Updated: March 13, 2011, 6:45 AM

Q: I have a credit from an unused Delta flight that expires at the end of May and I don’t think I will be able to use it before then. are there any other options for applying that credit to something else, such as a membership to the airline’s club lounge or buying duty free on board?

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The man who pays his way

Saturday, 5 February 2011

“Millions of extra holidays protected as Government confirms Atol reform” – who could argue with such a good-news story, revealed this week by the Department for Transport? Me, for one. see if you agree.

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ATLANTA/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Major U.S. airlines cancelled more than 6,300 flights on Wednesday for a second straight day as a monster winter storm paralyzed air travel and threatened to erode revenues for carriers hit the hardest.

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SOURCE: InvisibleHand

  Jan 31, 2011 08:00 ET

LONDON–(Marketwire – January 31, 2011) – InvisibleHand (getinvisiblehand.com), a company focused on helping consumers automatically find the best prices online, today announced the inclusion of U.S. domestic and international airfares in its price finder tool. according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 52 percent of consumers now make travel reservations online and with the steady climb in airline fares1, travelers want to be sure they have found the best deal.

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 Add your view

there is no such thing as a ‘natural demand’ for air travel. demand depends on price, and on other options. if carbon emissions from air travel were properly priced, budget airlines stopped useing cheap tickets as bait for their sales pitches, and businesses started to rely more on virtual meetings, passenger numbers might not increase.- fred, london, 18/01/2011 15:19You are quite right Fred. Air demand needs to be managed, not just in the UK but worldwide. If the argument is that “we won’t be competitive unless we provide more aviation capacity” then the world needs to take a long look at itself, technology and peak oil. Remember: we have a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. we are not going to achieve that by building the THames Estuary Airport and catering for the insatiable air demand that Boris is predicting. - Peter, Kingston-upon-Thames, 18/01/2011 22:39 Report abuse

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MORE than $1 million a week is being spent on air travel by the NSW government, with staff working in the Health Department alone taking more than 30,000 flights in the past financial year.

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ask anyone who flew before 1978 about the golden age of air travel, and they probably won’t hesitate to tell you about the glories of pre-deregulation flying.

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Yesterday afternoon, as we were closing this week’s issue of Time, I ended up in a debate with one of my editors over how the air travel system had responded to a December of terrible weather. I’d written a short piece coming out in the magazine describing the travel Armageddon the storm had created for airline passengers—not just in new York, where all three airports were closed for a time, but well beyond, as the ripples from the storm extended around the world. I argued that the thousands of flights canceled by the storm—and especially the difficulty the airlines experienced trying to rebook passengers—was at least partially a consequence of an overburdened air travel system, one that lacked the flexibility to deal with an extreme event. as Nate Silver noted yesterday, the average load for a domestic flight through the first 9 months of the year was 82%, the highest figure since the Department of Transportation began tracking. (Silver writes that a decade ago, the figure was closer to 70%.) that change is partially due to airlines choosing to cut back on flights and raise profit margins (every empty seat is a waste), but that leaves far less excess capacity to absorb those tens of thousands of bumped passengers. as a result, customers have been left waiting days for rebooked flights, with many still sleeping on the terminal floor of airports like new York’s JFK. and that’s not even including the airlines’ utterly overwhelmed customer-service lines—read Tom Scocca’s post on the airlines’ useless robo-phones over at Slate.

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By Christopher ElliottTribune Media Services December 19, 2010

It’s been more than two years since most major airlines “unbundled” their fares and began charging passengers for the first checked bag. And although air travelers are now paying more for their luggage than ever – $2.7 billion last year, compared with just $1.1 billion in 2008 – they are deeply unhappy about it, according to a new poll.A survey of more than 1,000 travelers by the Consumer Travel Alliance suggests air travelers are more upset about the checked luggage charges than any other airline fee. asked what they missed the most about air travel, 56 percent said it was the ability to check their first bag without paying extra. Roughly 20 percent said they missed meals, and slightly fewer – 19 percent – missed the ability to make a confirmed seat reservation. about 5 percent of respondents missed the free pillows and blankets.“It’s almost impossible for the casual traveler to go without luggage, or even the road warriors who have to stay over several nights,” says Robin Edelston, a frequent traveler from Cos Cob, Conn. “And charging for checked luggage encourages people to cram stuff into the overhead bins when the airlines should be encouraging people to stow it in cargo.”Airlines have used these and other surcharges, such as ticket change fees, to return to profitability. Last week, for example, US Airways president Scott Kirby said his airline expects to bring in $500 million in so-called “ancillary” fees this year, recording a net profit of between $450 million to $475 million.“A la carte revenues represent 100 percent of that profitability,” he said.Passengers know the fees are an important source of revenue. But it doesn’t seem to matter.“It’s good for the airlines because they are picking up a lot of money in fees,” says Tab Stone, a pediatrician from Los Angeles. “It’s like the words in the old Tom Lehrer song, ‘Now there is a fee, for what she used to give away for free.’ But they’re terrible for the passengers who are screwed over by having to pay for everything separately and having differing rules and fees for every airline and waivers of some fees for paying with the right credit card or being a higher-level frequent flier, or flying in a slightly higher class of service or who knows what else.”One reason luggage fees are so problematic to airline passengers is that there’s a perception the fees are being charged in a dishonest way. when the fees were added, airlines suggested the change would be a temporary measure to offset higher fuel prices. But the fees stayed, even when fuel costs dropped.Travelers are used to their bags flying with them at no additional cost, and that becomes a challenge when they’re fare shopping.“The problem is, there’s no comparison point,” says Mitchell Weinstock, an air traveler from San Jose, Calif. “As long as the airlines never present what the full ticket cost is at the time of sale, compared to the unbundled price, it is nothing more than a unsubstantiated claim that these parts would add up to the whole bundled price, or the bundled price may have been a better deal. they can change the price on any of the elements and you have no idea if they are telling you anything useful.”A proposed federal regulation would change that. The government is considering a requirement that airlines quote a “full” fare, including all mandatory charges, as well as that full fare plus the cost of baggage charges that traditionally have been included in the price of the ticket. if the rule is put into effect early next year, it might effectively end flier’s frustration with baggage fees.One thing the federal government can’t regulate, because it is impossible to quantify, is airline service. beyond baggage problems, airline service was what air travelers say they missed more than anything.“I miss the courtesy and helpfulness of the airline staff,” says Lee Bice, an IT director from Tampa. “where once travel was a pleasure, it feels like a minefield. too many attendants give off an air of irritation and I feel we may be imposing on them.”Christine Austin, a bookkeeper from Louisville, Ky., says so much has been removed from the air travel experience that she dreads getting on a plane.“All the joy and thrill of flying has been sucked out of the experience,” she says. “every part of flying has become a hassle from making the reservation, to packing, to getting through security, to cattle herding onto the plane, having to stay in your seat virtually the entire time, and hope your bags have made it to your destination.”Travelers say it can’t continue like this.“The devious ways of hiding the true cost of flying is not acceptable in any other industry,” says Bob Rosenberg, a salesman from new Fairfield, Conn., adding that a government crackdown is inevitable, at some point.“I think that the airlines are the worst-managed industry that we have in America,” he adds.Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at

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Fliers frequently complain about the hassles of air travel, but they say some airlines deserve kudos in a survey released today.

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