5 Things to know about bad time to travel

When you think "bad weather" and stacking delayed flights at the airport, you think blizzards, right? Sure, and without any doubt about it, this has been a winter hellacious.

But listen to Air Line Pilots Association Vice-President Captain Sean Cassidy (he is also a veteran pilot with Alaska Airlines); bad weather and horrendous delays can happen anytime, anywhere. "" Don't forget, we have seen snow in Vegas this year ", said the driver." And some of you will recall when the white substance is down in Dallas, just in time for the Super Bowl.

And all in December, January, February and even March can be really terrible, do not think that delays related to weather flight will disappear now that winter is gone. Indeed, the pleasure is just to start.

Why you should worry about: "the total cost of air traffic delays inside for the US economy was as much as $ 41 billion for 2007, including $ 19 billion in fresh airline relief, operation" according to a report from the 2008 Congress of. "In addition, it wastes valuable time of passengers - your time - and the report even puts a dollar figure on that, thus: $ 12 billion.

This is why I put together this list of five things you need to know about spring and summer weather before your next vol. Tip: make sure what your smartphone and iPad are completely loaded before you head to the airport.

For new travel and ideas, see the blog of Rick to farecompare.com.

1. The summer weather can be worse than the winter.

Did you know that? Bad weather leads to 70 per cent of all the delays and according to the Federal Aviation Administration, summers storms are worst. "Unlike winter storms, who take the time to develop and move slowly, summer storms can form quickly, stretch for hundreds of kilometres and travel quickly on large parts of the country." And, of course, as get based on flights, dominoes begin to fall and a reaction to a string of delays affect airports across the country.

If you love numbers, Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the Government is full. During the winter most recent (October 2010 to February 2011), for example, the worst month for delayed weather flights was December, with delays of 36.00%. But may and June have been even worse for the delays and July was almost as bad.

2 Thunderstorms are acrimonious than you think.

For drivers, thunderstorms mean danger, this is why they practice "lateral and vertical avoidance" (in coordination with air traffic controllers) consolidate when they are aware of such conditions. "The nature of the thunderstorm activity, you can fly up to 20 kilometres or a storm, more" said the captain Cassidy. And, Yes, although there are storms in the winter, they are generally much more frequent - and intense - in the summer months.

And don't forget the ugly step-child of storms: turbulence and hail. "Hail competing with turbulence as the greatest danger to storm the aircraft," according to a manual of the FAA for pilots.

3 Monitor the summer ice.

The ice in the summer? Aircraft of the highest caliber and it can occur in the spring and summer. The author of the request a flight instructor blog noted he once again some "serious rime ice" on the edge of a summer thunderstorm. It is located.

Susie Castillo talks about "Today Show" on TSA Rant (video)

 Former Queen of beauty and MTV VJ Susie Castillo took to his blog last week complaining of an invasive TSA pat down at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. Now she is talking on a more formal platform: "today Show."

Castillo met with Meredith Vieira Tuesday on pat downs, calling them a "violation of our rights."

Although she intend pressing charges against the TSA, she called a "slippery slope." How we let this go? Rectal examinations are in our future? ?

CASTILLO said Vieira that she had received more than a thousand comments of fellow aviators - most offers positive feedback - after his viral video.

What you should know about loyalty Miles

After three decades to win and combustion of frequent flyer miles, what we know about their value?

On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the mile - American has launched the first program focused on the mileage in May 1981 - there is no answer to this question. But what we have are ways more than ever to assess the value of a mile. For better or for worse, depending on your point of view, the only consistency between these values is their variability.

Given that the vast majority of the airline miles is used for tickets to award national coach, at a price of 25,000 miles in most programs, a golden rule of basis for the value of a mile of loyalty is the average price of a ticket of paid coach (approximately $350 currently) divided by the miles required, giving us a nominal value of 1.4 ￠ each.

To account for the inconvenience and difficulties - sometimes unable - to find seats at all prices, I infer 0.2 cents of the nominal value, giving us an average value per mile of 1.2 cents.

In most programs, it is possible to obtain more or less value, depending on the market of a comparable paid ticket price.

Cashing in 25,000 miles for a ticket that could be purchased for $100 rendements.4 cents (four tenths of a cent).

On the other hand, to Exchange 100,000 miles for a ticket of class Affairs for Europe at the price of almost $ 11,000 gives a nominal value per mile of 11 cents, a little less with the hassle factor adjustment.

Now again, there are more ways to assess the value of a mile of loyalty.

Merchandise was presented in the catalogues of prices of airlines and outside for years. Although it is an attractive option in theory, in practice these redemptions generally deliver low value.

A few examples at random:

Camera Nikon 14.2 Megapixel Digital SLR, available on BestBuy for $588, costs of 91 000 United miles, producing approximately 0.6 cents for each mile redeemed.

An Amazon Kindle 3 G + WiFi Bundle sale $ 189 at Amazon, fresh 83,400 miles in the program of Delta, or environ.2 cents per mile.

The history of frequent flyer miles is one of the most resemblance to a traditional currency such as dollars, yen or euro.

This evolution has taken a step forward in February when dotcoms, a ubiquitous facilitator of conversion and Exchange miles and loyalty points, teamed up with PayPal to allow programs of the Americans, US Airways and Aeroplan members to redeem their miles for cash credit in a PayPal account. From there, cash can be used to offset purchases paid for the use of PayPal, sent to anyone with an email address or transferred to a linked bank account.

Convenience is one thing, something other value again. And the value differs greatly depending on which program miles are converted into dollars.

Redeem miles for cash American PayPal gives a value per mile of 0.42 cents, approximately one-third the average miles used for flights. Aeroplan Miles are closer to half of the value of miles redeemed flights to choking cents each. And the US Airways miles are worth a maigre.083 ￠ each, approximately 6% of the value of the miles used to fly.

Value of the considerations set aside, there is now only a single degree of separation between miles and cash. The next and last stage: a debit-like card, loaded miles of frequent travellers who have a cash value when used for the purchase of goods and services.

There were other steps in the direction of miles as money baby, each making its own contribution to the concept of consumers' of what a mile is worth.