An aborted takeoff at Philadelphia International Airport tonight led to an evacuation of 149 passengers and five crew members. One passengers elected to post a selfie on Twitter just moments after evacuating the US Airways A320 aircraft with a...
On Malaysia Airlines and the Fragility of Life
I am working on a trip report that will include the scariest flight of my life, a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. An odd coincidence that it was on Malaysia Airlines but a sobering...
Why I Went to Afghanistan When I Did
Things in Afghanistan are going downhill…to put it lightly. The latest headline is Taliban Attack on Kabul Restaurant Rattles Close-Knit Expat Community in which we learn: KABUL—Shock spread through Kabul’s close-knit expatriate community after the Taliban killed 21 people, including...
Why I’m Not So Optimistic About Jeff Smisek Anymore
On October 12, 2010 I wrote a post entitled, “Why I’m Optimistic about Jeff Smisek Leading United Airlines.” Based upon an inflight anecdote in which Smisek engaged both crew and customers, I posited that “he appears to be laying...
My Thanksgiving Hypocrisy
I try to avoid political controversy here, but for my annual Thanksgiving post I had planned to write a piece stating that I would not be shopping today or tomorrow and encouraging you to also spend the time with...
Pack a Sack as United Sacks Packs of Snacks in Back to Stay in Black
United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek promised USD$2 Billion in cuts at the last shareholders’ meeting and the process has already begun. First, route cuts. Next, a threatened furlough of legacy United flight attendants (more on that in a future...
Are Airline Safety Videos Worth Playing?
For years we have been told to set aside our reading materials while an airline safety video is played prior to takeoff, but few people comply with that request. In fact, most openly ignore it–continuing conversations, remaining focused on reading...
An Armed TSA is a Threat to All
In the wake of a lone wolf gunman storming a Terminal 3 security checkpoint at LAX last Friday and murdering a TSA screener, some are now calling for a cadre of TSA screeners to be armed at every airport....
Flying on 9/11, 12 Years Later
It has been three months since I have flown on United Airlines—it seems like yesterday that I was running for my connection in SFO—but today I took to the air again, flying from Los Angeles to Newark. In the...
An Important Decision Resolved
Let me give you a bit of advice that probably goes without saying—if you wish to do well on something, you have to put in the effort…unless you happen to be naturally brilliant of course, which few of us...
Singapore, My 100th Country
I never got around to posting that I recently surpassed the 100-country threshold in my quest to explore as much of this world as humanly possible. Last month Singapore became my 100th country visited, as I spent about 28...
The United Merger: One Year Later
One year has passed since the day United and Continental officially tied the knot and what a year it has been. I predicted in a blog post late on March 2, 2012 that the transition would be bumpy and...
Seven Words You Can Never Say on an Airplane?
George Carlin famously claimed there were “seven words you can never say on television.” In light of the controversy over my recent ejection from a United Airlines flight, I want to pose the following question today— Are there certain...
Independence from the British…and the Germans?
For the second year in a row, I am spending 04 July–the American Independence Day–in Frankfurt, Germany. Today while thinking about the American Revolutionary War that followed the signing of the Declaration of Independence, I recalled that Frankfurt played...
When Rules Should Be Overruled
Let’s have a debate about rules today. I’ve touched on the issue before and it usually draws a number of comments, most of them negative, stating that rules are on the book for a reason, we all should follow...
Crisscrossing the World: 33K Miles of Travel to Begin 2012
Hello from the Turkish Airlines Lounge in Istanbul–I’ve still got 21 hours of flying ahead of me today and tomorrow, but the end is in sight. I like to get a jump start on status requalification each year and...
A Christmas Remembered: 25 December 1941
Let’s go back in time today 70 years to Christmas Day, 1941. Just a few weeks earlier the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States found itself officially at war with Germany and Japan. An airline industry...
Baggage Delays, Freeway Gridlock, and Torrential Rain: Welcome Home
Maybe I just need to learn not to sweat the little things I have no control over, but I was mere minutes from turning around the car, driving back to LAX, and catching the late Lufthansa flight back to...
The Downside to Flying Standby as a Non-Rev
I had a nice quiet weekend in Frankfurt: plenty of sleep, leisurely meals, and even some time for free reading. But it was not the weekend I wanted–Moldova and the breakaway region of Transnistria were calling and I was...
An Amazing Day in Petra, Jordan
After a fascinating weekend in Erbil, Iraq and Riga, Latvia last weekend, I did not think this weekend could top it–but so far it has, by leaps and bounds. I am in Jordan for the weekend with a colleague...
