder or family demographic, on the other hand, might communicate in more traditional places like, oh, church bulletins.

And its not like we haven’t tried fostering relationships with legacy carriers – most firms just don’t realize the leverage that blogs can provide. So we’ll let them be and continue the subliminal message that we’re sending from Gadling. I’ll have another vodka tonic please. Thanks.

GO JETBLUE!

Airlines Touting Brazil as New Hotspot

by Josh Lew on

South America’s destinations are hard to travel to. For people with samba fever outside of a few major hub cities (like Miami), a trip to Brazil means at least one connecting flight in the US. Anyone who plans to spend time outside of the major cities of Sao Paulo or Rio will have to catch another flight once they arrive in the metropolises. These extra flights can add up.

Soon, it will be easier (and cheaper) to get to Brazil’s cities from the US. And just in time for the Southern Hemisphere’s summer. American Airlines is offering flights to the northeastern city of Salvador beginning in November. AA is also planning on providing service to the nearby coastal town of Recife. Delta is taking it a step further, offering flights to the Amazonian city of Manaus from Atlanta beginning at the end of the year. American is offering introductory rates for people traveling from major east coast cities like Boston and New York. Prices average $425 one-way if purchased before December 2nd.

10 tips for smarter flying


Thinking of invoking the “best fare guarantee?” Caveat emptor.

by Grant Martin on

When you’re out comparison shopping for plane tickets, nine times out of ten you’ll find the best fares directly on airline websites. Carriers do this to “train” you to refer to their websites anytime you want to purchase a ticket – and to not shop around. And it’s a reasonable balance, because travel agent websites like Orbitz or Travelocity will charge you a few extra dollars for booking. Running a search on a metacrawler like Kayak or Mobissimo proves this, as often you’ll see prices five to ten dollars lower compared from an individual carrier’s website to something like Expedia.

To further incentivize you to use their websites, most carriers further offer what’s called a “Best Fare Guarantee,” effectively saying that if you find the exact same ticket on another website that is a lower price than theirs, they’ll match the cost and often may give you a voucher for your time.

In theory, this sounds like a good practice, and once in a while you actually do find cheaper fares on third party websites that are tempting to purchase. But filing a claim for an adjustment is harder than you think.Before you even file a claim, you first need to make 100% certain that you’re comparing the exact same ticket between bookings. This includes the:

  • Same date
  • Same flights and flights numbers
  • Same booking class

Assuming all of these have been fastidiously audited, you now need to purchase the more expensive ticket and have your claim reviewed by the airline to see if they can replicate the result. And the airline will do anything to make sure that you don’t fit the bill.

Reading most Best Fare Guarantee terms and conditions, you’ll see that the airline has twenty four hours to get back to you on your claim. Fare pricing is uploaded multiple time every day, however, and is further based on real-time availability. For example, if you book the last deeply discounted “K” fare on Delta.com, all of the remaining fares are going to be in more expensive fare classes and therefore invalid for the claim. Even if there are still seats left in your fare class, ticket prices can change over night, and by the time the reviewing agent verifies your claim the entire cost structure could be different. An unfortunate delay in reviewing, or intentional sandbagging to invalidate your request? Nobody knows.

Another way airlines invalidate your claim is by scrutinizing the booking class. Often times, sites like Orbitz make it difficult (again, intentional?) for you to find the fare class in which you’re booked, so passengers erroneously think that fares are in the same bucket. Your claim auditor at the airline, however, won’t let this fly.

The worst part is, once the airline rejects your claim you’re stuck with your already purchased ticket. If you happen to be inside of the 24 hour return window (for non-refundable tickets), you can act quick and return the ticket and purchase on the other site (if the fare still exists), but the airline is counting on you to be too angry or too late to do this and just give in and pay.

My recommendation? Book via the third party website and take the hours and headache put into getting your fare equalized to the park and play with your kids. Trust me, you’ll be happier that you did it.

Got your own Best Fare Guarantee story? Post it in the comments and we’ll post some success stories.