FlightNetwork.com’s first poll focussing on ‘travel pet peeves ‘ reveals that out of the 768 Canadians polled, 77.6% indentified added fees (eg. paying for additional luggage) as one of their top three air travel pet peeves. Rounding out the top three were cramped seats (63.5%) and flight delays (40.0%). Surprisingly, rude passengers scored relatively low [...]

Fees and rude and unhelpful staff are the two things that annoy air travelers the most. At least that’s according to a survey from Consumer Reports, which asked 2,000 Americans about their top complaints regarding air travel. Fees actually took the top two spots among the air-travel gripes. With participants rating the annoyances on a 1-to-10 [...]

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air customers checking bags can expect to retrieve their luggage five minutes sooner through an enhanced baggage service guarantee beginning today. Introduced in July 2009as a 25-minute guarantee, the airlines’ new offer gives customers their choice of 2,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles or$20 off a future flight if their luggage is not [...]

American Airlines today announced it will offer customers additional options when traveling on American, with its “Your Choice”(SM) services. Your Choice provides key services intended to make the customer travel experience even more personalized, convenient, cost-effective and flexible than ever before. As part of the initial Your Choice offering, American is introducing a “Boarding and [...]

A very nice video about Air France’s First Class Product “La Première”.

Interesting post on sparksheet.com about how airlines handled the recent ash cloud : It’s been a week since an ash cloud from Iceland’s volcano silenced the skies over Europe, stranding passengers and paralyzing the airline industry. As planes finally begin to take off, we examine how brands are using Twitter and Facebook to inform, reassure, [...]

The flying public can expect to find friendlier skies when new federal regulations governing the airline industry go into effect at April 29, 2010. Complaints to Better Business Bureau about airlines have increased by more than 170 percent in the last five years. According to the Department of Transportation (DOT), most complaints against airlines are [...]

Self check-in, self boarding, self drop-off, self recovery … maybe that something is missing ? Tyler Brûlé, editor-in-chief of Monocle, wrote some interesting lines about it on ft.com : Most airline chief executives are engaged in a daily battle to cut costs and have few entries in the diary that remind them that they’re in [...]

Imagine having someone to help you out with a little local knowledge when you need it – like where to find a good vegan restaurant in Downtown San Francisco, or the perfect latte in Auckland. Someone who knows exactly where you’re going, what you need and how to get it. Air New Zealand offers a personalised [...]

Shashank Nigam posted on his excellent blog SimpliFlying what a VIP service on Economy class could be like? Being addressed by name, all the time – this happens even on Indian budget airlines! Genuine smiles all over. Everytime I looked at the SIA Girls, it only made me feel happier – Probably the easiest thing [...]

Since 2004, an increasing number of America’s huge and crowded airports have provided what they call Cell Phone Waiting Lots – free car parks close to the terminals, where family or friends can wait in relative comfort until arriving passengers call on their mobile phones to let them know they’re ready to be picked up. [...]

If kiosks are now the standard for self-checkin at the airport, they become also more and more available for additional services like self-tagging and ancillary services. The Los Angels Times resumes this trend : The growing army of self-serve kiosk computers at the nation’s airports never sleeps, never complains and works fast. And today the [...]