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Tags: Flight Delays / Airline Delays / Air India / Airline Travel / → All Tags

Air India Needs To Build A Better Mousetrap After Rat Sneaks Aboard

We’ve seen our share of airline delays due to weather, mechanical delays, and even wacky passengers. However, there aren’t too many delays caused by furry critters. Well, that’s exactly what passengers of an Air India flight had to deal with as they were stuck to wait things out for about 11 hours.

Apparently a flight with over 200 passengers from Amritsar, India was supposed to head out to London over the weekend. Early on Saturday morning passengers spotted a rat on the plane, and then the rest of the day was spent searching for the little stowaway. After all, it definitely didn’t go through security.

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Tags: Airline Delays / Airline Travel / Flight Delays / Airport News / → All Tags

Mathematics Might Be The Secret To Fixing Airline Delays

We’ve all been there, and we certainly have done our share of complaining about them: the dreaded delayed airplane. For the most part it has just become one of the many fun features that are now part of the travel experience. However, there are some researchers trying to crack the code behind these inconveniences, and the smartypants scientists feel that a little math might help everyone out. If academics can help aircraft land on time and leave on schedule, we just might head back to school.

Computer scientists at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland have created a system to use runways efficiently to reduce delays and to conserve fuel use. Their plan uses the size of aircraft, fuel efficiency of the plane, and number of passengers aboard to figure out the most effective way to move the birds around the airport. Their new math also looks at the amount of suitcases on the planes to ensure baggage handling delays are kept to a minimum. Unfortunately, there’s no mention of preventing baggage loss—too bad.

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Tags: Flight Delays / Airlines / Airline Legislation / → All Tags

Senators Seek to Ban Long Waits on the Tarmac

If Members of Congress have their way—and they often do—hellish multi-hour waits on the tarmac could become illegal.

The Senate commerce committee voted in favor of a bill this week that would make it illegal to keep passengers waiting on a grounded plane for more than three hours. The move comes in response to a string of ultra-long flight delays in recent years, including the infamous JetBlue flight that sat on the tarmac at JFK for 10 ½ hours with some very antsy passengers on board. If the proposed legislation passes, airlines would have to let passengers off for a break after the wait hits the three-hour mark.

The movement was spearheaded by FlyersRights.org, an activist group led by Kate Hanni, a flyer who found herself a new cause after spending nine grounded hours on an American Airlines flight three years ago. The legislation next moves on to the full Senate where, unsurprisingly, airline industry lobbyists are working feverishly to kill it.

Related Stories:
· Senate Panel Votes to Let Passengers Off Stuck Planes [Bloomberg]
· FlyersRights.org [Official Site]
· Airline Storm Report: JFK Flight Delay Spotlight on JetBlue and Delta [Jaunted]

[Photo: sparkrtography]

Tags: Airline Hell / JetAmerica / Flight Delays / Customer Service / Travel Gripes / → All Tags

Minister, Hopeful Lawyer and Others Forced to Pay More Thanks to JetAmerica

UPDATE: More new "grievances" have been filed below.

Last week when we broke the news that JetAmerica would be canceling its flights, less than 11 days before they were scheduled to take off, we asked readers who had booked a JetAmerica flight how this delay would affect them. And several of you wrote in to tell us just how inconvenient this all was.

We'll be posting some of the letters after the jump, but before we get into that we are thinking that JetAmerica's refund of the passengers' flights is not enough. Because flights typically tend to be more expensive when you book under 14 days before your desired departure date, we think JetAmerica should refund the passengers' difference in price for the new flight as well.

For example, if you paid...oh let's say...$89 for a flight on JetAmerica but because of the cancellation, you had to pay about $250 on another airline, JetAmerica should pay the $89 and the difference which would be $161. Just something JA should think about. Now onto the stories....

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Tags: Travel Weather / Delta / Northwest / MSP / Flight Delays / Change Fees / → All Tags

Delta Waiving Change Fees for The Minneapolis-Bound

Heading to the Twin Cities tonight? Don't forget your mukluks: Minneapolis-St. Paul is expecting six-plus inches of snow today, with the storm starting this morning. And freezing rain and sleet for the side dishes!

Delta in its capacity as new owner of Northwest's major business at MSP is waiving all change fees if you had planned to fly in today. We recommend not being re-routed through Chicago (dense fog advisory!) or the Dakotas (same storm), but anywhere else should be fine. And hey, Delta, way to be proactive.

Related Stories:
· Valentine's Day Winter Storm Creating Travel Mess [Jaunted]
· Winter Storm Shutters Las Vegas Airport [Jaunted]
· Flight Delays coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: smohundro]

Tags: Celeb Travel / Russell Simmons / Delta / Flight Delays / Airport Bars / → All Tags

Celeb Spotting at LAX: Russell Simmons Waits Out a Delay at El Cholo

Maybe it's because she's usually flying out of LAX, maybe it's because she's just lucky, but HotelChatter editrix Juliana Shallcross sees a lot of celebs on planes. Sunday, it was Liz Phair sitting business select on Southwest; today, she bumped into Russell Simmons.

The hip-hop icon and Juliana were both trying to get to New Orleans when a radar problem kept their Delta flight from taking off. Once the crippled jet made it back to the gate, it was straight to the El Cholo Cantina in Terminal 5 for Simmons while Juliana went to scour the nearby restaurants for grub.

Delta got the avionics fixed in about two hours, which should've given notoriously germaphobic Russell enough time to grab a bottle of hand sanitizer: While the radar is good to go, Delta didn't have time to fix the busted sinks in the plane's lavs.

Related Stories:
· Airport Photo Shoots coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Airline Travel / Airline Delays / Flight Delays / → All Tags

This Is Improvement? One Third of Domestic Flights Delayed

If you plan three trips this year, make sure you only want to go on two. One-third of domestic flights were delayed or canceled in January, worse than the 2007 average of 25 percent. It might be slightly better than December's average, but the reality is that you probably won't arrive on-time, anywhere, ever again.

If you must plan a trip for 2008, go to the islands. Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines had the best on-time arrival statistics in the country, with 94 and 93 percent of their flights cruising in when they're supposed to. (A distant third was US Airways with about four in five flights landing on-time.)

Just one more reason to enjoy that beautiful Hawaiian weather.

Related Stories:
· Airline Delays Worsened in January [AP, via Yahoo]
· Flight Delays coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: marctonysmith]

Tags: JetBlue / Delta / Airlines / Travel Hell / Flight Delays / JFK / → All Tags

Adventures of Link: V-Day Massacre Version 2.0

Remember last Valentine's Day when JetBlue had the biggest service meltdown in recent memory? We do! And, apparently, we're not alone 'cause everybody's blogging about it today.

Chris Elliott has some slight praise for JetBlue, which has learned plenty about weather crises in the past year. (The airline's waiving ticket change fees for people who wanna skip out on all the "fun" at JFK tonight and tomorrow.) In fact, positive reviews from JB flyers are already rolling in to The Consumerist.

Delta's also waiving ticket change fees for certain city pairs; check the airline's press release to see if your flight is covered.

Related Stories:
· Icy Storm Blows Through Northeast [AP, via Google]
· Happy Valentine's Day. Here's Your Ice Storm [Elliott]
· Valentine's Day Ice Storm 2008: Everybody Panic! [The Consumerist]
· FAA Flight Delay Info [Official Site]
· The JetBlue Debacle [Jaunted]

Tags: Low Cost Carriers / LCCs / New Zealand Travel / Australia Travel / Flight Delays / Pacific Blue / → All Tags

Pacific Blue Likes Punctuality (Mostly)

We mentioned recently that Air New Zealand was having to cut its prices to compete with the likes of Pacific Blue, child airline of Australia's Virgin Blue. But perhaps the situation for Air NZ is even more dire, because the general manager of Pacific Blue, Adrian Hamilton-Manns, is now working on getting really strict about punctual plane departures.

It's a bit rich, coming from a new airline that had delays over Christmas that stranded some passengers overnight, but now Pacific Blue wants the New Zealand government to establish reporting standards so that the public is aware of how late (or early!) airlines are. Such a system is already in place in Australia, and Pacific Blue now wants to show how good a job they can do.

Unfortunately, the airline's new year had a less-than-fantastic start, and we're sure Hamilton-Manns won't be happy about last week's delay at Melbourne Airport. With a Pacific Blue flight to Christchurch due to depart, a flight attendant suddenly fell ill and the other staff had to convince 13 passengers to get bumped to other flights, so that the crew to passenger ratio was legal. Getting volunteers to disembark took an extra ninety minutes, which will definitely look bad for Pacific Blue's statistics. But we wish them luck, just the same.

Related Stories:
· Pacific Blue Man Pushes Punctuality to the Max [NZ Herald]
· Pacific Blue Has Ways of Making You Disembark [The Age]
· Air New Zealand's Having Ups and Downs [Jaunted]

[Photo: PhillipC]

Tags: Flight Delays / Airport Delays / Rule 240 / Peter Greenberg / → All Tags

Mythbusting: The Real Deal with Rule 240

Blame Peter Greenberg. About a week ago, the travel guru wrote an article hyping Rule 240, which used to govern interline agreements on airlines. Basically it said that airlines couldn't keep you captive in the terminal if they cancelled your flight; they had to put you on the next one out. But the rule no longer exists in that form, as Greenberg himself admits in his story.

That didn't stop the piece from getting picked up elsewhere, with people claiming that "invoking Rule 240" would solve all your canceled-flight woes regardless of the airline you're on. Wrong. Your trip on any given airline is always governed by a contract--called the contract of carriage--and if you act like a jerk, there's no way you'll get anything more than what that document mandates.

So what's a flyer to do? Know your stuff before you get to the airport.

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Tags: Flight Delays / Airport Delays / London Gatwick / Airport Hell / → All Tags

British Airports: London Gatwick's a Loser

If you're not sure which airport you should fly into the next time you head to Britain, check out the UK Flight Delays website. It tracks the average times for check-in, security and immigration at airports in the UK, according to information that website users plug in.

While the numbers are still based on a small sample, you can already see that London Gatwick is doing badly: each stage takes more than 30 minutes on average. Smaller airports like Cardiff and Birmingham are higher up on the league table. Travelers can also leave notes about their experiences, and the Travellers' Comments page reads like a soap opera of bad airport experiences. If you need to vent after experiencing some airport frustration--or you want to praise a good experience--this is your site.

Related Stories:
· Fresh Stats on the Summer of Flight Delays [Jaunted]
· Yotel Gatwick Airport Hotel [HotelChatter]

[Photo: bob the lomond]

Tags: Flight Delays / Southwest Airlines / American Airlines / JetBlue / Scott McCartney / → All Tags

Fresh Stats on the Summer of Flight Delays

Everyone is really starting to pile on this whole "Summer of Flight Delays" theme. Today, the Wall Street Journal's Scott McCartney tires to answer the question of why. Why have canceled flights more than doubled from June 2006 to June 2007 (20,301 to 8,710). The answer seems to be more storms, too many jets on the tarmac, and "an occasional problem with Canadian airspace crucial to Northeast traffic."

Canada is really sticking it to the U.S. this summer are they not? First they travel south with their powerful loonie and now they are contributing to stateside summer flight delay headaches?

However, the real issue here is who is holding it together through these trying travel times. The answer is simple, details are here.

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