My travel guru/buddy “Hey Dar” points out Delta is boasting that they screw up a lot on baggage, since the bags are supposed to be on your flight. In case you missed this news around the Thanksgiving holiday, Delta says it’s the first U.S. airline to add baggage tracking to its app for smart phones and mobile devices. Delta says its Delta mobile app now allows customers to track their checked luggage. The app currently is available for Android, Windows and and iPhone devices. Delta says it expects to have a BlackBerry version available in “early 2012.” The mobile-device app…
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I just don’t understand why Air India didn’t just charter a bus for these people – their flight into London Heathrow was diverted to Gatwick, a little over an hour away. There are regular express buses (called coaches in the UK) between the two airports and there’s even regular scheduled bus services that are really cheap (the fare is about 25GBP). Instead, they were forced to sit on the plane for up to 9 hours while Air India waited for a rested crew to show up to fly the plane from Gatwick to Heathrow. If they’d been put on a…
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Oh for CHRIST’S SAKE. Yes, security is important, but security theater is impotent. An entire US Airways flight was evacuated and the pilot placed a passenger under citizen’s arrest after he refused to pull up his baggy pants, reports NBC Bay Area.According to his mother, her son initially refused, saying that his hands were full. His mother says he then went to his seat where he pulled up his pants.The airline says the passenger refused to get off the plane and that’s when the pilot placed him under arrest. He was later charged by police with trespassing, battery and resisting…
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Big WIN for WN on this story – it’s a terribly sad story, but this pilot’s exemplary actions make it easier to take. My condolences to Mr. Dickinson and his family. CNN — Time was running out, and Mark Dickinson wasn’t sure whether he’d get to see his dying 2-year-old grandson one last time. A long line at Los Angeles International Airport’s security checkpoint had kept him from getting to his gate on time. His grandson Caden would be taken off life support in a matter of hours in Denver, Colorado, with or without his grandfather’s presence, according to CNN…
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One of the crappy mobile phone pictures I took today – Tomasz came as the Tooth Fairy with a little purse, wings, and combat boots. He was very popular with the guys for some reason. Tom was in the back as Fred Flintstone. Annamaria was a scarecrow, and Nancy was crouched down in front, dressed as a chicken and possibly pretending to lay an egg.
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After hosting a dear friend from college who’s traveling on an Amtrak USA railpass this month, I’m happy to see this news. In fact when I told my workmates about my friend’s epic journey to Glacier National Park, now they want to try it too… just not without using Amtrak’s horrible reservations system, “Arrow.” Maybe an improvement to one of our tools sometime next year will make it easier to book the occasional business traveler. That said, I’m a rail fan, and I really wish the US hadn’t turned its passenger rail systems into a few tourist routes and a…
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Looks like there’s going to be lots of bad travel karma this weekend and into next week, as many flights into and out of the Iberian peninsula are canceled due to another hiccup from the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano. BBC News – Volcanic ash cloud hits transatlantic flights Hundreds of transatlantic flights have been cancelled or delayed by a cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano drifting south over Western Europe. Sixteen Spanish airports – including the international hub, Barcelona – are closed, with many flights being re-routed around the affected area.
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… and as a business travel arranger, I’m curious to know how this is going to effect me in the months to come, too. Some of my business travelers may benefit, but many of my guys are based in Houston (CO’s southern hub) and other Midwestern cities – NOT Chicago or Denver (UA’s main hubs). They don’t fly United much except for some of the ones that like the early morning ‘daylighter’ flights to Britain from Washington or Chicago. How the Continental-United merger will affect business travelers – USATODAY.com Now that United Airlines and Continental Airlines have tied the knot,…
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I had it yesterday – a client called in by cell from a large commercial ship to arrange a change to his return as it was about to arrive in port. It was a windy day, and it was hard to hear him. Suddenly, the ship’s horn blasted in my ear repeatedly, a hugely oppressive honking noise like “WHORNK! WHORNK! WHORNK! WHOOOOOOOOOORNK!“ It was impossible to hear, as it went off 10 or 15 times. After making sure he was okay and not under some kind of attack or in a raging fire, we just laughed until it was finished.…
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@dropdeadchris, this post’s for you! Thanks for the kick in the butt. It is indeed high time I got back to REAL blogging and not just Tweeting, Google-sharing, or posting del.icio.us links here at Blogula Rasa. My team at work has been decimated by whatever bug is going around the office; my supervisor noted on Tuesday that we were going to have a “legendary” week. There’s a slight chance there could be one of us at work tomorrow on my team: me. But only if my only other healthy team-mate has some emergency problem with her mom, who’s had some…