Cranky on the Web (November 17 – 21) – Ethiopian Madness, Rebanking in Miami, More

Ethiopian Airlines: The Flexible Airline (or, why you shouldn’t combine multiple tickets on one itinerary) – Travel Babbo
One of our clients wrote about his saga dealing with Ethiopian. Not only did they re-route his airplane to the other side of the country, they canceled another flight and rebooked him 2 days later. When we told the airline that wasn’t acceptable and he just wanted a refund, they actually balked. That wasn’t the worst of it. Amazing.

Cranky Analysis: The Re-Banking of Miami – $$PlaneBusiness Banter (subscription required)$$
I’m back with another PlaneBusiness column. This time, I looked at the impressive operational improvement that happened in Miami after the hub was rebanked. Performance improved all the way around.

In the Trenches: Considering Client Reporting – Small Business Center
We’ve been working on figuring out the best way to handle client reporting.

Brett

15 responses to “Cranky on the Web (November 17 – 21) – Ethiopian Madness, Rebanking in Miami, More”

MSPpete

Nov 22, 2014

The link to planebusiness.com requires registration. I can’t view the story.

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1. Nick Barnard
  
  Nov 22, 2014
  
  Yup, thats what the text next to the link says.
  
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MSPpete

Nov 22, 2014

So why post the link when very few of your readers can access it? Not useful.

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1. Todd in EWR
  
  Nov 22, 2014
  
  PlaneBusiness banter is a great read and rather useful, unless by useful you mean ‘free’….sometimes you actually have to buy a ticket to ride in the front end of the airplane. ;)
  
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David SF eastbay

Nov 22, 2014

How nice, he got to see more of Ethiopia then he planed :-)

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DesertGhost

Nov 22, 2014

During the most recent American Airlines earnings call, Scott Kirby (I believe) mentioned the economic and operational benefits that have accrued from Miami’s rebanking.

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Darkwater

Nov 22, 2014

So, Airline Operations 101-level question: what’s involved in rebanking a hub?

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1. jeff
  
  Nov 22, 2014
  
  AA had been running flights on a flow basis, plane arrives then leaves however the timing worked out. Rebanking involves making the planes arrive in groups and depart in groups. It does involve a reduction in utilization, in exchange you can greatly increase the number of connecting opportunities from each arriving flight.
  
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2. CF
  
  Nov 22, 2014
  
  Darkwater – Jeff said it well, but there’s a ton that goes into making that work. With more flights arriving and departing at the same time, you need more gates, more employees, and more equipment. You have more people in the airport at the same time as well, so it can have an impact on that. It was pretty interesting to hear from AA what they had to do to make this work.
  
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MeanMeosh

Nov 23, 2014

My whole question on the rebanking scheme is how this is going to work at an airport that deals with congestion and operational issues, namely ORD (weather and congestion) and DFW (weather in the spring and summer). From what I understand, a significant component of banked hubs involves forcing tighter connections, so that connecting passengers step off of the first bank and then step on to the second. While passengers ostensibly like this in theory, with load factors much higher now than when hubs were banked several years ago, I’m curious to see how this works in practice where there’s a significant, short-term flow issue like summer thunderstorms. Seems to me like it could lead to substantially more misconnects and gate space issues, and with less slack in the system now, could lead to more meltdown-type events and long waits to be re-accommodated. Then again, maybe I”m just paranoid.

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1. CF
  
  Nov 23, 2014
  
  MeanMeosh – I agree completely. Chicago is toughest since United has also now decided to do the same thing. AA is doing it right though – start with the easiest one in Miami and then see how Dallas works. But I’ll be really curious to see how O’Hare works.
  
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Mae

Nov 24, 2014

Well, there is no surprise in this . It can happen to any airline and i don’t see any point to exaggerate it this much. This airline is a number one choice for me and for Africans. Judge yourself by reading this: http://www.eturbonews.com/52846/emirates-airlines-blamed-death-obese-passenger. Yes #LongliveEthiopian

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1. Travel Babbo
  
  Nov 24, 2014
  
  Hi Mae – not sure what it is that I exaggerated? Everything I wrote is factual.
  
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Mae

Nov 24, 2014

Hey getting even more curious! I just read that Ethiopian Airlines is a Star Alliance member, and obviously they abide by the alliance’s standards every year. Isn’t your point just an accusation????

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1. Travel Babbo
  
  Nov 24, 2014
  
  What is the accusation Mae? They are indeed a Star Alliance airline. That’s why I don’t understand why they couldn’t have talked to Lufthansa and re-booked me back from Addis directly. They cancelled my flight but then did nothing to help rectify the situation. And they are still refusing to issue me the frequent flier miles I earned for the extra $1000 flight that I had to purchase on Ethiopian to get to Frankfurt.
  
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