inFLIGHTout Updates @ Twitter

follow me on twitter: twitter.com/inFLIGHTout

In an effort to provide expanded content and deliver the latest travel talks in a timely manner, I recently incorporated a Twitter "tweet" box located along the left column of the blog. Tweets, if you're not familiar with them, are short bits of information often with accompanying click-thru links to get the complete story - when applicable. In addition to full-length posts appearing on inFLIGHTout, the tweets sent throughout the day can easily be seen both on this website and at www.twitter.com/inFLIGHTout, where you can get real-time updates to your Twitter-supported mobile device.

Recent Tweets:

• Aer Lingus ending SFO-Dublin, Ireland flights effective October 25, 2009.
• SFO-Tampa, Florida $193RT, including all taxes. usair.com united.com. Valid thru Summer 2010
• Register to earn double elite-qualifying miles on Continental Airlines http://tinyurl.com/mmuoj2
• United 1K Members: Earn 5,000 Mileage Plus miles for each Hyatt stay worldwide through October 31st. http://tinyurl.com/nkv8jz
• Starwood Elite members: 2 just released promos help you retain your status. http://starhot.wordpress.com/
• Frontier Airlines lowers ticket change fee from $150 to $100.http://bit.ly/Zavfw
• Hijacked AeroMexico plane lands safely in Mexico City
• @TSABlogTeam. New TSA Procedures for Traveling with Powders --> http://is.gd/32Wi7
• 15% off JetBlue flights thru December 19th when using AMEX cardhttp://tinyurl.com/m4omzd

inFLIGHTout Tip: Dealing With Flight Delays and Cancellations

By Mike Grasso

Although there is no scientific methodology to predict if any specific flight in the future will be delayed or cancelled, there are some steps you can take to minimize the impact any such delay or cancellation might have on your travels. 

1. Book flights earlier in the day. Should there be difficulties with your original flight, there will often be other same-day flights to be accommodated on. In contrast, booking on the last flight of the day means any delay or cancellation could mean spending the night at the airport or nearby hotel.

2. Pick nonstop flights. Each added segment or connection increases your odds of encountering a delay, misconnect, or cancellation. 

3. Check the on-time performance of a flight you are considering a purchase on. For example, between San Francisco and Dallas/Ft. Worth, American Airlines offers several daily flights. Flight #566 departing at 2:55 PM has a 55% on-time record, versus Flight #1306 at 7:30 AM has nearly a 100% on-time record. If you are flying on American, connecting in Dallas, which flight would you want to be on? Websites such as flightstats.com can provide on-time performance data.

4. If you are using a connection city, be sure to allow yourself sufficient "padding" time to exit the aircraft and catch your connecting flight. Padding time should include a few extra minutes in the event you arrive late, the time it takes to deplane, walk through the airport and/or different terminal, and arrive at your next flight. 

5. Check the status of the inbound flight. This is a bit more advanced and requires some detective work, but is my all-time favorite. Here's how it works: Determine the gate you are flying out of, then look at the arrivals board at the airport to find out if the inbound/arriving aircraft coming to your gate is scheduled to be late. If the plane coming to pick you is late, there's a good chance your departure will be delayed as well (this is not certain however since occasionally airlines, particularly at hub airports, can swap planes out for severely delayed aircraft). If the information you gathered points to a delayed flight, consider asking the gate agent or customer service rep to rebook or protect you on an alternate flight. 

6. Check the weather of cities you plan on connecting in. Weather in San Francisco bay be Sunny and warm, but in Chicago they could have an impending storm. Ask a gate agent if they can proactively reroute you through a different connecting city. It saves both you and the airline from a potentially messy situation later on. 

inFLIGHTout Travel Tip: That Empty Water Bottle

By Mike Grasso

OK, I admit this travel tip rests somewhere between a wonderfully smart and miserably cheap traveler. You know those bottles of water they sell at the airport for $3 or $4 a piece? What a ripoff! Bring your own water bottle from home (can’t you buy a CASE of water for $4?). Be sure the bottle is empty as you enter the security checkpoint, but fill it up once you are post-security. Where do you fill up the bottle you ask? I use water fountains, but in-airport restaurants and fast food chains are often willing to refill them for the asking.

Armed with a full water bottle, you are now ready to board your plane. Even though beverage service is often limited in coach class, you will at least have a full (and free) bottle of water with you as you breeze through the skies.

inFLIGHTout Travel Tip: Know Alternative Flight Options

You trot on down to the airport two hours before departure, check-in, dance your way through security, and gracefully arrive at the gate in preparation for boarding. Just then you realize the flight has been cancelled. Gut reaction for you and the gate agent is to rebook everyone on the next available flight. What if it's the last flight out? What if later flights are booked to capacity? What do you do if there are 200 people from your flight already in line waiting to get rebooked on another carrier? Here is a solution that has worked for me quite well in the past:

Know alternative flight options. It's an exercise I perform each time I arrive at the airport. If I'm flying from say Chicago to San Francisco, a quick glance at the Departures board shows my flight is running 30 minutes late. Elsewhere on the board, I see a flight to Oakland on-time, leaving 10 minutes later than mine. This cues me in to a potential alternative should my original flight go severely delayed or cancelled. So if the San Francisco flight gets pulled, most passengers will be scrambling for the next flights to SFO leaving the next day, while a few wiser folks opt for Oakland and likely fly out that same evening. Know your alternatives!

inFLIGHTout Tip - Your Printed Itinerary

Before you set sail for your next flight be sure you have a copy of your flight itinerary with you. This valuable document often contains your confirmation and ticket numbers, and most importantly your return trip details. Often the excitement of voyage ends up blocking any thoughts of the return flight. So when it comes time to fly back home, recalling the exact time of departure isn't so clear without a printed itinerary. 

Also, a complete itinerary in-hand is also helpful during tight connections. If your initial flight arrives late at your connection city, show the flight attendant your document so they can make arrangements for you to deplane first. 

Finally, a copy of the itinerary is great because they remind you what time you will be landing. Most boarding passes do not provide this detail. 

inFLIGHTout Travel Tip: Program Airline Phone Numbers

What's worse than showing up at the airport and finding out your flight has been cancelled? Realizing you will be competing with up to 200 other people from your flight trying to get rebooked as well. Everyone has a story: "We're on our honeymoon," "I have a business meeting to attend," "I have elite status," and the list goes on. At the customer service center in the airport, everyone lines up in proper form, hoping for the best - expecting the worst, to find out whether they will even fly out today.

The key here is to have your situation looked at before the others. Call it selfish, if you must. But there are a limited number of seats and trying accommodate a full plane of customers from a cancelled flight onto later flights can be a challenge. Here is what you can do to improve your chances of of a desirable outcome:

Program airline phone numbers in your mobile phone. (Go ahead and do this now, I'll wait). This way while you are standing in line at the customer service/rebooking center, you can concurrently call the airline. By the time you hang up the phone, many of your fellow passengers may still be in line awaiting their fate.

Looking Back: Popular inFLIGHTout posts from November

(Thanks Bonnie for this idea)

Here is a look back at some of the more popular inFLIGHTout blog entries from November 2008. 

Be sure to check back daily for a potpourri of travel-related posts just like these. 

-10% off JetBlue flights through the Winter (expired)

-Mileage Runs: Who and Why

-World's highest waterfall dive (Video)

-United Passengers injured on flight to SFO

-Oakland to Seattle $111 RT tax included (expired)
-Carol Burnett Show - "No Frills Airline" (Video)

-Images of Long Beach Airport

-Travel Tip from inFLIGHTout: Wet Naps

-Allegiant Airlines to fly from Oakland, drops SFO

-United Airlines announces 2009 Mileage Plus Program changes

-Six Ideas for peaceful flights for all

-Oakland Airport launches free WiFi

-Horizon Launches Sacramento to Santa Barbara flights

-Shutterfly: 250 Free Delta miles for new customers

-Safeway and United: Earn 1000 United miles shopping at Safeway

-San Francisco to New Orleans $155 RT tax included (expired)

-50 Travelers wanted for global scavenger hunt

-Virgin America Launches WiFi

-Parking and Waiting Options at Bay Area Airports

Looking for something more specific? Search over two years of inFLIGHTout posts by entering keyword(s) in the upper left hand corner of this page. 

inFLIGHTout Travel Tip: Wet Naps

Always carry wet naps or baby wipes when travelling. Exactly who was sitting in the airplane seat before you? When was the last time the airline wiped down the tray tables on the aircraft? Why are the interior windows soiled? Rather than imagine what the answers to these questions might be, simply wipe down your seat area once you board the aircraft. A brief 30-second wipe down will rid the area of germs and make your flying experience a bit more pleasant, and healthier.

InFLIGHTout Travel Tip - Wet Naps & Flying

Always carry wet naps or baby wipes when travelling.

Exactly who was sitting in the airplane seat before you? When was the last time the airline wiped down the tray tables on the aircraft? Why are the interior windows soiled? Rather than imagine what the answers to these questions might be, simply wipe down your seat area once you board the aircraft. A brief 30-second wipe down will rid the area of germs and make your flying experience a bit more pleasant, and healthier.

inFLIGHTout Travel Tip
When you travel outside the U.S, some people recommend you keep a copy of your passport in a separate location, such as your luggage or wallet. This way, if your passport is ever lost or stolen, you have a copy to provide officials. Instead, or in addition to, consider scanning a copy of your passport and saving into your email box or other online file server. A scanned copy is crisp, clean and colorful, and looks pretty legitimate (although it is still just a copy). Plus, you have a copy of your passport anywhere in the world you may be, provided there is Internet access to retrieve it.

Looking Back: "Best of" February Posts

Thanks for the suggestion Ryan!

With new readers coming on board each week, thought it might be fun to summarize the "best of" posts during the month of February. Enjoy!

-3-night Baja California Cruise from $199 per person

-The best traveler credit cards

-U.S Airways and United to begin charging for second check-in bag
-Fly to Istanbul round-trip for $533, taxes included

-Hotels charging $250 for smoking

-Virgin flies first bio-fuel plane

-Plus several new routes & destinations announced from Horizon, JetBlue, Southwest, US Air, United and more.

ManyBag and LapChildren Fees from Spirit Airlines

By Mike Grasso

Spirit Airlines currently permits checked bags on their flights for a $5-$10 fee (the lower reflects bag payment made online versus the airport). Effective February 20th, that fee doubles; $10-$20 per bag. More than 3 bags will cost an additional $100 bucks each. You may haul a free carry-on and one personal item onboard the plane free of charge.

While other airlines charge excess baggage fees, Spirit takes it to a higher level. American and United for example charge $80 and $85 respectively, for a 3rd checked bag. Southwest, even with the introduction of charging a fee for the 3rd bag (effective January 29), it will set you back only 25 bucks. Spirit is truly leading the way in higher baggage fees.

Want to bring a LapChild along during your Spirit flight? (They don't count as the free carry-on). Children under the age of 2 are not required to purchase their own seat, but come May 1st if they're going to sit in your lap, those little people incur a LapChildren fee of $25 bucks each way on Spirit Airlines.

To compare LapChild fees, SkyBus, often referred to as the lowest of low cost carriers operating in the U.S, charges $10 for each segment a child is parked on your lap, but they also charge as little as $10 bucks for a flight; the added fee seems reasonable there. Otherwise, this type of fee doesn't really exist with other airlines in the United States. So in sum, that infant of yours will soon pay for his/her share of onboard oxygen and fuel costs when flying Spirit Airlines.

In defense of these fees, the airlines are struggling to cut costs, and a few pounds of infancy do add a few bucks to operating costs. It's possible then, in the larger airline world, we might expect other airlines to follow Spirits move on similar LapChildren fees, and modify their existing ManyBag fees.

Background on Spirit Airlines:
Spirit Airlines inaugurated flights from San Francisco Airport in 2006, but does not currently offer routes from the Bay Area; it's unknown whether the airline pulled out completely, or seasonally. Spirit offers a huge network of routes throughout the East Coast and the Caribbean.

Thanks to all for your ongoing support and feedback.

Happy New Year

All the best in 2008.

From inFLIGHTout

Use Caution when buying airline coupons on Ebay

Scam Alert: Auction site Ebay is filled with attractive coupons and discounts for many airlines in the U.S. Whether you need discounted tickets on Southwest, Continental, Northwest and Alaska (to name a few), Ebay seems to have the discount your looking for. Most have rules however stating the certificates cannot be sold, traded, etc., so you need to be mindful of this.

But this story is really about United Airlines $100 off e-certificates on the Ebay site. It seems someone very creative, arguably bored, may have found a way to "crack the code" and is trying to sell fraudulently obtained e-certs by transposing numbers. The technique for doing this is described on travelglitch. The result: some people on Ebay are selling these codes at a steep discount.

This causes duplicated e-certificate numbers, with one person using the code they legitimately obtained from United, the other using the code they ultimately obtained from a fraudster.

inFLIGHTout recommends you ask the seller for a scan or other documentation showing they have the actual e-certificate from the airline before deciding to purchase. If they airline becomes tuned in to the fraudulent situation, you may find yourself, and your mileage plus account under scrutiny. (Yes, they have suspended & closed accounts for not adhering to frequent flyer program rules).

Winter and early Spring European Airfares...get'em while their "hot"
San Francisco/Oakland to Rome, Paris, Madrid, Istanbul, Cologne, Hamburg (to name a few) all priced in the $520-$550 range roundtrip, taxes included. Fares are restricted generally to flights through March 08.

These are not the best fares we've seen historically, partially because of added fuel surcharges, but nevertheless make for a fun vacation getaway at a reasonable price. The change in seasons during March is a great time to visit most areas in Europe.
Visit http://www.farecompare.com/ for a map of current airfares to Europe.

$1 ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles

The original story of MEGAbus first appeared in inFLIGHTout back on August 5th - here

Then last week the L.A times did a write up on the Mega experience. Could this be a good alternative to flying to/from L.A? Could long lines at the airport, plane delays and tiny seats be a thing of the past? Or, do you get what you pay for? (As low as $1.00). Check out the L.A Times MEGAbus tour review here.

Virgin America begins SFO-IAD service today

Virgin America debuts San Francisco to Washington-Dulles Airport today and continues to offer intro fares as low as $129 each way for this market.

A few good fare finds this morning:
San Francisco to Los Angeles $78/roundtrip + tax on Virgin America
San Francisco to Cleveland, OH $144/roundtrip +tax on United Airlines
Both fares available 7 days a week including weekends.
virgin america sale and farecompare

Bad (very bad) U.S. Airways Dividend Miles "promo"

Bad promotions are typically not posted on inFLIGHTout, but this one is so ridiculous, it must be reported on. In an email to dividend members, U.S air says it will permit passengers to redeem 10,000 dividend miles for $50 bucks off a flight during the months of January and February.

A) January and February are slow travel months, they should be enticing people to fly with double mile promotions and fare discounts

B) The value of 10,000 miles is is worth A LOT more than $50.00. The most basic measure is a free roundtrip ticket in the Continental U.S; 25,000 miles on U.S. Air. So dumping 10,000 of your miles is worth almost a free 1 way ticket across the country, which is worth far more than $50.

If you have miles "just sitting" in your U.S air account (or other airlines for that matter), even if your not close to a free ticket yet, I recommend you "let it ride". You need to have activity in most frequent flyer programs within 18-36 months otherwise you forfeit your miles. Simply renting a car from Avis for example can earn you frequent flyer miles, and count as activity in your frequent flyer program. In my opinion this is a wiser choice than falling for this U.S Airways "promotion".

From the email: Coming soon! Starting October 22, you can reduce the fare of a US Airways roundtrip ticket by $50 by redeeming 10,000 Dividend Miles. This offer will be valid on all published US Airways roundtrip fares flown in January and February 2008 with a 14-day advance purchase.