United to charge for meals on international flights

by Grant Martin on

Gradual reductions to in-flight meals have finally reached the international market. It used to be that everyone on the aircraft got a meal, wherever where you were going or in what class you were. That slowly devolved to meals in first class on some long-haul flights (exception: Continental, where all meals in domestic are still free!).

Now, spurned by cost cutting measures across the industry, United Airlines has announced that they’re discontinuing meal service on some of their international flights.

From Washington DC‘s Dulles airport, flights to Europe will now offer food for purchase instead of the standard “chicken or pasta” choices. Nine dollars will get you a salad or sandwich while six buys a snack box. I found no mention of warm food in this Bloomberg article.

To reiterate: they aren’t even charging you $9 for the soggy chicken that you used to get.

As to whether the changes will be unrolled to the rest of the international legs, the airline is still not sure. They’ll be taking input from passengers after this trial period to see how poorly it’s received.

And poorly received it will be. On a three or even four hour flight across the country I can see how someone can gorge up on food beforehand and make it through the itinerary. But on a nine hour flight you need to eat at some point. And unless you brought a sack lunch you’re going to be forced to pay whatever prices they’re charging. Yes, they only take cash.

Take this opportunity to send a note to UA protesting the changes. There’s still time to reverse the tide.

10 tips for smarter flying


Other Trouble in the Skies


Whose miles are worth what where?

by Grant Martin on

The FrugalTravelGuy, a man that spends far more time in airplanes and is a member of far more frequent flyer programs than myself, recently spent some time musing about airline miles and what they’re now worth. With carriers making it more difficult to spend miles across the board, it’s becoming an increasingly valid question — nobody wants to get pinched out of their miles nor wants them to expire out from under them.

What Rick has done is taken a personal look at many of the airlines and ranked their quality as far as value of the current mile. Things like how many miles it takes to get status, book a ticket or redeem other goodies played into the equation and the results are fairly interesting.

His best value frequent flyer mile program? BMI’s mileage program. Who? British Midland Airways is based in the UK and has limited long haul service into the United States. More importantly, they’re also a member of Star Alliance, which means you can be a member of their program and earn miles flying domestically on United or US Airways.

Benefits of BMI’s program include 58k top tier elite qualification (versus 75k for most domestic carriers), access to airport lounges and other generous earnings.

FrugalTravelGuy’s top Domestic program? American Airlines‘ AAdvantage program. You can bore into the details in his article, but for now we’ll round out his top domestic carriers list:

2. United
3. Continental
4. Deltwest
5. US Airways

Note, his list isn’t compresensive across all carriers or nations and you do have to admit that he is one man compiling a lot of data so can be biased. But his arguments are largely on point and his reflections well thought out.

If you’re interested in entering the mileage game or making your miles last, give the article a read.

Aircell Gogo inflight Internet service goes live on American Airlines

by Scott Carmichael on

Several weeks ago, I reported that Delta Airlines was gearing up to offer the Aircell Gogo inflight Internet service, but it is American Airlines who beat them to the first operational service.

Aircell Gogo is now offered on select American Airlines Boeing 767-200 flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles and New York and Miami. This puts the total number of flights with the Gogo Internet service at 174 per week.

For just $12.95, passengers get unlimited access to the Internet, but Aircell points out that VOIP (Internet calling) and cell phone calls are not possible.

To use the service, you’ll need a Wi-Fi capable laptop, PDA or smartphone, you can find a comprehensive list of supported devices on the Gogo site. If you plan to travel light, you’ll be able to use your Wi-Fi enabled Blackberry, iPhone or iPod touch to get online, which should help keep you entertained for the duration of the flight.

Aircell is working on a very swift roll out of their service, in addition to American Airlines and the previously mentioned Delta rollout, they are also working to bring inflight Internet to Virgin America.

This service has all the key features of a successful product; it is affordable, it comes at a time where airlines are scrambling to generate some more revenue, and the market penetration of Wi-Fi enabled devices is larger than ever. My feeling is that it will be a huge success, and certainly more successful than previous attempts at airborne broadband.

Source (and image) from Gogo Inflight Internet

TSA inspector damages planes and causes major flight delays

by Jamie Rhein on

As one of the duties to make sure air travel is safer, TSA inspectors check planes for security issues while the planes are parked.

Unfortunately, knowing which parts of planes should not be touched, and what a ladder looks like is a skill set that still needs some fine tuning.

According to this ABC News report, an inspector at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport used sensitive instrument probes as handholds while climbing into nine American Eagle airplanes. These TAT probes, pictured, are important to the operation of flight computers. As a result, 40 commuter flights were delayed.

At the time, the TSA agent was attempting to determine if the aircraft could be broken into and an agency official is quoted as saying “Our inspector was following routine procedure for securing the aircraft that were on the tarmac.”

Next time, try using a ladder and a brick.

Other tales from the skies
Amazing and insane stories from a real-life flight attendant and co-pilot

Ten tips for flying standby

by Grant Martin on

It’s one o’clock on Friday, you had a margarita at lunch and your boss already checked out to Long Island for the weekend — it’s about time you decided to get the heck out of dodge. But your flight is at 7:30, and even if you got out of work early you would still be sitting at LaGuardia for five hours waiting for your flight — and that’s no fun.

Solution? Fly standby.

The concept of standing by, or taking an earlier flight, on an itinerary has been around since the beginning of commercial aviation. The problem is that many people are afraid to try it. Whether this is because they’re unfamiliar with the procedure or don’t want to risk waiting at the airport for hours, few passengers are willing to throw their their hat in the ring and try to bounce onto a different flight.

The rewards, however, can be succulent. Imagine getting to your destination three hours early while the sun is still up, meandering over to dinner with friends and getting a few drinks before your original flight even landed. Or imagine spending that extra time throwing the Frisbee in the park before your colleagues have even left their desks at the office.

Worth a shot? We’ve put together a list of ten handy tips for standing by on your next flight. Take a look and start packing those bags!

  • Know when the flights are. Take a look at your airline’s website before you even start thinking about standing by to see if there are any earlier direct flights that are identical to yours. Note that you can’t stand by on an itinerary with more legs — like you can’t standby from DTW-IND-LGA if your original flight was DTW-LGA, but you can standby on separate legs independently. So if your original itinerary is DTW-IND-LGA, you can standby on an earlier DTW-IND leg and either try to standby on an earlier IND-LGA leg or go out in Indianapolis for a long layover and a beer.
  • Know the loads. If you find that there are flights before yours that you could potentially take, check online at seatcounter.com to see if your flight is full. Fare buckets can be confusing, so as a thumbnail, if you see more than a few red “0”‘s next to your desired flight it’s getting pretty full and might not be worth your time. Alternatively, you can always call the airline and ask “is flight 389 leaving at 3PM full? How many seats are left? I want to standby.”
  • Inquire at checkin. Many airlines offer standby options when you’re checking in online or at the airport. Ask the ticket agent if you can “confirm” a standby seat. If they can’t do it for you, you can always add yourself at the gate. Note that often confirming a stanby seat will cost you a fee (about 25$) — take this into account when planning.
  • Get there early. If the ticket agent or online checkin can’t help you, get to the gate as quickly as you can and ask to be put on the standby list. The sooner you get there the higher you will be in the queue. If the ticket agent or someone else added you, it never hurts to check at the gate as well.
  • Don’t check luggage. If you can’t confirm a standby seat at the ticket counter, you’ll have to try to get in at the gate. Unfortunately you can’t fly without your luggage (and they won’t move it for you), so you can’t standby if you checked it.
  • Be patient. Standbys are often called at the end of boarding right before departure, so don’t go to Chilis and get a 26 layer burrito while the jetway door is still open — they still might call you.
  • Travel solo. This may not always be possible if you’re traveling with a large group that you want to keep booked together, but single passengers have a better chance of getting a standby seat than a group of passengers. If you really want to increase your chances, call the airline and ask them to separate your reservation into single-person itineraries.
  • Earn elite status. If you’re an elite member of the airline’s frequent flyer program, often times you’ll get bumped to the top of the standby list. This greatly increases your odds of getting on the flight.
  • Be flexible and prepared. Often times the last standby seats are also the worst. So be prepared to sit in the back of the plane between two people next to the lav. Hey, at least you’re early.
  • Know your limitations. On most airlines, you can standby on a flight at any other time during the day of your original ticket. Before or after. If you’re planning on playing the risky, risky game of skipping your original fight and taking one later in the day though, make sure you do your homework and know that the target flight has plenty of space for you. If the later flight is full, the airline has no obligation to take you.

Finally, plan for the worst. Getting onto an early flight can be great, but don’t plan all of your vacation around it. Consider any earlier flight a gift to your weekend and make sure you make good use of it once you land early!