News and notes from around the interweb:
- I shared last month that I’d be speaking at ZorkFest in Las Vegas at the start of November. I’m told that tickets are available at Early Bird pricing until September 5, 2024 11:55PM Pacific.
Speaking of speaking, I’ll be at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Aerospace Summit on September 11, and at Southern Methodist University’s Texas Economic Forum on September 17.
- What a difference a year makes in demand for pilots. JetBlue is expected to pay pilots to retire. And because getting hired anywhere else means starting at the bottom of the seniority list, furloughed pilots wind up pretty hosed:
Spirit Update:
Spirit has published the final furlough numbers:
– 186 pilot furloughs
– 96 Captain downgrades.These are Spirit's first pilot furloughs since 2008. pic.twitter.com/IWYrcTiBvs
— Aero Crew News (@AeroCrewNews) August 29, 2024
- Air Canada standardizes check-in times, which is great for international – no more 90 minute cutoff at Toronto Pearson! – but not great for domestic Canada where times go up.
- Day after day there are two recurring complaints about U.S. airlines on social media that get photos: damaged checked bags, and empty overhead bins while the carrier requires customers to gate check their bags because the bins are ostensibly full. Stop the madness.
@AmericanAir second weekend in a row we’ve had to gate check bags because “there’s no room,” only to have PLENTY of overhead bin space. If there’s a legit reason to check FOUR of NINE boarding groups, just say it. Why lie and say it’s due to space when we can see that’s not true? pic.twitter.com/V0YHQDU97X
— Shannon (Melba) Dameron (@shan_dameron) August 30, 2024
- 20% bonus transferring Capital One points to Air France Flying Blue through September 29.
- Qantas contract cabin crew to receive ~ 30% wage increases under Australia’s ‘same job, same pay’ law.
AA is the gate check happiest airline. If you’re not group 1-2-3 or the very first person in line for group 4, then you can expect a gate check. The person on Twitter got lucky that this flight made it to group 5 before gate checking!
SFO/EWR could be. I was in group 5 on an AA MSP-MIA full flight Thursday morning. They kept asking people to gate check, I kept ignoring them. There was almost nobody in groups 2-4 so I had no problem putting mine in the overhead. Sometimes playing dumb and letting others volunteer is the best solution.
For the record, the libertarian that I am rejects the government interfering with wages negotiated between consenting parties. I’m interested to see how the “same job, same pay” law works for Aussies. It does take a swipe potentially at seniority-based pay. The problem is that, while some areas have obvious arguments where senior staff are not doing the same job as newer hires (I’d think senior pilots could argue this), how do you argue a FA with 2 years isn’t doing the same job as one with 20 years (assuming the 20 year FA isn’t purser, etc.)?
The ramifications across fields could be amazing. Is a teacher with 5 years not doing the same job as one with 25? How do you justify seniority-based pay in so many fields?
You just don’t get it. The major reason it takes SO long to get passengers both on and off the aircraft is because of all the sh*t they carry with them.
To make it worse, if there’s an emergency and rapid evacuation is required the stupid pax think “Oh no, I have to get my luggage.” Check your bags and board with the absolute minimum – a book – your medications and perhaps, just perhaps a nice tip for the flight attendants.
@JimThuirber … +1 . Perceptive .
@drrichard … If do not have a beard , cannot “play dumb” , because higher IQ can be presentable .
If have a beard , can “play dumb” with , because beards are dumb and not gentlemanly .
Too many pilots , too many airlines , too many passengers , enough already .
just perhaps a nice tip for the flight attendants.” Are FA’s on any airline allowed to accept tips?
@Gary – I have to admit that I’m stumped by the continual back-and-forth of airlines being desperate for pilots and dumping them like a crazy ex. I’d love to read how this situation can be and you’re good at analysis on a subject like this.
@Christian – they were pretty desperate for pilots coming out of the pandemic
– they paid pilots to retire early
– they weren’t training pilots
– it’s expensive and time-consuming to become one, so people weren’t training for it during the slump in travel
– and travel was coming back faster than they’d planned for
So they hired as quickly as they could, spent a lot of money on recruiting and training and raises and signing bonuses. And then they found that travel demand wasn’t robust enough to keep up, *because everyone else was doing it too*.
Re: Qantas. So seniority has no point? I would recommend a round of layoffs to take out the old crones and cut pay for everyone.
Lying to passengers is part of the airline employee culture of the USA. Some USA airlines do it more and other airlines do it less but all lie some of the time. American Airlines seeming likes to lie about how full the overhead bins are, probably to get the airplanes out early or on time.
This has been the story of airlines since deregulation. Airlines lower fares to absurd levels which stimulates all kind of demand which causes airlines to buy lots of planes and needs pilots to fly those planes. Then that enables pilots and flight attendants to a lesser extent to demand higher wages. The crappy fares cause big loses (albeit credit card income insulates the US4 for now), airlines defer deliveries, cut schedules and park planes. Then airlines start firing crew and want wage concessions. Rinse and repeat. No one ever seems to learn.