People lining up at Seattle's Airport before the Starbucks opens
A frequent 8yr old flier who flies regularly from Washington state to Kentucky had an interesting experience. She was flying on a Northwest Airlines flight and her parents paid an extra $100 each way for their unaccompanied minor program (someone supervises the child from parent to parent). The child complained of being tired, so the supervising Northwest employee told her to get a large coffee at Starbucks and made her pay using her own money.
Sure, there might be some out there who say a little coffee for a child won’t do any harm, but I doubt anyone can say a large coffee is a good thing for a child.
The excess of caffeine caused her to get sick and she had to make use of the “courtesy bags.” By the time she arrived in Seattle, WA it was obvious to her mother something was wrong, “She was pale, shaking and talking a lot.”
Northwest is investigating, and of course states they take the care of unaccompanied minors very seriously. Although this sounds like a story where it is easy to get upset at Northwest Airlines, I would like to give them and their employees the benefit of the doubt, since we know that sometimes kids can exaggerate stories, especially when it keeps them out of trouble!
Source: NWCN Image: dcortesi
Alaska Airline MD83 at SeaTac
Alaska Airlines has gotten rid of all the blankets and pillows from all 114 planes in its fleet. The airline states it is in response to the recent Swine Flue outbreak and want to increase the sanitization efforts in its planes. They have also been using a virus killing cleaner inside the cabins to take care of any flu viruses left on their aircraft.
Although I have always been a little un-easy using a “shared” blanket and pillow, I wonder why they haven’t gone the route of some other airlines and allow passengers to purchase their own set of blanket and pillow they can keep?
Source: Business Journal Image: sfPhotocraft
Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-28E
Boeing 777 loses one engine, luckily it has two!
Yes! Another good story that could have turned much worse. A Boeing 777 lost an engine shortly after take off at Sea-Tac airport in Seattle, WA. Asiana Flight 271 took off heading to South Korea with 179 passengers and 16 crew.
Then, something none of us want to hear and see — a few loud explosions and flames coming out of the left engine. At this time, it is not known what happened, but we will be keeping a close eye on this story.
CLICK HERE to see a video of the safe landing.
Image: Thomas Becker Source & Video: KOMO
Southwest Boeing 737
It has been about a year since all these wonderous bag fees have started. Southwest (which I have called the “new frills airline” a few times already) has resisted any of these fees and keep all their prices pretty straight forward. Now they are saying they feel they have earned more money with having no fees, since customers are choosing Southwest over airlines that do charge fees.
However, other airlines are sticking to their fees with bringing millions more in in revenue. In fact more airlines are increasing and adding new fees.
Alaksa Airlines just announced they will start charging fees and US Airways will charge $5 extra if a passenger doesn’t pre-pay for baggage fees.
Personally, I understand the fees. I mean the airlines are hurting and people are willing to pay for them. However, it has become nearly impossible to do a true cost comparison for tickets, not knowing what your final price will be.
Source: Dallas Morning News Image: MayorGreg
US Airways A319 with Arizona Cardinals livery
PETA is well known for previous controversial advertisements showing the abuse to animals around the world. Their latest attempt is a proposal to put an ad on a US Airways aircraft that showed a seal next to blood-looking text stating, “Canada’s Olympic Shame – End the Seal Slaughter.”
No matter what you think about this topic, putting anything with “blood” on the side of a plane is not going to go over well. PETA wanted to put the ads on flights between the US and Canada in time for the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC.
In February, US Airways also turned down an ad for PETA where they wanted to go after KFC for the way their treat their chickens.
Although in these hard economic times, it is hard for any airline to turn away extra money, I think US Airways probably made a smart decision.
Source: Business First Image: ~C~U~B~B~I~E~