Airlines get ready to test fledging Wi-Fi in flight

From Macworld.com:

In-flight Wi-Fi will eventually take off for passengers aboard some U.S. airlines, but it won’t happen before months of testing and slow rollouts of the wireless service.

American Airlines will have one of the largest deployments, with a formal test expected to start “in the coming weeks,” a spokeswoman said. The test will be performed on 15 jets and will run for as long as six months. Southwest Airlines , Alaska Airlines, Virgin America and Jet Blue also have limited tests or projects underway.

Some airlines have already announced that pricing will be roughly in line with what it might cost to connect to a Wi-Fi network in an airport for a day—about $10 to $12. American has stated that its wireless service will cost $12.95 for flights that are three hours or longer.

Northwest cutting jobs, raising fees

From CNN.com:

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) -- Northwest Airlines said Wednesday it will be cutting its frontline and management work force by 2,500 people, or a little more than 7% of its total employees, blaming capacity cuts stemming from rising oil prices.

The airline also said it will begin charging $15 for a passenger's first checked bag and service fees for frequent-flier tickets. It also will boost fees for ticket changes.

Northwest's rivals have also started cutting jobs and charging extra fees to offset skyrocketing fuel prices.

Earlier this month, American Airlines (AMR, Fortune 500) said it would be cutting 7,000 staff members by the end of 2008. United Airlines (UAUA, Fortune 500) said last month it intends to eliminate 950 pilot jobs on top of previously 1,600 job cuts.

United iPlane

From crave.cnet.com:

United Airlines has been subject to some pretty bad press recently for being one of several airlines to slap a $15 fee on checked bags, but here's a perk: the commerical carrier announced on Monday that it's starting to install iPod and iPhone connectivity features in its airplanes.

I would love if airlines would just focus on making flights more comfortable, safer and cheaper without nickel and dime-ing us.

ISO Good Deals on Flight from LAX to PHL

Since United dropped my favorite flights I've started a search for alternatives. A cool place to look is Farecast.com. Farecast compares flights and prices from several airlines and travel sites, then has a very cool interface to fine tune your selection based on airline, arrival/departure times and other details.

Farecast has a neato Web 2.0 interface with sliders that change the results list in realtime rather than typing in numbers and clicking "Submit" then waiting for the page to refresh.

But what really sets it apart is how it analyzes trends in prices and tries to predict if they're going up or down in the future. You can see the price for your flight in the past, what it would be if you changed your departure or return dates, and what it could potentially be in the next 7 days (with a percent chance).

I also found people mentioning Kayak.com which also does a great job of searching and comparing prices from many sources. But if Farecast's prediction feature works (I'm doing a test on a trip I'm taking in a couple weeks), I could have a new favorite travel site.

What's up with United?

I used to travel alot between LAX and PHL, almost every month. There was a flight out of LAX around 1pm that arrived in Philly that evening. Then I would take an early flight back, getting in before or close to noon.

Now all I can find are these super-early flights on both directions, and a red eye from LA to Philly. It seems like USAir has taken over the morning and midday flights. I liked when United was doing them. Economy Plus rocks. So does being Premiere.

TSNF.

How to handle cancelled flights

From MSNBC.com:

A few years ago, at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, I noticed something strange on the departure boards. American Airlines had three flights scheduled that afternoon from ORD to Boston, and all were apparently operating on time. United, on the other hand, had three flights scheduled from ORD to Boston, but none were operating on time. In fact, all three United flights showed "canceled."

I smelled a rat. I went to the United counter and asked the reason for the cancellations. "Weather."

Weather? The airlines couldn't have it both ways. Either American Airlines pilots were irresponsible, crazy air jockeys who were going to tease the gods and fly into the face of serious storms, or United's official cancellation reason was a convenient untruth.

I checked the weather in both Chicago and Boston: totally clear.

I went back out to the United gates and informed the counter agents that I knew the weather was fine and also explained that all the American flights were operating without problem. And then I invoked Rule 240 — which states that in the event of any flight delay or cancellation caused by anything other than weather, the airline would fly me on the next available flight — not their next available flight, which might not leave for another 24 hours.

And guess what happened? A lot of United passengers made it to Boston that day — on American.