Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with flight

It's up to you, New York!

electriccynic — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:04:45 -0800

I've been tasked with taking 8 members of my family, needing five bedrooms from the UK to New York in June 2009. Any advice on group booking deals and the like, for flights and/or hotels? Am I looking too early for good deals?

Help the flying dog.

ignignokt — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:50:03 -0800

In a few months, my (former) dog is going to be flying from California to the UK in the cargo hold. How can this be made as safe and comfortable for him? My sister is moving to England for a few years, and she's bringing her dog, our former family pet, with her. He's a beagle and on the the large side for a beagle, somewhere around 30 pounds. There's no way she's going to be able to convince airlines to let him in the cabin.

So, the cargo hold it is. I've read this and this and am still concerned about the potential damage from a ten-hour flight. (This is out of her price range.)

He's healthy and usually genial, but he's also thirteen years old and has been traumatized in the past by being left in a kennel for a couple of days while our family moved. That was when he was five, and he's long since gotten over his separation anxiety and is able to stay peacefully at home without thinking he's been abandoned while people leave for the day. A plane's cargo hold, though - that seems like a terrifying place for a dog. Or am I just building it up in my head?

Does anyone have any tips to ensure his physical and psychological health during this massive flight? Other than getting him used to the kennel he'll be in when he flies (which my sister is doing) and following the tips in the above-linked articles, what can be done?

I realize I may very well be looking for a silver bullet here and should just face the fact that flying is just always going to be horrible for dogs that don't fit in shopping bags, but hey, a few problems really do have silver bullets, it doesn't hurt to look, right?

Flight of the Conchords vest?

comwiz — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:11:52 -0800

So I just watched thought the first season of Flight of the Conchords, and I really like the vest that Bret wears in episode 12 (prominently featured in this video. Where I can find it/something like it for a reasonable price? I've had no luck through Google, and don't even know where to start looking. I've found this, but $100 is way too much.

How/where can I sell an airline/airplane/flight ticket?

harwons — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:58:20 -0800

I bought a plane ticket, I subsequently had to cancel the flight, and now I'm stuck with a Delta voucher. I want to sell it and buy a ticket on another airline, which happens to have a much better flight to my destination. But where can I sell my ticket? I tried eBay and Points.com already.

Toys to keep the screeching to a minimum

Joh — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:34:44 -0800

Toys for very long airplane trip with a 13 month old? I will be flying LA to London and back next month, with my boyfriend and our 13-month old son. It's 11 hours each way, so I need suggestions for toys to keep him occupied for the trip. With luck, he will sleep for some or most of the outbound trip (overnight), but the return is one very long daytime flight. I have been reading up on suggestions, and I know to bring lots of finger foods for him. We will have a seat-back TV with a children's channel so he can watch some of that too. I will hide a few favorite toys this week, so they can be re-introduced on the flight, but I want to buy a few new toys and keep them hidden until they are needed. But what to get?

13 month old boy - so coloring books etc are no good, he's too small to use a pen/crayon and will just try to eat it/color his head.
It shouldn't be very noisy - for the sake of other passengers' sanity.
It will get dropped a lot since he isn't very dexterous yet, so balls, cars or other things that will roll down the aisle are no good.
He will be traveling as a lap infant, so we can have some items that are mom or dad supervised too.

Help?

MetaHelp: I need your google-fu!

myodometer — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:55:00 -0800

Does Ricky Gervais have an opening act when he does his stand-up sets? My girlfriend was awesome enough to have bought me tickets to see Ricky Gervais on one of the two nights that he's going to be doing his new stand-up set in Los Angeles this summer. Unfortunately, we had already booked a flight to the east coast for that same night, scheduled to leave at 11:55PM.

His show is listed as starting at 7:30, and I'm assuming that the fun likely won't be starting until at least 8 - but does anyone know if he has an opening act before he comes on? I've been scouring Google and can't seem to find an answer.

Worst case, I'll just rebook my flight for the next morning.

How do you rate that ?

southof40 — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:22:36 -0800

With respect to Vista - how are "Required System Ratings" defined ? [asking for a friend]

According to wikipedia...

Flight Simulator X has a required system rating of 3 for Windows Vista and a recommended rating of 5

... how do you find out what that means ? My friend is wanting to buy a new laptop like this one and is asking me whether or not her son will be able to play MS FS X satisfactorily.

I'd like to know how to determine where that laptop sits on the 'Required System Rating' ? (any experience of playing FS X on such a machine would be a bonus).

Can I make a domestic connecting flight at SFO in less than an hour?

etoyasu — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:21:25 -0800

Is it possible to make a domestic connecting flight in less than an hour at San Francisco International Airport? I'm planning on taking a side trip to Seattle during my trip to San Francisco this week. But my proposed return flight to SFO from SEA arrives (5/17/08) at 8:11am (Terminal 3, Boarding Area F, United) and my return flight to Honolulu leaves at 8:50am (Terminal 1, Boarding Area C, Hawaiian).

Crazy? Impossible?

Stewardess, is that Bobby Hill on my flight?

galimatias — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:51:43 -0800

I need your help to find an amusing airline safety instruction sheet I recently encountered while flying! My internet search skills are failing me - can anyone help?!? This is really random, but here goes... While on recent flights in the United States (US Air operated by Republic Airways), I encountered the most amusing flight safety card for the Embraer 170 aircraft. The safety card featured drawings of a baby in a life vest who comically resembled Bobby Hill from King of the Hill. My colleague and I got quite a laugh out of it, and I wanted to get a copy of the instruction booklet for my own amusement. I figured it would be poor form to take the actual safety card off the airplane, but I was hoping to be able to find a picture online (the internet has everything, right?). Anyway, no such luck. Can anyone help me locate a photo (or the real thing)?!? Thanks in advance!

If you believe in climate change, is it wrong to drive or fly?

MetaMonkey — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:47:10 -0800

If you believe climate change is real, bad, and man-made: does that mean it's wrong to take a flight or drive a car? Are there any reasonable excuses?

How do I solve my airline woes?

The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 01:19:25 -0800

Help me figure out an air travel fiasco. So, about two months ago, I bought plane tickets home for winter break via Orbitz. The odd thing was that they were paper tickets for flights on Northwest and Cape Air printed on Delta ticket stock. Weird, but not really an issue if it gets me home, right?
Fast forward to a week and a half before I leave, and I realize that I was going to cut my departure time way too close to the end of my last exam and may miss my flight (which was originally on wednesday). So I call up Orbitz and find out that at this point, because of my paper tickets, I have to actually go to the airport to get my tickets changed out.
I go to the airport and tell the lady at the (Delta) ticket counter my issue, and then ask to change the tickets out, to which she told me (after a few calls to the higher-ups) that even though she was the person to talk to about changing the ticket, she couldn't actually reissue my tickets because there were no Delta flights on my ticket (Go Orbitz), but she would change it in the computer, and I could come check in with my old tickets on the next available flight home (saturday), with no problem. I thought this was odd (especially because she didn't ask me to pay anything to reschedule the flight), but she's the one who works there, right? I had no reason to doubt her.
So it's wednesday night, and I go to the ticket counter again to see if anything has opened up and I can't get out earlier, when the lady at the counter tells me that I have in fact already missed my flight, to which I respond "no, that can't be right, I had it rescheduled"
"that's not what the computer says"
So she gave me a number to call, and then, after a total of almost four hours on the phone with Delta ticketing and then Delta customer service, escalating to a supervisor both times, i was told that the best they could do was essentially sell me a new ticket home, less the price of my return flight. This was going to cost (with the difference) as much as my original flight, and the earliest I could leave was sunday(today). I instead bought a cheap one-way ticket home that left thursday.
Now I'm home, and have spent an additional two or three hours on the phone with Delta, and I've gotten this: "we have no idea what the lady at the ticket counter did or said to you, but what happened was a seat was reserved on the flight on saturday, but the ticket was never actually transferred, so you technically missed your flight." Moreover, I was told that there's no proof that it was Delta's fault ("I don't know what she said to you, but we have no way of knowing who did what, or whose fault it really is"), so there's nothing they can do at all, more or less. And the kicker? Delta's ticket counter at South Bend Regional doesn't take calls from the public, so I can't even get the name of the person I talked to that screwed this up in the first place.
It seems like calling customer service has become a dead end.
So, now what? Am I hosed? Is there anything else I can do? Anyone I can call? If there even was someone I could talk to, how can I make sure they won't just "you can't prove we did anything wrong" me again?

Advice for most "authentic" controllers for Microsoft Flight Simulator X

monkeyagent — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:51:35 -0800

I want to get my father "Microsoft Flight Simulator X" for Christmas and would like advice for which controllers (wheels, yokes, pedals, etc.) to buy for it. I don't know anything about flight controls or flight sims, but I'd like to get him the most authentic setup possbile. I'd like to hear what is typically considered a good set up for a cost of up to about $200 or so (excluding the cost of the game itself). His aeronautic interests are primarily in prop planes, but other configurations would work as well (jets, etc.)

Much historical value to an old Guam WW2 Navy flight logbook?

Quarter Pincher — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:59:00 -0800

My grandfather recently showed us an old handwritten flight logbook from when he served in Guam in WW2 with the Navy. Would scanning this serve any interest to someone? Might it be considered classified info? It's a frailish, brown, pencil-written log books of flights, I presume in and out of Guam, in the WW2 time period. I thought scanning it might preserve the records made in it (no matter how scribbly).. is there someone who might benefit from its information?

Good thing I'm not a pilot!

hazel — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:17:34 -0800

Why do I fall asleep when the airplane takes off? I am not a person who falls asleep easy, but everytime I fly on a large airplane I fall asleep during the taxi phase and wake up 30 minutes into the air. I fly about once every 2 weeks and I've found that even coffee doesn't stop this phenomena.

I never fall asleep in cars, but do get drowsy on some trains.

Do you think it has to do with the vibrations? The pressurization of the cabin?

I'm not complaining, but I'd like to understand it more.

I want to fly my own damn skies.

trinity8-director — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:30:29 -0800

Seattle Area Flight Schools: Who's the best? I am considering flight school in the Seattle area and expect that there may be a vast difference between offerings from different companies.

I plan on taking an intro class to begin with but wanted to know if there are any here folks who can share some personal experiences with any of the companies between Auburn and Everett. Thanks!

must meet kangaroos as cheaply as possible

beckish — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 19:25:29 -0800

What's the cheapest way to fly from NYC to Australia next summer? Is it better to get a ticket to somewhere in between New York and Australia and then get another ticket onwards on a cheaper airline? and what in-between-place/cheaper-airlines is suggested? We can't do priceline or courier as we need to show up on time.

Stockholm to Aarhus - Train or Plane?

divabat — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:49:20 -0800

Would it be cheaper to get to Aarhus (Denmark) from Stockholm (Sweden) by budget air or by train? I'm going to Europe next week - I'll be in Stockholm from the 2nd to 4th of November, then in Aarhus from 5th to 7th, then back to Stockholm to fly home.

I've tried looking up train fares, but I've only found information for the Eurail multicountry passes, which are exorbitant and unnecessary (as they're meant for more frequent travel). The prices for budget air sound great, but as I haven't managed to get individual train ticket prices, I can't make a fair comparison.

How much does a return trip from Stockholm to Aarhus cost? Is it better to fly or go on a train (overnight?)? Which is safer? I'm a 22-year-old Asian female travelling alone.

(also, any Mefites willing to host me in Stockholm? :P)

Manned Space-Flight: FLIGHT CANCELLED

blue_beetle — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:46:17 -0800

This page lists all the planned manned shuttle flights until the shuttle is retired in 2010. Where can I find a list of planned manned space flights after this?

Flight Simulator on TV rights

asavage — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 08:38:25 -0800

Do I need Microsoft's permission to show their flight simulator environment on television? Doing a program in which I'll be in a flight simulator. I'd like to grab the data from the simulator, and, movie-like, show the plane flying from several different angles inside the simulator environment. My company thinks we need Microsoft's permission to do this. I'm not so sure.
Carried out to the extreme the implications are ridiculous. I'm looking for both opinions, and from anyone who's actually dealt with this on a practiacl level.

1 ear still stuffy after flight. Is this bad?

mrgreyisyelling — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:32:53 -0800

Tell-me-I'm-not-going-deaf-filter: I was flying home from Chicago one night ago, happily listening to the new Cornelius album - drifting off into the soft relief that benedryl supplies when you have been rocking a head cold for 2 days (sore throat, leaky nose, watery eyes, headache) - when suddenly I'm wide awake with a severe pain in both my ears from the plane starting its decent. And it lasts. I swallow and swallow, but I'm reeling in pain, saying terribly mean things to my very confused and sleepy girlfriend - and it doesn't stop until well after I'm off the plane. The pain at least. My left ear though is still stuffy ( I can hear things but its ~weird~), and though I've loaded up decongestants they don't seem to be helping.

1. I just need someone to tell me this isn't super-strange. That people who have the darned luck of being sick before flight have the darned luck of being stuffy in the ear for a day or two after, and that my ear drum is very likely not irrevocably damaged. Consider this an internet hug. I need this.

2. I had a pair of those in the ear headphones in - could that have multiplied my problems?

Subfilter: I have no insurance, SoL.

3. I will go to Dr. if it doesn't get better in a day or two (I really enjoyed that Cornelius album), but is there some sort of signs I should be aware of that this is more urgent and would require me to wake my girlfriend (again) to rush me to the emergency room because my future of stereophonic enjoyment may be on the line? Right now its no worse then a bad cold on one side of my head. A little achy on the inside.

4. and if I stick my finder in there, I can hear a little tone (only if I stick my finger in there) - which I know from one or two concerts isn't good, but it isn't bad.... right?

(I know none of you are doctors, but still I need your highly dubious internet opinion to sleep at night)

Help me not die of boredom

mateuslee — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:28:55 -0800

Is there a resource that shows permutations of flights to/from a set of cities? Employees in the company I work for often send employees two/from four different cities, often arranging flights in which an employee will visit offices in multiple cities within the same day.

Recently my boss asked for a list of all permutations of flights to/from those cities. Short of doing the work manually (which would take days!) is there any resource out there? Please say yes.

Thanks!

The cities in question are:
Amsterdam
Madrid
Milan
Edinburgh

Flying to Jacksonville, Florida in March 2008 from Toronto. Where is the cheapest city to fly into in Florida?

20something — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 18:02:45 -0800

Flying to Jacksonville, Florida in March 2008 from Toronto. Where is the cheapest city to fly into in Florida? Also, when do airline seat sales tend to pop up? I have been checking flights in various cities in Florida and I have noticed that the ticket price varies by a lot depending on what airport I am flying into. I don't mind flying to a city a couple hours or so from Jacksonville if it will save me money.

Is there any way I can find out the cheapest cities to fly into in Florida? For instance, I have noticed that it is about $125 cheaper to fly into Daytona than Orlando at the moment.

Also, if I am flying in March when should I book my flight?

Will a travel centre be able to help me with more info?

Is it a good idea to buy two separate airline tickets for a single "trip"?

Deathalicious — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 12:26:33 -0800

I'm thinking of taking a transatlantic, one-way flight using two separate tickets. Basically, the cheapest flight I've found that goes to my destination (via one or 2 connections) is more expensive than taking a direct flight to New York, and from there taking one of the budget airlines to my final destination. Should I go ahead with two separate tickets, or is the hassle not worth saving $100-200? The other reason I like it is that all other complete flights require a departure time of 4am. For some reason, if I break it into two flights I can leave at 10am, which is much, much nicer.

Just to be clear: I would be making two separate purchases that would be (I'm pretty sure) unknown to each other. Thus, my baggage won't be forwarded on and I won't have a boarding pass or anything like that when I get to New York.

Basically, my primary concern is that since I will have two separate tickets I will have to check in again when I get to New York, and I'm unsure what kind of process I'll need to deal with regarding luggage, etc. I'm also concerned about restrictions that budget airlines might put on my carry-on or checked baggage (I will probably have a decent amount, a large, potentially heavy carry-on and at least 2 checked bags).

In case anyone is interested, this is from Cairo, Egypt to Washington, DC.

A similar question was posted earlier regarding a transfer in Frankfurt. However, I'm putting up my question because a) A ton of the respondents basically ignored the core of the question and acted as if this were a standard stopover rather than two separate trips; b) this is in Europe and involves transfers between countries (and thus passport control) whereas mine does not and finally c) traderjoefan never posted a followup as promised.

PS: If there is some way I could bundle these two flights into a single package so I could get all my tickets at the Cairo airport, that would be wonderful.

Zoooom...significantly slower?

satisam — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:17:31 -0800

How long did it take to fly from London (England) to Tokyo (Japan) in 1973? For bonus points how much did it cost? Were there differences between the airlines at the time?

Computer games for two on a long flight?

um_maverick — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:38:28 -0800

My wife and I are flying Boston to Sydney in the near future, and we'll have my laptop on the flight. I'm looking for some games (preferably free, or at least cheap) that I can install on the laptop, and we can both play together at the same time (more inside). I'm looking for some games that will provide entertainment for as much of the flight as possible, within the following criteria: (a) be playable by two people at the same time, either on opposite sides of the keyboard, or in quick turns, (b) hopefully be relatively light on power consumption (low CPU & CD/DVD usage would be nice) and (c) are fun/quirky/engrossing/not-your-standard games (so not the mini-games you can download from Yahoo). Bonus points if it's a game we can play *with* each other instead of *against* each other. If there's a game that would keep us occupied, and into the storyline, through the entire flight, that would be spectacular.