Well, another nail in the coffin announced today for the airline industry... and then us. American Airlines announced that in June it will start to charge $15 for your first checked bag! SO not only do you get the beauty of paying for a flight (now at already higher ticket prices and reduced in-flight services), paying for that flight does not even guarantee you a spot for at least 1 bag! This is such a slippery slope and it begs the simple question..
What are you paying for when you buy a plane ticket?
If you can't even get a single bag for free for your ticket.. Wow.. so what is next.. we have to buy the ticket + pay for the bag + pay for the cleaning of the plane? Maybe for the use of the bathroom?
Well.. we know how this scenario plays out... let the pile on begin. If AA is the nation’s largest carrier, who will be next to follow? United, Delta, US Airways. We know it is just a matter of time. We also know, once they institute a fee and people start to accept it, they never roll back those fees. So, this is not a short term deal in our opinion.
Oh.... and on a side note, AA also plans to cut flights, raise existing fees for services like 'reservation help' (whatever that is) and oversized bags (not good news for the cyclists of us who take bikes to races), and layoff workers.
5.21.2008
AA Takes it to the Next Level.. Charging for your FIRST Bag Now!
5.10.2008
Ready For More Fees + Higher Ticket Prices? Yet Again
As if the rising gas prices we are paying at the pump to fill up our cars is not bad enough, it was just announced that the top 3 US Airlines - United, American, Delta - are jacking up domestic round-trip airfares by $20 to "offset the rising fuel costs". Delta raised it TWICE in 1 week, and you know what that means.. yep, the others jumped on board to match it.
MSNBC pointed out that in some cases, "that means passengers on some cheap flights could be paying more in fees and taxes than for the airfare itself." This is because the taxes and surcharges we already pay are about $130 per round-trip flight and that is higher than the actual base fare on some shorter flights.
So, in the end airlines have been raising airfares, adding and creating new types of ''surcharges", cutting amenities and services, charging for extra bags and legroom while at the same time, cutting back flights (choices, routes and schedule selection).
Maybe "Higher Prices & Less Choice" would have been the more apropos title for this entry.
5.09.2008
5.04.2008
Update: That BAD BAD BAD BAD Idea Has Official Opposition!
According to a recent series of reports, it seems the USA version of cell phone usage proposed by the European Union for European flights over EU airspace and predicted to then be coming to USA carriers has been put on hold.
Thank God!
It was reported this past week that the Committee on Transportation Infrastructure have introduced the H.A.N.G. UP Act (Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace) for US operating flights. The bills goal is to ban cell phone calls on all commercial flights in the US, while still allowing the use of soon to be introduced wireless services for texting, emailing, and other computer communications while flying.
Awesome!
According to MSNBC, "Advocates of the HANG UP Act claim consumers are overwhelmingly opposed to having cell phone service on airplanes. As proof, they point to a poll sponsored by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and the National Consumers League. In that survey, 63 percent of those polled were against in-flight cell phones, 21 percent were in favor of allowing in-flight cell phone calls, and flight attendants in general were concerned about having to be the ones to referee disagreements they were sure would erupt if in-flight cell phone conversations were permitted."
Well, we might not be able to hold off this off forever.. but in our estimation, the longer the better as very little good can come from cell phone usage at 30,000 feet. The last things we need at 30,000 feet are obnoxious endless ring tones, loud talkers and chatty talkers ... The population cannot even control their rude and selfish cell-phone usage on the ground, imagine in the air where they have nothing better to do and are competing with others on their phones or engine noise just to be heard.
4.14.2008
HELP.. Still a Few States Without Airport Gym Listings! Do You Know Of One?
Do you know something we do not?
So, summer is just around the corner. That means.... lots of travel for active travelers. Though we do have well over 150 airport gym listings (including recently added listings for IA, HI, NC, FL) the following states are yet to have a single airport gym listed after all these years. Help us help others by providing us with some listings for these states with no listings yet:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arkansas
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Nebraska
- New Mexico
- North Dakota
- South Carolina
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
Do you have a listing to recommend we add? Contact Us if so and help us add at least 1 to each of these remaning states!
AirportGyms.com Now Has Maps!
That's correct, you can now click a link in each listing, "Click to see a local map", that will then open a window and show you a Google map of the airport and sorrunding area. Then, you could zoom in/out, move the map around, click a larger map and even get driving directions to/from the address of the airport gym (if provided)! Pretty cool, huh?
Our future goal is to integrate it more and make it even more user friendly, but this is a good start and a pretty helpful feature.
We hope you find it a useful feature.
Want to see it in action? Click here, pick a state of your choice and click the map link to see a live example.
Want to know more about Google maps and how to use them? Watch this YouTube video...
4.07.2008
Okay.. Now This is a GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT Idea!
A city with bike sharing services! Cool. Bicing, Barcelona had made it happen, on a big scale. And now... it is heading to the good old USA in 2008; Washington, D.C. to be exact.
Again, not totally in the vein of the stories we comment on, but close enough to peek our interest. Although the Barcelona model is not the first to do this, they have certainly refined it. The advent of GPS, RFID tags (radio-frequency identification) and automated payment kiosks have made systems more secure and user-friendly. However, I can recall, for many years when I would go train and race in Boulder Colorado each summer, picking up one of those beat down rickety spray painted green bikes seen near the college area, cruising around to my destinations, and then leaving it for someone else. Then doing it again the next day. As a matter of fact, on more than 1 occasion I also fixed some of these bikes - I have mad bike mechanic skills - as I felt one good turn deserved another and it was my way to give back. At the time, I remember thinking just how progressive that plan was and how often I used it and saw others use it, and wondered why it it was not in use in a more organized fashion.
Well, according to an MSNBC story, the Bicing, Barcelona bike sharing model, launched in 2007 and boasting 400 stations with 6,000 bicycles to rent, is coming to Washington, D.C. this May. And yes, you rent them. But, the upside catch is it is a self service system (no store front, no one to check in with) and you can return them to any station you choose and keep them, short term, as long as you need (i.e., no hour, 2 hour, half day limit), though research is showing the vast majority of users spend less than 30 minutes with their bikes. No need to take it back, like a movie rental, to the exact station you got it from. Payment, made by a kiosk or subscription fee, are an annual membership or a sliding scale based on the amount of time the bike is being used, or a combination of the two.
The Washington, D.C. launch - reportedly started and maintained by SmartBike DC - will initially offer annual subscribers access to 100 bikes at 10 stations in the city’s central business district. Other cities, including San Francisco and Chicago, are eager to follow suit the story reported, while European cities like the Paris operation, Vélib’, tout more than 20,000 bikes being available at over 1,400 stations, spaced 250 to 300 feet apart!
Okay.. this is a BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD Idea!
Though this story has little to do with the normal topics we cover in the travel arena, it is so bad, we felt the need to comment.
It was announced this week that 27 nation European region will allow mobile phones on airplanes - allowing travelers to make and receive calls through onboard base stations (a computer system that will link up GSM phones to a satellite and then to ground networks). UGH! I can only imagine.. listening to some chatter box talk endlessly on their cell phone, talking loudly to overcome engine noise and others, and then add to that.. dozens of others doing the same. I can just imagine trying to sleep on one of my European flights - which I will be taking to race in Italy this summer - and being awakened to the endless chatter and ringing of cell phones.
Simply.. this is a very bad idea. People cannot even control themselves and their narcissist usage of cell phones as it is on the ground, now we want to cut them loose to use them on planes? The ONLY saving grace here is hopefully the prohibitive cost of placing a cell phone based call at above 10k feet - yes, there will be a surcharge - will make this service slow to catch on and stall it from widespread acceptance.
Cell phones would, for safety and security concerns it was said, not be available during takeoff, landing or during turbulence. Oh great, that only leaves umpteen other available hours of endless seat mate and passenger cell phone chatter, and horrible endless obnoxious ring tones. It was noted that EU overseers of this 'freedom' asked airlines to set in-flight etiquette rules to ensure a balance between those wanting to make calls and others who in need of a few hours of quiet-time. Uh, yeah.. but come on, you are dealing with people, who are generally selfish in nature.
4.05.2008
The Domino Effect.. Continental to Jump on Board the "Second Bag Charge Express"
Following close behind United, and this last weeks announcement by Northwest, Continental Airlines said Friday it will ALSO begin charging some passengers $25 to check a second bag in an effort to help offset rising fuel costs. This policy goes into effect immediately for all US, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands destinations. Canada gets it starting May 5.
Continental said that while there is no change in the checked bag policy for customers traveling in first class and BusinessFirst, customers who buy economy-class tickets with 'certain fare types', and are not elite members of the airline's frequent flier program (who still get 2 bags of course), may check one bag at no charge, but will have to pay a $25 service fee to check a second one.
UPDATE: announced 4.28.08.. American Airlines, the nation's biggest airline, is the next to jump on board starting May 12th.. shocked?
So to recap, as of today: United, American, JetBlue Airways, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines.
