Tag: airports
Four Savvy Tips To Find Low-Cost Airfare For Your Next Trip

Four Savvy Tips To Find Low-Cost Airfare For Your Next Trip

Everyone loves a good deal. Almost everyone loves to travel. It only makes sense that the intersection of the two, in good travel deals, would appeal to a very wide audience.

Airlines, however, have made finding a good deal difficult. In 2008, airlines began charging fees on checked baggage. Although they suffered from bad publicity at the time, the airlines knew that if they held their ground, passengers would eventually accept the additional fees. They were right. A generation of travelers has grown up with these fees and now accept them as part of the cost of flying. These baggage fees have turned into a $5 billion profit center for the airlines.

Similarly, shortly after the terrorist attacks and wars in the Middle East caused the price of oil to spike in the early 2000s, airlines imposed “fuel surcharges” on all airline tickets. Even though the price of jet fuel has stabilized and crude oil costs less than a third of what it did at its peak in 2008, the fuel surcharges (now called carrier fees) are still assessed on every airline ticket.

These fees and surcharges make it that much more important to find the best fare possible. Here are some ways to find low-cost airplane tickets:

Be Flexible About When You Fly

Supply and demand dictate the price of airline tickets. Whether an airline sells one ticket or 140 tickets on a flight, that airplane has to fly. The airline has to make sure that flight is as profitable as possible because fuel costs, crew expenses, and taxes must be paid regardless of the number of passengers. Consequently, fares will always be lower on flights that are undersold, and higher on flights that are oversold.

Certain days of the week and times of year are less expensive to fly. These will vary by destination, again according to supply and demand. For example, flights to Chicago for Presidents Day weekend might be cheap, while flights to Miami for the same weekend in February might be very expensive.

Most people who travel for work or pleasure fly at the beginning of the week or the end of the week. As a result, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays usually see fewer travelers (and fewer airline tickets sold) than Mondays and Fridays. Airlines will often cut prices to sell tickets for flights in the middle of the week to try to fill those airplanes. Flying on a holiday, like on Presidents Day, can save money since most people prefer to fly before or after a holiday.

Unfortunately, burglars can also use the popularity of Friday through Monday travel to target your home. A home burglary occurs every 13 seconds in the United States. Many of these burglars case your home and your social media timeline to make sure you are not home when they strike. When you travel, make sure your social media is set to private or that you avoid posting about your travels until you return home.

Use Online Resources

Search sites for airline tickets provide a wealth of information about ticket pricing. Kayak, for example, shows pricing trends so you know whether you should buy or wait to buy based on whether the ticket price has increased or decreased.

Skyscanner provides information on the carbon output of flights, so you can account for the environmental impact of your flight choices in addition to the price. And Travelzoo allows you to search over a range of dates to find those hidden cheap flights on a Tuesday morning that you might otherwise miss.

Be aware, however, of scam sites that are not real travel booking sites. Scam sites collect your personal information and either use your payment card to run up bills or steal your identity to obtain new payment cards and credit accounts. Do your research on these sites and, above all else, be wary. Nearly 50 percent of consumers think that their security habits make them vulnerable to identity theft or other information frauds.

Time Your Purchase

As mentioned above, Kayak offers a feature that allows you to see the price trend for airfares. However, these price trends may be influenced by many factors, such as holidays, travel seasons, natural disasters, and oil prices. Summer, for example, has higher airfares to tourist destinations, while airfare may drop after a hurricane or other natural disaster.

Barring unexpected events, the window for finding good deals on domestic flights is usually one to three months before the flight and two to eight months for international flights. One strategy would be to begin monitoring airfares before this window begins to get an idea of the starting price. This allows you to identify a good deal as you monitor the airfares during the recommended window. But beware of waiting too long. When you see a price you like, you should snap it up because ticket prices can jump suddenly.

Check Regional Airports

Sometimes you will be able to fly into another airport close to your destination and rent a car or take a train for less than flying direct. For example, Sanford Airport, 24 miles from Orlando, is often cheaper to fly into than Orlando International Airport. Likewise, airlines often have less expensive fares to Baltimore than Washington D.C. Since Baltimore and Washington are connected by rail, flying to Baltimore is often a cheap alternative to flying directly to the nation’s capital.

Some airfare booking sites allow you to search for alternative airports. Checking the box to include regional airports in your search can save tens, and sometimes hundreds, of dollars on airline tickets.

Finding good deals on airfares is facilitated by good online tools. Moreover, knowledge about the days of the week and times of the year to travel, as well as alternative airports available for travel, can save you money the next time you fly. You might even save enough to stay an extra day at your destination.

Are Airlines Padding Flight Times?

Are Airlines Padding Flight Times?

By Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

About a decade ago, Joe Nolan, a semi-retired electrical engineer from Palm Desert, Calif., could expect to hop on a flight at Palm Springs International Airport and arrive in San Francisco 55 minutes later.

Now the flight is usually scheduled for about 90 minutes. Nolan suspects that airlines are allotting more time for each flight to make it easier to meet their arrival schedule.

“It tells me that the on-time statistics are worthless,” he said.

Nolan might have a point. A study by a British company that collects and analyzes travel data concluded that airlines around the globe have been padding their flight schedules for nearly 20 years.

In the U.S., on-time performance rates for commercial airlines have been on the rise and airline executives have boasted about the percentage of flights that arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time.

The study by OAG Aviation Worldwide looked at several routes around the world to conclude that the “block” times set aside for many flights have been growing since 1996.

For example, OAG looked at more than 1,400 flights scheduled between Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport in 1996 and found that no flights took longer than 90 minutes, according to the study. By 2015, nearly half of the flights scheduled between the two airports allotted between 91 minutes and 110 minutes, the study said.

On average, the allotted time for flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco increased 8 percent from 1996 to 2015, the study found.

The OAG study suggested that airlines have added the extra travel time so they can post better on-time rates but also to help carriers deal with growing congestion on the airport tarmac.

“At airports which are congested, airlines need to keep schedules realistic so their timetables are reliable,” the study said.

A spokesman for an airline trade group rejected the idea that commercial carriers are increasing the time allotment for flights just to improve on-time performance.

“We have the same goals as our customers, which is to get them, their luggage and packages to their destination safely and on time,” said Vaughn Jennings, a spokesman for Airlines for America, the trade group for the country’s airlines.

MOST TRAVEL PLANS TO EUROPE UNCHANGED

Despite the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, nearly three-quarters of travel managers for major U.S. corporations say their travel plans to Europe remain largely unchanged.

That is the finding of a survey of nearly 170 U.S.-based travel managers who were questioned by the Global Business Travel Association, a trade group for the business travel industry.

In fact, only 10 percent of the travel managers said they have temporarily suspended travel to Paris in the wake of the attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more. An additional 16 percent said they made only “slight reductions” in their travel plans to Europe, according to the survey.

The U.S. State Department issued a worldwide travel warning last week, urging U.S. citizens to be extra vigilant when traveling abroad, especially in public places, in large crowds and while using transportation. It was the third such “worldwide” warning in as many years.

“Extremists have targeted large sporting events, theatres, open markets and aviation services,” the warning says.

AMERICAN AIRLINES WORST FOR LOST BAGS

Among the nation’s biggest carriers, American Airlines has the worst record for losing and mishandling luggage.

In the first nine months of 2015, the Forth Worth-based carrier lost or mishandled 4.04 bags for every 1,000 passengers, compared with an average rate of 3.31 lost or mishandled bags for the country’s top 13 biggest airlines, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

But when American Airlines lost the luggage of Adrianne Haslet-Davis, it became big news. Haslet-Davis is a dancer who lost a leg during the Boston Marathon bombing. The misplaced luggage contained a prosthetic leg and other parts she uses to dance, valued at $250,000.

Haslet-Davis reported details of the mishap on Twitter. She didn’t give her travel itinerary but said the leg wouldn’t fit in her carry-on luggage.

When the bag was found last week, Haslet-Davis tweeted that her leg had taken an unexpected side trip:

“My leg really (loves) to travel! Just found out she took detour to Puerto Rico.”

©2015 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo:  REUTERS/Carlos Barria 

 

Tracking Glitch Cancels More Than 200 Flights On U.S. East Coast

Tracking Glitch Cancels More Than 200 Flights On U.S. East Coast

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — More than 200 flights were canceled at airports along the U.S. East Coast on Saturday due to a problem with a flight-tracking system in the Washington, D.C. area, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

There were 220 flights canceled during the busy summer travel season on the East Coast as of 2 p.m. ET, with airports in Baltimore and Washington being among the hardest hit, according to flightaware.com, which monitors global air traffic.

By comparison, large and severe weather systems in the United States can cause more than 1,000 cancellations in a day.

Thousands of passengers were also affected as several hundred flights were delayed up and down the Atlantic Coast, including the area around the nation’s capital and the financial center of New York. Some of the worst waits were seen at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, which saw departure delays of more than three hours, it said.

The FAA said in a statement it was working to diagnose an automation problem at an air traffic center in Leesburg, Virginia. It planned to provide updates when more information was available.

“We are directing high altitude traffic around the affected airspace, the FAA said in the statement. It added the problem had nothing to do with an accident or computer hacking.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert, Will Dunham, Jon Herskovitz and Letitia Stein; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Alan Crosby)

Photo: An Airbus A330-301 plane at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport via Wikimedia Commons

Drone Close Encounters Surge As Lawmakers Demand Tighter Rules

Drone Close Encounters Surge As Lawmakers Demand Tighter Rules

By Alan Levin, Bloomberg News (TNS)

WASHINGTON — A significant increase in close encounters between passenger aircraft and drones is prompting demands from U.S. lawmakers for tighter regulation and enforcement to avoid a fatal collision.

Pilots on four airliners spotted an unmanned craft on Sunday as they approached Newark Liberty International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said in an e-mailed statement. The FAA in recent weeks received dozens of reports about drones too close to aircraft fighting California wildfires and near-collisions over airports in New York, Minneapolis and Austin, Texas.

“Without common sense rules, I believe it’s only a matter of time before there’s a tragic accident,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said last week in an e-mailed statement.

Feinstein and other lawmakers are demanding that regulators revise existing law to plug a loophole sparing recreational drones from the regulations. They are also are seeking the use of software that would prevent drones from flying in prohibited areas.

The near-collisions cast a cloud over a voluntary education campaign run by the drone industry and the FAA, and may undermine efforts to create a low-altitude air-traffic system that would enable commerce, such as the delivery services planned by Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. Company officials have said the only way such a system can work efficiently is if participants follow rules.

“The FAA recently has seen a significant increase in pilot reports of unmanned aircraft near airports,” the agency said in the statement, without giving a total. “It is unsafe and illegal to fly an unmanned aircraft anywhere near a manned aircraft, and may result in fines of up to $25,000 and criminal charges.”

Even lightweight drones sold in hobby stores, such as the SZ DJI Technology Co. Phantom, can endanger aircraft engines and structure as much as a small bird, according to the FAA.

The agency now gets several reports a day of drones flying too close to planes and helicopters, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said in an interview. That’s more than double the rate in the most recent FAA report, showing an average of 41 drone incidents a month in September and October.

The FAA says hobby drones shouldn’t fly higher than 400 feet or travel within 5 miles of an airport.

In the four cases near Newark, a drone was spotted at 2,000 feet to 3,000 feet high as planes approached from the southwest en route to landing, according to the FAA.

Feinstein said the law needs to overcome a 2012 exemption that blocked regulation of drones flown for recreational purposes and weighing less than 55 pounds. That attempt to protect long-time model aircraft operators has led to a lawless and confusing atmosphere, Feinstein said.

“Consumers need clear rules on when, where and under what conditions they can operate, and manufacturers must be required to install basic technological safeguards,” she said.

Feinstein said the law should include clearer limits on the altitudes flown by drones and set a ban in urban areas, according to a statement June 18 when she introduced her bill. Global-positioning technology on some consumer drones should also automatically be programmed to prevent them from flying in banned areas, according to her legislation.

After the wildfire incidents, 20 members of Congress from California wrote to the FAA also asking it to require technology on drones that limits where they can fly.

On Aug. 4, the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, an umbrella group for transportation unions, urged the FAA to slow commercial drone application approvals until it could develop “enforceable safety rules.”

The FAA is drafting separate regulations for small commercial drones. While it finalizes the rule, it has approved more than 1,000 applications to fly drones for business under a waiver program.

Photo: A drone flying in the air. Drones can disrupt legitimate air business. Don McCullough via Flickr