What’s the one thing that no one wants to think about when they’re boarding an airplane? Well, it’s probably something along the lines of “gee, I hope this airplane is safe.” Well, if you’ve flown on some American Airlines flights, then the truth is that flight may not have been as safe as you would have hoped.

Currently the FAA is digging in to see who is responsible for structural problems with rear bulkheads in some of the airline’s fleet of MD 80 jets. A pilot that was flying one of the jets complained about the poor condition of the jet he was flying and the jet in question ended up being ferried from Dallas to Tulsa for maintenance.

Through preliminary testing, the FAA found up to 16 of the MD 80 jets were being operated for MONTHS with the sub-par repairs.

So, eventually the FAA has to find someone responsible for the shoddy repairs right? It looks like throughout the investigation the FAA will begin taking punitive action against not only supervisors that signed off for the work for the mechanics, but actual individual mechanics themselves.

Thankfully nothing bad happened and the pilot noticed the plane’s issues before something bad could happen to someone or a full flight of people.

For a lot of people, flying isn’t an everyday thing and it is pretty intimidating. I like to fly sometimes just because it is something new and different and I really hate awfully long car rides. However, I get nervous when a flight takes off or lands. I even get nervous when the plane hits a pocket of air and the engines cut back.

Flying shouldn’t be that scary, but when you hear stories like this sometimes you have to wonder if you’re really that safe.

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It looks like the airlines are at it again. They are really wanting to get any money that they can from you, the flyer, whenever and however they can. They pull dirty, sneaky tricks and expect consumers to just fall for them or accept them as the way it is. However, it kind of is “just the way it is” because I think in the United States, we have become accustomed to being kicked around by the airline industry.

So, what have the airlines done this time? Well, they have decided, all within hours of each other, to start charging an extra $10 per ticket if you decide you want to fly during the busiest travel days of the year.

The $10 charge that the airlines are imposing will be in the form of a “miscellaneous surcharge” that will be added to all the tickets that are for the days of November 29th, January 2nd, and January 3rd. The four airlines that have all decided to go this route are American Airlines, Delta, Northwest, and U.S. Airways.

Of course U.S. Airways has decided to take part in a new kind of charge. This is the same company that keeps increasing its baggage fees and even charges you an extra $5 if you want to check-in your baggage at the desk in the airport. That is outrageous in my honest opinion. When I was in Maryland for my cousin’s wedding in July, I asked my uncle if I could use his computer to print out my check-in information and when I told him that it would cost me an extra $5 if I waited until I got to the airport he looked at me and said, “Wow…that’s outrageous.”

So, when you go shopping for those plane tickets for this holiday season, remember that not only will you be paying extra for checked baggage, but now you also have to consider this new fee. That means when you’re looking at Orbitz or wherever you go to buy your tickets, the price that you’re seeing is not the price that you will pay. In some instances, your ticket will cost $30 or more than what the internet says. At least that is my understand of how this fee will work.
My guess is that the airlines don’t want to give you an upfront quote due to the fact that the lower price they actually see on the website will draw some customers in who are simply looking for the cheapest fare.

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Airplanes are expensive. In my opinion, they’re expensive to fly on, they’re expensive to maintain, they’re expensive to staff, and they’re expensive to fill up with jet fuel. So, while the airline industry is hurting from the current recession, they are all trying to find ways to cut back on the cost of jet fuel to make the most out of the tickets they are selling.

MSNBC has an article out on its website that uses American Airlines and Scott Turner as an example. Turner is an employee of American Airlines that is used to try to make sure the airline uses all of its fuel efficiently as possible. He is the manager of flight operations efficiency and he can hear money being spent. The program he runs, Fuel Smart, is trying to save the company money.

When jet fuel cost around $3.85 a gallon last July (when the article was written), it cost the airline in the neighborhood of $77,000 to fill up a Boeing 767, a plane that is typically used for cross country trips.

So, this is when airlines started putting in first checked bag fees. The reason? For every pound of weight the plane can eliminate, the company saves 14,000 gallons of fuel a year. When the baggage fees were announced, the airline also started reducing the amount of water on board, putting new food carts in the cabins that weighed 17 pounds less, and using decals on the exterior of the plane instead of paint (which would trip 400 pounds off each plane). It also took steps to move weight in the plane around. There is a load-planning department that tells baggage handlers how to put bags on the plane to make the plane like a “seesaw” and it has the most fuel efficient center of gravity.

While that may not sound like things that are going to save the company as much as it costs to work on, if you move the center of gravy back 11 inches on a MD-80, .5% fuel is saved and on an annual basis that equates to $10 million according to Penny Williamson, the manager of the load planning department.

I kind of wonder if airlines are still doing things to help reduce the amount of fuel that each jet uses. I do know that they are using smaller planes and more connections than they used to. I used to be able to book a flight on US Airways from Memphis to Washington D.C. and fly on a Boeing 727, but now the same flight can only be taken on a regional jet and it stops in Charlotte, NC.

Both of these decisions were ONLY made after members of Congress criticized executives for taking the jets to Washington to beg for money. What were they thinking? “Let’s look as comfortable and RICH as possible so we can go beg for money?” Hey…that doesn’t work. Honestly, most of these guys could have flown first or business class on American Airlines and no one would have bothered them (or known who they were).

I don’t want my tax payer dollars to go to these kinds of companies. Maybe soon they will see the errors in their ways.

I have also had nothing but wonderful experience with the airline. The only complaint I have is that seating is first come, first serve. However, it is still a small inconvenience when compared to the cost of traveling on a different airline.

We live closer to Memphis, TN which does not have a Southwest terminal in the airport. However, with other airlines charging more for fares and bag fees, it is cheaper to drive to Jackson, MS or Little Rock, AR to get to an airport that Southwest flies to than to fly on Delta, Northwest, American Airlines, etc…

I am getting tired of extremely small measures airlines are taking to cut costs. They are nickel and diming the consumer to death. Hopefully I never have to fly US Airways on a long trip and get thirsty. The next thing they’re going to do is charge to use the toilet. Ridiculous!

This is really not something you see everyday. His salary of $500,000 is still less than American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey who was paid $656,500 in 2007 or Delta Airlines CEO Richard Anderson’s $600,000 for 2007.