After reading the story in Saturday's paper regarding the Port of Tacoma's e-mail mess, several people wanted to know who-called-who what.

As I wrote for Saturday, the e-mails released were primarily written by two or three Port of Tacoma staff members in 2006 and 2007.

Most were mid-level managers and the e-mails released to me didn’t contain any sent from the port’s executive or deputy directors’ accounts.

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The dust hadn't even settled from last weekend's round of domestic airfare increases of up to $50 per roundtrip for long flights, when Delta Air Lines filed yet another increase Tuesday night.

If all of the major carriers follow Delta's lead -- and they're in a pattern of following the leader over the last few weeks -- the increase will be the seventh successful broad-based fare increase since late last year.

Here's what Rick Seaney of farecompare.com, who tracks airfares for a living, has to say about the latest increase:

I am trying to think of a word other than "unprecedented" so I guess I'll start using "remarkable" -- I have never seen an airline fire out a system wide increase on anything but Thursday or Friday in over 6 years of tracking airfares -- this increase just doesn't break the mold it shatters it - the ninth increase attempt this year (six of the previous eight in 2008 were "sticky").

Again, the motivation is the airlines' attempt to catch up to rocketing fuel prices. As the year began, the domestic airline industry hoped to make collective profits in 2008 of $4 billion. Now industry sources say that if the jet fuel prices don't decline soon or airfares rise to meet them, the industry in the U.S. will lose $9 billion this year.

Don't expect that this increase will be the last one, so it behooves potential vacationers to buy now.

Beware of "fuel surcharges" that some foreign airlines and cruise lines slap on after you've already purchased your ticket.

On the international front, both American and Northwest airlines today raised some international fares. Again the motivation is keeping up with fuel price increases.

If you receive an unsolicited "guaranteed" loan solicitation by mail or on the Internet, beware.

Be particularly wary if those "loans" require you to pay processing costs or loan fees up front.

That's the message from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The FDIC said some of the schemes will lead you to Internet sites that spoof legitimate bank sites, so don't rely on just the look of the pages.

Here's what the FDIC says about those schemes:

Advance fee loan scams prey on consumers who may be under financial duress and may be seeking quick and easy loan approval and funding. The scam typically involves the lender making false promises to arrange for a loan in return for fees paid upfront by the loan applicant. Scam artists may even design Web sites and online loan applications giving the appearance that the company is legitimate.

Fraudulent logos and letterhead of legitimate financial institutions or government agencies may also appear on documents that are faxed to the loan applicant. Potential borrowers may be asked to provide information through a Web site or be contacted by phone or e-mail by a "representative" who guarantees loan approval as soon as the borrower pays a required fee. The loan applicant may be told that the fees will be used to pay a third party for loan insurance or application processing, or to make the first month's loan payment. The loan applicant may also be told to send or wire transfer money to an individual overseas before receiving the loan proceeds.

In some cases, the loan applicant has been falsely directed to a legitimate financial institution with no knowledge of the transaction. In other cases, the loan applicant is told that the loan request was declined and is asked to forward additional money to qualify for a different loan program.

Victims of online advance loan fee scams should report the crimes to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at http://www.ic3.gov/. More information about fraudulent advance loan fee scams can be found at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/tmarkg/loans.shtm.

Despite the plea from airlines for more fuel-efficient and maintenance-free jets for everyday operations, it's increasingly looking like Boeing and Airbus are putting off such an airliner's creation.

Air Transport World reports that James Haas, director of 787 marketing, told attendees at a Los Angeles industry conference that technology has not advanced enough yet to build a successor to the 737.

The 737 and its Airbus rival, the A320 family of single-aisle planes, are the most popular and ubiquitous planes in the sky.

The industry has thousands on order, but some carriers with big inventories of old planes such as American Airlines have been pushing the plane builders to create even better mainline airliners.

American had hoped to leapfrog the current generation of single-aisle planes and order the new planes to replace some of its fleet of 300 fuel-gulping MD-80s.

Southwest Airlines, the biggest Boeing 737 customer with more than 500, has asked Boeing to create a new generation of planes.

The news from Airbus was the same at the conference. Airbus vice president of marketing Colin Stuart told attendees not to expect an A320 replacement until at least 2017.

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Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman of International Lease Finance Corporation, the largest customer for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner, said he expects another Dreamliner delivery delay.

Hazy, with 74 Dreamliner orders to his credit, is in a good position to know.

He told an investors conference this week he expects the first Dreamliner flight to happen this fall instead of in June when Boeing says the plane will fly.

Hazy also predicted the first deliveries of the composite-bodied plane won't happen until September next year instead of in the first quarter of 2009.

Boeing has delayed the Dreamliner schedule three times because of problems with parts shortages and suppliers.

With fuel prices climbing like a fighter jet, expect to hear more news like that from JetBlue this week.

The New York-based low-cost carrier told analysts at a JP Morgan conference that it will soon charge a premium to passengers who want to enjoy the extra legroom in exit row or in a few rows of seats in the front of the plane. The seats will be available for flights from April 1. Here's the site for JetBlue's explanation of how the deal will work.

JetBlue says the seats will be available "for as little as $10 a seat" extra. I looked at seats on a red-eye flight from Seattle to Boston in June. The extra charge was pegged at $20 each way. Expect those premiums to rise and fall like fares with demand. JetBlue now flies from Sea-Tac to New York's JFK Airport and Boston. It will soon begin flights to Long Beach, Calif. and seasonal flights to San Diego from here.

JetBlue extra legroom illustration

Exit row seats typically have been assigned by most airlines on the day of flight at the airport and have not been in the inventory available for passengers to select online.

As long as you met the physical requirements to be able to open the exit doors in an emergency, you could be seated there and enjoy as much six inches of extra legroom. That extra legroom is there to allow easier evacuation of passengers in an emergency.

For an extra charge, said JetBlue, you can upgrade to seats with four inches of more legroom, 38 inches instead of the usual 34.

The JetBlue move, say analysts, is part of a trend for airlines to unbundle their service and to charge extra for every enhancement formerly considered part of the price of a ticket.

Airlines now charge extra for meals that formerly were free. Some have even experimented with charging for sodas and juices.

United charges extra for a few additional inches of legroom. And Irish carrier RyanAir and US budget carrier Skybus charge for checked luggage.

United and US Airways have adopted charges for more than one checked bag, and virtually all airlines now keep a hawk's eye for overweight bags and charge accordingly.

All these moves are driven by the need to generate more revenue to pay the costs of jet fuel, which has risen at the same pace we'e seen gasoline and diesel jump in recent weeks.