The mother of all airline fee tables

by Grant Martin on

Air travel Masa Rick Seaney is seems to be just about everywhere these days, but I have to tell you, his website does come up with some good data every now and then. In addition to Farecompare’s ability to pluck out excellent airfare (the needle in a haystack analogy comes to mind), Seaney has more recently been commenting and writing on the industry on his personal website, RickSeaney.com

Just last week, Rick et al published a huge table of airline fees, containing all sorts of depressing information from reservation over the phone fees to checked bag fees to animal carry-on fees. He’s lined these all up against each other as a function of airline, where you can easily go down, pick your favorite (or ticketed) carrier and see how much your next trip to the airport is going to cost you.

Say you’re taking your family to Disney World this weekend and you have the choice between a 320 dollar ticket on Southwest or a 300 dollar ticket on American Airlines. Initially, you might jump on the 300 dollar ticket. But once you realize that you and your wife both have to check two bags, the kids check one each, the total price falls in favor of Southwest. And if if you have to change your ticket because Timmy got sick and you had to stay an extra day? Change ticket fees on Southwest are also free.

Make sure you take a look at Rick’s site if you’re ever on the fence between two tickets, and take a look at the booking engine while you’re out there.

Galley Gossip: Italy: Prepare for takeoff.

by Heather Poole on

“Want to go to Italy?” The husband asked.

“Umm…I don’t know…Yes. As in YES YES YES!” I exclaimed. And then I added, “But I’m not flying standby.” Because I wasn’t. And I was ready to stand my ground.

“Yeah, well me neither,” he said, and that was that.

When The Husband and I decided to go to Italy on our vacation last month, we actually purchased our tickets, even though I can fly standby for free. Why? Because we wanted to go to Italy, remember? We actually wanted to make it to the land of wine and cheese and olives and pasta and prosciutto served with a loaf of crusty bread.

What we didn’t want to do was get stuck sitting around an airport for days praying that two people wouldn’t show up for their flight. Oh no, we wanted to get fat from drinking wine and eating cheese and olives and pasta and prosciutto with a loaf of crusty bread in Venice, Rome, and Positano. Not from cheeseburgers and pizza at the JFK food court. And not only did we have plans to eat our way through Italy, we also planned on getting back home when the vacation came to an end. Oh the joys of stand-by travel…

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Because The Husband flies over 100,000 miles a year, we were able to use his frequent flier miles to bump us up to business class, where you can usually find me working. Did I happen to mention this was a dream trip, a trip we’ve been planning for years, a trip that was supposed to be our honeymoon trip five years ago things got screwed up and we wound up in Playa Blanca, a teeny tiny town near Zihautanejo. The war had just broken out and someone was afraid to travel too far from home for fear of getting stuck, since that same someone had gotten stuck in Zurich with her mother for two weeks immediately following 9/11.

Okay okay, so there are worse places to get stuck than Zurich, I know, but when you’re a flight attendant and make a flight attendant salary, it’s very easy to go broke on cappuccino and croissant alone. Though there are worse ways to go broke, I guess.

The best part about actually buying a ticket on a flight, opposed to standing-by for free, is that you get to choose your seat. A window seat, that’s what I chose, and that’s exactly what I got. Man, I couldn’t wait to get on that airplane. And sit. Not work. And watch movies. As others worked. While I sat. Not working. I did mention that this was my dream trip, right? Oh yeah, trust me, that’s part of the dream. I couldn’t wait to take off from JFK at dusk, my favorite time of day, and look out my window, camera in hand, from a business class seat. Not the jumpseat. I couldn’t wait to see a breathtaking view of New York City. Not the first class closet. Or the business class galley. Or the nasty coach carpet. Or the flight attendant sitting next to me. No offense to the flight attendant sitting next to me, whoever that flight attendant may happen to be. I couldn’t wait to….oh you get the picture. Speaking of pictures, here’s a few from our flight from New York to London, where we transferred to another flight that would take us to Venice.

Photo of the Day (06/19/08)

by Kent Wien on

St. Maarten is the greatest location in the world for aviation spotters, and we’ve featured a number of those pictures here. But this one from matt.hintsa stands out for me because of the timing of the crashing waves.

I’m dying to bring my camera to that beach someday. While I’ve been there a number of times, I’ve never left the airport, so my pictures were only from this perspective.

Well done, Matt!

Are you a Flickr user who’d like to share a travel related picture or two for our consideration? Submit it to Gadling’s Flickr group right now! We just might use it for our Photo of the Day!

Man with gun and ammuntion arrested in Canadian airport

by Grant Martin on

Traveling with my parents to New York City this past weekend, my father was stopped at the security screening because his toothpaste was too large. He thought that gels were okay but they were not. An innocent mistake, and after surrendering his Colgate he went on his merry way (to his soon to be canceled flight).

It’s pretty hard to find an excuse for carrying a handgun onto an airplane though. That’s exactly what a man in Calgary, Alberta tried yesterday when he was caught with the weapon in his carry on luggage when it went through security.

He was arrested without incident and charged with four counts of weapons related charges.

Details on the incident are still a little sketchy; there is no word on what the man’s motivations or plans were. I’m just glad that the guy operating the x-ray machine was on top of his monitor and saw the weapon go through security. We’ll let you know what happens.

New Delhi runway turns into a zoo

by Jamie Rhein on

The mix of animals, traffic and people in New Delhi is fascinating any day of the week. When I lived there, pulling up alongside an elephant at a traffic light did happen. Avoiding hitting the cows that meandered at the sides of the roads was a daily venture.

Once, our car grazed a cow just as it twitched its hind end towards traffic. When the side-view mirror was snapped off, my husband quipped, “It must have been in a reflective mood.”

There was one section where fruit bats the size of dogs hung upside down from trees, and another part where monkeys gathered in large groups. Camels also meandered through the neighborhood. Hiring one for a kid’s birthday party was standard.

Recently, New Delhi has become more zoo-like with the heavy rains. As animals are getting flooded out of their natural habitat homes, they’ve looked for higher ground and have found it at the New Delhi airport on the runways. Lizards, jackals and birds have shown up in large enough numbers that they’ve been removed to a wildlife sanctuary.

Just another reason for a flight delay. “Monitor lizard in the way. Please be patient; we’ll be taking off shortly.”

According to the article, this three to four-foot-long creature can create some significant damage to an airplane. I’ll say.