Malaysia Airlines to offer 1 million free seats (and possibly the hottest crew on Earth*)

by Iva Skoch on

Sounds almost too good, doesn’t it. I don’t think anybody is ever going to give you a better excuse to travel around Southeast Asia.

Malaysia Airlines announced today it plans to offer one million free seats for flights within Southeast Asia as part of an aggressive campaign to boost sales and income amid high oil prices, USA Today reports. The airline hopes that the Everyday Low Fares campaign will help them fill up its planes and recover some costs as passengers will have to pay the fuel surcharge. The seats to be given away represent 30% of surplus capacity.

Under the campaign, bookings can only be made online for 24 regional routes – including selected routes from Malaysia to China – for a two-week period from May 21 for travel between July 1 and Dec. 14. Passengers will still have to pay airport tax, administration fees and the fuel surcharge. The free tickets are non-refundable and will only be offered on lean flights. Malaysia Airlines first launched the zero-fare campaign for domestic destinations earlier this month, also offering a million free seats for travels between June 10 and Dec. 14.

(*Flights attendants are especially hot in First Class, which–sadly–is not free.)

JetBlue, citing fuel costs, nixes new LAX route

by Jeffrey White on

More than three months after announcing a new route between JFK and Los Angeles International Airport that was to begin later this month, JetBlue announced yesterday that it was suspending the route, a move driven largely by the rising cost of jet fuel.

The route was to add a second Los Angeles airport to JetBlue’s system. Instead, the airline will continue serving Long Beach Airport, to which passengers who had bought tickets to LAX are now be re-ticketed.

A spokesman for the low cost carrier told the Associated Press that while flying to Long Beach instead of LAX isn’t likely to save the company much money on fuel, starting a route to LAX had a whole host of new costs associated with it — leasing gate and check-in space, maintenance facilities — that were not prudent to undertake at a time when the entire industry is watching its bottom lines.

New routes are seldom profitable for airlines at first. The spokesman said that in order to make LAX payoff, JetBlue would have been forced to raise ticket prices beyond what customers were likely to want to pay.

The cost in fuel to operate the JFK – Long Beach route has increased to $15,000 per flight from $9,600 since 2007, JetBlue told the AP.

No word yet when the company might move forward with serving LAX.

Texan arrested for mobile calls on aircraft

by Grant Martin on

We’re slowly starting to see more stories of airline crews getting fed up and kicking people off flights for using their mobile phones, but none are as controversial as this.

A Texas businessman named Joe Jones was recently arrested following a Southwest Airlines flight on which he refused to get off of his phone prior to landing. Flight attendants had repeatedly asked the man to stop the conversation and turn off his mobile, receiving a “kiss my ass” in return each time they asked. Frustrated, they had state police meet him at the gate, where he continued to make a ruckus.

As his spokesman later explained, however, Jones had just received word that his father’s heart had stopped beating and was wildly trying to contact the hospital. Given the life and death situation, he felt it necessary to make the phone calls.

And I can empathize with that situation — if I knew that my parents were gravely ill and had to call the hospital, I can totally see how I would be trying to call the doctor in panic. My questions are as follows: how did Jones get the message in the first place? Was he on the plane with his phone on when a text came in or did he get the call before he boarded? And isn’t interfering with an aircraft landing with your mobile phone signal also a life and death situation?

What strange things have been found on planes?


Click the image to read the bizarre story…

Man sues Jetblue for making him sit on toilet during flight

by Grant Martin on

Think that your seat on the airplane is uncomfortable? It could be worse: you could have been Gokhan Mutlu, a New York man who just filed a lawsuit against Jetblue for making him sit on a toilet for more than three hours of his flight.

Apparently, Mutlu, who was flying on a buddy pass ticket (a free fare), was the last person to get a seat on his recent journey. A flight attendant on a non-revenue ticket was also on the aircraft, but she gave up her real seat to sit in the jumpseat during the flight so that everyone could fit.

But when she got uncomfortable, the pilot came back and asked Mutlu to relinquish his seat, telling him literally to “go hang out” and directing him to the toilet. When he objected, court papers say that the pilot apparently said that “he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command [and] that [Mutlu] should be grateful for being on board”.

After nearly three hours in the lavatory, a flight attendant returned to tell Mutlu that he could return to his seat, but at that point, my wager is that he was pretty ticked off. The lawsuit was filed for over two million dollars. Jetblue should be glad that he didn’t sue for more.

Virgin America seeks approval to serve Chicago’s O’Hare (ORD)

by Justin Glow on

Midwestern fans of the newest, shiniest airline to hit American soil, Virgin America, received some good news this morning: the airline is seeking government approval to set up shop at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

O’Hare, the world’s second busiest airport, would make Virgin America’s 8th official destination with plans to fly to and from both San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles (LAX).

No official word on when this would happen if given approval, but we’ll keep you updated.

Chicago Business has a good rundown of the logistics of such a process, and what it could mean for Chicago and O’Hare.

Yahoo: Virgin America Seeks Service to Chicago O’Hare
Photo: Kevin Miller on Flickr (CC)