I keep writing about turbulence issues to drive home this point:  you are far, far, far, far more likely to be injured by turbulence than you are to be involved in a plane crash, so stop worry about whether airlines are “safe” and keep your seatbelt on.  Case in point:  11 were injured, some seriously, [...]

(Thanks, USA Today…)
Looking for a fun spot to use your United Mileage Plus miles?  Does Baghdad sound good?  I mean, everyone says the so-called Surge has made it safe there, right?  Certainly you can travel there no problem.  And if you have 40,000 Mileage Plus miles you can go there for free:  Turkish Airlines announced [...]

I know you’ve been actively following the case against Jerry Lewis for trying to bring a gun unto a plane, so I thought you’d like to know there’s been a resolution:  it’s been dismissed.  Turns out the unloaded gun was a gift (?) given to him a year ago and he had forgotten (?) it [...]

(Thanks, Frommers)
It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen good air/hotel package deals to Europe, but perhaps the tide has turned:  Go-Today has a 6 night air/hotel deal to Paris in January for just $799 - and that includes the ridiculous airfare taxes and surcharges.  You have to book by September 24th and that price [...]

Yesterday, Air Canada said that they would eliminate their second bag fee and display fuel surcharges in the base fare… fantastic.  Canadian discounter WestJet went one step further and announced they were eliminating fuel surcharges altogether because they said they would once the price of fuel dropped.  Any bets on the first US airline to [...]

Gotta love Air Canada:  The airline announced that in response to lower fuel costs, they wil drop their 2nd bag fee (previously $25).  And in another consumer-friendly announcement, they will build fuel surcharges into base fares, so that if you see a $159 flight, it actually costs $159 (rather than $159 plus $30 in fuel [...]

I’ve seen a bunch of articles this morning suggesting that Qantas has canceled its plans to offer Internet access on the A380 due to fears that passengers will spend the whole flight surfing porn (American Airlines flight attendants are asking the airline to put filtering software on their Internet service.  For its part, the airline [...]

Spanish authorities have released a preliminary report about the Spanair crash that killed 154 people last month.  As a government official notes, aircraft accidents tend to happen for multiple reasons.  In this case investigators are pointing to two concerns:  a cockpit alert system failed to notify pilots that the wing flaps had not extended correctly; [...]

I was away over the weekend, so I wasn’t going to write anything today, but as one of my kids was up in the middle of the night Sunday I checked the news and saw that the writer David Foster Wallace had killed himself.  If you’re familiar with him, you’ve likely already read any number [...]

The impending arrival of Hurricane Ike has caused Continental to close its Houston hub operation until Sunday morning.  Some flights will also be canceled on Sunday, so check with the airline if you have travel on Sunday on Continental.  You can make a one-time change for free or, if your flight has been canceled, get [...]