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It seems doubtful whether the strict rules for airline passengers make sense and are effective. But they certainly cause a lot of irritation among passengers, while they are not clear to everyone.
A passenger flying Finnair from Helsinki to Spain shows at the security check liquids in 50 ml containers and packed in a transparent, re-sealable plastic 1-liter bag. The screener silently removes the containers and puts them into another, but similar bag without saying a word.
After the passenger’s hand bag was x-rayed, the screener started silently to dig into her bag. He did it a second and a third time and only then he said he was looking for a lighter. When asked, he explained that only one lighter per person is allowed. The passenger still wonders why the screener changed her plastic bag for a similar bag, why he made a mess of her bag, why he did not talk to her and why he spoiled her mood at the start of her vacation.
A passenger flies on Northwest Airlines from Washington via Detroit to Montreal. On arrival he opens his checked bag with a combination lock.
The bag contains a notice of baggage inspection from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). It reads: “To protect you and your fellow passengers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is required by law to inspect all checked baggage. As part of this process, some bags are opened and physically inspected. Your bag was among those selected for physical inspection."
In terms of the number of passengers carried, Aerosvit Ukrainian Airlines is the biggest. It operates domestic and international flights, including intercontinental flights and carried 2 million passengers in 2007.
Aerosvit is owned for 62% by Ukrainian owners and for 38% by a Dutch company (Gilward Investments BV).
Ukraine International is the second largest airline in Ukraine flying both domestic and European routes. The airline carried nearly 1.5 million passengers in 2007.
Ukraine International is owned for 61.6% by Ukrainian owners. Austrian Airlines owns 22.5%, AerCap headquartered in the Netherlands owns 6%, and the European Bank for Reconstruction
Travelers should always wonder whether it is true what KLM staff tells them. Here are three examples of lies KLM staff told to customers about Flying Blue, KLM’s frequent flyer program.
Shortly after takeoff the captain made an announcement over the intercom:
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Flight Number 293, nonstop to Los Angeles. The weather ahead is good and, therefore, we should have a smooth and uneventful flight. Now sit back and relax...OH, MY GOD!"
Silence followed, and after a few minutes, the captain came back on the intercom and said:
Due to a job change I will have to travel a lot by air in the near future. I am planning to enroll in a frequent flyer program to earn miles for upgrades. I live in the Netherlands and I can choose between Lufthansa and KLM. Which program is the best given my goal to upgrade my tickets?
A passenger travels from Amsterdam via Zurich to Los Angeles on Swiss International Airlines. He purchases a bottle of liquor in a duty free shop in Amsterdam.
As the bag is sealed he does not anticipate any problem if he connects to the flight to Los Angeles at Zurich airport. He appears to be wrong.
Passengers are permitted to buy liquids and gels at European airports and carry them on board their flight if the bag has been sealed.
A traveler stays in hotel Yulian. It claims to meet European standards, but what does that mean?
In fact, there is no international hotel classification system in place. Each country runs its own national system ranging from 1-5 stars. As a result, there are differences across countries and a 3-star hotel in Italy or Greece can hardly be likened to a hotel of the same category in Germany or Sweden.
Hotel Yulian is located in Eupatoporia in the Crimea, Ukraine, an area that is the Cote d’Azur of the former Soviet Union with a Mediterranean climate.
A passenger flies Swiss International Airlines from Los Angeles to Zurich. When he asks a flight attendant for a coke with Bacardi rum, she replies that Swiss does not serve Bacardi in economy class.
Instead, he gets a gin tonic. After a while he asks for another gin tonic. However, the flight attendant tells him there is no gin anymore.
So if you like gin or rum before you go asleep you had better fly another airline than Swiss.
A traveler encounters a bizarre problem with PayPal. He tries to book a flight online by using PayPal. However, the system considers the credit card’s billing address wrong, although in fact it is correct.
A passenger flies Lufthansa from Munich. The aircraft is a Canadian Regional Jet 900, a narrow-body, one-aisle plane with two seats at each side of the aisle. Passengers in economy class are squeezed as the first seven rows have been reserved for three passengers in business class.
Fortunately, an attentive flight attendant understands that economy travelers feel very uncomfortable.
I wish all Lufthansa flight attendants would show this attitude. Recently, I flew Lufthansa from Frankfurt in a Boeing 737. My seat was in row 14, the second row of the economy class. There were less than 10 business class passengers and the last rows in this class were empty. However, the economy class was packed. The purser could have shifted the curtain to give the passengers in economy class more room. He did not. Instead, he warned the passengers on the first row of economy class not to touch the curtain that was blown into their faces.
Posted by Rainer, on Friday, 20 November 2009 at 15:23
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will allow laptops to remain in bags meeting new 'checkpoint friendly' guidelines.
To help streamline the security process and better protect laptops TSA has recently encouraged manufacturers to design bags that will produce a clear and unobstructed image of the laptop when undergoing X-ray screening.
Forty manufacturers submitted prototypes for testing. TSA has opened three airports for manufacturers to perform live testing of these
Frequent flyer programs are cash cows for airlines. They aim at raising money that comes out of your pocket. Delta Airlines, for example, has announced a multiyear extension of their co-branded credit card partnership with American Express. Recently, Delta received $1 billion from the purchase of SkyMiles, while the airline expects to receive an additional $1 billion from contracted improvements through 2010.
In 1981, American Airlines was the first to introduce a frequent flyer
Flying Blue, Air France/KLM’s frequent flyer program, provides four tiers of membership: Ivory, Silver, Gold or Platinum. Members earning at least 70,000 level miles or making 60 or more direct flights in one year with KLM, Air France, Kenya Airways, Air Europa or any other SkyTeam airline enter the highest tier (platinum).
A platinum elite member of Flying Blue books a ticket online at KLM’s web site just a few weeks before all tickets should be e-tickets.
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