No more hot towels, no more meals, and now as I learned on flight from CLT to PVD today, no more pillows and blankets!!, on flights less than five hours???

How much fuel and boarding time does this nonsense save? Three more weeks, until I claim the title of former road warrior.

I'm with you on this; I think that U has gone overboard on some of the cuts it has made. On the other hand, it is not too difficult to ameliorate some of the effects of these cuts; an inflatable neck pillow only costs $10 or so and they work better than the airline pillows do in keeping you from getting a stiff neck. Here's my list of travel supplies to have on hand: inflatable neck pillow, foam ear plugs, DVDs and/or CDs for the laptop, bottled water, blistex for dry lips, eye mask, something to eat. While the cuts have made air travel less pleasant than it was, a little preparation and a few dollars can go a long way toward making yourself a lot more comfortable. I do wish that they would reinstitute some food service on early morning flights; it's often impossible to find either the time or anything open to grab anything.

I've never used a blanket or pillow on a plane. For one thing, I was never persuaded they actually clean them. I guess it just bothers me when they do stuff like that, particularly when they insult your intelligence by telling you it's because of the anthrax threat. These things were out of the overheads before anyone had ever gotten one of those letters. In business there are lots of disciplines. These are neecessary to maintain operating standards. I continue to believe that I see more and more disdain for passengers on the part of inflight and airport employees. While we know they are uptight because so many have been laid off, I also think that these nickel and dime cost savings things, which convey a further lack of respect for the customer, contribute to this. They can pull all the blankets, feed you potato chips at 6AM, and cancel flights that aren't full all day long, but the real issue is labor agreements that pay a 737 pilot flying from Pittsburgh to Detroit nearly the same as a widebody guy flying transcons on one of the big 3. It will take getting rid of a lot of cold chicken to offset that.

The cutbacks of pillows and blankets were a cost cutting measure citing the high cost of laundering those items. Also, I noticed in the new December Attache magazine in the entertainment section that they're no longer offering movies in North America (east and westbound), only transatlantic flights. Instead, it's a mix of TV show offerings such as Friends and TV Food programs. Also, I noticed that the price of the headsets dropped from $5 to $3. Anyone have insight as to why they'd drop movies?

[This message has been edited by cavman75 (edited 12-02-2001).]

My thought is that they have to pay for rights to show those movies everytime. The rights to those shows is probably cheaper then movies.

Well, if they have the rights to show them on an intl. flight, why wouldn't they be able to show them on a domestic??

If this is really true, would they be the first airline to cut movies on transcons?

FA said yesterday CLT-BHM that pillows have been cut, but she was happy to give me a blanket. Maybe they're just using up existing blankets, but she said that only pillows have been removed.

I thought I might have a scoop on the 'no domestic movies' news since I didnt see a post with that title. Oh well - I'll add a few things here.

Did PIT-PHX this weekend. Trip out is 4+ hours, trip back just over 3. On the way out (12/1), I overheard the FAs talking about movies. Went to grab attache, but it was still november. Takes a few days for them to get out. After the played the safety video, I asked what the movies were.

I was told there will be no domestic movies - just the series of 'short' entertainment pieces - until further notice. While I cant imagine they have actual knowledge of this, they said 'it just isnt cost-effective'. I assume they contract to pay $x (I guess maybe $100?) per flight and hope the $5/headset charge covers it. This was all moot, though, because they had not been given the videotape for the short programming. So 4 hours with no entertainment. I was upgraded to F, so at least it was comfy. I wonder whether there was a revolt in coach with no food, no movies, just drinks..

On the way back yesteray, new attache was out, and its the usual 'Friends, Spin City, History Channel' stuff. Different programs east and westbound of course. Good quality stuff, but not the same as movies. I actually paid more attention to the History pieces than I do the movies. Maybe US is trying to 'smart up' its customers? Is that a good idea? ;-)

Interestingly, I was chatting with one of the FAs and they were amazed how many people bought headsets on the flight. Apparently the net revenue was more than usual (at $5 for movies). So this cost cutting move might actually pay off in the long run. I guess if you've seen a movie, you say forget it for $5. But take your chances on a few 30-min programs for $3...

BTW, havent seen anyone mention it, but the no pillows and blankets applies to F also.

[For the meal board, but put here too:]

Food out was bagel and fruit plate, coming back roast beef sandwich and salad. Nice to have food (when coach gets none), but coach quality stuff. Would be a mockery if served on linen.

Quite frankly, I think this may be a good change (re the movies)! I personally have trouble watching movies on planes. I usually can't concentrate that well (too many distracations), so I usually only watch movies that I've already seen, so I can jump back and forth between the movie, my reading, talking to my neighbor (generally family or friend), etc. 30 minute sitcoms, if of good quality, could be quite good, especially for those with short attention spans!

The exception: Overture Interactive on the 330s! So you can pause whenever distracted...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by deelmakur:
It will take getting rid of a lot of cold chicken to offset that.</font>

Mmmmmm....cold chicken plate.....
Who'da thunk I'd be wanting my cold chicken plate back.

No blankets or pillows were available in FC on a transcontinental redeye one way, and on an evening flight the other way.

On a recent flight CLT-SEA, I was told blankets were gone, gone, gone on all flights except overseas. And that while people were complaining, US had no plans to return them. In fact, the lead FA even asked people to be considerate and not open the middle vent full blast if their seatmate asked
.
Didn't work. The fc cabin was freezing and folks were wrapped in their coats for the first 90 minutes or so. At that time, the cabin had warmed up slightly, though it was still cool enough for more than half of us to keep the coats out for the whole flight.

I was told it was the same in coach.

The lead FA told me they're all bringing their own blankets and suggested that we start doing the same. After writing a letter of complaint, of course.

A movie was shown on my westbound trans-continental (PIT-SEA) last night (3 Dec.) though it was November's eastbound movie. Hasn't anyone noticed than the back cabin movies are usually the box office bombs where the owners are trying to get any source of post-release revenue for?

Last week I was on a DL flight. They have blankets. However, my blanket had a long blond hair on it. The blanket was in shrink wrap. Rumor has it that blanket are sometimes wrapped without being washed. I believe it.

The airlines are fast becoming like Southwest (except with seat assignments). Southwest will soon (if not already) be the preferred airline.

Any and all flights on the 321 will be cold in the 1st and 3rd compartments, and about 10 degrees warmer in the mid-cabin section. All of the fuel is in the mid-cabin, and the cargo holds are voer the front and rear. They know of the problem, but there is nothing the pilots can do to equalize the temps, especially at night. On my last flight, the F/A was leaving the over on the entire flight, and opening it after every 10 minutes or so to let the hot air into the galley.

I didn't notice the FC cabin to be too hot or too cold on the A-321. It was just right for me. I didn't wander rear of row 7 so had no idea.

There's a review of transcontinental FC service in December in this trip report (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/002358.html).

Apparently, US has stripped more of these amenities than the competition. See today’s Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58480-2001Dec4?language=printer
&lt;&lt;washingtonpost.com US Airways Makes It Hard To Rest or Read.url&gt;&gt;