Safety Issue or Just Lazy?
American Airlines announced it would try to compete with the better of the airlines by offering pajamas and turn-down service in their International First-Class product. It took all of a week before us lazy Americans decided that is a crazy amount of work. Never mind that many leading airlines offer this service.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) filed a grievance, and because “this is too much work and we’re lazy” isn’t cause for filing a grievance the APFA is conducting a survey asking if the bedding or act of changing into pajamas is a safety hazard on the aircraft. Again, never mind that many leading airlines already offer this service.
The survey, which can be found via the previous link, asks questions like:
“Were there any safety issues with the bedding before landing?”
“Were there any safety issues with the turndown service at all?”
“Were there lines for the lavs when passengers changed into/out of pajamas?”
Service sucks in the USA because we Americans are lazy, and we consistently prove we are unable to provide quality service to our customers.
Drunk JetBlue Passenger: “I Did Not Realize I Was Pissing on Her Leg”
An 18-year old man, drunk from downing 8 alcoholic beverages on a JetBlue flight from JFK to Portland, Oregon, was arrested after he urinated on an 11 year old girl on the plane.
The man says that he was so drunk that he didn’t realize that he wasn’t in the bathroom when he decided to urinate on the young passenger. Incredibly, the girl’s father did not beat the living crap out of the guy, though he apparently had to be restrained. Which is understandable.
via Online Travel Review
WOW…
PBS Special Investigates the Outsourcing of Aircraft Maintenance
PBS FRONTLINE and the Investigative Reporting Workshop examined the growing trend of outsourcing major airline repair work to lower-cost independent maintenance operations in the special Flying Cheaper. The segment points out issues at one facility, but the safety records of US airlines suggest air travel is safer than ever before. What is the truth of the situation industry-wide? Obviously, finding glaring issues is good for production and entertainment, but how many of the major airlines are turning to incompetent subcontractors? Is this more of an issue for regional jet carriers? International carriers? Obviously, airlines are in the business of transporting passengers and cargo. The aircraft, interiors, in-flight entertainment, avionics, engines, etc are all built by specialized sub-contractors. It makes sense that the maintenance of all those items could be handled with more care and at a lower cost by a specialized subcontractor, and true free-market competition has always demonstrated benefits. As flyers we forget how dynamic the air transport industry can be. We like to have a carrier you can trust to take you anywhere, whether that be Dubai or Jackson Hole. Delta, United, and Continental provide that service, but to do it well they need to have a very diverse fleet of aircraft for all the different routings and passenger capacities. This means lots of different training for pilots, flight attendants, ground crews, and maintenance crews. Look at United’s mainline fleet. Maintenance operations need to support the A319, A320, B744, B752, B763, and B772. Scheduling the right crews to the right aircraft is inefficient. For example, United only flies 24 B744s, so what does a B744 trained maintenance crew do when all the B744s do not need maintenance or FAA checks? You could train them on another airframe, but it increases the likelihood of getting confused or having to more frequently look up information which wastes time. Rather imagine a maintenance company that specializes in B744s and services United, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, and Singapore. All are members of Star Alliance so there is a willingness to cooperate. All operate B744s and some airlines only in the single digits. The maintenance company would have facilities across the globe to support these clients so it makes relocating aircraft for repair significantly easier. You have crews who become experts on one airframe. It is better and cheaper for everyone involved.
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Visa Signature Giving 15% Discount on Southwest Airlines
If your card says “Visa Signature” anywhere on the front, you qualify. Purchase must be made between January 20 and April 30, 2011 for travel before June 1, 2011. There are additional Terms and Conditions (but they seemed normal).
Visit Visa USA for the Promotion
via MilesQuest
(Source: boardingarea.com)
The New Southwest Rapid Rewards Loyalty Program
Do you love LUV? If so, you’re in for an all new loyalty program come March 1, 2011.
The program shifts from credits to points earned on fare dollars paid similar to JetBlue or Virgin America. There are many changes to earning, redeeming, and also elite status. If you loved LUV because of their simplicity (and there is much to love, I admit) the new program will require you to break out Excel to maximize the benefits because it’s even more complicated than the traditional systems.
All in all, unless you’re earning lots of points and redeeming them on lowly Wanna Get Away fares, you’re going to be earning less free trips than with the outgoing Rapid Rewards credit system.
Welcome To The New United
I went to bed yesterday with Delta being the clear winner of my business. Today, things start to get a little more fuzzy.
United and Continental signed the papers to become one and surpass Delta as the largest airline in the world. With that means a merging of ideas and a whole lot of growing pains.
Delta has offered the cheapest advanced rates to my destinations, and Delta also has a policy of earning perks with Medallion status.
United has had the policy of you can pay for everything. Pay for priority. Pay for Economy Plus. Pay for alcohol in the Red Carpet Rooms. Pay. Pay. Pay. On the other hand, Delta reserves it’s perks only for Medallion Elites, and Medallion Members have been known to complain to high heaven any time Delta so much as THINKS about offering perks for payment. The latter appeals to me as an Elite member.
Despite SkyPesos (SkyMiles) have one of the poorest exchange for rewards of the US majors, having the AMEX SPG card means 1.25:1 transfer of StarPoints to Sky Miles versus 0.625:1 transfer to Mileage Plus, so SkyPesos still appeal to me.
But, in two years, the New United might be the better choice. We’ll see how the business decisions fall into place. In the meantime, enjoy the new livery. “United” text on white with the Continental tail. Boring, if you ask me, but symbolic.
I Just Cut My Hotel Costs from $488.65 to $285.27
Yesterday, I posted a link a checklist to save money on a hotel room. So I decided I’d follow my friend’s advice, and use it on my upcoming vacation.
The end result:
$488.65 if I booked hotel rates
$433.27 from the best deals found on various travel sites
$285.27 by following his tips
Check out his article at Andrews Random Stories
How to Get a Great Deal on Your Next Hotel Stay
Check out this excellent article compiling my friend’s business travel experience.
There’s quite a lot of promotions and discounts to be had when making hotel bookings with just a little bit of extra research. The new metasearch tools on the web make it easy to do. Here’s the checklist I use.
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