Cranky Weekly Review Presented by San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport: JetBlue Looks Across the Pond, Spirit’s DCA Surprise

New Relationship Could Leave BA Feeling Blue

If at first you don’t succeed, try again with your ex’s JV partner, the old saying goes. JetBlue and British Airways applied to begin a code-sharing agreement that would cover 17 European destinations and 75 in the United States — 39 from New York and 36 from Boston — if approved. This would give BA the feed in Boston and New York that it isn’t getting from American.

The potential agreement would give BA a minty fresh new partner for customers to book one ticket on for transatlantic travel, and comes about a year to the day after JetBlue’s Northeast Alliance with American was shot down in federal court. Other customer-friendly additions, including loyalty program reciprocity do not appear to be part of the deal at this time but could be added in the future.

This deal would be in addition to the already in place codeshare between JetBlue and BA’s corporate cousin Aer Lingus.

A Spirited Attempt to Get Into DCA

As the push for one of the five new slot pairs at Washington/National rolls on, a surprise entrant in the competition has emerged — Spirit. The airline does not currently fly from DCA, having most recently flown there from 2008 to 2012 with service to Fort Lauderdale, but it now wants to get back in since it has figured out the way to San Jose.

The beyond-perimeter slots are currently restricted to incumbent carriers at the airport, with one of the pairs made available for a “limited” incumbent. An original reading of the limited incumbent part left most to believe that included just Alaska, making the airline’s proposed service to San Diego a foregone conclusion. But as a former operator at the airport who sold its slots (to Southwest), Spirit is technically considered a limited incumbent and is eligible to potentially earn the new slot pair.

Spirit is partnering with San Jose (CA) in its effort to begin DCA-SJC service. Spirit began flying to SJC last summer and currently operates from the airport to Dallas/Fort Worth, Las Vegas, and San Diego.

Considering Southwest? Google It.

Google Flights search function has long had one major carrier missing from its offerings — until now — as Southwest began appearing on the site earlier this week along with everyone else.

The carrier’s multitude of fare options from Wanna Get Away to Business Select all appear as choices on the site giving customers a full range of choice on the carrier. Southwest has traditionally told ticket aggregators and online travel agents to stick it and funnels its customers to its own website, but the carrier is slowly joining the ranks of everyone else in how it distributes its fares.

Customers who search Southwest fares on Google Flights can then click directly into Southwest.com to book their travel and be upsold on an Early Bird offering that will likely get them B11. While the option to search for travel on Southwest and other carriers being available on Google Flights is a step in the right direction, discerning travelers know the best way to secure air travel (and more) is to visit crankyconcierge.com.

AA Walks Back Bizarre Reaction to Bathroom Incident

Several young girls — amongst others — were illegally and immorally recorded using the restroom on an American Airlines last year by a rogue flight attendant who hid his cell phone with the camera on in the lavatory. Unsurprisingly, many of the victims sued American over the incident, but the plot twist came when the legal team representing AA curiously took the stance of blaming the children for not recognizing the cell phone was in the bathroom.

In its original response to the suit, American said it would dispute the claim by the 9-year old girl because the child’s “own fault and negligence, were proximately caused by (her) use of the compromised lavatory, which she knew or should have known contained a visible and illuminated recording device.” AA has since thrown its legal team — which was retained by an insurance company — under the bus, saying the filing was made in error.

The flight attendant has been charged with attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of images of child sexual abuse.

Frontier’s Healing Powers

Frontier CEO Barry Biffle says his airline is going to crack down on passengers who abuse the offer of wheelchair assistance to board its aircraft as the rampant overuse is causing issues for the airline and other passengers alike.

Biffle likened it to when someone parks in a handicapped spot who isn’t supposed to — “they will tow your car and fine you.” he said. The generous use of wheelchairs costs the carrier time — it takes wheelchairs and staff away from those who really need it, which can slow down boarding, delay the flight, and others as staff to help with wheelchairs is limited — and money. It costs the carrier about $30 every time someone requests a wheelchair, but that doesn’t reflect the savings when someone is magically healed and no longer needs it on arrival.

It seems the best way to slow down improper wheelchair requests is simply to shame those who do it publicly as Biffle did this week. Many disabilities aren’t necessarily visible, and it’s legitimate to think someone might need a wheelchair to help navigate a large airport on one end of their travel and not necessarily upon arrival at a small, regional airport that’s easier to navigate… but also, there is plenty of abuse in the system just to get that coveted bin space (or better seating on an airline like Southwest). A thorny issue indeed….

• Air Greenland is adding seasonal, weekly service to Iqaluit.
• Air Vanuatu‘s only airplane has been repossessed.
• Alaska is finally solving all of the world’s problems.
• American is displaying its Basic Economy fares on the sly now.
• Avianca has a new codeshare agreement with Emirates.
• Azul scored a codeshare agreement with GOL.
• BermudAir tasted poutine for the first time earlier this week.
• Bonza‘s carcass is down to one plane.
• Breeze escaped the terrible twos.
• Cathay Pacific flew a lot of people in April.
• Delta would prefer you play tennis.
• Finnair is increasing access to Santa Claus. Lufthansa too.
• Iberia was named as the launch operator of the new A321XLR.
• IndiGo is introducing business class.
• Kenya Airways is in the midst of a nightmare with two of its B787-8 aircraft.
• Korean is confident it will receive U.S. regulatory approval for its merger with Asiana, according to its CEO, the person most responsible for ensuring it receives U.S. regulatory approval for its merger with Asiana.
• Qantas is still sorting out in court how much compensation is owed employees fired early on during the pandemic.
• Ryanair finished FY24 up 34% from a year ago to a profit of €1.92 billion.
• SAS will remain Apollo’s major charter operator in Scandinavia through at least 2027.
• Saudia is going with Airbus.
• SmartLynx has the first A321 freighter operation in Latin America.
• T’way began its first service to Europe this week with flights to Z’agreb.
• United is offering limited Wrexham AFC-branded amerinity kits and pajamas in Polaris next month. Presumably it got FAA permission to produce them.
• Virgin Australia is offering Qantas customers a status match.
• WestJet‘s integration of Sunwing hit a snag.
• Wizz Air UK is adding wet-leased A321s.

I’m so nervous and excited I can barely get my ski mask on my face.