Amazing things can happen in the air...

Hello again,

I feel in a talkative mood today, so here I am again. I want to tell you the story of one of my friends who lives in South Africa (beautiful country!!!). She took a flight from a major airport down there to London. Here is the story of her difficult flight:

Her plane took off at 9 pm, as scheduled. After two hours in the air, the pilot advised the passengers that they

would be returning to [South Africa] due to unidentified baggage in the flight hold. The flight duly returned and did not depart again until approx 12.00 pm. Consequently, the flight only arrived in London some 5 hrs later than expected, but also had been diverted to land at

a different airport. Because of this delay, my friend could not connect to her final destination on the scheduled flight. She had to purchase another flight. She wrote to the company to ask them to reimburse this additional ticket. I hope this will work, because, if it is true that security is the matter of everyone, there has been a major flaw in the security checking in the South African airport, for which the company (I believe) should feel responsible.

Besides, how did the pilot found out about the unidentified baggage? Do companies have salves in the baggage compartment that check the loading en route? Maybe trained dogs could do the job, who knows...

Good luck my friend, Tara-George is with you.

Good night

TGV

Oscillating ticket fares

Dear reader,

I have a lot of stories in preparation. Today I will talk about a recent and still strange event.
An unexpected event happened and I have to go to Paris urgently tomorrow. I started looking up online for price of plane tickets on Tuesday afternoon. I followed the price of the same trip over several days on the website of a big Canadian company. Here is the outcome:
Tuesday afternoon: ~1130$
Wednesday morning before 10 am: ~930$
Wednesday after 10 am: ~1010$
Today, morning: ~1010$
Today after 2pm: ~930$
Here I compare tickets in the exact same category, with the same service and stuff. I have no understanding of the parameters than can induce such a change. Is it because one or two other persons in the plane have booked or canceled over that period? Is it fair? More importantly... it is commonly though that booking way in advance is the best choice. In my case, in this special situation, it wasn't true. I probably would have had a much better deal two weeks ago. But I had today a better deal than two days ago. So can we do?
Some airlines offer the possibilily to temporarily book a flight and confirm it a couple of days later. Given that option, you should book temporarily only and shop for another couple of days for cheaper. In my situation I saved a significant shunk of money by doing so.

This is my advice of the day... and if someone can explain to me how those big oscillations occur...

Love

Tara George, always on the move.

Mea Culpa

Hello there,

I must apologise. I have been a little hard on airline companies last night. I didn't understand that "bad temperature in NYC" means flooding... Maybe I was fooled cause in Canadian, Temperature refers to a different concept.
But in fact is was quite bad as you can see on the picture aside. Almost 5 inches of rain (over 10 cm ;)), as precises the New York Times. The air traffic was heavily affected with

500 cancellations on Sunday [which] forced hundreds of travelers to spend the night at the airport.

Airports weren't the only transportation medium to be affected and

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority warned of extensive disruptions and delays on its Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad lines. It said 975 parking spaces at its North White Plains station were flooded and unavailable for use.

I wish my dear visitor a good flight back to his City tonight.

Bye,

Tara-G V

Source (data + picture): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/nyre
gion/16cnd-Storm.html?hp

Why are there so many flights cancelled?

Hello reader of my heart,

I feel I have neglected you some lately. Unfortunetaly, it's not because I lack subjects... Airline companies are still giving me and my friends a hard time.
This week end, one of my lover came visiting me. He couldn't leave town tonight: all the flight for NYC (three airports) and Philadephia are cancelled from here, from this afternoon to tomorrow afternoon. The cause given by the airline employees at the airport and over the phone holds in one word: temperature.
So I went online and looked up http://english.wunderground.com/, which I believe is reliable. The result is enclosed. As you can see it is currently 12°C.

I didn't know that on the surface of aircrafts, water freezes at 11°C. This very special phenomenon may be due to the pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the cabine. I'll have to ask my lover engineer to confirm that theory.

Last adventures in the airs: some airports over sell there landing slots!

Hello dear reader,

This post will start a series of ones about my adventures in the airs. My last experience is young, it was last week end. I was flying from a big airport in Canada to a big airport in the US. On Friday afternoon, I arrive at the airport with my boarding pass. I printed it in advance (;)). So I go through the security (A hassle as usual!), I'm taken some things of mine (of course) and I am searched thoroughly. At this occasion, the lady checked my underwear also (I promise it is true). I guess you wanted to check if they could be enough to seduce the pilot and make him want to follow my wills. Anyway, she decided that they were safe , she probably thought that cotton ones are non-dangerous.
After that, I accessed the gates and to my surprise, my flight was cancelled. I was totally shocked because some minutes before it was on. When the next door agent arrived, she was jumped on by not only me, but a dozen passengers in the same situation, some of which had luggage lost somewhere. Luckily, there was another plane to the same city that night, but to a different airport. People with luggage were worried about it, but we all booked for the other plane. We were all worried, because the we were all in stand by. The lady was clear: the fight was already over sold. At last, the flight boards and we all wait with anxietey to be called. In the end of the day, we could all take the plane. I don't know if the other passengers could find their luggage. We were one hour late, which was not too bad.
On my way back on Sunday night, my return flight was two hours late.

Cause: The reason for the cancelled flight and for the return flight heavily delayed was the same. The destination airport had oversold its landing slots. Too many flights had to land at the same time, and some flights were randomly cancelled, causing distress to the passengers. I find this pratice appauling. No excuse from the company was provided. No agent was there to help the passengers personnally. The lady who helped us was boarding another flight and she already had a lot to do. I don't think I can't complain to the company, because at the end, the outcome was ok. I don't even know if sending could help.