You have to hand it to Climber Sterling, a Danish low cost carrier. When they found out that their competitor, Norwegian Air Shuttle was launching a massive fare sale, instead of letting consumers go out and buy the dirt cheap tickets they scooped them all up. Using a series of fake names and a lot of keyboard stokes, the airline was able to purchase over 650 seats, successfully preventing hundreds of travelers from getting in on the deal and in all probability, sending some business back to Sterling.
It’s a clever trick, but highly noncompetitive and kind of low, and the airline’s CEO officially apologized to its competitor, saying that the employees acted independent of the company’s knowledge. It’s worth noting that two of the airline’s board members were also in on the operation, so one wonders how sincere that apology was.
Think that this has ever happened in US?%Gallery-76818%
It’s an FAA violation to interfere with the duties of a crew member. So please, for the love of Gaga, when a flight attendant asks you to get undressed, get undressed! And don’t argue about it.
Recently on an eight hour flight from London to New York, Lady Gaga’s legs began to swell due to the restrictive clothing she wore on board. According to The Sun, when she began developing early signs of deep vein thrombosis, the cabin crew asked Lady Gaga to change out of her clothes – black and yellow tape – as well as a pair of blue platform shoes. Apparently LG was miffed about ditching the heels designed by an old pal, the late Alexander McQueen, which she wore in honor of him.
Am I surprised by any of this? Not at all. Crazy Gaga has been quoted saying she would rather die than have her fans not see her in a pair of high heels. Well the woman almost got her wish. Obviously Miss G does not realize just how serious DVT is, especially when wearing uncomfortable duct tape with snug platform shoes on a long haul flight!
I’ll admit it, I’m a pretty big fan of the recording artist, so I’m quite familiar with her theatrical taste in fashion. And the thought of Lady G actually donning a pair of synthetic, airline, knee-socks is just not right. But research has shown that wearing flight socks can reduce the risk of developing DVT by 90%. Don’t gag, Gaga. If anyone can make an ugly pair of compression socks look sexy at 30,000 feet it’s you!The most interesting thing about Lady Gaga’s outfit is the fact that she needed help removing it. Of course the first thing I thought when I read this was, how in the world did the crew decide who would help her undress? Did they draw straws or did they go by seniority? Because I can totally see a crew bickering over whose turn it is to spin Lady Gaga around in the first class galley in order to unwind the yellow and black tape, which I’m sure looked stunning. For an outfit made of tape.
Speaking of strange outfits in flight, flight attendants should not wear pink. EVER. Nor should they wear little weird hats on the side of their heads. At least not to work. Although something tells me Lady Gaga might disagree.
Now flight attendants are on board primarily for the safety of passengers. This includes handling what could possibly turn into a serious health concern in flight. I hope Lady Gaga realizes this and doesn’t resent the cabin crew for looking after her. Certainly she must know that flight attendants are trained to deal with these kinds of situations, that we’re professionals who take pride in our job, and that we’ll do whatever we have to do for the comfort and safety of everyone on board. It’s just…who would have thought this would one day come to include removing duct tape and designer shoes from a celebrity passenger!
Rumor at 36,000-feet is that Virgin America will announce its long-delayed service to Chicago later this month, but that’s not all that the low-cost airline has in store for its domestic travelers.
I caught up with Virgin America CEO David Cush via online chat onboard my flight from Los Angeles to Boston earlier this week and learned about a few more cities the airline has in the pipeline.
Cush said he’ll likely have some news for flight attendants later this week about new planes and new routes. While the general public will have to wait until a bit later this year, in-flight sources suggest to me that Dallas, Orlando and Atlanta might be the next target cities.
But here’s the best news from my main cabin seat: Cush told us that Virgin America is considering service to Canada saying, “We certainly plan on expanding to Canada at some point (maybe sooner rather than later) and are very excited about it.”
No clues yet on which city the airline will service, but among the strongest Canadian candidates, our money is on either Toronto or Whitehorse.%Gallery-87349%
Before you go, be sure to check out Episode 4 of Gadling’s Travel Talk TV, which features good and bad pilots, Holi, and a sofa in an aquarium!
If I could tell you just one thing, it would be this: sign up for free fare alerts. Time and again, I see articles whose main point is to crown one search engine-Kayak, or Travelocity, or Momondo or whatever-as the best bet to find a low fare. But usually, the price differences in these “bake off” comparisons are small potatoes, if they exist at all, because all airfare sites pretty much use the same fare data provided by the airlines. That said, meta search engines such as Kayak and Tripadvisor will do a better job at finding the relatively few fares that the airlines sell only on their own sites.
There is no one “magic bullet” airfare search site! The only sites that perform better on international fares are those selling “consolidator” fares, but these often come with caveats and extra restrictions, such as “miss your flight and you have to buy a whole new ticket” (you get what you pay for).
The big savings come from realizing that airfares can have wild and sudden swings, like stocks on the S&P 500. You may not have time to check them hour-by-hour or day-by-day, but airfare-tracking sites do, and will alert you when a fare goes down, sometimes by hundreds of dollars, either to a level you specify or by a percentage amount.
Don’t just sign up for one, because they all work a bit differently. Be aware that most don’t include Southwest Airlines fares or promo code fares (airfarewatchdog.com does, although it tracks far fewer routes than the others listed above).
And do sign up for the airlines’ frequent flyer programs and email alerts. They’ll often send out promo code and airline-site-only fare deals.
Also, if you’re searching on your own, do not forsake online travel agencies! Way too often I hear people exclaim, “I only buy directly from the airline sites.” But what if you can save $100 by flying out on Delta and back on United? Who’s going to tell you this? Delta? United? Not a chance. Travelocity, Orbitz, Cheap Tickets, Expedia and other online travel agencies are going to tell you this.
You already know that being flexible in your travel dates saves money. Problem is, most people are not flexible in their travel dates. Even so, Travelocity, Cheaptickets, and Orbitz have the best flexible date search functions (check out this helpful chart).
Is there a magic day to buy? A lot of sales pop up on Monday night and Tuesday, but the fare you’re looking for could go down at any moment, so if you just search once a week on Tuesday, you’re missing out.
Traveling at the last minute? You usually have two options: pay through the nose, or use Priceline.com or Hotwire.com. Priceline’s name your own price feature is a super way to snag a good last minute fare.
Oops, that was more than 500 words, but just by a bit. One more tip: keep your seatbelt fastened whenever you’re in your seat and you’ll enjoy your fare savings even more.
George Hobica is the founder of Airfarewatchdog™, the most inclusive source of airfare deals that have been researched and verified by experts. Airfarewatchdog compares fares from all airlines and includes the increasing number of airline-site-only and promo code fares.
Emotional support service animals are service animals that provide emotional support to an individual with a mental health related disability. On most airlines, documentation must be provided 48 hours before departure to permit emotional support animals to travel in the passenger cabin.
I’m all for emotional support animals on board when it comes to calming passengers who suffer from anxiety. What I have a problem with are passengers who bring their pets on board and then claim they are service animals in order to keep them on their laps. Don’t get me wrong, I like animals. I really do. I have one at home. His name is Gatsby and he’s a seventeen pound Maine Coon cat. But not everyone on the airplane gets excited about sitting next to the passenger who has a dog wearing a dress on their lap. A lot of people are allergic to pet dander, so it’s my job to remind passengers that their pets must remain inside their carriers during a flight. The only pets that are allowed out of the carrier (on my airline) are celebrity animals (for real) and service animals. That’s it. Case closed.
While doing a little research, I came across an interesting bit of information. “Did you know there are horses that are considered emotional support service animals?” I asked my mother who is also a flight attendant for the same airline I work for.
“Not horses. Small ponies,” she corrected. Before I could even comment, my mother who was now laughing said, “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t you call a couple airlines and tell them you’d like to bring a small horse on board in main cabin. See what they say.”
Yeah. Okay. Maybe later.
Recently during boarding on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago, I walked into the first class cabin and spotted something I could not believe. On top of a tiny petite woman sat the largest emotional support lap dog I’d ever seen. Shaggy and well-behaved, he was almost as big as the owner who did not have the proper paperwork to prove that the dog was in fact allowed out of its carrier. Oh sure the dog was cute, but half the cabin claimed to be allergic to it and no one wanted to sit by it. Finally, when it became apparent that we weren’t going to depart until the situation had been sorted out, a man reluctantly agreed to sit by the oversized, but very sweet, dog. Eventually an agent appeared who confirmed he had seen the dog’s paperwork, and then quickly he shut the aircraft door and waved goodbye.
Later on during the flight I pulled the beverage cart to the front of the cabin, and as I passed by a passenger, an adult man sitting in an aisle seat, I couldn’t help but notice a very large sock monkey he cradled in his arms. O-kay, I thought to myself. Then I wondered if maybe, just maybe, it was an emotional support sock monkey. Hey, ya never know. Finally when I got to his seat, I smiled, asked what he’d like to drink, and then tried to make small talk.
“Cute monkey,” I said, because it was kind of cute. It wore a flannel shirt, corduroy pants, and wire rim glasses just like the passenger. “He looks like you.”
The passenger held up the monkey and giggled, but it wasn’t a crazy giggle, not a I’m-a-grown-man-cradling-a-sock-monkey kind of giggle. It was just a regular old laugh. Still, I wanted to know more, so I asked, “Did you make his clothes?”
“She did,” he said, nodding to the woman sitting in the middle seat who was now looking at me and smiling brightly.
Back in the galley I told the crew about the man with the monkey, and as I did so I cradled my own imaginary monkey that I unknowingly began to pet. This alerted a few of my coworkers who exclaimed, “He’s petting it!”
“No!” I dropped the imaginary monkey on the floor.
“Just tell me he’s not spanking it?” asked the joker in our group.
I laughed. “He’s just holding it.”
“That’s okay,” said my colleague who then went on to tell me about the time she asked a passenger to put her cat back in its carrier, only to find out that the cat wasn’t real. It was stuffed. “It was breathing,” she exclaimed. “I kid you not, its little tummy went up and down.”
As we pulled the pickup cart back up the aisle, I noticed the passenger with the monkey was not in his seat. I assumed he’d gone to the lav. What I found in his place surprised me. A big yellow banana sat straight up in the chair, right beside the monkey, and both had been buckled in tightly, which was good, I guess, considering the fasten seat belt sign was on.
When I told I told a friend about the monkey man, he seemed intrigued. Then he asked, “Do ya think if I dress it up I can bring an emotional support case of beer on board my next flight?”
Uh, no.
Of course just when you think you’ve seen it all, something else happens. Take for instance the time I came upon a passenger and his fluffy little dog standing in line to use the lavatory. “Sir, I’m sorry, but your dog can’t be out of its carrier,” I told him.
“He has to use the bathroom.” It was said matter of fact.
“Oh. Okay,” I said, and then slowly walked away thinking, bathroom? How?
“Oh my goodness, how cute!” I heard a coworker shriek. I spun around and saw my coworker down on one knee petting the dog. When she stood up, she said, “He’s so adorable, but he needs to be in a carrier.”
Again, matter of fact, the passenger said, “He has to use the bathroom.”
“Oh. Okay,” she said, as if what he had just said were the most logical thing in the world. The two of us locked eyes and didn’t say a word.
When the man and the dog entered the lavatory, we, the crew, discussed the situation. None of us had a clue as to how the tiny dog could possibly use the toilet, so we weren’t exactly sure what to do. Finally I decided to take matters into my own hands and just ask. I was curious. We all were. When the two suspects exited the lav and returned to their seats, I followed. Turns out the passenger placed a special “wee wee” pad on the lavatory floor that he discarded after it was used.
“Oh. Okay,” I said, as if it all made perfect sense. Immediately I returned to the galley to report what I had learned and to discuss if that was…well…even allowed on board. I mean…well….forget it…just remember this story next time you go into the lav without your shoes on.
Now say hello to Shebang, a celebrity dog I’ve never met…