Airline Passengers Told to Pay Extra for Fuel

Hundreds of passengers on a Comtel flight from India to Britain were stranded for six hours in Vienna when they were told they had to pay extra to buy more fuel. 
 

The charter service asked them to kick in more than 20,000 pounds ($31,000) to fund the rest of the flight to Birmingham, England. In the video below a Comtel cabin crew member tells passengers, "We need some money to pay the fuel, to pay the airport, to pay everything we need. If you want to go to Birmingham, you have to pay."

Some passengers said they were sent off the plane to go to cash machines to get the money.

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All Time Worst Luggage Incidents

Budget Travel: Most travelers worry about airlines losing their bags, but that's nothing compared to these tragic tales. From a bag that wound up swamped by sewage to a suitcase set ablaze on the tarmac, here are the nine worst luggage incidents of all time.

1. 240 Suitcases Swamped by Raw Sewage One thing you never expect to hear is that your luggage is buried in excrement. True story: In November 2010, a waste pipe in London Heathrow's Terminal 1 burst, swamping about 240 suitcases with human waste. Said a source at the scene: "Gallons of raw sewage came spewing out. The stench was appalling."

2. United Airlines Sets Woman's Luggage on Fire Burned luggage rivals sewage on the suitcase-disaster scale. In December 2008, a woman was called into the cockpit of a United plane, where a pilot pointed to a blaze on the tarmac. "See that?" he said. "That's your luggage." It caught fire after being placed too close to the engine."

3. Suitcase Soaked in Jet Fuel What's more upsetting than deplaning and finding your luggage so infused with jet fuel that it's emitting fumes? Having the airline (Delta, in this case) tell you to try to clean it before it'll even consider reimbursing you for it. Good thing there were no fires associated with this incident.

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Virgin Atlantic Offers Popsicles in Economy

Jaunted: It's official; summer 2011 is the summer of sweets in the sky. First bmi is handing out free slices of cake onboard, and now Virgin Atlantic has introduced popsicles in economy!

The new desserts—Skinny Cow Skinny Dippers—are caramel ice cream pops dipped in chocolate, and they're totally complimentary to passengers flying Virgin from Manchester, London-Gatwick and London-Heathrow to the US, Caribbean and Tokyo-Narita. Even better still: each Skinny Dipper is only 65 calories (that's less than a tiny airline cup full of regular soda). They're new onboard from this month, and they should last through the end of the warm weather.

It's not exactly a regular occurrence to be served ice cream on a plane, but several airlines like Virgin Atlantic make the extra effort. To be served it in economy is another thing altogether. If you're traveling in Premium Economy or Upper Class, you get Haagen Dazs, but we're sure a special request for the Skinny Dippers can be made.

Another thing: this could possibly be the first instance of popsicles served as part of an in-flight meal. Anyone ever had one elsewhere? Yo, Virgin America, we could use a Bomb Pop or two. Would we even be able to mention Bomb Pops on a plane? Okay—"Freedom Pops" it is.

Are Travel Agents Obsolete?

The Economist: On Thursday, President Barack Obama said this during a town hall meeting in Atkinson, Illinois:

"One of the challenges in terms of rebuilding our economy is businesses have gotten so efficient that—when was the last time somebody went to a bank teller instead of using the ATM, or used a travel agent instead of just going online? A lot of jobs that used to be out there requiring people now have become automated."

Travel agents flipped their lids. The American Society of Travel Agents wrote a letter to the White House, and Travel Leaders Group, another trade group representing travel agents, "strongly rebutted" the president in a press release. Here's ASTA's argument:

In its letter, ASTA informed the President that today, the U.S. travel agency industry "is comprised of nearly 10,000 U.S.-based travel agency firms operating in 15,000 locations. We have an annual payroll of $6.3 billion. Most importantly, our businesses produce full-time employment for more than 120,000 U.S. taxpayers."

Further, the U.S. travel agency industry:

• processes more than $146 billion in annual travel sales, accounting for more than 50 percent of all travel sold. This includes the processing of more than 50 percent of all airline tickets, more than 79 percent of tours and more than 78 percent of all cruises

• helps more than 144 million travelers get where they want to go each year.

It is true that travel agents are still a significant part of the American workforce, and $6.3 billion in annual payroll and 120,000 jobs are nothing to sniff at, especially in this economy. Suggesting that such a large number of Americans are doing a job that is no longer necessary was perhaps not the wisest move politically. But just as it's true that ATMs have changed the roles of bank tellers, so too have internet travel sites changed the travel agency industry. The number of agencies in America declined "from 32,000 in 1998 to somewhere in the vicinity of 20,000" by 2007, according to USA Today's David Grossman. The sector has seen further consolidation since then; as ASTA noted, the industry is now "comprised of nearly 10,000 U.S.-based travel agency firms."

Fewer agencies and industry-wide consolidation could be expected to lead to job losses even without technological change. The federal government, at least, doesn't foresee growth in the number of travel agents in the near future. America's Bureau of Labour Statistics projects that there will be about 1% fewer travel agents in 2018 than there were in 2008, despite population growth. IBISWorld, an industry research provider, believes that continued change in the industry will "effectively eliminate many smaller brick-and-mortar establishments," but there are good prospects for growth online.

The real challenge for travel agents going forward will be convincing younger business and leisure travellers who have never used anything other than a website to book travel that they can and should use an online travel agent. (Getting those folks to switch to using the phone or an in-person meeting to book travel seems like a lost cause.) There's a case to be made, but it won't be easy.