Wifi Comes to the Sky on Delta Airlines

Delta Airlines will outfit it’s entire fleet of 330 planes with WiFi by the summer of 2009. So you will be able to surf the net, send emails and read the local news at 35,000 feet. Delta is partnering with GoGo Internet service. The cost of surfing on Delta will be $10 on flights 3 hours or less. $13 on flights over 3 hours. The only thing you will not be able to do is make phone calls on the net with a service such as skype.

30,000 feet over the Pacific Northwest

No Customer Service at United Airlines Reservation Dept

 

United Flight Board at O'Hare

I just got off the phone with a United Reservation agent. I don’t know what country he was in, but it was no where near the United States. I was trying to use a denied boarding compensation ticket voucher I received because I was bumped off a United flight from Seattle to Chicago a few months ago. This agent did not know which end was up. I told him I was flying from Chicago O’Hare to Las Vegas. He then asked me if I was flying out of Ontario CA, I told him I just said I was flying out of O’Hare. He probably has never even been to O’Hare. I told him that I wanted to use my Denied boarding voucher. He told me I would have to mail it to a PO box and have it postmarked by Monday to use it. Well, I told him Monday was a holiday, Labor Day and there was no way I could have it postmarked by Monday Sept 1 as the post office is closed on Sunday and Monday. He said he was sorry but I had to have it postmarked by Monday. I could not believe it. I told him that he was making it very difficult for me to make this reservation and then he insulted me by telling me I was the one that was making it difficult. What a jerk! I then said, OK, I will go to O’Hare tomorrow to pick it up. He said I would have to get it ticketed at O’Hare by 7PM on Sunday as the ticket counter closes at 7PM. I told him that there are flight out of O’Hare after 7PM, how can the ticket counter close at 7PM. He told me people can check in but they cannot buy tickets. Now how ludicrous is that statement. What if you want to take a flight at 9PM but you don’t have a ticket. Well, if you talked to the agent I talked to, you could not buy a ticket. Maybe United should just close up shop and call it quits, as their employees don’t know what the hell they are talking about. Needless to say, I did not get my reservation and I just said thank you and hung up the phone in discuss. I will try this again tomorrow. Maybe I will get someone that can help me and not criticize me.

Delta goes to $50 on Second Checked Bag!!

 

Delta aircraft taking off

Delta Airlines announced today that they are increasing the fee from $25 to $50 for a second checked bag. 

I have to give credit to Delta for not charging for the first bag. American, United and US Airways are charging $15 for the first checked bag.

Delta states that the fee increase is essential to generate the necessary revenues to offset record fuel prices. What they don’t get is that people will just stop flying or cut back on how much they fly. This is not the answer, it is just a ban-aid.

I don’t know when all of this airline fee nonsence will end, but it has to end soon or soon there will only be 2 or 3 airlines left. Until then, hold on to your wallets….it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

If it has wheels, some people think it’s a carry-on

I guess this is my rant for this week. I just returned from a flight on American Airlines from Las Vegas. I was in boarding group 4, I don’t know how I always get in boarding group 4. I check in at home 24 hour in advance and I still get boarding group 4. But anyway, I board the plane and get to my seat, an aisle seat on a 757 and sit down. Within 30 seconds, this women comes down the aisle dragging this huge suitcase and bumping into everyone that has an aisle seat. She gets to my row, row 21 and stops. Now mind you, there are maybe 15 people behind her and now she is standing in the middle of the aisle with this suitcase (yes it has wheels) that should have been checked. I have no Idea how she got it through security. Now everyone is backed up out the door of the plane waiting for her to hoist this boulder into the overhead rack. So she tries to lift this thing by herself into the overhead rack. After the first try, it fell on an empty seat. The second try it fell on the passenger in row 20. I get up to try to help her and it falls on me. There was no way that the suitcase was going to fit into the over head rack the way it was packed. So she starts taking things out of this suitcase and putting it in her carryon bag. Well, to make a long story short, the flight attendant was able to finally cram that thing into the overhead after she emptied about 2 pounds of stuff into her carry on bag but now there was no space for any ones carryons except hers.

So, please the next time you fly. Be respectful to your fellow passengers and bring a small carryon that will fit without any problem in the overhead rack. And remember, just because it has wheels, does not make it a CARRYON!

Ok, I feel better now.