awaiting updates, teriwtt and busdriver
Well… if my former neighbor is still working for United, and is on a trip, I may not hear from her for several days. She could typically be gone from home for 3-6 days (well, at least 15 years ago that’s how it was).
I think busdriver’s point above is correct. I routinely get upgrades into first on domestic flights due to status, but the only way I could get upgraded to premium on an international flight is either to use a Global Premier Uograde (I have a limited number) or pay for it. The airlines are not going to pull me from a $1,000 seat to a $6,000 seat the way they might pull me from a $250 to a $500 seat domestically.
I think jym’s acquaintance may be a loudmouth but I can see how she’s doing what she’s doing. Some people are pros at checking loads and as a FA she has access to route info that “regular” people don’t.
I see several posters are saying First class when it really is Business class. Very few domestic routes have first class anymore, only business. A few airlines have domestic First class in transcon flights.
You’ve got it backwards. American carriers have gotten rid of int’l First Class because of lack of demand, and only have int"l Business Class.
They still call their domestic premium cabin “First Class”
Yeah, I know it’s insane that Business class is now posher than First class. But airlines name it that way bcs that’s what corporate travel policies will permit.
Nope, sorry, cbreeze, GMT has it right.
re post #706 and checking instruments, does anyone remember this?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/24/united-breaks-guitars-did_n_244357.html
The video linked within is pretty funny.
Busdriver, how did your husband make out?
It ended up being a non issue, Onward. Mom was standing in the aisle, and there was a lap baby. Apparently they had three different equipment changes, and seats were all messed up. The lady with the kids had purchased seats in economy comfort, and was not happy to get moved from those seats. He said the flight and the kids were fine, thankfully.
But getting him that seat was crazy. Online, first a seat was available, then when I tried to book it–wen all the way through the process, and oops, sold out. Now that seat is available for $1800, one minute later-$750. Lucky he got the seat at all, or he would have been stuck out. Bad weather yesterday.
@GMTplus7,no that’s not true.
United and American have international First class, only Delta has gotten rid of it.
I was on United First last September and there were 2 distinct premium cabins.
http://thepointsguy.com/2014/02/united-globalfirst-class-review-los-angeles-sydney-melbourne/
@bearpanther, that video is hilarious! More power to musicians using their talents to get a point across. There is a follow up video called “I’ve got a book comin’ out” that is just as funny.
Now, there is a new rule that guitars and other instruments that are small enough, can go in the overhead bins. Some musicians don’t trust it though and think they can still be broken. I’m not sure if there’s a rule that they’d have to be in soft cases to be in the overhead bins.
bearpanther, I loved the video, particularly the ending!
@cbreeze, i thought u were referring to carriers w only 2 classes of service.
OK since this thread has been on hijack; did anyone hear the airline story where Bob Dylan played a concert with newer music (that the audience wasn’t expecting) and he didn’t get a great feeling from the audience. So after his return flight, he had left his guitar on the plane - and someone said ‘don’t you want your guitar’ and he said ‘no, you keep it’. Well that guitar was recently auctioned - was it $250K?
Sometimes overseas business class may not be ‘perk enough’ for an employee. H had to go overseas to prepare for a electronic manufacturing ‘technology transfer’ (can’t remember which Asian country), there a week, then back a week. Then company wanted him to go back so that the first manufacturing run would go well - he said only if he could fly business class. He says he was in the bubble of the 747 (am I saying the right plane model?) with two other people, but he was too fricking tired to enjoy it. Was there two weeks and then return, so he was a little better on the second return home flight.
My mom’s luck held out on airline travel as well. In Ireland (with a tour group) at the airport security, she left her purse (!) - when they walked back to find it, it was there, all intact. Then after boarding the plane, the FA asked if mom would move because of a seat request. She said only if she could be bumped up to business class. Her group was surprised that all of a sudden she then got moved to business class, but in a way they knew she just had a lot of luck going.
Here’s a way to get an uncontested upgrade to First Class
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2015/01/dying-transit
We recently flew on BA to London, then connected to Berlin on Business class. On the London leg, we flew an enormous jet. We had those cool looking pods with every convenience, which fold down into a bed. So cool. Decent food, nice wine, the whole shebang.
On the Berlin leg, our Business class were simply regular, small seats. The only difference between them and coach was that the middle seat was not assigned to anyone else. Same airline, totally different perks. The flight was just under two hours of course, so not that big of a deal.
We flew AA Business class from Frankfurt. No pods, no lying down completely, but certainly perfectly fine.
I guess I’ve gotten “on board” with the hijack as well.
Inter Europe, the first class can be nothing more than what you said, just the middle seat empty. Or the same exact seats with a little white piece of material at the top of the seat to show how special that seat is. I don’t even know that the flight attendants give you anything extra, perhaps a little snack when coach gets nothing. Huge difference from international business class, and not worth paying one cent extra for.
GMT, it would be my luck to die and be placed in a seat in the back, closest to the lav, because nobody would be willing to give up their first class seat. Maybe they’d figure out a way to cram me into the bathroom.
I get a little edgy when people start talking about “hijack” in a flying related thread…
I thought the same thing @busdriver11 with Nrd’s post. I used the term thread on hijack to distinguish.
Reminds me of the school shooting at my DD’s middle school in 2010, and the superintendent having a bullet item follow up information (and yes he used that term). At the time, I didn’t catch it (I was in the middle of very nasty chemo treatments) but looking at the email recently I was amazed that didn’t get ‘caught’ before being sent out to the entire parents’/schools’ network.
I was just attempting humor on the “hijack” comment. I should really use the 
more often.
My son was telling me during one of those shooter drills they had in high school, a bunch of kids were whistling the tune, “Pumped up Kicks,” which until then he hadn’t realized was about the Columbine massacre. Talk about gallows humor, and a sad commentary of the times that kids actually have to plan for that possibility. His story was rather funny, but pretty depressing, really.
I was on a flight from NYC to Charlotte with a connection to Hilton Head years ago on which a man died. We diverted to Baltimore, he was removed, accompanied by his widow, and the flight resumed. When a body is removed, the FAs put the person on a kind of board that slides along the tops of the seats. Everyone has to duck down so that it can pass overhead. Very strange feeling. I felt terribly sorry for the woman, now stranded in a city with no family to meet her with her dead husband. But I assume that the airline must have procedures to assist her in that situation.
I was traveling with S as an infant on that flight. At least I didn’t have to worry about whether my baby was the worst thing other passengers experienced. (Actually, IIRC he was pretty much silent throughout.)