Tag: AIRLINES

For better or worse, Wi-Fi is an increasingly common amenity on flights, both domestic and international. The upside is that you can get work done in transit. The down side is that you're expected to get online and get work done in transit. Many now fly assuming they'll have Internet access at 30,000 feet, but that isn't always the case, and there hasn't been a particularly easy way to check ...

Many major airlines offer Wi-Fi connectivity on flights, but according to ABC News, Singapore Airlines could allow passengers to send text messages or make cell phone calls on medium-to-long flights as soon as early next year. This service, which is part of an in-flight Wi-Fi Internet system being implemented, would be available on about 43 planes -- or half the airline's fleet. Of course, cell ...

Have you ever dreamed of being an air traffic controller, but your time spent training in a terrorist camp overseas has kept you from passing the background check? Well, now you can monitor thousands of flights in near real-time as they criss-cross the country, thanks to a KML file from Flightwise.com that puts data from the FAA in Google Earth. Each in-air flight is represented by a little plane ...

With flying becoming a luxury, folks want to snag the cheapest fares they can grab. But, as is the American way, they don't always want to do the work required to get the deal. According to USA Today, the new FareCompare 'When-to-Fly' free app sends a push notification whenever the price of a preselected flight route drops below the current lowest fare. For U.S. flights, the price needs to drop ...

Sometimes, planning a flight can be more stressful than actually waiting in the security lines or sitting next to a crying baby on the transatlantic. Sure, there are plenty of travel sites out there, each claiming to deliver the cheapest, easiest flights in the skies. But sifting through the layovers and comparing costs often takes some extensive research, simply due to the confusing way most ...

Starting today, you'll be able tag where you've been (or where you will be going), update your friends on your travel plans, and actually purchase your tickets all in the same place -- as long as you plan to fly Delta. The airline has opened an online Ticket Window, which lets customers purchase tickets through Facebook. Delta is the first airline to offer such a service through the social ...

Although a number a major airlines have gone to great pains in offering Wi-Fi connectivity on their flights, few passengers are buying. USA Today says that "some analysts" estimate that on-board Wi-Fi adoption tops out at around 10-percent of a given plane's passengers. We at Switched rely on the Internet to make our coffee, pump our blood and give our poor lives some meaning, so we have no idea ...

If you happen to be looking for a cheap flight on Virgin America this summer, you might want to spend a bit more time on Twitter. The airline, in collaboration with Twitter analytics service Klout, is now offering a free flight to anyone who has serious influence on the micro-blogging site. Klout determines a user's influence by analyzing several variables -- including an individual's followers, ...

There once was a time, at the dawn of the commercial flight era, when major airlines were at the forefront of new technology. While its computerized reservation system may have been revolutionary back in 1960, it hasn't changed a whole lot since, and consumers have had to suffer because of it. Decades-old computers and convoluted networks have only served to exacerbate already strained customer ...

If we were unlucky enough to run a major airline company and had to choose some celebrity to promote our new boarding pass system, Osama bin Laden probably wouldn't be our first choice. For British Airways, though, the world's most wanted (and hated) man is apparently just the kind of star power the company needs to promote its new mobile-boarding pass service. As Yahoo! News reports, a ...

Soon, Australian travelers will have a new way to kill time while on a plane. According to The Next Web, Jetstar, a budget Aussie airline, will be offering an iPad rental service later this month to passengers on select flights that are longer than 90 minutes. For just $8.40 (A$10), passengers can bypass lame romantic comedies and SkyMall magazine for a selection of e-books, movies and games ...

A new set of requirements handed down by the Federal Aviation Administration will overhaul the nation's air traffic control system within the next decade. According to an Associated Press report on CBS News, the FAA mandated that all aircraft and ground control must install and use GPS-tracking systems by 2020. It will cost $4 billion for the estimated 7,000 airliners and cargo planes plus more ...

Wi-Fi has been available on planes for sometime now. In fact, on our way to this year's CES, in-flight Wi-Fi ruined what should have been a few hours dedicated to catching up on some reading and getting a little extra shut eye. Instead, Team Switched spent the better part of the six hour flight to Vegas blogging and hanging out in our team chat room...which might have landed us in hot water had ...

Getting a good deal on air fare has never been easier, but getting the best deal has probably never been more complicated. There are more discount travel sites and price comparison services out there than one person could possibly use in a lifetime. Travelocity, Expedia, Kayak, Orbitz, CheapTickets... the list goes on and on. Then, there are fare prediction sites, like Farecast and Yapta, which ...

Just in case 'Jersey Girl' left you convinced that Kevin Smith had lost his comedic mojo, Silent Bob has proved once again that he's still one of the most caustically funny people on the planet. After being barred from a recent Southwest Airlines flight for being "too fat to fly," the director-actor began venting his angst on Saturday, via Twitter. Smith originally bought two seats on a flight ...