A few long days through three alliances: Star, Skyteam and Oneworld

by Grant Martin on

The confluence of a pleasure trip out to Boston to see my girlfriend, an engineering conference in Pittsburgh and a meeting at (The) Ohio State University this past week brought me the opportunity of flying on three different carriers throughout the East and Midwest. Since my native carrier, Northwest was offering some truly hideous fares on my desired routes, I decided to give each alliance, Star Alliance, Skyteam and Oneworld a try on my three legs to see how the industry was faring while I was away on NW. Along my journey I kept the following diary:

Leg 1: DTW-NYC-BOS – Delta Airlines

Detroit – New York – CRJ900 Operated by Comair
Boarding and Gate Area

I don’t get over to the B/C concourse at Detroit’s McNamara often enough. While they do have a killer A&W Rootbeer stand, most Northwest flights depart out of the A terminal so I have little reason to visit the other half of the building. It’s nice being on this side once in a while.

Due to what seemed to be some last minute booking and jockeying by the gate agent, we started boarding ten minutes late, but since the aircraft was so small, the twenty minutes was plenty of time to board the entire aircraft.

As usual, the typical gate lice nested around the boarding area, but they quickly cleared out once first and “elite” passengers boarded.
Predeparture

Settling into 9D, I was treated to narrow leather seats, some overhead soul music and a nice view of the larger MD-80 next to me that I would have much, much rather been on. I nestled into my leather seat and greeted the voracious software consultant to my left, and the deer tick in between the window panes on my right.

During the preflight security speech, the young woman next to me noticed the gentlemen in the back of first class messing with the flight attendant – I would later find out that the two were from the hiphop group, Yung Joc with his Swagg Team.

Inflight

The nice thing about flying east in the afternoon is that you get the sun shining over your shoulder. Delta’s CRJ was fairly new, clean and quiet and the young woman next to me kept me busy trying to figure out what “Swagg Team” actually meant, so the ride was quite pleasant.

Once we got close to cruising altitude two flight attendants came back through the aircraft serving (free) soda and peanuts while sandwiches were offered at 7$ apiece. I decided to wait to eat in JFK, which, I would soon learn would be a mistake.

We landed a few minutes early, and even with the long taxi of JFK airport I still got into the the terminal in good time. What a pleasant flight.

New York – Boston – CRJ 900 Operated by Comair
Pre departure

I now know why my New York based girlfriend was always so stressed out when leaving from The City on a Friday evening. On entering Delta’s terminal at JFK, I was greeted by a throbbing mass of people mashing around for space and gates.

Most of the small CRJ aircraft that I was bouncing between this weekend board from ground gates at JFK, and the way Delta arranges them is that they all filter into one outdoor walkway that links to one gate inside of the terminal. So at any particular time you can have several flights departing or arriving from one doorway (in my case, 25) at the end of the terminal.
And if one of those is delayed, like my flight from New York to Boston (due to a late inbound aircraft – flight congestion), the crowd around the single door begins to pile up with stray passengers.

I can’t blame Delta for the congestion – any other solution would require many more gates — but the throng of people in the terminal was truly stifling. After I learned that my flight was delayed by forty minutes I walked over to Wendys to try to grab a burger. With the line well out the front facade though, I wasn’t willing to wait in line. Instead I camped out under a cart of courtesy phones and checked in on the blog from my phone.

Finally, fifty minutes past departure time we made it onto the plane and waited while the ground crew patiently loaded the luggage…. putting us another ten minutes behind. Fortunately, the pilot came on the PA and noted that the flight to Boston was a short 37 minutes, so by the time we got airborne we were only twenty minutes late.

Inflight

Had I not known that my aircraft had just arrived to take us to Boston, I could have arrived and departed out of the exact same plane. Cleanliness, leather seats and operation were effectively the same, although instead of sitting in 9D in this CRJ I was now sitting in the exit row, 12A, with plenty of leg room to spare.

Since the flight was so short, the cabin crew didn’t have much time to offer snacks and drinks, so I was mostly left alone to read Devil May Care and reflect. I didn’t even bother firing up my computer for the 12 minutes that electronics were allowed.

Once we cleared the massive flight delay known as New York City, things went smoothly and we landed in Boston without event.

Leg 2: BOS – PIT – US Airways – Embraer 170
Predeparture

My Sunday evening flight from Boston departed from terminal 2, a slightly older terminal than the normal T5 that I usually fly out of. Despite the floors being heavily worn I found the terminal pleasant and because of the overhead music, almost jovial.

Almost an hour before departure the gate agent briefly came over the loudspeaker to mention something about luggage but almost immediately cut out – and continued talking into her dead microphone for a few minutes. She then made another announcement that never even reached the PA.

Curious, I sauntered over to the gate and mentioned that the PA wasn’t working.

“I know. I’m not management,” the gate agent replied.

“Can you tell me what you said?” I asked.

“I made an announcement about luggage,” she replied “We’re boarding early.”

I smiled and left. She seemed agitated. True to her word, we boarded about ten minutes early and obediently filed onto the Embraer. When I got back to 10D I noticed that my seat had gum worn into the leather. Being my assigned seat, however, I had not choice but to sit in it, and I knew it wasn’t worth my time to complain.

Most of the preflight revolved around passengers attempting to fit giant, giant bags into the smaller overhead compartments (hint: if the wheels on your 400$ Tumi are larger than dinner saucers, you’re going to have trouble), and having a medium sized backpack I was unfortunately asked to shove it under my seat to make room. Now, with gum all over my thigh and nowhere to stretch my legs I too was starting to get agitated.

Inflight

Needless to say, the rest of the flight went fairly smoothly. About twenty minutes after departure one of the two flight attendants wandered down the aisle asking if anyone wanted to purchase a bevvy or snack (US Airways no longer offers free snacks or drinks on their flights) – I didn’t see anyone bite – so they returned to their stations and didn’t bother us for the rest of the journey. Twice, near the end, they came through the cabin and collected refuse, but that was about it.
I guess that makes less congestion in the aisle if the flight attendants aren’t milling around with beverage carts, but I’m starting to wonder how much revenue US Airways is earning from paid snacks and drinks.

Once again we were on time arriving into Pittsburgh, and on transferring to the land side terminal I was out of the airport fairly quickly.

Leg 3: PIT – ORD — CMH American Airlines — Embraer Regional Jet operated by American Eagle

Pittsburgh – Chicago
Preflight

Pittsburgh’s airport is surprisingly large, sprawling and pleasant (more on that later). After circling the grounds about 12 times trying to figure out the maze of roads, I still found myself two hours early so beached up to a gate, plugged in and logged into the free wireless to get some work done. The boarding area was a little dated, but clean and pleasant, and before I knew it we were being called to board the evening flight.

My seat on this ERJ was 2A, which I forgot didn’t have an overhead compartment above it, so after a second of fiddling with my backpack under the seat the flight attendant took pity on me and told me that “she would take care of it.” After everyone had boarded, she took my bag and put it in the crew closet, which I thought was a very gracious thing to do. Later, she crammed two other people’s bags into other compartments as well.

Unfortunately, due to weather and air traffic control restrictions, we sat in the penalty box next to the runway for nearly an hour waiting for a departure slot. As I dozed, I thought about picking up beers with Gadling’s Scott Carmichael when I reached O’hare, and it seemed like for ever before we took off.

Inflight

Rather than accomplish the 28 things that I need to do on the flight, I elected to keep napping to save energy for the evening. The nice flight attendant stopped by to offer free beverages and 3$ snacks, but half asleep I waved her away.

It seemed like I had been napping for ever by the time we punched back through the clouds to a rainy Chicago airport – but since my phone wasn’t on I didn’t know for sure. By the time I flipped it on after landing I was surprised to find that we were over an hour late – this meant my layover had been reduced from 1:40 to :10. Hopefully they hadn’t already closed the gate.

Chicago to Columbus – ERJ Operated by American Eagle
Preflight

It’s been a while since I’ve experienced the mayhem of O’hare first hand, and entering the terminal my expectations were fairly on par. As one of the largest airports in the country, O’hare moves a lot of people and it’s difficult to keep people orderly and happy en masse – especially if there are weather delays.

My walk from G18 to G1A was short, and on the way I discovered that my original flight scheduled to depart at 8:10 was pushed back to 9:25 – but that an earlier flight leaving at 7:10 was also delayed to 8:10 – and it departed from the same gate. So when I showed up at the gate I asked the agent if I could standby. No problem. Five minutes later I was on the aircraft, for a grand total of about seven minutes spent in the airport. I guess I’ll see O’hare and Scott later.

Inflight

After a nice nap on my earlier flight I was ready to get some work done, and from 15C with no seatmate in this ERJ, I had the opportunity to do that. Despite the fact that legroom was minuscule, I was still able to open my Thinkpad X31 and get a fair amount of blogging done, which is really all anyone can ask for on an aircraft this size.

It took a while to get out of the Great Lakes weather and the flight was turbulent – even passing through 20,000 feet I could still see the strobe lighting up rain showers all around the aircraft.

As expected, the flight attendant showed up about 30 minutes into the flight, which effectively left me about 20 minutes to slam a cran-apple juice and get ready for touchdown. But I was just happy to be on the ground again. Finally, arriving only 10 minutes after my original flight was supposed to land, we made it into Columbus.

Summary

It’s difficult to have many excellent experiences when flying around the country in regional jets. Leg room is always restricted, service is truncated and the noisy flights are often too short to get the full experience. If I had to choose my favorite leg though, I would pick my Detroit – New York flight on Delta. Clean seats, a clean plane, free drinks and an on-time arrival are all you can ask for in today’s economy — in fact, with the direction that airlines are heading in, I would say that getting those four things on any flights these days is pretty fantastic.

As I sit behind my bedroom desk at home though, it sure is nice being able to relax and stretch out. It’ll be awhile until I book another regional flight again.

Northwest flight attendants to wear Delta uniforms

by Jeffrey White on

Delta Airlines has sent a memo to flight attendants at Northwest Airlines, which it is seeking to buy through a stock swap, notifying them of upcoming “style clinics” where new Delta uniforms are to be unveiled.

Delta wants NW’s flight attendants to begin wearing Delta uniforms on routes early next year.

While this may not be a significant story, it does give a clue as to how the merger between the two airlines could go in terms of branding — whether the Northwest brand will survive or be swallowed up by Delta’s.

The merger, announced this spring, is expected to close by year’s end and will form the world’s largest airline carrier.

What strange things have been found on planes?


Delta airlines announces domestic fleetwide Internet by 2009

by Scott Carmichael on

Delta Airlines is joining the ranks of American Airlines and Virgin America with in-flight Wi-Fi Internet access.

The service will be provided using the Aircell Gogo technology (reviewed here by Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal). For $9.95 on flights of 3 hours or less, or $12.95 on flights over three hours, passengers will be able to enjoy “mobile broadband” speeds on their laptop or Wi-Fi enabled PDA or smartphone.

The service will first be introduced on the Delta Airlines MD88/90 fleet, then on their Boeing 737, 757 and 757 aircraft. In total, 300 planes will be outfitted with the necessary equipment, making this the largest committed rollout of in-flight Internet equipment in the world.

It is needless to say that inflight Internet access is here to stay. Previous services that offered basic Internet connectivity all failed because of the price (Verizon Airfone) or the investment for the airline (Connexxion by Boeing).
The Aircell Gogo system is a great combination of the right price, and perfect timing. Airlines are scrambling to find affordable ways to generate some additional revenue, and there are only so many services they can take away or start charging for. One of the big differences in the marketplace over previous years, is that more people are now carrying Wi-Fi enabled devices.

Of course, the Aircell Gogo system won’t be of any use to anyone leaving the domestic airspace, as the ground stations only cover the United States. You can read more about the technology powering this service on the Gogo Inflight Internet site.

Disabled Delta passenger made to ‘crawl’ off flights speaks to Gadling

by Jeffrey White on

I’ve been contacted by the disabled Delta passenger with muscular dystrophy who says she was forced to crawl off two different Delta flights on July 20 after wheelchairs were not available when her flights landed.

She was traveling Harrisburg –> Atlanta –> West Palm Beach.

I posted about the incidents on Wednesday.

Her name is Julianna Dombrowski, and she is a 53-year-old retired accountant who lives in the West Palm Beach area of Florida. She has muscular dystrophy and lives in a house with no stairs.

She agreed to answer some follow-up questions from Gadling.

We wanted to clarify exactly what happened, at least in her own words rather than through third parties. Some readers have suggested that Dombrowski requested her wheelchairs after the flights in question landed, which would explain why none were waiting. Also, semantics or not, some readers are questioning whether Dombrowski really crawled off her flights, or merely struggled to get off them by herself. I agree with this distinction in this case: While both are horrifying and not acceptable, the image of a disabled person forced to crawl certainly is more disgusting to consider and has the power to drive a level of angry reaction in people that perhaps exaggerates what really happened.

I’ve also been contacted by a few Delta flight attendants who say they know what really happened on these flights. None so far have agreed to go on the record.

Below is what Dombrowski had to tell Gadling.
Gadling: Did you arrange for a wheelchair to be present at both of the arrivals in question in advance? I imagine this is done (a.) at the time of booking or (b.) before landing, by alerting the flight crew that you need special assistance leaving the plane.

Dombrowski: When I purchased my ticket online I checked the wheelchair box. I placed a follow-up call because I needed to change the seating because of my handicap.

On flight 4664 from Harrisburg to Atlanta I checked with the flight attendant in route because I knew the turn around time would be tight because of a delay out of Harrisburg. She advise me she could not request the wheelchair until we landed.

Policy dictates the all other passengers leave the plane before the wheelchair passengers. I asked if this could be changed so I could get off first to make my connection. When the flight arrived on the tarmac the wheelchair was not there, so I waited until everyone had disembarked and the chair still had not arrived. I assumed additional help would arrive with the chair and it did not.

This may seem like hair-splitting, but did you literally crawl off the plane? I want to be as specific as possible. Oftentimes we use the term crawl metaphorically, which gets the point across even as it carries with it a pretty horrific image that might not be entirely accurate in terms of what really happened.

My disability is weakness in my leg and glut muscles, which forces me to live in a stair-less environment. In order to try to make my connection I needed to climb backwards down the staircase holding onto each step with my hands because the railing was not firm and did not give me the support to exit the staircase. I did not walk down those steps.

As to the shuttle bus in order to get into something high I need to hold onto something and use my upper body to pull myself up to get my second leg up onto each step and onto the seat.

Who do you blame? Delta Airlines in general? Delta crew? Delta ground crew? The airports (since I’m told, after the fact, that it is the airports’ responsibility to provide wheelchairs to the disabled)?

Dombrowski: I am unsure who to blame but believe someone must be held accountable for this disgraceful lack of respect for the handicapped when there are extended delays at an airport.

Has Delta been in touch since you sent your letter?

I sent my letter overnight mail on July 21st. I have confirmation it was received on July 22. I did receive two phone calls from Delta representatives on July 24th who said they are researching my complaints.

I have recently spoken to several representatives from Delta. They seem to be sincere in making things right for the next handicapped passenger. They cannot undue what was done. They offered me to participate in special handicap employee seminars to give my feedback to the appropriate personnel so I can help make a difference for other handicapped fliers.

Delta is taking responsibility for the contractors who dropped the ball on 7/20/08.

Corpse found on Delta Airlines flight

by Jeffrey White on

Delta flight attendants working a Los Angeles — Atlanta route yesterday discovered the body of a dead 61-year-old woman in the lavatory not long before the plane landed.

There are still a lot of questions: Investigators do not know how the woman died, or how long she had been in the lavatory. She might not have been discovered if crew members hadn’t noticed that the lavatory was occupied as the plane went into final approach.

Police met the plane and removed the body, taking it to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab for an autopsy that was expected to be completed today.

MedAire, an Arizona company that makes doctors available on the ground to help flight crews in medical emergencies, says it counted a total of 89 in-flight deaths among the situations it handled in 2006, the last year for which it had data, according to the Associated Press.