Surely you remember those Northwest pilots who overshot their landing in Minneapolis last October by about 150 miles – and were out of radio contact?

They said they were distracted because they were working on their personal laptops.

You probably also heard the FAA revoked their licenses and the pilots were fighting that – but now (according to CNN), they’ve settled the case, without getting those licenses back. However, the FAA has agreed to let them reapply in ten months time.

My question: would any airline hire them? I’ve read these pilots had good records, but in this era of cutbacks, do they really have a chance of flying with the big carriers again?

Jumping the gun a bit, are we?

We haven’t even celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, but Delta Air Lines is already adding new surcharges to at least some of its routes during peak travel times around the upcoming Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holiday travel periods.

These surcharges range from $10 to $30 each-way.

By the way, I always tell people that the cheapest flights during holidays are on the holiday itself, and you’ll notice Delta did not put a surcharge on November 25 (Thanksgiving Day) or December 25 (although there is a surcharge for travel on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day).

See more dates-with-surcharges on FareCompare’s “Peak Travel Day Surcharge Chart”.

Here’s their description: 

“Dream and Fly is a micro-hotel concept by hours. It is made up of small independent bubbles that allow for great versatility in the areas in which they are installed. Ideal for areas with large concentrations of people like airports, sea ports, events, vacation and holiday resorts where mobility is necessary.”

I saw this first on Yanko Design, where one of the commenters said, “I would pay for a nap and some silence in an airport.” Hear, hear.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Starting sometime in the fall, Continental will start charging economy passengers for in-flight meals, and they were pretty much the only airline still offering this perk.

The spin is that they are improving meal service with “high quality, healthy food choices for purchase”. They will still offer free food in economy “all intercontinental and certain other international routes, and on long-haul domestic routes over six hours” but for most passengers in the cheap seats, you’ll have to pay.

Continental figures this can net the carrier an extra $35 million a year on cost savings and revenue.

Remember how we used to make jokes about how awful airplane food was? I guess we could laugh, when it was free…  

The U.S. government rightly points out that millions of U.S. citizens visit Mexico every year with absolutely no problems.

However – violence in the country has increased.

Over the weekend, 13 people were killed in and around the resort area of Acapulco – including five police officers – and as the Los Angeles Times reports, three people connected with the U.S. embassy in Ciudad Juarez were “killed in broad daylight near the city’s border with El Paso.”

The State Department has now issued a travel warning due to “security concerns” in Mexico:

“Some recent confrontations between Mexican authorities and drug cartel members have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades.  Large firefights have taken place in towns and cities across Mexico, but occur mostly in northern Mexico, including Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, Chihuahua City, Nogales, Matamoros, Reynosa and Monterrey.” - U.S. State Dept. website, 3-14-10

Read more about this here – and for the kids I suggest the State’s Dept.’s publication, “Spring Break in Mexico – Know Before You Go”. For travel alerts on other countries and more, go to travel.state.gov.

If you’re flying in or out of the Northeast today, check out FlightStats or your airline before heading out.

We are seeing “excessive” delays in Boston (excessive = worst), but there are also significant delays at JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, Manchester, New Hampshire and to a lesser extent in Cleveland.

That area of the country got hit hard over the weekend with lashing rainstorms (some with hurricane-strength winds) and there were a lot of power outages – so – just be careful, okay?

I know that the Transportation Security Administration – especially the TSA’s blog – gets plenty of comments from people who are outraged that airport security doesn’t do more “profiling”. Here is one of those comments:

“The reason why the blue-eyed great-grandmother from Minneapolis is given a hard time while four young Middle-Eastern men sail through, is not because of her knitting needles (“She might knift an Afghan!” *rimshot*). It’s because the government is terrified of ‘racial profiling’.” –comment left on TSA Blog, 5-2-09

So what are the two words referred to in the title of this post? Jihad Jane.

As numerous news organizations pointed out this week, the woman who allegedly called herself “Jihad Jane” – and who is due in federal court next week to be arraigned on terrorism-related charges – is a middle-aged, blue-eyed blond from the suburbs.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is seeking to collect $787,500 in civil penalties against American Airlines for three separate “maintenance violations”.

In the biggest case against the airline – which carries a proposed fine of $625,000 – the government alleges that American mechanics failed to replace a problematic computer onboard a MD-82 jetliner and instead “deferred maintenance” which is not allowed. The FAA says the plane flew 10 passenger flights until the computer was in fact replaced.

The airline has 30 days to respond.

A spokesman for American said they are reviewing the FAA’s proposal and will meet with them to discuss it. He added:

“Safety is fundamental to the American Airlines culture and to our success. AA is the only U.S. airline that continues to handle the majority of its heavy maintenance with in-house, FAA Certificated Mechanics that have met and passed all FAA experience requirements, written tests, and practical examinations.” – American Airlines spokesman, 3-12-10

Earlier this week, we saw some significant airfare hiking activity from U.S. domestic airlines: United Airlines, for example, initiated a $40 roundtrip hike in a small number of markets (but mainly in Chicago); that hike, however, is currently falling apart, although it was matched by American Airlines.

In a separate move, United began a laddered hike of $2 to $10 roundtrip, on routes flown by low-cost carriers. This hike is based on mileage: the $2 roundtrip hike was applied to routes under 500 miles; $6 roundtrip hike on routes between 500 and 1,000 miles; and $10 roundtrip hike on routes over 1,000 miles. So far these hikes have been matched by all major airlines, including Southwest Airlines.

It’s also clear that it is important to the airlines to keep sales momentum going for domestic tickets by filling some early summer seats at discount prices except on peak days (and note that “peak travel day” surcharges are in play this summer and please see the surcharge charge for more details), and to that end we saw a 3-day sale from AirTran which included flights through the summer travel period and beyond; this sale, now expired, was widely matched by other carriers.

Gadling’s always-entertaining Galley Gossip notes that popular singer Lady Gaga was on a recent transatlantic flight when her legs started to swell. She allegedly had to be coaxed into changing into a less restrictive outfit.

What was she wearing? Platform shoes – and black and yellow tape. Yes, tape.

Anyway, Gaga changed her “clothes” and a good thing, too, because swelling can be a sign of Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT), which according to the Healthy Travel Blog, you don’t ever want to get. You can avoid it by exercise (and United’s website has some good ones, with pictures).

Keep reading for more easy “staying healthy on a long flight” tips (that means you, too, Gaga)…

Here are some other tips for staying healthy on long flights. You know most of them, but it’s always good to review:

• Be comfortable: Wear loose-fitting clothing
• Move around: Stand and stretch or walk a bit every hour or so (when seatbelt sign is off)
• Drink water: Avoid becoming dehyrdrated, which is easy to do on a plane
• Use hand-sanitizer or hand-wipes: Most effective kind is at least 50% alcohol
• Wear support knee-socks: Good idea for men and women, and the “medical grade” is best

For those of you cringing at the thought of those socks, hey, you’re going to be on a plane – who is going to see you? Well, besides Lady Gaga, that is. And you never know - support socks just might be a featured accessory of her next outfit.