I’ve heard of — and sometimes paid — all kinds of airline fees, but paying $14 for the pleasure of buying a ticket over the phone or online? That’s a new one on me. And not a welcome one for someone who would have to make a two-hour round trip to buy one at the airport if I didn’t want to pay it. Which I’m almost ornery enough to do. Here’s hoping this is one idea that won’t catch on!

I was baffled during my recent trip to Australia by the hour-and-a-half time zone change between Sydney and Uluru — why the half hour? I asked a few people, but I guess it’s just one of those things people don’t think about; it just is. So I asked around here, and someone told me that the only reason we have one-hour increments in the U.S. time zones was to limit confusion on our intercontinental railway system. According to Wikipedia, this is in fact the case. Still, I’ve never encountered a half-hour change before, and am wondering if this is common and I just haven’t gotten around enough?

The answer (from Wikipedia):

“Today, all nations use standard time zones for secular purposes, but they do not all apply the concept as originally conceived. Newfoundland, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Burma, the Marquesas, as well as parts of Australia use half-hour deviations from standard time, and some nations, such as Nepal, and some provinces, such as the Chatham Islands, use quarter-hour deviations. Some countries, most notably China, use a single time zone, even though the extent of their territory far exceeds 15° of longitude. Before 1949 China used five time zones (see Time in China).”

So, that’s my new thing learned for the day!

This post about the seatmate from h*ll cracked me up. We’ve all been there, right?

It reminds me a little of my recent flight back from a meeting in Chicago. The plane was almost fully loaded and I was gloating just a bit about having an empty middle seat next to me. Then who comes down the aisle clutching a ticket for the seat next to me but a woman I had lunch with the day before at the conference. She was nice and all, but we both had that look in our eyes of “oh no, I’m totally exhausted and sick of talking with people, but I have to make nice with this person because I sort of know her.’”

We both made sure the other saw our books in hand, chatted for a few minutes, then got rolling and had a great conversation the whole two hours back to Boston. We both admitted we had that dread when we first saw each other, and that it had been the best plane conversation either of us had had in a long time.

But it so easily could have gone the way of Terminal Man, Shauna, and the chihuahua…

Sounds like there’s an FAA guidance some airlines are enforcing as a rule that you can’t put anything, not even a little bottle of water or a book, in the seatback pocket. See Huh?? FAA rule bans storing anything in seatback pockets for more. I can see why they’d want to do this, but, as a person on the MiForum listserv who was responding to this out said, flying is already so much fun, why not keep all creature comforts as far away as possible?

And here it is: BA to dole out biz-class seats as part of meetings initiative. From the article:

The carrier, with industry partners, will provide 100 Business Opportunity Grants to small U.S. companies (fewer than 500 employees) that have a valid need for international travel to grow their businesses.

The grants will provide 10 roundtrip business-class tickets wherever BA flies plus a hotel allowance at Courtyard by Marriott properties. There also is an allowance for cargo.

Thanks for supporting the business of meetings, BA!

Oh great, #1 on the Travel and Leisure list of the 10 worst airports is one I have a four-hour layover in on my way to Toronto in a couple of weeks for ASAE and The Center’s annual conference: Newark.

Here’s the full list of airport infamy: America’s Best and Worst Airports 2009. So, all you people who went to MPI’s WEC in Salt Lake City not long ago, do you agree that town’s airport deserves its #1 status?

Thanks to MeCo for the pointer.

It looks like the airlines are planning to cut back on the number of flights offered, and up the price, come fall, according to this Travel Mole article. I see it as a continuation of the trend we’ve been seeing for the past year or so in many markets. But not all. It’ll be interesting, anyway. I’m thinking I should start booking some of my fall/winter trips now, just in case. From the article:

“The coming hits are broad-based. In the US; some parts of the Midwest and leisure points in Florida and Nevada will see reduced service. Overseas, parts of Europe and Asia will see big cuts.”

It adds that while some places will be harder to get to (more connections, etc.), most will still be accessible.

Can’t help but wonder how it’ll affect meetings travel, and meeting planning. Are organizations upping their plans to go regional and get more drive-in attendees if air travel gets too expensive and difficult? I’d be giving it some serious thought, particularly if I had a high concentration of attendees in a particular area.

This article is for you: Struggling airlines launch more ‘a la carte’ fees at fliers. Of particular interest is this chart of common airline fees, like for particular seat assignments and booking over the phone.

How hard is it to sort through it all to figure out exactly what a flight will cost? As the writer points out: “It took a week for a USA TODAY reporter — who, unlike most consumers, was assisted by airline public relations staff — to compile 28 different types of fees charged by 14 major airlines.”

Here’s a handy on-flight entertainment chart for frequent fliers, brought to you by Jaunted. Thanks for doing the research for us (and thanks to Hotel Chatter for the pointer)!

“Sorry, you’re flight will be delayed because a baggage container just got sucked into your plane’s engine.”