If you have every had the experience, as I had, of arguing with a ticket agent in JFK for 15 minutes that he is about to send you bags to SJO (San Jose, Costa Rica) and not SJC (San Jose, California) then you understand the benefits of knowing the 3 letter abbreviation for the airports you are traveling from/to. But how do airports get their designations and why do some of them seem to make no sense at all?
From ABE (Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, Pennsylvania) to ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland), airports around the world are universally known by a unique three-letter code: the “International Air Transport Association (IATA) Location Identifier” in aviation-speak. It’s obviously much easier for pilots, controllers, travel agents, frequent flyers, computers and baggage handlers to say and write ORD than the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois—but how did this practice start, and why are some airport codes easy to understand (ABE and ZRH) while others seem to make absolutely no sense (ORD)? Well once upon a time, before the editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Colonel Robert McCormick suggested a name change as tribute to pilot Lt. Cmdr. Edward “Butch” O’Hare, United States Navy, there was an airstrip well to the northwest of Chicago with a quaint, peaceful name—Orchard Field.
It seems like each day when I open my news reader, newspaper or email I see more information about additional fees that the airlines are charging their customers. Rarely this this a change in the ticket price itself. All of these fees are also additional to the taxes and airport fees that get added onto a ticket. When all is said and done a $300 airline ticket can easily cost $450.
Air Canada said passengers who opt to pay an additional $25 one-way on short-haul flights and an extra $35 one-way on long-haul routes within North America will receive “speedy” access to “specially-trained” customer service agents who will help rebook flights on Air Canada or other airlines, as well as pay for hotel stays and meals, if necessary.
Delta matched earlier moves by United and USAirways to charge $25 for a second checked bag. This fee ” will not apply to first-class or business-class customers or members of Delta’s frequent-flier program who log at least 25,000 qualifying miles of travel per year.”
JetBlue also announced a fee for seats with more legroom, a practice used by United for many years.
Delta Airlines boosted its unaccompanied-minor fee — the charge to transport a child between the ages of 5-14 flying alone — from $50 to $100 each way on a nonstop flight, the same it has been charging for connecting flights.
Frequent fliers will be charged a $25 “handling fee” for award tickets booked over the phone with a Delta representative that include a segment on a partner airline, such as Alaska or Northwest. That’s on top of an increase from $20 to $25 for booking any type of ticket on the telephone.
Delta, based in Atlanta, also said it will boost the charge from $75 to $100 for taking a pet in the cabin, and will raise the cost of taking an oversized bag from $100 to $150.
Northwest’s fee for children traveling alone on connecting flights also goes up to $100 for tickets issued after today.
Part of what is starting to drive passengers crazy is the unpredictable nature of the fees. My boss and another co-worker recently took a weekend trip from London to Estonia. There was no extra fee for luggage on the way to Estonia but $300 in fees for the return flight which was more than the cost of the tickets.
In these days of rising jet fuel we have seen ATA and Aloha airlines cease flights recently and Alitalia is reported to be close behind them. Fees like this are likely to continue to increase until passengers start complaining or more importantly traveling less. So what can you do?
Pack lighter
Pack your lunch
Dress warmer (you may not have a blanket and it takes bulkier clothes out of your luggage
Pack your own headset
Don’t call the airline if you can use their website instead
London’s Heathrow Airport opened its new terminal five to great fan fare. The new terminal is state of the art and will be the new home of all the British Air flights into London. The implementation of the Open Skies treaty was even delayed so this terminal could be finished. Work on this terminal (including planning) has been going on for 20 years. But, the terminal opening has been plagued with problems.
In the chaos that is terminal 5 at least 430 flights have been cancelled and 20,000 bags have been lost in the first week of operation.
About 6 percent of the baggage British Airways has handled in the past four days still has yet to reach its owners, the spokeswoman said. The carrier, Europe’s third-biggest, is already Europe’s worst airline for lost luggage and the second-worst for delayed bags, according to the Air Transport Users Council.
The term national embarrassment has been used by the British Press. The Times Online has published a web site with a game where you too can be a baggage handler at Heathrow to see just how hard it is. I see the problem, either the game was broken or it was a good simulation of the problem as I was not able to deliverer a single bag.
To make matters worse for the Heathrow reputation, Time published a story recently about the the number of homeless who have taken up residence in the airport and the Sun published a story that 4 cups of coffee at Heathrow can cost up to £361,514.97.
The new terminal was built at a cost of 4.3 billion pounds which is over 11,894 cups of coffee. So if they can sell 11,890 more they can pay off the whole project.
ProTraveller had a recent article about the “Top 10 Most Dangerous Airports” in the world. If you are not yet afraid of flying the videos in this article will fix that.
The top of the list is the old airport in Hong Kong (closed in 1998). Watching a 747 make a quick left onto the end of the runway just as it is landing makes one wonder who ever thought this was a good idea.
The Kai Tak Airport served as Hong Kong’s international airport from 1925 to 1998. This airport was notoriously hard to land at because of the maze of skyscrapers and mountains in the vicinity, frequent strong crosswinds and the fact that the runway was located in Victoria Harbor on a man-made strip of land. The approach to the world-famous runway 13 at Kai Tak involved grazing skyscrapers in a densely populated city, and then making a sharp right-handed turn immediately before the runway where one miscalculation could spell disaster. Not only was it tough for pilots to navigate the approach, but crosswinds made it even more difficult to keep the plane steady during, and after, the final 47° right-handed turn towards the runway. Surprisingly, there weren’t many plane crashes at Kai Tak, but there were plenty of close calls – mostly due to unstabilised landings.
In a scene right out of the movie The Terminal a man has been living in one of the London airports. Unlike the movies, this story does not, at least not yet, have a happy ending.
A homeless chef was locked up today after making Gatwick airport his home for THREE years.
“Cheeky” Anthony Delaney ate, showered and slept at the busy airport, brushing off security staff who stopped him more then 30 times.
He told his lawyers he was happier staying there because he was “clean, dry and warm”.
In fact he rarely left the busy south terminal, popping out only occasionally to collect his Jobseeker’s Allowance, the court was told.
In scenes reminiscent of the Steven Spielberg movie The Terminal, Delaney passed his days watching holidaymakers and airline staff going about their business.
A court was told he did not suffer mental health problems, was neither a drug nor alcohol addict, and did not cause “a stink”.
The Daily Mail had this picture showing the airport at St Bart’s in the West Indies. I have had some interesting landings on short island runways but nothing like this where passersby actually felt the need to duck as the planes came in.
If you have run into problems understanding some of the new airline security rules then you are not alone. Knowing this, but not wanting to have a lot of long drawn out conversations with passengers in the security line at Newark and elsewhere, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has created a new blog where they will respond to user’s questions and feedback. According to an article at ComputerWorld:
TSA Administrator Kip Hawley noted on the blog that there is no time for agency personnel to answer passenger questions during the airport screening process. Screeners have no time to explain to passengers why they are asked to do certain things and can only demand that they follow orders. The blog, he said, provides a forum to explain processes and to allow passengers to suggest changes to the TSA checkpoint processes.
“One of my major goals of 2008 is to get TSA and passengers back on the same side, working together,” Hawley wrote. “We need your help to get the checkpoint to be a better environment for us to do our security job and for you to get through quickly and on to your flight. We will not only give you straight answers to your questions, but we will challenge you with new ideas and involve you in upcoming changes.”
Here at Tripinator we applaud any effort to open the lines of communication. (Granted we would say that anyway just to stay off “the list”).
If you have every had the experience, as I had, of arguing with a ticket agent in JFK for 15 minutes that he is about to send you bags to SJO (San Jose, Costa Rica) and not SJC (San Jose, California) then you understand the benefits of knowing the 3 letter abbreviation for the airports you are traveling from/to. But how do airports get their designations and why do some of them seem to make no sense at all?
In a scene right out of the movie 
