News and notes from around the interweb:
- British Airways increasing minimum allowable connection time within Terminal 5 at London Heathrow by 15 minutes Heathrow remains a mess.
- Aeroflot Pilot Involved in 2019 Crash Landing That Killed 41 People Sentenced to Six Years in a Russian Penal Colony
- Alaska Airlines opens renovated concourse D lounge in Seattle
- New Singapore Airlines long haul business class champagne
- Day after day it’s the interiors of Delta planes that are getting shamed in social media, so much more than I see with other airlines. That did not used to be the case.
Hi @Delta my monitor is falling off the bone 😩🥴 pic.twitter.com/LSV6EaHSB1
— Rosé Rome 🍾 (@PhotosByRome) June 20, 2023
- Pilot pay vs. inflation. Pilots are earning more without becoming more productive. Those wage increases can be attributed to pilot shortages, driven by the high cost imposed by regulation on becoming a pilot. Dues paid to ALPA which supported lobbying have paid big dividends.
Pilot Pay Charts vs CPI from 2010 to 2023. Looks like pilots are doing well even in times of high inflation. Great time to be or become an airline pilot in the US.
Many quality of life improvements – more rest, schedule flexibility, higher retirement contributions – life is good! pic.twitter.com/NbAI6l7Ozr— Kit Darby (@KitDarby) June 19, 2023
I fly inbound to LHR relatively frequently, and have done for some years. I will tell anyone who will listen that the shortest connection time I would accept is 3 hours, with 4 being much better. Accepting 2 hours is setting yourself up for tears…
An example of privatization where the traveler is not the customer.
Bravo! I took four BA flights in May, and only the last one arrived on time. Luckily, my bags arrived at each end. One additional comment: Don’t ever fly out of London City Airport. I didn’t have to transfer from Heathrow which I would never have accepted, but since I was in London, and didn’t know anything about the airport, I did accept it for an intra-European flight. I will not make that mistake again.
Worst of all is BA’s spiteful treatment of latecomers at T5. For example if there’s a hold-up at BA check-in and you get to security less than 35 minutes ahead of the supposed departure time, BA reckons that’s your fault and you’ll be offloaded. Computer-says-no. Even if boarding hasn’t started or there’s no plane at the gate.
See the BA web page https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/airport-information/london-heathrow-airport/heathrow-t5
“You must enter airport security at least 35 minutes before your flight departs.”
I agree with Woofie, and would apply that to AMS as well as LHR T5. Since the pandemic, connections for flyers and their luggage have been tough, and it’s not getting better yet. Security screening by at T5 is especially slow.
At least LHR has low passenger fees. Oh wait…
@gary, Where in the article about BA does it say they “declare failure”?
It doesn’t!
Do you really need misleading, click bait, headers for people to read it?
inability to deliver timely connections at heathrow is a… failure.
changing minimum connection time recognizes this.
As always happens, the ability to extract non-market wages will eventually come back to hurt the pilots, as it will speed up the development of one-pilot flight decks. Of course, this probably won’t hurt many who currently hold these jobs.
We recently flew to London on BA and Heathrow was a nightmare. We had to run for our connections because the terminals are so far away from each other and required two trains to get to our departure terminal. We barely made it to our gate. We only had an hour between flights which BA deemed legal. Every one of our flights on BA left late and arrived late. I will never fly with them again.
With that attitude applied consistently you will not be flying anywhere soon. Enjoy staying at home!
If you go through a Travel Agent, they can book a flight that has a longer layover. There is a reason to pay the Travel Agent’s fee. If you get stuck somewhere, they are the ones that help you…not an online booking service. Remember, you get what you pay for.
I just arrived at T5 fast track security 30 mins before departure and was denied entry because of the 35 min rule, even though I would have reached the gate in time. The cost of putting me on the next flight was £231! It took 30 mins to rebook me, and a supervisor behaved as if the failure of their card machines were someone else’s fault. Now the later flight is delayed but no refund for that! So they can be 20 mins late but we can’t be 5 mins late (but not at the the gate). Is that all legal?