Archive for January, 2007
January 17 2007
Prince Carl Philip of Sweden was held overnight by police at Miami’s airport last September after he showed up without a visa. The prince was flying from Caracas to Washington, DC, through Miami and because of a mixup in Venezuela, flew without his normal security staff. He also arrived without the correct visa. When he told immigration officials in Miami that he was the prince of Sweden, they did not believe him (as you can imagine) and held him in custody for the night. Everything was straightened out by morning and the prince, to his credit, laughed off the whole thing. Har har har (or its Swedish equivalent).
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January 17 2007
A friend of the OTR writes:
"After being delayed for 5 hours last night in the Manchester NH airport, all of the services behind security had closed. The only ones open, of course, were the ones outside of security, which you could see through a giant glass wall, not unlike the cage Lechter was in in silence of the lambs.
My brother and I decided we wanted ice cream. There was a Ben and Jerry’s open outside of security, so I
went out of security to get ice cream for both of us. Walking back through security with two ice creams, the
security guy stopped me and said I couldn’t pass through security.
I asked him why, he said: "We’ll sir, it is a cream."
"Of course it is."
"According to TSA regulations you cannot bring creams or gels over one 3 oz past security."
…keeping America safe, one cone at a time.
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January 16 2007
For reasons I still don’t understand even after reading the story 3 times, Airbus’ CEO dropped his pants in front of US Airways’ former chairman Stephen Wolf to help seal an aircraft deal. It really should make more sense than that. Perhaps he’s one of those guys who likes to drop his pants. I really don’t know. That said, the pants dropping worked.
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January 16 2007
A poster at Flyertalk has shared a way to get an $11 (plus $11 in taxes) ticket from New York to Pittsburgh on JetBlue. It’s good on a round trip as well. What a bargain.
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January 15 2007
Due to the OTR’s incredibly generous vacation policy, the staff is off today for the holiday. We’ll be back tomorrow.
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January 12 2007
American Airlines has stopped selling its domestic business class tickets and all international tickets on Expedia. As they’re continuing to sell these tickets on other online agency sites, we can assume that they’re in a disagreement over distribution costs. Nearly every other airline that has dropped Expedia has come back after re-negotiating terms.
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January 11 2007
Here’s an obscure one:
Pacific Wings, which flies in Hawaii and has been beaten down by competition from Mesa’s Go! entering the market, is trying to get back at Mesa. How? They’re going to enter the intra-New Mexico market, which Mesa dominates, relying on the government’s Essential Air Service subsidies. Have you fallen asleep yet? No? Good. Pacific Wings says they will serve some of the same routes (Albuquerque to Clovis, Albuquerque to Silver City), but will not require subsidies. These routes will be flown in a 9-seater Cessna. Comfy! Without the subsidies, Mesa would likely have to abandon the now-profitable and now-government-subsidized routes. Who ever thought that a fight over Lihue-Honolulu would shift to a fight over Albuquerque to Clovis?
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January 11 2007
The WSJ is reporting that Delta has been in talks with Northwest Airlines about a potential merger. Odd that Delta had been swearing that they wanted to remain independent while at the same time talking to Northwest. I’d be interested if anyone can explain why they’d be interested in Northwest (still in bankruptcy) and not in US Airways (profitable). Thoughts?
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January 10 2007
If you’re a frequent flyer, you’ve probably received some sort of communication from your favorite airline asking you to beg congress to grant them a new route to China. Unless your favorite airline is United, you’re out of luck. The DOT granted United the right to fly from Washington, DC, to Beijing, beginning in March.
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January 10 2007
After saying that it wasn’t going to increase its offer for Delta, US Airways has increased its offer by about $1 billion and 11 million shares — certainly not a small amount of money. According to US Airways, this is above what Delta has claimed to be its valuation given its standalone plan. As I’m not a financial analyst, I have no idea whether this is a good idea or not. We’ll see where US Airways’ stock opens today to see what people think (yes, I know, this was lame. I just can’t pretend to know where Delta should be valued. I still think, though, that jamming together Delta and US Airways before America West is fully merged with US Airways is a mistake. But what do I know.)
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Swedish Prince Held Overnight by Security at Miami Airport