Laid off or worried about getting laid off?

In addition to JetBlue’s  promise to refund your airfare if you get laid off, here are two other travel-related outfits that want you to rest easy:

In Park City, Utah the Washington School Inn’s “Pink Slip Protection” package promises to refund your deposit if you get laid off. And the folks at SkyRoll are offering to sell new job seekers (i.e. folks recently laid off) a 50% discount on luggage that might be useful for traveling to your next interview.

And  if you don’t have a job,  then consider applying for this:  The folk at STA, a student and youth travel company, are looking for two summer interns.  This is no “go get coffee” internship:  the lucky interns will get to travel around the world for free.  Along the way, they’ll blog, shoot and edit video and take photos.

Interested or know someone who should apply? The deadline to turn in a video application for the STA internship is  March 8th.

I’m thinking about it…

Tags: Air travel, Carry-on bags, Free stuff, JetBlue Airways
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It’s natural to wonder (or hope) that the bathroom scale is wrong when you weigh in each morning.

At the airport, it’s a different story entirely. Airlines have been getting strict about charging passengers for overweight bags to the tune of millions of dollars each year.

But last week, the Arizona Department of Weights and Measures did a surprise inspection of the scales used by Southwest Airlines and US Airways at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

According to this article in the Arizona Republic, both airlines got dinged. Southwest “had to shut down three of its 26 scales because they received red tags, the most serious violation, from the inspectors. The problem: The scales did not start at zero.”

Another reason to try to fit everything you need into a carry-on bag…..

Tags: Carry-on bags, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Southwest Airlines, US Airways
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The Tonight Show is on way past my bedtime, so I’m really glad that Terry Maxon at the Airline Biz blog makes a point of posting the jokes and jabs Jay Leno makes about airports and air travel.

All those extra charges and service cutbacks the airlines are announcing are making it way too easy on the Tonight Show writers. From Leno’s monologue last night (June 17, 2008):

“If you’ve been to the airport at all the last couple of weeks, you know the airlines are now charging people to check your bag. One bag, you have to check it now, and they charge you $15 to check a bag, 15 bucks, and 30 bucks if you ever want to see that bag again.”

There’s more….

Tags: Baggage, Baggage check fees, Carry-on bags, Uncategorized
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Like many other airlines grappling with record high fuel prices, Air Canada has announced flight and staffing cutbacks for the fall and winter.

According to an airline press release, “This will result in a decrease in staff levels of up to 2,000 positions across all levels of the organization.”

I hope one talented Air Canada flight attendant gets to keep his job. On a totally-packed Air Canada flight recently, I listened in awe as this flight attendant calmly reasoned with a very tense passenger who would not allow anyone to touch his carry-on bag in an effort to make room for other bags in the overhead bin. The passenger refused to move the bag himself and would not allow the flight attendant to do it.

After about ten minutes the still calm attendant “won” and quickly found a way to fit three other bags in the bin. He received a round of applause. And as he walked away I heard him tell another flight attendant that, given a few more minutes, he probably could have found “a much better place to shove that man’s carry-on bag.”

Tags: Air Canada, Carry-on bags
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