news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

UAL Corp.’s United Airlines said on Sunday it was hiking the fee it charges passengers to change tickets from $100 to $150 in an effort to combat high fuel costs.

A spokeswoman for the airline said in an e-mailed statement that the company this weekend made the change to its ticketing policy.

It also added a Saturday night stay requirement on all tickets where it competes head-to-head with other legacy carriers, which she said will affect 65 percent of all the markets it serves. That will have the most impact on business travelers, who typically don’t want to spend a Saturday night in their destination.

source: Reuters

Two disgruntled British Airways passengers have heaped more embarrassment on the airline by a posting a musical video mocking Terminal 5 on the internet.

Tim Soong turned to satire after BA managed to wreck his wedding plans by losing his luggage, leaving he and his best man, Andy Baynes, without their suits. His fiancée, Sokha Nhim, was also left minus her dress.

The video they made about the airline has become a runaway success on the video-sharing website YouTube and the song, which is likely to be released as a single, is getting repeated plays on London radio stations.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

Irish airline Aer Lingus is refusing to honour an online offer which mistakenly sold business class transatlantic flights for five euros (eight dollars, four pounds), a spokesman said Thursday.

The flights would normally sell for 1,775 euros one way, said Enda Corneille, Aer Lingus director of corporate affairs who apologised to the customers concerned.

“It is a genuine mistake, a fundamental mistake on our part. We rectified it as quickly as we could. We have contacted the customers and given them the opportunity to re-book,” he told RTE state radio.

source: Yahoo!

Low cost airline easyJet broke advertising rules by raising fares after promising a 25 per cent discount on all its routes, a watchdog said today.

Some passengers taking advantage of the Easter deal would have paid more for a seat than before it was introduced, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled.

It told easyJet not to use the claim again unless it made clear that prices, although discounted, could rise during the promotion.

source: scotsman.com

Oasis Airlines, a low-cost carrier based in Hong Kong, grounded its planes for good this week — the fourth in a recent string of bargain airlines to call it quits.

Launched in 2006, Oasis ended its run on Wednesday, citing the high price of jet fuel. It operated flights between Hong Kong and destinations including Vancouver and London, charging as little as $300 per flight.

Thousands of Oasis passengers have been left with useless tickets. The company continued to sell tickets until the end of March despite knowing much earlier in the month that it would be going out of business.

source: CTV.ca

A weekly service between Glasgow and the popular resort of Hurghada in Egypt is being launched by FlyGlobespan.

The service, which starts on November 5, is in addition to the airline’s weekly service to Egypt which flies to from Edinburgh to Sharm El Sheikh.

source: dailyrecord.co.uk

Ryanair and easyJet are threatening to withhold payments to BAA in a row over landing fees at Gatwick and Stansted.

Ryanair said yesterday that it will refuse to pay the latest price increases if BAA “‘continues to abuse its monopoly'”. EasyJet asked BAA chief executive Colin Matthews to accept a deferral of payments pending a judicial review of the increase in take-off and landing fees at Gatwick to £6.97 a passenger, with annual increases capped at 2% above inflation.

source: Guardian.co.uk

Even as rising fuel costs are grounding weaker airlines — including three this month — airline competition is heating up for travelers flying the Pacific coast.

On the runway is JetBlue Airways Corp. with new 100-seat jets that will begin flying next month from Long Beach up and down the coast in a move that financial analysts say may be bold but risky

Next month, the low-cost carrier, popular with Southern California leisure travelers, is adding six flights from Long Beach to San Jose, Seattle and Austin, connecting some of the nation’s top tech-heavy cities.

source: LA Times

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh admitted today that moving the airline’s long-haul flights to Heathrow’s Terminal 5 on April 30 would be an “‘unnecessary risk'”, as BA drew fierce criticism from airlines by postponing the transfer until June.

Walsh, who has rejected calls to resign over the T5 fiasco, said the carrier and Heathrow owner BAA had made a “‘pragmatic'” decision in waiting until problems with the building and baggage handling operations are solved. Other airlines are expected to seek compensation over the delay with BMI, Heathrow’s second largest carrier, slamming the decision as “‘outrageous'” and claiming it had been taken without consulting other airlines.

source: guardian.co.uk

The Moroccan low-cost airline Atlas-blue launches carbon offset contribution dynamically calculated for every itinerary.

The Moroccan Low-Cost airline Atlas-blue subsidiary of Royal Air Maroc became the very first carrier in Africa and only the second serving the European continent, to offer carbon offsets as an integrated part of its booking platform.

source: 4hoteliers.com