Airlines

Category Archives for Airlines.

Airline Bans Family After Toddler Drops Chips On Floor, Spits Up After Flight

by Gary Leff

Dec 30 2022

Airline JSX has banned a family from travel, cancelling the return portion of their trip, after their toddler “dropped some chips on the ground” and then threw up as they were deplaning the Embraer-145 aircraft. If anyone is looking for a recommendation for the least family friendly airline, fly @flyjsx ! They canceled our return flight and banned us from the airline because my toddler dropped some chips on the ground and my baby spit up on our way out. — [Redacted] December 25, 2022 This has proven highly contentious. Reactions from some travelers has been to applaud the airline, and say they’re more likely to fly JSX – the scheduled charter service that flies to and from private terminals – while others are appalled at cancelling a family’s travel plans because of something that…

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Southwest Extends Companion Pass, Status-Qualifying Year Through January

by Gary Leff

Dec 30 2022

With the virtual shutdown of Southwest Airlines for a week, customers weren’t able to fly, and that means they weren’t able to take those last trips that would have earned their status for 2023 or taken advantage of their soon-to-expire companion passes. So Southwest is giving members one extra month to qualify for status and giving members with December 31, 2022-expiring companion passes an extra month (January 2023) to use those companion passes.

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A Top Airline Executive Explains The Southwest Airlines Meltdown

by Gary Leff

Dec 28 2022

Southwest’s IT systems lag other airlines. Their phone systems can’t handle the load. And recovery from a situation where crew are out of place, where the airline doesn’t always even know where crew are, and where flight schedules and staffing have to be rebuilt manually is not only nearly impossible – it’s made harder by operational know-how with a hole in it coming out of the pandemic.

Add on that a lot of people were paid to retire early in 2020. Southwest hired about 16,000 people in 2022. Nearly 20% of their workforce is brand new this year. A lot of that is flight attendants, and other front line employees. But it’s ops people too.

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Police Threaten To Arrest Stranded Southwest Airlines Passengers Waiting In Long Lines

by Gary Leff

Dec 28 2022

Police threatened to arrest stranded Southwest Airlines passengers if they didn’t leave the gate area. In the video, the officer incorrectly claims that since their flight was cancelled they have no ticket and are therefore “trespassing.” “If your ticket was cancelled, you no longer have a ticket. You understand that, right?”

According to the officer, “Southwest is calling us” so they’re responding to the airline calling the police on their customers. I certainly feel for the overwhelmed employees, but that’s a bad look.

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New York Passengers Engage In Game Theory, Take Airline For $1100

by Gary Leff

airline ticket
Dec 28 2022

Denied boarding compensation is a cooperation game. As long as everyone sticks together, the total compensation amount will be higher. But as the compensation offer goes up the incentive for a given passenger to defect gets greater and greater.

TV writer Mike Drucker observed this in action, and watched passengers in New York stick together, as the airline’s offer went up and up.

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Why The Southwest Airlines Carnage Happened, And What The Airline Will Pay For

by Gary Leff

southwest plane
Dec 28 2022

Southwest Airlines has faced an operational disaster of unprecedented proportions, cancelling over 60% of its flights every day and continuing to do so. They are likely displacing a quarter million passengers per day and doing so for about a week.

The Southwest Airlines CEO has broken his silence. There’s now a page on their website committing to reimburse passenger expenses. And there are hints at what really went wrong.

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