Category Archives: flying

November 17, 2013 · 7:58 pm

Tips on flying Southwest out of Des Moines

Southwest Airlines Logo.png
IATA
WN		 ICAO
SWA		 Callsign
SOUTHWEST
Founded March 16, 1967

As word comes from today’s DMRegister that there’ s talk of trying to expand the selection of direct Southwest flights out of Des Moines (Orlando and St. Louis but no promises and would happen, at the earliest next summer), I’ve been thinking about advice I’d give to people flying Southwest out of DSM right now – based on my first trial run earlier this month. And here it is:

– Although Southwest offers no fee to check your luggage (how refreshing), I am glad I didn’t check mine because if I had I wouldn’t have been able to switch flights in Las Vegas at the last minute after my LAX flight was delayed and I hopped aboard a Burbank flight. Or so I gather. The first question the counter agent asked me after I inquired about switching was whether I’d checked my luggage. I hadn’t and miraculously I was en route to Burbank minutes later. When I got to Burbank, I received another update on my original LAX flight. It still hadn’t left Vegas, delayed over 2 hours and counting…

– Paying the extra $12 or so to get priority boarding was definitely worth it!! Otherwise it is essential to check in as close as possible to exactly 24 hours before flight time so you get a good position in line, preferably A group or failing that B group but NOT C group. Those folks get the middle seats and there’s less likelihood, if the plane is booked, of getting an overhead spot to stow their luggage. The one flight I didn’t take and pay the extra $12 I got an A44 number in line – not bad. And I ended up with a good aisle seat close to the front of the plane (so I could exit quickly and make my connection).

– Speaking of connections, in Las Vegas my flight arrived in the C terminal and I had to haul a** to make my connecting flight in the B terminal, which seemed like miles away (with only a few moveable walkways). The slot machines strewed in the corridors didn’t help as I had knots of people to get around while dragging my suitcase. I don’t know if this is always the case on the DSM-Vegas-LA flight. (The one I took was at noon on a Friday out of DSM.)

– My connection at Chicago’s Midway was much much better – the Seattle-Midway flight landed in a gate only three gates away from the Midway-Des Moines flight. Yippee!! (This was on the 2:30 Wednesday flight from Seattle to Midway and the 9:30 pm flight from midway to dsm.)

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November 10, 2013 · 7:43 am

Thanks for being flexible Southwest Airlines

Another thing to love about Southwest: their flexibility. Yesterday when I realized that my connecting flight from Vegas to LA was going to be delayed yet another hour due to mechanical problems with the plane back in Tucson, I decided it was time to act. I tried to get on an earlier LAX flight which was oversold but the airline said I could give it a shot…and not loose my seat on my scheduled flight. No extra cost. No hassles. What a delightful change from other airlines which are rarely so flexible and would charge extra to change my ticket. Even more amazing, as i was,rushing back across the airport to see if I could get,on the earlier LAX flight, I passed a gate where a flight to Burbank was boarding. I remembered that my brother lived even closer to Burbank than LAX so,I dashed over to the desk, asked,if there were any seats left and once again, was told it was oversold but worth a try. A few minutes later , my name was called and an hour later I was at the Burbank airport when I got a,text saying my original flight still had not left Vegas. Even though Burbank was more expensive, no one said a word about charging me more or not letting me on the flight. Talk about a good way to build brand loyalty! meanwhile here (see photo) is the reason why I am now staying in a sweet bungalow in Toluca Lake with my brother and his family. Beautiful,area by the way. We walked in some lovely residential areas, passing houses owned by movie stars like Steve Carrell and even sawmthe house that was used as the exterior for the brady bunch!

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October 23, 2013 · 3:57 am

Tips for if my flight gets screwed up at thanksgiving…FlightStats.com!

Okay, so I am not convinced my flights will go well at thanksgiving because, well, it’s thanksgiving. I have tried to reduce possible snafus by flying direct (a rare treat from Des Moines although it does require a 6 am flight to Newark on thanksgiving day for close to $500′ insane I know) and avoiding the wed and sun surrounding thanksgiving. Still I am holding onto some good tips from the November Conde Nast traveler on dealing with winter flight issues :
– best time to fly on …Presidents’ Day weekend, which is also valentines day. Book in early december.
– other cheap tome to fly to warm weather places? Dec 3 to 16 (you are close dad!) and mid jan.
– try alternate airports. Tampa or Fort Lauderdale rather than Miami or Orlando
– nope problems in the bud. Fly early am (I knew that one) and avoid landing between 7 and 10 in say, ohare(we learned that the hard way on our way home from Boston last month when we almost got stuck overnight in Chicago,.
– if you have to do a connecting flight (yes, alas. We do) stay away from ohare (knew that too but hard to avoid). Opt instead for Dallas or Houston (really?)
– if you can’t get a seat when you book your tix online, call the airline to get from a phone agent. Apparently it IS true that you are more likely to get bumped if you show up,at the gate without a seat.
– checking in early also decreases your chance of getting bumped.
– if bad weather on the horizon, find out if your flt is cancelled by checking airline website or twitter feed for updates. Soone r u know the better chances of getting rebooked. (I learned that last fall en route to New Orleans from Kansas City)
– Have a plan b. I was just telling this to my daughter. Know what flights are leaving after your scheduled connecting flight, in case you miss it. Although you may not find a seat. Before your flight check FlightStats.com, open “:delays” and then “global trends” which will show which airports and airlines are having the most cancelations and delays and which aren’t. Ask to be rerouted to a city that isn’t having problems. You can also sign up for A flight status alert with FlightStats.com
– cancelled flight? Fly thru Vegas if if not necessarily on your way…it has lots of flights and cheap hotels (I am flying southwest thru Vegas to LA next month!) so for example on stead of waiting for a Boston Seatte
flight, try thru Vegas. (I am flying next month to Seattle to midway to Des Moines…was acttually shorter flight time then thru Vegas.)
– know whet alternative flight you want when you can to rebook (been there, done that) use FlightStats.com again. Sign up for an account, click on flights, then flight availability, then advanced search, so you can specify airlines and city and seats.
– if airline phone is jammed, call the overseas reservation desk. Really???
You can get the phone number on your airlines web site and use Skype to call free. Wow (although I have had trouble finding airline numbers on the website)

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October 11, 2013 · 3:52 am

Adventures with American Airlines

So we are flying home from Boston on Monday night, perfect weather (when there was supposed to be a storm) and we are feeling cautiously optimistic that we will get to Des Moines. At O’Hare we have to get from the end of terminal H to the end of terminal G to catch our next flight. a long haul debut we have time…about 40 minutes. after a few minutes, the monitor that just seconds ago showed our flight leaving on time at 9:40 pm now suddenly says it’s leaving at 11:40 pm, because our plane is due for an inspection. (at 9:30 pm??) This is not a good sign.

After waiting awhile, we are suddenly told our flight will leave at 10:30 from gate 7 so we leave gate 21 and head to 7, uprooting other passengers who are now told to move elsewhere. Before we can get comfy, we are next told to move back to Gate 20. Just before we board, the poor people en route to Madison who were reassigned to our original gate 21 (and presumably our original plane) are told their flight is now leaving at 6:30 am. Really? At least our ferry ride from Provincetown was a little calmer!

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October 4, 2013 · 2:23 pm

Bumpy flight flying between storms out of Des Moines today

much as I want to get to Boston for a family wedding this weekend, I almost wished our flight out of dsm at 7:15 am wasnt leaving on time when we boarded it a few hours ago. The weather was scary. And i tried NOt to think about that recent horrific flight on the silver screen with denzel Washington as the drunk pilot.

We waited for one storm to subside, sort of, then hustled to get off the runway before the next storm, fast approaching arrived…Flying in a small metal canister of a plane through dark clouds with lightening off in the distance wasn’t fun. Very bumpy for the first 15 minutes or so until we climbed out of the dramatic clouds into a refreshingly blue patch of sky. I bumped into the pilot in the bathroom at O’Hare and she acknowledged that the early moments of the flight were rough. But she said she respects the weather and wouldn’t have flown if it wasn’t safe. I thanked her for her service.

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September 29, 2013 · 4:03 pm

The “Southwest effect” in Des Moines – fares down but I still haven’t flown Southwest

A young man dancing, swiveling his hips. He has dark hair, short and slicked up a bit. He wears an unbuttoned band-collared jacket over a shirt with bold black-and-white horizontal stripes. Behind him, on either side, are a pair of barred frames, like prison doors.

So according to the DM Register there has indeed been a “Southwest effect” in Des Moines – i.e. fares have dropped about 6 percent since Southwest FINALLY decided to grace us with its presence. Southwest-effect-slashes-Des-Moines-prices. And that’s great! Oddly I’ve yet to fly Southwest. Up until yesterday Southwest only flew to Chicago from DSM  (twice daily). But  today it will begin flying to Las Vegas which should open up western routes to places like Tucson/Phoenix and L.A. where I need to fly. An Elvis impersonator and Vegas showgirls will be on board to kick off the new Vegas flight!

On the few occasions when someone from my family has opted to fly to Chicago (vs. drive or take the Megabus) they’ve opted for other airlines that have dropped their prices as a result of Southwest’s arrival – and as I recall they’re lower or more convenient times than Southwest. Still I would like to thank Southwest by flying the airline sometime – should it prove cost-efficient and convenient.

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June 19, 2013 · 11:04 pm

Paying to reserve a seat on an international British Airways flight. Really???

So now I understand why my return flight from Prague to London on British Airways doesn’t include a seat assignment. Apparently I can only get a “free” seat assignment (for a very costly flight, I might add) 24 hours in advance. If I want one before that, I have to pay – and the fee isn’t listed up front.  (I finally found it after searching for too long.  It costs about $12, talk about nickle and dime-ing. For details see: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/paid-seating-terms/public/en_us-  OR http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ba6.jsp/paid-seatingprime/public/en_us

That is really irritating!! I booked this flight via American Airlines – which I’m flying outbound from Chicago to London and on the return leg from London to Chicago (after I sit in a lousy seat I was assigned “for free” 24 hours in advance) apparently.  American kindly granted me reserved seats – who knew this is now a perk???

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April 30, 2013 · 11:09 pm

Sweat the details when contemplating flying RyanAir and EasyJet from London

Ryanair logo.svg
IATA
FR		 ICAO
RYR		 Callsign
RYANAIR
Founded 1985

So my trip to Poland (Gdansk, Krakow) and Prague this summer keeps growing – first I added Berlin. And then when I saw that I’d be flying home via London, I had to figure out a way to stop there too and see all my pals and the city where I used to live and will always love.

Then came a mad search to find those great cheap flights I’ve been hearing about from London to the continent – and I found several very reasonable flights from London to Berlin but the fares kept going up as I ruled out several airports to fly out of in London (no to Southend, which I’d never heard of – it’s in Essex – and which one English friend said would take as long to get to from central London as it takes to get from Des Moines to Heathrow; and no to Luton, which I did fly to Israel out of back in, um, 1982 and is also a schlep; yes to Gatwick and Stansted, which are reasonably easy to get to via public transport from central London) and as I ruled out very early flights (which would rule out getting to the airport via public transport.)

It looks like I’ll end up with a flight for about $98 – which isn’t the $40 I first thought it could be (although that hardly seemed possible) – but it’s not bad. That’s about what it costs these days to fly from Des Moines to Chicago one-way (thanks to Southwest Airway’s arrival in Des Moines.) I was tempted to take the train from London to Berlin but it stops in Paris where you have to switch trains and I don’t think I could bear to just pass through Paris.  So plane it is!

EasyJetlogo.SVG
IATA
U2		 ICAO
EZY		 Callsign
EASY
Founded 1995

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February 28, 2013 · 9:40 pm

flying American – between the merger and the sequester: who knows?

We are not flying American anytime soon (our next flight – to Phoenix on Saturday is on Delta) but between the pending merger with US Airways and the potential budget cuts if the sequester situation isn’t dealt with by Congress, it’s hard to know what to expect. A recent USA Today story about the effects of the merger (not the sequester) offered this info:

  • The merger will probably take months to finalize and to combine operations. So just keep buying American or US Airways tickets until you’re told to do otherwise. (Eventually there won’t be any US Airways. It will go the way of Northwest, Continental,  Republic, TWA…)
  • Your frequent flyer miles on either airline will be safe! It could take up to a year to consolidate the miles from both airlines into one American account.
  • One likely benefit of the merger is that the new American will increase the number of international flights offered.
  • One  likely downside: fares will likely rise on some routes although one study found that two recent mergers (United-Continental; Delta-Northwest) didn’t result in jacked up fares. Some say creating a third mega airline is better than having two mega airlines as far as fares go….
  • As for sequestration, if Washington doesn’t get its act together, there could be major delays in air travel starting in April at major hubs (chicago, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta) that will muck up travel for all of us.

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February 15, 2013 · 3:27 pm

Direct flights Des Moines-NYC coming back. Thank you Delta!!

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It’s been tried before – and it’s being tried again: Direct flights between Des Moines and New York City. This is excellent news for those of us who travel to New York frequently – now we just have to wait and see if the flights will be affordable. Delta will start offering daily nonstop service to LaGuardia on June 10.

The times are okay – flights will leave Des Moines at 7 a.m. (at least it’s not 6 a.m.) and landing at 10:45 a.m.; The return is a little less okay – flights leaving NYC at 8:59 p.m. and getting to Des Moines at 11:16 p.m.  This gives people another full day in NYC but sometimes evening flights are vulnerable to delays or cancellation, in my experience. And 11:16 p.m. DSM time is 12:16 a.m. NYC time – so that will be a long day. Oh well. It’s a start!

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