Airlines oppose new state efforts towards Passenger Bill of Rights

by Anna Brones on

The recent push for a federal Passenger Bill of Rights by the U.S. Senate was a welcomed breath of fresh air for fed-up travelers. Some states however feel that the federal legislation isn’t moving fast enough and have decided to take matters into their own hands.

In an attempt to speed up the process, lawmakers in New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Washington and Rhode Island are pursuing state legislation similar to what was just recently passed in New York in order to better provide for travelers.

But the airlines prefer federally regulated passenger protection in order to avoid confusion over rules set on a state to state basis. State governments are not taking the issue lightly, and on Tuesday representatives of Alaska Airlines got a hostile response when talking to Washington lawmakers. An excerpt:

Scott Jarvis, Vice President of Marketing for Alaska Airlines: “I would hope that competition would rule the day and bad apples would lose business if they’re delivering poor customer service.”

Ken Jacobsen, Democratic State Senator: “In the meantime, nine hours on the runway someone’s going to die.”

It’s pretty clear that the fight for passenger rights, be it at the state or the federal level, isn’t going to be easy. Better bring a sack lunch on your next flight just in case you risk those nine deadly hours.

Virgin Galactic has arrived!

by Grant Martin on

Wow. Virgin Galactic revealed the design of its sub-orbital commercial aircraft yesterday and it’s pretty sweet. Together with Scaled Composites’ Burt Rutan, construction is now sixty percent complete with a tentative launch date some time in 2010.

The current design, taken partially from the Space Ship 1 that won the Ansari X Prize in 2004, is based on a carrier aircraft that takes the sub-orbital vehicle to an approach altitude, where it’s released for the remainder of the journey. If you’re curious how that fits in the pictured design, the two hulls on the outside of that aircraft are the launch vehicle — once the appropriate altitude is reached the center section of the aircraft drops out and the two vehicles diverge.

While I’m not as excited about the innovation as Sir Richard Branson (who compares it to the cell phone revolution) is, I’m still genuinely interested in the market and buzz that its creating. At $200,000 a seat I don’t think that any of us are going to be flying any time soon, but 85,000 people have already registered interest in the pricey trip to space. Perhaps said market is stronger than I predicted.

You can read more at the BBC here.

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Gadling’s worst five US Airports for public transportation

by Grant Martin on

Earlier this week we wrote up a brief article rating some of the best connected airports in these great United States. What’s the value of a top five list without the sadistic benefit of a bottom five list though? Fear not Gadlingers, it was easier to create this list then the top five, with these airports rated above and beyond the worst connected to public transportation. Again, we’ve not only ranked them by accessibility but also cost and proximity to the city in question.

  • Detroit: We can thank the automotive lobby for this one. With barely any train service in the city and a metropolitan airport halfway between downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor, nobody can easily get to DTW. There are a couple of public buses, but they only appear to run in specific directions and to be honest with you, I’ve never seen one on the grounds.
  • Newark/New York: While EWR is connected to NJ transit, it costs freaking 14$ to get there from Penn Station and THEN you have to take the stupid airtrain around the airport. Half the time the latter train is broken down, and if you forgot your ticket from NJTransit you have to pay extra for the privilege to transfer to your dumpy terminal. Terrible.
  • Los Angeles: SoCal vehicle mentality seems to require people to drive everywhere in the city. The lackadaisical subway system doesn’t even consider coming close the airport and even then most people are afraid to use it.
  • Las Vegas: Nevada seems to think that if people are going to Vegas to gamble that they have enough money to pay for a cab into town. Not everyone comes to the city to gamble!
  • Washington DC (Dulles): IAD has the Washington Flyer, which will at least connect you to the Orange Line in NOVA, but it costs nine bucks and takes an extra half hour to get there. Transferring downtown takes even longer and the Flyer can be affected by traffic. With all of those stipulations, the 2$ I pay for the New York Laguardia bus looks like a dream.

Don’t agree or think that your city belongs on the list? Let us know!

Lost kitten survives flight in luggage hold

by Grant Martin on

Late last week, a south Florida man headed for the airport accidentally zipped up his cat into his luggage, headed out and checked the bag all of the way to Texas. TSA apparently failed to notice a live animal in their x-ray screening process and let the baggage handlers load the poor cat into the belly of the American Airlines jet. Thirty thousand vertical feet, subzero temperatures and half a country later the bag emerged in Dallas, where in a further stupefying turn of events, the wrong passenger picked up the man’s luggage and took it home. Imagine not only finding the wrong belongings but a CAT inside of the bag that you brought home from the airport.

Amazingly, the cat survived the entire affair. The ride to the airport, checked into luggage, through two airline baggage systems out of the carousel and home with the wrong person. No word on how many times the cat relieved itself in the bag.

Meantime, the man’s wife in Florida was searching high and low for the kitten, to the point of putting up lost signs out on the street. She was probably pretty surprised to locate the cat in Texas. If only I could do that to some people I know.

American Airlines announces in-flight wi-fi costs

by Justin Glow on

Our sister site Engadget is reporting that, when American Airlines debuts in-flight Wi-Fi, it will cost $10 for three hours or less, or $12.95 for longer flights. “Rollout,” they say, “will begin this summer on AA’s 767-200 jets before rolling out across its entire fleet.”

So what do you think?

Personally, I don’t think it’s too bad, as long as the connection is reliable. What I’d be worried about it is a slow, overcrowded link, where I’m paying $10 to browse the Internet at dial-up-or-less speeds. But if it’s fast, I can’t think of a better way to spend my time on a boring flight — and $10 really isn’t bad. I would have figured that the price would have been higher for a service specifically geared towards business travelers.

Speaking of business travelers, it would make sense if they offered some sort of monthly plan, where frequent fliers pay $100 a month to get them unlimited access on all of their flights. I don’t fly enough to take advantage of something like that, but if I did, I’d pay it.