We’re used to waiting on the tarmac for luggage to be loaded. Some people make a game out of looking for their bags. Sitting at the end of the runway too is to be expected. We don’t want the planes colliding in mid-air. But a flight delayed because the pilot is drunk is hard to anticipate.
A Boeing 737-700 full of passengers is nothing to be flying drunk but that’s exactly what would have happened on a charter plane in Costa Rica. Apparently the pilots had been partying for seven hours at a hotel before they were to take to the air
“The assistant captain underwent an examination of alcohol (which) turned out to be positive, while the skipper refused to blow in the balloon.” Alvaro Vargas, Assistant Director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Costa Rica told TravelMonitor
The flight was delayed by 24 hours to allow time for the pilots to sober up. No word on if passengers were allowed off the aircraft.
The charter company was sorry though. “They were not in the right condition to lead the plane. They were relieved of their duties” at least until the end of the investigation” the company said in a statement.
I love the Business Travel Coalition. I really do. I see a press release from this organization in my inbox, and I start to smile. It’s like reading Business Insider headlines without stopping to think that they may be click-bait (not that I’m ever guilty of that, of course …). Well, the latest is downright hilarious. If you hate Delta, you’ll love the Business Travel Coalition.
In its latest statement, the BTC draws attention to a “predatory” move by Delta. In response to Frontier Airlines’ decision to open a route from Minneapolis to Kansas City, it says, the largest airline in the United States has pulled the trigger on routes from Kansas City to Boston, Columbus and New Orleans. According to the BTC, that’s some heavy-duty payback, intended to help Delta “maintain its monopoly position at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport.”
Ummmmm, really? It’s a pretty costly “retaliation” play.
Of course, Delta couldn’t have come up with this idea on its own. The BTC explains:
This is a page from Northwest Airlines’ playbook reminiscent of its 1993 response to entry by tiny Reno Air when Northwest announced it would overlay the carrier’s routes from Reno to MSP, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Yeah, of course it is. The people with aluminum foil on their heads and hanging from their ceilings are doubtless nodding in violent agreement right now. Fortunately, it gets better when you hear what BTC chairman Kevin Mitchell has to say about all this:
“As we saw in the U.S. during the 1990s, strategies of predation seek to drive low-cost competitors out of markets and create barriers – literal barriers of fear – for potential new entrants. Consumers may benefit from below-cost pricing in the short term, but once a new entrant is driven from a market, the incumbent airline can raise prices above competitive levels and recoup the “investment” in its strategy of predation.”
As the ol’ infomercial folks say, “But wait! There’s more!”
“Just as importantly, the anticompetitive behavior sends an unmistakable message to other competitors to not trespass on the incumbent’s markets anywhere in its network, negatively impacting consumers even more broadly. Make no mistake, Delta’s heavy-handed, punitive attack on this low-cost carrier is meant to chill all other low-cost airlines that might otherwise try to mount competition at one of the most concentrated hub airports in the U.S.,” added Mitchell.
Look, the BTC may have a point in all this. It won’t be communicated effectively, though, if they take this approach. In case you need a chuckle, here’s the full statement. First, though, you need a break, largely because these people are so bat-shit crazy. So, to break this up, I offer you some singing skeletons from Canada.l
Okay, now here’s the statement:
It’s deja vu all over again as Delta Air Lines seeks to maintain its monopoly position at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport (MSP) by retaliating against Frontier Airlines for deciding to initiate scheduled service from Kansas City to MSP on June 6, 2011. In a response that can only be considered retaliatory and anticompetitive, Delta beginning on June 6 will start flights from Kansas City to Boston, Columbus and New Orleans, and from Omaha to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport – all overlaying Frontier’s schedules. This is a page from Northwest Airlines’ playbook reminiscent of its 1993 response to entry by tiny Reno Air when Northwest announced it would overlay the carrier’s routes from Reno to MSP, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Diego.
“As we saw in the U.S. during the 1990s, strategies of predation seek to drive low-cost competitors out of markets and create barriers – literal barriers of fear – for potential new entrants. Consumers may benefit from below-cost pricing in the short term, but once a new entrant is driven from a market, the incumbent airline can raise prices above competitive levels and recoup the “investment” in its strategy of predation,” said Business Travel Coalition chairman Kevin Mitchell.
“Just as importantly, the anticompetitive behavior sends an unmistakable message to other competitors to not trespass on the incumbent’s markets anywhere in its network, negatively impacting consumers even more broadly. Make no mistake, Delta’s heavy-handed, punitive attack on this low-cost carrier is meant to chill all other low-cost airlines that might otherwise try to mount competition at one of the most concentrated hub airports in the U.S.,” added Mitchell.
In 2008 testimony before the U.S. Senate and House, in opposition to the proposed Northwest – Delta merger, BTC forewarned about the consequences of creating mega carriers and driving radical consolidation of the U.S. marketplace for commercial aviation services:
Strategies of Predation. “The resulting mega carriers would fortify their hubs with near-exclusive contracts with corporations and travel management companies, and other well-tested practices such as gate hoarding, schedule bracketing, triple frequent flyer points and travel agency override programs, making the barriers-to-entry for low-cost carriers of the 1990s seem low. Congress should be concerned with the market power of super-mega airlines and their incentive and means to frustrate new airline entry at hub airports.”
Indeed, the Delta-Northwest merger created the largest airline in the world; one that possesses the market dominance necessary to frustrate new entry at its hub airports, and one that can project its considerable power into adjacent markets, as also noted in BTC’s 2008 testimony:
Adjacent Market Power. “Congress should be concerned with these mega carriers’ ability to drive supplier prices to below competitive rates for travel agencies, travel management companies, airports, global distribution systems, parts suppliers, caterers and all manner of supply chain participants. Likewise, these carriers would have the power to accelerate the transfer of costs onto the backs of consumers.”
Delta’s move against Frontier adds further evidence and warning that the U.S. commercial aviation market is failing. Indeed, some two and one half years into the widespread implementation of programs that unbundle airline services from the base ticket, market forces are inadequate to drive airlines to make fee information available to the travel agency sales channel. As a consequence, not only were many consumers surprised at the airport by some $9.2 billion in airline fees in 2010, but because those fees are withheld from travel agencies and cloaked from the pricing discipline of a comparative shopping process, they are artificially high. This resulting economic inefficiency is a strong indication of market failure and cause for concern.
The U.S. Department of Justice and State Attorneys General should be on high alert to the return of strategies of predation and other anti-competitive practices in the airline industry. As serious as predation was in the 1990s as a threat to consumers and the competitive structure of the airline industry, today consolidation has made potential consequences worse by orders of magnitude. The U.S. DOJ and State AGs should send an equally unmistakable message back to Delta that it is being watched and that abusive, anticompetitive behavior in the airline industry will not be tolerated. Business travelers and consumers have been pummeled by a series of airfare increases, many of them hidden, over the last few years. They need — and deserve — more airline competition and not the return of old tricks of the past that are designed to kill it.
As airlines continue to focus on extra fees for baggage over a certain weight limit, luggage scales have gone from a nice-to-have to a must-have travel accessory. In this Gadling gear review, we take a look at a digital luggage scale from EatSmart is today’s tool for the job.EatSmart’s Precision Voyager Luggage Scale is a lightweight travel accessory designed for anyone from the casual vacationer (cruise passenger) to the road warrior (Gadling reader). After easily clipping onto the handle of your suitcase or bag, EatSmart’s proprietary (I guess it’s a big deal others wish to emulate) two handed SmartGrip design allows for easier lifting of even the heaviest bags. The manufacturer tells us:
“When your scale registers the weight, the scale will beep and your luggage weight will appear on the screen instantly.”
Sounds simple enough.
This is a big improvement over my old-school hand-held luggage scale that required gymnastic skills and the arm of a weight-lifter (or so I thought), neither of which I have, to get a reading.
To use that one, I had to mount the bag on a hook attached to the scale then, with one hand, hold the bag up off the ground while simultaneously bending over sideways to see the reading, rendering my other hand/arm useless in helping hold the bag up high enough to see. Later I learned (I read the directions) that I could attach that old scale to some stationary object, mount the bag, stand back and read.
Using the Precision Voyager Luggage Scale is much easier even without reading the directions. A durable strap and easy-clip buckle fit around the bag handle for taking a reading, making that cool clicking sound those things make. A quick lift off the floor gets a beep, signaling the user to look down at the device which has lit up with a pretty blue digital display. Who doesn’t like more pretty blue digital displays?
This new one from EatSmart, features a compact, lightweight design that allows travelers to bring it along and not have to worry about paying unexpected baggage fees. I envision bringing this device along when traveling to allow others to marvel (be jealous of me) at it’s easy-to-use yet cutting-edge-technology level cool look.
At a maximum weight load of 110 pounds, this new scale should handle just about any bag you want to weigh and a whole lot of other things as well. My foot, for example, weights 16.3 pounds. My coffee cup did not register. I wonder if I just forgot the luggage and packed everything in coffee cups if that would be a problem with the airlines. TSA should be OK with it.
If you are lucky enough to be flying on one of the U.S. domestic airlines with Gogo Inflight Internet, you are in for a treat this Spring Break season – free Twitter access.
Getting your free Twitter access is simple – when the cabin crew tells you that you are allowed to use electronic devices, connect to the Gogo Inflight Internet signal and follow the instructions on the portal page.
You don’t even have to be inflight to enter the $10,000 contest – just click here and fill in the required fields. You can enter once a day.
Of course, if you need more than Twitter, you can purchase full Internet access inflight or before you board.
Cabin crew members of an AeroMexico flight stopped their flight deck colleagues from entering the cockpit when they suspected the pair were under the influence of alcohol. Local police were called and performed a breathalyzer test. The co-pilot tested positive, but the pilot refused to cooperate.
Since no spare flight crew was available in Costa Rica, the flight was delayed so a replacement crew could be flown in. The 101 passengers were compensated for the delay and made their way to Mexico City 24 hours later. According to a local newspaper, the pilots had been partying seven hours before their flight.
AeroMexico apologized for the incident and will be investigating the behavior of the pilots.