AirOptions Blog

DHS policies authorize federal agents to seize laptops and other devices from travelers at the border without any suspicion of wrongdoing. The measures have been in place for a while but have only recently been disclosed by the agency after pressure from civil liberties groups and travel associations.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved legislation that makes the current prohibition by the FAA and the Federal Communications Commission on using cell phones during flights a permanent law. “I do believe this is important that we don’t make what is already a crowded and difficult environment for the traveling public and flight attendants” worse, said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who sponsored the bill.

Terminal 8 yesterday was a stark contrast to what it was on Wednesday, when a computer software glitch shut down American Airlines’ baggage sorting system, sparking dozens of flight delays and covering the terminal’s floor with a mountain of luggage.

The software trouble - a bar-code scanner wasn’t communicating properly with the mechanical conveyor system - was cleared up by 3 a.m. yesterday and there was little evidence of the earlier meltdown.

“It’s operations as normal,” said Ned Raynolds, an American Airlines spokesman in New York. Airline officials estimated that 1,000 bags were being held at the terminal on Wednesday at the height of the problems. They were gone yesterday.

Many passengers - who had flown across the United States and came from the Caribbean and Europe - simply decided Wednesday to board flights without luggage, accepting the airline’s assurances that their bags would be delivered later.

Raynolds said three flights were canceled yesterday and two moved to LaGuardia Airport. He said “a few hundred bags” remained to be delivered.

Still, passengers Belen Gimenez, 34, and Alvaro Bartlett, 36, both of Barcelona, Spain, experienced the fallout. They traveled from Barcelona Wednesday and arrived at American Airlines at Kennedy to find a line snaking through the terminal and onto the sidewalk. They waited more than five hours before deciding to ditch the second leg of their flight to Los Angeles and stay overnight at in New York.

They hoped to get to Los Angeles via a 5 p.m. flight yesterday, but the whereabouts of their luggage remained a mystery. “They can’t confirm where my luggage is,” Gimenez said.

Despite government intervention to manage flight delays and congestion, flight delays this summer have not improved since last year, particularly in the New York area. Chicago’s O’Hare and New York’s LaGuardia airports have seen worse delays this year than last year, according to FlightStats. Almost 43% of flights at LaGuardia were delayed in 2008, up 1% from the prior year.

Many ambitious hotel projects that were planned just a few years back when business was booming are now opening their doors, but the timing could not be worse. With gas prices soaring and airlines cutting flights, occupancy rates are dropping, and in Maui, Hawaii, for instance, analysts report that business has “already fallen off a cliff.”

According to two recent surveys from the American Automobile Association, Americans are taking fewer trips, vacationing closer to home and reducing their vacation days used for travel because of rising fuel prices. One survey also found that the top U.S. vacation spots are Orlando, Fla.; Las Vegas; New York City; Los Angeles; and Washington, D.C. Rome was the top international destination for Americans.

A coalition of about 175 travel-related associations and businesses has sent a letter to President George W. Bush asking him to call a special session of Congress to address soaring fuel prices. “Our problem is that our national confidence has been eroded by the perception that the most powerful country in the world, which consumes 24% of the world’s energy output and spends $700 billion annually to continue doing so, lacks the political will to address the energy crisis,” said Bob Crandall, former chairman and CEO of American Airlines, who co-wrote the letter.

Starting with tickets purchased after today and travel starting Oct. 1 or later, Hawaiian Airlines will charge $15 for a traveler’s first checked bag on flights between Hawaii and the mainland. The airline also made changes to its frequent-flier program. Now, 15,000 miles will be the minimum required for redeeming reward travel.

If you regularly globe-trot for business, you may be interested in Customs and Border Protection’s new Global Entry program, designed to save you time and minimize lines. So far, it’s only available at Kennedy International Airport in New York, George Bush Intercontinental in Houston and Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. You’ll need to fill out an application, undergo a background check and interview, pay $100, and be willing to be fingerprinted.

The Transportation Security Administration has started using body-scanning machines on passengers chosen at random in Albuquerque, Baltimore, Denver, Los Angeles and at New York’s Kennedy airport. The equipment will be added to airports in Dallas, Miami, Detroit and Las Vegas this month. James Schear, the TSA security director at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, said the technology may eventually replace airport metal detectors.