Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for May 2018.

Nurse Boarding Houston Flight Had $41,000 Confiscated – Money Meant For a Medical Clinic

civil forfeiture
May 04 2018

The government confiscated $41,000 on the jetway from a 59 year old nurse departing Houston back in October. She was never charged with a crime.

The woman, a US citizen living in the Houston suburb of Katy, had taken her savings with her to start a medical clinic in Nigeria. She was bringing medical equipemnt and supplies on the flight along with the cash. Customs and Border Protection stopped her during boarding.

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American’s Vice President-Planning Explains Killing Chicago – Beijing, Swapping Routes with BA

american plane
May 04 2018

In American Airlines weekly employee podcast Vasu Raja, Vice President of Planning for the airline, explains Chicago O’Hare as a connecting hub and their decision to cut Beijing flying.

He says they are profitable on “every flight Chicago – West” though presumably here that means domestic. And they’ve tried a number of Chicago international routes – Delhi, Helsinki, Moscow, Frankfurt, Beijing – that they’ve killed.

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Court Threatens Jail Time and Fines for Publicizing Airline Mistake Fares

plane outside airport window
May 03 2018

Of course we all love it when mistake fares happen and they’re honored and we get to travel the world at insanely cheap prices, especially in business or first class.

For some readers booking a $28 ticket to Paris presents a moral challenge: should you take advantage of something you know is a mistake? My own view is that I’m happy to book it, airlines will choose to honor it or they won’t, but if they’re going to fly people to Paris for $28 I’d like to be one of those people.

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American Buying Even MORE Planes

outside plane
May 03 2018

Yesterday I wrote that American was expected to order new Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft. These are large regional jets with first class cabins. They did place an order for 15 of these and 15 options.

It turns out at the same time that American is also ordering 15 Embraer E175 76 seat regional jets. That’s on top of the 10 of these planes they ordered in the fall. So American remains committed to two separate fleets of 76 seat regional jets.

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