278
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 ...
- 2,637
211
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 ...
- 140k
166
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 ...
- 1,840
158
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.
- 846
148
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 ...
- 81.6k
115
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 ...
- 3,238
111
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 ...
- 29k
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 ...
- 98.6k
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.
...
- 33k
84
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 ...
- 796
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 ...
- 86.5k
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 ...
- 28.7k
79
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 ...
- 43.1k
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—...
- 86.5k
69
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 ...
- 5,612
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 ...
- 99.1k
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 ...
- 3,711
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 ...
- 124k
54
votes
Is flying with low-cost carriers (like Batik Air) as safe as other airlines?
Low-cost carriers (LCC) cut many corners, but they generally do not skimp on safety: having a single accident can easily bankrupt an airline.
That said, it's a big world out there and not all LCCs are ...
- 99.1k
54
votes
How can I prove an airline ticket is fake?
For starters, that's not a picture of an airline ticket! It's a boarding pass of the sort that is printed and given to the passenger no more than a few hours before the flight. That document, if it ...
- 140k
53
votes
Why do flights serve food at all?
Why not just skip it - and not serve food?
They don't serve food on long haul buses and trains. I would be happy to pay a cheaper fare for no in flight food.
It's already happening. It's ubiquitous ...
- 113k
51
votes
Can you sneak into Premium Economy Class?
I've been contracting for a major Australian airline. I've seen the app the crew uses. It has a manifest of every passenger in every class, names and notes. They most certainly know which seats are ...
- 160k
51
votes
Accepted
What’s the point of flight ticket cancellation charges?
A cancellation implies a refund, and the fee eats into that.
It's really that simple. The only reason to bother cancelling a ticket is that you want you money back. (Possibly only the airport charges ...
- 5,612
50
votes
Can two persons sharing a name travel one-way each on a return ticket?
The answer is NO. There are two reasons why you cannot do this, especially on an international itinerary.
It is a violation of the contract one of them entered into with the airline when purchasing ...
- 32.8k
50
votes
Accepted
What signal does being prepared to stay overnight on a Saturday give to the airlines?
It tells them that you're most likely not travelling for business. The common airline-industry knowledge states that most business travelers will leave during the early part of the week and return ...
- 3,238
50
votes
How can flights operated by the same company have such different prices when marketed by another?
Codeshares usually work in that way, that an airline buys a number of seats on a flight operated by another airline. In your example, both Virgin and Air France bought each a set of seats from Delta, ...
- 9,049
47
votes
Smartphone taken from baggage while on layover
Not sure about Quatar but in other jurisdictions (e.g. USA, India) you can complain to the airport authorities. They will review CCTV footage (after some pushing) and if they catch a handler filching ...
- 3,244
46
votes
Accepted
If a flight delay causes you to miss a later leg, can you ask to be rebooked on one from another airline, to significantly shorten the total delay?
Can you ask them to put you on a different airline? Sure! It's a free country! You can even ask them to rent you a private plane and fly you to your destination. Doesn't mean they will though...
...
- 124k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible