It’s been awhile since I’ve written about my hometown airport here in Long Beach, so how about an update? The good news is that things are actually moving along quite nicely. Yesterday, they broke ground on the new parking structure and today, I’ve got preliminary plans for the new terminal. [...]
The first true winter storm of the year rolled through the middle of the country yesterday, and that was the first big test for Cranky Concierge. I’m happy to report that we had success. Here’s the story of a client who was trying to get from Chicago to Dallas [...]
That post title doesn’t make much sense, does it? United couldn’t be ordering new planes and shrinking at the same time, right? Actually, that’s exactly what’s happening. United is ordering new planes, but they’re smaller planes to replace existing aircraft. It’s nice to finally see United order an airplane again, [...]
My first use of wifi onboard Virgin America last month made me realize something. My laptop is way too big. Ok, maybe the seat pitch is way too small, but either way it presents a problem. I want something smaller, especially now that Cranky Concierge is starting to take off [...]
Did you guys see this really odd story about some problem passengers on an AirTran flight last month? I can’t quite figure out how this thing blew up to the point where people were thinking it was a terrorist dry run, but it looks like the reports were embellished by [...]
Reason Number 1,423 Why the Essential Air Service Program is a Huge Waste of Taxypayer Funds – BNET
Little Visalia, California is getting a ton of money to maintain air service that nobody uses. Great.
US Airways Pilots Oppose New York Slot Swap with Delta, Defy Logic – BNET
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Everyone remember Lumexis? They’re the guys that showed me their new very light and kind of awesome inflight entertainment system that US Airways tested awhile back. Earlier this week, Lumexis announced that they had signed up their first customer, and I’ve been trying to figure out who it [...]
Oh sure, there are probably a bunch of different routes that could win the prize of being the most overserved these days, but I think there’s one in particular that deserves the win. Surprisingly, it doesn’t even have that many flights, but even one flight is too many. It’s a [...]
For years we’ve heard Allegiant proclaim that they don’t really like competition. They’ve often boasted about how few of their routes have competitors, and they’ve had no qualms about walking away from a route that suddenly performs poorly thanks to new entrants (Greensboro comes to mind). Now, Allegiant has [...]
For those of you who subscribe to Cranky via email (1,500 strong and growing), I’ve made some changes starting today that should be for the good.
There have been reports recently that my emails are ending up in some of your spam folders, and that’s obviously not a good thing. To [...]
Next time you’re in Atlanta and you feel the need to rent a room by the hour, you’ll be able to do it without leaving the airport and heading to a sleezy part of town. Behold, I bring you the Minute Suites.
For world travelers, this is nothing new. You [...]
After a few months of hemming and hawing, Lufthansa has finally started to make its mark on bmi. The airline announced a big restructuring that will involve cutting routes, moving airplanes around, and just generally aligning itself better with the growing Lufthansa empire.
When Lufthansa took control of bmi thanks [...]
What are Scope Clauses and Why Are People Fighting Over Them? – BNET
If you’ve heard people talking about scope clauses and wondered what they are, here’s your guide.
Think a Lot of People are Using Wifi In the Air? Think Again – BNET
Runway Girl Mary Kirby caught [...]
It’s certainly a coincidence that the winner of the signed Southwest timetable is none other than Robert Stack, the author of the True Meaning of Thanksgiving. Robert by far had the most comprehensive entry, and in fact took many photos of timetables, airplanes, and a little alcohol. [...]
Let’s face it – this is a slow news week with Thanksgiving approaching here in the US. Though there isn’t much news, it’s a huge week for traveling. I know I promised to write about what’s happening with Cranky Concierge, and I thought this was a good time for [...]
Is there any airline more sad than Air Jamaica these days? I think not. The latest fight for control of the airline shows just how bad things are there and in Jamaica in general.
In case 
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First Space Hotel Set to Open in 2012 – Asylum.com
I was asked about travel to space. Fun topic, but I don’t see it anytime soon.
Milwaukee sparks air wars – BusinessRockford.com
A thorough piece on what the low cost carrier expansion into Milwaukee might mean for Rockford. I [...]
It’s certainly interesting to watch the Japanese market these days. JAL is turning in record losses and is effectively sitting on a cliff waiting to jump. Meanwhile, ANA has decided to pour a bunch of money into seriously improving its product. This is some pretty impressive looking stuff. [...]
I suppose it’s inevitable. Any time two airlines move closer together, the speculation that it means they’ll merge picks up. Right now, the noise surrounding a United-Continental merger is deafening thanks to the announcement that elite members will now get upgrades on each airline. That doesn’t necessarily mean a [...]
Has there been a stranger courtship than that between British Airways and Iberia? The airlines, which have been talking for years, have finally agreed to merge, sort of. I mean, it’ll get there eventually.
I believe talks began in 1784 when King George III, still sad about losing that whole American [...]
Winglets on airplanes are nothing new. We’ve seen them big and small on all kinds of airplanes. The most visible ones these days are the huge ones that you see on 737s, but what the heck is a sharklet? Well, that’s the Airbus-designed winglet for the A320, and here is [...]
This past weekend, my wife and I were planning on driving up to wine country to spend the weekend with some friends. As the weekend drew closer, I decided that I really didn’t want to drive, so I went to look for flights. Three days before departure, I saw that [...]
American and British Airways Still Waiting for Feds Antitrust Immunity Decision – BNET
The waiting game continues as the DOT has gone past its own deadline for ruling on the BA/American deal. This is getting tiresome.
Capacity Restraint Leads to Fewer Empty Airline Seats in October – BNET
October [...]
Virgin Atlantic has teamed up with Taxi2 (and it’s oddly-registered Tongan website taxi.to) to help passengers share cabs to their destination. This to me is a great idea, but they haven’t taken this far enough. Hopefully this is just the first step.
I remember back in my college days flying [...]
I have never written a more surprising post than this one. Alitalia, the queen of red ink, has actually, shockingly, found that by making more money than it was spending, it could post a profit. This past quarter, the airline made 15 million euros in operating profit (pdf). Holy [...]
You might have seen the Cardinal’s guest post here on Cranky a couple weeks ago on the Association of European Airlines’ (AEA) efforts to protect its member airlines despite there being little to no apparent public benefit. Well, apparently the AEA reads blogs, has no problem commenting on them, [...]
Frontier has been surprisingly quiet about its latest product change, a new premium economy section called Stretch. I saw it mentioned on their Facebook page, and I believe they mentioned it on their earnings call, but I haven’t seen much else. This will be good news for some and [...]
If you think back 15 years ago, the 50 seat regional jet was the hot commodity. People seemed to be willing to pay for jet comfort over a turboprop, and airlines raced to add as many as they could. It’s pretty much been all downhill from there. United is the [...]
Cranky Concierge watches your back – Hartford Courant
More on Cranky Concierge. It’s picking up steam.
Delta Air Lines Rips Into International Association of Machinists – BNET
The IAM has postponed its representation efforts for Delta’s fleet service workers, and Delta is pissed.
If you’re an airline dork, you love timetables. It’s just the way it’s always been. And with Southwest finally issuing its last timetable this year, the era of printed timetables in the US has come to [...]
You cheeseheads may still be hurting from your second Favre-related beatdown this year, but you can rejoice that you now have yet another airline coming to town. SkyWest (yes, the regional airline) will begin flying for AirTran in Milwaukee.
It’s very clear that this is happening because of the AirTran [...]
This may seem like a footnote to some, but just two days ago, Midwest officially stopped flying its own aircraft. That doesn’t mean, as we all know, that the Midwest brand is going away. It just means that now it is nothing more than a brand. So I think a [...]
It’s no surprise that when you make something completely free, people use it a lot more often than if you make them pay. Duh. And that’s why it’s not surprising to see airlines scrambling to find a way to offer wireless internet for free. Just in the last few days, [...]
I know very little about private jet chartering. I’ve never done it, and in fact I’ve never even been on a private jet. So when PR guru Gareth Edmonson-Jones (formerly of Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue) asked if I wanted to learn more about [...]
Continental Joins Star Alliance Tomorrow – BNET
Continental is in no-man’s land as they end their SkyTeam participation and prepare for Star Alliance.
Ontario’s Air Traffic Glut Draws Anger Toward LA – BNET
Ontario’s traffic keeps dropping, and the solution might involve kicking LA World Airports to the curb.
We’ve talked about how Republic’s acquisition of Frontier and Midwest has given the carrier tremendous flexibility in moving its airplanes around between its different subsidiaries. We’ve already seen announcements that Frontier will operate aircraft under the Midwest name, and some of the Republic-operated Embraer aircraft will come to Denver [...]
Yesterday was something of a flashback for me. When United offered just a couple days ago to give me a seat on the last 737 flight before [...]
I’m going to be taking United’s last 737 flight today from LAX to San Francisco and then I’m turning right back around, so if anyone will be at either end, please come say hello. Of course, wasting half my day sitting on an airplane means that something has to give, [...]
It has been plastered all over the news, but I wanted to wait a little until we had more information on what happened. Now that the NTSB has released its early findings, let’s talk. This is a mess.
You know the story – Northwest 188 from San Diego to Minneapolis [...]
Thank you to everyone who commented, emailed, and tweeted about what you wanted to see from the airlines regarding loyalty programs. I joined with Nicholas Kralev from the Washington Times on Friday morning up on the stage to tell the crowd what you said. Did they listen? I’m sure [...]
United Learns That Some People Don’t Want Free Upgrades – BNET
United has now made upgrades free for all elites, but that doesn’t mean everyone is happy. They’re taking away benefits as well.
Slight Gains in Premium Traffic in August – BNET
The IATA premium traffic monitor is out [...]
I know I just wrote about Southwest yesterday, but the news keeps coming. This time, it’s not a new city but rather, putting a couple of existing cities on steroids. Both St Louis and Denver are growing. One of these, I like a lot. Wanna guess which one?
You’re probably not [...]
I mentioned yesterday that I am attending the ARAC FFP Mega Event this week and that I’d be speaking tomorrow. Well, it turns out that I could use your help.
This event is attended by industry people – the same people who are responsible for making changes to their frequent flier [...]
There is a lot of route news for Florida fans this week, but the biggest of all is that Southwest has announced its newest city . . . Panama City. No, this is not the airline’s first foray into Latin America. It’s the other Panama City. The one on [...]
I’ll be at the FFP ARAC Mega Event here in sunny Southern California tomorrow and Friday. We love our acronyms in this industry, but basically this is all about frequent flier programs and ancillary revenue. For the most part, I’ll be wandering around, but I actually will be speaking [...]
I have an Ask Cranky two-fer today as one reader had two semi-related questions to ask. Fortunately, I’ve got the answers (or as close to the answers as I’m going to get).
Hi Cranky,
A couple questions about FAA Regulations.
1) I’ve often wondered why FA’s are free to walk around [...]
“The Cardinal” is back once again with another guest post here on Cranky Flier. I’ve been absolutely swamped with Cranky Concierge’s launch (adding new clients daily), and he had something he wanted to write about. Here, he’s taking on the EU.
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The European Union (EU) has generally done [...]
We’ve seen a million different boarding schemes over the years. First there was boarding by rows, then came group boarding, and now many are going to the all-at-once cattle call strategy. But Virgin America is trying something different. They want to let you board first if you don’t have a [...]
Bloggers offer paid travel services – Washington Times
Nicholas Kralev takes a look at my Cranky Concierge service as well as a frequent flier redemption service from View From the Wing blogger Gary Leff.
September 2009 Traffic Numbers – BNET
September traffic numbers are out and the results are [...]
Both US Airways and United received a present from Uncle Sam yesterday in the form of some hefty fines ($5.4 million and $3.8 million, respectively) for maintenance violations. Should we all run away screaming from these airlines? I don’t think so, but these are both quite serious. The United fine [...]
