I don’t know what’s scarier, JetBlue rogue flight attendant Steve Slater’s reckless behavior this week or the fact that he just started following me on twitter.  None-the-less, I find it very ironic that in an industry which is bashed by the media more than any other for it’s treatment of consumers, especially for its rude employees, this one is set to write the newest version of JetBlue’s Code of Conduct.

Here are some of the most recent headlines:

“Steven Slater: From JetBlue Quitter to Latest American Folk Hero?”

“JetBlue Flight Attendant Gains Hero Status”

“An apology to JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater”

“Stupid passengers take the blame for wild flight attendant”

All of a sudden, this week, its not the airline’s fault, but the passengers.  Bravo! 

Why the flip-flop?

In case you have not noticed, JetBlue and Virgin America are the darlings of the media as far as airlines go.  I can only imagine the headlines had this incident taken place on a United, Delta or American flight.  If this were the case, I believe the headlines would be in line with the historical level of scrutinization:

“Sue them, fine them, how could they!”

According to media reports 2 of Mexicana Airlines aircraft were seized in Canada and prevented from departure.  This was due to rumors and/or actual indications of financial trouble for Mexicana.  Specifically, Mexicana may have had trouble paying the leases on these 2 planes.  Some time ago I wrote about Mexicana and whether it was a good fit for the One World Alliance.  I based my observation on the product, not the balance sheet.  I assumed, in that post, that OneWorld dissected Mexicana’s balance sheet before bringing them into the alliance.

Apparently someone at OneWorld didn’t do their homework.  Mexicana just joined OneWorld in November of 2009, less than 1 year ago.  How could their financial viability deteriorate that quickly and dramatically?

I attended a funeral for a family member this week.  The deceased was also a member of the Greatest Generation.  I have been in somewhat of a fog since.

I often hear “older people” (passengers and airline employees) comment that flying is not like it used to be. When I hear or read comments such as this, my initial thought is: obviously you have not flown internationally recently.   One typical gripe is that passengers don’t dress up to fly as they once did.  My experience on the way to the funeral is one example of why people don’t or shouldn’t get dressed up to fly.

After we boarded the plane (ATL-EWR), the captain announced that we were ready to push back, but that he was waiting for our final numbers (weight & fuel) which he expected receive any moment.  After 30 minutes of sitting at the gate, sweating, the pilot said the ground crew was now adding more fuel:

“First they said we were too heavy, now they are adding more fuel”

After another 20 minutes, we were pushed back from the gate where we sat for another ten minutes.  It was at this point I realized something was not right.  Finally, we began to taxi under the plane’s power towards the runway.  We taxied to a remote location when the pilot came on and told us that we had missed our wheels up time and our next opportunity to depart would be in 1 hour.  In addition, he had to shut the engines down because if he ran the engines we would not have enough fuel to make it to Newark.

No engines means no air conditioning.  It was 94 degrees in Atlanta that day, so I could only imagine what the temperature on the plane was.  Bottom line, it became real hot real fast.  I wasn’t judging just by myself because I sweat in the shower during an Atlanta summer.  Other passengers were sweating and I sensed some panic.  The FA’s made several trips down the aisle with ice water.  I was quite happy to be sporting sandals, shorts and a t-shit.

The captain had the audacity to come on and say:

“I know its hot back there, but I can can guarantee you it’s at least 10 to 20 degrees hotter in the cockpit”

Uh… last time I checked captain, captains get paid to be in the cockpit, passengers pay to be on the plane.

After 45 minutes, the captain came on and said we had to go back to the gate.  Because of storm in EWR, we were given a crazy routing over Indiana and we didn’t have enough fuel to get to EWR with that routing.  I have to believe this is why we took on more fuel in the first place.  As soon as we pulled up to the gate and the seat-belt sign chime rang, the pilot came on said the flight had been cancelled.  Passengers moaned and mumbled obscenities under their breath.

The Aftermath

As passengers deplaned a few made snide remarks to the captain and flight attendants.  One flight attendant shouted back.  It was an embarrassing scene.  I was just happy to get off that hot plane.  I waited 30 minutes at the re-issue desk before the agents processed any passengers, despite 5 to 7 agents being behind the desk at any given time.

An experience like this may not have happened during the “good old days” of air travel, but every industry evolves.  Consumers need to adjust their expectations and behavior in accordingly.  In this case, the way the dress.

This was my 2nd trip an Airbus A380. The first was on Air France. This one was on Lufthansa which just started flying their A380, but on only one route: Frankfurt – Tokyo. The extra incentive for me to fly this route was that the return trip was a Lufthansa code share operated by All Nippon Airways. ANA recently launched their Spirit of Japan product on 2 routes: Tokyo-JFK and Tokyo-Frankfurt. So, for a decent price, I would be able to check out both the A380 and the Spirit of Japan. I will follow up this post with another that contains a few photos of the first and business class cabins on Lufthansa’s A380.

There was definitely a sense of excitement at the gate in Frankfurt. Many passengers were scurrying around taking photos and discussing this feat of engineering that sat a few feet away. I am even more impressed now than I was after the first time I flew this beast. It is quiet, the ride is smooth and despite a full passenger load (minus 2 first class suites) the plane accommodates everyone with ease.

Seats
I was in seat 76K for the10.5 hour journey, which has to be one of the 6 best seats in the entire economy section. Seat 76K & A have no seat in front of them, making them similar to an exit row because of the extra legroom. You can also get up anytime without climbing over anyone. On top of that, you still have a window seat. The potential drawback to these seats is that your personal TV swings up from the armrest. This TV has to be stowed during takeoff and landing which means you cannot view the tail and nose cameras during those periods of the flight. Also, the wing is SO huge that you really can’t see anything besides it. The wing must rise a good 12 feet above where you are seated and you can barely see beyond it. Seats 75B,C,H and J are true exit row seats. In my seat, I could hear and feel (in my feet) the nearby toilets flushing which can be annoying in addition to the crowds that line up at the lavatories.

Food
The fare was standard for economy class, although no economy meal has matched that of Air France. In the above mentioned seats, you will be served first in this section of economy. Hot towel service was provided before lunch and breakfast. There was free beer, wine and liquor with lunch but none available at breakfast.

Entertainment
Despite what the printed entrainment guide indicated, there was a severe lack of options to watch or listen to. The entertainment was in fact awful. There were 18 audio cd’s, not one of which I had ever heard of in addition to 7 atrocious audio books.  There were zero games to play and this may have been because there was no controller at the seat.  There were 2 TV shows, a surfing competition and fashion show. There were 6 “comedy” and 2 “action” movies. Out of those 8 movies, I had only heard of the 2 action movies: Sherlock Homes and Edge of Darkness, which for some reason, seem to be playing on every airline in the world right now.  I had 2 brief conversations with the FA about the AVOD.  She was very polite but could not really tell me the reason for the discrepancies.

The saving grace being the half dozen or so cameras and moving maps. There is a short video below of my monitor showing a 360 degree of the aircraft and the terrain it is flying over.  If you are an aviation enthusiasts, you will love these features.

After we landed, I asked a flight attendant if I could have a walk around the plane and take a few photos. The FA obliged and escorted me to the top deck where there were 98 business class seats and 8 first class suites. The FA followed my every move and politely asked me to hurry up several times. I will follow up this post with another that contains those cabin photos.  None the less, just wanted thank the FA for allowing me the opportunity.

I took over 100 pictures, but I think the ones below give a fairly accurate depiction. Shoot me an an email or post a comment of you have a question or are looking for additional pictures. Thanks!

being towed to gate

tough to even get it in a picture

boarding process

my seat 76K

view from 76K

taxiing

takeoff

lunch

aft stairs to upper deck in flight; I felt like DeCaprio in Titanic

moving map

breakfast- note the 2 tone grapes!

decending across the coast of japan

nose camera just before landing

touchdown

Tonight I will make my way to Frankfurt in order to catch the Lufthansa A380 flight to Tokyo Narita. I am quite interested to see how the experience will compare to the Air France A380 flight I took. Mainly, the layout. I am sitting in coach and am hoping I will be able to have a look at the other cabins. Air France was overly accommodating when it came to this, but then again, it was part of their inaugural fight.

From what I can tell, the business class cabin is full and economy is roughly 85% full. I originally was seated in row 92, all the way at the back of the lower deck, but just switched myself to row 76. One of the seats in row 76, mine, supposedly has a seat missing in front of it, although there are some discrepancies dependent upon whose seat map you look at.  Lufthansa’s web site would not let me select the actual exit row even though it was available.

Needless to say, I am excited and will post the pictures as soon as I can. Has anyone flown Lufthansa’s A380 already? Care to comment on the experience?

Last time I tried to give a preview of upcoming travels, I wound up not going anywhere due to my unexplainable failure to obtain a visa. None-the-less, this week, I will try again to hit the road, except this time, I am 99.999% sure I do NOT need a visa to visit London.

I had a credit from an unused ticket on United, so I knew I would be flying them. I did not have a ton of time to travel or much advance notice for booking. For me, these parameters translate into a quick trip to Europe. I scoured fares from a dozen US cities and looked at all possible routing options and the cheapest way I could find to Europe was from the West Coast. So be it: I would fly from Atlanta to Los Angeles in order to catch a flight to London. Makes sense to none except maybe those reading this blog.

I had to call (imagine that) United to utilize the credit from the unused ticket. Why United cannot add this function to their web site (like Delta), I’m not sure. As it turned out, this was one of the only times I have been thrilled after hanging up the phone with an airline. The phone agent was kind enough to book my flight, assign me seats, put me on the upgrade list, email me a coupon for a future flight, and suggested I request United frequent flier status match based upon my Delta frequent flier status. Basic blocking and tackling? Yes, but all the things a US airline should be doing if they are interested in gaining market share.

Thanks for coming by Planereality.  Stay tuned for lots of pics and such.  And of course, if you are pressed for time, you can follow me on twitter (http://twitter.com/planereality) for some pics & happenings that don’t make it to the blog

The other day I saw a tweet about the “World’s 5 Star Airlines.”  The tweet referenced Skytrax, an outfit that ranks the world’s airlines.  I checked out the Skytrax website and was surprised to learn that I had flown on 5 of the 6 five star airlines.  Now, as I learned in the mutual fund business, stars come and go, but having experienced the airlines firsthand, I am going to have to concur with Skytrax, with maybe the exception of Asiana.  Better still, I have written posts on 5 of 6 and they are posted here for your viewing enjoyment:

• ASIANA
• CATHAY PACIFIC
• MALAYSIA AIRLINES
• QATAR AIRWAYS
• SINGAPORE AIRLINES

I had a chance to test United’s newly introduced (3/19/10) Unlimited Domestic Upgrade policy for all Elite fliers.  I hold Premiere (the lowest of all elite levels) status with United and was flying from Atlanta-Washington Dulles-San Francisco.  When I originally booked the ticket, United showed a 777 would be operating the IAD-SFO sector, and really, this was the leg of the trip where I was hoping for an upgrade.  There looked to be plenty of open seats in Business Class.

A few days before my flight, United’s website showed that a 767 was now operating the route, but a 757 seat map was displayed.  I looked again the next day and United’s website showed that flight #874 was being operated by a 757 and there was a seat map to match. Forty-eight hours before departure, there was no indication of a confirmed or pending upgrade just the regular itinerary confirmation. 

One day before my flight, when I checked in on-line, the ATL-IAD route was confirmed upgraded and I was waitlisted on the IAD-SFO portion.  The morning of departure, I looked again and no upgrade was shown for IAD-SFO, waitlisted or confirmed, just my original seat.

I asked the gate agent in Atlanta about my upgrade for IAD-SFO.  He happily checked for me and said I had a pretty good shot of making it to “Connoisseur Class.”  Due to a tight connection, I did not get to the gate at IAD until the agent was calling all zones, all rows for boarding.  I thought that even if I had received the upgrade, it may have been given away.  I quickly asked the gate agent what my status was.  With a harmless chuckle she said:

“This upgrade thing…it… it stinks; you all need to call United and tell ‘em…”

That didn’t sound promising, but with that she printed me my new boarding pass: 11E Middle Seat, Middle Section, bulkhead, Business Class!  United will be giving Delta a run for my money….

UPDATE: On the return flight (SFO-ORD) I was upgraded 24 hours in advance. It’s worth noting the equipment changed from 777 to 747. No such luck on the 2nd leg (ORD-ATL) on an A320.

Top of the morning to you from the Four Points Sheraton at SFO.  I’m at it again.  This time with some some trepidation.  All Nippon Airways (ANA) was scheduled to launch their “Inspiration of Japan” product on 2/20 from Tokyo to JFK and on 2/22 from JFK-Tokyo.  The Inspiration of Japan features brand new products in all 4 cabins-First, Business, Premium Economy & Eco.  I only wanted to fly ANA one way and return on a different airline, just because that is what I do.  I don’t live in Asia so naturally, I first priced the JFK-Tokyo route.  Let’s just say it would have cost a small fortune.  The Tokyo-JFK route (with a few tweaks) was much more reasonable so I booked it.  Pretty standard for me, determine what airline I am trying to get on, find a good fare anywhere in the world and work backwards from there.

Well, about a week ago, I recievd an email from ANA informing me that the initial launch of Inspiration of Japan was postponed 2 months due to a seat manufacturer delay.  What a bummer!  The flight I booked still goes, minus the new cabins.  I have all the flights and hotels booked so I couldn’t possible cancel the whole trip, right? Right!  So the itinerary starts today from San Francisco and will include Cathay Pacific Airways, Singapore Airlines and, of course, All Nippon Airways.

I thought I would take it upon myself to translate a few “tweets” I have read recently—tweets from airlines of course.  It amazes me that with all the grief the airline industry takes from the media that sometimes airlines convey a condescending message via twitter-the same message that can be found at the airport and in the planes at times.  Some airlines don’t use twitter to their advantage.  Their tweets are very re-active vs. pro-active.  Most companies that actively communicate to their customers using twitter try to be positive & insightful and if they are successful, they add value.  Twitter would seem to be a public relations slam dunk for airlines, but not based on some tweets I have read recently.  Here are some tweets from an airline followed by my translation in red.

1) Booked w/an online agency (eg expedia, orbitz) & flt cancelled for weather? You can rebook w/agency by phone.

Don’t bother us.  You’re not really our customer (even though we are providing the service you bought) unless you bought your ticket on our web site; and maybe not even then

2) Long hold times, disconnects: call volume high due to snow, addressing disconnects w/IT

It’s not our problem it’s IT’s—a.k.a our problem

3) Snow delays/cancels. Info avail online & since you’re using a computer right now

We want to apologize but don’t want to admit any shortcoming

4) Need flt status? Don’t tweet the request-love to help but status chgs as weather does

Please don’t trouble us with your insignificant plans

5) Why cancel flt BEFORE snow reaches destination? B/c stranding plane in snow inconveniences 100s more. Not smart.

You customers are not very bright. Good thing we are able to come up with these sophisticated strategies

6) Until Scotty can beam us from A to B, we fly planes. During snow, we cancel for safety.

Not only are we smart, we are funny too.

Are Moving Maps A Thing of the Past?

I was on a flight from Asia to the Middle East recently and was surprised to see that the in-flight moving map was unavailable.  I asked the flight attnednat if there was a technical problem with the map as all the other entertainment was working properly.  The FA tinkered with the monitor to no avail and she told me she would ask another flight attendant.  The purser came to my seat and let me know that there was a new security directive in the United States that said moving maps  were not allowed to be showed.  She said this rule only applies to flights to the US and the aircraft we were on mainly flies to the United States.  She said it is either too large of a burden or too costly to turn the map on and off dependent upon what country the aircraft is in.

This is dissapointing if you really enjoy flying.  The map lets you know where you are, what route you are taking and the overall progress of the flight.  Is this an effective security measure? Let’s hope.  Is it enforced consitently? Hardly. 

I guess US authorities (and maybe others) don’t want the scum of the earth to know the most opportune time to blow up a plane filled with innocent civilians, representing numerous creeds, hailing from countries across the globe.  Let me know how hell is boys.

Has anyone else experinced “map absence?”