This week marks the 5th anniversary of Online Travel Review.  As we head into the new year, I wanted to thank everyone for continuing to read after all these years.  For the handful of times that writing this site starts to feel like a (unpaid) job, I’m reminded frequently that people (for some reason) seem [...]

On Friday, United announced a new strategy to try to improve on-time performance: bonuses. The company will give $100 for ranking in first, and $65 for a second-place finish or reaching a company goal (which wasn’t explained in the press release).
According to the most recent Air Travel Consumer Report, United’s on-time performance hasn’t been the [...]

In a bit of a surprise, the FAA has downgraded Israel to a Category 2 safety rating, meaning that El Al cannot add any additional service to the US.  The rating has nothing to do with airport security, and everything to do with the country’s system for ensuring the safety of airplanes.
Other category 2 countries [...]

You may remember the mid-air collision in Brazil of a Gol 737 and an ExcelAire business jet.  William Langewiesche (a really excellent writer) has a somewhat controversial piece in this month’s Vanity Fair (read it here) about the crash.
Over on Cranky’s blog, a pilot friend of his has written a long, detailed and really interesting [...]

Following in the footsteps (sort of) of Spirit’s $9 fares, JetBlue is offering $9 fares between Boston and Buffalo for 9 hours until 6pm today (the 9 is in honor of Ted Williams, whom they are celebrating because JetBlue is now a sponsor of the Red Sox). Fares are good for travel January 6 [...]

A pilot for Britain’s FlyBe refused to land at Charles de Gaulle on Tuesday because of heavy fog at the airport, and chose to return the Q400 aircraft to Cardiff.  The pilot, a 30-year veteran, had not yet completed low-visibility training on that type of plane, and felt that the smart decision would be to [...]

Good to end the year on a high note:  A couple is suing United Airlines because flight attendants on a flight from Osaka to San Francisco gave the man what may have been an excessive amount of wine.  After consuming said wine, the male part of the couple proceeded to, excuse my language here, kick [...]

It’s time again for the OTR’s nearly annual 10 Strangest Airline Stories of 2008. While we don’t have anything as good as my all-time favorite (Farts Lead to Flight Diversion), there are some gems. With that, here we go:
10) A Nevada brothel offers to reimburse American Airlines’ $15 checked bag fee for visiting [...]

Cruise lines, seeing their bookings fall with the slowing economy, have taken a unique (and old school) approach to turning the tide (so to speak):  they are increasing commissions to travel agents.  Royal Caribbean has upped commissions by 1% and increased co-op marketing funds, while Silversea has raised commissions to an impressive 25%.
I mention this [...]

Travel agencies reported that their total sales dropped 20% in November over the same month the previous year, bringing their total sales to $4.8 billion in the month, a number not seen since 9/11. Even worse news for airlines: the sales drop was even worse than the drop in airline traffic, suggesting that [...]