News and notes from around the interweb:
- The TSA chose Tuesday’s 9/11 anniversary to debut a new slogan.
- Atlanta airport names the deputy general manager of New York JFK as its new general manager. Because when you want operational excellence, you look to JFK. And when you want to remove the stain of federal corruption investigations, you look to an executive that thrived under the Port Authority of New York New Jersey, natch.
- Turkish Airlines will keep a premium cabin on its narrowbodies instead of going with miserable European-style business class, coach seats with blocked middles.
- Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said he could win the Presidency in 2020, either way he’s certainly good at keeping us signing up for credit cards and earning Ultimate Rewards points. Meanwhile Matthew Klint flew United with Donald Trump, Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle,
[P]assengers left them alone during the flight. No one came up and asked for pictures or read them the riot act. They just watched movies. United serves a complimentary meal in EconomyPlus and Kimberly ordered chicken teriyaki with a glass of chardonnay. Donald ordered just a Coke Zero “in a can” and ate some food he had brought onboard from Saison in the terminal … Both were annoyed that their seat would not recline, the problem of sitting in front of an exit row.
- British Airways will move to DO & CO catering at London Heathrow starting in 2020. When they announced their new business class catering they presented DO & CO meals, but they were faking it — it turns out that only New York and Chicago were getting that. We don’t know what level of meal investment BA will make when this happens in two years, but the caterer generally has a strong reputation (maybe not in South Korea). Still, wait and see what BA actually serves on board.
- The President of Sri Lanka does his best Jerry Seinfeld impression to complain about his national airline’s nuts (HT: One Mile at a Time)Speaking to a group of farmers in Southern Sri Lanka, he shared “When I returned from Nepal, they served some cashew nuts on the plane [that], let alone humans, even dogs can’t eat, who approves these things?.. Who approved the cashew? Who is responsible for this?”
I mean who are these people? It’s a good thing he didn’t try to rent a car when he arrived.
- Why the so-called ‘Fair Fees Act’ makes air travel more expensive. I explain, along with experts like Bob Poole from the Reason Foundation.
Watch “What’s The Deal With Airplane Peanuts?” on YouTube
https://youtu.be/dZF1SJW7JFw
And who proposes such silly, anti-consumer regulations? Oh it must be Trump and those evil Republicans, right? Nope!
Everyone flies — including congressmen — so everyone thinks they’re an expert on the airline industry. The points made in the Free Skies video are correct: regulating fees will drive up the cost of travel, dramatically hurt the ultra low cost carriers, and probably increase the profitability of the legacy carriers.
If you wanted to be a contrarian, though, it’s theoretically possible that this legislation would increase the happiness of the people who still will fly. Yes, fewer trips would likely be taken, but the folks who still fly will likely enjoy their experiences a bit more. Sure, they will “overpay” for their transportation — and many of them will get services that they don’t really “need” — but they might like not being nickeled and dimed. Of course, there could still be unintended consequences that would make the experience worse. Like instead of high change fees, the airlines would likely make most fares completely non-refundable.
Gary, can’t hear your part at all. The sound levels dramatically drop when you are speaking.