Two British Airway's Boing 777s
It is not often when a group of people can come together, see the big picture, and be willing to take a cut in pay to potentially save a company. The British Airline Pilots Association voted 94% to cut their salaries by 2.6% and save the company about $42million per year. No one wants to have their salary cut, but 800 other staff members already agreed to work for free and thousands more took additional pay cuts. The pilots can see the writing on the wall and realize it might be better to sacrifice short-term, to save the company in the long-term.
Image: CS Chaulk
A Delta B757 at Salt Lake City
It is common practice for airlines to “bump” passengers from an oversold flight. Airlines will overbook the flight knowing that statistically not everyone shows up. But when everyone does show up, airlines are required to properly compensate those who are bumped. The common practice is to seek volunteers to take a later flight and bribe them with free flights, hotels, etc. Airlines must also submit in writing a bumped passenger’s rights.
Between January and July of 2008, Delta Airlines didn’t ask for volunteers, compensate properly, or offer rights to bumped passengers. The Consumerist lays out what rights a passenger is entitled to if bumped. Some of the interesting involuntary bump details:
* If the airline can get you an equivalent flight in an hour, no compensation.
* If the airline can find alternative transportation that will get you to your destination 1-2hours after your original time, they have to pay equivalent to your one-way ticket.
* If you can’t get to your destination 1-2hours after your original time, the airline has to pay 200% of your fare.
* Even with the other compensations, you get to keep your original ticket. You can get a refund for it or use it on a future flight.
Luckily I’ve never been bumped from a flight, but could see the sheer frustration someone would have with being bumped when they paid full price. It seems only fair that if airlines are going to gamble on passengers showing up, they need to pay up when they lose the bet.
Update: You have to read FlyingWithFishes legendary tale of the triple bump!
Image: ashergrey
Showing the Alaska RNP read outs. Image from AlaskaAir.com
Alaska Airlines is working on ways to save a few million gallons of fuel per year. The fuel savings will not only trickle down to a passenger’s pocketbook, but it would also cut down on environmental and noise pollutions.
Throughout the summer Alaska has been testing next-generation flight procedures at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) that have been dubbed “Greener Skies.”
The new procedure breaks away from the traditional “stair-step” method of descending into an airport. With current protocol, the control tower will assign altitudes airliners will cruise at. The pilot will descend to the new altitude, increase power to maintain the altitude, and wait for the next step. The new process takes advantage of Required Navigation Performance (RNP). With RNP the decent is a smooth, linear, and controlled approach without the need to level off. Alaska says the new system could save 2.1 million gallons of fuel and 22,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year.
Elliott Pesut, Twitterer for Alaska Airlines, pointed out to me that Alaska is the only major U.S. air carrier with a completely RNP-equipped fleet and fully trained crews. I am sure Alaska won’t be the last. Southwest Airlines recently announced their entire fleet of Boeing 737-700’s have the new technology and are in process of training their flight crews. Alaska is working to gain FAA approval to start using it by next year.
It is great to see an airline taking the leadership role of bringing this technology to the forefront and motivating others to follow suit. I hope that all aircraft at SEA will use the technology and it will spread to all airports and aircraft in the US.
Millions of people travel on airlines around the world. I figured there had to be some crazy lawsuits out there and sure enough! Here are some of my favorites:
* Student sues US Aiways for $1million for a lost xBox
* Woman sues American Airlines for $200,000.00 because her seatmate…well…he had too much personal time on the flight. Don’t get it? You can read the story.
* Lawyer sues Delta Air Lines $1 million for making him and his family miss his mother’s 80th birthday.
* Man sues JetBlue for $2 million for allegedly making him sit in the bathroom for part of the flight
* Woman won’t shut off phone, gets arrested, then sues Southwest Airlines for doing their job.
* A married couple sued United Airlines for serving too much wine to the husband, causing him to abuse his wife.
* Man wanted to use his Continental Airline miles on another airline and didn’t want to pay the “other airline fee.”
* Some passengers of Flight 1549 didn’t feel the $5000.00 (and a second chance at life) was enough from the historic landing and are suing for emotional damages.
* Passengers sued when Bonnie Tyler sang “Total Eclipse of the Heart” live on an Air France flight because it was getting too rowdy
* Man sues British Airways for kicking him off the plane for being too stinky.
* Mother sues a Swedish airline after her son’s hamsters got frozen in the airline cargo hold (they bought them a new puppy).
Think about all these crazy lawsuits when you aren’t happy with how much your next airline ticket costs!
Image: Clippergoodwill
Thomas Cook Boeing 757
You hear the stories of a doctor or law enforcement officer on a flight stepping forward to help out on a plane, but this time an engineer had his day in the spotlight.
Passengers on Thomas Cook flight TCX9641 from Menorca, Spain were told their flight would be delayed eight hours while an engineer was flown in to work on the plane. One passenger felt he might be of service and identified himself as a qualified aircraft engineer. After careful scrutiny, it was determined the man was highly qualified to work on the Boeing 757-200, as he actually works for a company that has a reciprocal maintenance agreement with Thomas Cook.
The man was able to determine the issue and fix it rather quickly. When re-boarding the aircraft, he was greeted with a big round of applause. The flight was able to take off and arrive only 35 minutes late to Glasglow, UK.
Thanks Dr. Forbes for the Tip!
Source: BBC Image: fishbed93