News and notes from around the interweb:
- The pilots of the final air berlin transatlantic flight who made the crazy go around on arrival in Dusseldorf were suspended and are being investigated. They’re losing their jobs anyway but don’t want to lose their careers.
- United is testing a new boarding process personally I hate the boarding pens everyone lines up in now.
- Breakage vs. Engagement an inside baseball discussion on how loyalty programs (should) be thinking about whether or not to expire miles.
- The 1990 incident where a British Airways pilot was nearly sucked out of a plane
- One of the things I get the most e-mail about is reader confusion over United Polaris business class. Everyone thinks their flight will have the new seats because their confirmation says Polaris. It just ain’t so. United calls even their old 8-across dorm-style business class Polaris now. Cranky Flier agrees this has been a major branding fail.
- United sees price wars continuing, little pricing power to raise fares in the near-term.
The BA pilot wasn’t wearing his seat belt?
Just flew United from IAD to SMF and the economy seats were so close together, it became Claustrophobic and I just could not get comfortable. I’m 5’ – 10” and I saw one passenger who was 6’ – 7” get up many times to stretch, as I’m sure he could not get comfortable with his size. This was the worst, most uncomfortable flight I’ve ever taken. I will avoid United 737’s if I can. They (United) could care less about the comfort of their economy passengers with this design configuration.