Thanksgiving is upon us, and The Weather Channel is just in time with their Airport Impact Map. While you may not want to look for fear of knowing how late your flight might really be, general airport delay information is always a plus. Also remember the FAA has a great map of the biggest airports nation wide and their delays at fly.faa.gov. Here is a preview of both reproduced below:
Virgin America delivered an early Holiday present to my inbox earlier this evening in the form of a promotion code for unlimited 25% off flights from November 26th through March 19th, 2008. It’s simple to use, and anyone is eligible as long as they have the code. Go and search for your flight, any flight at virginamerica.com and then enter the promotion code ELEVATE25 when prompted. 25% off the fare will then be deducted for all fairs even as you search the website. This code was sent out to at least all of eleVAte’s founding members, of which I am one, but was encouraged to be shared with as many people as we wanted, so here you go!
UPDATE: Virgin America just sent me another email this morning letting me know that they have extended this promotion through December 21st. This is good news since it was originally going to expire this Friday the 7th. This means you now have a few more weeks to take advantage of this great offer. If you liked this one though, keep Virgin’s free companion ticket offer in mind as well. That one still expires this Friday, so book it soon! The free companion ticket offer has no expired, but the one listed above is still good through 12/21/07!
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This seems like pretty basic stuff United is missing here. According to TravelGlitch.com, anyone who buys a $100 e-certificate off ebay or through some other manner, then has unlimited access to other certificates by only changing the URL they use.
That sounds a bit complicated, but lets break it down and see how it works. First, you buy a $100 e-certificate off ebay for around $10, and then are told to go to a specific URL to claim your reward. Well part of that URL is your unique certificate number. It turns out that the first 9 digits of the certificate always stay the same, and only the last 6 change. All you have to do is start out at the number of the certificate you purchased and start counting up by one. In 10 minutes of work TravelGlitch was able to find 5 valid certificate numbers that would have given them $500 in discounts.
From one perspective this is pretty awesome news, for a $10 investment you can get hundreds in discounts. But think about all the people who actually own these certificates but have not yet used them, only to find that their number has already been used once they do actually try to use it. One would think United would have foreseen these issues and built a website secure enough to make sure certificates actually go to those who own them, rather than those who just play with their URL a bit. United has to do something about this!
[Via TravelGlitch]
Yes you read that headline correctly, US Airways has a GOAL this holiday season of having 60% or its flights leave the gate on time. Of course that means a full 40% of flights wont leave within 15 minutes of their schedules departure. And that is just was US Air EXPECTS to happen.
This depressingly low goal was circulated in the Arizona based carrier’s employee newsletter as a background for their Holiday Hustle incentive program. The 60% ontime departure rate was one goal for which employees can be rewarded, the other is if only 7 bags per 10,000 passengers get lost. If both goals are completed employees will get a $100 bonus, if only one is completed they all get $50. Unfortunately for the employees, and given last year’s number, I have a feeling they wont be getting anything this year. Besides, I don’t think the $100 will motivate those in the position to actually influence whether those planes leave on time and those bags find the right way.
[Via Business Week]
I can’t believe it but it’s already that time of year again: Thanksgiving. Time for us to joyously stuff ourselves with turkey and then promptly drift off to sleep from the tryptophan. Unfortunately for 20 million Americans, including myself, we have to fly to our final destination this year in order to get our fill of poultry, which means having to brave the mess that is our airport system. While traveling around the busiest travel days is always a challenge, I’ve compiled a list of the 5 tips you can follow to make your trip a little less painful, and that will hopefully get you to your destination in one piece and stress free.
I don’t know why everyone doesn’t use this service, available from every airline these days. There are so many advantages and so may disadvantages to not doing it. By checking in online you can make sure you have a seat assignment, very important for very full Thanksgiving flights. If you only have carry on luggage, you can skip the first step at the airport completely, meaning you only have to deal with security wait times. Many airlines will even give you extra bonus miles for checking in before you get to the airport.
You should always be at the airport at least two hours in advance for Thanksgiving travel, but let’s be honest, sometimes that just doesn’t happen. The FAA has a neat little feature that lets you check security line wait times online, before you walk into a three hour trap. You can check by day of the week and time, but remember this is
Thanksgiving, which means airports will certainly be busier than most wait times indicate. To get the best approximation, check the wait time on Friday evenings, when airports are the most crowded during the regular week.
3) Take Public Transportation -
This may be the last thing you want to do when heading out for Thanksgiving, but it might just be worth it. Airport parking lots frequently fill up this time of year, and the later you get to the airport, the less parking spots you will find. The last thing you want to happen is to be at the airport and miss your flight because you couldn’t get a spot. If you have to drive, reserve a spot in advance at one of the many lots near the airport; they can then shuttle you to the right terminal (Try carparknet.com, airportparkingreservations.com, airportdiscountparking.com, parkingaccess.com, or theparkingspot.com.) If you have a long way to go to the airport and are staying at a hotel the night before, check with the staff as they may let you park your car for the duration of your trip.
The worst way to start your vacation is to get your destination only to be left without a set of wheels. Rental car companies always count on no-shows and so overbook their inventory even worse than airlines. Call ahead to confirm your reservation so they know you will actually be there. You may also want to ask about express check-in options, because the lines of people who don’t have cars waiting for them can slow you down very quick.
Probably the most unconventional tip on this list, but also the most effective. Try kindness first. If you are late for your flight try asking an airline representative to cut to the front of the line and pray they take pity on you. If you find yourself bumped from a flight with no volunteers forthcoming (a definite possibility on Thanksgiving), kindness probably won’t cut it. Instead sweeten the airline’s deal a little by adding your own incentives to the offer. Maybe $400 won’t do it for that one last volunteer needed, but will $450, will $500? How much do you want that seat on that plane? Also see tip #1, you could have avoided this whole mess if you just checked in earlier and gotten yourself a seat assignment.
The moral of all these tips are plan ahead, and get there early. Every part of the travel process will take longer this Thanksgiving, thanks to record numbers of people traveling, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few good ways to better prepare yourself and your family. The more time you give yourself, the better chance you have to correct anything that does go wrong, so don’t wait until the last minute! With any luck and these tips, you will indeed arrive on time for that big fat Turkey, stuffing and oh so delicious gravy.
The New York Times is running a piece today about merger talk between the number 2 and number 3 airlines: United and Delta. The latest news was spawned by Pardus Capital Management, which owns about a 2.6 percent stake in Delta. According to Pardus, the combined airline would create about $585 million in savings, not to mention creating the world’s biggest airline.
The stimulus for this letter to Delta management seems to be the record rapid rise in fuel prices. Any money the majors may have been making over the past few years will be completely wiped out it seems by these huge price increases. Pardus obviously assumes that such a massive combined airline would then be able to reduce capacity to a degree that prices would rise considerably, and revenue along with them. This is a pretty good assumption, as one less major carrier would reduce the competition on many routes over night, and it would take low cost carriers a while to adapt.
The letter also analyzes potential other merger prospects, but still identifies a Delta-United union (which would be a pure stock transaction) as the best fit. A combination with Northwest would provide the best cost savings at over $1.5 billion annually, but would not result in a significantly larger network. I wrote a post a while ago on a Northwest-Delta merger and came to the same conclusion: don’t do it. Pardus also took a look at Continental and found that costs would actually rise $171 million a year.
We’ve known that Delta has been looking for acquisitions for some time now, but a letter from a larger shareholder such as Pardus may push them a little harder. That combined with the current price environment may mean we could see movement sometime soon on this. As always, the politics of labor unions and the airline industry will play a factor here, so we will have to wait and see.
Well news from JetBlue hasn’t been so great of late, what with their stock hitting all time lows, and the departure of long time CFO John Harvey. But all is not lost thankfully as today they’ve put out a press release announcing new service between Orlando and Santo Domingo, DR.
This newest route is the latest in a slew of new service announcements from Florida. It seems that with the delicate political situation around schedules at JFK, JetBlue doesn’t want to add any more fuel to the fire. The beneficiaries of this have been Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando, which will see six other routes added as well in the coming months.
Also of note in this announcement is the fact the route will be operated using the E190, the first time that aircraft will be used outside the US by JetBlue. It certainly makes sense to use a smaller aircraft for what will probably be a low volume route for JetBlue, but also indicates they are now more confident in their new aircraft.
Here are the nitty gritty details: service starts on March 6th of next year, with introductory fares starting at $79 each way, then raising to between $99 and $349 each way under normal operation. For now the flight will operate once daily between MCO and SDQ.