Tagged With "flight cancellations"
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Re: Boston in the fall - suggestions please!
Regarding hotels, Mac, I think I'd spend a few days in Boston to begin with, presuming that's where you are flying into. This will let you get over your jet lag and also give you a chance to see the state of the colors and plot out where you want to go. I would NOT go without having at least a night's reservation booked ahead because you'll waste too much time looking for a place to stay and will end up paying rack rate. Things will be busy and pretty filled up in the small towns of New...
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Re: Now an airline charge for NOT flying!
If you do call the airline to cancel your return ticket you get no refund. They will probably sell your seat for more than your two-way ticket cost. If you try to reschedule your return for another day they will charge full price with no discount for being polite and doing the right thing. So you just walk away and find another airline. The Philosophy of W.C. Fields. "Never give a sucker an even break"
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Re: Renting an apartment in Europe
AirBnb, and the other major rental agencies, have cancellation policies upfront that give you some choice. AirBnb has several levels ...one allows you to cancel almost up to the last minute, others have shorter deadlines. An advantage of using an agency that works this way...pretty much like a hotel booking site...is that the intermediary is holding your deposit and that can save hassles. Obviously, rules about dissatisfaction vary also, but usually if it can't be ironed out, you'll get at...
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Re: AA Plans to Squeeeeeze More Seats into 737s and MD80s
Everyone was right the other day when they suspected that BA was charging for the seat in the restroom. BA finds new Revenue Stream ?
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Re: Doctor List for Traveling
As with many things travel, insurance is a matter of choice. Travel Health Insurance seems to be a lot more expensive in the US than elsewhere. Policies in the US usually include trip cancellation and medical coverage and often run 5-6% the cost of a trip. Given the amount you travel, Mac, the investment of a few hundred dollars a year seems prudent to me. But when I was 30 the thought of insurance never crossed my mind. Not once. A few years ago I did start buying trip cancellation (and...
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Re: Is trip cancellation insurance really worth it?
My elderly mother bought it when she went on a cruise. For her, it made sense because her health is not so good. She might have had to cancel and did not want to lose her deposit. The policy that she bought was specifically for trip cancellation but did not cover health issues or other unexpected issues during the trip. That policy would have covered a deposit refund but not all of them do. There are lots of different types of trip insurance so one has to ask lots of questions. As it turns...
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Re: Watch the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in flight
Very interesting and what a wing shape! Have a look at this shorter clip (3mins) which appears to show a vertical initial climb - wow. We are scheduled to fly on one in October https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KYbM-3E11Qo
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Re: Kyoto Tells Tourists What Not To Do
Wow. Most of the list IS common sense. But tourists don’t always practice common sense, maybe at times myself included. Thing is, I have observed several Japanese tourists doing exactly what they advise not to do on their list during my travels to Europe. :-/ Most recently, almost felt that the rules didn’t apply to them as I was scolded for taking a picture without flash at Sacre-Coeur (didn’t see the sign). That was my mistake. However, while I was getting scolded for my offense, several...
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Re: Airports, Airlines battle over passenger fees
What I dislike are when fees are not used for what they're charged for. If airport improvement fees really are used to fix up and improve airports, I think most consumers are fine with that. But when they just get put into the general revenues of a city's cash pool, that bugs most of us. What a find far more unreasonable than this are the fees to change or cancel a flight. Often they approach or exceed the value of a ticket. That's really gouging the consumer.
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Re: As scheduled Cuba service nears, charter operators face unknown future
With a few exceptions, the charter prices for Americans were really expensive. So for those companies, the gravy train is over.
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Re: As scheduled Cuba service nears, charter operators face unknown future
On leaving Cuba last year our flight home to the UK was delayed. We had to wait on the plane for 4 hours. The airport had run out of Jet Fuel A1. So a fuel tanker was dispatched to fetch some. I do hope the US embargo stops before I go again. I'm not fighting American Airlines for the last drop of Jet Fuel !!
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Re: Airline scheduling: Hurry up and wait, or run like crazy?
Excellent and informative article!!
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Re: For $345 you can fly back to the 70s on Pan Am
Make that the '70s - no 747s in the '50s.
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Re: For $345 you can fly back to the 70s on Pan Am
We get some great Twitter responses to our articles. @ nichtvermietbar asks of this one: " including smoking?"
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Re: For $345 you can fly back to the 70s on Pan Am
A good question, and it is mentioned on the site: that part is up-to-date, and no smoking is allowed.
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Re: For $345 you can fly back to the 70s on Pan Am
Perhaps they will compromise and allow e-cigarettes. Smoking without the tobacco smoke.
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Re: U.S. plans big increase in "pre-clearance" sites
If you've ever used one of the foreign country based US customs clearances, you know that this is easy to do. So this is a wonderful idea and will help improve tourism to the USA>
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Re: U.S. plans big increase in "pre-clearance" sites
That’s especially true for high-volume areas like Heathrow…I’d far rather use my waiting time there to be cleared than have to spend extra time waiting AFTER my flight at JFK!
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Re: Airline scheduling: Hurry up and wait, or run like crazy?
Of course the king of "Banking" for years has been Icelandic Air. They have made their whole business plan around bringing planes from 10 different North American cities in the morning and having those same planes fly out to 10 different European cities 1-2 hours after landing. This allows 10 plane loads of passengers the ability to mix and match origins and destinations. Then in the afternoon they do the reverse run. For 2-4 hours a day the terminal is full as passengers switch planes, the...
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Re: Airline scheduling: Hurry up and wait, or run like crazy?
Thanks for reminding me of that, Jonathan...since it's where I first noticed it. It's actually so bunched that most of the terminal employees work two short shifts a day, with a gap between.
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Re: In-flight refueling for airliners? Worth a look!
Existing planes can travel half way around the world now, without refueling. For example, from Texas to Singapore. I'm not sure I see the point to this. Having a plane full of fuel flying around waiting to refuel another craft has to be expensive, and while the low risk of fire and such for the military might be acceptable, I'm not sure it is for commercial aviation. I'd rather have my plane refueled in the usual manner.
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Re: In-flight refueling for airliners? Worth a look!
I agree on the preference for not being refueled that way...I'm not going to be sitting in an ejection seat with a parachute attached. But the reason they're interested in doing this is not without merit. The idea is that the plane that flies that long route could take off on a shorter runway (reduce load on existing airports, more operations per hour, use other airports that are not now long enough), or replace fuel weight with payload (cargo or passengers). The tankers, obviously, wouldn't...
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Re: Airline scheduling: Hurry up and wait, or run like crazy?
Fascinating piece, PHeymont. And I've noticed how tight they are making these connections. For example, in Europe we had connections scheduled 50 minutes from the plane's landing, assuming it was on time. We were definitely running, and it seemed everyone else at Schipol was as well. We made the connection, but I'd rather have an extra hour for a more relaxed transfer. I'm like you -- book a direct flight if possible, even with a premium, and look carefully at where and how long those...
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Re: Airline scheduling: Hurry up and wait, or run like crazy?
very informative and useful article, PHeymont. Yes, I can relate with most of this, especially trying to make connections with only minutes to spare. We've now taken to seeking alternative forms of transport like trains and buses just to avoid airports!
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Re: Venice gets OK to tax day-trippers
I think this is an altogether fair action & hope it balances the stress on services & infrastructure. Though I doubt it will discourage individual trippers, some cruise ships, I've read, will cancel stops this coming season claiming they'd have to absorb fees for already reserved passengers. Fewer cruise ships will be a very good thing.
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Re: June 8, 2016: Dockweiler State Beach and Park, CA
Great piece! One of my favorite things in California was taking a bike ride along the beach and seeing that side of LAX. The best part is it's pretty empty!
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Re: TSA: More lines, delayed flights
European airlines have taken a big hit this year with Europeans staying home more. It was because of terrorism before airport security and also in public places in Brussels and Paris. Isn't that more of a risk now? We have accepted that minor risk on other forms of transportation and still go about our lives. I'd vote to cut back on scanning 100% of the people in airports to occasionally, like we did a few years ago. We can still walk through metal detectors. I guess the added carry-on bags...
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Re: 100 Years of Flight in Kitty Hawk, NC
I empathize with your rainy, muddy experience. That is no fun. As I recall, Kitty Hawk is also very windy, one of the reasons the Wright brothers chose it. They knew if they could fly their plane into the wind for some distance, no one could challenge the fact that they had flown a heavier than air machine. I regard this as one of the greatest stories of the 20th century. Two creative guys from a bicycle shop in the midwest designed and developed a successful flying machine. It didn't take a...
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Re: 100 Years of Flight in Kitty Hawk, NC
Great Piece! I've been to the Outer Banks several times and the wind always seems to make it cold. It is a neat area and I learned to always bundle up when headed there.
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Re: 100 Years of Flight in Kitty Hawk, NC
Thanks for the comment guys. It has been a while and I did forget to mention the fact that the Wright Brothers were workers in a bicycle shop which makes their story even more amazing! As always DrFumblefinger, thanks for the input
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Re: How do you buy your travel?
Interesting topic and rather timely as I am in the midst of finalizing my plans for my upcoming trip. Hotels: This upcoming trip the first I've used Booking.com. I have used a variety of sources in the past (i.e. Travelocity, Expedia, etc.) and have also found that booking directly through the hotel is sometimes cheaper...sometimes. But, I love the option to be able to change or cancel my reservation, if needed. Flights: I prefer to book directly through the airline. Have never used a...
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Re: How do you buy your travel?
I use booking.com the most for hotels and apartments because I can cancel. Sometimes I can't decide what part of town I want to be in, so I book more than one and keep researching until I have found the right spot. (I don't hold extra reservations long...just sayin'.) I love that booking.com now shows apartments and houses via villa.com because I always refer having a kitchen when I travel. I, too, use OTAs to see prices and schedules, and then I go to the airline's web page for booking.
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Re: Watch those search engines: the big ones are not always best!
Wow! I wouldn't have thought there would be such great variability. I'm still fairly new at this, and it sounds kind of complicated. Are there any flight search engines you'd recommend routinely using?
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Re: New Android App Puts Inflight Tracker in Your Hand
I downloaded it with my free $5 Amazon App credit. I'll review it when I fly. And for those who got the free $5 credit from Amazon that we posted,it works
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Lufthansa flights cancelled by pilot strike
Lufthansa has cancelled about 1350 flights, due to a pilot strike. The strike is hitting medium and short haul flights today (Monday, 12/1) and long-haul flights on Tuesday. About 150,000 passengers are affected. The main strike issue is...
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Meet America's longest-serving Flight Attendant
Here's someone with a long-term perspective on the airline industry and life in general! The Boston Globe last Sunday profiled Bette Nash, a 79-year-old US Airways flight attendant with 57 years of experience and an interesting story to tell. Here's a...
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Watch those search engines: the big ones are not always best!
I was just booking a one-way trip from Barcelona to Marseille for next summer hoping to use some points sitting on a bank-based (but not airline-affiliated) card. Imagine my shock when the ticket (which I knew should cost about $89) showed up as...
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Palm Springs Air Museum, California (Where Gumbo was #104)
Gumbo was visiting the Palm Springs Air Museum in the California desert, and specifically had the privilege of sitting in the cockpit of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber (like the one in the above photo). Congratulations to the many who...
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Airlines Cancelling Again, Waiving Fees: Check your carrier
Ahead of the new northeast storm expected to begin Sunday night, airlines are cancelling flights, over 2500 as of Sunday morning, to avoid stranding travelers, crews and planes. In general, they are waiving change fees for travelers who rebook from...
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Frontier's raising bag fees; will the other "low-costs" follow?
Frontier Airlines, which last year joined Spirit and Allegiant in the ULCC (ultra-low-cost-carrier) class that seems to mean ULC (ultra lots of charges) for most folks, is raising its fees for checked bags. The only checked bags that will not go up by...
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Crowded Skies: U.S. sets air passenger record
Nearly 850 airline passengers for 2014! To be exact, 848.1 million passengers (obviously some repeaters!) flew on domestic airlines last year, or on foreign airline flights to and from the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The...
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As scheduled Cuba service nears, charter operators face unknown future
A surprisingly large industry of scheduled charter flights from the U.S. to Cuba faces an uncertain future as the U.S. and Cuba negotiate their future relationship, including civil aviation, a topic that has already begun to be discussed by the...
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AA flight delays blamed on pilot iPad crash
American Airlines, the first airline to ditch huge paper pilot flight books for iPads, has had a little trouble with them this week. The airline reports that 24 flights on Tuesday (4/28) and 50 more yesterday were delayed by failure of an app that...
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In-flight movies meet the airline censors
I've often wondered about some of the movies and videos I've seen: "How would that play out on a plane...especially not knowing who might be sitting next to my "private" seatback screen. So it was interesting to learn from Megan Snedden's blog ...
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AA, USAir: Next step, combining reservations
USAir, AA planes at Washington on the morning of their 2013 merger. That was the easy part... Now that American/USAir is past the legal hurdles, tidied up labor contracts, and merged the loyalty programs, they're ready for the big one: merging...
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Cruise lines drop Puerta Vallarta over violence
Recent street fights between armed drug gangs and Mexican police and troops in Puerta Vallarta have cancelled several cruise's port calls, and curtailed others. Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas, Disney's Wonder and Celebrity's Infinity have...
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Oh, no! Next winter storm aims at South
In the wake of recent heavy storms that have buried Boston and other cities as well as shattering travel plans, another winter storm is causing cancellations, and this time the target cities are in the southern part of the country, including...
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Flight cancellations continue: Not just winter, now it's ash!
Alaska Airlines has been forced to cancel a number of flights within Alaska due to poor visibility caused by an ash cloud from Russian volcanoes erupting on the Kamchatka Peninsula. From USA Today, MORE That's added to the chaos...