Yapta Yapta Blog

Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines and Continental Airlines have all raised fuel surcharges on travel to Europe by $20 per round-trip – and have added conditions that could cause travelers to pay higher fares.  ABC News reports that, “surcharges to Paris, Frankfurt and most cities on the Continent were raised to $280 per round-trip and to $242 for London.”

And what about the “added conditions”?  Well, some airlines that previously required only a seven-day advance purchase for the lowest coach fares are now requiring a 14-day advance purchase.

With heightened security, steeper fuel surcharges, and tighter booking windows, international travel just keeps gets better and better every day.

Here’s some more travel news you can use:

• Yesterday we noted that Delta had hiked its baggage fees.  What we failed to mention was that Continental Airlines had also hiked their baggage fees – matching Delta.  And as if the parade wasn’t long enough, today we learned that United Airlines has also raised its baggage fee – matching Delta & Continental.  United boosted the charge for the first piece of checked luggage 53 percent to $23.  A second bag will cost $32, up from $25.  The prices apply to online check-ins only, with airport transactions $2 more for the first bag and $3 more for the second.

• According to the annual Travel Trends survey conducted by the Travel Leaders Franchise Group, Orlando, Fla. is now the top tourist destination in the United States.  Vegas had been the country’s No. 1 tourist destination for the past seven years, but the report released this week found that tourists who were surveyed late last year preferred the family-oriented attractions in Orlando.  After Orlando and Las Vegas, an Alaskan cruise; New York City; Maui and Honolulu, Hawaii; Chicago; Phoenix; Washington, D.C.; and Los Angeles rounded out the top 10.

Less than a week after a high-profile safety mix up where a Delta plane landed on the airport taxiway at the world’s busiest airport, rather than the parallel runway – there’s been another instance of cockpit carelessness reported by The Wall Street Journal:

“Federal officials are working to sort out whether pilots of a Northwest Airlines flight dozed off or were simply distracted Wednesday night when they fell out of contact with air-traffic controllers for more than an hour and overshot their destination by 150 miles.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, among other things, whether the two pilots fell asleep at the controls. The pair told law-enforcement officials who interviewed them upon landing in Minneapolis — and apparently told fellow pilots later — that they had been engaged in a “heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness,” according to the NTSB.

Whatever the reason, the plane may have flown out of range of one air-traffic-control center and failed to take steps to get back on course and resume radio contact with controllers, according to industry and government officials close to the situation.

During the 78-minute radio silence, controllers became so concerned about the fate of the 149 people aboard that they asked pilots of other aircraft in the vicinity to see if they could rouse the Northwest crew, according to industry and government officials. When that failed, the Federal Aviation Administration and military official began to consider having fighter jets scrambled to intercept the twin-jet Airbus A320, these officials said.

When an aircraft fails to respond for such a long time, it is routine procedure to send fighters to try to determine the problem.”

Here’s some more travel news you can use:

• The New York Times blog InTransit notes that Club Med is offering seven nights for the price of three. The Seven-Day Weekend deal starts at $799 a person and is available at any of Club Med’s all-inclusive resorts in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Mexico and Florida.

• A Utah congressman upset he had to go through extra screening is shown in newly released video footage going through airport security.  Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, says screeners at the Salt Lake City airport targeted him for an additional search because he refused to go through a whole-body imaging machine.  The union representing airport security workers says he was trying to kick start a confrontation.

• Alaska Airlines began nonstop daily service today between Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.  Flights leave Seattle at 9:10 a.m. and arrive in Atlanta at 5:10 p.m. local time.  Return flights leave Atlanta at 6:10 p.m. and arrive in Seattle at 8:30 p.m.