When I flew to Greece via Frankfurt in 2018 the first leg was on a Lufthansa 747-400 which was my first 747 flight in over 20 years (the previous time I was on a way to visit my then girlfriend, now wife) and I'd forgotten how much better it is. Even the 777 doesn't come close to the comfort of flying the 747 and I'd love to fly one again but sadly Lufthansa mostly flys the A330 on the SEA-FRA route these days.

(Written on 02/24/2023)(Permalink)

Naw, they will outsource it to subcontractors which will outsource it to sub-subcontractors and nothing will ever get done. You'll end up with the few people who know what they are doing keeping things barely going while the "cheaper" contractors run up the billable hours without ever delivering anything usable because that keeps the contract going for a longer time.

(Written on 02/11/2023)(Permalink)

No thanks comrade...

(Written on 02/11/2023)(Permalink)

I think the issue is not with the main 5G signal but with harmonics interfering with altimeters with poor filtering. https://www.5gtechnologyworld.com/5g-altimeter-interference-aviation-versus-telecoms/

(Written on 01/14/2023)(Permalink)

They still have one of the best logos of all time...

(Written on 01/14/2023)(Permalink)

Interesting, I can't stand them. First of all when traveling with family their boarding system stresses my wife out as she doesn't know what seat she will get (she prefers window seats) and is afraid that we won't get seats together. But the big issue is their customer service when things go south as we've found out this year. In our case a weather cancellation left us stranded at MKE. They had inadequate staff with only a couple of gate agents and no ticket agents at the main counter, just folks that took in baggage. As a result they needed to pull ramp workers into the terminal to handle the crush of upset passengers and they were rude at best. Eventually after 2 1/2 hours of complaining I finally got to talk to a real gate agent who "found" seats for us on the next day's flight. We lost a full day at our destination and had to pay $$$ for the last hotel room (there was a huge concert in town) and an extremely overpriced rental car (also one of the last ones left). Milwaukee was nice

(Written on 01/06/2023)(Permalink)

And my least favorite based on my experiences with them long before this meltdown.

(Written on 12/31/2022)(Permalink)

An antiquated and overwhelmed internal scheduling system that could not handle the extreme number of aircraft and crew out of position. They have failed to invest in new IT infrastructure for years in the name of concentrating on "shareholder value" and they ended up having to have everyone call in and say where they were along with shutting down over half their network so they could reposition people and aircraft in their version of a hard reboot. I've also read that treating their ramp workers poorly made the situation ever worse as many walked of their jobs rather than work excessive overtime in terrible weather. But whether it was that or the IT side that caused the ultimate cascade in the end the common root cause was callous and clueless management.

(Written on 12/31/2022)(Permalink)

An antiquated and overwhelmed internal scheduling system that could not handle the extreme number of aircraft and crew out of position. They have failed to invest in new IT infrastructure for years in the name of concentrating on "shareholder value" and they ended up having to have everyone call in and say where they were along with shutting down over half their network so they could reposition people and aircraft in their version of a hard reboot. I've also read that treating their ramp workers poorly made the situation ever worse as many walked of their jobs rather than work excessive overtime in terrible weather. But whether it was that or the IT side that caused the ultimate cascade in the end the common root cause was callus and clueless management.

(Written on 12/31/2022)(Permalink)

While I sympathize for the people injured in this unexpected turbulence it is worth noting that turbulence like this is not all that unusual. When I was 9 I was on a United DC-8 flight that hit turbulence that was like a roller coaster ride for something like 45 minutes. We'd suddenly drop into free-fall for several seconds and then be slammed into our seats and then rinse and repeat. My father who was with us was a United DC-8 pilot as well so I wasn't all that scared as he said it was not a big deal but it was still a significant thing that I can recall it quite clearly 50+ years later. The worst part was they had just given the coach passengers their meals and as it was a stretched -61 the passengers in the back got quite a ride! We were up front and had thankfully already finished our dinner so there was less commotion beyond the man sitting next to me that ended up with red wine all over his white shirt!

(Written on 12/25/2022)(Permalink)