When it comes to airline fees, how much worse can it get? Much worse, apparently.
From the monthly archives:
July 2008
The number of full-blown, reportable in-flight altercations may be near an historic low. But there there’s no shortage of abusive passengers. In fact, there may even be more of them.
The busy and chaotic summer travel season is almost over. If you’re as happy about that as I am, then you’ll love this week’s lineup of stories. You know it’s almost August when airline passengers are planning their revenge.
Ponder these two numbers. Travel on all roads and streets fell by 3.7 percent in May, the latest month for which data is available, as compared with same month in 2007. And gas prices have declined for the 11th straight day, dipping below $4 a gallon.
Iden hunkers down at an exhibit at the Orlando Science Center. He has a few years before being deployed. We hope.
The airlines don’t want you to read this. They’d rather you fork one of the new surcharges they’ve dreamed up during the last few weeks.
Chan Hoe Yip booked a room in Bakersfield, Calif., and Williams, Ariz., through the Days Inn Web site. Then again, maybe he didn’t. The reservation ends us being two nights in Bakersfield and none in Williams, and now Yip is being told there’s no refund for the extra night. Is Yip the victim of a bad Web site?
Why can’t airlines make money? No, it’s not high fuel prices (otherwise, most of Europe’s airlines would have gone belly-up long ago). Bad management? Maybe. Then again, it could just be a lack of common sense.
Time for a little reality check. Everyone is screaming about the unprecedented rise in airfares. Well, everyone is wrong.
Philip Gibicar missed his flight to from Bakersfield, Calif., to Phoenix. He thought US Airways might put him on the next flight or, at worst, charge him a modest change fee. Instead, it demanded an additional $2,350.
The airline industry is contracting right before our eyes. But your next trip doesn’t have to be affected. This week’s issue is filled with survival strategies that will help you pull through.
Payphones may be an endangered species, but they are not unprofitable. Not if they’re in places frequented by travelers.
It’s a long wait at The High In The Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride at Universal Studios, and besides, Erysse isn’t tall enough yet. She’d rather play.
There’s got to be a better way to handle all of the negativity of summer travel than voodoo dolls, recreational drugs and firearms. So I asked a few experts to tell me how they’d cope with the travelin’ blues.
Susan Null books two business-class tickets on British Airways using her Alaska Airlines frequent flier miles. But when she checks her reservation, she finds nothing. Alaska Airlines says her booking has “slipped through the cracks.” Can they retrieve it in time for her trip?
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