In general, I find that airlines do a far better job of running their businesses than most give them credit for. But that doesn't mean they don't do dumb things. When that happens, I award them the Cranky Jackass award.
The first Cranky Jackass was awarded a month after the blog launched. It was given to United which had limited access to Economy Plus. Since that time, I've awarded it sparingly, trying to save it for things that truly deserve the award.
When it comes to major weather problems, I’m a pretty forgiving person. Weather wreaks havoc on an airline, and recovery can be really difficult. But even if it takes a week, it’s still important for an airline to make sure it completes its recovery by getting everyone where they need …
Unlike many of you, I’ve been a fan of traditional airlines increasing density on airplanes over the years. It made sense to me: provide a basic level of comfort and then give people affordable options to buy up if they care. For those who don’t, well, it’ll mean a lower …
I’ve made a conscious effort over the last couple years to pull back on awarding too many Cranky Jackass awards. I didn’t want to cheapen such an illustrious institution. But today, American, Delta, and United each get a
share of the first Cranky Jackass of the year. This is …
[There is a new post with more information on this. The impact is less than originally thought.]
If you’ve bought Main Cabin Extra in rows 6-9 on an American CRJ-900, then this is going to piss you off. American has been selling Main Cabin Extra seats on CRJ-900 …
You may have seen elsewhere that Delta has decided to stop publishing all award charts. That’s bad, because it makes it easier for Delta to change mileage redemption levels without telling anyone. But there are other changes afoot, and I don’t remember seeing them announced anywhere. It appears that Delta …
If you subscribe to ExpertFlyer, then you know where this post is going and you are most certainly in full agreement. Delta seems to have decided that it doesn’t like third parties creating extremely helpful tools for Delta fliers, so it is shutting them off without providing any alternative. …
You all know that I like fees. I think having ancillary fees lets people pick and choose what they want when they fly, and that’s a good thing. This isn’t a rant on fees. Instead, this is a rant on bad fees that really make it difficult to get people …
There have been so many good news stories about aviation in Latin America lately that it seems like everything is going well. The LAN and TAM merger created a powerhouse, the Avianca/TACA merger is also coming together quite nicely, and then of course, there’s little Copa rocking it in Panama…
When United decided to fight Southwest’s effort to get international facilities at Houston’s Hobby airport, I didn’t blame the airline. After all, wouldn’t you want to fight anything that had the potential to hurt your business even a little? But now that the decision has been made to move …
The EAS Flights blog stumbled on something yesterday that may be a new low for this industry. In fact, it’s childish enough that the owner of the website, Pacific Wings, has earned itself the Cranky Jackass Award.
What did the airline do that was so deserving of this award? Take …
If you decide to put out bad analysis, as UNITE HERE did last week regarding Lufthansa complaints, and someone calls you on it, what would 
you do? The smart answer would probably be to just let it go and stop calling attention to the work, especially since it has …
This is just way too cool. A reader who asked to be identified as Johosofat had a project in his high school ceramics class to make a slab relief of a mythical creature. He chose the Cranky Jackass. . . .
How awesome is that?! I almost gave the award …
