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Airlines

Tips for carrying more on a plane

by Jamie Rhein on May 22, 2008

Now that American Airlines is opting to charge passengers $15 for the first checked bag, as Grant wrote in his post yesterday, there’s a huge potential of more people taking carry-ons on the plane. Yep, lots of luck finding overhead bin space. I can see a rush to get in line first when a plane is ready for boarding.

Here are some of my ideas for maximizing the carry-on potential if more airlines follow suit and charge for that first bag. I have tried them and they work. I think I was a pack mule in a past life.

1. As, I’ve posted before, this is a good time to pick up a kid if you don’t already have one–get two if you can. I have two for this very reason. Give Mike and Mindy a little backpack for crayons, a coloring book and snacks, and a stuffed animal or a doll to take along if they are so inclined, but remember, if they have a seat that’s been paid for, they get an adult size carry-on. No one said that the passenger has to be able to carry his or her bag onto the plane. Kids’ clothes are small, so that leaves more room for yours. Your child also perfect for carrying that camera bag.

2. Instead of packing that sweater or jacket that you might need when you get to a colder climate, wear it. So what if it’s summer and 98 degrees outside? Don’t let something you can wear take up valuable space.

3. Tie that pair of running shoes onto your carry-on handle. Don’t pack them inside. Just be careful as you’re walking down the airplane’s aisle that they don’t whack people who have already settled into their seats.

4. If you’ve been somewhere and picked up a souvenir item–like an African drum, don’t see it as a carry on. Sure, it’s a carry-on, but it doesn’t really look like one now, does it? I’ve carried an African drum, PLUS a carry on twice. No one said a word each time.

5. For some other packing ideas, check out this photo posted on Flickr by Halley. Particularly, notice the young woman with the pillow in the plaid pillowcase. She’s not getting on a plane, but she has the right idea. Last week someone asked me how to take a pillow along without it taking up space. I suggested this way exactly. I’ve done it and it works.

Wall Street Journal: What to expect from rising jet fuel prices

by Jeffrey White on May 22, 2008

Here’s an arresting fact: The increase in jet fuel costs from a year ago that airlines are currently dealing with totals around $25 billion in additional costs for carriers, which is about five times more than the airline industry has ever earned in a single year (1999 was a record year for the industry, with profits topping out at about $5 billion).

That comes via the Wall Street Journal, whose Middle Seat column yesterday puts some good perspective on just how much the airline industry is hurting (as Grant posted yesterday, American is to begin charging money for your first checked bag in June). Airlines are faced with staggering expenses even as they know that countering them would mean having to make more money than they ever have before.

What can they do? Scott Mccartney, the WSJ‘s Middle Seat columnists, says to expect airlines to begin severely cutting capacity, eliminating money-losing routes, which in turn will increase ticket prices. “The price of flying has to go up if airlines are to survive,” he says. Also, expect some carriers to head to bankruptcy court beginning next year, which isn’t such a bad thing, Mccartney says. With fuel prices hitting $130 a barrel and airlines faced with major shortfalls, bankruptcies would be healthy for the industry, as the weakest carriers bow out and the market consolidates.

Urine-collecting underwear for pilots

by Abha Malpani on May 21, 2008

Air-force pilots will no longer have to hold in their pee or risk their plane crashing when they want to go for a quick wizz, as a company has now introduced “piddle-packs“, in which pilots can pee without leaving their seats.

The special underwear has a pouch for men and a sanitary napkin for women, and uses a system called “Advance Mission Extender Device” which when peed in, drains the urine into a collection bag by pumping it through a hose that is connected to the underwear.

Over the years, pilots are known to have used bottles and bags, have held it in, or dehydrated themselves before their flights — all of which have dangerous consequences.

Flying began in the 1900’s, it surprises me that it has taken them over a 100 years to devise a solution for this problem!

This product seems like it’s specifically for air-force pilots, which makes me wonder about the peeing situation for pilots in normal carrier planes — excuse my ignorance but is there a toilet in the cockpit?

Kent, enlighten us?

[Via Boing Boing]

NBA basketball team forced to spend night in grounded plane

by Anna Brones on May 21, 2008

Paying for checked baggage, endless hours on the tarmac, canceled flights… think you’re the only one that has to deal with bad airline service? Apparently even the rich and famous have to deal with such inconveniences, at least in the case of the San Antonio Spurs.

After winning the game and securing their spot in the NBA Western Conference Semifinals on Monday night, the Spurs intended to fly directly to Los Angeles and get ready for their next game against the Lakers. No such luck. On account of maintenance problems, the team spent Monday night in the classiest of accommodations… aboard their grounded charter plane.

Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that the charter plane — operated by carrier Champion Air — with all first class seats is much more comfortable than anything I’ve ever flown in, but I wouldn’t want to spend the night in one. Trans-Atlantic and red-eye flights are bad enough, but sleeping in a plane that remains on the ground is even worse.

Like many other airlines, Champion Air has been going through some rough times and will stop flying at the end of May when it goes out of business. So what carrier should the NBA go for next? Maybe one that gives out hotel vouchers.

Cities where planes don’t fly to anymore

by Jamie Rhein on May 21, 2008

Bob Dylan song lyrics, “The times they are a changing” keep playing in my head. A few years ago, Greyhound buses stopped rolling into towns off its major routes. Now, in several small cities, airplanes won’t be appearing on their tarmacs.

According to this article in the New York Times, in Hagarstown, Maryland, it doesn’t matter that a new tarmac was made to bring more commercial planes there. They aren’t coming. The carriers that used to come quit. It would be hell to work at the Hagarstown Regional Airport right about now, I would think. What is there to do while waiting for a private plane to arrive? Drag racing?

The article lists several other airports without the commercial planes that used to whisk people in and out. New Haven, Connecticut, Wilmington, Delaware (where the plane in the photo was heading), Lake Havasu City, Arizona and Boulder City, Nevada are the ones named, but there are more.

So, now that you can’t whisk in and out of these places, and possibly you can’t take a bus to them either, I’m wondering what will happen when it comes to travel? When I criss-crossed the United States on a bus, there were some sites I wanted to go that were out of reach. We mostly went to large cities as a result of the hassle of going to smaller ones. The only small towns we went to were Hannibal, Missouri and Vinita, Oklahoma.

For people who have gotten used to going places quickly, lots of luck. With gas prices what they are, who’s going to want to drive to places that aren’t on the way to someplace else?