Delta pilots seeking 40% pay hikes
Delta pilots ask for pay increases totaling 40% over three years, but say that will only get them back to their 2004 wage level.
Category Archives: Airlines
Ryanair’s New Strategy: Being Nice
“If I had only known that being nicer to our customers was good for business I would have done it years ago”
Continental Airlines’ Former CEO Just Picked a Fight With United Airlines
Will Gordon Bethune ride again?
JetBlue Will Train You to Be a Pilot
This is the first program of its kind for a U.S. airline
Who wants to be a pilot?
Seat Selection is Now a Paid Option at Delta
Following JetBlue giving up on a free checked bag, Delta Airlines has decided to ‘redefine’ their cabin, effective March 1, 2015. “Delta will offer best-in-class options for each of its customer segments with innovative multi-cabin experiences.” That translates to…”you demanded we keep prices low. This is the only way it can be done.” Delta’s lowest…
Review: Delta’s “Upgraded” Boston-New York Shuttle Features Far Inferior Product
The Delta Shuttle has always been promoted and priced as a premium product. Even though the product has declined over the years, it still retains some vestiges of its heyday. Free newspapers. Free wine or beer(sometimes). A bagel in the morning. The recent changes to the Boston-New York shuttle service, promoted in signage as “upgraded”…
JetBlue “Enhances” Product By Making It Worse?
(Editor’s Note: It has been a while since we’ve had anything to say, but this move by our beloved hometown airline disappoints) Let’s go back in time to December of 2006. JetBlue Airways decides to change the configuration of its A320 aircraft from 156 seats to 150 seats, allowing them to increase the pitch from…
Airplane Seatbelts are Pointless?
Is there anything Michael O’Leary won’t do for publicity? He’s gone on record claiming that seatbelt rules for aircraft are pointless. Apparently, he’s never heard of something called turbulence, or thinks it doesn’t apply to him…This is surprising. Back in September of this year, for example, turbulence hit a Ryanair flight from Dusseldorf to Palma Majorca,…
Codesharing: Why Bother?
Back in July of 2011, we made the Case against Codesharing. But lately, we’ve seen a few articles that have made us revisit the issue. Codesharing is where the airline that operates a flight(operating carrier), allows a second airline(marketing carrier) to place its flight number on the flight, and sell it as if it was…
American Airlines Denies Boarding to Teen with Down Syndrome
American Airlines is coming under fire today, and it isn’t just because they allegedlydiscriminated against Glenn Beck. This is for their actions involving a sixteen year old with Down Syndrome and his family. The teenager was booked with his parents in first class from Newark to Los Angeles on Sunday. American Airlines commented that the…
United Reservations System Unsurprisingly Crashes
In December 2010, United announcedit was leaving Apollo, the reservations system it had used for decades, to switch to HP’s Shares, which Continental used. United actually created the Apollo Reservations system in 1971. The airline evaluated Apollo, SHARES and “several other options†and chose HP SHARES as the “best customer and employee alternative and because its…
Flight Attendant Sues JetBlue over Dismissal
JetBlue Flight Attendant Roberto Rodriguez is suing JetBlue, claiming he was unfairly dismissed from his job. According to Rodriguez, he and a fellow flight attendant he’d shared a room with arrived late at the airport for a flight due to his hotel not providing the requested wakeup call. Arriving barely in time for the flight,…
United Loses Children
In June of 2009, we reported on how Continental Airlines had lost a young girl who was travelling under its unaccompanied minor program. Another similar situation has arisen with United Airlines, which merged with Continental, to the point that there is a petition on change.org, asking United to either redesign or discontinue its Unaccompanied Minors…
Frontier Launches Flights from Trenton to Orlando – Why?
Frontier has announced it will be launching service from Trenton, New Jersey to Orlando International Airport in Florida. The service will be twice weekly, on Monday and Friday, and operated using A319 aircraft. Service will begin November 16th. Trenton-Mercer Airport is a bit of an odd place for Frontier to be trying to fly. They…
Comair to Cease Operations
It is always sad when we lose another airline. Delta will shut down its subsidiary Comair as of September 30th. The writing has been on the wall for a long while. Comair primarily operates 50-seat regional jets, an aircraft type that many carriers are scaling down. Comair was founded in 1977. It became…
Long Stranded Passengers Revolt – Is United at Fault?
A United Airlines flight was scheduled to leave Shanghai on Wednesday, but its passengers ended up stranded till Saturday. Maintenance problems ground airplanes all the time. To be realistic, what is the alternative? Would any passenger rather fly on an unsafe plane? But it took that many days for replacement parts to arrive, which is…
Moving from the PNR to the Customer Record
In the airline industry, the passenger name record(PNR), is a single record in a computer reservation system that contains a single reservation for one or more passengers. The problem is that PNRs have no memory. They represent one trip. They do not represent the passenger’s relationship with the airline. For that, in the 80s, airlines…
Spirit Airlines Apologizes to Dying Veteran Under Public Pressure
Last week, we reported on how Spirit Airlines would not even refund the money of a dying veteran. After a week of criticism, Ben Baldanza, CEO of Spirit Airlines, issued a press release. He didn’t apologize for the company’s policy so much as apologize for failing to explain why being rigid and inflexible allows them…
Spirit Airlines Tells Dying Man…No Refund
Jerry Meekins is on a mission to change the No Refund Policy of Spirit Airlines. Meekins recently purchased a ticket on Spirit, and subsequently was diagnosed with Terminal Cancer. It was his expectation, that under the circumstances, Spirit might make an exception of return his money. Spirit responded that it wouldn’t be fair to bend…
That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles
The last vestige of the Cookie, Midwest Airlines, is dying. Bad enough that Frontier Airlines, which swallowed Midwest, is slowly eliminating their routes, their hubs in Milwaukee and Kansas City, but now the most unique thing about Midwest…the symbol of care…a cookie baked fresh in the back of the plane, dies May 1st. “The company…
PEOPLExpress is Back
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="People Express Airlines (1986) (Photo credit: Hunter-Desportes)"][/caption] PEOPLExpress is back…well, the name is, at least. The new PEOPLExpress is a low-cost carrier with a mission statement to serve markets currently underserved by major carriers. Despite the fact it has not even filed with the DOT to become a scheduled airline, they…
Hundreds Tune In to Malev Funeral Procession
On Friday, Malev ceased operation. Late that night and into Saturday morning, fourteen Boeing 737 aircraft, leased from the International Lease Finance Corporation, were flown to Shannon, Ireland. Malev operated eighteen 737s, seventeen of which were leased from ILFC. The first of the aircraft to leave Budapest flew a solemn lap around the airport and…
RIP Malev and Spanair
Last week, Spanair ceased operations after 25 years. The airline had been looking for a takeover partner to ensure operations, but was unable to do so and the government withdrew the funding support it had been giving the airline. Today, after 65 years, state-owned Malev Hungarian Airlines ceased operations as the government withdrew financing. The…
God No Longer On Board Alaska Airlines
Having never flown Alaska Airlines, it was news to us that for 30 years, together with their meals, the airline has distributed prayer cards featuring serene color pictures and verses from the Book of Psalms. Now we’ll never have a chance to get one, as the airline announced that it will stop distributing the cards…
Heavy Turbulence Sends 5 American Airlines Crew To Hospital
All was normal aboard American Airlines Flight 980 from Brazil to Miami. Then, two hours into the eight hour flight, with food service underway, the plane suddenly lurched violently. The unexpected turbulencesent a food cart flying, damaging the ceiling and landing on and injuring a flight attendant. In all, six members of the flight crew…