Galley Gossip: Airline uniforms (plus a chance to win free tickets on Olympic Airlines)

by Heather Poole on

Just like Cliff Muskiet, the uniform freak, I have a thing for airline uniforms. I think most flight attendants do. In fact, inside my guestroom closet hangs three different uniform styles from two different airlines. I’ve saved it all – the pants, the skirts, the dresses, the jackets, the vests, the blouses, the wings, and even the blue tie I snapped around my neck and the epaulets I wore on both shoulders with the pleated Bermuda shorts and high heels at Sun Jet International Airlines. Talk about embarrassing. I still own everything except for the silky red and blue scarf I wore thirteen years ago when I first got hired to fly for the airline I currently work for. Oh how I wish I still had that scarf. I wore it off to the side, tied in a knot around my neck. That simple scarf made the conservative navy blue polyester uniform appear sexy and feminine.

“I loved that navy blue coat dress we wore years ago,” said Cady, an ex flight attendant who is also my very best friend.

Personally, I prefer the look of the white starched blouse paired with the navy blue knee length skirt and fitted blazer, even though I always end up wearing the uniform dress. As a commuter, I have to pack what’s easy.

Now my all time favorite airline uniform is worn by the flight attendants of Air France. Though they look great, I’m not quite sure how I would actually feel about serving drinks while wearing the big red bow at 35,000 feet. Delta looks fantastic in navy blue with just a hint of red. However the white bell sleeves, while stylish, seem like they could easily get dirty. That could be a problem for me. I’m a bit of a mess when I get stuck working in the galley, and a dirty uniform is an ugly uniform. Emirates‘ uniform is pretty nice – that is if you look good in Khaki and don’t mind wearing a head scarf. The worst airline uniform has to be First Choice Airways. I mean seriously, pink?

As I began writing this post, I wondered what others thought about all the different airline uniforms, so I posed the question, which airlines have the best uniforms, on twitter.com and here’s what a few people had to say…

  • Flyingphotog: ” I think Virgin Atlantic’s uniforms are awesome. They’ll make you turn your head. Well… at least if you’re a guy they will. US Airways f/a uniforms are super-boring.
  • Paulrobichaux: “I really like Delta’s red-dress uniform. very classy looking.”
  • HeatherMark: “I love Delta’s red wrap dress. The fabric doesn’t look breathable, tho. Those Virgin girls always look fabu, too.
  • Wkali13: “I’m partial to Delta’s uniforms. They always look so professional.”
  • CBI28: “best uniform: Air France-I love that dress with the red bow. Worst-First Choice in Britain, a.k.a. the pink flamingos”
  • Mathew: “Best – Quantas long haul. Worst is Virgin Atlantic & United Airlines
  • Brajit: “AAs uniforms are dowdy. Skybus uniforms were AWFUL! “
  • AKnickerson: “Worst? Don’t know. But best: Korean Air. They are gorgeous! Very chic!”
  • Clipperkid747: “I like Lufthansa uniforms. They do look classy.
  • Tlonyc: “Got to like the laid back look of Southwest, but not as much as Delta. United and US Airways at the bottom.”
  • Stgabriel08: “if you are including foreign airlines, thumbs up to Emirates and Thai Air, thumbs down to Singapore Air”
  • Tyflyguy: “my vote for worst uniform HAS to be Southwest.”
  • FlightattdntJen: “oh God!The old Air Canada green ones: HIDEOUS! Affectionately named by passengers as the “vagina dress” Yay for new ones!”

Okay, for the record, I have never heard of the vagina dress, but now I must see it, so I emailed Jen and asked her to send me a photo. She said she would.

So why all this talk about flight attendant uniforms? Because Olympic Airlines’ flight attendants and pilots are getting new uniforms and you can help choose the final design. You’ve got until June 7th to vote, so click here to go to the website and pick your favorite uniform design. A few voters will even be chosen to win airplane tickets to destinations in Greece and abroad! Warning: the website is not in English. But good luck anyway!

For those of you still with me, I hope you enjoy this youtube video featuring airline uniforms of yesterday and today…

Photo courtesy of (two flight attendants) Dmytrok, (flight attendant in red) Sagado Corazon

Delta backtracks on extra bag fees

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Delta is caving to competitive pressures, cutting its plans for extra bag fees on international flights. The airline says that others have not matched its fee of $50 for the second bag checked on international flights. Now, it will only apply to travel between the United States and Europe. The fee is effective July 1, 2009.

Originally, this new fee was supposed to bring the battered airline (aren’t they all?) – which also happens to be the world’s largest – another $100 million in revenue. That’s a lot of cash, but it’s probably realistic. After all, fees for extra bags brought Delta an additional $177 million in 2008, and it was good for an extra $1 billion for the airline industry as a whole.

First and business class passenger are exempt, given the exorbitant sums they’re laying out already. Also, active military passengers will not have to pay for a second bag – which is as it should be.

Delta plane diverts after food poisoning scare

by Scott Carmichael on

A Delta flight on its way to Atlanta had to make an unscheduled stop at Orlando International Airport to offload three passengers suffering from food poisoning.

The plane had departed Ecuador, but the condition of the three passengers was serious enough to warrant an early stop to get some medical attention. Two of the passengers were transported to a local hospital, the third refused any help.

The passengers did not become ill from any of the food served on the plane and it is not immediately clear whether they were traveling together.

None of the other passengers on the flight became ill, but I’m sure they were not too thrilled by the 3 hour delay. The Delta Airlines site shows the course of events, and clearly shows the delay and diversion.

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You can find Gadling on Twitter, as well as the most of the Gadling Team: Mike Barish, Kraig Becker, Catherine Bodry, Alison Brick, Justin Glow, Aaron Hotfelder, Tom Johansmeyer, Jeremy Kressmann, Heather Poole, Jamie Rhein, Annie Scott, Karen Walrond, Kent Wien, Brenda Yun.

Giving up your seat for a voucher? Only on one condition!

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s always pretty tempting. You’re sitting in the gate area and hear the voice on the loudspeaker, offering travel vouchers and other perks if you’ll give up your seat because your flight is oversold. You know the drill … “if your travel plans are flexible.” Well, while en route to the Gadling meet-up in Chicago, I got this opportunity and decided to roll the dice. Along the way, I learned a bit that you may find useful when the gate agent is trying to seduce you into seat sacrifice.

Don’t give up your seat on one airline to accept a seat on another.

Right away, I felt uncomfortable. It’s natural to hesitate when you’re giving up a sure thing. Next, the gate agents were hunting for flights … never a good sign. I was on Delta, and the next Delta flight was fully booked … even though the original announcement promised volunteers a flight on the next Delta flight. The whole arrangement left me doubtful, but the thought of $800 worth of free travel (I was with my wife) pushed me forward. Gadling top dog Grant Martin was egging me on via e-mail, along with several other members of the team.

So, I pulled the trigger.

The Delta gate agent was able to get us booked on an American Airlines flight to Chicago leaving two hours later. So, we picked up our carry-ons and trudged across the Cincinnati airport to Terminal 2, where we’d check in and catch our new flight.

A shock awaited us at the American Airlines counter: our flight had been canceled. Fortunately, the airline was able to get us on a flight that was leaving earlier … though it had been delayed five hours (i.e., it was supposed to leave at 1 PM but was pushed to 6 PM, while our canceled flight was supposed to push back at 8 PM). Unlike everyone else on that flight, we got lucky. But, I wondered, what if we hadn’t been put on the earlier American flight? How screwed would we have been?

I called Delta’s media relations department while waiting for my flight on American and heard back rather quickly. The rep wasn’t able to point to a specific policy and rushed through an explanation that wasn’t terribly encouraging. The moral of the story seemed to be that Delta would welcome you back … because that’s the airline with which you started.

A media relations rep without some form of corporate-speak to quote chapter and verse is unnerving. These are the people responsible for making the airline look good less bad. If PR can’t give you a straight (if biased) answer, what are the chances of that gate agent being able to deliver?

“It’s easier when it’s a Delta-to-Delta” change, the rep explained. So, that tipped me off. If you can’t get a flight on the same airline, don’t chance it. I was told that there is more the airline can do for you if you’re on one of its flights. That’s true. They can bargain with first class upgrades, exit row seats and other perks. But, if they send you to another airline, you lose all that leverage.

Now, if you are moved to another airline and they cancel on you, you can always go back to the one with which you started, but keep in mind that the options available to them are more limited. If they’ve spent the day accommodating bumped passengers from oversold flights, there may not be as many slots available. You’ve lost time, which means you’ve lost flights.

And, since you’ve already given up your flight, there’s little you can do. You’re at the airline‘s mercy.

With my episode last Friday, I’m still a bit confused about the gate agent’s choice of flights. To have a plane canceled in the 15 minutes it took to walk from one terminal to another felt a bit fishy. I have no evidence of a decision from convenience, but I am certainly suspicious.

Of course, I did learn something, albeit the hard way: do not give up your seat if you can’t be booked on the same airline. You’re guaranteeing a world of headache.

Misery works: airlines making money on baggage fees

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The one thing nobody says about the “nickel and dime” strategy is that it can work. For the airline industry, charging passengers for extra bags translated to more than $1 billion in lifeblood to a struggling business last year, according to the Department of Transportation. As much as you may hate to shell out that extra cash, last year, it went to businesses that desperately needed it.

Before the financial decay spread to every corner of the business community last year, airlines typically allowed two pieces of checked luggage per person and charged for anything else that followed. Then, United Airlines started demanding that passengers throw down $25 for a second bag, with US Airways following to the tune of $15.

It adds. Up. United brought in an extra $133 million. Delta picked up an extra $177 million. American Airlines wins with $278 million last year from baggage fees. Even Southwest Airlines pulled in an extra $25 million. Rick Seaney, CEO of Farecompare.com, believes that baggage fees could be worth up to $3.5 billion in 2009.