Flight Wisdom

Flight Wisdom Brief 3

guru — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:51:40 +0000

Image by Dave Sizer via Flickr As we continue to perfect the Brief, we offer a new opener, as well as a tribute to this Day in Aviation History. Tune in. Notes: American Eagle’s New Service to Augusta WestJet Launches New Frequent Flier Program 787 Begins First Flight Tests outside of Washington United orders 25 A350XWBs Continental Airlines calls Tarmac Delay Rules [...]

WestJet May Have the Right Idea with its New Loyalty Program

guru — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:31:28 +0000

WestJet has launched a new frequent flier program, called the Frequent Guest program. Now, the way that they are organizing this program is unique. It seems to be a program for the average flier, rather than the frequent flier. We recently bemoaned the fact that airlines have effectively devalued their miles by allowing people to accumulate them on every credit card purchase. We know this is a good deal for them, and for many consumers, but it devalues the definition of the term frequent flier. These companies keep devaluing their miles and limiting the number of award seats.

Flight Wisdom Briefing 2

guru — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:57:46 +0000

For those of you who enjoyed the first brief, here's the second one. If you want to subscribe to the brief in your podcatcher, our podcast only RSS feed is here.

Flight Wisdom Briefing #1

guru — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:37:41 +0000

We've decided to try a little experiment here at Flight Wisdom. We're going to record our news and service roundups that you can subscribe and listen to in your favorite podcast software. The new service, which we are calling the Flight Wisdom Briefing, will, if popular, come out at least once a week, if not more, depending on the volume of news to report, and will be supported by links in the post for each episode.

Bereavement Fares and Flying in an Emergency

guru — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:18:11 +0000

We've spoken on the issue of Bereavement Fares before. Bereavement Fares are discounts offered by the airline to those traveling in a death situation.They were usually flat-rate discounts off the unrestricted(highest) fares. In the old days, that could be a significant savings. Now, with such a wide gap between lowest and highest...not so much. You might as well pay the normal fare.

The United Breaks Guitars Trilogy Comes to An End

guru — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:32:08 +0000

Canadian musician Dave Carroll released the final part of his United Breaks Guitars Trilogy this evening, with a live webcast. United Breaks Guitars was an Internet phenomenon, showing that someone, after making a legitimate effort to settle his problems with a company, can call them out in a public forum.

Everything is Going Regional

guru — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:51:34 +0000

We've spent a lot of time thinking about the issues of regional jets. Recently, we pointed out how the Colgan Crash last year had brought to light several issues with the system of regional carriers. The Regional Airline system is based on the idea that a major carrier, let's say Continental, can subcontract out its work to a regional carrier, like Colgan Air. The plane is painted in Continental colors, in little tiny letters by the door it says, "operated by Colgan Air." It used to be, without such airlines and their smaller planes, airlines would never serve certain routes, especially into smaller cities.

This Week in Routes

guru — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:14:09 +0000

This week in Routes...Southwest to start Philly-Boston, United adds service in 13 markets, and more.

The Squeaky Wheel: Social Media, Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines

guru — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:22:02 +0000

It is very hard to write these sort of posts. When confronted with being called a Customer of Size, Kevin Smith complained. He was within his rights to do so, and anyone who feels wrongly singled out should.

Kevin Smith and the Customers of Size

guru — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:15:56 +0000

We hate the debate over large customers, be they big, tall, or both. It never ends. And it invariably gets into an argument about the obesity issue in America. We've often said the only fair thing to do is size the seats to the statistically average American and accept that some people, many through no fault of their own, don't fit the average. Airline seats, as we've mentioned before, are narrower than a standard office chair, for example.