This one wasn’t much of a mystery to many of you. It’s the very unusual Punta Cana airport in the Dominican Republic. It probably didn’t help that I blogged about my trip down there. Unfortunately we were just passing through, but I can tell you that the airport looked nice.
Congratulations to Ryan, who guessed it in just 40 minutes.
Join Kent at Cockpit Chronicles which takes you along on each of his trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.
Because airlines routinely overbook flights to insure against no-shows, some passengers must get bumped from their flight to one later. Still, only about 1 out of every 1,000 passengers gets bumped, and nine of the ten that get bumped do so voluntarily.
Over at the San Francisco Chronicle, Ed Perkins offers the 8 things you need to know about getting bumped, including the fact that volunteering your seat may be getting riskier:
“When airlines started routine overbooking, getting bumped was no big deal. Load factors (percentage of occupied seats) in the 60s meant travelers who volunteered to get off could find replacement seats easily, often on a flight only an hour or two later. Now, with load factors in the 70s and 80s, finding those replacement seats could take days, not just hours.”
The article also warns against volunteering to be bumped unless you know in advance what you’re getting in return: “If possible, get a firm future seat commitment before you accept any vouchers or free trips. And watch the fine print on any voucher or free trip an airline offers: Make sure it’s valid long enough that you can really use it, and make sure there aren’t any undue restrictions on its use.”
As a general rule, airlines are usually pretty good about compensating those who are bumped from flights, as acting any differently would be horrible PR. But everyone’s trying to cut costs these days, and it’s best not to assume that an airline will be generous to you just because they should.
Whole thing here.
Also see: Gadling’s guide to getting bumped.
If you’ve been hanging on to a cache of frequent flyer miles or are trying to burn them (due to an impending merger, for example), I’ve found a great way to use them up:
Around the world tickets for 140,000 miles.
Using a special fare created by airline alliances, you can take advantage of an entire network of carriers to work your way across the globe. So you can use a combination of services to bounce from one city to another to another around the world.
Market prices of these tickets could easily reach into multiple thousands of dollars.
The requirements, at least, per Skyteam’s rules, state that you can stop a maximum of six times, three times max. per continent, for a minimum of 10 days and maximum of 1 year. That’s a lot of combinations though.
I’ve been thinking about the ideal itinerary for myself bearing the requirements in mind and have tentatively decided on the following routing:
Detroit – Paris – Johannesburg – Dubai – Mumbai – Beijing – Sydney – Detroit
I’m starting to save miles now.
You’ve always dreamt of flying out to a remote lodge in the middle of nowhere in Alaska, but you’re a bit concerned about the pilots. Are they really good enough to get you into that 1000-foot strip? Wouldn’t it be nice to know just how these aviators rank?
Well, the May Day Fly-In and Airshow in Valdez, Alaska has a bush pilot competition that ranks pilots and their planes in their ability to takeoff and land in the shortest possible distances. These airplanes are highly modified to handle the tightest gravel bars Alaska has to offer. And their pilots know how to get the most out of them.
If you’re looking for some experienced pilots to take you to a great lodge, you can’t go too wrong with the Claus family. Dad, Paul, accomplished the shortest takeoff at 19 feet, and his 18-year old son Jay scored a 39-foot takeoff, which was good for 4th place in his class. The Claus family own and operate the Ultima Thule Lodge.
Here’s 18 year old Jay’s 39 foot takeoff:
Join Kent at Cockpit Chronicles which takes you along on each of his trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.
This year’s Open Skies agreement, the deregulating measure slated to open up competition in the transatlantic market, is set to unfurl at the end of next month.
Airlines from the left and right side of the pond are already preparing for the demand. Traditional airports like London‘s Heathrow will now be opened up to all bidders (depending on available slots), which in turn will open the door for smaller carriers to break into a formerly tight market.
On the surface, this looks good for passengers. Any increase in supply should result in a lower overall price, right? That’s what we’re hoping for. What we don’t want to happen is for the recent spike in oil prices to counteract the new supply, which is unfortunately what many industry analysts are predicting. There is still hope, however. If we could get some major Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) involved in the fray, supply would go through the roof and the legacy carriers would be forced to compete in a fair market.
It’s kind of like the Southwest Airlines effect in the US. Whever SWA starts service to a hub, a miniature fare war starts among the carriers and prices to that destination equalize. Now all we need is a transatlantic discount carrier to do the same thing. Any volunteers?
Read more at a related BBC article here.