Still Scarier: Ladies and Gentlemen. This is the Captain.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The British Civil Aviation Authority reported that both the captain and the co-pilot of a packed 325 seat Airbus 330 fell asleep within two hours after take off, leaving the plane cruising on autopilot with no-one to take control in the event of an emergency. It would not name the airline, nor the points of take-off and landing.

When they said we should all take more naps to refresh ourselves, I doubt they were thinking about pilots on top of Cloud #9.

Frequent Flyer Miles Devalued

Frequent Flyer Miles

I refuse to give the airline that devalued its frequent flyer miles by 14% any publicity.  

What's the point of accumulating frequent flyer points if you can't count on how much they will be worth when you need them.  If they get away with it, it won't be long before other airlines follow suit.

Scary Stuff: United Airlines Captain Suffers Mid-air Heart Attack

Captain's mid-flight heart attack

The captain of a United Airlines flight died hours after his apparent heart attack in midair forced the craft he was piloting to make an emergency landing in Boise, Idaho, officials said Friday.

The fact that the plane was landed calmly and safely by the co-pilot is a testament to his training and abilities.

Big Fees = Big Bucks

Airlines are making big bucks from extra fees.  

ABC News Radio reports

Big fees = Big bucks

"From Aeroflot's selling $171.3 million of duty free goods on its flights during 2012--and attaining a 115% mark-up on cost--to EarlyBird's boarding providing $161 million for Southwest in 2012, the findings revealed in the report indicate that airlines are increasingly looking for new ways to boost profits."

"We all need airlines. It’s just indispensable to the country."

Airline employees want to keep jobs

A Veteran American Airlines' Flight Attendant, Avril Taylor, is lobbying Congress in favor of the American Airlines merger with U.S. Airways. She has a lot of support from the airlines' employees who fear their jobs will be lost because neither airline can now remain competitive.

Other countries want their airlines to be monopolies to assure that their flags are shown wide and far. There is no way that either U.S. airline can compete with state owned, monopolistic foreign flags unless they can first stop competing with each other.

American "Bus" Lines?

If so, they are supposed to be more comfortable, beautiful and fuel efficient.

American Airlines will be introducing up to six new Airbus A-319 jets beginning on Sept. 16th.  Its quite a financial gamble, but that is the spirit that made America great.  A word of advice:  "Don't over do it!  Buying too many 747s is one of the reasons Pan American went belly up. Don't repeat its mistake!"

American Airlines' Airbus A319 jets poised to flyTulsa World

I miss the glamour of flying

Daily Beast 

The Daily Beast recently posted some nostalgic photos of the good old days of flying, where movie stars and debutants were preened in their finest designer clothes. In my view, Pan American Airlines' stewardess Betty Lou Ruble gave them all some stiff competition.  

See if you can disagree! Click "cool" if you agree!

Don’t you miss the fun of flying,

when you could expect great service?

Perky stews would keep you smiling.

Boarding a plane now makes me nervous.

You can see them all at:

Airline Style Through the YearsDaily Beast When airplanes were first introduced as a means of transportation, they became runways in the sky, with celebrities and members of the upper-class dressing ...

Airplane tires are supposed to be bald

John Elefante sent me this great link below from Airtransparency.com explaining why airplane tires are so different than those on your car.

Tires are on airplane are one of the more overlooked parts of an aircraft by passengers. However, ask any pilot how important it is to make sure their tires are in proper working order and they will most likely talk your ear off about how their tires need 7 plys.

 AirTransparency - Offering an Inside View of Airline Operations - Aircraft Tiresairtransparency.com

I have actually seen a Pan Am Clipper blow out four of its tires on landing and still taxi safely to the gate, with no damage to the plane and no complaints from the passengers. Airline captains make the big bucks because they know how to control emergency situations.

Friendly Skies: United Airlines honors $5 and $10 flights

 

Friendly skies

   ABC News reports that "The next time you're sitting on a full-price seat on a United Airlines flight, the person next to you, likely hogging your armrest too, may have paid just $5, or less."
   In this case it was because of human error blamed for improperly allowing only airport and security fees to be charged.  United Airlines, to its credit, honored the tickets.

   I was often that person flying in FIRST CLASS on vacation for only ten percent of the published lowest economy fare; i.e., basically just the tax.  Those were the good old days of working and flying Pan Am. I never bragged about it though, I always had empathy for my seat mates, fearing they would toss me out over the big blue "pond."  I believe the Beatles' Paul McCartney coined a new meaning for the word, referring to the Atlantic Ocean, when getting off of a Pan Am Clipper from London;  you can read the whole story in my book "The Fun of Flying: The Pan Am Years."

Why Fly? Wi Fi!

Why Fly?  WiFi!

Internet giant Amazon.com has teamed up with Gogo, in-flight Internet provider, to allow flyers to pay for their time on-line using their Amazon accounts.

Now my blog readers can purchase my book : "The Fun of Flying: The Pan Am Years," in the air, when they pay their connection fees.

Mid-air incidents double!

Tower errors double

The Federal Aviation Administration said reports of air-traffic-control mistakes more than doubled nationwide last year, but they attributed nearly all of the increase to a new automated system that vastly expanded the amount of data collected.
They were talking about over 4,000 incidents last year (10+ per day) vs. 1,900 the year before (5+ per day).  They both seem like very small numbers, when you consider that there are about 80,000 flights in the air at some point every day, unless you happened to be on one of those ten flights.

Ten things they never say, but want to.

AARP admires Flight Attendants' unlimited patience in dealing with overbearing and sometimes obnoxious passengers.  I do too.  Most of them that I have known deserve medals. I hope you agree.  I have noticed that they are extra nice to cantankerous old  coots like me.

Read AARP Travel Tips for the full story!

Free tickets?

Cashing in airline miles

Cashing in those airline miles for a free ticket is not as easy as it used to be.  Airline mergers have limited the number of available seats.  I am almost tempted to turn in my old mileage cards and replace them with cash rewards cards. 



The following points to remember are from Bill Hardekopf, who is chief executive of LowCards.com, which compares and rates on more than 1,000 credit cards. He is the 
co-author of "The Credit Card Guidebook."

• Keep checking, even if you find seats unavailable the first time you look. Inventory may change the next day. Seats may become available a week or two before the flight.
• Call and talk with a reservation agent if you want to book a seat on an airline partner. Many airlines don't offer award seats through partner airlines on their websites.
• Be aware of expiration dates. You spend money and time earning points, but they may not be yours forever. Read the fine print for expiration dates.
• Pay your credit card bill on time every month. If you have a late payment, the bank or credit card issuer could withhold the miles you earned during that billing period. If you want them back, you may have to pay a steep reinstatement fee.
• Don't waste your points on a cheap flight. Points are each worth about 1.2 cents. It typically costs 25,000 points for a round-trip domestic flight, so a round-trip would cost $300. If a flight costs less than $300, it is cheaper to pay in cash and save your points for a flight that costs more than $300.
• Keep your options open. If the first date doesn't work, check availability on multiple dates. In addition, driving to a bigger airport may also open up more flight options.

Scary stuff?

Photo by James McGinlay

Bald tires on the landing gear are never a good thing! — atToronto Billy Bishop Airport.

Not! The main brakes on the plane are the  the reverse thrusters on the engines and the spoilers on the wings, not the brakes on the wheels, although to be certified for flight a jet must be able to stop using only the wheel brakes. 

Newark Airport Alert

I received the following alert from the Port Authority of NY/NJ:

Limited AirTrain Newark Service between RaiLink and P4, 5:00am Mon 9/9 to 11:59pm Fri 9/27. All passengers must transfer at P4. From 5:00a.m. on Monday 9/9/2013 to 11:59p.m. Friday 9/27/2013, there will be limited AirTrain Newark service between the Rail Link Station and Station P4 due to scheduled maintenance. Passengers travelling from the Rail Link Station will need to transfer trains at Station P4 to obtain access to Terminals A,B,C and parking lot/rental car stations. Passengers traveling from Terminals A,B,C and the parking lot/rental car stations to the Rail Link Station will need to transfer trains at Station P4. Please see a Customer Care Representative for assistance, and allow extra time when using AirTrain Newark during this period.

Don’t you miss the fun of flying

when you walked directly to gate or plane?

No inspections, no one tiring,

dragging carry-ons again and again.

San Francisco Airport

I received this scary photo yesterday from a close friend who is a very frequent business traveller.

He says that the haze looks like clouds but is actually smoke from all the wild fires in the San Francisco area. The pilot warned on landing that they would smell smoke in the cabin. My friend was glad he did. — at San Francisco International Airport.

I had a terrifying experience in a smokey cabin that you can read about it in "The Fun of Flying: The Pan Am Years."  Here's an excerpt from my book:

Buy at Amazon now!

"After 40 minutes in the air, we were well past the halfway point of no return, and I heard a loud popping noise.  Then I choked on fouled air and watched the right engine burst into flames.  My eyes burned from smoke that was somehow sucked into the cabin, I yelled “FUEGO (FIRE),” then everyone panicked, and instinctively, we unfastened our seat belts and scrambled to the other side of the plane. I could see quivering, fiery, elongated yellow tentacles stretching their way across the wing to the cabin, scratching at the windows, anxious to roast the well stuffed bird.

If you looked out of any window on either side of the plane all you could see was tangled, endless, impenetrable vegetation.  There were 8,500 square miles of lush, tropical rain forest beneath us.  It was the second largest jungle habitat in the Americas after the Amazon.  It was home to rare birds and reptiles of every sort. But it also was the urine marked territorial hunting ground for numerous carnivores, that all bared their underbellies to the baddest cat of them all, the man-eating, yellow and black spotted jaguar, the largest feline in the Western Hemisphere, even outweighing the North American mountain lion. The spotted jaguar epitomized ferocity, and was a perfect killing machine, invisible in any forest and worshipped by the ancient Maya and Aztec as one of the angriest of their gods.

 There was no place we could possibly make an emergency landing.  If the plane were going to go down, it could only crash into the tree tops, exploding them into meteoric showers of needle-like splinters, making fresh mince meat of trapped passengers for the ravenous kitties to munch."

Bad weather, how convenient!

Beat the airlines when they play the “bad-weather” card!

Hurry-up and wait!  I'm tired of being treated like a dolt.  Why don't the airlines just tell you the truth about delays?  

I see a lot of frost on wing tips.

Who knows if we will leave on our trip?

We’re told to line up at the gate and display IDs.

I get frisked anew and have to show the Feds my keys.

The wings have ice. It’s above the door.

I’m worried that it will never thaw.

While the plane is sprayed I need to pee

and I want a drink, I’m so thirsty.

Seat belts are on; I can’t leave my seat….

It’s tough to admit my own defeat.

To bitch and moan may well be contagious….

I’d start a riot; make things more grievous.

The doors are closed; an engine started;

attendants check that we tighten our belts;

a turbine coughs…perhaps it farted;

the plane is pushed off; anxiety melts.

Don’t you miss the fun of flying

when they just eyed your boarding pass?

They never bothered patting the padding

on your shoulders, your hips or your ass.

Read more at: Beat the airlines when they play the “bad-weather” card

High fuel costs = airline layoffs = poorer service

Everything that's old is new again. I wrote in my book, The Fun of Flying: The Pan Am Years, that one of the reasons Pan Am went bankrupt was because of the high fuel costs of 150 to 300 seat Boeing 707s and 747s. So what's new? The problems of the '70s, '80s and '90s only got worse. As airlines lay off their employees, the plight of the passenger can only become even more frustrating. 

"most regional carriers, which contract with bigger airlines to operate short-haul flights under brands such as United Express and Delta Connection, reduced jobs as high fuel costs made many 50-seat jets too expensive to fly."

See link below for the full story:
Fewer airline jobs: US carriers trim ranks by 2.4%Daytona Beach News-Journal