All Visa Waiver Program (VWP) travelers are required from January 12, 2009 to obtain a travel authorization prior to their departure. Otherwise they will be denied boarding their plane to the USA.

You are required to submit your application for travel authorization online 

While taxiing at London Heathrow, British Airways (BA) 904 makes a wrong turn and comes nose to nose with a Lufthansa aircraft.

An irate female ground controller lashes out at the BA crew, screaming: "BA 904, where the hell are you going! I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it is 

Carriers widely advertise the benefits of airline alliances of which there are 3:

1. Star Alliance is the strongest alliance with the largest number of member airlines, led in the USA by Continental Airlines and United Airlines that are merging and in Europe by Lufthansa.

Unlike some other airlines Lufthansa offers pillows and blankets for free. However, you can hand them out in different ways. Passengers on board a flight from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt very much appreciated a merry Lufthansa flight attendant’s method.

Watch the video showing how she is tossing pillows about. What follows looks like a good-natured, in-flight pillow fight. Lufthansa

What annoys passengers most in flight? The brief answer is: fellow passengers. This appears from a telephone survey that the Dutch travel web site World Ticket Center carried out among 500 customers booking air travel on this site.

The number one annoyance is reclining the seat unannounced. Nearly one quarter of the respondents consider this the most important nuisance. However, whether an announcement would make a difference remains to be seen.

In 2009, US airlines generated almost $8 billion (€6 billion) by charging a variety of fees. The latest fee is the overhead bin fee that Spirit Airlines began charging on August 1, 2010 for carry-on bags that will not fit in the under seat space.

Airlines reserve the right to cancel or change your flight. However, if you want to change your flight most airlines will charge a reservation change fee. In the first quarter of 2010 alone, US airlines collected $554 million 

A passenger books a flight on KLM from Tallinn (Estonia) via Amsterdam and Seattle to Honolulu (Hawaii) to attend a conference. On arrival in Amsterdam, she learns that her flight to Seattle is overbooked.

KLM denies her boarding and rebooks her on on its Skyteam partner Delta Airlines with plane changes in Atlanta and Los Angeles. The delay in Amsterdam is 9 hours. Therefore, KLM compensates her with €600 in cash plus a voucher of €25 for drinks and a meal, which is more or less consistent with EU regulation 261/2004. 

A passenger writes that he wants to know the booking class before he books because in some booking classes he earns only 50% of the miles flown and in other booking classes 100%.

So far, he booked on sites of airlines, but recently he tried to do it at Expedia. When he looked for the booking class, however, he could not find it. He uses appropriate language by asking who would want to book a black box.

Each airline has many booking classes – indicated by letters - each with their own fare rules that vary across airlines. For example, in one booking class you cannot change your flight, in another you can change for a fee, and in yet another booking class you

French police have arrested Lucie R., a 47-year old flight attendant of Air France, on suspicion of stealing from passengers, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.

Police launched an investigation after about €4,000 ($5,165) was stolen from 5 passengers in a Boeing 777 en route from Tokyo to Paris.

The attendant took advantage of sleeping passengers on long haul flights to different countries in Asia, but in particular on flights between Paris and

Airlines sometimes mishandle baggage, even if they belong to officers from the Israeli security service Shin Bet. A bag from agents traveling with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been missing.

The agents were accompanying Mr. Netanyahu for talks with US President Barack Obama. The bag was supposed to be put on a flight from New York to Washington. However, American Airlines put it on a flight to Los Angeles.

European travelers got the possibility of self-boarding a few years ago. It means that passengers scan their bar-coded boarding passes at a scanner, which allows them access to the aircraft. An airline agent is no longer needed. Continental Airlines is now the first airline to implement self boarding in the USA for both domestic and international flights.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) presents it as a significant simplification of passengers’ journeys. However, the reason for implementing self-boarding is not simplification for passengers, but cost saving for airlines. Airlines prefer passengers doing the work rather than their own agents.

Machines are not only cheaper than agents; the use of self boarding also greatly reduces turnaround times. Planes generate revenues by flying, not by parking. Speeding up the boarding process reduces the time planes are on the ground and will therefore increase airlines’ revenues. No wonder that the airline industry aims at 25 self-boarding implementations in 2010.

US airlines are responding to a new rule that prohibits them from permitting an aircraft to remain on the tarmac for more than 3 hours without deplaning passengers. May 2010 was the first full month that US airlines operated under the new rule.

Five planes were stuck on airport tarmacs for more than 3 hours. That is a decrease of 85% compared to May 2009, when 34 flights were delayed more than 3 hours. Four of these flights were operated by United Airlines; the fifth was operated by Delta Airlines.

The delays of the United flights ranged from 3 hours and 10 minutes to 4 hours and 41 minutes. The Delta flight exceeded the 3-hour cutoff point by 2 minutes.

Airlines can be fined for keeping passengers hostage. The US Department of Transportation has not yet issued fines against United and Delta because it is still investigating the delays.

So far, travelers to the USA had to submit their details to the US authorities 3 times:

1. From early 2009, all Visa Waiver Program (VWP) travelers to the USA are required to obtain a travel authorization via the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) prior to their departure. This authorization remains valid for 2 years or – if shorter – until your passport will expire.

2. Travelers need to provide most of the ESTA information again plus their address and contact details in the USA when they check in for their flights.

If you see a very low fare, double check it. It seems likely that it is just a teaser and does not apply to you. Here are 5 tips to find low fares that do apply.

1. Be aware that fares can change from one day to the next. To find a low fare you should be flexible as to the days you will fly.

In the USA you should avoid Friday and Sunday as on these days fares tend to be high. You will find the lowest fares for flights on Wednesday followed by Tuesday and Saturday.