More craptacular news from the airlines


Wow, is it depressing to keep reading about the cuts that are being made…

US Air is removing the in-flight entertainment systems from almost all their planes.  Only the planes that cross oceans will keep them.  Apparently no one is buying the headphones anymore (shocking!), likely in large part because they don’t actually show movies on the system anyway.  They figure to save a lot of money on fuel with the cuts by removing the weight from their planes.  At this point the only thing they have left to remove from their planes are the passengers, who may be leaving of their own volition at this point as US Air continues the race to the bottom.  In a strange coincidence the Wall Street Journal actually lauds US Air in a column this week for their stellar 65% on-time performance.  The sad thing is that 65% is actually second best of the airlines.

Also in the news is that Northwest is moving to align their WorldPerks program with their soon to be buyer, Delta.  In this case it means more fees for passengers redeeming miles for tickets ($25-100) and checking a first bag ($15).  Some exemptions on some of the new fees for the folks who fly the most, but it does reduce the value of the frequent flier program and increase the overall cost of travel for many folks.

Bad news all around.

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Seth Miller

I'm Seth, also known as the Wandering Aramean. I was bit by the travel bug 30 years ago and there's no sign of a cure. I fly ~200,000 miles annually; these are my stories. You can connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.