Travelers Sue to Block Alaska-Virgin America Merger

The merger of Alaska Airlines and Virgin America has left many travelers bemoaning the impending disappearance of Virgin, one of the industry’s best-loved airlines, as it’s folded into Alaska. Some of those disgruntled travelers are plaintiffs in a suit filed last week in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco seeking to block the merger

Alaska-Virgin America Merge, Creating 5th Largest U.S. Airline

On the landing page of a new website touting the consumer benefits of Alaska’s acquisition of Virgin America , which closed today, there’s this: Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are coming together. Like bacon on a donut, electricity and guitars, or Labradors and poodles, we’re an odd couple that works well together. We may seem

Senators Call Out Airlines for Flight Disruptions

The recent computer meltdowns at Southwest and Delta, two of the country’s most efficient and financially sound carriers, resulted in thousands of cancelled and delayed flights, disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of travelers. And they were just the latest incidents in what has come to seem like a systemic problem. Why? And what

United ‘Re-Accommodates’ a Passenger and the Internet Explodes

The media—social media, asocial media, major media, marginal media, all media—has been positively aflame for the past 24 hours with reporting and editorializing on United Airlines’ latest mishandling of a passenger confrontation. The facts of the case are not in dispute. United’s Sunday-night flight UA3411 between Chicago and Louisville was full—100 percent full—and all passengers

Judge: Airline Price-Fixing Lawsuit Can Proceed

If you’re among the many air travelers who believe that the airlines have conspired to keep airfares high by restraining capacity growth, you’re about to have that suspicion reality-checked in a court of law. Late last week, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., overruled objections by the airlines and gave the go-ahead to a class-action

Congress Warns Airlines: Do Better, or Else

In his opening remarks before yesterday’s House Transportation Committee “Oversight of U.S. Airline Customer Service” hearing, committee chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) referred to two recent incidents: United’s forcible removal of a passenger on flight UA3411 , and an American Airlines flight attendant’s tussle with a passenger over her child’s stroller. While those high-profile events may