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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It is really hard to compare airline performance in a Nor'easter like we are currently on the back end of here on the easter seaboard. However, one way to try to compare apples to apples is to check FlightStats for overall airport delays, then check airline website for individual flight information. Finally, customer service in stormy times can separate airline heroics, and what could become legendary airline gaffs.
Here is you noontime report on how JetBlue and Delta appear to be weathering the storm on outbound JFK flights.
Stuck in the Northeast today? Bad weather has got some travelers cursing up a storm, and some calling this the worst Valentine's Day ever. We've seen worse conditions in Winters past, but the timing isn't so good on this one. Right now it seems to be hailing in New York, which means this storm even lacks white romantic snow. Instead, if you go out to quaintly sip a hot chocolate in your favorite cafe, you are likely to get pelted in the eye, and blinded, by a giant, rock-hard snow pellet.
If you've got a flight today, remember to keep up with your airline and check in as much as possible before you even think about leaving for the airport. Flight Explorer helps, as does Weather.com.
If you're en route with your significant other and your plans are in serious jeopardy but you don't have the option of leaving the airport yet, try treating her/him to a little lounge fanciness. Buy a fully refundable first class ticket on the airline with the sickest lounge in the airport you're currently toiling in. Use it to get the boarding pass that will get you into the lounge, and then cancel before your fake flight departs. Oh, and then let us know if that trick works.
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by egw
