Jaunted - Tag: Politics

'Tarmac Delay' Groups Push for Newer, More Expensive Airline Regulations

Omri — 2011-06-03T14:55:08-05:00

Tarmac delay laws have been a predictable disaster. As we explained at painful and indignant length in the leadup to the new rules, it makes no sense to incentivize airlines not to have public relations nightmares, since as companies trying to make money they already have that incentive.

Long tarmac delays happen because airplanes have to wait in line to take off, and if you return to the gate you lose your place in line and get stuck on the ground indefinitely. So pilots gamble on staying in line and riding out delays rather than returning to their gates. Creating rules that would bankrupt airlines for making those gambles—which is what tarmac delay fines do—would only lead to more cancellations and longer delays, we said.

So obvious were these scenarios that bureacrats could only defend the rules by promising airlines that regulators would "rarely impose the maximum penalties." Pause for a second and let that sink in. When pushed on how they were passing a bunch of really counterproductive new rules, bureaucrats resorted to telling airlines to have faith that the rules wouldn't get enforced. Since that's really stupid—airlines aren't going to rely on the good will of a person whose job it is to fine them—cancellations and longer delays immediately spiked. And now, because the groups who push regulations are apparently filled with shrill, insufferable busy bodies who have nothing better to do than ruin travel for the rest of us, it's happening all over again.

Get Your Luggage Late and Uncle Sam May Refund the Baggage Fee

kjb — 2011-04-19T08:34:52-05:00

At this point we’re all pretty much accustomed to those pesky airline baggage fees, but that doesn't me we have to accept them. In the past, Uncle Sam has wanted to stick his nose into airline business regarding these charges, but it looks like the latest idea might actually be something that we can totally support.

The Department of Transportation isn’t really complaining about airline baggage fees—although deep down we sure they hate them too—but they are sick of the fees when your baggage doesn’t even arrive as promised. They’re proposing that the airlines refund your baggage fee if your roller, duffel, or steamer trunk doesn’t arrive at the baggage belt when you do.

The Latest Government Budget Might Just Increase Your Airplane Ticket Cost

kjb — 2011-02-22T16:21:30-05:00

We try not to get too wrapped up in politics over here, because we know that next to more “adult” topics, the internet is all about people expressing their thoughts and opinions when it comes to the highs and lows of government. However, we had to share a little bit of information regarding the cost of future airfare.

Here in the United States it looks like the latest federal budget might just hit travelers where it hurts the most—right in the wallet. Those dreaded “passenger facility charges” would head upwards by a few bucks. Right now they’re $4.50 per flight, but if the new budget goes through they’d increase to $7.

The Coming Effects of Election 2010 on Tourism and Travel

Omri — 2010-11-03T16:00:12-05:00

For better or worse, last night was a tidal wave election, with consequences that are going to be felt pretty much everywhere. We do our best to keep travel politics to an absolute minimum here, both because it's not as much fun as sex travel or celebrity travel or even green travel, and because it rarely changes based on who's in charge, so who cares. But elections matter, and so here are the essentials of what you need to be on the lookout for in next session's Congress.

The most immediate and noticeable impact will be on the airline industry. Since 2007, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has been chaired by regulation-happy Minnesota Representative Jim Oberstar. He in turn used that position to pretty much constantly screw things up and/or waste folks' time. Last night he lost.

United Nations Appoints Ambassador to Aliens, Wants to Play in Space Too

Omri — 2010-09-27T13:04:55-05:00

The United Nations wants to take the lead in making contact with ET, and so they're already appointing the people who'll do it. Right now it's a Malaysian astrophysicist named Mazlan Othman, but in the future who knows whom they'll choose. Not that it really matters. There are a lot of ins and outs of international geopolitics, but on an issue as huge as interstellar contact the UN is going to be mostly irrelevant. Contact isn't going to be done by committee, and honestly that's probably a good thing. We don't really want this guy helping to decide who explains the last 200 years of human history to a hyper-intelligent spacefaring race.

This isn't strictly travel-related, although, given how quickly space tourism is heating up, the UN's appointment of a "space ambassador" might end up being more than a punchline. In the meantime we're going to spend a while treating it as a punchline on account of how it's kind of a punchline. And stupid.

Tourism Boards Shaking Down Everyone They Can to Get New Ad Money

Omri — 2010-09-22T16:07:36-05:00

Tourism board cutbacks are becoming something of a trend, as the economic crunch cascades across different parts of the public and private sectors. The news from last week is that Michigan is ending their Pure Michigan campaign, which was supposed to be a long-term effort aimed at rebranding the state, because they're out of money. We were skeptical about this project from the get-go, thinking that the money might be better spent on actually making the state pure rather than telling people it is. But that's not not why they're stopping their campaign. They're cutting back because they were unable to get money for their travel advertising the way some other boards have, by fining tourists or shaking down corporations.

The campaign for the Texas governorship now involves whether the candidates can maintain the state's tourism budget by cutting services elsewhere or raising taxes, because that's what powerful hotel and restaurant lobbies want. Those lobbies have actually been doing quite the job finding creative ways of taking money from Peter to pay for Paul's tourism ads.

We Slept on the Floor at JFK Last Night, Thanks to Weather and the Tarmac Delay Law

Omri — 2010-09-17T16:39:51-05:00

You've watched us move on tarmac regulations from reserved enthusiasm through deep skepticism to outright disdain. We've been predicting unintended consequences for months, and we elevated our forecast to "complete crapshow" last May when we had our first personal brush with Congress's new three hour rule, which imposes on airlines $27,500 per passenger left on the tarmac over three hours.

Now that we've had another run-in with the law, we can report very graphically on how these kind of misguided regulations play out. Specifically, they play out with us spending a night at JFK, and creating a total security breakdown along the way.