Man sues Jetblue for making him sit on toilet during flight

by Grant Martin on

Think that your seat on the airplane is uncomfortable? It could be worse: you could have been Gokhan Mutlu, a New York man who just filed a lawsuit against Jetblue for making him sit on a toilet for more than three hours of his flight.

Apparently, Mutlu, who was flying on a buddy pass ticket (a free fare), was the last person to get a seat on his recent journey. A flight attendant on a non-revenue ticket was also on the aircraft, but she gave up her real seat to sit in the jumpseat during the flight so that everyone could fit.

But when she got uncomfortable, the pilot came back and asked Mutlu to relinquish his seat, telling him literally to “go hang out” and directing him to the toilet. When he objected, court papers say that the pilot apparently said that “he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command [and] that [Mutlu] should be grateful for being on board”.

After nearly three hours in the lavatory, a flight attendant returned to tell Mutlu that he could return to his seat, but at that point, my wager is that he was pretty ticked off. The lawsuit was filed for over two million dollars. Jetblue should be glad that he didn’t sue for more.

Airlines are slowing down to save on fuel costs

by Jeffrey White on

How much can an airline save on fuel costs just flying a little slower?

JetBlue reckons that by adding two minutes to each of its flights, it saves $13.6 million a year. Southwest is now extending most flights from 1 to 3 minutes, and says it will save more than $40 million. Northwest says it saved about $530 by flying 532 mph instead of 542 mph on one recent Paris-Minneapolis flight (that added eight minutes to the journey).

The Associated Press mentions these figures in a piece about how some carriers are choosing to go it a little slower in this era of insane fuel costs. With jet fuel prices up some 73 percent, to $3.54 a gallon, adding a few extra minutes to normal flight schedules is just one of the ways airlines are coping, along with levying higher fuel surcharges and, of course, increasing fare prices.

United is looking at special software to help pilots choose better routes and speeds and says the software could save the company $20 million a year.

Not all airlines say they have adopted a slowdown approach in order to save on fuel costs. American Airlines, for instance, says it wants to maintain the integrity of its schedules, whatever that means.

It doesn’t seem that customers mind too much. Many are surprised to find out that their flight was a tad longer, and they usually agree that a few minutes is not really that big of a deal. Besides, these slight increases in flight times are built into the advertised schedule, along with taxi time and the like, so we probably wouldn’t know it anyway.

JetBlue to charge extra for more legroom

by Justin Glow on

Would you pay for extra legroom? JetBlue is betting you will, and plans to roll out an “upsell” program to offer more leg room on your next flight for an additional cost. AP reports,

“[JetBlue’s CEO] said JetBlue, based in Forest Hills, N.Y., soon expects to roll out a program called “even more legroom” that will offer passengers in the first few rows and emergency exit seats of its larger aircraft additional space for an added fee. A spokeswoman declined to provide details of the plan, but Barger made it clear the single-class carrier is not planning to start offering business-class service.”

Why not? If there’s a demand for it — and I’m sure there is — why not allow people to pay extra for the features they want? I really like the a la carte trend in the airline industry — I enjoy paying less for my flight, even if that means I don’t get to eat the rubbery piece of chicken I didn’t want in the first place.

But when JetBlue goes this route, I think they should offer the same service in the opposite direction: give me the option of having less legroom (my Dad went to school with him) for a cheaper fair. Go ahead, cram me in the back of the plane with my knees to my chin, I don’t care. If it costs less, I’m game.

An ode to JetBlue

by Jerry Guo on

I’ve been rather harsh on US airlines lately, especially the all-purpose @$!%-hole that is US Airways. So since I don’t like to be a squeaky wheel–all the time–I’m going to switch it up and wax eloquent about JetBlue for a bit.

I just took their JFK to Pittsburgh flight, and it turned out to be one of the best flights in recent memory. That’s not saying as much about JetBlue’s performance as it is about the sad state of American aviation.

But props to Jetblue anyways. They already had something like 40 channels of free satellite TV on this flight (which was only an hour in the air). The pilot also had the courtesy to come into the cabin to make his initial announcement. The two flight attendants were very nice. Oh, and the headphones and snacks were free (looking at you, US Airways). Best of all, the flight was 50% cheaper than the next available one.

Jetblue passengers to get free breakfast in February*

by Grant Martin on

Free breakfast provided by Kraft that is.

This month, the mega-food-conglomerate is teaming up with Jetblue in a new sort of viral marketing campaign: they’re providing free breakfast to passengers on select flights across the nation with their new special low-fat cream cheese that they hope they can sucker people into buying.

In today’s Marketplace segment, members of Kraft’s PR team say that the “captive audience” on an airplane are an excellent market to which companies can now pitch ads. After all, where are the passengers going to go?

Perhaps if this campaign is successful we’ll be seeing more of these adverts from the likes of Countrywide Financial and Gap.

While I am pleased that tired, hungry passengers will be getting free breakfast (low fat, no less!) from Kraft, what concerns me more is the direction in which advertising in general is moving. Put it into perspective: we are now officially being strapped down and force fed corporate drivel. What will they serve up next?