Plane Answers: 5 things to look for on your next flight

by Kent Wien on

O.K., I’ll admit it. Flying has become a monotonous chore that few look forward to. As a frequent flyer, you’re probably more concerned about who you’re sitting next to than what you’re flying over.

But I always try to think about what Louis CK said on the Conan O’Brien show: “You’re sitting on a chair, IN THE SKY!”

If you still need something to break up the routineness of flying, try a few of these ideas:

Note the airplane type.

This is the least you could do. If only to be able to give an intelligent answer to the aviation geek picking you up at the airport. It’s always good to know what kind of airplane you’re flying on, including the series (-700, -300ER, etc.). What if they ground the entire fleet of A321s next week. You’ll be wondering just how close you cheated death on your last flight.
 Look up the registration.

Commonly known as the “N” number in the United States, this can lead to some interesting information if you look it up in on Google before you depart.

You’ll likely discover when it first flew, but don’t be too shocked to find out the airplane is twenty years old. I’d probably be more concerned if it first entered service yesterday.

And you may or may not be interested in any NTSB reports detailing any incidents or accidents the aircraft has been through. For fun, look up N840TW, a 727 I flew for a charter airline years after it went supersonic. All easily discovered by ‘the Google.’

Visit the cockpit

We’ve had a few people come into the cockpit while boarding and mention how surprised they were that these visits weren’t prohibited. While trips to the cockpit inflight are prohibited, pilots still have the time for a five minute tour while at the gate if you’re interested. If nothing else, it might be nice to know who you’re trusting with your life. And you might even learn something.

Look under your seat

Airlines have gone to great lengths to install powerports under the seats in first class and the coach cabin. Unfortunately, most passengers have yet to discover them, since they’re not well marked.

Some airlines such as Continental use a proprietary empower plug while others have simple 110v outlets. American has 12v cigarette lighter plugs but they’re switching over to the 110v outlets.

I’d rather sit in a middle seat in coach with an iPhone loaded with movies than have a first class seat without my own entertainment. Targus makes a rather large inverter if you fly on a variety of different airlines.

Be sure to check seatguru.com before your flight to figure out which specific seats have power.

Count down the flight time

Most flight attendants will announce the flight time for your flight before you leave. Whenever you hear this, set your watch or smart phone’s countdown function with that time and be sure to start the timer just at liftoff. You’ll be surprised how often the timer finishes just as you’re touching down at your destination.

I can think of a few Northwest passengers who may be doing this from now on.

Hopefully some of these ideas help you pass the time on your next trip. Do you have any rituals you do before a long trip? Share them with us in the comments section.

Do you have a question about something related to the pointy end of an airplane? Ask Kent and maybe he’ll use it for the next Plane Answers. Check out his other blog, Cockpit Chronicles and travel along with him at work.

American Airlines fires web designer over response to rant

by Tom Johansmeyer on

In an era where communication is fast and easy, sometimes it’s easy to forget about boundaries. American Airlines fired a web design employee because of this. The employee responded to a blog post from a “disgruntled user,” but the airline felt he went too far, saying that he released sensitive information about American. This was a violation of his non-disclosure agreement with the company.

So far, the employee is being called “Mr. X” — an original moniker, right? Well, he saw a pretty brutal post from Dustin Curtis, an unhappy passenger. He basically wrote an open letter to the airline after having “had the horrific displeasure of booking a flight on your website.” It was so bad, he wrote, “that I vowed never to fly your airline again.” He then offered some suggestions, drawing on his background as a user interface designer and closed with the sentiment: “Imagine what you could do with a full, totally competent design team.”

According to Curtis, it only took American an hour to fire “Mr. X” after he addressed to the employee’s response. Yep, a decade of experience as a user interface designer and a portfolio that Curtis wrote, has “some great work,” went down the tubes. In an e-mail to Curtis, Mr. X explains the internal situation at American’s AA.com group in considerable detail. He provides insights into which groups handle specific functions and is kind enough to point out that there are some enhancements coming in the next 12 to 18 months (so, keep an eye out for them).

And, he defended himself and his company. Mr. X got pretty blunt:

“But-and I guess here’s the thing I most wanted to get across-simply doing a home page redesign is a piece of cake. You want a redesign? I’ve got six of them in my archives. It only takes a few hours to put together a really good-looking one, as you demonstrated in your post. But doing the design isn’t the hard part, and I think that’s what a lot of outsiders don’t really get, probably because many of them actually do belong to small, just-get-it-done organizations. But those of us who work in enterprise-level situations realize the momentum even a simple redesign must overcome, and not many, I’ll bet, are jumping on this same bandwagon. They know what it’s like.”

Curtis, of course, is “horrified” at what happened to Mr. X (and pointed out that he republished the letter with the author’s permission).

For American, this wasn’t an issue of public criticism. After all, Curtis, as a professional, is in the business of promoting his capabilities, and it’s possible to interpret his initial critique as a pitch — to any potential client, not just American. The airline was upset to see such detailed and sensitive information about its operation sent out into the public domain.

Curtis disagrees. His latest statement says, “When I first learned about this, I was horrified. Mr. X is actually a good UX designer, and his email had me thinking there was hope for American Airlines.” He continues that Mr. X “clearly cared about his work and about the user experience at the company as a whole. But AA fired Mr. X because he cared.”

Yet, while Curtis says American fired the designer because “he cared enough to reach out to a dissatisfied customer and help clear the company’s name in the best way he could,” he opened the door to all kinds of information that I wouldn’t want to show up on Gadling.

Plane hits pig on runway and passengers panic

by Jamie Rhein on

It wasn’t a wolf’s huffing and puffing that led to the demise of a pig on the runway at the Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe last Tuesday. Nope, it was a MA60 60-seater attempting to take off. The wild bush pig may or may not have seen the Air Zimbabwe plane coming. But, come it did.

Poor pig. Poor plane. Poor passengers–and poor flight attendant who had to yell, “‘Evacuate!'” after the damaged plane ended up off the runway with dust and smoke filling the cabin.

That’s not the worst of it.

When the panicked passengers and crew tried to escape using the plane’s emergency exit doors, they couldn’t go out one of them. It was jammed. As if that wasn’t bad enough, once they managed to wrestle the plane’s main door open with a mighty effort, two passengers were hurt when they fell into a ditch as they scrambled away from the plane. Because this mishap happened at night, the ditch wasn’t easily visible in the dark.

There’s more. The emergency rescue team didn’t show up for five minutes after the crash because the secret police beat them to the plane. Instead of offering assistance, the police’s main concern was arresting two passengers who were taking pictures.

That’s not all. It took an hour for the 37 passengers to be given water and five hours for them to be allowed to leave the airport. Friends and relatives, who came to the airport after finding out about the accident via cell phone calls from people on the plane, were not told any details about what had happened or given access to the passengers.

Along with reading like a bizarre slapstick story, this pig-on-the-runway-makes-mayhem tale is a good reminder that no matter how bad a flight might seem, it could be worse. [The Times]

Tourism experts say discounts, economic upturn will make 2010 a good year

by Sean McLachlan on

It’s no secret that 2009 has been a rough year for the travel industry. With everyone tightening their belts, discretionary expenses like holidays are often the first thing to go. But industry leaders meeting in London for the World Travel Market say 2010 is looking better.

Cautious optimism about the economy is one cause for this brighter outlook, but travel companies know positive indicators such as increased productivity and exports don’t necessarily translate to more money being spent on travel. What will also help is the shift to more budget travel options. Tour operators have been choosing budget airlines and more modest hotels in order to offer lower prices, and some budget companies have actually seen an increase in business. This trend will continue into 2010, experts say, which is good news for people who want to get away from it all without spending it all. An increased emphasis on budget travel will keep people moving and hopefully encourage them to choose more luxurious options once we get into another prosperous period.

The travel industry is certainly looking for a silver lining around the tsunami that hit it this year. A report released at the World Travel Market estimates there will be an 8% drop in global travel bookings this year, as well as a 14% drop in airline passengers and a 16% drop in hotel bookings.

With figures like that, 2009 will be an easy act to follow.

Drunk United Airlines pilot pulled off plane minutes before departure

by Scott Carmichael on

A United Airlines pilot was pulled from his plane yesterday on charges that he was about to fly to Chicago while drunk.

After he failed a breathalyzer test, he was arrested and subsequently released on bond. United did not release the name of the pilot, but did confirm an employee was “removed from service”.

The flight in question was United 949, scheduled to depart London Heathrow at 12:05pm All 124 passengers had to be moved to other flights as no replacement pilot was available. The passengers were told that the pilot was “sick”.

The airline did not release any more information about the incident. The British press reported his age as 51.

Sadly, drunk pilots are not all that uncommon. When we recently compiled some of the worst incidents involving the flight crew, four of the ten involved booze in the flight deck.