Saturday’s Delta flight from Seattle to Kona, Hawaii – Delta 565 – was delayed over 9 hours and then – as the flight boarded – the airline realized that one of the pilots was not qualified to operate the flight, as relayed to passengers by the gate agent. It took an overnight – another 8 hours – before passengers were able to fly.
I’ve had passengers tell me they’ve arrived at their boarding gate in Charlotte more than 15 minutes to departure only to find their boarding door closed. And I’m told by employees on the ground there that at least some managers are enforcing 20 minute door closes when no more passengers are boarding (even if checked-in passengers haven’t yet boarded).
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.
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.
According to Alaska Airlines employees determine subjectively what they consider appropriate given their own biases, prejudices, and beliefs. And I can actually accept that because Alaska underscores that “bare feet are never acceptable” and no statement has ever been more true in the history of aviation.
Alaska finally confirms “Alaska does not have a dress code policy that would prohibit this guest’s attire.” So they agree with me – nothing wrong with how this passenger was dressed, which means their non-policy policy is to blame.
We know know that the passenger was former NFL player Brendan Langley (who was a third round draft pick as a cornerback by the Denver Broncos in 2017). He currently plays for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League. Langley was arrested and charged with assault. He appears to have swung first, at least based on available footage.
The employee should have de-escalated, not exacerbated the incident, and shouldn’t have engaged in the brawl beyond defending himself. He was employed by United Airlines subsidiary United Ground Express and has been terminated.
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.
This is a little bit insane. In 2015 Austin entered into a 30 year lease so that a private company could build a second airport terminal. The ‘South Terminal’ also has two 5 year extension options built into the lease. But the city wants to use eminent domain to terminate the lease, because it now prefers to expand the main terminal.
They’ve offered to compensate the builders less than $2 million for a project that cost as much as $20 million, while the city teaches every business it would be dumb to enter into a lease on city property because no deal with Austin is guaranteed.
All that’s ‘different’ to make this is a ‘shuttle service’ is that the 11:50 p.m. Air France departure from New York and 7:35 p.m. departure from Paris will operate on Friday and Saturday nights, which they do not now. Let’s see which travel media get tripped up by just ‘publishing the press release.’
Flight attendants rearrange the beverage carts they’re given in order to serve customers efficiently as they move down the aisle. That’s almost a requirement to provide beverage service. American Airlines is now telling flight attendants that when they do this, they must also restore beverage carts to their original organization prior to the end of the flight.
The airline says that if they do not do this, caterers won’t “salvage and recycle products for future flights.” They want flight attendants, pressed for time and who are supposed to be providing service to customers, organizing things for the benefit of caterers who are on the ground.
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 »
