FlyerTalk Forums - Newsstand http://www.flyertalk.com/forum en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:00:14 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg FlyerTalk Forums - Newsstand http://www.flyertalk.com/forum Easyjet apologises for photoshoot at Holocaust memorial http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1019091-easyjet-apologises-photoshoot-holocaust-memorial.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:33:52 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8371208.stm Easyjet has apologised after fashion photographs shot at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin were published in its in-flight magazine. In the pictures, models pose in designer clothes among the... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8371208.stm

Easyjet has apologised after fashion photographs shot at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin were published in its in-flight magazine.

In the pictures, models pose in designer clothes among the concrete blocks of the "Field of Stelae". ]]> Newsstand patgarrett http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1019091-easyjet-apologises-photoshoot-holocaust-memorial.html Get results by social networking with airlines http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1019042-get-results-social-networking-airlines.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:42:10 GMT Continental focuses on flyertalk. Take a look at last paragraph of this CNN article: Get results by social networking with airlines (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/09/14/airlines.social.media/index.html) Continental focuses on flyertalk. Take a look at last paragraph of this CNN article:

Get results by social networking with airlines ]]> Newsstand caspritz78 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1019042-get-results-social-networking-airlines.html Living the life of a Mileage Millionaire http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018995-living-life-mileage-millionaire.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:30:16 GMT http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/11/20...res/index.html

Quote:
It can take years to snag a reservation at El Bulli, a restaurant in Spain that's been called the best in the world, so when Gary Leff got the word that he'd finally gotten in, he whisked his wife across the Atlantic -- just for dinner.

Leff is a millionaire. A frequent-flier mile millionaire, that is.

He estimates that he's accumulated 7 million frequent-flier miles across different programs over his lifetime, thanks to his love of travel, lots of airline-affiliated credit card purchases and careful monitoring of mile promotions.
gleff makes the news again. ]]> Newsstand sbm12 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018995-living-life-mileage-millionaire.html Ryanair sued for allegedly buzzing German granny http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018852-ryanair-sued-allegedly-buzzing-german-granny.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:17:43 GMT Members of a small community near the northern German city of Lübeck have filed a lawsuit against Irish budget airline Ryanair after a low-flying plane allegedly put an 82-year-old woman in the hospital. ... Members of a small community near the northern German city of Lübeck have filed a lawsuit against Irish budget airline Ryanair after a low-flying plane allegedly put an 82-year-old woman in the hospital.

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091119-23379.html ]]> Newsstand Fredd http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018852-ryanair-sued-allegedly-buzzing-german-granny.html <![CDATA[Who's Flying This Thing?]]> http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018840-whos-flying-thing.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:40:30 GMT This week in Patrick Smith's ASK THE PILOT column at Salon.com:

Captain Sully's Legacy, and the Fallacies of Cockpit Automation


On Sully:

"…As the general public sees it, Sullenberger saved the lives of everybody on board through nerves of steel and consummate flying skills. As William Langewiesche sees it, the real hero of wasn't captain Sully, but the electronic wizardry of the Airbus A320, which was able to deftly manage its perilous glide pretty much on its own....

…I submit that neither plane nor pilot deserves as much credit as they've been given. The most critical factor was nothing more than plain old luck -- specifically, the time and place where things went wrong. As it happened, it was daylight and the weather was reasonably good; there off Sullenberger's left side was a 12-mile runway of smoothly flowing river, within swimming distance of the country's largest city and its flotilla of rescue craft. Sullenberger performed admirably in the face of a serious emergency, as did his jetliner. He needed to be good, but he needed to be lucky as well. He was. Had the bird-strike occurred over a different part of the city, at a slightly different altitude, or under slightly different weather conditions, the result was going to be an all-out catastrophe, and no amount of talent, skill, or fly-by-wire technology was going to matter...

...If you could put a hundred crews, flying pretty much any modern airliner, in Sullenberger's exact situation, the results would be more or less the same. Thus the passengers owe their survival not to miracles, talent, or the fail-safe genius of the A320, but to the less glamorous forces of luck and, to use a word I normally dislike, professionalism…"


On the Myths of Cockpit Automation:


"…Nothing gets me sputtering more than misunderstandings about cockpit automation -- the idea that modern aircraft essentially fly themselves, with pilots on hand merely as a backup in case of trouble. This is so far from the truth that it's difficult to get my arms around it and begin to explain how. Babysitting a computer? I'll keep that in mind the next time I'm weaving around thunderheads over the Amazon; shooting a VOR approach in Africa in a rainstorm at 4 a.m., or setting up for an ILS in blowing snow and a quarter-mile visibility...

…Never mind the extremes. If I were to take even the most routine, trouble-free, and most "automated" flight, from the preflight planning stage to block-in at the destination, and break it down event by event, explaining each of the hundreds of decisions and inputs made by the crew. A jetliner can, in theory, take itself laterally from waypoint to waypoint along a preprogrammed route -- a basic, skeletal outline of the flight. But the idea that a jet will "fly itself" to the destination without meaningful input from the crew is preposterous...

…Jetliners are certified for automatic landings, though in practice they are rare. The fine print of setting up and managing one of these landings is something I could talk about all day. If it were as easy as pressing a button, I wouldn't need to practice them twice a year in the simulator, or need to consistently review those tabbed, highlighted pages in my manuals. Guess what: an automatic landing is, in most respects, more challenging, more complicated, and more work-intensive than a manual one…

…One of the media's common mistakes is a reliance on aviation academics and bureaucrats, rather than pilots, for its expertise -- professors, directors, consultants, researchers, etc. These people are bright and knowledgeable, but often highly unfamiliar with the day-to-day operational aspects of flying planes. Pilots too are occasionally part of the problem. We paint a caricature of what flying is really like, at the same time undermining our value employees. It's no wonder so many people think pilots are overpaid if we're saying things to the press like, "the plane will fly to its destination without any input from the pilot at all," to quote an American Ailrines pilot talking to CNN a couple of weeks ago.

…Automation helps a pilot in the same way that it helps a surgeon. It makes flying easier, but it does not make it easy. You might here a surgeon, or a pilot, make a comment about the "simplicity" of a certain procedure. That in no way implies that the layperson could give it a go and be successful, and it does nothing to diminish the knowledge and experience required to perform at that level in the first place. The technology is advanced and expensive and ultimately engineered to keep your customers safe and alive. But to understand how this equipment works, and to use it properly, you still need to be a doctor, or a pilot, first..."

The full article is available here:

http://salon.com/tech/col/smith/2009...askthepilot342


Entry to Salon is free.


Recently in ASK THE PILOT: Is Your Pilot Drunk?
http://salon.com/tech/col/smith/2009...askthepilot341 ]]> Newsstand GateHold http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018840-whos-flying-thing.html Germany Orders EK to Raise Fares http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018815-germany-orders-ek-raise-fares.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:11:15 GMT http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9dda4e50-d51a-11de-8ec4-00144feabdc0.html ---Quote--- Financial Times Published: November 19 2009 15:57 | Last updated: November 19 2009 15:57 *Berlin forces up Emirates’ business fares* By Pilita Clark in London... http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9dda4e50-d...44feabdc0.html
Quote:
Financial Times
Published: November 19 2009 15:57 | Last updated: November 19 2009 15:57
Berlin forces up Emirates’ business fares
By Pilita Clark in London and Bertrand Benoit in Berlin

Berlin has forced Dubai’s Emirates airline to charge more for business class tickets on flights out of Germany, in a sign of concern the Middle East’s biggest airline is prompting as it expands its presence in Europe. …

The head of the Germany’s central transport watchdog, the Federal Office for Goods Transport, wrote to Emirates earlier this week confirming it was “not allowed to engage in price leadership” on routes out of Germany to non-EU countries.
]]> Newsstand choster http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018815-germany-orders-ek-raise-fares.html <![CDATA[FAA Computer Glitch Causes Widespread Flight Delays in US [19-Nov-2009]]]> http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018654-faa-computer-glitch-causes-widespread-flight-delays-us-19-nov-2009-a.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:08:45 GMT ---Quote--- *Computer Glitch Causes Widespread Flight Delays (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/us/20air.html)* By BRIAN KNOWLTON Published: November 19, 2009 WASHINGTON — A computer problem Thursday morning at the Atlanta airport, the busiest...
Quote:
Computer Glitch Causes Widespread Flight Delays
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
Published: November 19, 2009

WASHINGTON — A computer problem Thursday morning at the Atlanta airport, the busiest in the nation, is causing the cancellation of most departing flights, leading to cascading delays at airports up the East Coast and elsewhere in the country, the authorities said.

Diane Spitaliere, an Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Washington, said that the problem occurred shortly after 5:00 a.m. “We’re working on the outage and should have the system up shortly,” she said just before 10:00 a.m.

Ms. Spitaliere confirmed that air-traffic controllers had to program flight plans manually. “That was slowing things down,” she said.

With bad weather compounding the problem, she added, “I’m sure we will be seeing delays throughout the day.”
...
]]> Newsstand xyzzy http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018654-faa-computer-glitch-causes-widespread-flight-delays-us-19-nov-2009-a.html Pilot system glitch causing flight delays http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018622-pilot-system-glitch-causing-flight-delays.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:49:22 GMT Not AA specific.... Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- A computer system in Atlanta, Georgia, that pilots use to file flight plans was not working properly Thursday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration said. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown... Not AA specific....




Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- A computer system in Atlanta, Georgia, that pilots use to file flight plans was not working properly Thursday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said there are problems processing flight plans and that air traffic controllers are having to enter the plans manually. That means there are going to be "some delays" until the issue is resolved, she said.

The extent of the problem was not immediately clear. The information in the network is required to launch planes expeditiously.

Airplane safety is not affected, the FAA said. Planes in the air have radar coverage and communication, according to the FAA.

The system -- the National Airspace Data Interchange Network, or NADIN -- appears to be the same one that failed in August 2008. The FAA said flight plans are being processed through the network's Salt Lake City, Utah office.

Brown also said there are weather delays in the Northeast ]]> Newsstand JNB280 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018622-pilot-system-glitch-causing-flight-delays.html WSJ: How to Survive Thanksgiving Travel... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018484-wsj-how-survive-thanksgiving-travel.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:45:16 GMT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

If you're planning to fly this Thanksgiving, be prepared for some fresh hassles at the airport.
New security rules, changes in airline staffing and holiday crowds mean that vacationers—especially those who haven't flown in a while—may need more time and money to navigate travel next week.
Security screening may be bumpier for some travelers. That's because the Transportation Security Administration is phasing in a new policy that requires the name on your boarding pass to match exactly the name on your ID. If not, you may face some questions. Also, screeners will be looking more closely at any powders in your bag.
Checking that bag may be more costly, too. The fee to check one bag at many airlines is now up to $20, though some—including Delta Air Lines Inc., UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, Continental Airlines Inc. and US Airways Group Inc.—provide a $5 discount if you pay online before you go to the airport.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...283583488.html ]]> Newsstand Tenacious http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018484-wsj-how-survive-thanksgiving-travel.html Surcharges raise holiday airfare http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018376-surcharges-raise-holiday-airfare.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:49:44 GMT http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-11-18-aircharges18_ST_N.htm I apologize if this article has already been posted but I did a search and did not see it. Also realize this is not specific to AA. A question for the experts out... http://www.usatoday.com/travel/fligh...ges18_ST_N.htm

I apologize if this article has already been posted but I did a search and did not see it. Also realize this is not specific to AA. A question for the experts out there. Does an airline that charges a "fee/surcharge" have any advantage as opposed to just having different prices for the routes on different days? Is this a tax thing, etc.

To me this is classic supply and demand and I don't fault the airlines for charging more when they can receive more revenue...but I don't get why AA for example doesn't just say that their fare from LAX-JFK is $300 on December 23 but a search of their website indicates it is $400 on December 24 without all of this fee discussion... ]]> Newsstand Joe Kaiser http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018376-surcharges-raise-holiday-airfare.html Disgruntled SF Hotel Workers Walk Out At St. Francis http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018343-disgruntled-sf-hotel-workers-walk-out-st-francis.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:13:57 GMT SAN FRANCISCO -- Hotel workers in San Francisco began a three-day strike early Wednesday at one of the city's premiere hotels, the third such strike in as many weeks.

Approximately 650 hotel workers and members of Unite Here Local 2 walked off the job at the Westin St. Francis in Union Square at 4 a.m. today, union leaders said.

Similar strikes occurred earlier this month at the city's Grand Hyatt and Palace hotels. Union leaders said workers are concerned with reductions in health and retirement benefits being asked for by hotel management.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/21651581/de...111182009&ts=H ]]> Newsstand tom911 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018343-disgruntled-sf-hotel-workers-walk-out-st-francis.html SFO: Best airport to get stuck in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018217-sfo-best-airport-get-stuck.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:58:39 GMT San Francisco International has been named the "top domestic airport to get stranded in," by SeatGuru, an airline information Web site.

SFO's highlights include "the famous Boudin's Bakery and their sourdough bread; upscale shopping at Burberry, Coach and Gucci; XpressSpa services including massages and facials; museum exhibits throughout; shower facilities; and a play area for children," according to the site.

"We're very pleased," says SFO spokesman Mike McCarron. "We work hard to have great amenities for our travelers. It's also nice for our workers. It has been paying off."

Despite the weak economy, McCarron says passenger traffic at SFO is up about 3 or 4 percent over last year and the restaurants are "holding steady now." For terminal 2, which reopens in 2011, the airport has about five or six bids for every retail or restaurant opening, he adds.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...entry_id=51815 ]]> Newsstand tom911 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018217-sfo-best-airport-get-stuck.html she should be on coupon collection!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018215-she-should-coupon-collection.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:52:32 GMT saw this while looking for Fiesta Bowl tkts: http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/bar/1469925886.html saw this while looking for Fiesta Bowl tkts: http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/bar/1469925886.html ]]> Newsstand rustyr http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018215-she-should-coupon-collection.html Positive reporting on QF, who would have thought it existed? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018151-positive-reporting-qf-who-would-have-thought-existed.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:09:02 GMT Reading my local, The Worst Australian (http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/) (or the worst for short), and there was an article from their rarely seen aviation writer Geoffrey Thomes on QF and safety. Ok, so the writers trip to Sydney and their... Reading my local, The Worst Australian (or the worst for short), and there was an article from their rarely seen aviation writer Geoffrey Thomes on QF and safety.

Ok, so the writers trip to Sydney and their Maintenance Control Centre was paid for by QF, so take it with a grain of salt, but its still a good article and is of interest to any hardcore aviation buffs who like to see what's happening in those corners we never get to see.

Quote:
Ground crew keep safety in the sky

An alert pops up on one of four screens being monitored by Qantas duty technical manager of 747s, Paul Kjeldsen, who says: "QF 10 out of London has an engine anti-ice fault."

QF 10 is a 747-400 and the fault is minor, according to the manager of Qantas' Maintenance Control Centre, Alan Milne, who says it will be fixed when the 747 lands in Singapore.
Pg. 16 of the printed edition, or you can click here to download a PDF of the article (Warning 1.02MB despite compressing the hell out of it) ]]> Newsstand thewinchester http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1018151-positive-reporting-qf-who-would-have-thought-existed.html Unruly passenger forces unscheduled landing at Logan http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1017979-unruly-passenger-forces-unscheduled-landing-logan.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:49:54 GMT "A 49-year-old passenger who allegedly refused to move his arm out of the aisle on a trans-Atlantic flight became so belligerent last night that a pilot made an unscheduled landing at Logan International Airport, authorities said.

The passenger, John Murray of Glasgow, Scotland, was arrested when the US Airways flight touched down in Boston after 11 p.m. Murray is scheduled to appear today in East Boston Municipal Court on charges of interfering with a flight crew. "

Details here.

and here.

I think he looks charming. :)

]]> Newsstand LarryU http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newsstand/1017979-unruly-passenger-forces-unscheduled-landing-logan.html