Airline policies

Are airports ready for the new 3-hour rule? Are you?

Air Travel, Airline policies, Airports, , ,

(photo courtesy Daniel Incandela)

My column on USATODAY.com this month, Are airports ready for the 3-hour rule?, takes a look at how airports are gearing up for the April 29th roll-out of the new Department of Transportation (DOT) rule to upgrade protections for airline passengers.

We’ve been hearing a lot from airlines – they’re not happy – but I was curious about what the fall-out might be for airports if (when?) more planes end up turning around and coming back to the terminal and if (when?) more people end up stuck at the airport.

I was imagining I’d hear worry, maybe even hysteria, from airport officials.  That’s not what I got. In fact, the responses I got down the line were more along the lines of “We’re ready. Bring it on.”

You can read the complete column – and the very intriguing comments readers have been posting – on USATODAY.com.  Here’s some of what airport officials told me:

Airports at the ready

Long before the DOT announced enhanced protections for airline passengers, airports were holding meetings to work on creating tool kits and best practices that could be used during excessive flight delays. At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, for example, executive vice president for operations Jim Crites says that in 2007 the airport began purchasing extra equipment to help deplane passengers quickly. DFW also started beefing up communications with airlines, with regional airports that might get diverted flights and with airport concessionaires that might need to stay open later than usual during irregular operations. “The customer expects everyone to be on the same page. So instead of doing business in isolation, you began to see more coordination, more teaming up and partnering across entities.”

It’s the same story at many small and medium-sized airports. “After that incident when people were stuck on a JetBlue plane in New York for nine hours we agreed as a management team that we would not let that happen here,” says Russell Widmar, the aviation director at California’s Fresno Yosemite International Airport, “So we’ve had our own passengers’ bill of rights in place for almost a year and a half now.”

The plan that the team worked out was successfully put to the test in January 2008, when severe weather on the California coast brought 14 diverted planes to Fresno Airport. “It really isn’t any problem dealing with extra flights,” says Widmar, “The only difficulty is that these passengers don’t want to be in Fresno. They want to be San Francisco or wherever they were headed. But if they end up here, no matter when they drop in, we have services available for them. No one needs to be stuck on the airplane.”

Widmar believes that by now pretty much every airport is ready to deal with this type of activity. That includes the many small airports not currently covered by the DOT contingency plan rule, such as Indiana’s Fort Wayne International Airport, which often get diverted flights from Chicago and Detroit. FWA executive director Tory Richardson says “The DOT rule is silent on how the coordination plans are to be handled at small airports, even though there are a few hundred of us. But we will step up … Nobody wants the black eye that happened in Rochester.”

Ladies-only lavs on All Nippon Airways

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When I toured one of Boeing’s test 787 Dreamliner planes recently, I was pleased to see that the lavatories feature touchless faucets and flushers, as well as a nifty feature that automatically puts down the toilet seat lid.

(Photo by Jerome Tso)

And back in November, 2009, I was intrigued by the news from ANA (All Nippon Airways) that it was the first airline to install warm water “washlets” – bidet toilets – in the First and Business Class lavatories onboard its Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft.

Now comes news that on March 1st (the beginning of Women’s History Month), the airline will designate one ladies-only lavatory on each airplane serving international routes (except those served by A320/B737 aircraft).

(You’ll know it’s the ladies-only lav by the pink sign!)

Why a woman’s only lav?  Women who have flown on long flights don’t even need to ask. But an ANA spokesman explains it this way: “Many customers requested it, so, in order to enhance their in-flight experience, comfort and convenience, we’re implementing it.”

Enough toilet talk?  Before you go,  take a moment to watch the “Art of Arrival” animation on the ANA website.  It uses the Japanese animation style known as anime  and, like the ladies-only lavs, is quite unusual.

Bloggers bullied for posting TSA memo

Airline policies, , , ,

[Updated 12/31: The Transportation Security Administration dropped the subpoenas! Good!  Read more here. ]

The past day or so has been rough on two bloggers – Steve Frischling (Flying with Fish) and Chris Elliott (Elliott.org).

Each posted a leaked copy of a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) memo about the new security rules rolled out in the wake of the botch Christmas Day airplane bombing.

You can read the Associated Press summary of what happened here, but the scary part is that last night, armed with subpoenas, special agents from the Department of Homeland Security visited each of these writers and demanded that they reveal who gave them the leaked security directive.

Tuesday night, while Frischling Tweeted messages to fellow bloggers about what was happening, two special agents were going through his home computer and his Blackberry looking for clues.  They came back Wednesday morning to get his laptop so they could take it off-site and copy files.  Read his detailed account of the visit here.

Here’s what Chris Elliott wrote on his blog about what happened at his house. We haven’t heard yet whether or not Elliott felt compelled to give over his computer, or his sources, but you can read the full text of the subpoena on his Web site.

What will come of this? Is someone going to jail? Will the “leaker” be unmasked? We’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime, the story has kicked off a serious discussion about the rights of bloggers vs. journalists; the appropriateness of posting leaked documents and, of course, the strong-armed actions the DHS is taking in order to smoke out the leaker.

Here are some links to some of the bloggers and Web sites that have written about many of the issues raised by this incident:

David Parker Brown (Airline Reporter) wrote about the incident early and has been updating as news breaks.

In Aviation Week, Chris Fotos wrote about why he’s not so sure Elliot and Frischling should have posted the security directive in the first place.

Chris Gray Faust (Chris Around the World) wrote of  her concerns about “who protects journalist bloggers”? And in her blog post titled “Paying a price for setting the record straight?” Mary Kirby (Runway Girl) shares a few late-breaking comments from the TSA and offers additional information about the leaked security directive saga.

Stay tuned.

Airlines want your money, but not your cash

Air Travel, Airline policies, Food, Kids, , , ,

moneybags

In researching my Well Mannered Traveler column for MSNBC.com this week, I discovered that just about every U.S. airline has gone “cashless” in the cabins.

Those that haven’t surely will.  So if you think you’ll want to buy a snack, a sandwich or a headset on your next flight, make sure you have your credit or debit card handy.

Continental, Delta and Northwest (Delta’s new partner) recently joined United, AirTran, Virgin America, Alaska, Frontier and Midwest in the cashless cabin movement.  Now that flight attendants are equipped with card readers, cash is no longer accepted for onboard purchases.

The airlines say they’re doing this for the convenience of passengers who will now “not have to deal with the hassle of fumbling for money.” Flight attendants say they like the new policy because it means no more having to keep track of cash and rushing around trying to make change.

money

But many passengers aren’t so sure.  TripAdvisor.com recently did a survey on this topic and found that 54% of the 1,918 respondents would prefer paying for in-flight food and services with cash.  In the thumbs up/thumbs down survey that accompanies my column, 81% of the more than 5,000 people who voted in just the first twelve hours thought airlines should continue to accept cash.

Andy Johnson, of LeRoy, Ill., is one of those cash-only customers who’d like airlines to continue accepting cash on board. “Cash is king,” she said, “but people also need to carry appropriate bills. Whenever I travel, I always check out the costs and prepare in advance so that if I want to purchase something, I’m ready.”

moneysign_

Cashless cabins also have some parents concerned. “I don’t like it,” said Colorado mom and family travel writer Amber Johnson. “I understand the convenience of not having to deal with counting out change. But what happens when my kids fly alone to see their grandparents? I really don’t want to have to go through the hassle of sending a credit card with them.”

She may not have to.

Snacks are complimentary for kids and adults on JetBlue Airways.

Complimentary meals are still served on some Continental and Hawaiian Airlines flights.

Some carriers, including Delta, Northwest, Frontier, Midwest and United, officially include the cost of a snack or meal in the unaccompanied minor fee. (On Frontier, the fee also includes use of the TV.) On Virgin America, which has been cashless since the airline’s 2007 launch, in-flight teams will provide an unaccompanied minor with complimentary snacks or meals “if they are hungry onboard and didn’t plan ahead,” said spokesperson Abby Lunardini. Alaska Airlines has had an unofficial practice to provide a free meal to unaccompanied minors who don’t have food with them, but a spokesperson says the policy will be formalized in early 2010.  And US Airways, which plans to go cashless in the first half of 2010, is “looking into things like vouchers, so unaccompanied minors without cards can purchase snacks or food,” said spokesperson Valerie Wunder.

To read the full column – and cast your vote on the whether or not airlines should continue to accept cash, please see: Airlines want your money, but not your cash on MSNBC.com.