Issues

Boeing just announced that it sold 15 of its 787 jumbo jets to Virgin Atlantic. Not only are the new planes 27% percent more fuel efficient than the Airbus A340-300 aircraft it will replace, but Boeing has also announced plans to try to run their plans on bio-fuel. These would be the first major jets to run on bio-fuel, and mark a very serious step towards reducing carbon emissions from flying.

I posted a while back on how Emirates Airlines was going to allow cellphones on planes, and that the FCC was considering allowing flights on US planes. Well, they said no.

The FCC has determined that widespread cellphone usage in the air might jam cellphone use on the ground. They cited “insufficient technical information”, as their main reason for blocking the phones. Airphones, the ones in the seatbacks, use a different frequency than cellphones, and therefore don’t have this problem.

Additionally, the FCC cited a significant number of complaints about the idea of the person next to them chatting for 3 hours. Although, if wi-fi is accessiblity on flights, they may still have to deal with their neighbor talking on Skype for a few hours.

The FCC has said their decision is not permanent, and they are still gathering technical information on the situation.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that “airlines admit they do pay more attention to consumer complaints if travelers send them to the DOT, which categorizes and tallies complaints and publishes monthly rankings of airline performance.”

This is confirmed by a senior Transportation official, who said “We’re more than just a statistics- capturing office. Airlines are very sensitive to the complaints the department receives.”

Jim Ruppel, vice president of customer relations for Southwest echoed the assertion, he says they pay “huge attention” to internal reports based on DOT complaint data.

Send your complaints to: airconsumer@dot.gov

Ryanair has announced it will begin to block Lastminute.com, Ebookers, Flights Direct and Global Holidays from selling tickets on its airline. Apparently, Ryanair believes that these companies have been overcharging passengers by as much as 133 percent and offering misleading information on everything from terms and conditions to check-in times.

Lastminute.com director John Bevan insisted that the company provided competitive prices and did not mislead any of its customers. He also pointed out that his company includes taxation costs at the beginning of the booking process, while Ryanair includes them at the end.

Regardless of who is right and wrong, the moral of the story is, if you don’t shop around online, there is a strong chance you will pay too much.

Two baggage handlers used employee IDs to bring 13 handguns, an assault rifle, and 8 pounds of marijuana on a Florida flight to Puerto Rico. The two men were arrested getting off the flight after an anonymous tip was received by the Orlando Police Department.

The two men were not connected to any terrorist plot, but rather were a part of a weapons and drug trafficking scheme. However, the security breach did raise concerns about background checks on airport employees.

At least you generally can’t on the major carriers.

Scott McCartney, in his The Middle Seat column What Frequent-Flier Miles Really Get You writes that he recently checked available award seats on two dozen routes for several 2007 travel dates. Bottom line is that Delta and US Air redemptions tended to require more miles than other carriers–if seats were available at all.

This spot check on availability, while far from a comprehensive inventory, does show what consumers are up against when trying to score seats. In recent years, more miles have been chasing fewer seats. A resurgence of fare-paying customers has left fewer seats empty, yet there are more miles in circulation because airlines have found selling miles to credit-card companies can be lucrative.

Craig Bruya of Seattle tried unsuccessfully last week to find two business-class seats on United to Paris for a late April trip at United’s 80,000-mile “saver” price level. Curious, he looked for such seats all the way to the end of November and found none.

If “there isn’t a single open seat, then they really don’t have a ’saver’ program,” says Mr. Bruya, who ended up paying United 360,000 miles for two business-class tickets.

Five of the big six international carriers now have seat-availability calendars posted online that can help users spot cheap seats. Delta, the lone holdout, promises a calendar within a “few weeks.”…Calendars also can make it painfully apparent how little availability there is. For a Seattle-London trip checked on Feb. 22, US Airways had no seats at its lowest mileage level between April 30 and Nov. 23 — almost a seven-month drought.

One handy tip McCarney mentions is to “check for discounted business-class and first-class tickets, which sometimes can be better values and even lower-priced than unrestricted coach tickets.”

As a counter-point, I was able just an hour ago to redeem 2 “saver” seats on Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air to Sun Valley Idaho with less than 3 months notice for a meager 20,000 miles a ticket. Savings: $700.00. Maybe that will explain to UAL why I stopped using their United Visa and switched to an Alaska Charge card 5 years ago. I defected when first-class upgrades became almost impossible on UAL…

On Friday, the Phoenix airport introduced a new scanner technology that allows security workers to see through people’s clothes and show body definition with a level of clarity not before seen. So much so, that the TSA adjusted the scanners so that body pictures can be blurred in certain areas while detecting.

If this idea of security workers seeing you naked makes you uncomfortable don’t worry. The new screening device is only being used as a secondary measure for those who fail standard screening with a metal detector, and opt to be scanned by the device instead of a pat-down search.

In order to be scanned passengers stand in front of a closet-sized X-ray with palms facing out, and then turn around. The process only takes about one minute. If the trial is successful, the TSA hopes to introduces them to LAX and JFK, the two busiest airports in the country, in an effort to speed up security sceening.

The storms on the East Coast and at JFK that led to a series of multi-hour delays and a quarter of JetBlue’s flights being canceled will ultimately cost the airline approximately 30 million dollars in refunds, vouchers, and overtime crews. The additional impact it may have on its customer base is another story. As I mentioned yesterday, JetBlue launched a “Bill of Rights” for customers, in order to deal with this PR fiasco.

Among the provisions: a $100 voucher for departure delays greater than three hours, which rises to the equivalent of your fare after four hours. $25 dollars for an arrival delay greater than 30 minutes. A full refund plus an equivalent voucher for any flights canceled within 12 hours of the departure time.

I wish Delta had this when I flew last year. I’d have at least $1000 worth a vouchers.

President Bush has decided he doesn’t want you paying a 7.5 percent federal tax surcharge when buy a plane ticket anymore. The money has been going towards paying for air-traffic control at our nation’s airports. In place of the ticket taxes, the planes themselves will be charged every time they fly, spreading more of the cost out onto cargo planes, private planes, and corporate jets.

JetBlue just had a very bad weekend. A Valentine’s Day storm forced the airline to cancel nearly a quarter of its flights this weekend. Some passengers were forced to spend up to ten hours waiting on the runway. Having spent a meager four hours on a runway this past summer, I can tell you that ten hours on the tarmac is probably what hell is like. Many of these planes ran out of food, heat, and clean toilets.

In lieu of this PR debacle, JetBlue’s CEO David Neeleman is introducing a self-imposed passenger’s “Bill of Rights” requiring the airline to impose penalties on itself and offer “major rewards” to customers who are significantly inconvenienced.

Rep. Michael Thompson, a California Democrat, is seizing on this opportunity to introduce a similar bill to Congress. The bill will require airlines to compensate passengers for delays, cancelations, lost luggage, etc. A similar attempt was made in 1999, following a major storm in Detroit, but the airline industry adopted voluntary customer service initiatives and the matter was dropped. The new bill appears more rigid and penalizing, and includes a cap on the amount of time passengers can spend on the tarmac.

The Air Transport Assocation has come out strongly against the bill, fearing that inflexible large scale standards might do more harm than good.

The personal air purifier unit called the Fresh Air Buddy, sold by EcoQuest International has suspended all sales of their personal air purifier unit. After a recent fire that was reported onboard a Continental Airlines flight, the company released a press release and

warning to its customers to stop using the device until further tests can be performed and the cause can be confirmed. EcoQuest suspects the fire was related to the lithium battery overheating in the product. At least one airline, Alaska Airlines, has announced it will not allow the units on its aircraft until further testing is completed.

Go here for the entire press release and warning to its customers.

The Nexus program, which launched today at Pearson’s International Airport in Toronto, allows members to check-in and screen themselves using automated self-serve kiosks. The program costs $50 and is only for low-risk, pre-approved travelers from Canada to the US.

The process allows members to move through security much faster, and will also be launched at the Calgary airport this summer. If the system is a success, we may begin to see iris scanners in US airports, which I have been waiting for ever since I saw Minority Report.

Apparently, holiday and travel companies have had a habit of including hidden costs. The Office of Fair Trading in Britain warned that tougher action will be taken against companies who advertising prices that differ significantly from those they actually offer.

I am hopeful similar actions may be taken soon in America. My recent flight purchases from Expedia and Travelocity appeared lower than the fares on Delta.com, until I actually came to the page where my credit card was charged.

A quick addendum to my post on the 29 Jan about the new international travel document requirements. After a bit of research, I was surprised to find out how few U.S. citizens are passport holders. Only 27% have a passport, compared to 40% of Canadians, 64% of U.K. residents, and 90% (!) of German citizens. That tells me one thing: there likely will be a large influx of passport requests over the next few months, as people realize they need that official document for travel to and from North and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda. Lets just hope the Passport Services Office is up to the task…….

JetBlue is offering a coast to coast sale, starting today and ending Thursday, for 99 dollars from JFK to Long Beach Airport. Only 69 dollars from Washington DC to Las Vegas. I paid about four times this much in August when I made similar trips. At prices this low, if I lived near a JetBlue hub, I’d be taking a trip over my upcoming mid-winter break.

The U.S. FAA announced today that it will be issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) later this year that will change the forced retirement age of US commercial airline pilots from 60 to age 65, embracing the change by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization–a United Nations sanctioned organization) made last March.
The ICAO standard that requires at least one crewmember to be under the age of 60 will remain in effect, according to FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey. Which of course makes me wonder why if pilots above the age of 60 are safe to fly, then why the ‘at least one pilot under age 60′ requirement?

Administrator Blakey sited the fact that “Foreign airlines have demonstrated that experienced pilots in good health can fly beyond age 60 without compromising safety” as contributing to the rule change.

Surprisingly, the Airline Pilots Association has, since 1980, opposed any change in the Age 60 Rule, obviously concerned about the impact on junior pilots. ALPA has, however agreed to support the rule ‘as is’, according to ALPA president, Capt. John Prater. In contrast, its good to know that the Flight Safety Foundation has given the Proposed Rulemaking its blessing.

It will be interesting to see if any airline (especially the rare non-union one) does not embrace the rule change. No doubt it will be a scheduling headache to ensure that two 60 plus-pilots are not flying together in the same cockpit. Its all fine with me, as long as I don’t hear any announcements of a pending delay because the airline forgot that Captain Bob just turned 61 yesterday…..

Two large religious based travel organizations, Religious Market Consulting Group and Christian Travel Finder, are merging into the World Religious Travel Association (WRTA). The organization plans and advises for the faith-based travel sector, which is expected to reach over $18 billion dollars next year. VP Honnie Korngold, explained that the goal of WRTA is to “not only educate the trade about faith-based travel, but also the consumer – for example, educating pastors and religious group leaders themselves about the value and benefits of travelling together as a community.”

The Alaska Air Group subsidiary, Horizon Air, was named Regional Airline of the Year, by the editors of Air Transport World. A well deserved award in my view…..the airline has always set a great example as an efficient, well-run, reliable carrier. The Seattle-based airline was cited by ATW for its ’strong brand and product identity in its local markets, technical leadership, friendly passenger service and profitability’.

To view the article, including additional awards, go here.

Congradulations, Horizon Air!

British Airways announced yesterday that it has come to an agreement (at least for now) with it cabin staff branch to call off the scheduled strikes spread over this month and next.
British Airways was very generous in allowing customers to make alternate travel arrangements and easing up on change fee’s, etc.

The airline claims to be operate a full schedule as of today, but from experience, I would definitely recommend checking with British to confirm the flights status–operationally as well as catering (i.e. special meals ordered) and onboard amenity issues.
Watch for some great fares to come out of this……

An Australia man was recently kicked off a Qantas airlines flight from Melbourne to London, for wearing an anit-Bush T-Shirt. The shirt, which read “World’s #1 terrorist” and had a picture of the President, was deemed objectionable.

Qantas airlines has a policy against potentially disruptive or controversial speech on flights, and the shirt fell into that category. Additionally, it is generally not a good idea to wear or carry anything onto an airplane with the word “terrorist.” It tends to make people uncomfortable.