American Airlines Plane Boots Alec Baldwin Over 'Words With Friends'

Did you feel that? If the internet could have earthquakes, we'd have just experienced a minor one as Alec Baldwin went from tweeting like normal, to getting kicked off an American Airlines plane at LAX, to being in custody, to becoming a trending topic, to giving his side of the story via Twitter in just about the span of one hour.

The reason for the tarmac takedown? Apparently, according to Alec, he was playing the popular mobile Scrabble-like app Words With Friends when a flight attendant "reamed" him out. Of course he was probably still playing it beyond the point of being asked to turn off and stow all electronic devices for take-off, hence the flight attendant interference. We predict that the next few days will see news channels rehashing the old argument of whether or not cell signals interfere with airplanes. You know, that old chestnut.

What we've learned tonight:
· If you're playing against Alec Baldwin in Words With Friends, his dedication to it probably means you aren't waiting long for your turn.
· If you're playing against Alec Baldwin in Words With Friends, long delays in his play may indicate that he's arguing with flight crew for the right to make his next move.
· Alec Baldwin doesn't pay attention to the in-flight safety demonstration
· Alec Baldwin flies American Airlines
· Scrabble is missing golden opportunities with their crappy mobile game.

Yo, Alec, ping us! We want to play!

(Source: Jaunted.com)

Airline War Hots Up With Virgin Plans to Steal Market Share

TRAVELLERS will reap the rewards of an airline war with cheaper fares and more regional routes, Virgin Australia boss John Borghetti said.

The airline chief executive who used to work for rival Qantas has revealed ambitious plans to steal market share from his old employer and expan services to regional areas.

"A lot of these routes have not had competition. All you have to do is look at the airfares that are being charged,'' he said.

He also questioned why Qantas had dramatically dropped prices on certain flights after his airline launched business-class services on the same routes.

Mr Borghetti said Qantas reduced business-class fares between Sydney and Perth by nearly 25 per cent after Virgin introduced the same service.

After Virgin announced launch business class fares on the Sydney to Perth route for $1399, Qantas reduced their fares from $2,013 to $1,519.

"Why haven't they done that in the last ten years?''

As well as returning Australian aviation to the kind of competition not seen since the Ansett days, Mr Borghetti also wants to increase his frequent-flyer membership to three million.

Membership of Virgin's Velocity has increased 10 per cent to 2.75 million members in 3 1/2 months.

Pop star Dannii Minogue helped launch a frequent-flyer partnership with Westfield online last week.

Virgin was also given regulatory approval to form an alliance with Singapore Airlines, allowing passengers who book flights with the airline the chance to fly on Singapore Airlines flights, get lounge access and accumulate frequent flyer points.

In addition to previous alliances with Etihad, Delta and Air New Zealand, it will take the number of destinations it flies to to more than 400 worldwide.

Mr Borghetti said the move would open up emerging markets such as China and India and continue the airline's
expansion into regional Australia.

The airline also recently began flying between Brisbane and Port Macquarie and Brisbane and Gladstone and plans to announce new regional routes soon.

"We will now be able to promote regional Australia through those 400 odd destinations around the world, from Dallas to Port Macquarie,'' he said.

As well as reconfiguring the interiors of its domestic planes this year and will launch business class services across the network on January 18.

At the moment, Qantas boasts 41 per cent capacity share in the domestic market or 65 per cent including its low-cost subidiary Jetstar, while Virgin's is about 30 per cent.

But Mr Borghetti said he had no desire for Virgin to be the biggest airline in the country.

"Whatever market share gives the best return is the market share that I want,'' he said.

"What we do have the desire to do is be the airline of choice.''

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Flight Attendants Reveal Their Worst Passengers

IF you've left the door open while peeing, if you listen to music while they try to talk to you or if you've tried to grab a seat in the crew rest area – then flight attendants hate you.

Flight attendants from around the world have broken their silence to reveal the things that passengers do that really gets under their skin.

While Kevin Rudd's alleged angry outburst at a flight attendant and Naomi Campbell's infamous cabin catfight have hit the headlines, it's these everyday annoyances that really get their goat.

YOUR SAY: Tell us about your worst experiences with crazy cabin crew below.

You leave the door wide open when you pee.

“One of the most annoying things passengers do is not closing the lavatory door,” celebrity flight attendant David Holmes from Southwest Airlines said.

You double order your drinks.

“Asking one flight attendant for a drink and before they get back with it, asking another flight attendant for the same drink, is bad news,” Bethany Burke, a flight attendant from Florida, US, said.

You tap flight attendants on the shoulder to get their attention.

“Passengers tap me to get my attention but then don’t give me eye contact when talking to me,” Mr Holmes said.

“Passengers wouldn’t take off their headsets when I asked them if they wanted food or drink,” ex-hostie Susan, who worked for Qantas for over 20 years, said.

“When I ask passengers if they’d like something to drink, three times out of five the response will be ‘Wha?’ And that's a ‘wha’ without the ‘T’,” Heather Poole, flight attendant for a major US carrier, said.

“‘Something to drink?’ I'll ask again, and while I ask this question I find myself wondering why you haven't taken off the iPod or those giant Bose noise cancellation headsets covering your ears when you see me standing at your row.”

You stuff your bag to breaking point and then ask for help to stow it away.

“The worst is when people bring a heavy bag onboard, then tell me that they can't lift it overhead because of a bad back,” Mrs Burke said.

“Lifting your bag into the overhead bin is not, nor has it ever been, part of my job description. Honestly, I don't know what bothers me more, the fact that a passenger will come on-board and expect me to lift their bag, or the fact that they actually get upset when I won't lift the bag,” Mrs Poole said.

You complain about the overhead bin being full and make a fuss about having to put your bag in the rows behind.

“Passengers who get annoyed about the overhead bins near their seats being full, and then say the word “ridiculous”, are so annoying,” Mrs Poole said.

You order a special meal and then change your mind at the last minute.

“I hate it when passengers order a vegetarian, kosher or fruit special meal and then want a regular meal instead," Mrs Burke said.

You’re messy and inconsiderate.

“There’d be so many people who’d just throw things on the floor right in the middle of the cabin, such as newspapers they’ve finished with or rubbish,” Susan said.

“Surprisingly, it’s no different in first class, they’re just as messy as the other passengers.”

You read up about getting free upgrades and pull all the tricks to try and get your way.

“Another annoying thing is the tricks people used to play to get upgraded," Susan said.

"You could see the pattern for a lot of people, but if they win it’s just rewarding them for bad behaviour.”

You expect to be told the moment you change time zones.

“Passengers often want to know exactly when they should change their watch when crossing time zones,” Mrs Burke said.

You try and take over the crew rest area.

“Trying to sit in our crew rest seats, which are sacred to us, is a very bad idea,” Mrs Burke warns.

You enter the galley without permission and loiter.

“Unless you've actually been invited into the galley (it does happen), you do not step onto the floor for any length of time," Mrs Poole said.


You spill water on the toilet floor and leave without cleaning it up.

“People would leave water on the floor after using the toilet, forgetting about all the other passengers who may slip and fall,” Susan said

You have unrealistic expectations of your air travel experience.

“I saw a first-class passenger chuck a hissy fit as we didn’t have the right flavour of yogurt onboard. A bit unrealistic,” Susan said.

Now we want to hear your side: Tell us about your worst experiences with crazy cabin crew below.

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Tipping – The Scourge of Customer Service

OK – I need to get this off my chest and if in doing so I start an argument so be it, but in my view enough is enough. Let me start by saying I have zero problem with tipping for great or exceptional service, nor do I have a problem with tipping someone who goes out of their way to help me solve a problem or resolve an issue.

BUT (yes a BIG BUT) I am done with tipping outrageous amounts for someone who is just “doing their job”, the job they are being paid to do and the job that I expect them to do.

Now someone is going to say immediately that “these people” (yes I am generalising broadly at the moment) are lowly paid; my answer to that is that is not my problem. If employers are not willing or able to pay proper wages; or if employees are not able either individually or via a union to negotiate decent salaries, why do I have to cover the gap? Pay people well and they will work better, their level of service will improve, the customers will be more pleased and a tip – for great service – may well be forthcoming.

One of the derivations that I have for the word TIP is that it comes from an abbreviation that means “to insure promptness”, which means we will pay you a bit more if your serve us quickly, first, better or whatever and by that definition the tip was probably originally paid up front – or perhaps part of it was, with the rest later – to ensure that the service required was delivered. Not now, it is nothing more than an expectation, here is the price and the tips are extra; or in cruise line terms gratuities are not included so they WILL be added to your final bill. I hasten to add NOT on cruise lines that I travel with, and that is one of the reasons.

Let’s look at the word gratuities; this is a word that appears in upmarket restaurants, on five star hotel bills and on cruise ships. The word implies gratefulness, you are grateful for the service you have received and are prepared to reward for it; why, if it is only someone doing the job they are paid to do? I don’t get it; we don’t pay gratuities to our lawyers, doctors or dentists who all provide professional and very important services to us, nor do we pay gratuities to teachers who play a huge role in bringing up and educating our children. And we certainly do not pay gratuities to our military personnel, who perform great service and far, far too often make the ultimate sacrifice for us. We may well express our gratitude to all of these people in very different ways, but the services they perform for us are important, require great skill sets and are services we cannot possibly perform ourselves and we do not pay gratuities for them.

We are however expected to tip/pay gratuities to those who perform (shall we say) more lowly skilled services for us, some of which we could do ourselves but choose not to and others that we would like to do ourselves but simply cannot. Almost inevitably all of these services are in the hospitality, transport, tourism and travel industries. Even then there is a difference, we do not tip the airline pilot (we should he/she gets us back on the ground safely), or the ship’s captain (ditto he does a tricky job very well), or the hotel manager, or the chef – it is just not expected nor is it required. We are however expected to tip the underlings, the workers, the staff all of the ones who are simply not paid enough for the job that they do, and it is often not just expected but it is required; everyone knows that we will cover the gap and that leads to poor and inefficient customer service and poor business practices.

Why is that you ask, simple; if the service staff (I am generalising here again folks not singling out anyone in particular) know that they will get their tip/gratuity, irrespective of the level of service that they provide, then they will do the minimum that they have to do knowing that it will ultimately be enough. Yes – I do know that there are exceptions – there always are – but in general this is the truth. If the expectation is that the reward will be received irrespective, the level of commitment drops in direct proportion. It’s an economic fact!

I have just spent 30 hours in America, and it is that 30 hours that started me thinking along this track; and yes, before you ask, I do blame America and the tipping culture for the expansion of the problem. They did not invent the tip, but they sure polished it, buffed it and shined it up into what it is today. Examples you ask, let’s look at a couple or three that really caught my eye.

Example one: I believe that the expectation level now is a minimum of 20%, this is reinforced by the number of establishments with a 20% service fee already on the bill. Then to top it off there is still space to add a tip (gratuity at the Setai Miami Beach) when you pay the bill or an expectation of added cash in the hand.

Example two: The cab driver who picked us up from the Hilton Barbados, he was just waiting outside, and drove us to St Leonards Gap for 20 Barbadian Dollars, expected a tip, – why I ask? He sat in his cab when we got in, drove us to where we asked to go and sat in his cab when we got out, we had no luggage and there was nothing else he had to do but his job – which was to drive the cab, he did that, ok I guess, but when I did not tip he was not happy; someone tell me why he deserved and had an expectation of a tip. This was just one example of many transportation issues – where there was an expectation of a tip.

Example three: The waiting staff at the breakfast buffet at the Sheraton Miami Beach, a hotel that in our 18 odd hours there was almost (not quite) totally devoid of any degree of customer service. The server bought our coffee and when we asked refilled our coffee; she also cleaned our table before we sat down, that’s it, that’s all; but she had an expectation of a tip, over and above the service charge on the bill, why I ask again? What did he/she do for me that was out of the ordinary, what extra service did he/she provide? The answer none – in fact the waiting staff were much more interested in the Top Gear crew (TV Show with a motoring bent, just in case you are one of the only three people on earth who have not heard of it), including host Jeremy Clarkson and getting noticed by/photographed with them to worry too much about the customers.

Are there more, sure but you get the drift, everywhere there are service staff expecting and receiving tips for doing their job and nothing else, and because they know that the tip will be paid their performance suffered accordingly. Incidentally no-one got a tip from me in any of those examples or the 10/12 others over the last four days. Did I tip anyone you ask; yes indeed I did and I will tell you about them also.

I tipped Miguel the barman at the Sheraton Miami, because he did a tough and busy gig, with a smile, had a joke with us and went out of his way to get me the wine that I wanted. I tipped Gloria at the Waterfront Café in Barbados, because she was quick, friendly and offered a couple of suggestions. I tipped Anthony the cab driver, who brought us in from the airport, because he lifted and shifted our bags, and I will tip the one that takes us to the cruise terminal in an hour or so assuming he does the same thing.

I tipped Everton behind the bar at the Barbados Hilton, because he was friendly, told me a couple of stories and listened to a couple of mine and looked after us well. I also tipped hotel porters who lifted our bags because our bags were heavy, too heavy. So, as I said at the outset I am not opposed to tipping to reward performance, I am totally opposed to tipping people who are just doing their job. So where do we go from here?

My very firm view is that we should return to tips or gratuities being a reward for exceptional service and not simply an accepted thing or with service charges automatically added to any bill. In order to do that we also need to ensure that the workers who are performing the duties are adequately rewarded up front, but still need the tips as cream, that way the level of service will pick up as the level of expectation decreases. Now I admit – it’s radical, it is not a short term process; it would take a long time to get moving and will most likely never happen, but there you go, it’s a way forward.

In the interim my personal protest will continue, I will only tip for exceptional service and will not tip someone who is just doing their job. I will try to avoid, like the plague, establishments that automatically add a service fee, difficult in the US and some spots in Europe particularly I know but I will try. Where I cannot I will most certainly not tip unless the circumstances are extraordinary. More than that I will maintain the campaign that starts today for as long as possible or it takes, whichever comes first. I will at every opportunity expose poor customer service wherever I see it or hear of it.

Perhaps if enough of you join me – we may, just may, by default, achieve what is required to get back to true customer service and to tips and gratuities being a reward for effort and performance that is exceptional or at least above the norm. It’s worth a try, don’t you think!

Written by : Peter Watson

(Source: globaltravlmedia.com.au)

What’s The Worst Thing About Business Travel?

What’s the worst thing about business travel?

Plenty, but rude hotel staffs, intrusive airline security and “steerage-like treatment on crowded planes” are the worst offenders.

So says a study by Vitesse Worldwide, an executive travel firm.

A whopping 86 percent of executives in the study said airport security screenings were the worst thing about travel, while more than two-thirds ranked tiny and dirty commercial planes and impersonal treatment by hotel staffs the worst.

"What comes through loud and clear is that an executive traveler isn't asking for high-priced service as much as high touch," said Shawn Abaspor, chief executive of Vitesse Worldwide.

Hotel rates and airfares have been climbing for several months, with travel demand on the rise and airlines cutting capacity by eliminating routes and retiring older planes. And those prices are likely to keep rising.

Average airfares and hotel rates should jump as much as 5 percent in 2012, according to a survey of more than 300 travel managers by the Global Business Travel Association, a Virginia trade group for travel managers.

By David Wilkening

(Source: Travelmole.com)

Flight Attendants ‘Increasingly Chosen for Sex Appeal’

Some airlines around the world are promoting their services by treating flight attendants as sexual decorations, using the same attitudes that prevailed some 50 years ago, according to Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

The article, headlined “Flight of fancy: the truth about female cabin crew” comes as a female business executive in the UK faces court on charges of allegedly groping “the groin and testicular area” of a male flight steward and demanding sex while drunk on an aircraft. That case is notable mainly because it reverses the usual gender profile of such harassment.

The Guardian article points out that Thai airline Nok Air advertised earlier this year for “beautiful girls with nice personalities” to fill its cabin crew positions. Any “girls” over 25 were deemed too old.

A report in The Times of India last month accused Air India of following a similar recruitment policy. And new airline Thai Smile (operated by Thai Airways and scheduled for launch next year) is recruiting a 100-strong cabin crew of women under 24.

The paper mentioned the case of a flight attendant who had applied to Garuda Indonesia recently. She later told a local newspaper that she and her fellow candidates had been subjected to a “health examination” by a male doctor that involved having their breasts “fondled”. A Garuda official is said to have explained that “hand examination on breast” was essential to detect undeclared breast implants, which “can have health issues when air pressure falls during flights”.

Other cases mentioned by the paper: the Air New Zealand TV advertising campaign of 2009 in which cabin crew wore nothing but body paint; a Southwest Airlines plane bearing murals of bikini-clad supermodel Bar Rafaeli; Virgin Atlantic’s multi-million-dollar ad campaigns featuring the airline’s “red hotties” and Ryanair’s annual “Girls of Ryanair” calendar.

Written by : Peter Needham

(Source: eglobaltravelmedia.com.au)

Whisky-Swigging Woman Could Face Jail for In-Flight Sex Grab

A female business executive faces jail for groping “the groin and testicular area” of a male flight steward and demanding sex while drunk on an aircraft.

Britain’s Daily Mail printed a photo of the suspect, a strikingly attractive young woman named in court as Katherine Goldberg, 25, of Ealing Common, London.

She is said to have knocked back about half a litre of whisky before grabbing a Virgin Atlantic steward’s crotch. Yesterday, magistrates ruled that the case was too serious for them to deal with. They have moved it on to the Crown Court.

Goldberg, originally from South Africa, pleaded guilty at a magistrate’s court in the London suburb of Uxbridge to sexual assault and being drunk on an aircraft.

But the matter does not end there. Magistrates told her she could face up to 10 years in prison.

She has been bailed for sentencing at Isleworth Crown Court next month.

Magistrate’s courts in the UK can impose no more than a six-month custodial sentence or a GBP5000 fine (about AUD7500). The courts have the power to commit defendants to the Crown Court for sentencing if the magistrate feels that either the offence is so serious that it warrants greater punishment than the magistrate’s court has power to impose, or, in the case of a violent or sexual offence, that a custodial sentence longer than the court has power to impose is necessary to protect the public from serious harm.

Goldberg was returning from visiting relatives in South Africa when the alleged incident took place on a Virgin Airbus A340-600 in the early hours of the morning on 24 August.

She had allegedly made “strong sexual advances” to the victim beforehand.

The women’s lawyers previously tried to avoid the charge going to court by suggesting the sexual assault charge could be dealt with by a police caution.

Comments in the Daily Mail on the case included one from a reader who wrote: “As a former stewardess, all I can say is: The tables have turned”. Another reader wrote: “For heavens sake, she’s just a drunk. Doesn’t anyone have a sense of humour any more? Fine her a few grand for disrupting the flight and have done with it.”

Written by : Peter Needham

(Source: eglobaltravelmedia.com.au)