Free Speech Only Matters When We Protect Ideas We Hate: Marriott CEO’s Stand for Inclusiveness

by Gary Leff

outside marriott hotel
Sep 29 2017

Recently there have been calls for Marriott to abrogate a meeting contract with a group that the Southern Povery Law Center calls an anti-Muslim hate organization. (Let’s leave aside that the Southern Poverty Law Center considers a wide range of organizations hate groups, not just what most people think the phrase means.)

While Marriott is a private business and chooses with whom to book meetings, Marriott’s CEO Arne Sorenson says they shouldn’t be in the business of vetting the messages of each group that books a meeting.

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FIRST LOOK: What American’s New Tightest Ever Coach Seats Are Really Like

by Gary Leff

Sep 28 2017

American Airlines is introducing 30 inch pitch coach seating — that’s the distance from seat back to seat back — on their new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, and they’ll be retrofitting their existing 737s to match so they can squeeze more seats onto the aircraft.

They argue the seats will give passengers as much personal space as they have today, even though seats are closer together. And they displayed the seats publicly for the first time today.

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United’s Seven 747 Farewell Flights to Nowhere

by Gary Leff

Sep 28 2017

The Boeing 747 went into commercial service in 1970. It was a bet the company move for Boeing in collaboration with Pan Am. The plane became known as the ‘Queen of the Sky’ and there’s still something magical about climbing the staircase to its upper deck.

United’s 747s have a storied history. After other US airlines retired the bird that’s too costly to fly in many cases unless close to full, and that’s no longer the biggest jetliner in the world at a time when the trend is to buy smaller planes and fly point-to-point or offer more frequencies, United continued to fly the aircraft.

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Etihad Has a New CEO and He Built London Heathrow Terminal 5

by Gary Leff

people boarding from tarmac
Sep 28 2017

Gulf air was de-emphasizing its Abu Dhabi hub an the ruling family there decided to start its own airline. They hired James Hogan to run it. Hogan had been the CEO of Gulf Air. So his airline strategy secured himself a new job.

He built a major Gulf player, but also a loss-maker — while the airline certainly invested in passenger experience, its the carrier’s investments in airlines around the world that drove red ink and ultimately led to his departure.

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Southwest Offers Second Worst Apology Ever After Passenger Dragging Incident

by Gary Leff

southwest plane
Sep 27 2017

Southwest airlines is apologizing to the passenger pulled of a plane by police after objecting to an emotional support animal onboard and it may be the second worst apology I’ve ever seen.

Southwest says, “Our Flight Crew made repeated attempts to explain the situation to the Customer, however, she refused to deplane and law enforcement became involved.”

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