Reuters reported yesterday that the DOT will review this month’s service meltdown at Jetblue and December’s incident at American. The review will include the airlines’ customer service contracts and policies on ground delays and any recommendation could extend to airlines as a whole as well as the air traffic control system, and its operator, the…
Monthly Archives: February 2007
American Airlines Reopens First-Class Lavatory to Coach Passengers
The Associated Press reports that beginning tomorrow, coach passengers can use the front lavatory on American Airlines planes. The airline restricted it to first-class fliers on 2003. American had the only such rules. A Boeing 757, for example, has 22 seats in first-class, 160 in coach. It has two bathrooms in the front, and two…
Jetblue Flight Diverted to Philadelphia
Jetblue cannot seem to catch a break. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Jetblue Flight 1050 from Pittsburgh to JFK was diverted to Philadelphia. The pilot was responding to a “Wing Anti-Ice Fault” indicator, which Jetblue procedure requires a plane not to land in locations with icing conditions…at the time, JFK. Fifty-four passengers and four crew…
Paper Tickets A Thing of the Past
Reuters reports that IATA, which supplies paper tickets to most airlines outside the U.S., plans to discontinue supplies by the end of this year. Airlines that want to maintain it after this year will be able to, but the supplies will be costly. IATA estimates that 96 percent of tickets issued by U.S. Airlines are…
American Eagle to Discontinue Service
On April 1st, American Eagle will discontinue service from Boston to Newark Airport, which it operates four times daily. On June 1st, the carrier will end twice-daily service from Chicago O’Hare to Washington-Dulles. With United operating nine flights a day between O’Hare and Dulles, and Continental operating twelve flights from Boston to Newark…it seems that…
Chicago City Council Could Mandate Passenger Bill of Rights
Upgrade Travel alerted us to this developing situation in Chicago. Apparently, a group of Chicago’s alderman(city council members), are proposing a bill that would block airlines landing at either of Chicago’s area airports if they fail to have a passenger bill of rights in place. Mark Ashley, who runs Upgrade Travel, happens to be a…
Roundup
Airtran announced plans to begin service from Portland International Jetport from Baltimore-Washington International and Orlando International Airports in June. The service will begin June 7th with three daily roundtrips to BWI, followed on the ninth by a daily flight to Orlando. While the service is noted as seasonal, there is no note as to when…
Jetblue Can’t Seem to Stay out of the News
Before Jetblue could put into place its new procedures for dealing with winter weather…winter weather once again hit the northeast. Jetblue was forced to cancel some…but not all flights out of all three major NYC area airports, possibly out of Stewart in Newburgh as well, in addition to scattered delays out of Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh,…
US Airways to Unite Reservations Systems
The Cranky Flier
Innovating Carry-On Luggage
USA Today has a good article on some new products coming out in response to TSA carry-on restrictions. Manufacturers are seeking to profit off of the rules in the best example of market demand spurring innovation. We recommend you have a look at the article, but here is our summary. 02Hide.com offers a line of…
Uncontrollable Controllable Irregularities
We’re on Day 3 of the Wait for a response to our email to Jetblue about the definition of “Controllable Irregularity.” We decided to check to see if anyone had better luck figuring things out. The Cranky Flier spoke to Jetblue’s Media Relations office and was told a Controllable Irregularity was anything that was under…
American Building Business in New York
American Airlines has announced a major initiative to increase its presence in New York. David Cush, American’s Senior Vice President of Global Sales, put it this way: “We want to make it crystal clear that American Airlines and American Eagle are the airlines of choice for the greater New York area. It’s no secret that…
Service Roundup
Air France will open daily service from Seattle to Paris on June 11th. It will be its 13th US city. Delta will offer service from Boston’s Logan Airport to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island once daily from June 29th through September 16th. The service will be operated by Comair. Northwest will increase capacity on its routes…
Two More Abandoned Flights
After USA Today wrote of United abandoning passengers this past December, they were contacted about a similar incident on February 8th. A United Express and an American Connection flight, both heading to Denver from Madison, Wisconsin and St. Louis were abandoned in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Both Scottsbluff and Cheyenne are currently only served by turboprop service…
Passengers Abandoned in Cheyenne
USA Today reported today on an incident that took place in December. One forgets, with Jetblue dominating the headlines, that other carriers are guilty of shocking neglect. Two planeloads of passengers were shocked to discover that they had been abandoned. On December 20th, at 9:32AM, United Express Flight 7529, with 59 passengers onboard lands in…
The Difference Between Good and Bad Airlines
Carl Howe, of Blackfriar’s Communication, posted the following(courtesy of SeekingAlpha), noting that: The difference between bad and good companies is how employees are empowered and respond to problems. Southwest Airlines (LUV) empowers its employees to break rules so long as they are doing right by their customers, and it has been the most profitable airline…
Jetblue Unveils New Bill of Rights
David Neeleman apologized in a Youtube message on the Jetblue website, promising reform. He assures the public that the events of last week and the way they transpired will never happen again. In the future, all Jetblue employees who do not work at the airport will be badged and trained to report to the airport…
Delta Ruins Another Educational Trip
The Boston Herald reports that 20 students from Waltham High School outside of Boston had their trip grounded in New York because Delta Airlines gave their seats away. The students planned and saved for a year so they could spend the week practicing their Spanish in Madrid. Delta stranded the students for nearly 12 hours…
Bombardier to Offer 100-seat regional jet
Bombardier, maker of the Canadair Regional Jet(CRJ) announced today it has added a 100-seater option to its lineup after receiving 38 firm orders for it today, which included the conversion of previous CRJ900 orders. The CRJ1000 is a stretch version of the CRJ900(90-seater aircraft and originally referred to as the CRJ900x. It is 3 meters…
Jetblue to Present Customer Bill of Rights
We are not sure if it is better for the government to regulate the airlines or for the airlines to regulate themselves…popuar opinion varies…but if an airline does hold itself to a standard, we are in favor of it. Jetblue announced today that it would unveil its own Bill of Rights after its meltdown this…
The Only Way Jetblue Will Survive
Jetblue has its advantages and disadvantages, as we’ve said. So, let’s review what is necessary for Jetblue to avoid this in the future… A Secondary Base It lacks a secondary base outside of the winter weather zone. Jetblue’s coverage in the middle of the country has aways been lacking. Places for a mid-America base have…
A380 to Touch Down in New York March 19
For those of you who haven’t heard, the Airbus 380 is scheduled to touch down in JFK on March 19th as part of a trial flight for Lufthansa. Los Angeles, which had expected to have the honor of hosting the first A380 landing in the United States. The superjumbo’s arrival into the United States has…
Icelandair Celebrates 70th Anniversary
Icelandair is celebrating its 70th anniversary and is offering a hundred dollar discount off four packages to Iceland. Icelandair began in 1937 as a domestic carrier. In 1945, Icelandair initiated its first flights outside of Iceland to Scotland. By 1948, they served Scotland, Copenhagen, and Oslo. On August 26, 1948, the airline made its first…
Jetblue Will Lose Millions from Winter Incident
“I don’t blame our customers for being upset with this,” David Neeleman, CEO of Jetblue commented about the recent events plaguing the airline. For Saturday and Sunday, it pre-cancelled 23 percent of its schedule in order to reset their operation. That includes all flights to and from: Austin, Bermuda, Charlotte, Columbus, Houston, Jacksonville, Nashville, Pittsburgh,…
Honolulu is Final Destination for Stowaway Squirrel
An American Airlines plane enroute from Tokyo-Narita to Dallas-Forth Worth diverted to Honolulu, Hawaii. The airline blamed the diversion of the Boeing 777 on a squirrel that stowed away on the flight. Pilots feared the squirrel would chew through wiring or cause other problems. The squirrel may have boarded in New York, the plane’s previous…