Airline information on-line on the Internet

What's this web site about?

There's an enormous amount of information available on the Web about airlines and aviation. This web site concentrates on two things: schedules, fares, reservations, and tickets for commercial airlines, and on-line travel agents. We list both airline-sponsored and independent information.

The first parts of this web site discuss on-line sources of airline schedules and fares, of which there are several general-purpose services.

After that it lists airlines that have any of online schedules, fares, reservations, ticket sales, and flight status.

Next comes a listing of on-line specials, sources of special fares and other deals available over the net. Many airlines have short-notice specials which are worth checking out.

The rest of the web site lists travel agents that offer service over the net and have indicated that they'd like to be listed. I am not a travel agent (I consult and write computer books which you can find out about here, and the agent listings are provided free to any agent that asks and sends in a short description of what he or she offers.

Where is this web site's information available?

This FAQ is also posted in text form on the usenet groups rec.travel.air, rec.answers, and news.answers every Sunday.

You can also get it by e-mail every Sunday. To get on the mailing list, send a message to majordomo@lists.iecc.com containing the line "subscribe airline". (Don't type the quotes, nor any other punctuation.)

How do on-line reservations work?

Four giant airline computer systems in the United States handle nearly all the airline reservations in the country. (They're known as CRSs, for computer reservations systems, or more often now GDS for global distribution systems.) Although each airline has a ``home'' CRS, the systems are all interlinked so that you can, with few exceptions, buy tickets for any airline from any CRS. The dominant systems in the U.S. are Sabre (home to American and US Airways), Galileo (home to United), Worldspan (home to Delta, Northwest), and Amadeus (Continental and many European lines.) The company that owned Galileo and Orbitz recently bought Worldspan, so the two GDS will presumably be merged. Many of the low-price start-up airlines don't participate in any of these systems but have their own Web sites where you can check flights and buy tickets. Southwest, the largest and oldest of the low-price airlines, doesn't participate, either. Southwest's web site gets car and hotel info from Galileo, but the info seems not to flow the other way. Orbitz one of the big three online travel agencies, runs its own system which is "direct connect" linked directly to many of the airlines.

In theory, all the systems show the same data; in practice, however, they get a little out of sync with each other. If you're looking for seats on a sold-out flight, an airline's home system is most likely to have that last, elusive seat. If you're looking for the lowest fare to somewhere, check all four systems because a fare that's marked as sold out on one system often mysteriously reappears on another system. Some airlines have rules about flight segments that are not supposed to be sold together even though they're all available, and at least once I got a cheap US Airways ticket on Expedia, which didn't know about all the US Airways rules even though I couldn't get it on their own site or Travelocity which did know about them. On the other hand, many airlines have available some special deals that are only on their own Web sites and maybe a few of the online agencies. Confused? You should be. We are.

The confusion is even worse if you want to fly internationally. Official fares to most countries are set via a treaty organization called the IATA, so most computer systems list only IATA fares for international flights. It's easy to find entirely legal ``consolidator'' tickets sold for considerably less than the official price, however, so an online or offline agent is extremely useful for getting the best price. The airlines also can have some impressive online offers on their web sites.

Here's our distilled wisdom about buying tickets online:

• Check the online systems to see what flights are available and for an idea of the price ranges. Check more than one CRS. For tickets within the U.S. and Canada, the prices in the CRS are for the most part the real prices that people are paying. See the big online agencies for some good places to start.

• After you have found a likely airline, check that airline's site to see whether it has any special Web-only deals. If a low-fare airline has the route, be sure to check that one too, since most low-fare airlines don't appear in CRS listings.

• If your schedule is flexible, check ticket bidding sites including Hotwire and Priceline and ticket auctions such as SkyAuction

• You can also talk to travel agents, particularly if it's a route where you aren't eligible for the lowest CRS fares, but remember that agents get no commission on fares visible on the CRS, so you can expect an agent to charge you for ticking them.

• For international tickets, do all the steps above in this list, and then check both online and with your agent for consolidator tickets. This is particularly important if you don't qualify for the lowest published fare. See Edward Hasbrouck's Consolidators and Bucket Shops FAQ for much more detailed information on consolidator tickets.

July 2008 industry update

With skyrocketing fuel prices, the U.S. airline industry is again in dreadful shape, with Aloha, ATA, Skybus, Eos, Silverjet, and Maxjet having shut down unexpectedly in recent months. Midwest is on death watch, French all-business carrier l'Avion is being absorbed into British Airways' Openskies subsidiary, Frontier is bankrupt but still flying, and the remaining airlines are hanging on with to a combination of somewhat higher fares and very full planes.

Airlines have been flying smaller planes, in particular under-100 seat regional jets, so although the number of flights is about what it was, there aren't as many seats available, and the increased flights means dreadful delays anytime there's the least weather or mechanical glitch. But those small jets burn a whole lot of fuel per passenger, so this fall you'll be seeing a lot fewer of them, with flights either combined to provide enough passengers for a larger jet, or just plain cancelled.

Airlines are scrambling for revenue anywhere they can find it. Fuel surcharges are now common across the industry, and can be several hundred dollars on overseas flights. Most lines now only let you check one bag for free, some charge for all checked bags, many now charge for picking your own seat, and charge more if you pick a decent seat by an exit row or bulkhead. (The kindest way to think of it is that the prices have increased, but you get a discount if you're willing to fly with no checked bag, sit in a lousy seat, and bring your own lunch.) With the exception of Continental, nobody includes meals on domestic flights any more, although I have to say that the $5 salads and sandwiches are often a lot better than the former free gray-green glop.

The airlines that aren't bankrupt have shrunk themselves and raised fares but after a brief profitable period are all deeply back in the red, due to fuel prices. Beyond the ones that have shut down, Mesa Air is on death watch, due to the end of its commuter agreement with Delta and losses at its go! subsidiary in Hawaii, and Midwest will shut down if they don't get more investors soon.

A major effect of all of the bankruptcies and downsizing is that airlines are much more thinly staffed than they used to be. That means that problems tend to have worse effects and last longer than they used to be. Northwest and Delta finally agreed to tie the knot, although the merger may not survive the gamut of hostile unions at Northwest and hostile politicians in Washington.

United, chronically left at the altar, was talking to Continental, who then publicly stated that they're not interested in a merger, but agreed to code-share and for CO to join Star Alliance, replacing what CO has now with Northwest and Delta.

US Airways slogged through its second bankruptcy, and merged with America West, with the combined company to be called US Airways but run by the management of profitable America West, which hasn't been bankrupt for a couple of years. Their operations still aren't entirely integrated. The staffs of the two airlines never liked each other, causing continuing labor problems. They might yet merge with United, although in their current shape they're not a terribly attractive merger partner.

Hawaiian and and Aloha emerged from bankruptcy last year. Hawaiian is hanging on, but Aloha died in March.

ATA unexpectedly shut down on April 2, citing a lost military contract. Since they had a deal with Southwest to provide codeshare service between Midway and places Southwest doesn't go, this also affected some Southwest passengers.

Air Canada emerged from bankruptcy last year in OK but not great shape, and has been modestly profitable, making it look like a survivor, particularly since low-cost competitor JetsGo turned out to be so low cost that it ran out of cash and died, Canjet retreated back to charters, and surviving low cost competitor Westjet isn't competing very hard, although they recently announced a modest alliance with Southwest.

Since the UK bomb plot a few years ago, the rules about what you can take with you on the plane rather than check, particularly what amounts of what kind of liquid, and what electronic equipment, have been changing unpredictably from day to day and place to place, despite the fact that the authorities have known for at least a decade that bad guys might try to use liquid bombs detonated by consumer electronic equipment.

Passengers are subject to much more extensive screening than in the past, including screening of checked baggage at check-in time, and, according to news reports pat downs that approach groping. Airlines recommend arriving at least an hour earlier than before. In my experience the extra delay is rarely more than 15 minutes, even with the extra baggage screening, although I usually fly out of smaller airports, not big hubs where you can get the killer two hour lines. The TSA has taken over screening at most airports but the inconsistency in procedures from one airport to another, particularly with respect to your shoes, is worse than ever. I've gone through the metal detector, it beeped, I went back and took my shoes off, walked through again, it beeped again, and they didn't notice (so neither did I, since I'm pretty sure I have no plans to blow up any planes.) A variety of extra cost "trusted traveller" may allow people to get through the screening faster, or may just involve waiting in a different line. The TSA makes no promises. They have a web site with estimated wait times based on averages in previous months, not real time numbers.

Other changes include: some airports have stopped curb-side baggage check, anything vaguely resembling a knife or lighter may or may not be confiscated (although lighters suddenly stopped being dangerous the first week in August), you're sometimes only allowed one carry-on plus a purse, briefcase, diaper bag or the like, non-passengers aren't allowed past security without a gate pass from an airline, all passengers must have a document that looks like a boarding pass at most airports to get past security, you may have to put your toothpaste and shampoo in a baggie that may have to be a one quart size, some parking areas close to terminals are closed. But check-in clerks no longer ask you whether you packed your own suitcase.

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