Category Archives for Airlines.
The CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce, has been forced to step down amidst numerous scandals. But he’s leaving just two months earlier than planned, and pocketing big bonuses on the way out the door.
Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Brady Byrnes told cabin crew that during the second quarter FA4 and FA0 delays were “down 25%” compared to the airline’s goals, and that this was responsible for “point five” of the carrier’s overall improvement in D0, exact on-time departures.
Byrnes noted that not only are flight attendants showing up and doing their jobs (reduced FA0 and FA4 delays), but that the tools and procedural changes they’ve made are helping too.
At an employee ‘Crew News’ question and answer session last week, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, Senior Vice President of Network Planning Brian Znotins was asked about additional international announcements beyond new routes just announced.
He really didn’t want to give up his seat with his wife – they had split up their stuff optimized for travel together, for instance they planned to watch shows together on his laptop. But the parents were “frantic” over their daughter sitting alone.
She was… 16.
Delta Air Lines flight 194 form Atlanta to Barcelona turned around Friday night after a passenger let loose diarrhea throughout the aircraft. The Airbus A350 was two hours into its flight to Spain when a pilot told air traffic control about a “biohazard issue” that necessitated an immediate u-turn.
The flight was over Virginia when the airline told the pilots to turn back. Passengers returned to Atlanta and waited while Delta cleaned the aircraft and found a new crew.
While done under the guise of the environment, it’s really protectionism for the national carrier whose largest owner is the French government – and it’s a move that is actually bad for the environment.
It begins with Saturday’s 4 p.m. American Airlines flight 2333 from Phoenix to Newark which was delayed overnight, with a new 6 a.m. Sunday departure time, after confusion over seat assignments on board led to a group of passengers being removed from the aircraft. Ultimately everyone was deplaned as part of the passenger removal – a common technique post the United Airlines David Dao beating – as a way of avoiding confrontation with a single passenger.
Thursday night’s Philadelphia – London Heathrow flight 728 became a day long journey to nowhere all day Friday as the aircraft, first delayed for three hours, finally took off in the wee hours of Friday morning before making it nearly halfway over the Atlantic… and turning around.
A Delta Air Lines passenger tracked down the noise cancelling headphones he left on a flight at an employee’s house. The airline says the employee is no longer working for them. Mat Krantz left the headphones behind when he got off of a flight from Atlanta to Raleigh. He realized right away that they were still on board as soon as he’d exited the jet bridge, but he wasn’t allowed back on board to retrieve them. He filed a report with the airline and airport, and he tracked the headphones with the help of an Apple AirTag which was attached to the headphones’ case. The man expected the headphones to turn up at lost and found, but the next day they showed at… “a random home in Raleigh.” His wife talked him out of going…
A business class passenger on an American Airlines flight to Tokyo on Thursday boarded and found blood-stained women’s underwear at their seat. On a flight departing Tokyo I’d expect outstanding cleaning. But even departing the U.S., we’re talking about a “Flagship” international premium flight. The standard of cleaning, based on this passenger’s account, is appalling.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
