Archive for May 2006

Huge Fire at Istanbul’s Airport

May 24th, 2006 | By Jared Blank

A bit of breaking news:  There’s a huge fire at Istanbul’s Airport right now that’s causing the cancellation of flights because of the smoke.  The fire is in the cargo section of the airport, so passengers are not in harm’s way. 

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Dr. 90210 Restrains Passenger on Flight

May 23rd, 2006 | By Jared Blank

Dr. Robert Rey, the star of Dr. 90210 on E!, helped to restrain an unruly passenger on an American Airlines flight from Austin to Los Angeles.  If you’ve ever seen the show (which, despite my best efforts, I have), he’s the guy who does martial arts.  You’ll know this because in the article I’ve linked [...]

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What Information Is Actually On Your Boarding Pass?

May 22nd, 2006 | By Jared Blank

The Guardian has a crazy story about what people can find out about you from the stub of your boarding pass.  If you care about your privacy, you’re not going to be happy about this.  The reporter found a discarded boarding stub and was able to learn pretty much everything about the guy.  In his [...]

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The Last Word on Standing Room Seats

May 22nd, 2006 | By Jared Blank

Here’s the last word on the now-discredited story (mentioned here twice) about standing room seats that appeared in the NY Times.  The Times’ ombudsman published an article on Sunday explaining how such a flat-out wrong article appeared on page 1 of the Times.  (Answer?  None of the editors really questionned the facts in the article.)  [...]

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Spirit Airlines Low Business Class Fares

May 19th, 2006 | By Jared Blank

Spirit Airlines has a sale on their business class fares and they’re extremely reasonable:  New York to LA is about $500 round trip (even cheaper midweek), while New York to Florida is about $350 round trip (again, cheaper midweek).  Spirit’s business class is roughly on par with domestic business class on the larger carriers, so [...]

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Double Miles on All United Flights

May 19th, 2006 | By Jared Blank

United Airlines is offering double miles on all flights booked between today and May 31st for flights through November 15th.  Unlike most deals of this sort, this is good for all flights around the world in any fare class. 

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Bomb Scare on US Airways Flight

May 19th, 2006 | By Jared Blank

A US Airways plane landed in Boston without incident yesterday after crew members discovered that somewhat had written "boom" on the wall of the bathroom.  That’s really all that happened, but I thought you might want to know.

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US Airways Plane in Piedmont Colors

May 18th, 2006 | By Jared Blank

Warning:  True Airline Dork Alert
First off, I know that 95% of you won’t care about this.  But for the 5% who will, US Airways has unveiled its second airplane in its heritage series, where it’s painting aircraft in the colors of the airlines that have been merged into the current US Airways.  You can see [...]

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Goodbye to Southwest Seating Free For All?

May 18th, 2006 | By Jared Blank

Southwest Airlines is upgrading its reservations systems, a move that could lead to –gasp!– assigned seating.  The Southwest cattle call has been a staple of the airline since its inception and for those of us who like to get to the airport at the very last minute, the reason why we typically end up with [...]

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Snoop Dogg Follow Up…and DMX

May 17th, 2006 | By Jared Blank

A quick follow-up to last week’s story about Snoop Dogg’s arrest at Heathrow Airport:  British authorities now say that he has been banned from ever visiting Britain again (and British Airways says he’s no longer welcome there, either).
And in other rappers-getting-in-trouble-in-London news, DMX was arrested when he landed at London-Heathrow after an altercation with flight [...]

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