When I went to Cleveland with Sara Keagle to appear on the daytime talk show “Good Company” on October 6th, I had the great pleasure of flying on United Airlines.  Actually, I only flew “United” because just five days earlier the merger between United Airlines and Continental Airlines was legally approved and the name officially changed to United.   I flew on a Continental jet with a Continental crew, and I got to experience native Continental service. We ...

When an off duty flight attendant nonrevs on another airline (or even their own) it’s a common courtesy to introduce themselves to the working crew. As flight attendant’s during boarding we’re scoping out our “ABPs” or “able bodied persons” to assist us in the event of an emergency. The best ABPs are law enforcement officers or fellow crewmembers.   Recently, I was working a redeye flight from Phoenix to Fort Lauderdale. During boarding this woman ...

I imagine some were shaking in their boots at online travel booking sites today when Google announced their $700 million acquisition of ITA Software. As previously mentioned the search giant has been working on a deal with the travel search engine for some time now.

Airfare search is a huge business. If Google becomes the defacto airfare search engine, as it is now for web searches, it will play a game changing role in the online airline ticketing business. Even if Google continues to ...

Speaking of airlines lobbying Congress, I doubt the airlines are happy about this news:

Hate those hidden airline fees? A provision was added to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, passed by the Senate earlier this week, that would require airlines and online travel agencies to clearly disclose all fees associated with the cost of a ticket, including holiday surcharges, baggage fees and seat assignments. 

I think bait and switch tactics constitute fraud, so despite my general laissez faire attitude, I support the goal of this bill.

We discuss some of our favorite travel websites this week. Specifically we discuss:

• TripIt for travel itinerary organization
• FareCompare for price comparison including their flyertalk tool designed for finding fares that might make good mileage runs
• FlightCaster for ontime flight predictions

Please comment below or email us your tech tools for making traveling simpler and more rewarding.

We will be recording our next podcast live in LA next weekend. Stay tuned for more info on the upcoming show.