Flight Attendants Union Slams Southwest For Bringing Back Booze [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Southwest flight attendant’s union slams airline for bringing back alcohol on board starting February 16. Ironically “disturbances on American and Southwest [which haven’t been serving in coach] have been higher than on Delta and United during the pandemic, perhaps in part due to their strict no alcohol policy, which may have encouraged more passengers to bring their own alcohol onboard” or at least pre-game.
  • East Hampton decided to close its commercial airport, and re-open almost immediately as a private airport. This had the benefit of reducing noise in the area (fewer flights) while not angering frequent billionaire visitors who would have sued (because they have private jets). The FAA says ‘no way’ to the plan and by the way it seems to be about pocketing $10 million from the airport, in part attributable to pandemic relief.

  • Why business travel needs to return: Making an ask is much more effective in person versus over Zoom, and the effect is much bigger than people estimate. “Should I Ask Over Zoom, Phone, Email, or In-Person? Communication Channel and Predicted Versus Actual Compliance:”

  • San Francisco’s transit system kept its restrooms closed for twenty years, because 9/11. And you wonder travelers still take off their shoes and surrender bottled water at airport security.

  • Travel meme.

  • Chicago O’Hare has a bit of practice at this.

About Gary Leff

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 »

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Comments

  1. There is a growing realization that covid policies – including alcohol policies on AA and WN – have done nothing to improve health or limit disease but created more social ill-will.
    Unions need to be told that they get paid by the companies that will do what they need to protect the company’s interests. It is doubtful that government, esp. the current US administration, will yield to science or the common sense that is beginning to sweep across other countries esp. Europe.

    A return to travel normalcy requires rejecting unproven policies and giving business and international travel what it needs to book w/ confidence.

  5. Hey, don’t dump on the midwest. They have fewer needles and less human feces on the sidewalk than many more hip, upscale urban centers. 🙂

  6. Meanwhile Texas closed down for a week because they got 3 inches of snow. Rhode Island got 18 to 24 Saturday January 29th and everyone was open on Sunday after that blizzard

  7. So many workers including some teachers, most Federal and state employees, and even many in the private sector are fighting tooth and nail not to return to normal work loads. They want the same pay but with covid reduced work level. But its time to get back to normal. Flight attendants are front and center in their desire to not return to providing food and beverage service. At this point I think most of them have “no service” so engrained in their attitude that they are beyond retraining or redemption. Companies should have supervisors secretly fly and observe the flight crews and over the course of a year all of those that do not provide excellent service should be canned.

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