British, American and Iberia Airlines to sign cooperation agreement

by Grant Martin on

The UK’s British Airways, American Airlines and Spain’s Iberia this morning announced that they would soon be cooperating on flights between North America and Europe while they would also start to collaborate and expand on other routes together in the Oneworld Alliance.

Are the airlines merging? No. But aren’t they already all part of the Oneworld alliance? Yes, they are. What the airlines have agreed to is tighter collaboration among their operations. Ground operations, codeshares and mileage programs will be better integrated to ensure seamless operation among carriers (read: keep passengers hooked in the alliance), while costs and overlapping spending will be reduced.

It’s important to note that the airlines will continue to operate independently, similar to the Continental and United collaboration announced earlier this year. What’s not clear is whether they will be collaborating on pricing. As Virgin Atlantic, the main competition, sulks about the conglomerate having over 50% of the landing slots at Heathrow, many have noted the potential for monopolistic pricing among the new bedfellows.

So will prices actually go through the roof? Technically, less competition in the market suggests that prices may have the potential to rise — but there are still plenty of carriers and entry points into the EU. American, British and Iberia may soon have a good handhold on Heathrow (Sorry, Virgin), but Amsterdam, Gatwick and Frankfurt are still wide open, so with a little bit of creative routing you don’t have to call of your summer vacation.

Several Oneworld airlines are filing for antitrust immunity to get the ball rolling on the cooperation agreement — should this get approved, expect to see small changes in operations over the course of the year.

Cheap air travel options if the tropics suit you

by Jamie Rhein on

What I really want is a cheap airfare to New York City from Columbus, Ohio. Since that’s not on my horizon, I’m taking an Amtrak train from Cleveland and a Greyhound bus back. For adults traveling with children, both offer a discount that can’t be beat.

If I were to head to the Caribbean, the Bahamas, or Bermuda, I might find different options that would put a cheaper airplane ticket in my hand. According to a recent “Practical Traveler“ in the New York Times,’ there are tickets for a bargain to these tropical locations.

Check out American Airlines, JetBlue. and Air France for the deals. Perhaps, you’ll be lucky and an airport near where you live will have one of those bargain flights to a place you’d like to go. Going to Cancún out of JFK airport in New York City is only a few dollars more than a trip to Denver, for example. Denver’s nice, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a destination for a holiday.

Yes, I did go to Denver myself two years ago and considered it part of a summer vacation, but there weren’t any hours relaxing by a pool.

One day, I might be looking to head to the tropics, but for now, it sure would be great to find a deal to New York. My son who is six years-old thinks Greyhound will be swell.

Also, an airline to keep an eye on for a travel deal, according to the article, is Southwest. As the article points out, Southwest has not offered a travel deal for awhile.

Luggage fiasco at JFK International Airport vexes American Airlines

by Jeffrey White on

American Airline staff in Terminal 8 at JFK International Airport are still sorting through a pile of left luggage after a computer mishap yesterday derailed the terminal’s baggage system.

Thousands of customers abandoned hope of retrieving their bags, according to the Associated Press, and instead left the airport with the hope that AA would right the problem and deliver their luggage soon.

The error caused flight delays to ripple through Terminal 8 throughout the day yesterday.

The computer error first surfaced early in the morning yesterday, when the software that reads the bar code on each checked bag failed. After that employees began having to sort baggage by hand, and soon became overwhelmed by the volume, the AP says.

AA tried to delay incoming flights up to 90 minutes to relieve the stress on baggage handlers.

Some bags were diverted to LaGuardia airport and put on other flights, the AP says.

In response to the computer failure, AA waved its extra baggage charge for passengers checking fewer than three bags.

Passenger strips nude, tries to open an emergency exit door mid-flight

by Iva Skoch on

It seems that we have been averaging about one crazy passenger a week lately. And those are just the ones who make it into the press!

You typically read about the in-flight drunkards, angry folks, and people with out-of-control children. But I can’t remember the last time we had a ‘misbehaving nudist’ story.

The AP reports that an American Airlines flight from Boston to Los Angeles was diverted to Oklahoma City yesterday after a passenger emerged from the bathroom naked. He then tried to open an emergency exit door before being subdued by other passengers, specifically the members (no pun intended) of a professional soccer team.

Members of the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (and others on the plane) saw the erratic passenger near an exit door, grabbed him, and placed tie wraps on the man.

American Flight 725, a Boeing 757, arrived in Oklahoma City at 1:35 p.m. CDT, and said nudist was taken into custody in Oklahoma City and placed under psychiatric evaluation.

Makes you wonder what he was doing in the bathroom naked. Some sort of mile-high club self-initiation?

American Airlines flight cancelled due to booing passengers

by Grant Martin on

People love to get angry and take sides when things turn south during air travel. If you don’t believe me, go to Flyertalk.com, click on ANY forum, click on ANY thread, and you’ll probably see a labor vs. management or passenger vs. airline dispute.

These disputes come into particular focus during delays. Whether mechanical or weather related, it always seems like there are a dozen armchair pilots sitting in the crowd saying something like “It’s just a landing gear locking pin! Who needs that? I’m going to miss my connection!”

Just last week in Providence I sat next to a guy howling because the weather was fine in Providence and there was a weather delay. What he didn’t realize was that there was a ring of thunderstorms around the airport causing traffic. Not right above us.

Passengers on a recent American Airlines flight were so fired up from a delay in their crew showing up that they actually booed the employees when they boarded the plane. The pilots and flight attendants were so miffed that they canceled the flight, stranding passengers in Miami overnight.

Now who is the villain here? Nobody deserves to be booed at, especially when you’re just doing your job and connected in from a late flight. But as a rule, passengers don’t really know the full details of what’s going on so we can expect them to act like a fussy mob. Especially if your job is to deal with passengers all day. Should you have really canceled the flight?

It’s a close one, but I’m going with the passengers on this one.

[Via Gothamist]