Posts in the category "Airline policies":

Frontier Airlines, which adopted Midwest Airline’s sweet-smelling tradition of serving complimentary warm chocolate chip cookies to all passengers, has decided to nix that amenity at the end of April. The reason: “offering a free perishable snack did not align with our low-cost business model,” said an airline spokesperson.

What will be served instead? Elite frequent fliers – and anyone who has paid a fare above economy class – will get complimentary packaged goldfish crackers or animal crackers. Hungry economy class passengers can snack on those items as well – if they’re willing to pay $1 a package.

Another change in the pipeline: Allegiant Air – which already charges a per-segment website booking fee and adds charges for seat assignments, beverages, priority boarding, and other services – plans to begin charging $35 for each carry-on bag as of Wednesday. The new fee hadn’t been added to this long list of fees as of early Tuesday morning, but airline spokespeople have confirmed the new fee to various news outlets.

Categories: Airline policies, Carry-ons, Food, Free Stuff
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Earlier this week, for a story on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, I talked with Dawn Wilcox, a disabled veteran from Kileen, Texas who claims American Airlines employees did not help her when she told them she needed to use the restroom on a flight between LaGuardia Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport last Saturday, Oct. 29.

Wilcox said she had informed the flight attendants shortly before landing that she needed to be taken off the plane first so that she could go to the bathroom.

“They landed and started letting people off,” said Wilcox. “I said, ‘Ma’am, I’m really about to go in my pants.’ I was almost in tears. They’d already let three quarters of the people off and it was too late, I’d already wet my pants.”

In a statement about the incident, American Airlines said it reached out to Wilcox and apologized to her for her “discomfort and overall experience with us.” But the airline also said it was looking into this event further because flight attendants reported a different version of the story.

On Wednesday, an American Airlines representative got in touch with me to let me know what their investigation turned up.

Here’s their statement:

Since Ms. Wilcox’s request came during the aircraft’s decent into DFW – a time when everyone must remain seated for safety – American’s flight attendants offered specific assistance to Ms. Wilcox, telling her they would use the special, onboard wheelchair (they are carried onboard all our aircraft) to take her to one of the aircraft lavatories just as soon as the aircraft reached the gate and before any other passengers deplaned.

Ms. Wilcox declined that offer of assistance, saying she preferred to use her personal wheelchair to reach a restroom in the terminal. Flight attendants reminded her that her wheelchair was stowed in the cargo compartment of the aircraft and that it would take some time to unload it and bring it up to her – which would further compound her urgent need to get to a restroom. Ms. Wilcox nonetheless insisted on waiting for her personal wheelchair.

There are other facts about Ms. Wilcox’s travel, while not directly related to the onboard incident described above, that call into question the credibility of her public statements and allegations.”

Those “other facts,” including the discovery that Wilcox requested and received a bereavement fare to attend a family funeral that was not happening, do seem to poke some holes in this story.

Perhaps the Department of Transportation will end up doing its own inquiry of this incident.

In the meantime, here’s a link to the DOT rules that spell out the responsibilities of travelers, airlines and airports regarding the needs of disabled fliers.

Categories: Air Travel, Airline policies, Complaints
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If you’re too round to fit between the armrests in an AirTran Airways coach seat, you’ll may soon have to purchase two seats in order to fly.

As I reported on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, AirTran is being integrated into Southwest Airlines and, beginning March 1, 2012, the airline will adopt Southwest’s current “customers of size” policy.

According to AirTran’s recently updated contract of carriage, air travelers will be required to purchase an additional seat if the passenger, “in the carrier’s sole discretion, encroaches on an adjacent seat and/or is unable to sit in a single seat with the armrest lowered.”

That matches the wording of Southwest Airline’s customers of size policy, which states: “Customers who encroach upon any part of the neighboring seat(s) should proactively book the needed number of seats prior to travel. The armrest is considered to be the definitive boundary between seats and measures 17 inches in width.”

The width of coach seats on AirTran’s current fleet of airplanes is 18 inches.

Previously, AirTran did not have a specific “customer of size” policy in its contract of carriage and, instead, gave gate staff and crew members authority and responsibility to work out seatmate-of-size solutions on a case-by-case basis.

“Did air travelers who are large pick AirTran over Southwest because AirTran didn’t have such a strict policy? I think they looked at the ticket price,” said Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com.

“AirTran is basically becoming Southwest,” Seaney said. “The two airlines are merging their boarding process, their fleets, their award program and their attitude. So this is just a normal course of business.”

George Hobica, president of AirFareWatchdog.com, said he’s not surprised to see AirTran adopting Southwest’s policies.

“It’s probably a good thing for the comfort of all,” he said. “But I wonder if [the policy] is observed more in the breach than the practice. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen passengers that are way too big to fit in one seat getting a free pass.”

(Image courtesy msnbc.com)

Categories: Airline policies, Seatmates of Size
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The summer travel season is barely underway and already we have a suitcase-full of stories about passengers booted from airplanes for being potty-mouthed, improperly dressed or otherwise over-the-line.

On June 16, a basketball player from the University of New Mexico was arrested at San Francisco after refusing to hike up his baggy pants while boarding a US Airways flight.

A few days earlier, a children’s book author was removed from an Atlantic Southwest Airlines flight at Detroit Metro Airport after a flight attendant overhead him cursing about a flight delay.

The week before, a passenger stripped naked and then locked himself in the lavatory on an Iberia Airline flight going from Madrid to Frankfurt.

And in May, a United Airlines passenger flying from Spokane, WA to Denver was arrested for allegedly masturbating in his seat.

Those bad-boy stories make great headlines. But there are plenty of common, clueless behaviors witnessed by travelers and crew members that’s just plain gross. Here are five activities to steer clear of on your next flight.

Toenail clippers and skin peelers

An unsettling number of travelers report witnessing other passengers clipping toenails mid-flight. Jill Bazeley of Merritt Island, FL can’t forget the “scruffy-looking fellow” she sat next to on a flight from Denver to San Diego. “Through an hour or so of studious picking at his filthy feet, he managed to deposit an unpleasant bounty of skin peelings on the cabin floor,” said Bazeley.

Tray-table diaper changers

Alex Kremer of Boulder, CO is still grossed out by the couple traveling with their baby in the first class cabin on a United Airlines flight. “At one point in the flight I looked up and saw the mother changing the baby’s used diaper right on the seat. She then used her blanket to clean up and tried to hand it to the flight attendant who rightly told her to handle her own waste.”

Scantily-clad seatmates

No one wears their Sunday best to fly anymore, and some people hardly wear anything.

This man flies regularly on US Airways, in equally fetching outfits. Back in 2007, you may remember, student and Hooters waitress Kyla Ebbert was asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight because a crew member declared her in-flight attire too skimpy. It may have been: when she visited the “Today” show wearing the same outfit, rebroadcasts were edited because Ebbert flashed the national television audience when she sat down.

Bawdy browsers

Not every X-rated website gets blocked by in-flight Wi-Fi and it’s easy for travelers to load porn on portable devices. But watching that stuff on airplanes is just downright creepy.

Stinky snackers

Some people don’t bother to shower before heading to the airport. Others think fried chicken, barbecue ribs and other smelly, greasy and messy meals are acceptable grab-n’-go fare.

They’re not.

This story originally appeared on msncbc.com Overhead Bin blog.

Photo of stunt on wing courtesy The Commons, Flikr  and San Diego Air & Space Museum.

 

Categories: Air Travel, Airline policies, Etiquette, family travel
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I really can’t tell you what thrilled me more today. The photo (above) that Jill Tarlow took of a fellow airline passenger and shared with The San Francisco Chronicle as part of the national discussion about proper flying attire – or all the other photos of this man people began sending me after I wrote about about him on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin (What will get you kicked off US Airways? Saggy pants or underpants?)

Jessica Villardi took this photo in May

Sean Stecker spotted him in Phoenix around Christmas

And someone else snapped him in this fetching outfit in Baltimore.

You can read more about the mystery man here, but no matter what you think of his outfits, he – and the University of New Mexico football player recently arrested at San Francisco International Airport for allegedly refusing to follow a US Airways crew members’ request to hike up his saggy pants – are fueling a fresh debate about the rights of passengers at the airport and in the air.

Categories: Airline policies, Etiquette
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