British Airways: We’re going to take our time moving to Heathrow’s Terminal 5

by Jeffrey White on

Even as the chaos that was the opening of Heathrow’s much vaunted Terminal 5 this spring seems to have subsided some, British Airways says that it will not make the full move to the new wing until after the busy summer travel season.

“Terminal 5 is working well, and this phased move has been planned in the interests of our passengers and the smooth operation of Heathrow over the busy summer period,” British airways said in a statement, reported by the Associated Press.

Now, a handful of long haul BA flights will be moved from Terminal 4 to 5 early next month. But then no other moves are planned until September, when another 30 or so daily flights — including service to Dallas, Chicago and Washington — will make the move. The full move won’t be completed until October.

BA had wanted to make these switches in a matter of days after the new terminal opened in April. But we all saw how well that went. However, come October the carrier will be have about 500 flights a day using the new wing, it says.

Gadling’s tips for frequent flyer miles

by Grant Martin on

I talk about frequent flier miles pretty often on Gadling, mostly because I think that many people under utilize and underestimate the power of their miles. The fact of the matter is, airline miles are a useful tool that can save you a ton of money if used properly. The key is to know when and how to use them. Here are a few quick tips:

  • You can accrue miles towards a different program on your flight. All domestic legacy carriers subscribe to alliances, and you can enjoy unilateral benefits among them. The three big alliances are Star, Skyteam and Oneworld. Star Alliance hosts carriers such as United, US Airways and Ted, Skyteam has Delta, Continental and Northwest and American Airlines’ Oneworld’s team members are largely overseas. So suppose you’re trying to accrue miles on United to get to a domestic reward, 25,000 miles. If you’re flying on US Airways next week, you can put your United frequent flier number into US Airways’ system and your miles go to your United account.
  • Keeping all of your miles in one places makes it easier to redeem awards faster and to achieve elite status over one calendar year. It’s kind of like keeping all of your savings in one account – you get higher interest (or in this case, rewards).
  • Always make sure that your frequent flyer number is in the system when you book your ticket. In addition to being another cross reference for which you can find your ticket, it’s much easier to put the number in during booking versus at the gate or even retroactively. Bear in mind, however, that you can get your miles after you fly. As long as you had an account at the time you flew, you can usually fax your boarding passes in to get miles accounted for. Check with your carrier to find that number.
  • Mileage rewards are best used on expensive tickets. Many people use miles sloppily in place of an inexpensive short-haul ticket. But with the flexibility of a reward ticket, you can travel anywhere the ticket dictates for your miles at any time. Compare the market value of two tickets for example: Winter to Paris from New York versus the 4th of July. On a good February day, one can find a ticket into the City of Lights for 400$. Over the 4th of July weekend, it’s about 1500$. But the reward tickets are the same price: 50k miles. Granted, availability of miles rewards will be a little tighter over summer months, but you can be flexible. I’m still finding 4oJ tickets between Detroit and Paris, and it’s just over a month away. So if you travel with any reasonable frequency, it just doesn’t make sense to blow 25k on a random weekend between Detroit and New York if the ticket price is 200$ anyway. Wait for the price to go up on your itinerary or an emergency to crop up before you blow your miles – then strike when the time is right.
  • Mileage rewards are refundable. Any flight you book with frequent flier miles is refundable, and depending on your level of status with an airline, rebook fees can be as little as free (or as much as around 100$ or so). So if you decide you want to leave a week early or late and there is availability? Call up the airline and switch it. If you want to stay later? Make the change. Compare this to a “fully refundable” fare that you would need to purchase if you wanted this flexibility with a regular ticket. You could easily spend 1500$ on a ticket that would be 200$ in economy.
  • Stopovers are permitted on many mileage awards. Suppose you want to fly from Washington DC to Japan but need to stop in Hawaii on the way for a wedding (this actually happened to a friend of mine recently). Booking three legs is ridiculously expensive. But fare rules for mileage tickets between DC and Tokyo (NRT) stipulate that one can take a free stopover on any itinerary. In this instance, the airline of choice had availability from WAS-HNL-NRT-WAS, so a three legged ticket was booked for 60k miles, versus the 4000$ that would have been spent on the open-market ticket.
  • If your account stays active, miles don’t expire. This doesn’t mean that you have to fly either. Depending on your miles program you can do as little as buy flowers, earn 40 miles and keep your account active for another calendar year.
  • You can buy tickets for other people with your miles. Even if you aren’t traveling in the near term, you probably have friends that are. If you’re short on cash (or just want to extort your friends), you can always book a ticket for them and take favors in return.

Is that it? Nah. I could spend a half hour talking about each of these bullets and probably bore you to tears. What’s critical to learn from these points is the value of your miles. Always make sure that you have a frequent flyer number and always make sure that it’s in the system before you travel. They accrue faster than you think!

Pilot reports seeing a rocket in mid-air

by Anna Brones on

Some weird things can happen in the skies. At least if you are the Continental Airlines pilot who reported seeing a rocket fly past his cockpit window while he was about eight miles away from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, as reported by the Houston Chronicle.

“We don’t know for sure what the object was. But we think it might be somebody doing model rocketing,” said Roland Herwig, an FAA spokesman. “The pilot saw the rocket and some people saw the rocket’s trail (of smoke).”

The incident has turned into a full-blown federal investigation, with both the FAA and the FBI looking into the matter. Fortunately no one was harmed or scathed. Just a little weirded out that a rocket may have flown past the cockpit window.

What strange things have been found on planes?


Click the image to read the bizarre story…

U.S. Congress puts a price tag on flight delays

by Jeffrey White on

Looking to put a price tag on that latest flight delay you had to endure? Luckily, Congress already has.

In a report released recently, and cited by the Associated Press, Congress says that flight delays cost the American economy some $41 billion in 2007.

How does that break down? The congressional Joint Economic Committee says that included $19 billion in costs for airlines and $12 billion in costs to passengers in lost productivity and down time, the AP reports. There were also around $10 billion in indirect costs, likely food and hotel vouchers.

So, we know it’s bad. Now Congress says this “punch in the gut,” in the words of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), is only going to get worse this summer.

The JEC analyzed more than 10 million individual flight records from the government, and says that flight delays amounted to a cost of $37.60 per passenger per hour last year, according to the AP.

There were about 320 million hours of delay time in 2007.

The JEC also concluded that delays were worst at major hubs in the Northeast and Midwest. JFK travelers on average were delayed 27 minutes, O’Hare travelers, 21 minutes, the AP says.

Big in Japan: $10,000 worth of marijuana gets misplaced by customs official at Tokyo-Narita airport

by Matthew Firestone on

There are a million reasons to hate flying in the post 9-11 world. From rising fuel surcharges and increased airport delays to overzealous security agents and declining airline quality, spending some time at home isn’t such a bad idea these days. Of course, if you want to encourage consumers to help stimulate the flailing airline industry, why not reward them with copious amounts of sweet and heady ganja?

Are you ready for this one…

According to customs officials at Tokyo-Narita airport, the main international gateway serving Japan, an unwitting passenger arriving accidentally received 142g (approximately 5 ounces) of pure cannabis after a customs test went sour. Believe it or not, a Japanese customs officer hid the huge sack of weed in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to verify the quality of their airport security.

However, the drug-sniffing dogs were unable to find the hidden parcel, and the customs official (who may have been sampling a bit of the contraband) could not remember which bag he put it in! Like all drugs in Japan, marijuana is highly illegal, which means that a quantity of this size is estimated to have a street value of around $10,000 or 1,000,000 yen.

Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials immediately.

The man behind the botched operation is one Mr. Manpei Tanaka, who serves as the head of customs at Tokyo-Narita airport. In typical Japanese fashion, Mr. Tanaka was extremely humble about the entire affair: “This case was extremely regrettable. I would like to deeply apologize.”

Of course, honorable words aren’t going to make the situation any easier on the absent minded customs official as it is illegal to conduct tests on a passenger’s bag.

According to Mr. Tanaka: “I knew that using passengers’ bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog’s ability. The dogs have always been able to find it before… I became overconfident that it would work.”

So far there have been no reports of anyone uncovering the missing weed stash, though customs officials are confident that it will be returned to the airport within the next twenty-four hours.

While a good number of people in North America tend to have a relaxed attitude towards smoking a bit of reefer from time to time, the Japanese are extremely averse to drugs of any kind. And, while the massive baggy of pot is extremely valuable, it is hard to buy and sell drugs in Tokyo without arousing suspicion.

So, I guess this brings up the simple question: if you were to discover some serious herb while unpacking your suitcase, what would you do with it? Feel free to chime in and share your thoughts with the rest of us!

(Special thanks to Julie Mac for sending this awesome bit of news my way!!)

** All images are courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project. Also note that Gadling does not condone the smoking of marijuana unless it happens to be really kind bud. **