MetaFilter posts tagged with Travel and airlines

Emirates Flight attendants

Heliochrome85 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:05:02 -0800

"Innocuous onboard flirting is condoned: Emirates' rules require attendants to politely accept a business card or phone number if it's proffered by a passenger." Inside the life of an Emirates Airlines Flight Attendant.

Why is your airplane late?

Coop — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:18:02 -0800

Why is your plane late? Airlines can make more money selling 70 airplanes worth of tickets per hour than they could if they limited themselves to the 60 airplanes per hour that the runway can handle. A long but excellent post on what is causing the delays at the airport.

Vintage Flight Attendant Photos

brain_drain — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:07:58 -0800

Remember when air travel was viewed as glamorous and exciting? Of course you don't. So check out this collection of vintage flight attendant photos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

How To Travel With Just One Bag.

brain_drain — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 07:13:28 -0800

Tired of waiting an hour for your luggage? Can't fit all your gear into a tiny suitcase? Struggling to find the perfect carry-on? OneBag can help.

FlightMemory.com - easily keep track of where you have flown

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Mon, 14 May 2007 20:13:36 -0800

FlightMemory.com You must remember this: Passengers can wax nostalgic about flights they made and missed. Launched in Germany last year, this free site made its English-language debut last month.

"You get what you pay for." - Mercedes-Benz S-Class ad.

wfc123 — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:14:28 -0800

Jet Blue Unveils its Image Revival/Damage Control Plan. The low-fare airline rolled out a customer bill of rights Tuesday that promises vouchers to fliers who experience delays in a move it hopes will win back passengers after an operational meltdown damaged its brand and stock price.

The "Love" clearly doesn't extend to handles, fatso.

dw — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 13:44:34 -0800

Southwest's obesity ticket policy nearly strands man with medical condition that causes obesity. SWA's extra fee for fat travelers has been covered before. But what if your obesity is caused by a medical condition? An indigent man dying of late-stage Hepatitis C and suffering from related abdominal bloating is told by an SWA gate agent he can't board a connecting flight to a hospital willing to take his case unless he coughs up money for another ticket -- despite the family getting reassurances before he departed that he wouldn't have to pay due to his medical state. He only boards after an SWA in Dallas for the ticket herself.

How much is that seat in the exit row?

anjamu — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 02:09:39 -0800

Get 'em while they're hot. Northwest Air Lines figures it's gotta pay the bills somehow, starts charging $15 for aisle and exit row seats.

all business (class)

mathowie — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 19:08:29 -0800

After the first time I flew on an upgraded ticket, I wondered why some airline didn't just make slightly more expensive tickets on a plane filled with fewer, roomier seats for those that crave comfort (basically, all business class). Well, it looks like someone has at Eos Airlines. The seating arrangements look fantastic, going from roomy seat area to flat bed to double table with two seats (for a coworker), with privacy and aisle access for all. Unfortunately "slightly more expensive" is pretty high at $5k for NYC to London, though that's cheaper than major airlines. Business Week has the full story on this new venture.

Oh, dear.

mr_crash_davis — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 17:33:17 -0800

JetBlue flight 292 , with 145 people on board, is currently circling LAX, burning fuel while it prepares for an emergency landing with its nose gear twisted 90 degrees.

Travel Aggregators

yankeefog — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 07:16:55 -0800

Upstart travel sites challenge the big three Catering to skinflints who can't be bothered to check multiple sites for the best fares, travel aggregator sites like Mobissimo, CheapFlights, Qixo, or Sidestep allow you to search Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity with a single query, as well as bargain airlines like JetBlue and Southwest, which aren't covered by the big three. (note: Sidestep requires a download, and only works on Windows; the others are all just regular websites.) But maybe you'd be best off just heading straight to an obscure Belgian travel site.

No chance for MeFites

mr_crash_davis — Wed, 19 May 2004 23:03:09 -0800

Want to fly free? Song may accommodate you. All you have to do is be nice.

Chicken or beef?

johnny7 — Sun, 20 Apr 2003 07:31:35 -0800

The horror,the horror. Everybody seems to be an expert on airline travel. Whether it's security issues or the dynamics of flight. There seems to be plenty of places to get it off your chest. With the industry in a nosedive will the survivors have to lift their game. Or just cut more corners to enhance the bottom line. Love those 5 hour on the runway to nowhere tales. Um as long as it's not me.

The Computational Complexity of Air Travel Planning

patrickje — Mon, 09 Dec 2002 13:39:26 -0800

Do you have problems finding the cheapest flight? Well so do computers.
Carl de Marcken, the man who created the engine behind Orbitz and other travel search engines posits that finding the cheapest fare from one point to another is a NP-Hard problem. Even if you fix the specific route between destinations there can be as many as 10³⁶ combinations.

MidasMulligan — Mon, 30 Sep 2002 13:33:53 -0800

Student arrested with boxcutter & scissors. But the thing that really boggled my mind was this: "Since February, we've taken more than 25,000 boxcutters from carry-ons and off of passengers. We've taken more than 500 firearms and 215,000 knives," Johnson said." For one thing, I guess I had never realized how much box cutting went on in the US - but the bizarre piece is the guns. A half dozen I can see, but five freakin' hundred? How can that many people - in the post 9/11 world - still be trying to get serious weapony onto airplanes?

KnitWit — Fri, 30 Aug 2002 06:33:34 -0800

Is anyone going away for labor day weekend? Taking a flight? Check out what your airline may be serving at AirlineMeals.net

jaden — Thu, 29 Aug 2002 09:58:40 -0800

If you've ever flown commercially in the past 16 years, you had to answer two questions about your luggage before receiving your boarding pass. Starting today, they are no longer required since they "never prevented a bombing or hijacking."

protocool — Mon, 03 Jun 2002 15:49:51 -0800

"From a couple of miles up, all trace of humanity has vanished." "Air travel requires an escape from gravity, an escape from distance, and ultimately an escape from our bodies." Courtesy of loudpaper.

mcwetboy — Wed, 23 Jan 2002 08:21:43 -0800

érrorplan is a web site apparently set up by unhappy top-tier Aeroplan members documenting Air Canada's poor service and diminishing benefits to their best customers. Air Canada, as you might imagine, is none too happy about it — especially since thousands of érrorplan brochures have been found in their airplanes and airport lounges around the world. (Frequent fliers indeed.) The airline is trying to track them down and stop them — on the grounds that érrorplan is using their intellectual property. Bye bye, air miles.

holycola — Sun, 09 Dec 2001 11:55:57 -0800

Air travel used to be prestigious and considered quite safe, but no more. It seems like it's just one thing after another this past year for the industry. How much of a beating can such a cash-flow intensive business take? What's your feeling about flying these days?

athensltd — Thu, 25 Oct 2001 18:55:33 -0800

looking for discount travel? forget priceline and travelocity, just score a fake passport, gather all the electronics you can muster, pack yourself in a box and ship it all to canada.

tpl1212 — Mon, 22 Oct 2001 06:50:11 -0800

The Concorde Flies Again After an overhaul of the supersonic jet's safety features (after the July 25 crash near Paris), British Airways' Concorde undertook it's first trans-Atlantic flight to New York. British Airways has also set up a Concorde's Return To Service mini-site...

conquistador — Wed, 17 Oct 2001 12:26:18 -0800

China bans Muslims from flights. Don't like America's solution for airline safety? Try this. I wonder if this policy is temporary, and timed for President Bush's imminent visit to the region, or is this China's long-term solution? How will America respond - condemnation or tacit acceptance? Does it actually make Bush's trip safer?

jeffvc — Thu, 04 Oct 2001 05:28:21 -0800

Sibir Airlines flight downed en route from Tel Aviv. It is not yet clear whether or not this was a terrorist act. It does seem, however, that there was an explosion on board.

Postroad — Sat, 22 Sep 2001 14:10:34 -0800

the passengers on our planes should have the right to bear arms Is this guy, a former pilot, suggesting that we have a constitutional right to carry weapons aboard planes so we can defend ourselves? Is an uzzi ok or a bayonet?