Downgraded: All-You-Can-Fly
With much hoopla, and a great uptake by many media outlets, JetBlue recently re-launched their all-you-can-fly passes, which provided a month of travel for a $499 or $699, depending on whether you wanted to include weekends or not. Much smaller SunCountry Airlines followed suit days later. I remained silent, and the offers expired. Readers have asked me what I think, and why I didn’t mention this earlier, especially with much of the media is all agog about these deals. Perhaps there are some folks who have a bicoastal commute and could have made this work for a month. And this may be great for gap year tourists or retirees looking to duplicate the EurailPass experience at a higher altitude. But really, how many people can use this? Maybe it’s Europeans: Most Americans don’t have a month of vacation time to burn, and how much of that time do they want to spend flying? Mileage runners are out of luck, too, as you don’t earn miles for each flight on such a pass, but rather earn a fixed sum. So, for the most part, these passes are a non-starter. They’re great PR for the airlines that offer them, though, and perhaps that’s the goal all along.

Upgraded: Mexicana’s life chances
Mexicana, which declared bankruptcy just three weeks ago, has already been bought by an investment group and the airline’s pilots’ union. (Admittedly, the pilots only bought 5% of the airline.) Terms are still a secret, until August 25. But presumably this means that Mexicana will fly again.

Upgraded: Luxury gimmickry
Hotels, especially at the high end, are always looking for a gimmick: a way to distinguish themselves from the myriad luxury properties that are competing for guest dollars. But sometimes, the competition gets downright silly. The Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay in California is offering a “fire and wine butler.” From the hotel’s pitch, which made me laugh out loud: “Thursday through Sunday evenings, The Fire & Wine Butler roves The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay on a specially-provisioned golf cart, providing on-the-spot fire and wine service to guests enjoying the out-of-doors.”

In the UK, some representatives of the union representing British Airways flight attendants have apparently lost their marbles:

While I recognize that the phrase “other duties as assigned” is not typically part of the contracted job description of a unionized employee, the labor union Unite is taking a particularly belligerent approach to defining specific work tasks in its ongoing squabbles. The union is essentially telling management that its employees shouldn’t do anything that’s not part of the safety routine. To wit: Flight attendants were advised by union leadership not to distribute hot towels to passengers premium economy on 747s.

And now, a published-and-then-repudiated memo portending to be union-issued has instructed its members to “politely refuse” to close windowshades. The airline had asked flight attendants to close the shades after passengers deplaned; closed shades keep plane interiors from heating up while the plane is parked at the gate, thereby reducing air conditioning (and fuel burn). But the memo argues that the task hasn’t been vetted for health and safety concerns. Seriously. The health and safety argument might have worked for the hot towels, but windowshades?

I empathize with flight attendants’ low pay and anger at losing benefits over the years. Really, I do. But the spat between the flight attendants and management over at BA has simply gotten ridiculous.

Speaking of empathy, I can certainly feel for this guy, too:

A JetBlue flight attendant, apparently upset with an uncooperative passenger on a just-landed flight, on Monday unleashed a profanity-laden tirade on the public address system, pulled the emergency-exit chute, slid off the plane and fled Kennedy International Airport, a law enforcement official said.

That’s a great opening for an article. And really, it just keeps right on going:

One passenger got out of his seat to fetch his belongings from the overhead compartment before the crew had given permission. [The flight attendant, Steven Slater] instructed the man to remain seated. The passenger defied him. Mr. Slater approached and reached the passenger just as he pulled down his luggage, which struck Mr. Slater in the head.

Mr. Slater asked for an apology. The passenger instead cursed at him. Mr. Slater got on the plane’s public address system and cursed out all aboard. Then he activated the inflatable evacuation slide at service exit R1; launched himself off the plane, an Embraer 190; ran to the employee parking lot; and left the airport in a car he had parked there.

Frankly, I feel for the guy. I wouldn’t want to be the enforcer of the bins, and who knows, I might reach the point of having a Howard Beale moment. But if it’s gotten so bad at work, that you’re taking the emergency slide to make an escape, it’s time to look for another job. Which Mr. Slater probably is doing right now.

Unless they let him slide. (rimshot)

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The relevant quotes from the release:

The partnership will focus on routes into and out of JFK and Boston Logan International Airport that extend and complement each others’ networks. For example, it would provide seamless service for customers who wish to fly nonstop from Nantucket to JFK on JetBlue and from there to London on American. Likewise, customers can board American from Paris to JFK and connect to a nonstop flight on JetBlue to Burlington, Vt. JetBlue customers will be able to effortlessly connect on flights to 12 of American’s international destinations from JFK and Boston including Barcelona, Spain; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Tokyo, Japan.
[...]
Customers of both airlines are expected to benefit from improved connections, while each airline will see additional customers fed into their networks. None of the routes on which the airlines will cooperate overlap current flights served by the other. The agreement will provide connections for more passengers at JFK and Boston to American’s international destinations in Europe, Asia, and South America. It also will generate more traffic and support for American’s planned joint business with oneworld partners British Airways and Iberia between North America and Europe, and with Japan Airlines between North America and Asia.

What makes this especially unexpected is JetBlue’s recent moves toward Lufthansa (which is a part-owner of JetBlue) and AerLingus.

It appears that my early thinking — that JetBlue would start moving toward bigger partnerships and perhaps even alliance membership — may be wrong. It looks like JetBlue is willing to make ad hoc agreements with anyone, but it’s clear that they’re branching out to create more of a global network.

Will JetBlue flights count toward AAdvantage? Vice versa? If so, it will be an interesting question how the programs, which function very differently, reconcile.

Stay tuned.

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Upgraded: Japanese car rentals
Travelers renting a car in Japan can now reserve a wireless enabled netbook for about $10 per day. The company, Oryx, includes the cost of the wireless service.

Downgraded: Blaming the victim
A Stamford, Connecticut franchisee operating under the Marriott name stupidly and offensively blamed one of its customers, saying she “‘failed to exercise due care’ before she was raped at gunpoint in front of her children in a hotel parking garage.” Stay classy, Stamford Marriott! Now, the Marriott mothership is distancing itself from the words (and legal strategy) of its franchisee.

Upgraded: JetBlue-Lufthansa partnership
It took a while — I blogged about the possibility of an alliance partnership back in December 2007 — but JetBlue and Lufthansa are finally talking about codesharing. The consequences will be interesting. I’m particularly interested to see if Lufthansa will be selling JetBlue segments on tickets to destinations served as well by Star Alliance members United and US Airways.

Downgraded: SkyEurope
SkyEurope, a European (duh) discount airline, has ceased all operations. This was the airline that at one point offered to pay its customers to fly with them. R.I.P.

Downgraded: Enterprise Rent-a-Car
Rental cars typically don’t have a great reputation, and this doesn’t help: Enterprise saved money on its rental fleet by requesting that GM delete safety features — features that were otherwise standard. The savings per vehicle: $175. 66,000 Chevrolet Impalas without side curtain airbags were rented out, and then subsequently sold as used vehicles.

Downgraded: Checked bags on international American Airlines flights
British Airways was the first to do this, but American Airlines wasn’t far behind: Many AA economy-class ticket-holders will no longer have an allowance of two checked bags on international flights. For those who buy tickets to Belgium, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Spain, or Switzerland on or after September 14, 2009, the first bag remains free (or, perhaps more accurately, included in the cost of the ticket). However, the second bag, which used to be included free, will now cost $50, up to 50 lbs. A list of exceptions applies, including full-fare tickets, elite AAdvantage and oneworld members, military personnel and dependents, and, interestingly, those traveling on codeshare-issued tickets.

Upgraded: Biofuel at airports
It’s not quite biofuel in the jets, but it’s a great start: Eight airlines will start using biofuels to power their ground equipment at LAX.

Downgraded: All-you-can-fly fares
JetBlue, which rolled out a $599 all-you-can-fly ticket two weeks ago, ended sales early. “While supplies last” meant they didn’t last.

Downgraded: United Breaks Guitars, episode 2
The original “United Breaks Guitars” video was a delight, a catchy tune that lambasted the airline for treating a customer poorly. The sequel, while cute, lacks the magic. It does, however, feature tubas.

Upgraded, I guess: Squeezing a couple bucks out of Hotwire
Hotwire has settled a class action lawsuit that charged that the company didn’t properly notify consumers of the fees and taxes charged for hotel reservations. If you made a hotel reservation on Hotwire between January 10, 2001 and May 2, 2005, you are likely entitled to either cash refunds or Hotwire credits. The Hotwire credit is significantly more lucrative, if you’re a Hotwire user anyway. See here for details, if you didn’t get an e-mail from the plaintiff’s attorneys (if you’re wondering, they got customer e-mail addresses from Hotwire…)

Downgraded, as if it was possible: Ryanair
Just when you think the airline couldn’t go any lower, Ryanair charges a fee to collect your lost-and-found. Even if you’re a nine-year old girl who lost her purse. It’s comical really: Ryanair will take candy from a baby, literally.

There are some features that are quite appealing:
- No blackout dates. That’s always a good thing.
- Last-seat availability. If there’s an open seat, and you have the points, you get the seat. That’s good, old-school ticketing.
- Bonuses linked to loyalty. Nothing revolutionary here, but more flights on JetBlue means more points. Other airlines have elite tiers, JetBlue keeps it simpler and just gives you more points.
- One-way awards.

Expiration of points is still short-lived, but at least it can be extended. The old TrueBlue program’s points would expire after one year, regardless of activity. That made accrual of points — and loyalty — pointless. (No pun intended.) The new program improves that a tiny bit, by adding a restart-the-clock feature. If you fly JetBlue or use a JetBlue American Express Card before your miles expire, you add a year to the their lifespan. It’s a marginal improvement that will give infrequent fliers an incentive to actually join the program, though one year is still a lot less than other airlines’ expiration timeframes.

Interestingly, the program changes the metric for points accrual from flight segments or distance flown to dollars spent. Travelers earn 3 points per dollar spent on the base fare, or 6 points per base fare if the ticket was booked on the JetBlue website. From the airline’s perspective, this makes a ton of sense: You want to reward those passengers who pay big bucks, not the traveler who eked out a $29 fare special.

TrueBlue has always been an enigma. Coming from an airline that has historically tried to be more customer-service oriented than their larger peers, their loyalty program has always been — and still is — a disappointment. There’s not much thinking outside the box here.

They didn’t think big. They could have done much more to add value and to create an incentive for travelers to switch their business to the airline. For example, JetBlue is part-owned by Lufthansa; why not create a mechanism for redeeming points with the German carrier? You’d tap into a global network and open up destinations from Africa to Asia. Instead JetBlue stayed in the all-North-American mold that other carriers like Southwest have already carved out.

It’s a shame. This could have been a much bigger deal.

Upgraded: Pilot air rage
Downgraded: 37 people’s on-time travel
Sure, it’s amusing that a pilot got so frustrated at having to pass through security at London City Airport that he pulled down his pants, exposed himself completely, and demanded, “‘Do you want to search THIS?” But if I were one of the 37 passengers waiting to fly to Zurich, I might be a little ticked that someone got all high and mighty at the prospect of being searched at an airport. Yeah, it’s security theater. We all have to do it. Get in line, skipper.

Upgraded: Continental (gasp!) removes fees from the OnePass program
Continental, which is joining Star Alliance (and leaving SkyTeam) as of its first flights on October 25, is going against the grain and (gasp!) removing fees and restrictions from frequent flyer tickets in their OnePass program. Gary Leff points to a FlyerTalk thread, in which a Continental representative spills the beans. Changes made to frequent flyer tickets, if initiated 21+ days before the start of travel, will be free as long as the departure and destination are the same. Now, if only you could actually get tickets at the SaverPass level…

Upgraded: JetBlue cuts a break to the unemployed
It started in Europe, now it’s hit North America: If you lose your job, JetBlue will give you a refund.

Upgraded: Bump scheduling
Downgraded: Bump compensation
Air Canada will let you put yourself on the bump list in advance, in case a flight is overbooked, but in terms of cash, it’s a lousy deal. At best, they’ll let you earn up to $57 CAD or USD per one-way flight, including connections. That’s at least half of what you’d be getting if you were bumped at the gate. the tradeoff: You get to choose your alternate flight in advance. Maybe that works for you. They’re upgrading the options, but downgrading the payment. (via Cranky)

You’re looking at a $240,000 shirt. At least that’s what it cost the TSA and JetBlue. The shirt’s owner (and wearer), Iraqi-American Raed Jarrar, received a sizable settlement from the government and the airline last month.

Why the payment? Long-time readers may remember this case from an earlier post:

JetBlue and a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official, identified as “Inspector Harris,” would not let Raed Jarrar board his flight at John F. Kennedy Airport until he agreed to cover his t-shirt, which read “We Will Not Be Silent” in English and Arabic script. Harris told Jarrar that it is impermissible to wear an Arabic shirt to an airport and equated it to a “person wearing a t-shirt at a bank stating, ‘I am a robber.’”

Lovely metaphor. Added bonus: Jarrar says that, after he relented and donned an additional shirt, jetBlue tore up his boarding pass, which had him seated near the front, and gave him a new boarding pass to sit at the very back of the plane. How nice of them — and how symbolic.

The airline and the TSA admitted no wrongdoing, though they agreed to the payment:

Neither the Transportation Safety Administration officials or JetBlue admitted having done anything wrong, and the settlement agreement states that it “is not an admission of liability or fault or wrongdoing or responsibility.”

The agreement says that the government employees, Garfield Harris and Franco Trotta, “disavow any allegation” that they had violated Mr. Jarrar’s rights, and said that “their actions were at all times reasonable and within their discretion and authority.”

Bryan Baldwin, a spokesman for the airline, said the company was “pleased” with the settlement, although it denied Mr. Jarrar’s version of events. The company settled, Mr. Baldwin said, “to stop incurring future legal cost.”

Not admitting responsibility? Fine. But money talks. And hopefully both the government and the airlines (not just JetBlue) will wise up from this experience, and can teach their employees that shirts aren’t dangerous, regardless of whether or not you understand what’s written on them.

Related:
- Dangerous shirts see their day in court
- Would an anti-Tony Blair shirt get me in trouble in the U.S.?
- Short hops – August 23, 2006 – JetBlue rewards one flyer a free t-shirt (in exchange for his civil liberties)

“Dear Mr. Soandso?” So and so?

The airline realized its rather impersonal mistake and sent a message to David shortly thereafter, apologizing…

We are so sorry. Recently we sent some of our valued TrueBlue members an email that was incorrectly addressed due to a technical issue with our database.

Please accept our apologies for this error and any offense it may have caused.

Technical issue? Yeah, sure, the computer decided to call David “Mr. Soandso.” Time to write to the CEO, David Barger:

Dear Slick,

Thanks for the e-mail, Champ. I enjoyed the personalization of your last message, Boss, and hope to fly your airline soon, Cap’n. I sure am feelin’ the love, Chief.

Hope you’re keepin’ it real, Ace!

Best regards, yadda yadda yadda,

Mr. Guy, a.k.a. Slick, Dude, Slim, Coach, El Jefe, and, of course, Mr. Soandso

For those who’ve sat next to the toilet on a long flight, take heart: At least you weren’t sitting ON the toilet for the flight. This story seems too good to be true, if by “good,” we mean comedy gold, reinforcing our already nasty impression of American aviation.

A New York City man is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California.

Gokhan Mutlu, of Manhattan’s Inwood section, says in court papers the pilot told him to “go ‘hang out’ in the bathroom” about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because the flight attendant complained that the “jump seat” she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said.

Awesome. I don’t know if this is really true, but for the sake of airline-hell story one-upsmanship, I’m really hoping it is.

Mr. Mutlu was traveling on a “buddy pass,” a perk given to airline employees (in lieu of job security, salary, pension, and other accoutrements) which lets friends travel for close to free. But a low fare (which is what a buddy pass effectively is) doesn’t mean you have to sit on the toilet. Especially since that’s a safety issue:

The aircraft hit turbulence and passengers were directed to return to their seats, but “the plaintiff had no seat to return to, sitting on a toilet stool with no seat belts,” court papers say.

Some time later, a male flight attendant knocked on the restroom door and told Mutlu he could return to his original seat, court papers say.

Would it have been okay if a female flight attendant had knocked, instead?

Mutlu’s lawsuit, filed Friday in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, says JetBlue negligently endangered him by not providing him with a seat with a safety belt or harness, in violation of federal law.

JetBlue’s courtroom strategy may resort to a counter-accusation: that Mutlu tampered with the lavatory smoke detectors while in there. And perhaps he ignored lighted signs and placards, too. Take that, safety video!

Thanks to reader J for the early heads-up!

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