NYT: Theft And Vandalism Mar Bike Rentals In Paris

I wrote this summer about the Bixi public bicycle rental program in Montreal. The New York Times has a piece about problems, particularly vandalism, with a similar program in Paris. The Times reports that nearly 80 percent of the Velib bikes in Paris have been stolen or damaged.

Boredom And Lapses In The Cockpit

The story of the two Northwest pilots who flew over Minneapolis has caused a lot of talk about automation and boredom in the cockpit, and a lot of that talk is wrong, writes Patrick Smith in his Ask the Pilot column on Salon.com. Read it if you want to understand the issues at play.

Fare War At Logan? Contagious?

JetBlue announced yesterday that it will step up flights to and from Boston, where Southwest has been putting on the pressure, the Associated Press reports. If there’s going to be a fare war, I hope it spreads to Bradley.

New York Times Haggles For $855 Hotel Rooms

There’s an interesting piece in The New York Times about haggling for the best rates with hotel reservations desks.

The lowest rate mentioned in the article is $322 a night. I’ve never in my life paid that much for a hotel room, but that’s the Times travel section for you.

Anyway, what’s even more interesting is the reader response. To summarize the comments: why didn’t you use Priceline or Hotwire? Good question.

US Airways Retrenches

US Airways has announced major route realignments and job cuts, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The company will cut about 1,000 jobs and trim flights while focusing on its hubs at Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Phoenix. It will cut back hard on flights from Las Vegas but will continue to emphasize service to Washington’s Reagan National and a shuttle between Boston and New York’s LaGuardia.

US Airways operates 14 flights daily out of Bradley, including three flights daily to Reagan National, Philadelphia and Charlotte. Based on the news reports, its reasonable to guess that any trimming at Bradley would more likely involve the twice daily flights to Chicago’s O’Hare or the once daily flights to Pittsburgh, Rochester and Washington’s Dulles.

Dealing With Chatty Seatmates In The Air

An article on CNN.com offers advice on dealing with chatty seatmates when you don’t want to talk.

I recently did a six-leg round trip on packed planes, which meant six sets of seatmates. On one of them I exchanged a few comments and on four others there was nothing more than a nod. On the final leg, though, I ended up in a pleasant three-way conversation of more than an hour with the two women sitting on either side of me. (Yes, I was in the dreaded middle seat.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Man Builds First-Class Garage

A man in Redondo Beach, Calif., has built a full-scale replica of the first-class cabin of a Pan Am World Airways 747 in his garage, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The reproduction has authentic seats and accessories from about 30 years ago. There’s even a spiral staircase. I’m in awe.

It looks like the story actually originated on the Cranky Flier blog, where there are more photos.

Southwest Launches Major Sale

Southwest Airlines has a big sale on for travel from Dec. 2 to Dec. 16 and Jan. 5 to Feb. 10. Tickets must be purchased by Thursday, Oct. 29, at midnight, Pacific Time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Spanish-Speaking And Proud

Up in the hills of New Mexico, in Santa Fe and Taos and the towns around them, are native-born U.S. citizens whose ancestors settled there in the 1500s. And those people speak Spanish.

Add in the Native Americans whose ancestors arrived centuries earlier, and you get a picture of American heritage that doesn’t involve a whole lot of Puritans and a whole lot of English. It would be a good place for the English-first bigots who bristle at a simple buenos dias to have a look around and educate themselves, but apparently it wasn’t a good place for Larry Whitten to buy a hotel.

Read the rest of this entry »

Southwest At Bradley: Cautious Growth

I had an opportunity last week at Southwest Airlines Media Day in Dallas to talk with Bob Jordan, the airline’s executive vice president for strategy and planning, about the future of Southwest in the Northeast and at Bradley in particular.

Southwest has been at Bradley for nearly 10 years, and trails only the merged Delta / Northwest and its subsidiaries in the number of passengers carried from there. Last week Southwest also announced the addition of a daily flight to Denver, restoring a route that Frontier Airlines dropped last year.

Here’s a video of our discussion. Enjoy the part at the beginning where I refer to Southwest as “Southeast.” (D’oh):