For Better or Worse, These Canadian Air Rights Changes Could Affect You

New airline passenger protections have passed for our neighbor to the north, offering increased Canadian air rights for travelers impacted by delays and other air travel inconveniences. But advocates on both sides—the airlines and some consumer groups—are not happy with the new rules. What Changes, and When The protections cover a wide range of issues,

Southwest Bumps Overbooking

Southwest is getting out of the overbooking game. Following the recent “ incident ” involving United Airlines, Southwest will heretofore only sell as many tickets as it has seats. According to Southwest CEO Gary Kelly, this decision has been in the works for years.  The airline has “been taking steps over the last several years to

La Compagnie to Shut Down Business-Class Flights to London

Google “La Compagnie” and the top non-sponsored result describes the airline thusly: “Discover Paris and London with La Compagnie, the unique French all-business-class airline, at an affordable price.” That descriptor is accurate today, but won’t be from September 25, when La Compagnie suspends its service between the U.S. and London. The company linked its withdrawal

The Vast Majority of Americans Don’t Know Their Air Travel Rights

A new survey of over 2,000 people across the U.S. found that a whopping  92 percent of Americans  don’t know what their air travel rights are when they take to the sky, and this lack of understanding costs travelers $6 billion in unclaimed compensation every year. The study was conducted by AirHelp, a company that helps air

The Best Airlines for On-Time Performance

OAG, which dubs itself an “air travel intelligence company,” has released its top-10 rankings of the most and least punctual airlines in 2016. The group analyzed 54 million flight records using full-year data from 2016 to compile the list, and for the purposes of the study defined “on-time” as “a flight that arrives or departs

American Pilot Shortage Could Cause Flight Cancellations During the Holidays

Travel over the Thanksgiving holiday period was robust, and predictions are for similarly strong demand for air travel during the period between Christmas and New Year’s. For most airlines, that’s good news. For American, however, it’s a potential nightmare. As has been widely reported, a glitch in American’s scheduling software allowed the airline to approve

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

Those Samsung Smartphones, Still Smokin’

In a blow to smartphone giant Samsung, and a scare for a plane full of passengers, Southwest flight 994 last night was evacuated when a Galaxy Note 7 overheated and began smoking. According to USA Today’s report , the phone in question was a replacement for the owner’s original phone, which was among 1 million

What Are Your Rights When You’re Involuntarily Bumped?

You get to the airport early, your luggage is checked, you have your boarding pass in hand—and you find out that your flight is overbooked. While airlines can usually find passengers willing to take a different flight in exchange for compensation, it’s the unfortunate truth that the act of involuntarily bumping passengers is pretty commonplace. Most

Lufthansa Pilots Strike (Again), Could Cause Headaches

Lufthansa pilots are striking for the 14th time since 2014 in their attempt to extract better wages from the carrier. According to USA Today ,”Lufthansa has grounded more than 1,700 flights on Tuesday [the 29th] and Wednesday [the 30th],” with Tuesday’s cancellations mostly impacting routes within Germany. Many of the 890 flights cancelled for Wednesday are expected to