AirTran is having a 2 day sale from 4 major cities.

Pretty good fares, although I have not looked into the junk fees and taxes.

With the demise of Independent Air, other airlines have provided alternatives for their ticket holders.

Visit these Airlines Sites to see how they can help you with your ticketing if you are holding an Independence Air ticket.

• AirTran Airways
• American Airlines
• ATA Airlines
• Continental Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• Frontier Airlines
• JetBlue Airways
• Northwest Airlines
• Southwest Airlines
• United Airlines
• US Airways

I hope this helps travelers who are holding Independence Air tickets get to where they need to.

AirTran Airways broke all of their internal records with a 33 percent jump in travel in 2005. The traffice increase is a factor of new jets, low prices, and increasing their network across the East Coast.

AirTran reported traffic in 2005, measured by revenue passenger miles (RPMs), increased 33.3 percent over 2004 on a 28.3 percent increase in capacity. The airline served 16,638,214 passengers during 2005 — a 26.3 percent increase year-over-year.
“The AirTran brand continues to demonstrate strength as we expand our network and fleet,” said Robert Fornaro, AirTran president and chief operating officer. “Our unit revenue performance is strong and we look forward to carrying these positive trends into 2006 as the industry capacity rationalizes, particularly along the East Coast.”  bizjournals.com.

We’re not saying things are hunky-dory,” said John Heimlich, chief economist for the Air Transport Association, the trade group representing U.S. airlines. “All we’re saying is that some of the indicators we look at and some of the recent trends are promising, and that’s the first time I’ve used that word in a long time.”

With these words, we may see the airlines pull out of their free fall. The industry has been pummeled since September 11th, 2001 with fear of terrorism, high fuel prices, and unprecedented competition.

Responding by cutting back on flights, lowering labor costs, and raising prices, the major airlines are starting to get out from under the billions of losses that they have been facing. Adjusting to the new playing field that the low cost airlines such as Southwest, JetBlue, and Airtran have created has been hard for the majors, as seen by almost all of them entering into bankruptcy.

But hopefully, blue skys will be ahead for the airlines.  

AirTran and Wendy’s have a promotion going on that will award a free ticket on an AirTran flight. You need to collect 32 special promotional cups to collect each ticket, with 128  cups being the maximum to be used for awards. It is causing some extreme behavior including dumpster diving in New York City.

More than a month ago, I told you about AirTran’s promotion with Wendy’s where customers could earn a free one-way ticket for every 32 soda cups they collect from the restaurant. Apparently, the promotion has become so irresistible to some bargain hunters that they’re willing to dig through the trash to find the discarded promotional cups. Philadelphia-area nanny Danielle tells The Christian Science Monitor that she and a friend spent two hours digging through the dumpsters outside two New York Wendy’s restaurants searching for the cups, which can be redeemed for AirTran frequent-flier points. Danielle, who asked the paper to withhold her full name to make sure AirTran would honor her claim, estimates they collected 330 cups –- or enough for two round-trip tickets each. “It’s pretty disgusting work, especially when you grab a handful of chewed meat,” she says. “But it’s about the only way I can afford to see my family [in San Luis Obispo, Calif.].”

The craze doesn’t stop there –- the cups and the flight coupons have even shown up on eBay and Craigslist. The Christian Science Monitor says sellers typically ask between $150 to $200 for 128 flight coupons –- the maximum the promotion allows per person. That may seem to be a steep price for 128 cups, but when compared to the cost of buying two $300 tickets from New York to the Bahamas, for example, the price is right for some. “A free product makes money at whatever price it sells,” Brooke Szczepanski, a financial planner from Hayes, Va., who collects the cups from the trash and sells them  64 at a time on Craigslist for $100 per set. She says she has collected 2,600 cups so far. AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson says the company did anticipate a black market emerging for the cups, but adds: “(W)hen we looked at the pros and cons of it, the cost of getting exposure for AirTran outweighed the bad.”  via USA Today

And people are not happy about it. This loophole is starting to capture the attention of the flying public and more importantly. I use skype on a regular basis for talking to people throughout the world, and it is a wonderful tool. The clarity is better, and the cost is free if you are talking to another skype user, or very cheap if you are calling a telephone number.

However with this being said, I would go crazy if I was on an international flight and the person sitting next to me was talking on the phone the whole time.

But these days, there is a new wrinkle. Say you’re on El Al or maybe SAS or Lufthansa — one of the airlines that offers broadband Internet during flights for about $30 a trip. There are a lot of positives. You can do e-mail. You can get some Christmas shopping done. You can watch videos of curling.

But then the guy next to you boots up Skype. This is software that lets people make free or cheap phone calls over the Internet. Other software does this, too, including Yahoo Messenger.

Your seatmate connects to someone and starts talking. Maybe he has a headset — or maybe he doesn’t, and you have to hear both sides of the conversation as the other person crackles out of the laptop’s speakers.

There are no rules against this. It’s not a cellphone conversation. He is not using a BlackBerry or any unapproved electronic device. He’s on a laptop, on the plane’s Internet service, using software to make a phone call.

There’s not much you can do. You’re trying to read, but the guy is inches away from you in your coach seat. You feel the bile rising in your gullet. You read the same sentence six times, but all your brain takes in is the conversation next to you. And then the guy breaks out a webcam.

(more…)

Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport, the ATL, is the busiest passenger airport in the country. Serving Atlanta and Northern Georgia, Atlanta Hartsfield also serves as a hub airport, for transfers throughout the United States and the world.

Airlines that service Atlanta are Air Canada (AC) ,Air Jamaica (JM) ,AirTran (FL) ,American (AA) ,America West (HP) ,British Airways (BA) , Continental (CO), Corporate (3C),Frontier (F9) ,Independence Air (D9) ,KLM (KL) ,Korean Air (KE) ,Lufthansa (LH) Midwest (YX), Northwest (NW), United (UA), US Airways (US), Aeromexico (AM), Air France (AF), ASA (EV), Comair (OH), Delta Air Lines (DL), Hooters Air (H1), South African Airways (SA).

Click here for the official web site for Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.

Map of Atlanta Hartsfield. Driving Directions.

Official TSA Security Wait times at Hartsfield (ATL) and Georgia Airports. 

Local  TSA Security Wait times at Hartsfield (ATL) tool.

 Please leave your comments about Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport (ATL). This will be an interactive resource to help others who plan to use the airport.

The email scam of phishing has a new target. Members of Frequent Flyer Programs. Phishing is the act of sending out an email in the name of a company you have an account with. The emails typically inform you of a supposed problem with your account, and then redirect you to a fake site. There they try to extract information out of you so they can steal from either your account or steal you identity.

These attacks previously had targeted banks and paypal accounts. Now these thieves have set their sites on frequent traveler accounts.

Anywhere [consumers]strong> might have a stored profile might present the same risk,” said Eric Olson, a vice president at Cyveillance, an Arlington, Va., company that specializes in tracking Internet risk and fraud.

It may be especially risky for the Internet-savvy frequent traveler.

“Super-platinum members of hotel chains spend a great deal of money on travel. That is a perfect target for a scammer.”

Two of the largest hotel frequent-guest programs appear to have been targeted by phishers, the hotels’ websites suggest: the Hilton HHonors program and the Starwood Preferred Guest program. Neither Starwood nor Hilton returned phone calls asking for comment about phishing.

If you are in or near Atlanta, and looking for some good fares, AirTran has some deals that need to be purchased before October 18th.

Airtran Web Site:

• $39 Savannah
• $59 Charlotte, Jacksonville, Newport News, Pensacola, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond
• $69 Dayton, Ft. Lauderdale, Freeport, Memphis, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Washington DC, W. Palm Beach
• $74 Detroit (service begins Nov. 8), Flint, Ft. Myers, Sarasota
• $79 Akron-Canton, Baltimore, Bloomington, Buffalo, Chicago, Kansas City, Moline, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Wichita
• $84 Boston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-LaGuardia, Newark, Philadelphia
• $99 Cancun (service begins Dec. 15), Denver
• $119 Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco
  A 10-day advance purchase required. Travel Tues., Wed., Sat. or add $10-$20 per direction for Mon., Thurs. or Fri. travel days. Complete travel by Feb. 1. Blackouts: Nov. 22, 23, 26-28; Dec. 21-Jan. 3; Jan. 16. All airlines matching.