Alaska Airlines Opts To Stop Handing Out Prayer Cards
For the past three decades, Alaska Airlines has handed out prayer cards imprinted with Bible verses with meals. But the airline will stop the ritual Wednesday, following through on a decision it made last Fall. According to the airline, a marketing executive copied the prayer card idea from a rival airline in order to "differentiate" its service. If you hadn't noticed the prayer cards recently, that's probably because you weren't flying first class. The airline stopped serving meals in coach six years ago.
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Study: Virgin America Keeps Customers On Hold Longer Than Any Other Airline
Holiday travel plans change all the time, meaning lots of people will be spending lots of time on the phone trying to speak to a human being. And according to a new report, passengers on Virgin America should have something to occupy themselves with while waiting on hold, as the average wait time for the carrier is longer than 20 minutes.
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Is In-Flight Advertising Getting Out Of Control?
Depending on the airline you choose, everything from the exterior of your jet to the overhead compartments to your tray table and the back of your seat to your airplane safety video can be sponsored by an advertiser. And considering the amount of revenue being generated by these ads, they probably aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
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Airlines Waiving Re-Booking Fees With Hurricane Irene On The Way
A really nasty woman named Irene is about to swoop in from the tropics and potentially screw up air travel for everyone. So in advance of the hurricane, many airlines are playing nice with their re-booking fees and policies for flights to and from destinations affected by the storm.
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North American Van Lines Won't Move My Stuff, Won't Tell Me Why
John hired North American Van Lines last month for his move from Massachusetts to California. He and his family have made it safely to California, but all of their stuff is still on the wrong coast. And no one can tell them why.
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Alaska Airlines Offers Free Tickets & Miles To Passenger Stung By Scorpion
There's nothing in the Alaska Airlines contract of carriage about arachnid attacks, so when a passenger on board one of its planes was stung by a scorpion, the airline could have easily shrugged it off as one of those crazy things that happen when you're a world traveler. Instead, someone at Alaska Air realized this was an opportunity to go above and beyond.
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Horizon Apologizes To Too-Tall Passenger Booted From Flight
You may remember last week's story of the 6'9" Horizon Air passenger who
was removed from the plane after a flight attendant asked him to move his long legs out of the aisle. Well, over the weekend we received updates from both the airline and the original tipster, and it appears all parties have been able to work things out.
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Horizon Kicked Me Off Plane For Being Too Tall
Consumerist reader Laura writes in to share the story of how her stepfather was given the boot from a Horizon Air flight because of his 6'9" frame.
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Alaska Airlines Delivers Your Bags In 20 Minutes Or You Get 2,000 Free Miles
Reader Andrew is happy to report that taking advantage of Alaska Airline's guarantee that you'll have your bags within 20 minutes of landing is pretty painless. His bags didn't show up after 35 minutes and when he called in they gave him a choice of two different "we're sorry" options.
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Your Complete Big-Ass Guide To Annoying Airline Fees
As reported earlier today, the Government Accountability Office thinks
airlines could do a lot more to be transparent about the fees they charge. And buried about 45 pages deep in the GAO's report are two very helpful tables detailing fees for checked bags and other items that U.S.-based airlines charge extra for.
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Airlines' Approval Ratings Rise
You love the airlines now! Or at least, you don't hate them any worse than you did back in 2007, according to a new survey released by J.D. Power & Associates.
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Huff Post Ranks Airlines On Safety Records
Even the Huffington Post admits that their Safest U.S. Airlines list is a bit unnecessary, considering the excellent safety records of everyone on the list. Still, it's fun to rank things, so
that's what they did. U.S. Airways and JetBlue came in near the top, while Delta, United and Continental came in at the bottom. Regardless, you're likely to remain alive after a flight on any of them.
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Hawaiian Airlines Tops Quality Study, American Eagle Falls Flat
For the second year in a row, Hawaiian Airlines has topped a study that ranks 18 commercial carriers according to a formula that accounts for everything from on-time arrivals/departures to baggage handling to customer complaints. On the bottom end of the rankings was American Eagle.
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Alaska Airlines And Gogo Team Up To Offer WiFi On All Flights
After a year of testing in-flight WiFi on several of their planes, Alaska Airlines announced today that it has partnered with Internet provider Gogo to hook up their entire fleet. So now you'll be able to update your Tumblr page while jetting off to your crab-fishing gig in the Bering Sea.
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People Love Airplane Wi-Fi, But They Don't Love Paying For It
—>The WSJ's latest "Middle Seat" column is about that holy grail for all internet-lovers — airplane Wi-Fi. It turns out that people love, love, love it... but pay for it? Nah. More »
As of August 5th, Alaska Airlines no longer accepts cash on its flights. In their words, welcome to "the convenience of a cashless cabin. Passengers will no longer need to hunt for cash to pay for on board purchases." Finally! All that cash flitting around the cabin hurting people is a thing of the past. [Personal Finance Weblog] More »
All US Airline CEO's Contact Infos
—>This appears to be a giant list of all US airlines' CEO contact info (for instance, the phone number for US Airways corresponds with the information listed on their SEC filing) Shoot your complaints to the top of the totem pole with this information. — BEN POPKEN More »
AirTran Wins, Midwest Loses in Fastest Telephone Customer Service
Here's the results of our week-long investigation into how fast it took airlines to pick up the phone. More »
Time to Human, Airlines, Day 5
All week we've been calling the airlines to see how long it takes their customer service reps to answer the phone. Here's today's rankings: More »
Time to Human, Airlines, Day 4
Midwest, while once again the loser, performed slightly better today. More »
Time to Human, Airlines, Day 3
Nothing can stop us from calling up all the airlines and comparing how fast it takes a carbon-based life form to pick up the phone. Not even the tinkly pianissimo of Midwest's hold line. We foil all the automated response system's attempts to pry out more information about an actual ticket using the short circuit shortcuts provided by GetHuman. More »
Time to Human, Airlines, Day 2
We're calling the major airlines this week to see how long it takes them to pick up. More »
Time to Human, Airlines, Day 1
The statistics train keeps on rolling. We called up many major airlines this afternoon and here's how long it took for them to pick up. More »
