The 6 year old unaccompanied minor that Spirit Airlines sent to the wrong airport – to Orlando instead of Fort Myers, Florida – isn’t the only minor flown to the wrong place by a U.S. airline this holiday season.
It was, naturally, another Florida flight. The 16 year old was flying from Tampa to Cleveland and wound up in San Juan on December 22.
An American Airlines flight from Rio de Janeiro to Miami on Saturday experienced a disturbance prior to departure involving a passenger who had a meltdown. The incident, captured on camera, showed the man screaming in Spanish, claiming he was being killed.
Crew members and passengers intervened, restraining the man and attempting to use duct tape to secure him. The man yells “help” and “they’re killing me” in Spanish, while a passenger attempts to use duct tape on his mouth.
If a single Airbus A320 was misjudged by a single truck driver or crane operator, acting alone, we could chalk that up to that’s what insurance is for. But these aren’t – or at least shouldn’t be – operations planned by a single individual. Even a 34 year old narrowbody aircraft fuselage headed to the boneyard is worth measuring for height, and checking the heights of bridges along the planned route before ploughing ahead.
A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight from Washington DC to Dallas snapped a photo of an entire row of seats blocked off using bags of donuts. The passenger who did it wasn’t even seated in the row but nearby, saving those seats for their family.
Flight attendant unions are pushing for legal prohibitions in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan. KLM often makes announcements against photographing crewmembers even though actual rules are less clear – like many airlines saying that only ‘personal’ photos and videos may be taken, though that’s not clearly defined.
The U.S. could sure benefit from airline competition measures proposed for Argentina. Foreign competition alone isn’t a panacea – government airports collude with airports to block access in the most desirable places and government slot controls block new entrants to congested airports as well – but we’d be far better off with both Ryanair and Singapore Airlines providing options to consumers for both cheaper and improved experiences in the air.
After an hours-long mechanical delay, United Airlines cancelled flight 997 from Accra, Ghana to Washington Dulles on Thursday. Customer baggage was offloaded and returned. Passengers were told to return the next day, but were not provided with hotels for the night.
Friday night, another mechanical delay for this flight. And another eventual cancellation. Military was called in. The airline announced that no hotel rooms would be provided, and this time luggage wasn’t returned.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
New Years Day the clock resets on a number of benefits, and the calendar forces me to make a number of moves. I’ll be sitting on my couch with a cup of coffee early in the morning doing a number of rewards errands, before heading to the airport for a new year of travel.
Here’s my checklist for 7 tasks I’ll accomplish on New Years Day.
Vasu Raja, American Airlines Chief Commercial Officer, appeared on the airline’s podcast for employees and laid out what he sees as their strengths and plans they’ll be pushing forward on.
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 »
