265
votes
Accepted
My name causes an issue with any booking! (names end with MR and MRS)
Airlines were early pioneers in communication technologies, and have been very slow to modernize. For example, today, airline IT systems still communicate extensively using TTY: Type-A for synchronous ...
- 2,427
206
votes
Took airline plane blanket by accident; didn't realize it was forbidden. What should I do?
To avoid any lingering feelings of guilt, you can call the airline and ask them what they'd like you to do with the blanket. Explain that you took it by mistake because you were not fully alert when ...
- 116k
163
votes
Accepted
Why are airlines against the transferring of tickets to other persons?
Airlines have a pricing strategy known as "yield management" or "revenue management" - they charge less for some seats than others, and expect these seats to be bought a long time in advance. They ...
- 72.9k
156
votes
Took airline plane blanket by accident; didn't realize it was forbidden. What should I do?
We live in a strange world where manufactured goods (like blankets) are very cheap, and people's time is very expensive. Our moral (and legal) codes haven't caught up with this: so we feel bad at ...
- 1,611
156
votes
Accepted
Dress for First Class?
If you've been on a plane before, I'm sure you've walked past first class; nobody cares. If you want to dress up, sure, but I'd prefer to be casual and comfortable.
- 826
145
votes
Accepted
Why do flight attendants say in safety instructions that you should put on your own mask before helping others?
It's actually quite simple. The reason they do this is to make sure you are able to help others. What do I mean by this? During an emergency where the air in the plane is thinning, it is important ...
- 1,331
143
votes
Took airline plane blanket by accident; didn't realize it was forbidden. What should I do?
Or should I just forget about it, having learned my lesson?
Just forget about it. No one is going to come after you for stealing a 2-euro blanket. Keep it as a souvenir and don't steal any in the ...
- 79k
119
votes
Accepted
How do airlines determine ticket prices?
To calculate the price of a ticket, we first need to know a little about how air pricing works.
A ticket is a single, complete contract for one journey. It can contain up to a maximum sixteen flights....
- 36.5k
116
votes
Why can't airline tickets be booked far into the future?
It's less of a technical constraint and more of a practical one. The servers maintained by airlines could certainly hold another year's worth of flights. The issue is that it doesn't make much sense ...
- 3,079
110
votes
Why don't airlines have backup planes just in case of an emergency?
Because it would be ridiculously expensive.
Not only would it require a massive increase in the number of planes an airline has to purchase and maintain, it would not even garantee that there would ...
- 4,625
110
votes
Accepted
Smartphone taken from baggage while on layover
The airline is liable.
According to the Montreal convention the airline cannot disclaim liability via their contract of carriage or other terms and conditions. As in this analysis by the US DoT (not ...
- 28.2k
104
votes
Accepted
Will the cabin crew heat your own food up?
A cabin crewmember here.
The answer is: No, it is NOT allowed!
For various reasons, including:
Security: We do not know what are you heating, is it a heat-activated bomb? is it something that might ...
- 93.3k
85
votes
Dress for First Class?
and just wanted to experience it at least once.
Dress up, dress as nice as you like and comfortably can for a flight and make it a whole experience. You want to enjoy it so enjoy it to the fullest.
...
- 32.5k
85
votes
Accepted
Would airlines increase prices for a customer who must travel at a certain time, e.g. to attend a funeral?
The bigger question is how would they know?
People buy plane tickets all the time for all kinds of reasons. You are not required to tell an airline why you are flying, only when and where (so they ...
- 776
83
votes
Accepted
Can you sneak into Premium Economy Class?
Airlines certainly keep a passenger manifest (it looks something like this) that lists everyone on board and where they are supposed to be seated. These are either paper printouts or viewed on ...
- 84.6k
83
votes
Accepted
Flight departed from the gate 5 min before scheduled departure time. Refund options
If you check your ticket, it will say something like 'all passenger must be at the gate and ready to board x minutes before the scheduled time, or they forfeit their flight'.
I have seen times ...
- 27.5k
80
votes
Why do flight attendants say in safety instructions that you should put on your own mask before helping others?
If you're travelling with someone who requires assistance, you need to remain conscious in order to assist them, especially if you have multiple people with you, say two children.
Hypoxia can hit in ...
- 32.1k
78
votes
Can a passenger predict that an airline or a tour operator is about to go bankrupt?
Yes, there were many, many indicators that Thomas Cook was in financial trouble, from analyst downgrades to their share price and their bond rate. But the company had been in financial trouble for ...
- 42.5k
71
votes
I am travelling with a medication that needs to be cool at all times, will the airline allow me to use the onboard chiller?
As part of a flight crew (I flew for middle east regional for the last 4 years with a B747), I am trained to help my passenger as best as I can. But I'm also trained to stay away from any possible ...
- 771
70
votes
Accepted
Why are airline websites blocking access through Tor?
Credit card fraud is a considerable problem for airlines. You would think the fraud risk would be low—after all, passengers usually have to appear in person with photo ID to make use of the service—...
- 84.6k
68
votes
Accepted
Compensation for missed connection due to delay with same airline but separate bookings
No, you're not entitled to any compensation. You chose to book separate flights, so the airline did not guarantee your connection and the risk is fully on you.
In addition, because your flight was ...
- 99.3k
68
votes
Accepted
Why do Ryanair allow me to book connecting itineraries through a third party, but not through their own website?
Ryanair is working almost strictly point-to-point. With a very few exceptions, they simply don't do connecting tickets, which saves them all the hassle and costs with accomodating people who missed ...
- 4,457
67
votes
What's going to happen to my booked AirBerlin flight now that they've gone bankrupt?
Called AirBerlin. They're saying that at the moment they are expecting all flights within the next 3 months to operate normally and that I should check back in one week to get an update about possible ...
- 741
66
votes
Why are airline meal portions so small?
They aren't!
You are typically going to be sitting down and getting very limited exercise. On a long haul flight of 12 hours, based on a 2000 kcal/day requirement, the average person will burn in and ...
- 3,614
66
votes
Airline schedule flights to arrive at the same time its scheduled to depart
You are looking at the aircraft scheduling at a single point of time, which won't show the full picture.
Most likely the aircraft that was planned to fly flight UA263 was delayed, or for some other ...
- 106k
64
votes
Accepted
I am travelling with a medication that needs to be cool at all times, will the airline allow me to use the onboard chiller?
It appears this is not possible for the Big Three US airlines. In fact, your assertion that "I know airplanes have" refrigerators on board seems to be not true in general.
United Airlines: "Our ...
- 36.9k
58
votes
Why don't airlines have backup planes just in case of an emergency?
Look at a typical airline company on Wikipedia. Let's take KLM for example:
Fleet size: 117
Destinations: 138
As you can see, in order to have a spare plane on every flight, KLM would need to buy ...
- 9,290
58
votes
Why do flight attendants say in safety instructions that you should put on your own mask before helping others?
As others have already said, it's precisely to ensure you are best able to help your family. And one reason they have to instruct you explicitly not to do that is that every mother's or father's first ...
- 95.8k
57
votes
Accepted
Which airlines might I have trouble taking, being an Israeli?
As a rule of thumb, if the country does not accept Israeli passports, its airlines will not accept them either.
In the Middle East, this means primarily Iran Air, Kuwait Airways and Saudia are off ...
- 99.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible