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Friday, Nov 6, 2009
My last two flights on Delta were abysmal. Rude customer service, repeated, unannounced gate changes, dirty planes, crummy cabin service.
I won't be flying them again. I am contemplating a holiday flight from Denver to San Francisco, and I am seriously considering driving. Between TSA and everything else, driving is much more of a pleasure...
Until and unless - and probably after - the black boxes of AF 447 are found, argument and debate over the cause of the crash will dominate all discourse. Of course it’s ridiculous to call the brand or any one of its products a “lemon,” but it is certainly worthwhile to consider whether or how the unique characteristics of the plane may have contributed to its end. Patrick mentions two factors that have received attention (the composite tail that sometimes disengages cleanly from the rest of the aircraft and the highly automated systems.) Given that most aircraft accidents are the result of a series of events or failures, not of one catastrophic failure, it is very reasonable to consider the possibility that one or both of these unique Airbus features played a significant role in the disaster.
I guess that is nice about Delta and their expanding route map. But frankly I have stopped flying US airlines on long hauls as much as I possibly can. Until their service and comfort can match the foreign carriers I see no reason to patronize them. The nice thing about the big alliances is the ability to collect miles on one airline's program while flying on their partners. And then the ability to redeem those miles on the partners is also a big plus.
And then not cheerfully insisting that it is impossible to refund the $15 fee for services not rendered. Thanks, Delta.
"This might sound crazy, but as citizens we occasionally need to take pride in our airlines."
That doesn't just sound crazy, it is crazy. I'll take pride in our airlines when they earn it.
(However, I am proud of their safety record over the last 8 years--simply amazing. And more amazing, considering the financial state of the legacy carriers)
You're the man, Patrick. As a member of an Expat family, I fly quite a lot, so it's nice to have some sound advice on airlines. Also, nice to see that All Nippon, which I will have to use a lot for the next few years (together with Lufthansa) is statistically safe(leave it to the Japanese to have their one fatality _not_ be a customer).
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for the simple breakdown of Airbus models. Quick question - can pilots more easily distinguish between the various types by just looking at them? They all look extremely similar to me.
"[Our airlines] operate, in a sense, as de facto ambassadors, carrying the flag -- and us -- to the world's far corners. Pan Am did this with an almost mythic dignity and flair..." - Patrick Smith
Indeed, Pan Am's reputation was such that Stanley Kubrick had a Pan Am shuttle to an earth-orbiting space station in his 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey"
For my money, Air Jamaica has some of the best pilots in the world. I was on an AJ flight a number of years ago where the pilot landed safely at Newark in 50mph crosswinds during a nor'easter. These guys routinely make long approaches over water and put their planes down as softly as a kitten's paws on the runway in exactly the right place.
At least when Butch Stewart was running things, I always felt safe on Air Jamaica. Once my flight was delayed a half-hour because the batteries on the emergency megaphone were past their change date. That's how thorough they were; fully cognizant that for an airline from a developing nation to have a crash was a death knell.
In recent years, as the government took over the airline again, the delays and cancellations have been so pervasive that I stopped flying them. But notice that they still haven't had a crash yet.
Hi Patrick. I'd like your take on two particular aspects of the Airbus crashes. 1: That a 12-year-old girl could survive the Yemenia crash relatively unscathed (her worst injury was, reportedly, a fractured collarbone). 2: The 2 crashes (and other aviation incidents in 2009) have cost airline insurers their highest monthly losses since September 2001, which likely means higher insurance premiums for airlines already struggling to survive the recession.
Thanks!
JJ
Thanks for linking your old column, I really enjoyed it; completely put me into a reverie. By the info provided, I'm one year younger than you, and had a few Dorothys too in the late 80s. Those pale, bohemian girls; never ends quite like you'd hoped, but I guess that's inevitable when you're so young. :)
Tastes are tastes and vary.
I personally find the A380 quite elegant. Yes the front is not the sexiest, but despite the damn thing being really huge its proportions are well balanced.
If you want an ugly thing in the airbus range, you can look at the A300-600ST nicknamed Beluga though
"On the drawing board is the A350, something of a widened and upgraded A330, destined to compete heartily with Boeing's beleaguered (for now) 787 Dreamliner."
The original A350 program was as you describe - but when it was announced to customers there was a collective yawn from some and a violent no-we want a new aircraft from others. As a result Airbus went back to the drawing board and designed the A350XWB which has pretty well nothing in common with the A330 other than size and targets the 777/787 space.
"The Yemenia A310 carried a French registration. Contrary to some reports, the airline had not been banned from operation into the European Union, though it was subject to special scrutiny by European safety officials."
European reports were not that the airline had been banned (it is on the watch list) but that the aircraft was prohibited from passenger service in the EU because it had failed an inspection at a French airport in ways that the owner saw as too expensive to repair. Thus the passengers in this crash had no flown on this specific A310 from France, but rather on an A330 and then changed aircraft to fly on to the Comoros. The condition of Air Yemen's aircraft used to service the Comoros islands has been the subject of considerable reporting - although at least the main UK newspapers seem to suggest that this probably did not cause the crash, but more likely some sort of pilot error.
The black list does exclude in their entirety aircraft where safety is regulated by certain countries, usually based on a problem with the regulating agency or standards of endemic corruption. Indonesia is a bit of a surprise (although god knows the country's courts are breathtakingly corrupt.) Notably, a number of the airlines on the blacklist have certain specified aircraft approved, presumably because they have passed inspections.
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
Even when government officials purposely subject an innocent person to brutal torture, they enjoy full immunity.
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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