(Reuters – NBCNews.com Travel)
Photo: Flying Clean
On Monday, Flying Clean, an alliance launched by several nongovernmental organizations seeking to reduce carbon emissions from airplanes, hosted a panel of United Airlines’ most frequent elite flyers, including billionaire investor Tom Steyer, imploring the big airline to stop blocking climate change actions.
Read the full story here.
(USA Today – Today in the Sky)
Photo: (cc) orijinal via flickr
In an attempt to cut $637 million from its budget, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is furloughing workers, including an estimated 13,000 air traffic controllers.
According to USA Today, the FAA’s plan to furlough 47,000 will result in $200 million in cuts. Travelers are not feeling the love according to the report, travelers are increasingly complaining about spending hours at airport gates or on tarmacs as flight delays continue for a third straight weekday with fewer air-traffic controllers on the job. Read the entire article on USAToday.com.
Last August, ExpertFlyer.com launched a free Seat Alert app for iPhone and iPad. This week, the company announces the highly anticipated introduction of the Seat Alerts app for the Android platform, also free.
Seat Alerts makes it easy to avoid "middle seat" misery - Graphic: Christoph Hitz
New to ExpertFlyer Seat Alerts? Well, if you’re a regular business traveler or frequent flyer, we’re here to lift you out of “middle seat” misery. How many times have you booked a flight to find that the only seats available are middle seats? Or, equally frustrating, you can’t sit with your traveling companion unless you pay through the nose for a seat assignment. We all know it’s hard to get a better seat, but now Seat Alerts can do all the time-consuming seat map and availability reconnaissance for you, and then automatically notify you when a preferred seating option becomes available — for FREE!
It’s easy to get started. Using either the ExpertFlyer.com website, or our iOS or Android apps, enter your flight information and then select the type of seat you want, such as a Window, an Aisle or even two seats together – you can even view seat ratings from SeatGuru by Trip Advisor using the app’s seat map screen. A pop up (shown below)will describe the amenities (or downside) to a specific seat selection. Once you are satisfied with your choice, “save” the alert, and ExpertFlyer will automatically notify you if the seat you want opens up.
You can even set an alert for any seat on full flights to make sure you get a seat assignment and don’t get bumped from your flight.
Check out the app screen shots below and download Seat Alerts from ExpertFlyer – it will change the way you fly.
Seat Alerts - Home Screen (click to enlarge)
Seat Alerts - Seat Map (click to enlarge)
Seat Alert - Seat Reviews from Seat Guru (click to enlarge)
Seat Alerts - Push Notification alerts you when preferred seat is open (click to enlarge)
Chris Lopinto (center), president, ExpertFlyer, accepts Business Traveler People's Choice Innovation of the Year Award for Seat Alerts; Zane Kerby, MBA (left)Senior Vice President, Events, Sponsorship & Advertising at GBTA; Ed Silver (right)Senior Vice President, Operations, GBTA
ExpertFlyer’s Seat Alerts feature, now available as an iPhone/iPad app, has been awarded the 2012 Business Traveler People’s Choice Innovation of the Year by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA).
Sponsored by Fast Company Magazine, the innovation competition recognizes excellence in travel services and technology by companies worldwide. GBTA presented the award to Chris Lopinto, President and Co-Founder of ExpertFlyer during its annual convention in Boston earlier this week. Seat Alerts, which initially won the “Travel Comfort” category before being named the overall “People’s Choice” winner, allows ticketed and non-ticketed passengers to set up an automatic alert that notifies them when occupied airline seats become available.
In this month’s One-on-One blog, ExpertFlyer talks with Chris Lopinto, President & Co-founder, ExpertFlyer, the premier air travel information tool that offers complete and efficient ways to access worldwide air travel information that can’t be found anywhere else. Access to real-time awards and upgrades, seat maps, and unpublished fair buckets, are only a few of the benefits ExpertFlyer brings to its subscribers.
During this special edition of One-on-One with ExpertFlyer, Chris will share details about ExpertFlyer’s Award-Winning Seat Alerts® feature, which the company announced is now available free to anyone who flies. As an expert in air travel, Chris will also discuss other topics of interest to many airline travelers, including trends in frequent flier programs and how to maximize your travels.
Chris-Lopinto, President & Co-founder, ExpertFlyer
“ExpertFlyer’s Seat Alerts feature is the fastest and easiest way for travelers to get out of the dreaded middle seat or even find a seat on a flight that is completely booked.”
– Chris Lopinto, president and co-founder of ExpertFlyer.com
Seat Alerts has been a popular feature among ExpertFlyer (paid) subscribers who want to avoid the “middle seat” at all costs and find a “preferred seat” when they fly. Tell us about the Seat Alerts service and why you’re offering this feature to everyone for free?
We realized that it really doesn’t matter how often or infrequent people travel; everyone hates the middle seat. While it’s true that our subscriber sweet spot has been the road warrior, business traveler, and frequent flier, we see an opportunity to cater to a larger piece of the air travel market. Offering free Seat Alerts allows us to “introduce” ourselves to the general consumer that may travel just a couple of times a year – students coming home from college; moms planning the family vacation; or grandparents visiting the grandkids.
If you have a ticket for a flight, but there are no seats available, Expert Flyer can let you know when there is one, so you have a seating assignment before you get to the airport. Our Seat Alerts feature currently monitors more than 120 airline carriers worldwide.
How many travelers annually are stuck in the middle seat?
We calculated that on average, 19% of all passengers are stuck in a middle seat, which represents hundreds of millions of passengers per year. Traveler comfort is an issue that isn’t always a priority to be addressed. With Seat Alerts, we hope to solve the simple, yet important issue, of not sitting where you want for a multi-hour flight.
How does the Seat Alerts feature work? Are their restrictions for the Free Version?
Today, securing seating assignments for flights requires passengers to have a ticket and restricts seat selection to only unoccupied seats. Passengers hoping to find a different seat would typically wait until check-in at the airport and hope a more desirable seat is available. ExpertFlyer’s Seat Alerts changes all that. Continue reading →