Dodging a storm: Airline fee waiver policies vary
February 10, 2010 ·
A snowstorm is heading for Washington, D.C., and you’ve got a flight scheduled to see the monuments, do some shopping in trendy Georgetown and visit relatives in the suburbs. Your departing airline tells you it will waive its fee if you choose to proactively rebook a flight that has yet to be canceled. You’re all [...]
Delta Air Lines, US Airways can swap slots
February 10, 2010 ·
The government says Delta Air Lines and US Airways can swap takeoff and landing slots at airports in New York and Washington, but there’s a catch: They must sell some of the slots to protect competition. A slot is an interval of time during which an airline can takeoff or land its aircraft at an [...]
New airline flights to Alaska may lower fares
February 8, 2010 ·
Travel industry officials say more airline flights to Alaska this summer may boost competition and result in lower fares to some Lower 48 cities. The Anchorage Daily News says Continental, United and US Airways all plan to add daily nonstop service between Anchorage and Portland, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia. From Fairbanks, Delta plans a [...]
Leave an item on an airplane? Here’s what to do
January 23, 2010 ·
Let’s face it. We’ve all done it. In part because travel can be so disorienting, it’s easy to disembark a plane without all of our “personal belongings” as the flight attendants refer to them in their deplaning announcements (are there “impersonal belongings”? how about we just call them our belongings). Judging from anecdotal evidence, most [...]
Air travel frustration spikes with fees, security
January 20, 2010 ·
Feeling nickel-and-dimed, frisked and scanned, crowded and hustled just to get from point A to point B, air travelers seem to be reaching new levels of frustration and unhappiness. Already on edge after the failed Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253, they’re dealing with ever-changing security measures that the Department of Homeland Security says [...]
US Airways raises online baggage fees
January 15, 2010 ·
US Airways is raising baggage fees for travelers who check their luggage online. The higher online fees match those set in recent days by Delta, Continental, and United. US Airways said on Friday it will charge $23 to check the first bag online, and $32 to check the second. The fees to check bags at [...]
Fewer flights, rising fares at some big airports
December 16, 2009 ·
Air travel isn’t as quick and cheap as it used to be from some big-city airports. Airlines scrambling to reverse their financial free-fall by dropping unprofitable routes has left travelers with fewer nonstop options and, sometimes, higher fares on remaining flights. Blame the recession and airlines that added too many flights to too many places [...]
