Travel Tips

-
Here are some travel websites I use all the time. I hope you'll find them interesting, perhaps even useful.

  • Seat Guru - This guy has all the data on each airline's planes in terms of seating configuration. Specifically, he shows you which seats are good and which ones don't recline etc. He also shows you the measurements of each carrier's seats. Did you know that seat pitch (the distance between your seat and the seat in front of you) can vary from 29-36 inches and seat width can range from 16 to 21 inches? Look at his comparison charts to compare seat sizes across airlines. 7 inches of legroom and 5 inches of seat width goes a long way.
  • On time % - Did you know that some airlines are only on-time 65% of the time, while others are on-time as much as 80% of the time? This site allows you to search by airline, and even search for a specific airline at a specific airport. For example, you can learn that Delta is 85% on-time at it's Cincinnati hub, but only 78% on-time in Atlanta. You can also look up just by airport. For April 2007, Salt Lake City averaged 88% on time, and New York city (EWR, LGA, JFK) averaged just 58% on time.
  • How is the US airline industry doing? The airlines always whine about how it's so hard for them to make any money - here are the facts.
  • How old is this plane? Ever walk onto a plane and get the feeling it may have been assembled by the Wright brothers themselves? This is the average age per fleet, but you'll see that AirTran (formerly ValueJet) has a brand new fleet whereas Delta's Fleet is an average of 13 years old. Would you rather fly on a plane built in 2007 or 1987?
  • Real-time Air-traffic control delays. Our skies are literally traffic-jammed up these days. On average, 10 out of every 100 flights are held up by the air traffic control system. 6 of those 10 are due to weather problems, 4% are due to over-crowded skies and airports. The best years to fly in recent history were 2002 and 2003. September 11 caused such a drop in flight volume that all US air carriers combined were averaging 80%+ on-time flights. For 2007 year-to-date, they're averaging 72% on-time.
I hope these help. If anyone out there knows of other good sites like this, please let me know.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

hot dog buns

-
The secret to the bread pudding at Keeneland is hot dog buns. My friend Matt tells me this and his sources are absolutely reliable - he heard it from the chef himself. I was fortunate enough to have some of this excellent bread pudding this week, as Ella and I attended day 1 of the Keeneland fall yearling sale. The top sale of the day brought a mere $5.2 million, as compared with $11.7 million for the top horse the following day. There are so many great things about the Keeneland Association, just one of which is that 99% of their activities are free (or at least inexpensive) and open to the general public. Try popping in for an auction at Sotheby's, or Derby day at Churchill downs - it's just not going to happen. The Keeneland fall yearling sale is one of the premier thoroughbred events in the world, and it's free and open to the public. Heck, all you need is a letter of credit on file, and you too can plunk down $11 million plus for a 1-year-old never-raced-before p...
Read more

Some thoughts on impeachment

-
We've had a few days of the impeachment circus so far, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. For sure, impeachment is always a political process, so it's divisive and disrupts the national dialog whether we like it or not. So I'm writing this piece mostly to try and wrap my head around what I've learned from the witnesses so far. For background, I'm looking at the current proceedings in the broader historical context of impeachment. We've only done impeached 2 presidents in the last 250 years, so it's kind of a big deal. Nixon left office before Congress actually had a chance to impeach him, though they almost certainly would have. So what is the "standard" for impeachment as it has been applied in these other cases: Andrew Johnson defied Congress. The "radical Republicans," as they were called at that time, wanted to punish the southern states and the Confederacy. Johnson disagreed, as he basically thought that approa...
Read more

88 Keys

-
My loving wife bought me a piano for my 30th birthday. Our local piano store was having a good sale, so I got this present early - it was delivered last week. I understand that other family members have also contributed to this gift, making it that much more special. I've wanted my own piano ever since I left home, where I had one available to me at all times. That was just over 10 years ago. Playing piano is something I've always enjoyed, so to have it back in my life after so long is really a shock to the system. I walk by my new piano every day now, and it still hasn't quite settled in that it's mine, and it's here to stay. I have no idea how to say thank you for a gift like this. I did make my way to the music store last week as well, and picked up 3 books: 1) 19 popular works by Chopin 2) Norah Jones' "Come Away with Me" words and music 3) A book on jazz theory, specifically chord structures Let's just say that cracking open some she...
Read more