I have never had the delight of flying Spirit Airlines in the USA. The one time, I turned up for a Spirit flight, they cancelled it! In the mould of Ryanair, Spirit combines low fares and profitability and customer complaints. Over the last five years, Spirit has consistently received three times more complaints than any other airline and the number of complaints against the airline kept rising in that period. In a report compiled by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund based on Department of Transport statistics, Spirit managed to increase its customer complaints from 6.7 per…
united airlines
Tag Archives for united airlines.
Rating US airlines
As a regular flier, I like to rate who I fly with. I am not alone. Over 16,000 readers of Consumer Reports magazine reviewed 31,732 US domestic flights in February, 2013 for the Consumer Reports National Research Center. The carriers were rated by the readers on six dimensions: 1. Ease of check-in 2. Friendliness and responsiveness of cabin crew 3. Cabin cleanliness 4. Baggage handling 5. Seating comfort 6. In-flight entertainment The results were not a huge surprise as to where the eleven US carriers ranked. The ranking was very close to my own assessments…
787 takes to the sky -Who, Where and Why
After a three-month break from mid January until late April, an elaborate battery fix and two US test flights, the 787 is back in the air. I have previously described the changes that are being installed by 300 Boeing technicians to the planes across the world. Interestingly, the Japanese authorities have insisted on additional alterations in addition to the changes mandated by the FAA. They have insisted ANA and JAL install battery monitoring systems to monitor the battery performance and to carry out an inspection program to battery changes are working effectively. These additional precautions do not apply to any other airlines flying 787 Three questions: Why has the US FAA not…
787 Cleared to Fly!
The FAA (the U.S. regulators) has approved the return of the grounded 787 Dreamliner to the air next week. The authority were clearly satisfied with Boeing’s fixes with US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood saying: “These changes to the 787 battery will ensure the safety of the aircraft and its passengers“. The manufacturer is saying while it does not know what caused the fire, it’s fixes will deal with 80 possible causes. “Next week, the FAA will issue instructions to operators for making changes to the aircraft and will publish in the Federal Register the final…
787 to fly from May 31
United Airlines has scheduled a 787 flight from Houston to Denver on May 31. Seats are available for sale. It is planning to resume international 787 flights on June 10, from Denver to Tokyo. United stated they will make more schedule changes when they know that the plane has been cleared to fly. Over at Qatar Airways, their CEO announced their 787 fleet will be flying before May 31 with the Wall Street Journal claiming that Qatar is planning to have four of their five 787s in service by April 30. ANA (All Nippon) CEO…
Where can you find a 787?
Seven airlines have fifty 787s grounded at airports across the world: Tokyo Haneda, Japan: 12 Tokyo Narita, Japan: 7 Mumbai, India: 5 Houston, USA: 4 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:4 Santiago, Chile: 3 Takamatsu, Japan: 2 Bangalore, India: 1 Boston, USA: 1 Chicago,USA: 1 Doha, Qatar: 1 Frankfurt, Germany: 1 Kumamoto, Japan: 1 London Heathrow, UK: 1 Los Angeles, USA: 1 Matsuyama, Japan: 1 Warsaw, Poland: 1 In addition, Boeing has about 20 undelivered 787s.
All 787s grounded-airline by airline
After a series of highly publicised problems including an ANA emergency landing on Wednesday 16 January, all 50 of the 787s across the world have been grounded. On Wednesday 16th January, 2013, US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the grounding of all US-registered 787s and recommended other jurisdictions do the same: As a result of an in-flight, Boeing 787 battery incident earlier today in Japan, the FAA will issue an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) to address a potential battery fire risk in the 787 and require operators to temporarily cease operations. Before further flight, operators of U.S.-registered, Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to…
Ten Worst Airlines- 2012 [Updated]
I am often asked which airlines are best avoided. Having flown for over 3040 hours (0ver 18 weeks of my life!) with 83 airlines, there are some clear differences between the best and the worst! I rate each flight I take for every factor from Booking to Check in to deplaning. and keep a tally of my rating using Flightmemory.com. The scores averaged out give me the ranking of flights, airlines and airports. I have placed my score for each airline next to the airline name. Here is my list for of the 2012 worst airlines, starting from the…
United 787 is up and away
Some good news for United Airlines. On August 19, their first Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off from Boeing’s Everett field in, Washington state for its first test flight. The plane cruised around Seattle for three hours as all aspects of the craft’s backup and safety systems were checked. The plane will be delivered to United in late September and will be followed by 49 others. United will be the fifth airline in the world to get the 787 (after ANA, JAL, Ethiopian, LAN) and the first US carrier to have it. They will be flying Denver to Tokyo…
Honey, guess what we lost today?
Normally my whacky Wednesday posts are funny or at least a little amusing. Today’s is far from amusing. United Airlines, who I regularly bag, bash and mock in my blog are apparently in the business of transporting luggage and people around the USA. According to Brett Snyder, they are doing worse since the merger with Continental (vale). For example only 70.1 percent of their flights were on time in June. In addition, United lost bags at twice the rate of Delta which is a bigger airline. Luggage being lost is annoying. On June 30, 2012 United Airlines lost a bag…
Recent Comments