Death To Heathrow! Long Live Heathrow!

There’s all kinds of political drama going on in Britain about Heathrow, an airport recently described by the Times of London as “unlovely and unloved,” which is surely an understatement.

The Labor government would like to add a third runway to Heathrow, which has somehow been managing to be the world’s third busiest airport with only two. But there’s lots of opposition, including some within the Labor party and plenty more from environmentalists.

Also, London Mayor Boris Johnson would like to close Heathrow and build a new airport on a man-made island in the Thames estuary. (Wired’s Autopia blog has more on that.)

I haven’t been there in 20 years, so I decided to find out what the British public thinks. In perusing online commentary, I found disagreement on how — and whether — to proceed with airport development. But I discovered a near unanimity of opinion regarding Heathrow in its current state.

“Nightmare” and “embarrassment” are the favored terms, but I also turned up “squalid and unfriendly,” “a sprawling monstrosity,” “hell on earth,” “truly diabolical” and “a right hovel.”

I like that. A right hovel.

Cheetah Gets Loose In Cargo Hold

Yes. Really.

Travel Deals Emerge In Buyer’s Market

Arthur Frommer has a roundup of bad news for the travel industry in his blog. And, ever the consumer advocate, he points out the good news in this for the budget traveler:

“… in these times of economic recession only a chump pays full price for any travel purchase. The suppliers of travel are hurting so badly that all of them are open to negotiation.”

Indeed. Gene Sloan at USA Today’s Cruise Log blog points out that Royal Caribbean is discounting cruises.

And it turns out that air travel bargains are not dead. Several airlines are lowering holiday fares. And I’ve seen other deals, including fares from the East Coast to Hawaii for less than $500. (See airfarewatchdog.com or TravelZoo for details.)

Luxury hotel are offering bargain packages. For example, the luxurious Venetian in Las Vegas is listing rooms from $119 a night. And on and on …

United Goes All FedEx

United Airlines will now ship your luggage door to door — for a fee. And it ain’t cheap.

United will have your luggage picked up at your home or office by FedEx and delivered to your destination the next day for $149 per bag for flights of less than 1,000 miles and $179 for longer trips among the 48 contiguous states, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. That’s one way.

The catch is, you have to fly United to be eligible for the service.

Anyway, United will still fly ME across the country for less than that.

Delta And Northwest Make Merger Final

The ink wasn’t dry on the license from the Department of Justice when Delta and Northwest rushed to the altar and made their merger final today.

Never mind that Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was leaping out his seat to protest, as Terry Maxon points out on the Airline Biz blog at the Dallas Morning News. The DOJ wasn’t listening.

So what does this mean to you, the airline customer? Not much, at least for a while.

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TSA Plans To Lift Liquids Restrictions

There have been some doubts about the restrictions on bringing liquids onto planes since the rules went into effect two years ago.

“We have to be willing to make these kinds of sacrifices if we’re going to prevent scientifically impossible terrorist attacks,” declared The Onion.

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American Airlines 1, Kayak 0?

I missed this, but the Cranky Flier didn’t: American Airlines has apparently patched up its tiff with Kayak and its sister site, SideStep. That means American’s fares are now displayed on those meta-search sites again.

But Cranky poked around and concluded that Kayak caved to American’s demand that it show only links to the airline’s own Web site when it displays fares for American flights. Other sites that sell American tickets, such as Orbitz, seem to be shut out.

An airline’s site usually has the lowest fare, anyway, so the consumer is not necessarily harmed in this case. But then some consumers might prefer to use an online agency for a few bucks more. And even those who don’t might find this trend unsettling.

Travelers trust metasearch sites like Kayak because they deliver thorough, unbiased fare comparisons. I hate to see anybody mess with that. After all, less information is rarely good for customers. 

I also wonder wheter the big travel sites – Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia — are going to get up in American’s grill about this.

Photo: Bryce Canyon, Utah

I took this photo in July 2001 from the rim of Bryce Canyon in southern Utah. I was transfixed by the endless weird red rock spires. They’re called hoodoos, which seems to fit.

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Boutique Airlines And Premium Economy

Joe Brancatelli has flown OpenSkies, and he likes it. He also likes the idea behind it — a new class of service with many of the comforts of business class at a much more reasonable price. I’m not likely to catch a ride like that soon, so best listen to Joe.

Vacationers: Let’s Keep Going

There’s little doubt the economic crisis is going to be bad for the travel industry. But I’m determined that it won’t stop me from vacationing, And I believe I can manage that, even if my family’s economic situation deteriorates sharply.

I grew up as one of seven children in a hard-working middle-class family. I never got on an airplane or stayed in a hotel until I was an adult. (And now I blog about airlines and tourism. Go figure.)

But as a kid, I traveled a lot with my family. One of my earliest memories is of Expo ’67 in Montreal. We stayed in a private home with a French Canadian couple.

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