News and notes from around the interweb:
- Well, American says they want to become more premium, like United and Delta…. (also ‘when a regional carrier operates for more than one airline, mistakes happen’).
When you’re on an @AmericanAir and the flight attendant is wearing a United uniform… I questioned whether I was on the right plane… pic.twitter.com/C3UIhsOIaf
— Dustin DuBois (@DustinDuBois) March 25, 2025
- Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant Captured On Camera Evacuating Plane Via Emegency Slide With Her Carry-On
- In 2018, Austin airport got the first robot coffee machines that could be controlled via app. They made really nice coffee. And you could order them from your phone while in line at security and pick up your coffee as you walked by. There were a couple of them at the airport.
Local startup Briggo was acquired by Costa Coffee in 2020, which itself had been acquired by Coca-Cola in 2019. And Costa Coffee is getting out of the robotic coffee machine business. So these machines have, very sadly, been pulled from the airport. A genuine loss!
- National Car Rental brings back One Two Free promotion (registration required) earn a free day every two eligible Midsize or larger rentals of at least two consecutive days between April 1 and June 22, 2025.
- Three Trainee Pilots For Dutch Flag Carrier KLM Arrested On Arson Charges at Airline’s Flight Academy
- Just deliver it already!!!
First A321xlr @AmericanAir n300yn #american #aitulines by Airbus in Hamburg pic.twitter.com/QRnE3iVmdz
— Tobi (@Tobias_Gudat) March 25, 2025
- United crew masquerades as Southwest?
A belated thank you to the @united flight crew on UA 219 ORD-HON on Feb. 15 who made us feel like honeymooners on our 25th anniversary vacation! I believe it was Lisa who was the flight attendant who led the celebration! United was truly the friendly skies! pic.twitter.com/ZmzvceCpkZ
— Edward Cardenas (@elcardenas) March 25, 2025
- Arkia Israeli Airlines is introducing business class (18 lie flat seats) on New York JFK – Tel Aviv starting May 14 with an Airbus A330-200.
- Building up the Cancun hub and Punta Cana focus city with Saturday-only service.
Big one for OKC as this represents their only international flight.
American also announces 3 domestic routes:
• Charlotte (CLT) to Aspen (ASE)
• Los Angeles (LAX) to Des Moines (DSM)
• Phoenix (PHX) to Little Rock (LIT)— Ishrion Aviation (@IshrionA) March 26, 2025
- HotelTonight now earns 10% back in Airbnb credit Very different use cases and Airbnb owns them actually which I always thought was an odd acquisition.
- Amtrak Pulls ‘Horizon’ Cars From Service After Discovering Corrosion (HT: Nate)
The largest impact will be on the Cascades route, which has only one other alternative set of equipment. This means that most runs will need to be replaced with buses.
The Horizon cars were built by Bombardier between 1988 and 1990 to supplement the Amfleet I fleet.
On AA’s long-awaited a321LXRs, I’m with you, Gary! Just deliver it! C’mon!
On the ‘United’ flight attendant aboard American Airlines, as Gary suggested, it probably was a regional subsidiary, like Republic Airways, which operates for American Eagle, Delta Connection, and United Express, so maybe she came from one flight to another and that was the uniform available. Definitely would cause me to do a double-take.
On Amtrak, I love me some choo-choo news, though I wish it were better updates. For the NE corridor, they really need to get the NextGen Acela cars running. Was supposed to be by Spring 2025… even then, 160 mph is not a Shinkansen, but we’ll take whatever we can get!
Do regional FAs work/represent different airlines? If so presumably this FA forget which airline she’d be representing that day? Or is it possible for a particularly regional flight attendant to work two regionals/two jobs? And she mixed up which one she was working for that day.
Wouldn’t flight attendants working for regional carriers like Republic “specialize” in flying for AA, DL, or UA regional flights? Otherwise they would need three sets of uniforms. Service standards and procedures would be somewhat different too. For instance, think of inflight announcements and thanking elite passengers by referencing FF tiers. It would be confusing to switch back and forth between AA and UA flights, although if Republic only had a UA-Specialist FA available with a UA uniform, that would be better than delaying/canceling the flight.
A regional pilot told me a trick he uses is to announce “welcome to Flight 1234 operated by (name of his employer).”
This leaves out the name of the airline/brand, ensuring ZERO chance he will mistakenly give out the wrong name.
Could they have been deadheading? A very accurate term for many airline employees.
@Craig Jones — Oh, come now, Craig.
While I have plenty of bones to pick with the leadership of these mega-corps, namely when they break passengers’ trust with bad policies, I don’t often fault the crews or other front-line workers, because, as we should know, they are purposely disempowered by their employers and often underpaid, too.
So, no, the crews aren’t dead-heads, unless they happened to also be fans of Jerry Garcia–and, in that case, I’d prefer Casey Jones, ‘driving that train’…
My guess is she was scheduled to do a UA branded regional flight, and they had to shift her to that flight due to staffing issues (e.g., people calling off).
A F/A on a regional told me that in general, Their uniforms are generic to all the airlines but I forgot what airline he told me where they have to wear a different uniform when working that specific airline. I’m sure when it comes in-ops they take whoever they can.
Back in the day when I was a flight attendant, I was supposed to deadline and layover and I wore my street clothes and they told me I had to work the flight. I had my uniform but there wasn’t time to change so I worked in my regular clothes. Most comfortable working trip.
Although it may be against the rules to carry any luggage while evacuating by the slides (are rules for flight attendants different?), I would give the Southwest flight attendant a break. She had a shoulder bag, not a roller bag (watching cabin crews arrive at the gate has let me observe that most have a shoulder bag and a roller bag.) Because there isn’t a place to carry a lot of stuff in their uniform, they may carry a lot of their personal items like phones, identification, credit cards and money in their shoulder bags. Not heavy stuff and not a situation likely to rip the slide. As a passenger, I have more choices so I have a waist bag attached to me at all times and additional items, such as meds, in my jacket. Those things would go with me except in the direst of circumstances. She probably carried enough to work the next flight even if the roller bag was not brought out in a timely manner (from an aircraft that may have not needed to be slide evacuated.) If she didn’t have enough to work the next flight, maybe that flight would have to be canceled.
I always thought/knew regionals only worked for one “brand.” Is that not true? The planes are unique of course, sometimes TA/GAs are shared? Maybe someone can do a deep dive into this.