Denver to Singapore (in 5 minutes) from David DAngelo on Vimeo.
Check out this cool video showing a trip from Denver to Singapore via Chicago, Los Angeles and Tokyo (and back). The creator put a ton of effort into filming as much of his trip as possible, and included some highlights like the automatic beer machine at the Tokyo lounge (at 3 minutes 50 seconds).
The whole thing is quite dizzying, but it is a great way to show a long trip in just five minutes!
The “sport” of pointing a laser pointer at a plane is not new – many people have been arrested for the stupid stunt.
Last week was a first though – someone caught pointing their laser at two planes was arrested, and sentenced to two and a half years in jail.
His first target was a United Airlines plane carrying 180 passengers. When the beam hit the cockpit window, the pilot caught it right in the eye, causing “flash blindness”. The second target was an Alaska Airlines jet, this time the pilot was able to duck below a glare shield, but did have to abort a critical turn.
There appears to be no shortage of stupidity in the world, and shining a laser pointer at a jet just reinforces that. I’m not even sure what is going through the mind of someone who thinks this is a fun game.
These planes are carrying a lot of people, and in many cases they are on their final approach, one of the most critical parts of the entire flight. To me, two and a half year is on the short side – but hopefully it’ll still send a message to anyone else who was thinking of messing around with their laser pointer.
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Canadian singer-songwriter Dave Carroll flew United again, and it just didn’t work out. Carroll made the headlines when he released a YouTube video explaining his experience with United, which broke his guitar when he changed planes at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.
In his first song, Carroll said he wouldn’t rule out flying United again, specifically, “To save the world, I probably would … but that won’t likely happen.” Well, he did fly United again, simply because he needed a direct flight from Nova Scotia to Denver, and United had the only one available. This time, United didn’t break his guitar, but it did lose his luggage.
When he arrived at Denver International Airport, Carroll learned that his luggage was delayed, and the United employees on hand told him to wait for it. Meanwhile, an airport official told him to leave the baggage claim area. Eventually he yielded — a smart move, since his luggage didn’t arrive until Wednesday. And, yet again, United is in the position of having to investigate a problem associated with quite possibly the nicest wronged customer in the history of the travel business.
Following his original debacle with United, Carroll said he’d create three videos for YouTube. He’s created two so far, in addition to a statement explaining the situation with United and urging people not to be so hard on Ms. Irlweg. All three have been viewed a total of nearly 7 million times.
United has promised to take steps to improve customer service, but this seems to be slow-moving, as evidenced by Carroll’s recent situation. To make matters worse, the word from United’s vice president of customer contact centers, Barbara Higgins, said in an interview with Christopher Elliott, “Our agents are empowered to escalate serious concerns that they hear from our guests. We have since provided them with a better way to do that to ensure we can be more responsive to special situations that arise, while also protecting us from the fraud that we see.”
“Empowered to escalate” — that doesn’t strike me as terribly empowered.
The lack of movement on the issue seems clear in Carroll’s Denver debacle. He had finished the lyrics for the third song before taking this trip. “They lyrics that I used sort of encompass what happened here this week so I might not have to rewrite it after all,” he told CBC. That’s a sad statement, when you think about it. He was writing about a problem that happened over a year ago, and recent events don’t call for revision.
So much for progress …
Ironically, Carroll was flying to Denver to give a speech at RightNow Technologies, a company that develops customer service software. Maybe United will schedule a demo soon.
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[Photo by cliff1066 via Flickr]
To many people, airline food has long been nothing more than the age old question of chicken of beef. In recent years, most airlines made some pretty big changes to their food offering. United Airlines was kind enough to invite Gadling to their world headquarters, for a sneak peek behind the scenes of their newest food and beverage lineup.
The highlight of the visit was an executive chef from United’s catering partner. This great chef explained to us how a meal is designed, how freshness is ensured, and what kind of food travels well (and what does not).
Preparing airline meals
When preparing airline food, the executive chef works alongside meal planners from United Airlines. Domestic US food is prepared at local catering stations, and the executive chef travels to each and every one of them to train the local staff.
Some ingredients (like tomatoes) don’t fly very well, and their moisture will turn any sandwich into a soggy mess, so those are avoided. The same goes for the granola yogurt, to prevent the granola turning into a soggy goo, it is stored in a separate container inside the product.
When designing the current food selection, United Airlines held focus sessions with their customers. The airline held 12 different focus sessions, and interviewed 3000 customers. The feedback included more organic options, and the option to upgrade. Even though many customers responded that they’d prefer healthier food, the “classic” option remains the most popular, and who can blame them – Jelly Belly’s and Goldfish crackers are a great in-air snack.
The same goes for the a la carte selection – even though the lineup includes healthy choices, the Lays Stax chips are the number one seller.
Now the new lineup is in production, the airline continues to gather customer feedback, as well as feedback from flight attendants. Cabin crew have access to a system that collects their sales and customer satisfaction results. In addition to this, they collect information on a daily basis from the credit card terminals.
All this information is gathered and it gives the airline a really good idea of what is selling (and what is not). Regular audits even take a look at the trays coming back from passengers, to get an idea whether a particular ingredient isn’t working out.
Choice Menu snack boxes
Obviously, times have changed, and being fed is no longer a given. We got to sample all the various snack boxes sold on United Airlines (domestic) flights. The selection was surprisingly decent – they currently offer four different snack boxes:
Active – Stoned classics tortilla chips, Heinz Salsa, Blue Diamond almonds, Think Fruit chocolate, Pomegranate Power Bar, Newmans Own Organic Raisins, Hannah’s Honey cured turkey stick
Classic – Kettle backyard BBQ chips, Oreo cookies, Jelly Belly gourmet jelly beans, Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers, Sparrer beef salami, Gourmet Cheddar Cheese spread, Pepperidge Farm cookies
Luxe – Rondele peppercorn Parmesan cheese spread, Pepperidge Farm crackers, Food Should Taste Good tortilla chips, Oloves Mediterranean olives, Wild Garden hummus dip, Real Torino bread sticks, Ashers dark chocolate pretzel
Organic– Late July organic cheddar cheese crackers, Terra Nostra Organic dark chocolate square, Kettle Valley Organic fruit snack, Nature’s Path organic pumpkin flaxplus granola, Bare Fruit Organic cinnamon apple chips
The Active and Classic snack boxes cost $6, and the Luxe and Classic boxes cost $7 , which is actually a very good deal, considering the amount and the variety of food. Personally I would also like to see a more kid friendly version, but that is my only minor complaint.
A La Carte products
Flights also carry an a la carte selection with the following products: Lay’s Stax chips, Toblerone bar, Walkers Shortbread cookies, Fisher Salty Nut mix, Clif Bar Oatmeal Raisin Walnut and Odwalla Banana Nut nutritional bar. These a la carte items are $3 each.
Fresh Choice Menu items before 10am
These products are part of the United Airlines Choice Menu Fresh Items. On flights before 10am, passengers can order one of three fresh items:
Fresh Choice menu items after 10am
After 10am, the menu changes to sandwiches and salads. The salad selection offers three different choices;
Each salad is huge – definitely enough for a decent lunch or dinner. All salads come with their own pouch of dressing, and cost $9 each. Salads are designed as a “production plus three days”, which means they are designed to be loaded, and cooled for three days. All ingredients are designed to hold up just fine for this three day period.
In addition to the salads, you can also order an assorted cheese tray with Havarti, pepper jack and cheddar cheeses, dried apricots, almonds and assorted Pepperidge farm crackers for $7.
The sandwich selection offers the following choices:
Each sandwich comes with a bag of potato chips and sells for $9. In addition to the before 10am / after 10am lineup, the airline also sells a $3 strawberry smoothie and a mixed berry yogurt parfait ($5) all day long.
Behind the scenes
The United Airlines team was very open, and no question was off limits. When asked what they learned from offering “branded” food back in 2005, they answered that the licensing fees involved with this food did not make sense. I have to agree with them – I’d rather have a good quality $6 United Airlines sandwich than a $10 Bennigans sandwich with the same ingredients, and the market obviously agreed, because the Bennigans chain went out of business last year. Focus groups also showed that customers did not value brand names as much, which came as a surprise to the airline.
The United Airlines team also listened to some of the ideas we had for them – and tips like online discount coupons for food, and the option to pre-order food were mentioned. Of course, since these were just random thoughts, nobody knows whether they’ll actually make it to reality.
Availability of food
The snack boxes are available on all flights over 2 hours, and the fresh food is only loaded on flights 5 hours and longer. This chart shows what you can expect on your flight:
All purchases can only be made with credit/debit cards as cash stopped being an acceptable form of payment last year.
I tried several of the dishes being sold on their flights, and really did enjoy them. I’m happy to see such a decent selection, but I still can’t help but have happy memories of the time when food was free, and dinner was a nice warm meal. That said, the snack boxes and fresh food do seem to offer a good balance between healthy and decadent. Thanks to United AIrlines for inviting us, and giving us a sneak peek of their current in-flight food lineup.
The future of airline food
Nobody knows which direction airline food is heading. When most of the major airlines removed free meals, it looked like airborne food would be gone for good. As competition heated up, airlines once again started to pay close attention to their onboard services.
New competitors like Virgin America are not only offering food, they are offering award winning dishes, and the ability to place food orders from the comfort of your seat-back entertainment system.
I’m secretly hoping that airlines will start making more use of online services, allowing passengers to place food orders when they pay for their ticket. This will remove surprises and may help families traveling with kids be more prepared for longer flights. In addition to this, airlines may need to start creating more variety. The United Airlines selection may appear to be quite impressive, but if someone is flying the same route twice a week, these dishes will become pretty boring.
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US Airways and United Airlines both stand to receive multi-million dollar fines from the FAA for maintenance violations.
US Airways’ violations include failing to inspect cargo doors and landing gear on a few plans and for failing to perform routine checks on dozen of others. US Airways responded quickly to the news, saying that the violations stem from the integration of their maintenance systems back from October 2008 to January of 2009, and that they are working on addressing the issues. The airline could be fined up to $5.4 million. This is the isn’t the first time US Airways has been fined this year either. In January, they were fined for violating rules involving oversold flights.
United’s violation is perhaps more troubling. The airline faces a $3.8 million fine for a single incident. In April 2008, a Boeing 737 returned to Denver after its engine shut down with low oil pressure. When the engine was inspected, two shop towels were inside. The towels “had been used to cover openings in the oil sump area” instead of the regulation caps. The towels were believed to have been there since December 2007, when maintenance was performed on the engine. This sounds terrifying, but according to the Cranky Flier website, it isn’t quite as scary as it sounds. The caps are only used during maintenance and then removed.
But still, the FAA is taking the incident seriously. “As a result of United’s failure to follow its maintenance procedures. . .it flew the aircraft on more than 200 revenue flights when it was not in an airworthy condition,” the FAA said in a statement.
[via ABC News Denver]