In other airline, hotel & travel industry news this week… The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) reported a 4.8% decrease in tickets processed in July through which virtually all airlines account. A total of 11.6 million air transactions were settled through ARC, the lowest figure for July transactions for the last six years. This could be…
Airlines (General)
Category Archives for Airlines (General).
Airline, hotel & online travel agency website usability study
A web usability surveyor based in Amsterdam named Usabilla just published results detailing user experiences on airline, hotel and Online Travel Agency websites. Participants were asked to perform simple tasks, such as “where would you click to get your boarding pass,†and leave additional comments about layout and other site features or functions. The full…
Videos: Airline Global Distribution Systems explained, with a bit of humor
Eventually I’ll get around to posting a detailed description and history of Global Distribution Systems (GDSs), but in the meantime check out these videos from Everbread. The UK-based travel technology company put these together in part to explain the method by which airline reservations have been booked since the 1950s, but also to expose the…
Delta hits and misses; American rewards; death by airfare; LAX grows; Tiger flies; cheap hotels and terrible IFE
In other airline, hotel & travel industry news this week… I’ve flown Delta Air Lines and have had pleasant experiences, but as most know the SkyMiles program for redemption opportunities remains the most ridiculous of the majors in the U.S. The good right now: Delta is giving a 100% bonus on purchased and transferred miles…
Airline ticket tax holiday short-lived, but long-term FAA funding far more critical
The partial shutdown of the FAA ended yesterday, but it’s only a temporary reprieve and I still hold firm in my disgust of politicians and their ability to hold citizens hostage from their employment. Sixteen days went by where airlines didn’t have to collect federal taxes that fund not only the salaries of Federal Aviation…
US Airways sues pilots, mechanic steals; new airline routes; GDS extensions and profits galore
In other airline, hotel and travel industry news this week… Late last Friday US Airways filed a lawsuit against… its own pilots. Upset with what they’re calling an “illegal slowdown” by some East (read: US Airways) pilots, the carrier claims their West (read: America West) pilots are far more efficient in minimizing delays that impact…
Testing airline response times and accuracy to question submitted online
A couple of weeks ago I decided to pose the same question to a number of airlines to see how quickly & accurately they would respond with an answer. While many airlines don’t publish an email for general questions, they do have online forms available to reach customer service or other departments with questions. I…
The politics behind funding the FAA
Politicians disgust me. The idealism of the democratic process our nation runs on is a lovely principle in theory, but in practice it’s just ridiculous. I used to expend energy on being an active engaging citizen, but I gave up that position years ago. Yes I still vote, but I absolutely cannot be entertained into…
Airline ticket tax “holiday” reduces all-in airfares effective midnight last night
[Midnight on Saturday 7/23: It looks like Alaska Airlines, Frontier & Virgin America are the only three airlines remaining who haven’t increased their fares to compensate for the tax break. It was nice while it lasted.] Due to congressional gridlock, a deadline was passed at midnight last night without resolution causing several federal air travel…
2010 enplaned passenger summary for LAX and SFO airports
I recently took a look at some of the detailed passenger data for both Los Angeles and San Francisco airports and compiled the chart & graph below. Los Angeles is the third busiest airport in the United States behind Atlanta and Chicago, and handled about 59 million passengers last year. San Francisco comes in at…