For the first time this year a legacy airline got absolutely no takers on an attempted airfare hike.

Delta Air Lines rolled back their attempted airfare fuel surcharge increase of an additional $10 roundtrip (route system wide) - initiated Thursday — as no legacy airline budged to match them over the weekend.

The average domestic U.S. fuel surcharge continues to remain at $50 roundtrip…

The proposed merger between Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines is like something you might see in a celebrity gossip magazine. Are they together? Are they apart? Well, it depends on what week it is.

The latest news from the merger front is that Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines are back on. Pilots with both carriers have raised issues that have helped to stall merger talks, but now it seems the airlines might be willing to move forward without the full blessing of the pilots…

London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 was set to be the new gateway for British Airways’ long-haul flights. With Open Skies kicking off, Terminal 5 looked to be ready to go. The folks at Heathrow were excited, British Airways was excited, airport execs in the US were excited, and international travelers were excited. After all, Terminal 5 was going to make check-in more convenient, connections faster, and travel to and from Heathrow on BA simply easier to deal with.

So, how did it all work out? Well, not quite how Heathrow and British Airways had hoped. Instead of making life easier for international travelers, Terminal 5 descended into chaos and has left travelers stranded, baggage misplaced, and British Airways losing money.

After five days of service, things don’t seem to be getting better. Keep reading to see what British Airways is doing to try to make things right…

UPDATE: ALOHA AIRLINES ENDS PASSENGER SERVICE! Many of today’s flights have been cancelled and NO tickets for flights after Monday will be honored. According to the Associated Press, Aloha’s president said, “We had no choice but to take this action.” They are working to seat passengers on other airlines. Read the article, and check with Aloha (they have updated information on their website) or contact your travel agent or credit card rep.

MARCH 21 (original post): For the second time in about 2-years, Aloha Airlines filed for bankruptcy. A lot of the pain Aloha is feeling is caused by jet fuel prices; it’s difficult to plan a budget when your major cost just keeps going up, up, up.

The other factor in the bankruptcy? Inter-island airfare WAR!

This is a “war” of sorts that’s been going on for some time, and it involves 3 different airlines; let’s take a look at that — just click on “more”.

It’s been all over the news, so I suppose I ought to make mention of it.

I’m talking about the woman who went through security with body piercings, and…and…if it hadn’t been on network news last night, I probably wouldn’t even mention it…

Know what? I’m getting a little bit squeamish. Better check out the post on our sister blog, Standard Upright Position.

There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there over Open Skies — and I say, baloney!

Perhaps you saw this article on CNN.com (actually, it’s an Associated Press report); it quotes a lot of industry experts who contend that, when the Open Skies agreement kicks in March 30, there won’t be much in the way of lower airfares, or much of anything positive, unless you’re a business traveler.

Well, I have a different take…and, to quote one of my industry experts, much of Open Skies will make people “happy as clams!”

That’s what he said, alright. Keep reading…

We are now in uncharted waters.

There has never been a time since we began closely tracking airfares back in 2002 with so many attempted airfare hikes of this frequency or magnitude. Nothing to compare it to.

Now it’s Delta’s turn — again. The carrier tried and failed with a $10 airfare hike last week, but today it’s trying with a $10 roundtrip domestic fuel surcharge.

Look for this to affect 21,000 business airfares city-pairs (without 14 day advance purchase) and 15,000 city-pairs for leisure travel.

There was quite an interesting article in the Los Angeles Times today, about our nation’s “aging airline fleets.”

The reporters noted the recent delays due to maintenance issues, and blamed it in part on the age of the planes, saying U.S. airlines “operate some of the oldest fleets in the world.”

The big problem: older planes need more upkeep, which can mean more down time. And more delays for you and me.

Which U.S. airline operates the oldest fleet? Keep reading, and also keep reading about why this could put us at a disadvantage with “Open Skies.”

There’s a new “application” on Facebook: American Airline’s “Travel Bag”.

Presumably, American wants to reach out to the youth market (of course, Facebook started out just for college kids, but is now open to anyone of any age — even me!).

So what does Travel Bag do? A number of things, including a “count-down” to upcoming events or flights. (”Oh, really?” said one of my more pessimistic acquaintances, “And will it count the hours I’ve been stuck on this plane, sitting out here on the tarmac?!”).

Now, now. I’ll tell you what else Travel Bag does, if you just keep reading…

American Airlines has canceled 200 flights today. That’s about 9% of their daily flights. Is yours among them? Mine from San Jose to Dallas was … Better click here to check.

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, the carrier took its planes out of service when questions arose about the installation of some wires.

American says their planes will be returned to service today on a “rolling basis.”

Meanwhile…what the heck is going on?? Keep reading…

The question everyone wants to know the answer to, is the subject of my latest, weekly column for ABCNews.com.

This is a column that’s loaded with tips and tricks, and some good old-fashioned advice.

Plus, I bust some common (and erroneous) myths along the way. Check it all out, simply by clicking here.

Are You a Day Trader and Don’t Know It?

Does the promise of a few precious days of R&R have you waking up and checking airline ticket websites morning, noon, and night? And then checking them some more? Market research shows this is exactly what you do, and that most of us shop four to six websites at a time, over several days. All in the search for that increasingly elusive “super cheap” airfare deal.

The reason? Trust. Wait, maybe I should say, lack of trust.

You see, shoppers have noticed that price quotes don’t always match what is actually available, even on the same airline site, on the same day; so it’s hard to trust that the price you’ve been quoted is the best deal. Your instincts say, buy now but…you might be sorry later. Who’s looking out for you? Keep reading, and find out!

New York was the first state to pursue a passenger bill of rights that would require airlines to provide tarmac-stranded passengers with things like fresh air, food and water, and clean toilets. While there were some that hoped other states would follow suit, but the ATA had challenged the bill, and it went to court.

Today, “The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said New York’s new law interferes with federal law governing the price, route or service of an air carrier.” (from abcNews)

While the Court called the goals of the bill “laudable,” the Court has said that only the federal government can pass such regulations.

Keep reading for the ATA’s response to the ruling…

Last week, Delta upped its price by $10 roundtrip after joining in an earlier increase that raised prices as much as $50.

But this latest increase didn’t last; Delta rolled it back over the weekend, and today United (the last hold-out) did the same.

I guess we should be grateful for small favors.

Other increases have “stuck” — keep reading for more on that, and what affect it’s having on demand from us passengers.

I have been chatting with several reporters about European travel recently, including Michelle Higgins at the New York Times who had a good article this past weekend on one of my favorite subjects: “Open Skies” (get ready — it starts March 30th).

As you know, I spend a good portion of my day reviewing all sorts of airline ticket pricing information and it has been astounding and gratifying to see base airfare prices to Europe as low as $400 roundtrip for summer travel.

But then…the other shoe drops. By that I mean, reality dawns — and it becomes clear that this “astounding” deal does not include taxes, fees and fuel surcharges. However, even with these fees and surcharges, you can still find good travel deals to Europe. In order to make the best buying decision, though, it’s important to understand what makes up the total cost of an airfare. Keep reading; I’m about to show you a real airfare example, and how it all breaks down. You’ll be amazed.

First, a gun discharges in a US Airways cockpit.

Then a piece of a US Airways jet’s wing comes off. You can’t make this stuff up. The good news is, no one was hurt.

The bad news is, well, it is kind of embarrassing. Keep reading!

According to an exclusive investigation by CNN, “of the 28,000 commercial airline flights that take to the skies on an average day in the United States, fewer than 1 percent are protected by on-board, armed federal air marshals.”

The Transportation Security Administration denies this, calling CNN’s figures a “myth” but they won’t release the number of marshals or what percentage of flights are covered.

And there’s more scary stuff in the report. This, you will want to read…

UPDATE: The pilot has been taken off flight duty. Still unclear what happened, but an investigation is underway to see if the pilot was “mishandling” the gun.

Here’s a scary story that I hadn’t heard about (but Gadling did):

Over the weekend, a gun belonging to a US Airways pilot went off in the cockpit.

Nobody was hurt, and the plane landed safely.

Thank goodness.

I’ve got more details on that (including my thoughts on what COULD have happened), but I’d like to hear your comments, too. Should we have armed pilots? Keep reading…

United voluntarily grounded 7 of its Boeing 747’s, but an airline spokesperson said yesterday that it wouldn’t disrupt its schedule much AND it was unrelated to “airworthiness.”

This was done after the F.A.A told its inspectors to “reconfirm that airlines were in compliance with all requirements.”

The 747’s were grounded after the FAA told United that the planes had been checked with faulty instruments. If you’ll pardon an ancient cliche, better safe than sorry.

We’re quick to tell you when airlines don’t live up to our expectations, so I feel it’s my duty to tell you when they exceed them.

On Tuesday, during incredible storms in Northern Texas, American had the good sense to cancel their flights — with the result that about 100,000 passengers were stuck or diverted at the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport. But, by the next day, most were on their way home.

Good sense? To cancel flights? Yes. Let me tell you about it.

This morning, United Airlines raised its prices, again — $10 per roundtrip.

Delta actually started it this week with a $10 roundtrip airfare hike on many of its flights (I told you about this yesterday); now, United has matched that attempted increase for business and leisure travelers to 12,000 of United’s city-pairs.

Will more airlines join in on this latest airfare increase? That would not be unusual, given that we’ve seen 4-consecutive weeks of increases.

I will keep you posted.

A couple of weeks ago, I put up a post asking “how many lavatories are required on commercials jets?”

I did a lot of research but couldn’t find a definitive answer anywhere. I also contacted the FAA. I said I’d update you.

So today, I finally heard back — only to be told to contact the FAA’s “Aircraft Certification Service, Delegation and Airworthiness Programs” in Oklahoma City.

Okay, we did so. And lo and behold, a nice young man who took our call, had the answer. Click “more” and you’ll have the answer, too!

Are you one of those passengers whose knees are always smashed into the seat in front of you? Well starting next month, if you want more legroom on JetBlue, no problem!

Just fork over an extra $10 to $20.

And be one of the first in line: only about 6-rows will have this extra legroom, and JetBlue is betting they’ll all be snapped up.

Is it worth it? Keep reading…

I was interviewed for a CBS Evening News story today. The subject: the recent airfare hikes, and how they will affect the flying public.

(In case you missed it, here’s a link to the story).

One of the things I mentioned in the interview, is that deals are getting harder to find — you may have to dig a little deeper for them — but they are still out there.

The main advice I give these days is, shop for airfare a little earlier (maybe, a lot earlier) than you’re used to.

Last night, Delta Air Lines added another $10 roundtrip increase to this past weekend’s increase of up to $50 roundtrip.

That first hefty hike was initiated by United, and then all the legacy carriers joined in.

But this latest increase from Delta, well, I am trying to think of a word other than “unprecedented” so I guess I’ll start using “remarkable.”

And that’s because, in 6- years of tracking airfares, I have never seen an airline fire out a system wide increase on anything but Thursday or Friday!

Keep reading…