Today, Air Canada issued a major Airfare sale for those interested in traveling overseas. You can find savings from $100 to $250 on flights from the U.S. to cities throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Two highlights from the sale have to be Boston to Frankfurt at $295 (+ tax) and New York to London for a seemingly ridiculous $196 (+tax). Now, just a few days ago I pointed out that airfares for flights between the U.S. and Canada had gone up just in time for hockey season, and so far things remain the same on that front. However, international hockey fans can enjoy all the action they want, while spending far less money to get there…

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Here are some of this week’s most interesting stories from some of my favorite bloggers and travel sites:

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At the beginning of the week, I wrote about how the government might limit JFK flights in order to deal with the large number of delays that airport has faced. Well, it seems as though Delta is eager to take things into their own hands…

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It looks as though congress passed this legislation about a week ago (H.R. 2881 FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007) and Bush has said he will sign it before 1st October deadline. According to a press release from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: The House today approved and sent to the Senate a bill providing a temporary extension of Federal aviation programs through the end of 2007. The current authorization expires on September 30, and some programs would lapse without an extension. The House approved a new, four-year authorization bill on September 20, and a companion bill is pending in the Senate. Todays action would provide the two chambers with additional time to finish work on that legislation. The U.S. based airline ticket taxes are set to expire this Sunday 30th of September. Evidently our legislators in D.C. haven’t completely taken action on this expiration…

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I’ve always been intrigued by the types of planes particular airlines choose for their fleets. Are they getting rid of larger jets and replacing them with several smaller craft? Are they using more large planes in the hope that it will cut down delays? Are they relying on the same type of fleet they’ve always had, or are they thinking of taking on new products put out by Boeing and Airbus? In order to answer those questions and to get a clearer picture of what’s going on in the sky, I thought it might be interesting to break down the number of flights in the domestic U.S. on a typical fall Monday (November 19, 2007) and show you which airlines are flying which airplanes. Luckily have I have the worldwide flight schedules at my disposal and with a series of data slicing queries I was able to come up with these numbers…

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Prices for travel between the U.S. and Canada have been increased system-wide over the past week — starting with Air Canada earlier in the week, and then subsequently matched by all overlapping U.S. domestic airlines. I normally don’t post on these types of airfare increase moves for travel between U.S./Canada, but it really cuts me to the bone that airlines would take advantage of “us” hockey aficionados (can a hockey fan actually use the word aficionado – oh well that will be a discussion another time)…

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A couple of weeks ago, I did a post on Air China’s new routes to the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Air China’s expansion will partly coincide with the 2008 Olympics, but many of the new routes will not be added until 2009. Now, similar growth is happening with U.S. carriers…

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Lately, it seems that when those in the air travel industry need a bit of customer service help, they turn to Disney. Recently, United Airlines hired a former Disney exec as their Vice President of Customer Experience, and now terminal operations employees at Miami International Airport (MIA) are taking classes headed up by the Disney Institute in hopes that it will help them to better interact with travelers. Along with Princesses and High School Musicals, Disney is known for their customer service. “Cast members” at their parks must be eager to please, and smiles and cleanliness are just part of the Disney experience. This has led companies in a range of industries to seek out a bit of that Disney magic to help turn things around, and many believe that Miami International needs some turning around. MIA has faired poorly when it comes to customer satisfaction (bottom 4 among large airports according to J.D. Power and Associates), and those in charge know something has to change…

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Back in 2000, many of the major airlines made a commitment to change the way they approached extended ground delays. The airlines were to put policies in place that would make things as comfortable and convenient as possible for passengers during those lengthy stays on the tarmac. Well, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, but a recent Transportation Department study shows that, on the whole, airlines haven’t followed through on that commitment…

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Richard Branson isn’t letting any grass grow under his Virgin America, thats for sure; he’s just announced a new air fare sale, to coincide with the airline’s new flights between San Francisco and Washington D.C. Take a look at these prices (prices are one-way)…

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Seems like I’ve been going on a lot lately about how important it is to be prepared for Thanksgiving travel. I know some people see it as a gloom and doom approach to things, but I really am just trying to make flying as painless as possible for masses that will be heading home for the holidays. With so many people traveling, delays are just far more likely to occur…

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Many air travelers have already felt the crunch of overcrowding on U.S. domestic flights this past year, especially this summer where the dubious distinction of record delays and cancellations plagued hundreds of thousands of passengers. The airlines would rather use the term “right-sizing” instead of “overcrowding”, but the bottom line remains that over the past 30 months the legacy U.S. airlines have dropped capacity by over 20%. The tail end of this time frame had load factors cracking the 80% barrier (up from 60% levels a few years back) and this summer creeping up into the low 90% range…

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One of our readers, Marla, wrote to me last week about a trip she is planning to Europe for June of 2008. Marla’s trip, like many trips to Europe, involves more than one destination. I’d like to look at the options Marla has in hopes that it will help her and others to plan easy, affordable European summer vacations.

Here is what Marla had to say:

4 people traveling. Leaving June 2008 from DFW. We are flexible with our travel dates and can leave anytime from the 11th on. We would like to travel for approximately 10 days, but that is flexible too. We want to fly from DFW to Athens, Greece. Stay for 4 or 5 days and then fly to Paris, France and stay another 5 days. Then fly home to DFW.

We of course are looking at coach because of price but since we are buying this far out would like to compare it to first class and see if there is any way to get a deal on first class tickets.

I haven’t been able to figure out if it is better to buy round trip tickets to Paris and then round trip tickets from Paris to Athens, or try to find a flight to Athens with a layover in Paris on the way back. Also it has been mentioned that if I do the first scenario, it might be cheaper to buy the Paris - Athens leg from a European air carrier.

This is what’s called a Circle Trip (a three or more leg trip back to the origin with no surface (rail or car) breaks). Generally speaking, each leg of the trip is priced as half of a round-trip (you would never try to price each leg separately as one-ways, the price will be 4-8 times higher).

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Here are a few of the stories that some of my favorite travel bloggers and publications were covering this week:

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It’s been a pretty big week for Southwest Airlines. They adjusted their open seating policy (but didn’t instate assigned seating) and set their sights on luring international travelers. At the moment, Southwest isn’t set to take off overseas, but they are interested in getting into the international travel market. As the Los Angeles Times reports:

“The initial plan would be for a passenger to be able to book an international flight with Southwest, starting in Corpus Christi, Texas, for instance, and connecting to another carrier at Los Angeles International Airport to reach a foreign city.”

Eventually, Southwest hopes to expand their routes to include destinations in Mexico and Canada, as well as Europe and Asia. For now, however, they hope to attract international travelers by offering affordable airfares and strong ties to carriers who already offer routes outside of the U.S.

Southwest’s recent moves make sense. While they have long dominated the low-cost field, things have begun to change. Southwest is no longer the only horse in the race, and for the first time they have made wide-ranging cuts to their workforce. International options (and the seating policy changes) demonstrate that Southwest is eager to expand beyond their traditional customer base of leisure and regional business travelers and offer more to those heading out of the country.

US Airways filed a nice little airfare sale last night. In the image above it shows $82 one-way from Cleveland to San Franciso, this is $144 roundtrip below the previous lowest price and is 4-star based on our history rating.

Airtran has several airfares as low as $39 one-way — for example Atlanta to Memphis $49 one-way $138 roundtrip lower than the previous lowest price and another 4-star based on history.

These sales might cause some short term matching, but they won’t be here long — so if any match your needs, buy them now.

Daily Candy has a great feature on the FareCompare First Class Y-Up search tool. Y-Up airfares (or Q-Ups) are a favorite topic of mine, because they truly give you the chance to fly first class at coach prices. Y-Up airfares can help you fly in comfort and style without digging too deep into your wallet, and at FareCompare, we’ve committed ourselves to providing travelers with the most in-depth, timely information on Y-Up and Q-Up airfares out there…

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Over the past week, there has been more international airfare sale activity than I have seen in the past year (and this is saying something because I review tens of thousands of airfare changes four or five times a day). Almost every airline with any amount of capacity to Europe, Asia, Caribbean, South America and Latin America has either initiated or is matching airfare sales.

If you are planning or have been planning any international travel for the next several months, you should be shopping now! These types of sales don’t happen often and those that take advantage will be holding tickets hundreds of dollars cheaper than there seat mates when they board.

To be honest, international is going to be where the heated competition will be for the near term for a few reasons:

• Over the past 2 1/2 years the major domestic U.S. airlines have been reducing domestic capacity and re-purposing their wide body aircraft on all sorts of new non-stop international routes
• The new “Open Skies” pact will go active in March 2008, paving the way for more new trans-Atlantic routes (U.S. - Europe)
• Non domestic airlines are going to be taking delivery of new bigger and more efficient Airbus and Boeing aircraft which will allow them to increase capacity (more capacity = cheaper prices)

Most of these airfare sales are for off season winter travel, but many are extended up to March 2008.

We will be putting out a new tool in the near future to track all sales on 500+ airlines, until that time you’ll have to sign up for International Airfare Email Alerts to be the first to know when sales like this occur and prices go down to your favorite destination city or area of the world.

Remember when I told you that a former Disney exec was going to United Airlines to become the new Vice President of Customer Experience?

I envisioned troops of happy workers singing, “Hi-ho, hi-ho” as passengers danced happily in the aisles.

Well, no one’s seen that yet, but according to a colleague of mine who flew United today, the “Customer Experience” is definitely getting better.

It all began when my friend walked into the check-in area at LAX, and saw a petite, bespectacled, brunette named Natalie directing passenger traffic, sending folks to the proper lines and services.

But it’s the way she did this that impressed my friend: Natalie was cheerful, knowledgeable, and endearing (to Natalie, every passenger, whether they were male, female, young, or old was “Sweetheart” or “Darling” or “Honey”).

She had every necessary fact at her fingertips; after glancing at a sad-looking passenger’s boarding pass, she quickly said, “Sweetheart, I am so sorry for that cancellation, it was a mechanical problem, but we have rebooked you, let me just check” She paused for all of 3-seconds then said, “Yes, you’re booked through to Cincinnati, you go right over there, all set, you holler for me if you need anything else.” The passenger walked away happy.

How refreshing.

As for the flight crew, my friend said they were terrific, too; there was the blonde flight attendant was also tossing around the soubriquet “Sweetheart” when she wasn’t plumping pillows (they still have pillows?) or covering a sleeping child with a blanket.

I don’t know if the so-called Disney magic had anything to do with this, but the United employees sure did, and we, the flying public, appreciate them.

The Consumerist reports that members of the House Committee on Rules are scheduled to meet tomorrow regarding an air Passengers Bill of Rights (right now, New York has it’s own bill, but that’s about it). Before we get too excited, it’s important to point out that the committee is meeting to decide “which amendments are worthy of floor consideration.”

It might be a small step in the right direction. However, Congress and the airlines seem to share one thing in common that could draw this process out for a very long time; a fondness for vague language. Here is how the meeting is touted on the Rules Committee’s website:

The Committee on Rules is expected to meet Wednesday, September 19, 2007 to report a rule which may structure the amendment process for floor consideration of H.R. 2881, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007.

It “may” structure the amendment process, it may not. They’re “expected” to meet, but who can ever really be sure?

This is a story that I am very interested in, and I hope to have some positives to report on, but it’s far too early to tell. I’ll keep you informed as I learn more.

With the 2008 Olympics quickly approaching, China is kicking things into high gear on almost all fronts. They are trying to deal with the pollution problem in Beijing (scientists are even practicing a form of weather control to induce rain), they’re sprucing up their lodging facilities for both athletes and visitors, and now Air China is staffing up and adding routes to Europe and North America, expanding their base of operations in the process:

“The Beijing-based carrier plans to move all operations to a new terminal at Beijing Capital International Airport, set to open in March. The terminal, Asia’s largest, will be dedicated to Air China and its domestic and overseas partners, according to the airline. Beijing may receive 1.7 million visitors for the Olympics, including 1.1 million domestic travelers, according to the city’s Olympic organizing committee.” (From Bloomberg)

While the additional routes and staff may have been brought on by the Olympics, the Chinese government is interested in expanding its nation’s presence in the sky beyond the Games. Until now, Chinese airlines have struggled to get a hold on the international market, and many have seen substantial losses over the past several years. However, Air China is set to join Star Alliance by the end of the year, which will allow it to sell tickets on international routes managed by partner carriers. Chinese airlines (including Air China, China Southern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Hainan Airlines) also intend to add 27 routes to Europe and North America by 2009.

With American, Canadian, and European airlines vying to add routes to China, it remains to be seen whether North American and European travelers will eschew their nationally-based airlines to fly Air China to the Olympics, but it’s clear that the host nation is trying everything within it’s power to attract and accommodate as many visitors as possible.

I have heard a number of international travelers kick around the idea of buying three coach seats next to each other instead of buying one business class seat. The thought behind this is that they will have plenty of room to stretch out, and they will still save a substantial amount of money (the cost of one business class ticket can easily be double that of three coach tickets). OK, at first sight, this might sound like a great idea, and people have pulled it off successfully (check out this NY Times article to get the lowdown on a success story).

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