I wonder whether they should just tear down Heathrow and build a new airport from scratch. Heathrow consistently gets the worst ratings among airports. And with competition such as the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, that's saying a lot.

According to the latest statistics published by the Association of European Airlines, nearly half of flights left or arrived at Heathrow at least 15 minutes late during the first three months of the year, Telegraph reports. Not only was Heathrow rated as the worst of the 27 airports in the survey, but this was the 16th quarter in succession that it was rated among the poorest five performers.

Heathrow suffered particularly badly with air traffic control delays, which were responsible for 15.3 percent of flights arriving late. Loading and handling at Heathrow was also bad, being cited as the key factor in 11.1 percent of planes' delayed departure.

Even with the new Terminal 5, Heathrow just can't win.

Think your airport sucks? It's ok, most people don't like their local airports. But you're in a pretty sad state of affairs when even the employees that work at that airport think it sucks.

That's what's been going on at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) recently. Employees, union members and even J D Power and Associates notables have been marching around the terminals protesting the state of the airport and the industry.

I can see where they're coming from with regard to the airport -- Terminal 2, where I spend most of my time is a run down shell of a terminal, where amenities are few, gates are crowded and dirty and a combo meal at Burger King can cost up to twelve dollars.

Just earlier this week, local Los Angeles news reported that there were over a thousand people in line over at Terminal 1.

With regard to their qualms with the industry, I'm not sure if they have much traction. Airlines are cutting back in all facets of the business, including, I'm sure, employee staffing. Any time layoffs and superfluous cost cutting are involved, employees are going to be unhappy.

Luckily, none of this ruckus seems to be (further) affecting airport operations -- as of this afternoon, the FAA isn't reporting any significant delays.

Flight delays, baggage complications and tight seating; flying isn't really on anyone''s list of favorites anymore. But because the state of airline and airport affairs is so mediocre, whenever you have a good experience there is a sense of elation; "My plane landed on time?!?!? Great!" That feeling is a whole lot better than knowing that you'll be flying into one of the world's most delayed airports.

If you want to plan your flying schedules around the airports that are known for getting their jets in and out in a timely fashion -- so you can actually stick to your travel schedule -- where should you go? MSNBC posted an article today with America's top 15 most on-time airports. Here are the top five with their percentage of on time flights:

1. Honolulu International, 84.3%
2. Kahului, 84.2%
3. Portland International, 81.8%
4. Salt Lake City International, 81.1%
5. Albuquerque International, 81%
   

Check out the other ten here and then book accordingly.



Thanks Emma!

Denver recently approved a measure making possession of a small amount of marijuana legal, so the next logical step in opening places in which to smoke the reefer was obviously Denver International Airport. That's what a group of activists called Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) are trying to do.

Their argument is that it's a great alternative to drinking at the airport, which often leads to stress, passengers flipping out and causing a ruckus aboard aircraft -- things that we seem to report on weekly here at Gadling.

To that end I suppose they have a point, but for the fact that pot is still illegal on the state and federal levels, under which persons possessing can still be prosecuted.

However, in the farcical world where all good intentions lead to results, I can see a brave new world where passengers happily pile into a plane with zero legroom, no overhead space and 12$ soft drinks, happy as cows grazing in a pasture where children don't cry and nobody cares if they can't open their laptop on postage-stamp sized tray tables. Food sales onboard would skyrocket, complaints would plummet and the flight attendants would hug you instead of asking you to return your seat back to its upright and locked position.

The airlines should get behind this legislation immediately.

Yesterday, I wondered if ABC's I Survived a Japanese Game Show would be really awful or very funny. I had some concern that there would be cultural insensitivity that would make for very bad TV. My teenage daughter, who I corralled to watch with me, and I laughed and laughed.

Hollywood got it right.

Whoever thought of this show likes people and knows something about what it feels like to be thrust into an unfamiliar environment, but wanting to stay open to the experience. This was like Lost In Translation meets The Amazing Race, Average Joe and the game show, Beat the Clock.

Perusing your favorite airline's frequent flyer web pages, you may have noticed that many of them offer a service to sell and transfer miles among friends. Points.com is a website that specializes in this task, and many programs from Jetblue to Delta to American Airlines participate in their miles purchasing programs.

Take heed before you get your wallet out and buy miles though: it's a horrible horrible deal. Take a look a these prices for buying miles taken from the Northwest Airlines website:

2,500 = $95
25,000 = $725
30,000 = $865

Now, if you recall from your frequent flyer mile handbook, a domestic ticket costs 25,000 miles -- so this basically equates to buying a ticket for $725. Any ticket, domestically in the US, whether this is between New York and San Francisco or New York and Detroit even if you're having the worst day of your life, shouldn't cost $725. And if it does, you can pretty well be sure that the flight isn't going to have award availability either.

Similarly transferring miles is also expensive:

5,000 = $75
25,000 = $300

With a $25 transaction fee. And the airline isn't even selling miles -- it's just moving them from column A to B in their spreadsheet.

Why would anyone take up this deal? Well, the least irresponsible excuse for buying or transferring miles is because you need to top up your account. You're just short of that 25k or 50k award and need another 5k miles to book your ticket as soon as possible. But it's important to remember the amount of cash you're dumping into your miles just to make them work. If you're dumping $100 dollars into a ticket to get it over 25k and your miles are valued at $0.02/mile (a common market ratio), you've just lost $600 in equity on a ticket. Was the market value of the itinerary that much? Could you have bought the ticket for $200 cash?

If you do find yourself in the above situation, try the following solution: take a deep breath, take your wallet out, hide it under the couch and take a good sharp look at your travel plans and finances for the next six months. There may be a time that you're traveling in the near future during which you can accrue a few more miles and balance out that account.

Or you're short on time and out of money, consider checking Gadlings guide to topping off your frequent flyer account.

After 17 long years of flying America's skies, you've done it. You've almost saved up enough frequent flyer miles for a free ticket to anywhere you want to go in the United States. Nice work. Most people who remember to put their frequent flyer number into the box before departure forget about their miles and let them expire.

But you're just a couple of miles short. And you really really want to go see Aunt Ximena in Palm Springs over Labor Day. Distressed, you check the airline website and see that you can buy two thousand miles for sixty bucks. And you're so excited about In-n-Out and Aunt Ximena's Uruguyan Barbeque that you're just about to cough it up. But you shouldn't.

Hold on fellow passenger! There are ways to accrue those miles without wasting money straight from your pocketbook. At the very least you can use your money practically and earn the miles on the side. Here are a few great ways to do that.

• Check the website for promotions. Several carriers host small promos for new program members to indoctronate educate newbies on the advantages of their specific product. These change every so often, so it's helpful to go back and make sure that you've qualified for all of your excitement.
• Go shopping. Many airline programs have deals with an online (or in air) mall that let you purchase goods from a regular retailer (GAP, Home Depot, etc) and earn miles per each dollar spent. So if you needed to buy dog food for Fido or flowers for your mother anyway, you can get 5 miles / dollar online at petsmart or 10 miles / dollar at FTD.com. Not all of them mark up goods either -- most gateways go directly to the vendor website.
  
• Go out to eat. Sites like Dining for Miles let you enroll your favorite credit card or visa/MC debit card in a program that earns miles per dollar spent at a restaurant. You can peruse about to see if any of the restaurants are near you, then next time you're out to lunch with co-workers, pick up the bill and take cash from everyone else.
• Transfer miles from another program. Points.com gives you a pretty serious shaft when transferring miles among programs (I equate them to the TravelEx money exchange in the airport), but they're good if you're in a pinch and haven't got a ton of spare cash. There are too many participants to list them all, so check the website and see if your favorite points program is listed.

By now you've probably heard that the TSA just enacted new rules stipulating what is required for photo identification when going through airport security. People all over the place are outraged about it, and I thought that we should give a quick shakedown on what the change is and what you need to do about it.

Basically, the rule states that anyone refusing to give their ID at the security checkpoint can be denied access. This does not mean that if you forget or lost your ID you'll be turned back. This only applies if you refuse to give any identification and refuse to work with the TSA to establish your identity.

To put it more simply, "Don't be a jerk when you forget your ID at the airport, or the TSA will throw it right back at you." Several accounts I read over the internet over the past few days, including this one at The Consumerist, strike me as borderiline passive-agressive jabs at the TSA or workers at security checkpoints, as if they were waiting for security to do something stupid so they could rush home and blog up a stink.

While this new policy is admittedly pretty stupid, it's a waste of energy and breath to take it our on your sad TSA worker or your blogging peers. Consider writing to your congressman or complaining directly to the TSA if you want your issues to fall on the right ears.

In the mean time, if you find yourself at the airport without proper identification, relax. You'll have to go through extra screening at the airport and might be held up a little, but you're not going to be taken to Gitmo.

Union vs. Management seems to be an issue that we revisit over and over when the airline industry makes any changes. Both sides have strong opinions on their point of view and the way things should be run, and it seems that each can be entirely too stubborn sometimes.

Should executives get multi-million dollar bonuses when the airline is going bankrupt and low tier workers are getting paid peanuts? Unions say no, spread the money out evenly. CEOs say yes, it's a drop in the bucket.

Despite their differences, random picket lines seem to be the only evidence you see of the continuous struggle between the two sides. But recent efforts by employees on the front lines seem to be targeted at making the passengers aware of the disputes as well.

If anyone has flown on American Airlines recently, you may have noticed that your flight attendant had a "resign" or "decline" sign around their neck -- that has to do with executives getting their bonuses.

In the most recent labor dispute visited by USA Today, a United pilot who apparently was embroiled in a "To wear or not to wear his hat" argument with his colleagues was so distraught that he refused to fly his aircraft to Denver. Like the American flight attendants, United employees have recently been encouraged to take off their hats when management was around.

I'm all for solidarity among union workers and for getting the solution figured out between labor and management. But is it necessary to drag the paying public into your fray? We have no control over who gets paid what or what benefits are reaped -- we just paid two hundred bucks to fly to Denver.

Air travel Masa Rick Seaney is seems to be just about everywhere these days, but I have to tell you, his website does come up with some good data every now and then. In addition to Farecompare's ability to pluck out excellent airfare (the needle in a haystack analogy comes to mind), Seaney has more recently been commenting and writing on the industry on his personal website, RickSeaney.com

Just last week, Rick et al published a huge table of airline fees, containing all sorts of depressing information from reservation over the phone fees to checked bag fees to animal carry-on fees. He's lined these all up against each other as a function of airline, where you can easily go down, pick your favorite (or ticketed) carrier and see how much your next trip to the airport is going to cost you.

Say you're taking your family to Disney World this weekend and you have the choice between a 320 dollar ticket on Southwest or a 300 dollar ticket on American Airlines. Initially, you might jump on the 300 dollar ticket. But once you realize that you and your wife both have to check two bags, the kids check one each, the total price falls in favor of Southwest. And if if you have to change your ticket because Timmy got sick and you had to stay an extra day? Change ticket fees on Southwest are also free.

Make sure you take a look at Rick's site if you're ever on the fence between two tickets, and take a look at the booking engine while you're out there.