Jaunted - Tag: american

American, Delta, Continental and Jetblue Argue to Allow Tarmac Delays Over Three Hours

JetSetCD — 2010-03-18T15:05:08-05:00

April 29 is the big day! That's the date that the US government's new 3-hour tarmac delay rules go into effect, fining airlines $27,500 per passenger that sits on the tarmac for over three hours and more. Right now however, four major airlines have asked the Department of Transportation if they can be exempt from the rules. We're talking about Jetblue, Delta, Continental, and American, although we expect a few others to protest by the end of this week too.

All of them are filing for temporary exemptions, so it's not like they are in favor of keeping passengers hostage on their planes and getting away with it. They blame the runway construction at JFK, which closes a major runway at the overcrowded airport and causes an airline's on-time rating to drop. We understand, to a point, but if the DOT grants them the exemption, we hope that it's only valid for JFK. Otherwise we could see more 16-hour "Flightmares" without relief.

[Photo: Brian Daniel Eisenberg]

SAS Airlines' New Paperless Boarding Passes Will Help You Shop Duty-Free

Omri — 2009-10-19T16:03:40-05:00

SAS Airlines has joined the growing list of airlines allowing customers to check in with paperless 2D bar codes stored on their mobile. Passengers can have the boarding passes delivered either by SMS or via the SAS mobile site. The service will be available on domestic flights within Scandinavia and Finland, Intra Scandinavian flights, flights to Europe and Asia, and even some flights back from Europe:

SAS Scandinavian Airlines is now offering its passengers the convenience of mobile boarding passes. This means SAS customers can now travel using only their mobile phone and with an ID card/passport... The mobile boarding pass contains a 2D bar code that can be read electronically at the airport. The 2D bar code can be used to get baggage tags from the SAS Self Service kiosks, at security screening, duty-free shopping, entering SAS lounges and when boarding.

Cupecoy: Island Danger: Jet Blasts May Cause Death On St. Maarten

JetSetCD — 2009-07-30T11:19:26-05:00

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

No list of plane spotting locations is complete without highlighting the amazing daredevil antics that occur daily at Princess Juliana Airport on the French/Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten.

Due to the island's small size, mountainous center, and popularity with international tourists, jumbo jets from as far as Europe and island hoppers from neighbors like St. John zero in on a short runway that dead-ends right at the beach. This beach, Maho Bay, is open to the public and consistently draws aviation geeks, photographers, and curious tourists to the Sunset Beach Bar for some serious eye-level plane spotting.

Celebrate The Summer Of In-Flight WiFi With 50% Off Gogo

JetSetCD — 2009-07-27T09:19:25-05:00

We make a huge deal out of in-flight WiFi, but it's kind of a crazy thing to be able to surf freely and chat with friends wirelessly while 35,000-feet above nowheresville. But just in case you still haven't been convinced that a few hours of internet access is worth spending yet more cash on your flight, the largest provider of in-flight WiFi, Gogo by Aircell, is offering a discount code good through the rest of the summer.

Jot it down now: 158FLF7365.

Type that in when you open your laptop in the clouds, and it'll get you 50% off the cost of the WiFi, which regularly starts at $5.95 and goes all the way up to $49.95 for 30 days. The code is valid until August 31, 2009, so anyone flying the following airlines soon has a little something extra to look forward to: Virgin America, Delta, United, American and AirTran.

Related Stories:
· Discount code tweet [Twitter]
· US Airways Announces They'll Have In-Flight WiFi In 2010 [Jaunted]
· Gogo In-Flight WiFi Coverage [Jaunted]

[Image: Gogo]

Five In-Flight Movies To Avoid Now

egw — 2009-04-21T14:37:57-05:00

Try as we might to entertain ourselves in the air, we occasionally get sucked into the in-flight movie anyway. It's difficult not to feel that childlike tickle of enthusiasm as the pop-down screen descends and people all around you take out their headphones. When we were younger, this was a golden opportunity to watch (an edited version of) the movies our parents wouldn't take us to -- only now do we realize how right they were, when we single out the worst in-flight movies this month.