By Christopher Elliott Special to The Seattle Times Travel Troubleshooter If the latest wave of proposed airline mergers has left you a little worried, then you have a good memory. Historically, airline mergers are terrible for passengers. And the latest two — the proposed combination of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, and of JetBlue Airways
With some flight attendants on welfare, Alaska Airlines faces contract fight
By Dominic Gates Seattle Times aerospace reporter You wouldn’t know it to look at them. Junior Alaska Airlines flight attendants say they are barely getting by on poverty level wages, many of them building up debt and scrambling to make rent. Yes, they look sleekly professional on the job. But some with children qualify for
Why flying is miserable
Ahead of the holiday travel season, Harvard Law graduate Ganesh Sitaraman argues in a new book that deregulating the airline industry has led to higher costs, less choice, and more misery for the flying public Nov 14, 2023 By Jeff Neal The upcoming holiday travel season promises to be one of the busiest on record, with
‘Calculated misery’: Here’s why airlines want you to be uncomfortable
BY RUSSELL FALCON THEHILL.COM (NEXSTAR) – Watch any old movie where the characters take a flight and it looks like a glamorous getaway in-and-of-itself – but the days of comfort in the skies are long gone for most of us. And it may not surprise you to know that air travel these days is designed
How a series of air traffic control lapses nearly killed 131 people
By Sydney Ember and Emily Steel New York Times On a foggy Saturday morning in February, an air traffic controller cleared a FedEx cargo plane to land on Runway 18L at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. A Southwest Airlines jet was on the same runway, but the controller said it would take off before FedEx’s
The Process of Launching New Airline Route
BY NOAM ISMAAILI OCTOBER 4, 2023 13 MINUTES READ DALLAS – If you check our routes section, you may have noticed it is common practice for airlines to stop flying to some destinations and to open new routes. Just last month, Air India (AI) made the decision to no longer operate flights to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) at the end of
How airlines hide the true cost of travel — and how to avoid hidden fees
By Christopher Elliott Special to The Seattle Times Travel Troubleshooter When Carolyn DiDonato booked her ticket from Trenton, N.J., to Fort Myers, Fla., she says she was hit with a hidden airline fee. On the last screen, concealed behind a drop-down menu, Frontier Airlines revealed that she would have to pay a nonrefundable $23 carrier
Frequent Flying’s Dirtiest Habit: Mileage Runs
Imagine taking a flight you don’t want or need, to stretch your legs in the destination airport before heading straight back. Jerry (a pseudonym), who works in software sales, estimates that these kinds of flights make up about 15% of all his flights. Some Saturdays, he’ll take an immediate round trip from L.A. to the
What is ‘skiplagging’ and why do the airlines hate when you do it?
Scott Neuman A new lawsuit brought by American Airlines against a controversial ticketing website is bringing renewed attention to “skiplagging,” or “hidden city ticketing” — a technique used by some passengers to get lower fares. What is skiplagging? It works like this: Say a passenger wants to travel from New York to Charlotte, N.C., but
Airline Close Calls Happen Far More Often Than Previously Known
FLIGHT RISKS By Sydney Ember and Emily SteelGraphics by Leanne Abraham, Eleanor Lutz and Ella KoezeAug. 21, 2023 On the afternoon of July 2, a Southwest Airlines pilot had to abort a landing at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. A Delta Air Lines 737 was preparing to take off on the same runway. The sudden maneuver avoided a possible collision by seconds. Near miss NEW