Where are the Delays?

Check out the FAA's Real-Time Airport Status Map

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has a helpful travel tool on its FAA Web site: the real-time airport status page. Airport status is relayed via color-coding and brief updates: green, good; yellow, ummmm cautionary; and red and black...better get a good book or check an Amtrak schedule. The

Flight Delay Information - Air Traffic Control System Command Center

http://www.fly.faa.gov/index.html 

You can check for air traffic delays by using the posted map or drop-down text box. What makes this site particularly unique as well as valuable is the in-depth and up-to-the-minute accuracy of its delay information.

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Calling All Corporate Travel Managers!

Join Egencia for On Online Webinar.

My compadres in the realm of account management at Egencia are hosting a best practices online seminar to talk about ways to improve your corporate travel program's performance. I thought there might be some would-be wunderkinds of corp travel who may like to attend.

The online session is designed to help Travel Managers by showcasing quick, practical and actionable best practices based on input from hundreds of other travel mangers.

Here's the scoop. For this session, they'll focus on how to adjust your travel program to optimize your travel spend, which includes:

• Leveraging reporting to identify missed savings
• Engaging your travelers with cost-savings tactics
• Analyzing your travel policy for savings
• Acing your next negotiated rate agreement discussion

This live online presentation will take place on Thursday, February 19:
10 a.m. Pacific | 11 a.m. Mountain | Noon Central | 1 p.m. Eastern
Registration is complimentary to Travel Managerw with this invitation

Register Here.

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When Good Airlines Do Bad Things

So the airline representative responded to your complaint with all the verve, empathy, and interest of a teen working at the mall--preoccupied stare, punctuated eye-rolling and gum-snapping notwithstanding. Better try Plan B: talk to Uncle Sam; he’ll listen (and in this case take notes).

If you don't get anywhere with the airline, you can turn to the Department of Transportation (DOT), where each month it publishes statistics based on consumer feedback and airline performance. The DOT then ranks airlines from best to worst—a list the airlines say they take very seriously.

If you have Complaints About Air Travel for issues such as canceled or delayed flights, on-time baggage delivery, and ticket refunds, comments should be directed to the Department’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division  . You can also view the annual Air Travel Consumer Reports for specific airline rankings.

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Keeping Track of a Tangle of Luggage Fees and Policies

Baggage fees and policies, they are a changin'. And being the full-service blog that we are, I've posted the latest link to our one-stop baggage reference chart for domestic carriers.

Within the chart, you'll find first and second baggage fees and links to each airline's baggage policy.  (Tip: traveling lightly will serve your wallet well.)

U.S. Airlines Checked Luggage Fees & Policy Links 

Here's a partial screenshot of what you'll see:

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