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Aircraft Interiors Expo’s Focus on Weight
There was one consistent message throughout the Interior Expo, and it was all about weight. Why does it matter and will it change any time soon?

Regular readers of the blog know that I’m not a fan of all these “Best of” surveys. That’s why I haven’t written about JD Power’s boring surveys or anything else like that. But, when a survey has an interesting angle, it certainly catches my eye. This includes a recent British survey showing Palmair as one of the top four airlines in the world. Who?

This year’s Which? Awards (out of the UK) features “the best companies and individuals that seek to serve the interests of consumers.” In the airline category, it’s not surprising to see Air New Zealand, Jet Airways, and Singapore Airlines (the eventual winner) make the list of finalists. But that fourth finalist? Palmair. They ended up tying with Air New Zealand for third place.

I must admit that I’ve never heard of these guys, so I thought I’d dig in a little more. The airline seems like an unlikely hero. Based in Bournemouth, on the Southern coast of England, Palmair has a single 737-200 chartered from European Air Charter. The airplane started life with Sabena nearly 35 years ago, but it’s still going strong.

The airline exists to appear solely as a way to funnel pasty white Brits down to warm and sunny places to try to get a little color. You can’t book online, and it’s recommended that you use a travel agent or call them directly. You get a hot meal, but you won’t get your seat assignment until you arrive at the airport. You can only bring 20 kilos of baggage with you as well. So what is so great about these guys?

There aren’t any reviews on SkyTrax to help us out, but there have been plenty of articles popping up since the airline made it on the list. One from the Telegraph shows that flying with a focus on personal service has really set them apart. Just a sampling of what they do well.

• “Singapore Airlines has 100 planes including the A380 which is the largest plane in service, on-board massages and a choice of dvds. All we can offer is the choice of tea or coffee . . .”
• Until 2006, [founder Peter] Bath made sure he was in the departure lounge for each flight to greet the passengers. He then stood on the Tarmac at Bournemouth Airport in Dorset where the airline is based and waved off every single flight.”
• When Mr Bath passed away, long-standing airport representative Teresia Rossello took over the role. She also ensures each customer can have their choice of seat by drawing out a plan in her kitchen every night.
• Stewardesses place fresh flowers on the plane, including the toilets, every day and the company has removed a row of seats to give customers more room.

Sounds nice, right? I’m sure it is, but it’s easy to do with only one airplane. Good luck finding anyone who can replicate this on a large scale. It really makes you wonder how this tiny airline made it on to such a big list. Apparently, there were 70,000 votes by the general public to pick the winner. Sounds like there was a heck of a write-in campaign on behalf of this airline. It seems that every person who has heard of the airline must have felt compelled to go and vote.

So this doesn’t really change my view of surveys. I don’t find this particularly useful at all, since I highly doubt I’ll ever be in Bournemouth, and if I am, I’m unlikely to be flying to a sun spot. This may be an excellent airline, but if it doesn’t fly anywhere you need to be, is it really helpful? In fact, I’d imagine most people would find this news completely worthless, but I imagine all of us would enjoy flying on an airline like this, if it existed in our own backyard.

I’ve always thought that older flight attendants on legacy carriers often wear way too much makeup but this is ridiculous . . .

As you may have guessed, this was no ordinary flight. This was Air New Zealand’s Pink flight taking passengers down from San Francisco to Sydney’s Mardi Gras. My friend Paul was onboard last month and this is just one of the many, um, interesting pictures that he took. If you’d like to see more, head here.

I know we have some pretty progressive gay-friendly airlines here in the US (eg American), but could you imagine them having a special flight with Kathy Griffin and several shirtless men taking people to the San Francisco Pride parade? I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but give it a couple of years.

You’re sitting back relaxing on your flight from the US down to New Zealand when all of a sudden you realize you forgot to book your hotel. Ah crap. Or let’s say you and your geographically ignorant friends are flying from NZ to Vancouver and you’re debating whether Toronto or Montreal is the capital of the country. How do you settle the bet (and find out that you’re both wrong)?

Say hello to Air New Zealand’s onboard concierge service, a “walking Wikipedia,” if you will. They’ve decided to put someone on each long haul flight to help you with all your problems. (Um, maybe not ALL of them.) And that’s why they get the Gold Star today.

This concierge will be an additional crew member that will have no duties other than helping customers with whatever they need. Now admittedly, many of those questions could easily be answered with an internet connection, so is this just a stopgap measure to achieve the same thing until onboard internet becomes a reality or is there more here? I spoke with Ed Sims, Group General Manager International Airline for Air New Zealand, and he had more details.

Cranky: Practically, how will someone flag this person down onboard? Do you just ring your call button or ask a flight attendant? Or, will there a set location where you can go to find this person?

Ed: We see the IAC [concierge] moving between cabins, with a combination of pre set times to talk to individuals with longer questions like itinerary planning and simply being flagged by passengers with quicker queries ie food and beverage info. I would also envisage key times like top of descent where the IAC and FSM [Flight Service Manager] would work together on [announcements] with onward flight connections and timings. We haven’t designated a meeting area but could easily do so on the the 747 ..and possibly make better use of the galley on the 777. In the near future we would like to see an option on pre order IFE (as per the Virgin America system) where you could book IAC time.

Cranky: Will people in Coach have the same level of access as people in the premium cabins?

Ed: Yes absolutely ..I see the IAC spending most of their time in Economy, making more of a special event for these cabins.

Cranky: How will the person help rebook people during irregular ops? Will they just hop behind a podium and help the existing agents or will they get things done on their own and bring it back to the customer when it’s finished?

Ed: Probably both. The key aspect is that the IAC will not be tied to the flight (or crew) on which they arrived - they will stay with disrupted passengers to work with airport staff to ensure onward travel arrangements. If they miss the next flight due to the nature of these disrupts, they will have to connect with our next service. In the ideal situation they will brief the ground agent with requirements from their flight and return to passengers with confirmed arrangements. We have a rebooking system called Passenger Reaccomodation Management (PRM) which sends an automatic ACARs from the plane to the ground to reselect customers by class for rebookings - and I see the IAC overseeing and communicating this process one on one with disrupted
customers

Cranky: When will the person begin helping people? Will he/she show up at the gate 1 hour prior to departure and work until after everyone has left? What about crew rest issues. Will they only be available for certain parts of the flight?

Ed: Just as our Flight Service Manager (FSM) enters the lounge an hour prior to meet/greet HVCs, we see the IAC at the gate an hour prior, letting people know who they are and what they can do in flight. We are working on an informal variation on the Uniform so they can be recognisable from check in. They will need to take Crew rest during the flight..working mostly 12
hour sectors, there will be times when passenger demands will be lower and this is something we will need to experiment with by route and flight times.

Cranky: Is this a union job that will have strict job guidelines or will it be more of a general, “do everything you can to help” type of job?

Ed: We have scoped the job on an Individual Employment Agreement and the spec will be more “do whatever it takes”..I am not unhappy about the fact that we have already started the discussion on potential collectivisation but that will be more about membership and affiliation than changes to the scope of the role - it will be up to the successful candidates as to whether they would feel happier in a collective.

It sounds like a great program, but one big question remained. What sort of ability will this person have to actually get things done. Would it be more of a “I’m here to give you options” type of position or is it more of a “I can do it for you” position? That makes a big difference, so I asked Ed a followup question.

His response? At first, it will be more limited in scope. He says that the concierge will have access to ACARS, so he/she can radio ahead to get information like connecting gates, etc. And more importantly, the IAC will be able to radio ahead to take care of possible misconnections and other travel problems that require rebooking. But when it comes to actually making someone a hotel reservation, That’s further down the line. He says that he sees it “being used more as a customer service and for peace of mind, rather than to make bookings” at this point, but that doesn’t mean things won’t change down the line.

So there you have it. The concierge can be considered peace of mind, and for a lot of travelers, I think that’s important. I suppose ANZ doesn’t run into the same delay/cancellation problems on their international routes as, say, a domestic US airline flying to JFK does, but it has to happen sometimes. And it’s nice to know that when it does happen, someone will be there to help.

Of course, the extra crew member costs money, so can they really justify it as a service enhancement that will increase revenue? It’s hard to say, but there are potentially other opportunities here to partner with local accommodations and tourist attractions to generate revenue through recommendations. Of course, I’d be very wary about that, but if it’s what it takes to justify paying the extra crewmember, then I think it would be worth it with restrictions.

Most importantly, I agree that’s it a “peace of mind” type of thing. I like knowing that if there’s a problem, then I can ask the concierge to help regardless of where I am in the flight. More importantly, I know that the person will ACTUALLY help me. It’s interesting that most airlines have focused on improving revenue by adding physical improvements like inflight entertainment and better seats. ANZ has certainly done that, but now they’re really angling for the next step - improving service levels as well.

I know it must be hard to justify this extra expense, but I truly hope they can find a way to have this work out. Increases in service levels are all-too-rare these days. I know travelers are often looking for the cheapest fare, but then you can’t really turn around and complain about service. Vote with your wallet and start supporting carriers that have enhanced service levels like this. Maybe it will convince other airlines that it’s actually the way to go.

Here it is, part 2 . . . .

After a great few days in France and our second wedding-filled weekend, we took the Eurostar over to London. Now THAT is a fantastic experience. It’s fast now, but in less than a month the station to station time will be down to about 2 hours with the opening of England’s high speed track. Just incredible. After a couple days in London, it was time to come home on our longest flight of the trip.

---

October 16, 2007
Air New Zealand #1 Lv London/Heathrow (LHR) 415p Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 730p
LHR: Gate 16, Runway 27R, Dept :18L
LAX: Gate 21, Runway 25L, Arr :14L
Aircraft: ZK-SUH, Boeing 747-400, Standard, ~95% full
Flight Time: 10h40m

With such a late departure on a rainy, gloomy day, we had plenty of time to spare so we decided to take the Tube out to Heathrow. Unfortunately, all the work they’re doing in Terminal 3 means that to get to some check-in areas, you have to actually walk outside and around in an uncovered area. We were lucky enough to find a break in the rain when we were outside, so it could have been a lot worse. For us, the discomfort really began when we walked in to find a snaking check-in line (at left).

We had two hours until departure as we stepped in line, and I honestly was afraid we wouldn’t make it. At first there were four agents checking in coach passengers and three working on premium cabins. Slowly, the coach agents kept dropping out until there were only two left. It was a long 50 minutes before we found ourselves first in line. I had predicted we would end up with the one very angry-looking agent, and sure enough I was right . . . almost. The agent looked at us, crossed her hands to signify we weren’t welcome, and just walked off. Did I mention these were United employees?

That was probably fortunate for us, however, because the next agent who came available was very nice. We were happy to hear that we were on the upgrade list, but the agent said we’d have to check with the gate to see if we’d clear. She was nice enough to give us a pass to the lounge, but we didn’t think we’d have time. Sure enough, 20 minutes at the security line (including a strange, random, post-security shoe inspection) meant we had to go straight to the gate.

Once we arrived, the agent took our boarding passes and wrote the magical alphanumeric combination of 1A and 1K on them. Oh happy day! This was my first time sitting in the nose of a 747, and I was excited.

We of course boarded right away and found our seats up front (at right). We were immediately offered water, OJ, or sparkling wine from New Zealand. I was parched from schlepping my bags all over London, so I just opted for water to start. The flight attendant offered to take my coat but got distracted and didn’t do it. Another one came by soon after and took it after she offered newspapers to everyone.

Then a third flight attendant came up and asked if I had been in this seat before. When I said no, she gladly walked me through all the functions of the seat. She also told me, as was emphasized throughout the flight via public announcements, that I could be in any reclined position I wanted during takeoff and landing. That was nice. One thing you’ll be surprised to hear was interesting is the seatbelt.

Since the seat is angled, the half of the seatbelt facing forward has a lot of extra padding on it while the other half is normal. It was bulky but not necessarily uncomfortable. When you’re in the flat bed position, you use a different seatbelt that has no padding on it. Anyway, once she was done, I sat back and played with everything as we waited through our short ATC delay. Right before we left, the flight attendant asked for our pre-dinner drink orders and I chose the Oyster Bay Chardonnay.

We took off into the murk and that’s when I realized that retracting nosegear is really loud when you’re right on top of it. At that point, I pulled out the tv for a long afternoon of movie watching. First up was the amazingly awful Evan Almighty. It took me awhile to get things started because the system is very slow to respond to commands (they actually announced this at the beginning of the flight). But once I got it going, my wine showed up along with the first of two hot towels and all was good. Then they started the meal service with a smoked salmon appetizer and warm bread. The fruit with the appetizer was unfortunately still frozen, but that was really my only complaint about the meal. I had a tasty chicken dish for dinner that came complete with real metal knives (at left). Ooooh. After dinner, my fiancée came over to my seat so we could have dessert together.

After three glasses of wine and a glass of port (yes, I got carried away), I was feeling all warm and fuzzy and ready to fall asleep. Despite my best efforts to fight it, I dozed off only to wake up as the flight attendant was leaning over me to close my window shade. You always see those commercials where the flight attendant pulls down the window shade to demonstrate caring service, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen it happen in real life.

At this point, I decided to keep myself awake, so I moved on to a better movie, the really good “Hot Fuzz.” After that, I kept rolling with “License to Wed.” Please, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT see this movie. Not even being trapped on an airplane could make it halfway decent. Don’t even ask me why I watched that one. I feel dumber for having seen it.

With 5 hours left, I couldn’t take another bad flick, so I dove into some of the classics in the AVOD system. That’s when I decided it was the perfect time to finally watch the 3 hour and 45 minute “Gone With the Wind” for the first time. It was a great way to pass the last half of the flight, and I converted the seat into a bed so I could get comfortable.

The Virgin Atlantic-style bed seemed great for sleeping, but I wasn’t trying to sleep on this flight. I really wished there was something in between the slight recline and the fully flat position. That’s the problem with having a bed that flips over. On the other hand, the bed itself was really comfortable. I’m sure it would have been very welcome on an overnight flight.

Most of the way back, there were spectacular views as we flirted with sunset. There was a very light chop most of the way, but nothing that kept the seat belt sign on for more than 10 minutes the whole flight. Does that extremely light chop come with sitting in the nose or was it just the air we were flying through?

As I chugged on through the Civil War, the flight attendants brought another hot towel and then a selection of sandwiches for our pre-arrival snack. The movie finished up, and I then passed the rest of the time by reading a book (at right) and watching the sophisticated airshow map. We passed over Las Vegas before gliding over the lights of LA (at left) and then landing on the south runways.

They held the coach cabin until all premium cabin passengers exited, but they probably didn’t need to do that. I was surprised to see how few people were staying in LAX. I’d say most of them were despondent All Blacks fans heading back home to New Zealand. I was most amazed by the lack of US citizens/residents on the flight. They only had one immigration officer working the US line and there were no more than 15 people there. It still took awhile to get through, but our bags were rolling off just as we passed through and we headed out to the curb for our ride home.

It may not be cool to everyone (despite my title), but a handful of new long haul routes have been introduced lately, and I think it’s worth a post. Here they are in no particular order (ok, it’s actually the order the stories were opened in my browser’s tabs).

• This morning, Delta announced they’ll be starting nonstop flights from Atlanta to Lagos (Nigeria) on December 3 with 767-300 aircraft. I’m not so sure this one will actually fly though. Continental announced plans to fly there previously (lots of oil out there), but a fight between the US, British, and Nigerian governments (don’t ask) didn’t allow Continental to start. Will this be different?
• On Feb 20, Air France said they’d begin flying daily between Paris/de Gaulle and Seattle from June 11 on A330-200 aircraft. This one starts to make sense as the airline strengthens its SkyTeam alliance ties. Northwest has a strong presence in Seattle (partner KLM already flies nonstop to Amsterdam), and an additional frequent flier agreement with Alaska Airlines should help as well.
• Air China launched what I consider to be a very odd route - Beijing to Sao Paulo twice a week with a stop in Madrid on 767s. I have no doubt there’s a great deal of traffic between Sao Paulo and China, but why Madrid? Air China has the right to sell tickets between Madrid and Sao Paulo, so maybe they thought they could fill up their plane that way. You will find them consistently less expensive than Iberia, which also flies the route nonstop.
• Air New Zealand said this morning they’ll fly three 777s a week between Auckland and Vancouver. This will only operate during the southern summer - November 2 through March 28. They’ve said they want to start a new city each year, and this is an interesting one. I imagine if it does well they’ll extend it year round.