(We shall avoid the medical and political side of the discussion.) If the airline required you to wear a hat, you wear a hat. (This was a thing BTW, Wardair 1960s) Airplanes, like ships, are not a democracy. A passengers so-called "rights" never ever supersedes a captain's legal responsibility and liability. The airline has a rule, the captain (and crew) enforces that rule. This extends from wearing a seatbelt, to no-nuts and now requiring face-masks.

(Written on 31.07.2020)(Permalink)

If, at this point, folks don't understand 'No-Mask - No Service' -- how did they manage to get to the airport un-assisted?

(Written on 29.07.2020)(Permalink)

drive

(Written on 28.07.2020)(Permalink)

United hasn’t had ‘Channel 9’ for many years. The old CO aircraft never had it. None of the UA-Express fleet had it either. Most of the old UA 319/320 fleet seems to have lost it as they installed WiFi and then WiFI with Inflight Entertainment. Now if you connect up to the WiFi and stream liveatc.net...

(Written on 01.08.2019)(Permalink)

In an attempt to not-disclose the airline (which truly has minimal relevance to the story), there is a picture of the thank you note pre-printed in a well known Canadian airline’s corporate typeface. SMH.

(Written on 26.03.2019)(Permalink)

Say your baby really does have an infectious skin condition that you, and your doctor (with a note) and possibly even some of the flight crew, thought it was merely a genetic skin condition. And say that infection condition spreads. The captain remains legally liable for the health of all aboard. Even with that medical note. It requires the flight crew to make a quick assessment and acceptance of risk. It sucks because there are so many possible situations. But in the vast majority of cases, everything works out fine. I have spoken to two captains after they have had to ask passengers to leave. (One because the pax was yelling loudly that she has bad anxiety and another because the pax declared they had a bad peanut allergy and wanted an announcement made that no one should eat peanuts.) Both captains hated making those decisions. But they did out of a genuine concern of safety for all passengers.

(Written on 03.03.2019)(Permalink)

Here we go again. A commercial airline, once the door is closed, is not a democracy. While there are many conditions (like this) and situations (many peanut allergies) which from external review are perfectly safe, the captain thru their flight crew has the legal responsibility and liability for the health and safety of all customers. A doctor's note doesn't exempt them. We can only continue to build better education mechanisms in place so that the flight crew feels comfortable to accept that the risk is minimal and let the passenger fly.

(Written on 02.03.2019)(Permalink)

The irony? Who will benefit most from the increase of efficiency of the C-Series? The customers of US based Delta Airlines. I'll bet those customers will benefit far more than the one time benefit of the manufacturing job making just a few more (less efficient planes.)

(Written on 19.12.2017)(Permalink)

Unfortunately what SmiKooMan describes is a permutation of what appears to be standard AC procedure. It appears that Air Canada as a matter of procedure will wait to announce a delay or cancellation until AFTER flight alternatives have departed. AC's YVR ops always used to wait until Alaskan's YVR-SEA to announce their SEA flight was delayed. AC's YYZ ops used to wait until the AA and UA connections through ORD departed before announcing a delay on YYZ-IND. And someone I know at YXX confirmed that AC would wait until WJ's flight departed before announcing their Rouge delay. This has happened so many times to me that I refuse to fly Air Canada unless I have no option. Usually they 'steal' the plane where customers can request being re-routed and stiff customers where they are the last flight or they have they have a monopoly or delay customers for hours.

(Written on 01.12.2017)(Permalink)

It's one thing to try and low-ball a compensation offer; that seems to be status-quo. But to fib and explicitly say 'that is all you are entitled to' or 'all you will get' when that is not true is what AC was caught doing. Hopefully this will sharpen their game.

(Written on 01.12.2017)(Permalink)