There’s another merger under foot in America’s domestic airline market. There’s been Delta and Northwest, then there was Continental and United, now there’s Southwest and AirTran. Speculation has surrounded Southwest since earlier this month when Reuters covered the release of research notes by Stifel Nicolaus, an analyst at Hunter Keay. Although, this was explaining the benefits of Southwest purchasing Sun Country Airlines to maximise year-round profitability, however Southwest had set their sights, and no doubt budgets, higher with the $1.4bn price tag of AirTran.
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Southwest shows LUV for AirTran
There’s another merger under foot in America’s domestic airline market. There’s been Delta and Northwest, then there was Continental and United, now there’s Southwest and AirTran. Speculation has surrounded Southwest since earlier this month when Reuters covered the release of research notes by Stifel Nicolaus, an analyst at Hunter Keay. Although, this was explaining the [...]
Spanair Malware Update
So the Spanair Malware incident that was all over the internet as of late has started a flurry of false information based on a bad translation of the original Spanish text. I myself read plenty of reports and posted an article on the very subject and will admit that I failed to read the Spanish [...]
DOJ Gives CO-UA Merger the Go Ahead
With the DOJ approval of the Continental United merger, it’s now up to the stockholders to give the final go ahead at a vote slated for September 17th. “The completion of DOJ’s review is an important step on our journey of creating the world’s leading airline, benefiting our customers, co-workers, communities and stockholders,” stated Jeff [...]
The Tipster Traveler: 8 Ways to Beat Baggage Fees
This will be the first in a mini-series of articles aiming to save you your hard earned money every time you fly. Now let’s face it, we all like the cheap air fares and since the birth of Southwest they’ve practically become a constitutional right. However, after paying all the extra added fees to; select [...]
Pay for your bag for you, Sir?
Airline baggage fees, annoying, frustrating and becoming more of a wide spread ‘extra’ that help line the pockets of the airlines. Southwest are probably the best of an all-round bad bunch, they offer up to 2 checked bags, free. They’re followed in a not-so close second by JetBlue offering just the first bag free. The [...]
Southwest shows LUV for AirTran
September 29th, 2010 
Steven 
Spanair Malware Update
September 4th, 2010 SirMoo So the Spanair Malware incident that was all over the internet as of late has started a flurry of false information based on a bad translation of the original Spanish text. I myself read plenty of reports and posted an article on the very subject and will admit that I failed to read the Spanish version, but instead read one of the translated versions. However, after reading the Spanish article with my limited knowledge, I’ve come to understand things a bit better. Read more »
DOJ Gives CO-UA Merger the Go Ahead
September 1st, 2010 SirMoo With the DOJ approval of the Continental United merger, it’s now up to the stockholders to give the final go ahead at a vote slated for September 17th. “The completion of DOJ’s review is an important step on our journey of creating the world’s leading airline, benefiting our customers, co-workers, communities and stockholders,” stated Jeff Smisek in a press release on the two airlines sites. If the vote is approved by shareholders, the merger is expected to close on October 1st where United Continental Holding Inc will take over as the combined company.
The Tipster Traveler: 8 Ways to Beat Baggage Fees
August 30th, 2010 Steven This will be the first in a mini-series of articles aiming to save you your hard earned money every time you fly. Now let’s face it, we all like the cheap air fares and since the birth of Southwest they’ve practically become a constitutional right. However, after paying all the extra added fees to; select your seat, seat your family together or if you have the audacity to want to check a bag, not to forget to save some money for that half-can of coke and a stale, half-salted pretzel on the plane or for a, presumably, fresh pillow and a blanket, that cheap fare begins not to look so cheap.
Pay for your bag for you, Sir?
August 30th, 2010 Steven Airline baggage fees, annoying, frustrating and becoming more of a wide spread ‘extra’ that help line the pockets of the airlines. Southwest are probably the best of an all-round bad bunch, they offer up to 2 checked bags, free. They’re followed in a not-so close second by JetBlue offering just the first bag free. The other airlines offer a range between of anything up to $30 for the first bag, unless of course you fly Spirit Airlines, who are now charging up to $40 for a carry-on… Read more »
Hotel Green Initiatives or Just Mindless Cost Cutting?
August 24th, 2010 Steven We’re used to the nickel and diming of airlines, charging extra for everything to keep the low base cost, but is this practice now moving into the hotel industry under the guise of being environmentally friendly?
We’ve become quite accustomed now to the “Thank You for Helping Us to Protect the Environment” signs in hotel bathrooms, reminding us that to protect the environment they will only change towels left on the floor or in the bath. Of course the cynics amongst us will claim that this is purely a cost cutting measure, the hotels aren’t concerned with protecting the environment, and they only care about their profit margins, but if it helps the environment and keeps the hotel rates down, surely it’s a good thing?
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UK Air Passenger Compensation Hiatus
August 23rd, 2010 Steven There’s now another blow to the UK air passenger. Along with growing Air Passenger Duty, costing up to $265 (£170, €208) per UK departing passenger, now when things go wrong your right to compensation is tangled up in the European court system.
EC 261/2004 is the Holy Grail for any EU passenger who is delayed, denied boarding, had their flight canceled or been forced to sit in economy when they had purchased a premium class ticket. It outlines what the airlines should be giving you when things go wrong. Before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in November 2009, delayed passengers had the right to refreshments, telephone calls and perhaps a hotel and transfers for an overnight delay, whereas those whose flights were canceled were entitled to compensation up to $765 (£490, €600) amongst other things. Since the ECJ’s 2009 ruling passengers on delayed flights have also been entitled to receive this ‘extra’ compensation, a consistent thorn in the side of EU airlines.
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Spanair Malware
August 23rd, 2010 SirMoo Pilot error, acts of terrorism and shoddy maintenance are no longer the only things we have to fear when flying. It seems that authorities are now blaming malware as the main cause of the 2008 crash of Spanair flight 5022. For those of you who don’t know, malware is term used to refer to malicious software designed to infiltrate a computer without the users consent. But what’s worrying is the fact that this was able to infect the primary functions of an aircraft.
When Boeing first started discussing plans for wifi on its 787 aircraft one of the first concerns was “Can it be hacked?” The FAA went as far as to ground the plane so that the system, which made wifi, in flight entertainment, flight controls, navigation and other important systems all interconnected could be modified, in spite of Boeings cost cutting methods to combine them.
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