AirlineIndustry

Anyone using the electronic kiosks to check in for a United Airlines flight now must learn how to navigate three more added fee hurdles. That's because United has rigged its check-in procedure with a onslaught of three pitches to load up more extra costs. If I had pressed the wrong buttons on a...

The New York Times reports that while even complimentary mini bags of pretzels inch closer to extinction, airlines are dreaming up new elite categories for frequent fliers -- complete with perks and prestigious titles. A quick sampling of the new clubs: Continental Airlines' Presidential Platinum...

Travelers of the world, we may be witnessing a sort of airline hari kari. The union for cabin crews at British Airways, a carrier that is already tottering toward fiscal disaster, is pressing for 12 days of strikes. That would cripple the airline at a price of $50 million per day. BA, which began...

Now that airline fees are part of the furniture, we venture to the next new wrinkle in the sky. Airlines, knowing their bottom lines depend on surcharges, are learning to make those surcharges less painful by offering higher quality for them -- or, at least, pretending to. Take Midwest Airlines....

Consumerist points out US Airways' new coach-class snack menu, which resembles a poorly stocked room-service fridge. Among the highlights: Planters brand trail mix for $4, Pringles potato chips or Twizzlers for $3 and Maruchan ramen for $3. As any college student can tell you, a package of ramen in...

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics came out with its periodic survey of airfares, and the downturn in travel showed up in the numbers. Prices dropped 9.1% compared to late last year, the largest per-quarter drop in recorded history. It's worth noting that the statistics don't include what...

Have you noticed that suddenly, the headlines seem to be filled with airplane accidents?It's not your imagination. In 2007, there were 17 major air crashes. In 2008, there were 19. But the Flight Safety Foundation reports that so far this year, there have already been 11 crashes, and if we continue...

The British, as a culture, have come a long way since swiping the Elgin Marbles from Greece. They still won't give them back, of course, but the British are nonetheless inscrutably accountable these days. If their elected leaders so much as replace a broken water heater on the public dime, the...

As newspapers die and take substantive news with them, the Internet is turning into a carnival of odd tidbits. The weirder or more alarming the story, the faster word flits from screen to screen. This week, a prime nugget from the News of the Weird had to do with Spring Airlines, a fledgling...

They said it couldn't be done. USA Today almost couldn't do it. It took a week for a reporter there to sit down and sort out all the assorted extra fees that that the airlines are charging. The paper's table will be current for about a week, because more unexpected and unheralded fees are being...