Obama administration wants higher airline taxes

| May 28, 2013

Hard to believe that the already high price of air travel (20% is already in taxes) could go up another $14 per flight. May 27, 2013 — Another airfare increase may be on the way. But this time It has nothing to do with the airlines. The Obama administration has proposed raising the taxes on [...]

Flying with frequent flyer miles

| May 9, 2013

An article in Thursday’s WSJ highlighted airline loyalty programs and just how easy it was to book a frequent flyer seat. The data collected by Switchfly Inc, looked for 2 seats on 14 round trip dates between June and October. The regular survey determined which airline made it the easiest to get the seat when [...]

Losing your smartphone, e-reader, tablet or notebook computer

| April 28, 2012

Airlines say they are warehousing hundreds of iPads and other tablet computers and e-readers left behind by travelers. Carriers try to reunite the devices with their owners but are often thwarted by the lack of ID tags, password protection and Apple Inc.’s reluctance to track down owners based on serial numbers. – WSJ   Scott [...]

How important is early boarding and securing carry on space?

| July 30, 2011

I read an aviation/travel article by Scott McCartney last week that reminded me of a post I made in June which dealt with booking flights and some of the changes we are all facing in air travel – well perhaps not elite travelers? From the sound of things, we’re in for a few more changes, [...]

Thoughts on the ‘doing it yourself’ of booking travel

| June 19, 2011

A friend of mine and I discussed buying tickets for a couple of upcoming trips which included flights and rental cars this past week and neither one of us were convinced we picked up the cheapest tickets or were able to find decent rates for renting a car in July. We bounced our shopping sites [...]

Fatigue cracking on Southwest planes is a problem

| April 3, 2011

Citizen journalism was alive and well (‘alive’ being the appropriate word) this weekend as an emergency landing was made by a Southwest jet in Yuma Arizona. Shawna MalviniRedden, a blogger at The Bluest Muse, ‘tweeted’ comments and photos. Shortly after take off the Boeing 737 had a hole 5 foot long and 1 foot wide [...]

Honor Flights: Great job American Airlines

| September 13, 2010

The American Airlines video brought back the memory of our “bus” Honor trip to Washington DC earlier this year. Great to know they support our heroes in this way. Thank to AA as well for their appearance at EAA Airventure and getting Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band to and from his tribute shows [...]

How do airlines stack up when it comes to fuel efficiency?

| August 12, 2010

For personal transportation miles-per-gallon watchers, like many VW TDI drivers I know, an article in Thursday’s WSJ that translated US based airlines fuel efficiency into automotive MPG standards, might be of interest. In the past, frugal flyers may have looked at the numbers in order to save a buck, but now more and more travelers [...]

Less inclusive airline travel and fees for additional services

| April 29, 2010

It has become challenging to fly commercial airlines in recent year, especially since 9/11. Not only has the process of going through most airports become time consuming with all the additional security precautions, but the airlines themselves have made changes which most agree have become irritating to down right miserable for passengers, I’m thinking about [...]

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.