Blame President Obama for the Delays in Air Traffic

The sequester was his idea after all.  Obama in one of the egregious examples of poorly thought out solutions, wanted to increase taxes and a higher debt cap but didn't want to cut anything from the budget.  Well of course the Republicans wasn't going to allow the increases without cutting so what did Obama do, he proposed the sequester.  The Republicans agreed to it and this is how we end up with all these flight delays.  And it doesn't have to be this way.  Obama had sent out a missive to all the agencies that when it comes to the furlough, they were to make it as painful as possible.  It's ridiculous.  The sequester is basically a 5% over a ten year period.  This was done to lower our debt by 1 billion dollars.  Well guess what, under Obama, the government has overspent one billion dollars each year for the last three years.  So whatever the sequester was designed to do in lowering the national debt, the Obama administration has made sure that the debt has increased.  It's all politics and every traveler out there should let the Obama administration know that this sort of nastiness from the supposed leader of our country would make things difficult for us so that he can make a point.  Go to the White House website and make your displeasure known.

Samoa Air Fares Depend on Your Weight

Okay, I knew that some airline would eventually start charging you depending on your weight but I didn't know it was going to happen this quick.  Ever since a Norwegian educator said that the best way for airlines to prosper was to charge by the weight, there was a lot of discussion if the major airlines would do something like that.   Well now it has, Samoa Air.  Now Samoa Air is not a major airline for me but it is a major airline for Samoans.  When you buy a ticket on Samoa Air you have to include, not only pertinent identification details but also your weight and the weight of your bags.  Then based upon your weight you will prepay the ticket based on the rate per kilo plus the length of the flight.  When you get to the airport to check in with an airline, you and your bags get weighed to make sure that you paid the right fare if not you cough up the difference.

I agree that it's the fairest way to be able to charge for the ticket but I'm not sure people want to do things that way.  It will be interesting to see how this airline might influence the other airlines as time goes by.

American Airlines Allow Passengers without Carry-ons to Board First

Airlines are trying to figure out how to reduce boarding times so that get their planes out faster.  With more passengers taking along large carry-on bags because they don't want to spend money to check their bags, boarding times have gotten a lot longer.  Some airlines have come up with creative ways of trying to shorten the boarding time.  Spirit Airlines is notorious for charging $100 for carry-on bags to encourage passengers to check in a bag.  US Airways is willing to check your large carry-on bag for free at the gate.  American Airlines is trying out a new boarding process where it will allow passengers who don't have carry-ons to board before passengers with carry-ons.  First, American will board First Class passengers, then the elite passengers who are frequent flyers and have achieved some sort of status, then passengers without bags.  Finally if you have a carry-on, you are allowed to board last.

I agree with this.  I'm tired of waiting for passengers with carry-on bags delaying other passengers to get to their seats because they can't find overhead space.  I prefer going to my seat and sitting down and letting those passengers fight it out for luggage space. I've never understood why so many people were either too cheap or too attached to their luggage that they can't check it in.  And I'm talking about people who have bags that really should have been checked in, in the first place.  If this new boarding process works for American Airlines, it'll be a different world for passengers without bags and passengers with bags.

LATAM is now part of oneworld

The merger of two of South America's biggest airlines LAN Chile and TAM Brazil becomes the powerhouse LATAM and it has chosen to become part of the oneworld frequent flier alliance.  This is a big deal because it strengthens the travel opportunities for oneworld, the weakest alliance of the three major frequent flier alliances.  The other two are Star Alliance which is headed by United and Skymiles which is led by Delta.  American Airlines along with British Airways leads oneworld.  While it is a coup for oneworld, it is a blow to Star Alliance because it loses TAM.

Are You OK with Tagging Your Own Bag?

We all know that we can check in at home or at a kiosk in the airport to get our boarding passes but we still have to see an agent to tag our bags.  Now American Airlines is expanding the program at Reagan National Airport in Washington DC where you can also print out and tag your own bag.  It first started in Orlando International Airport in November 2012.  American was not the first airline to start this process, Alaska Air launched a similar program out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in May 2012.

Delta is testing out their own program in Atlanta and Las Vegas.  An American Airlines spokesman said that it speeds up the check-in process much faster.  I guess we won't have a chance to talk to a customer service agent any more.  It seems customer service gets less attention nowadays in the new American Airlines.