News and notes from around the interweb:
- In victory for taxi lobby, European Court of Justice rules Uber is a transportation service and thus member states can regulate it like cabs.
Copyright: think4photop / 123RF Stock Photo - Delta may seek $25 to $50 million from either Georgia Power or the Atlanta airport after the power outage this past week.
He doesn’t actually know who is to blame but he already says he wants them to pay,
“I don’t know whose responsibility it is between the airport and Georgia Power, but we’re going to have conversations with both of them.”
Since Delta has largely abided corruption in airport contracting there for years I’m not super sympathetic to a claim against the airport, especially since the airport now needs these funds out invest in its operation (and since Delta recently re-upped its airport lease it’s difficult to recoup the costs). As for Georgia Power, they’re more likely well-positioned to tell Ed Bastian to go pound sand. I know I’ve never gotten my power company to cover the cost of spoiled food in the refrigerator when my power went out.
- Indiana hotel charged customers an extra $350 whenever they left a negative review of the property online
“Guests agree that if guests find any problems with our accommodations, and fail to provide us the opportunity to address those problems while the guest is with us, and/or refuses our exclusive remedy, but then disparages us in any public manner, we will be entitled to charge their credit card an additional $350 damage,” the policy read, according to the lawsuit. “Should the guest refuse to retract any such public statements legal action may be pursued.”
- British Airways is trialing biometric boarding at LAX
- Air India apologizes for cockroach in food at Delhi airport lounge
Dear @airindiain cockroaches on food plates at your Delhi Lounge for biz and first class passengers. Disgusting pic.twitter.com/LEy9GtrgTY
— Harinder Baweja (@shammybaweja) December 20, 2017
- Southwest Airlines seat-savers drive some passengers crazy just put crumpled up tissues on the seat beside you and cough, no one will want to sit next to you…
Why would anyone sit in a middle seat and try to save an aisle or window seat? That’s plain stupid. My wife and I usually board together, but when we don’t, whoever boards first sits in the aisle or window. That middle seat is likely to still be empty by the time the other one gets there. No need to save it. When we are both there, we sit on aisle and window hoping the middle seat goes empty, and then switch if someone asks for it. Seat saving is not courteous to other passengers. If you want a better seat, pay up. But this is what happens when FA’s aren’t required to get involved.
C’mon Delta……there has to be some blame you can assign to Boeing, and then you can collect from them too.
I would never seat save. If seating was important to us we would pay for the advance boarding for both of us. If one person was saving a seat in a row for 3 I would not respect the seat save if I wanted that row, I would move into the aisle for the row I don’t think I would offer tp swap seats with them either if they were sitting in the middle seat so that my husband and I would sit next to each other. If they didn’t move their stuff which was saving a seat I would pick it up and put it on the floor. I’m not confrontational but I’m not a shrinking violet either.
I think you should “call out” that Indiana hotel by name. That is a terrible policy.
That seat saving idea is how I handle the folks who full-recline in economy the moment the plane heads down the runway — sneeze and cough quite loudly. Since the recline puts their head inches away from my face, this always works quite nicely.
@gary – I’m confused how you can so arbitrarily find Ga Power not responsible here. Without a thorough understanding of the planning that went into putting all power in a single access tunnel you can’t seriously find in favor of anyone, other than DL. Unless there is a doc proving that Ga Power told ATL that it was a bad idea to put both primary and redundant power in the same passage and that ATL signed off on it anyway I’d think that Ga Power would hold a little burden from this. And using the analogy of spoiled food after a power outage is not the same thing. Maybe more like your food spoiled because of a power spike through the line that fried your fridge is more applicable.
Either way DL should have known how the airport was powered and should have had concerns about the current state. ATL should have understood the need for multiple input routes for power. And Ga Power should have made concerns of a single point of access known.
I actually surprised Delta didn’t have insurance to cover this sort of thing. I suspect they will in the future. I don’t see how GA power would pay out. They are a regulated monopoly and there is no alternative for Delta to choose. I’m assuming ATL buys power at a negotiated rate and then bills the tenants based on sqfoot lease or something. It’s not uncommon for a power purchase agreement to guarantee a service available percentage but I could also see GAPower having a force majeure clause and arguing that’s what happened and unless they have evidence of negligence that GApower would probably win. Also, we don’t know who owned the equipment it could have been owned by ATL but maybe had a Maintenance agreement with GA Power. Lots of unknowns here to try and figure real liability…
The all time best SW seat saving trick happened when I was in my window seat and granny sat down in the aisle seat and then immediately put the tray down, took the lid off her coffee and threw it away, put the creamers in her coffee spilling them on the table and leaving the creamer cups on the tray table, then sat stirring her steaming coffee while everyone filed past. Drawbridge up!