Flying the Unfriendly Skies

[RTH10260]

I guess in addition to above Eurowings will have had to pay significant compensations to passengers according to EU airline travel laws.

[RTH10260]

[raison de arizona]

[Volkonski]

https://apnews.com/article/southwest-fl ... unded-faa-
Southwest passengers face delays after nationwide grounding

[bill_g]

Again?

Didn't they recently have a computer meltdown that stopped all their service for a day or two?

Why yes they did. In fact they are the Delayiest.

[RTH10260]

Caught short at 35,000ft: plane forced to turn back after toilets malfunction
Five of eight toilets broke down on Austrian Airlines flight carrying 300 people from Vienna to New York

AFP in Vienna
Tue 18 Apr 2023 18.57 BST

An Austrian Airlines plane had to return two hours into a flight from Vienna to New York after five of its eight toilets broke down.

About 300 people were onboard Monday’s eight-hour, Boeing 777 flight. The crew decided to turn around after finding a technical problem was preventing the toilets from flushing properly, a spokesperson for the airline told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.

She said the problem had not occurred on Austrian Airlines flights before. The plane had since been fixed and was back in service, the spokesperson added.

Affected passengers were rebooked on other flights.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... alfunction

[neonzx]

Caught short at 35,000ft: plane forced to turn back after toilets malfunction
Five of eight toilets broke down on Austrian Airlines flight carrying 300 people from Vienna to New York

Shit Happens

[raison de arizona]

Flight attendant won’t let plane leave until passengers clean up mess dropped in the aisle
‘She has let us all know that we were not raised right and she is disappointed in all of us,’ a passenger onboard said

A flight attendant refused to let a plane take off until passengers cleaned up the mess they’d left in the middle of the aisle.

The incident happened onboard a Southwest Airlines aircraft on 15 April, and another passenger shared the story on social media.

In a Twitter thread posted as the situation unfolded, Ms Schaper said: “Just boarded the plane and somebody spilled food. The flight attendant screamed ‘who spilled rice?’ and is walking up and down the aisles. They are refusing to leave the gate until someone cleans the rice.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/ne ... 24694.html

[AndyinPA]

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/19/justice ... rship.html

The Justice Department has won a lawsuit to undo American Airlines’ partnership with JetBlue Airways that allowed them coordinate routes and schedules in the Northeast U.S.

The lawsuit, filed in September 2021, alleged that the airlines’ alliance was effectively a merger that would hurt consumers by driving up fares. The trial began a year later in Boston and wrapped up in December.

Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines and New York-based JetBlue Airways argued they needed the so-called Northeast Alliance to better compete with other large carriers Delta Air Line and United Airlines in congested airports in the region.

JetBlue and American are not allowed to coordinate fares under the partnership, which was approved in the final days of the Trump administration in 2021 and has since expanded.

JetBlue had previously warned in a securities filing that a ruling against the NEA “could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

[raison de arizona]

Well, shit. We used those split JetBlue/American tickets all the time.

[RTH10260]

Wind buffets plane passengers as door opened on flight in South Korea
Asiana Airlines officials say man pulled lever to open emergency exit shortly before landing

Justin McCurry and agencies
Fri 26 May 2023 10.42 BST

Police in South Korea have arrested a man who allegedly opened the door on an Asiana Airlines flight shortly before the aircraft landed, triggering panic among the 194 passengers onboard and leaving several requiring hospital treatment for breathing problems.

The Airbus A321 plane landed safely, but with its door still open, at Daegu airport in South Korea at about 12.40pm (0340 BST) after leaving Jeju island an hour earlier, the airport’s flight schedule showed.

No one was injured but nine people were taken to hospital after suffering from suspected hyperventilation, a Daegu fire department official said. They included eight schoolchildren from Jeju, according to the island’s education office.

The plane was a few minutes from landing when a male passenger sitting next to an emergency door opened a cover and pulled a lever so the door opened about 200 metres (656ft) above ground, an Asiana spokesperson said.

A video clip taken by a passenger captured the moment the wind ripped through rows of passengers – who had already fastened their seatbelts to prepare for landing – with the gap in the side of the fuselage clearly visible. The footage showed passengers’ hair flapping wildly as some shouted out in fear.

In another clip, two male passengers sitting in the emergency exit row next to the open door are seen wincing as the wind whips around them while they clutch the armrests and try to turn away from the door.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... a-airlines

[AndyinPA]

[Maybenaut]

That is my worst effing nightmare. Some lunatic does something stupid and now I’m going to die.

[RTH10260]

Man who opened plane door over South Korea says he wanted out ‘quickly’
Asiana Airlines flight was about 200 metres above the ground when the passenger pulled emergency exit

Agence France-Presse in Seoul
Sat 27 May 2023 09.54 BST

A man who opened an emergency exit on a flight in mid-air felt “suffocated” and wanted to get off quickly, South Korean police have said.

The Asiana Airlines plane was carrying nearly 200 passengers as it approached the runway on Friday at Daegu international airport, about 150 miles south-east of Seoul, on a domestic flight.

When the plane was about 200 metres (650 feet) above ground, the man who police said was in his 30s, without providing further details, opened the exit door.

The passenger was taken in by Daegu police for questioning and told officers he had been “under stress after losing a job recently”.

“He felt the flight was taking longer than it should have been and felt suffocated inside the cabin,” a Daegu police detective said.

“He wanted out quickly.”

The passenger faces up to 10 years in prison for violating aviation safety laws.

A video clip shot by a nearby passenger showed wind ripping through the open door, with fabric seat-backs and passengers’ hair flapping wildly as some people shouted in surprise.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... ut-quickly

[RTH10260]

Airline passenger finds plane floor soaked in blood

Julia Buckley
Thu, July 6, 2023 at 1:10 PM GMT+2

Pondering on the cleanliness of airplanes is not something most of us like to think about when flying.

But while you might think your neighbor using a sick bag is as bad as things can get, one man was confronted by bodily fluids of a different kind when he found his feet on an airplane carpet still wet with a previous passenger’s blood and diarrhea.

Habib Battah was flying from Paris to Toronto on Air France on June 30 when he noticed a strange smell coming from the footwell under his and his wife’s seats shortly after takeoff.

“It smelled like manure,” he told CNN.

The pair were traveling on the Boeing 777 with their two cats – each in a separate carrier, in the footwell in front of the couple. They were moving temporarily from Lebanon to the US, where Battah, a Beirut-based journalist, will spend a stint as a university lecturer.

“It was our first time traveling with the cats, and I was thinking, ‘Oh god, they’ve had an accident, I’m so embarrassed.’

“Then I thought, maybe it’s someone’s body odor. I was sniffing and sniffing, then said, let me get the cats out.”

He crouched on the floor to check on the animals on his hands and knees. “I looked at the cats – the poor cats were totally fine,” he says.

The gruesome discovery

But what he did notice beneath the cat carriers was a wet stain on the floor – about 20 inches long and wide, he says. He flagged down a passing flight attendant.

“I said it smells like merde – s**t. She handed me wet wipes. I started wiping and it was red – blood red. And it kept coming up red. I was like, ‘What the hell is this?’ I just wanted to see what it was. After a while, one of the flight attendants said, ‘You’d better go wash your hands, and here are some gloves.’”

As Battah was cleaning, the flight attendant had passed the message on to her coworkers, and the captain was radioing Paris, asking what on earth was the blood red stain under seats 30A and 30B.

The news came back from Air France HQ: it was human blood. The day before, on a Paris -Boston flight, a male passenger had suffered what Battah says the crew called a “hemorrhage.”

The passenger had survived, and the captain of that flight had requested that the area be cleaned for the aircraft’s next flight back to Paris – but seemingly the cleaners had forgotten about the floor.

“I didn’t know it was blood until a flight attendant said, casually, ‘Oh, we heard another passenger had a hemorrhage’,” says Battah. “Then I noticed the cat carrier was stained as well.” The blood had soaked through to the carrier, which doubles as a backpack.




https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/airline ... 08359.html
(original: CNN)

[raison de arizona]

[neonzx]

United flight to Amsterdam reportedly diverted to Chicago over meal choice
An unruly passenger was allegedly upset about the menu and raised a stink after plane took off from Houston

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... plane-food

A United Airlines flight heading from Houston to Amsterdam was diverted to Chicago after an unruly business class passenger interrupted the flight, reportedly because his first meal choice was unavailable.

The flight took off at 4.20pm local time in Houston on Sunday, and was in Chicago airspace two hours into the flight. Flight tracking website Flightradar24 showed that the plane circled Chicago’s O’Hare airport as it had to use up fuel, known as dumping fuel, or it would have been too heavy to land.

...

In a statement to the Guardian, United said: “United flight 20 from George Bush Intercontinental Airport to Amsterdam diverted to O’Hare International Airport and landed safely following a passenger disturbance. Law enforcement met the aircraft at the gate and escorted the passenger off the plane. The aircraft then continued to Amsterdam.”

...

While it is unclear exactly what meal the unruly passenger had gotten upset over, business class passengers on United are typically offered a full three-course meal in addition to more food throughout the flight.

The airline has faced criticism that its in-flight meals had failed to return to pre-pandemic norms and it announced last year it was upgrading its business class fare.

Travel review website Live and Let’s Fly reported that business class passengers flying from Newark to Amsterdam had a choice between seared beef short rib, seared lemon grass salmon, or ricotta salata and wild honey manicotti as their main meal. A one-way business class seat on the Houston to Amsterdam United flight typically costs $6,927.

[Dave from down under]

For that low low price.. you also get to go to Chicago!

[bill_g]

I would chose door number two.

[northland10]

I pay way less to get to Chicago.

[Jim]

I pay way less to get to Chicago.

Yes, but you don't get the lovely overnight stay at Cook County Jail as a perk. Well worth the price...to this idiot.

[Phoenix520]

Texas…

[Jim]

For those of you who are frequent flyers and use CLEAR to bypass the security lines...sorry to inform you

TSA Announces It Will Flag Certain Passengers for Extra Screening

Might not be worth that $198/year fee, you'll have to decide.

[RTH10260]

American Airlines barred a 17-year-old from flying with the airline for 3 years because he tried to use a 'skiplagging' ticket, the teen's father says

Marielle Descalsota
Updated Mon, July 17, 2023 at 1:08 PM GMT+2

A father says American Airlines barred his son who tried skiplagging on a flight to New York City.

Hunter Parsons told Insider that the 17-year-old boy couldn't fly with the airline for three years.

"He never violated any policy or broke any contract. He simply went to a counter to get his boarding pass," Parsons said.

American Airlines has barred a teenager who planned to disembark during his layover in Charlotte, North Carolina, instead of New York City, his final destination.

The teenager's father, Hunter Parsons, told Insider that the airline barred his son from flying with them for three years because he was planning to use a $150 skiplagging ticket — a practice prohibited by many airlines, including American.

"His ticket was canceled and he was banned from AA for three years but never actually did anything wrong. He never even got his boarding pass," Parsons said in a Facebook message.

Skiplagging — also known as "hidden city" or "throwaway" ticketing — is a controversial cost-saving strategy where passengers book tickets with a layover with the idea of skipping the second leg of the flight. While skiplagging helps passengers save money, it often results in lost revenue for airlines.

Parson said his 17-year-old son was scheduled to fly from Gainesville, Florida, to New York City, with a layover in Charlotte. Gate agents in Florida took his son to a security room to be questioned after seeing his North Carolina driver's license and suspected he wouldn't continue flying to New York City, Parsons first told the local television station Queen City News.

Parsons told Insider that his family had to purchase a new direct ticket, which cost more than $400, so his teenage son could fly to Charlotte. He said his son "didn't know he was doing anything wrong."

"He was left to fend for himself 500 miles from home. He never violated any policy or broke any contract. He simply went to a counter to get his boarding pass," Parsons said.

In January 2021, American Airlines said it would start cracking down on skiplagging. A representative for American Airlines previously told Insider in a statement that Parsons' son "was questioned only at the ticket counter about their travel while attempting to check-in for their flight."




https://www.yahoo.com/news/american-air ... 41976.html

[neonzx]

In a separate interview earlier, the dad admitted that the family used this "trick" many times over the years to cheat the airlines.

So, kid learned his thievery from his dad.