news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

The launch of Ryanair‘s new pre-paid card which will become the only way to avoid the airline’s booking fees has been branded an ”insult” to customers.

From November passengers must book with the MasterCard Cash Passport to escape a £6 each way surcharge.

But Which? said it was a bad deal and warned customers they would be charged £2.50 a month if they did not use the card for more than six months.

‘’Ryanair is making it even more difficult to avoid paying the fees,” said a spokesman for the consumer watchdog. ‘’Before, you had to use any pre-paid MasterCard – now they’re narrowing it even further.”

source: metro.co.uk

Virgin Atlantic has been fined $50,000 by the ‘US Department of Transportation‘ for deceptive online price advertising.

The US regulator said the airline displayed air fares without government taxes and fees. That violated US DoT rules requiring any advertising that includes a price for air transportation to state the full price to be paid by the consumer, including all carrier-imposed surcharges.

source: travolution.co.uk

Fears that the holding company for American Airlines, the fourth-biggest US carrier by passenger miles, would file for bankruptcy sent shares in AMR Corporation tumbling by a third on Monday.

Management at AMR, which owns the regional airline American Eagle as well as American, strongly denied the claims.

American is the only big US carrier not to have passed through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the past decade. That has led to suggestions the company would voluntarily file for bankruptcy to renegotiate labour – and in particular pilot – costs, despite holding a cash pile of about $5bn.

source: Finantial Times

Pilots at United Airlines lost on Thursday in their bid to postpone the integration of flight operations with Continental Airlines, an essential step to completing the 2010 merger of the two carriers.

The pilots’ argument that the training shortfall would endanger the public was “‘too speculative'” to justify pushing back the deadline, the U.S. District Judge said in an eight-page ruling.

United bought Continental last year in a $3.17 billion all-stock deal to form United Continental Holdings Inc, the world’s largest airline company. The two airlines continue to operate separately while they integrate operations.

source: Reuters

Although airfares have been on the rise for the last year or so, there is good news for holiday travelers:

Several of the nation’s largest airlines have dramatically reduced the number of dates on which they will impose a peak-travel surcharge. The fees, which range from $20 to $40, are typically added to one-way fares for flights on such popular travel dates as the day before ‘Thanksgiving’.

source: Los Angeles Times

American Airlines announced that it’s stepping up its in-flight dining program with new menu items created by cheffy-chefs Richard Sandoval and Marcus Samuelsson.

Chef Sandoval’s items are more entree-ish, and they’ll be served on premium-class seats on flights between the U.S. and Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Chef Samuelsson’s “‘New American Table menu'” items are more sandwichy, and will be available for purchase in the Main Cabin/Coach section on domestic flights more than two hours long.

source: pegasusnews.com

German tour operator TUI plans to cut up to 550 jobs in Germany as it moves to cuts costs and revamp its hotel portfolio as the traditional one-size-fits-all package holiday dwindles in popularity.

TUI said it wanted to introduce more exclusive hotels to its range in response to rising demands for more individual holidays, as well as expand its online offering.

The company, which has about 10,000 employees in Germany, earlier this year said it wanted to cut costs to become more competitive and warned last month of job cuts to come.

source: Reuters