Flying the Unfriendly Skies

[raison de arizona]

American Airlines is suing Skiplagged, which helps customers book cheaper flights using a loophole

American Airlines has filed a lawsuit against Skiplagged, a company that helps people find cheap flights by using a loophole that involves connecting flights. In the lawsuit, the airline says Skiplagged has never had the authority to issue American Airlines tickets – only an authorized American Airlines agent can.

Skiplagged works by using a loophole, where a flyer buys a cheaper ticket to a smaller airport with a layover at a bigger airport – even though they have no intention of getting on that second flight to the smaller airport.

For example, a flight from New York to Jacksonville is $187 with a layover in Miami. If a flyer wants to go to Miami, but those tickets are too expensive for their budget, Skiplagged books them on the cheaper Jacksonville flight – but the passenger never gets to Jacksonville, because they stay in Miami after their supposed layover.

American Airlines says by using this flight booking method – called hidden city ticketing – Skiplagged violates the AA.com use agreement and conditions, including its policy that states people who use its website must not act as an agent for anyone outside their immediate family or their employer.

Skiplagged has customers enter their personal and payment information on its website, then uses that information to book a flight on the American Airlines website, the suit alleges. "In doing so, Skiplagged masquerades as an American agent for its customers, which is a breach of the Use Agreement," the suit reads.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-a ... s-layover/

[much ado]

Thievery? A ticket to NC is $400. A ticket to NY with a stop in NC is $150. 'Splain that. Who's the thief?

The kid is the thief. It’s all about filling seats. As I understand it, airlines offer attractive prices on flights connecting through their hubs because it saves them money. By bailing on that second leg, a seat that might have been sold is now empty.

I got no sympathy. It’s people who do shit like this that drive the price up for the rest of us.

My impression is that they want to keep the price to the high volume destination as low as possible so they can compete with other airlines and attract as many passengers as possible. They can make the high volume destinations cheaper by charging much more for other destinations. So someone flying to Charlotte is subsidizing the fares of passengers flying to NYC. Does that seem equitable? It is certainly legal.

I call it gouging.

ETA: You might feel differently if you lived in Charlotte...

Also, they are getting exactly the same fare as they would if the son continued to NYC. Their goal is not to fill seats, it is to maximize income. They are very upset that the son found a way not to be gouged. It was his contracted duty (although I don't think the restriction was mentioned on his ticket) to subsidize the NYC passengers. And he failed to do so.

[somerset]

Thievery? A ticket to NC is $400. A ticket to NY with a stop in NC is $150. 'Splain that. Who's the thief?

The kid is the thief. It’s all about filling seats. As I understand it, airlines offer attractive prices on flights connecting through their hubs because it saves them money. By bailing on that second leg, a seat that might have been sold is now empty.

I got no sympathy. It’s people who do shit like this that drive the price up for the rest of us.

My impression is that they want to keep the price to the high volume destination as low as possible so they can compete with other airlines and attract as many passengers as possible. They can make the high volume destinations cheaper by charging much more for other destinations. So someone flying to Charlotte is subsidizing the fares of passengers flying to NYC. Does that seem equitable? It is certainly legal.

I call it gouging.

ETA: You might feel differently if you lived in Charlotte...

Also, they are getting exactly the same fare as they would if the son continued to NYC. Their goal is not to fill seats, it is to maximize income. They are very upset that the son found a way not to be gouged. It was his contracted duty (although I don't think the restriction was mentioned on his ticket) to subsidize the NYC passengers. And he failed to do so.

Actually, their goal is to fill seats, in order to maximize profitability. Airline's profitability depends in part on matching capacity to demand. If 200 people book a flight from Pensecola to NYC via Charlotte, and only 100 people actually take the CLT-LGA leg, then the airline has used a plane with 2x the capacity needed for that leg, wasting fuel, manpower and assets. Granted, this is an extreme example and the real percentage of people that do this is in the single digits. But it still screws up load factors, and successfully managing load factors is how good airlines stay in business.

The airlines have a right to enforce the conditions of the contract passengers agree to when they purchase a ticket. You can't be prosecuted for skiplagging, but the airline certainly has a right to stop doing business with you if they catch you doing it.

Upthread bill_g said, "If an airline punished me from traveling with them for skiplagging, I'd never travel with them ever again. Either come up with fair pricing for every leg of a trip, or fuck off." Actually, this is a pretty reasonable solution - He doesn't want to fly with them, and they don't want someone like him as a customer. Win-win

For me, I fly way too much to play games like this. I either accept the cost of a certain itinerary, find a cheaper one if available, or don't take that particular trip. Commercial air travel is actually a pretty inexpensive way to get around, which is something I'm grateful for.

[Uninformed]

[RTH10260]

Ural Airlines airbus with 159 passengers onboard lands in a field in Siberia
The Ural Airlines airbus A320 in a Siberian field, its escape chutes deployed, September 12 2023

By Euronews with AFP
Published on 12/09/2023 - 10:19

Russian officials say all passengers and the six crew walked away uninjured from the aircraft. It was flying from the Black Sea town of Sochi to Omsk in Siberia when it was forced to make an emergency landing.

A Russian passenger Airbus A320 flying from the Black Sea resort of Sochi to the Siberian city of Omsk with 167 people on board made an emergency landing in a Siberian field on Tuesday, officials said.

Russia's aviation has been hard hit by Western sanctions over Moscow's Ukraine offensive.

Authorities released footage of the Ural Airlines plane in a field next to a forest in the Novosibirsk region, saying there were no casualties.

The plane had its slides out and people stood in the field outside it.

"At 05.44 Moscow time (0244GMT) an unscheduled landing of a Ural Airlines A320 plane flying along the Sochi-Omsk route, was successfully carried out," Moscow's aviation agency Rosaviatsia said in a statement.

It said the landing took place "on a site selected from the air" near the village of Kamenka, in Siberia's Novosibirsk region.

"According to the crew, there are 159 passengers and six crew members onboard," it said.

"All passengers are housed in the nearest village," the agency said, adding that none of them sought medical help.




https://www.euronews.com/2023/09/12/ura ... in-siberia

[RTH10260]

Ural A320 field-landing crew did not realise undercarriage had failed to retract

By David Kaminski-Morrow
27 September 2023

Russian investigators believe the crew of a Ural Airlines Airbus A320 did not realise the undercarriage had failed to retract during a diversion to Novosibirsk, forcing the aircraft to land in a field as it ran short on fuel.

The A320 had aborted an approach to its original destination, Omsk, after arriving from Sochi on 12 September.

Russian federal air transport regulator Rosaviatsia says the crew executed the missed approach because the aircraft suffered a failure of its green hydraulic circuit as its landing-gear was extended.

Rosaviatsia attributes the failure to a damaged hydraulic control line in the right-hand main-gear door.

As the aircraft climbed away from Omsk, the flaps and slats – which are linked to the blue and yellow circuits, as well as the green – retracted.

But the landing-gear uses the green circuit and, although the crew selected the landing-gear lever ‘up’, the undercarriage did not retract.

“The crew did not notice any failure to retract the landing-gear,” says Rosaviatsia.

Leaving the landing-gear extended incurs a heavy fuel penalty in flight

Flight-data recorder information revealed that a signal, confirming that the landing-gear remained extended, was generated throughout the rest of the flight.

After entering a holding pattern over Omsk, the pilots accessed the quick-reference handbook and, after recalculating landing distances to account for the hydraulic failure, opted to divert to Novosibirsk which had a longer runway.

Rosaviatsia says the pilots determined the fuel required for the diversion but, while en route, discovered that the aircraft was burning more fuel than expected and had an “insufficient” quantity to reach Novosibirsk.




https://www.flightglobal.com/safety/ura ... 22.article

[RTH10260]

They intend an attempt to fly the bird out as soon as hell the ground freezes over

Ural Airlines expects removal of stranded A320 to take months

By David Kaminski-Morrow
27 September 2023

Ural Airlines expects removal of the Airbus A320 which force-landed in a field outside Novosibirsk could take several months, and says storage work on the aircraft will be necessary in the interim.

The crew carried out an emergency landing in the field on 12 September after exhausting fuel reserves while attempting to divert to Novosibirsk from Omsk.

None of the 167 occupants was injured.

Ural Airlines says the aircraft sustained minor damage but says it remains in good condition and will “most likely be able to fly in the future”.

It states that a small quantity of soil was ingested by the CFM International CFM56 engines and several fan-blades were slightly damaged.

Several fan-blades of the CFM56 engines were slightly damaged

Once an assessment of aircraft systems has been conducted, the airline says, the affected blades will be replaced. The work programme also covers the landing-gear attachment points.

Wooden platforms have been prepared on which the aircraft is being positioned to keep it stable.

The diversion had been triggered by a hydraulic failure on approach to Omsk.

Ural Airlines, which has sent several engineers and technicians to the site, says the cause of the hydraulic malfunction has been identified, and addressed.



https://www.flightglobal.com/airlines/u ... 36.article

[AndyinPA]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2 ... dow-seats/

Squeezing into a window seat on a full flight can feel like a game of human Tetris. It’s a puzzling test of whether passengers can squeeze their knees in, crouch into their seats armadillo-style, or maybe even invent an awkward new way to sit before ultimately resorting to standing up from their seats to give space.

For travelers who dread these situations, or just wish they could get on the plane a little earlier, United Airlines has some good news.

Starting Oct. 26, the carrier will implement a boarding process that puts window-seat passengers in economy class on the plane ahead of their peers in the middle and the aisle, according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post.

[RTH10260]

before you leave the ground...

[AndyinPA]

[NewMexGirl]

before you leave the ground...

Before you take this story at face,value, check out the source, please.

The Daily Caller was founded by Tucker Fucker Carlson, for god’s sake. It is well-known for racist and white nationalist spewings. Rewatch the video! Funny how White people never seem to disrupt airlines, innit?

“The Daily Caller has published false stories on multiple occasions, and declined to correct them when they were shown to be untrue.[16] The website has published false and misleading articles that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change. In 2017 and 2018, the website cut ties with an editor and two contributors linked to white supremacist causes.[17][18] The website has responded to challenges to its stories in various ways, in some cases defending their claims, and in others expressing regret for story headlines or content;[19] and on at least one occasion, when pointed out by other news outlets, the website has repudiated a past article writer due to support of extremist views.”

Wikipedia.com

[northland10]

Their "news" is also not all that current. The Atlanta brawl was in 2021. The New Orleans attack, which involved spraying with bug spray and later a machete, was in March 2015 (he was shot and died at the hospital). The New Orleans one was probably a mental health issue for a 63-year-old man, but it had white folk running so it was good for Daily Caller needs.

[AndyinPA]

https://themessenger.com/business/pilot ... wn-engines

The crew of a Horizon Airlines regional jet diverted their flight to Portland, Oregon after a person authorized to ride in the cockpit’s jumpseat tried to shut down the jet’s engines on a flight to San Francisco.

Horizon Air flight 2059 was en route from Everett, in suburban Seattle, Sunday night with an “authorized occupant” sitting in the flight deck with the crew, Alaska Air said Monday in an emailed comment. Alaska Air Group is the Seattle-based parent of Horizon and Alaska airlines. “The crew secured the aircraft without incident,” Alaska said.

The Embraer E-175 flight was met by law enforcement in Portland and the event is being investigated, the airline said. The company did not identify the person who was allowed to ride with the flight crew or how many people were aboard the flight.

“We’ve got the guy that tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit and he doesn’t sound like he’s causing any issue in the back right now, I think he’s subdued,” a pilot told air traffic controllers, according to audio recorded by Live ATC. “We want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and parked.”

[neonzx]

Video shows JetBlue plane tip backwards as passengers get off at JFK Airport

https://abc7ny.com/jetblue-plane-tipped ... /13957025/

QUEENS (WABC) -- Passengers at JFK Airport had a scary experience Sunday night as the nose of a plane lifted upward toward the sky.

Flight 662 had just landed from Bridgetown, Barbados, at Terminal 5 around 8:30 p.m.

Citizen App video shows the front of the plane lifted up, while the tail stayed on the ground.

JetBlue says the plane tipped backwards because of a shift in weight and balance as people were getting off their flight.

No injuries were reported. Officials say the plane was taken out of service to be inspected.

"Safety is JetBlue's first priority; we are reviewing this incident, and the aircraft has been taken out of service for inspection," Jetblue said in a statement.

Ed Libassi, the CEO of A&P Aircraft Maintenance, Inc. explained what he thinks might have caused the plane to tilt.

"Now the situation that JetBlue had yesterday, I've seen it in my 51-year career -- too much baggage was left in the air cargo compartment," Libassi said. "Maybe all of the people had gotten off already, or maybe everything up front was taken off quickly -- everything from baggage to fuel in the wings while they flew from Barbados."

[AndyinPA]

[RTH10260]

Unstrapped cargo moved? Or ground crew manipulating cargo containers out of sequence or weight consideration?

ETA yes reports of cargo handling gone bad. Ground crew will have a hand slap.Plane out of service untilchecked for damage.

[Frater I*I]

Threw off the CG by a tad there I might say....

[AndyinPA]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transpor ... -diverted/

An off-duty pilot is facing multiple counts of attempted murder after an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to divert Sunday when he tried to disrupt the plane’s engines, officials said Monday.

The San Francisco-bound flight had departed Everett, Wash., but was diverted to Portland, Ore. The off-duty pilot, identified by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office as Joseph Emerson, 44, was charged with 83 felony counts of attempted murder, 83 misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft. No injuries were reported.

[sugar magnolia]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transpor ... -diverted/

An off-duty pilot is facing multiple counts of attempted murder after an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to divert Sunday when he tried to disrupt the plane’s engines, officials said Monday.

The San Francisco-bound flight had departed Everett, Wash., but was diverted to Portland, Ore. The off-duty pilot, identified by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office as Joseph Emerson, 44, was charged with 83 felony counts of attempted murder, 83 misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft. No injuries were reported.

The backstory on this one should be interesting.

[Frater I*I]

The backstory on this one should be interesting.

Regardless, endangering safety of flight is extreme FA...with extreme FO...

[northland10]

Threw off the CG by a tad there I might say....

I learned about this type of issue while taking a 3 bladed mower mower off an unattached trailer, when I was 20. A little cheaper mistake and was probably the idiot's head team member who disconnected the trailer and told me to go ahead and start mowing while he took off somewhere with the truck.

[pipistrelle]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transpor ... -diverted/

An off-duty pilot is facing multiple counts of attempted murder after an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to divert Sunday when he tried to disrupt the plane’s engines, officials said Monday.

The San Francisco-bound flight had departed Everett, Wash., but was diverted to Portland, Ore. The off-duty pilot, identified by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office as Joseph Emerson, 44, was charged with 83 felony counts of attempted murder, 83 misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft. No injuries were reported.

The backstory on this one should be interesting.

Told cops he’d tried ‘shrooms.

[neonzx]

Told cops he’d tried ‘shrooms.

When I read your reply earlier today, I thought you were making a funny. But then I read a news article this evening.... yep, the magic 'shrooms.

[RTH10260]

From our flying reporter of Oroville fame:

The crackpot pilot was flying home in the cockpit cause the plane was fully booked. The "shutting the engines off" part was not using the engine start/stop switches, but he attempted to pull the engine fire extinguisher handles.

[Frater I*I]

From our flying reporter of Oroville fame:

The crackpot pilot was flying home in the cockpit cause the plane was fully booked. The "shutting the engines off" part was not using the engine start/stop switches, but he attempted to pull the engine fire extinguisher handles.

Oh hell...he really stepped into FA and FO territory...

Pulling the fire suppression handles does a few things...

1: It closes the fuel valve to the burner can [where the combustion gasses are produced to run the turbines], therefore shutting down the engine...

2: It closes off all the valves that provide hydraulic fluid to the engine [main hydraulic pumps are powered by the engine, but there are back ups to get the aircraft safely to the ground, no pilot wants to use them though]

3: It disconnects the IDG [Integrated Drive Generator} which provides electrical power for the aircraft, if both are disabled, the pilots would have to scramble fast to power up the APU [Auxiliary Power Unit] to get electrical power or deploy the RAT {Ram Air Turbine] to get the same if so equipped.

4: It cuts of the bleed air from the 1st or 2nd stage compressor, thereby cutting off pneumatic power to the aircraft.

None of these shutdowns can be reactivated in the flight deck, but only by ground personnel [i.e. an A&P like me]

Turning the handles pumps the fire suppressant into the engines, which is corrosive to many components which would further put the aircraft in downtime...


This has been your overly long aviation maintenance explanation from Frater...he'll see himself out now...