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Boeing 787 Makes US Debut
thomas.kane writes "After years of delays, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is set to take off from Bush Intercontinental Airport this morning bound for O'Hare. Designed to make the flying experience 'revolutionary,' it is constructed from composite materials, has larger windows than previous jetliners, and high efficiency engines. United Airlines became the first U.S. carrier to take delivery; they've ordered 50, but due to processing delays, they only have 2 right now. Start looking for more to take to the skies early next year."
In Soviet Russia, Boeing 787 Makes YOU Debut !
Flourescent (adj): smelling like ground wheat.
I was worried at first, until I saw that the airport was named after the at least somewhat sane one.
But do the windows open?
A man spends the first half of his life accumulating stuff, the second trying to get rid of it all.
Getting a bit of deja vu here. Looks like they'll be counting it as a first everytime this plane takes off. First for an American carrier, first time at night, first time with a special guest aboard, first flight with ground fog, etc.
Watching the "Passenger Experience" video it was almost obnoxious how much attention they kept giving the ceiling lighting, but looking at the different settings for the dynamic LED lighting it is actually pretty cool. I like that it not only changes the brightness but also the color of the cabin for things like meals and pre-landing.
Did they upgrade the staff with all new attitudes and customer service skills? Otherwise I'd rather be on another carrier's older plane.
A few years ago, I was in Seattle for a band trip. On the Sunday morning, a dozen of us went up to Everett to see the Boeing factory.
The first plane ready to get out the door was 787 #1, the FAA smasher, so we got to see it fairly close. We also got to see the Dreamcargo? whatever it's called take off. That's a funny looking plane.
They are very cool planes, and if you're ever in the PNW, I highly recommend heading to Everett and checking out the factory. It's incredible.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Are they afraid you might go blind from the sun or something?
Its so the passengers can better enjoy the in-flight entertainment. Especially on planes that don't have seat back monitors.
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That's what everybody says. Then they go to travelocity, and fly with the lowest bidder. If more people wanted to pay more for a better experience, there'd be more first class seats in airplanes.
I actually work for the company that manufactures the windows (Gentex) and I only have a little experience working with the windows, but I do know that there is a master control for the dimming level. Also, there are 5 different dimming levels so it's not just full dark and full clear. I think with the master control there is also the ability to limit the selectable dimming levels. So the flight attendants or whoever gets to control it could require you to set it to at least dimming level 3 and you'd still be able to look out of the window.
Yep, everyone says they want to be treated better. And have even lower fares. As well as full meals. And free movies. And no charge for baggage. But make it cheaper than it already is.
Do you see the problem?
HINT: If you want food service, pay more and fly first class.
funny, I go with the lowest bidder for airlines based in other parts of the world and the food, beer & wine, entertainment and courteous service are included. the US airlines *could* do it if money-grubbing scum weren't allowed to get away with excessivly lining their own pockets
United provides food service. It's just not "free." Of course, other airlines charge you for it too, they just include it in your ticket price whether you want the food or not.
The United "Tapas Box" is pretty awesome. Well, it was awesome last year when it was only $5, they've since raised the price to $7.50...
... and in the DRM, bind them.
Yeah, the unions are killing the US airlines..
Except mysteriously for SWA which does just fine despite being union.
I remember landing in Seattle for the first time. I could just see miles of runways figuring out; there is the airport! It went on for a while before actually getting to the airport. It turns out they were Boeing factory runways.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
From United's Q3 financials:
Net profit margin 0.06%
but having just flown SwissAir and Lufthansa, I have to agree about food and service being better in Europe.
It turns out there was some poor guy at United Airlines refreshing this web page for months:
What's worse, when the plane finally arrived, it was packed in a giant welded plastic clamshell. It took two weeks for a crew at the airline to extract the aircraft without damaging it.
Airplane manufacturers don't control seat width; the airlines are the ones who define that. The 787 is wider than other airplanes in its size class and Boeing had intended for that to be reflected in the seats. Instead, airlines chose to cram in two more passengers per row.
SWA may do fine as a business, but it doesn't do any better than other US carriers in terms of product or value for the customer.
If you compare US airlines to foreign airlines, foreign airlines (excluding Europe) have far better soft product (food, service, etc) because they are not saddled with the costs of an American labor force.
paintball
,.. if flying hadn't become such a nightmare. I remember how excited I was the first time I flew as a kid. The last time I flew, the seat put my arse to sleep, and the guy in the next seat kept elbowing me as he worked on a PP presentation. The restroom was this tiny compartment I couldn't even stand up straight in.
I avoid flying at all costs. I'll probably never board a 787.
And yet there's RyanAir, which will sadly never work in the US because we lack an abundance of old military airfields an hour away from places that people actually want to go.
In this country, executives get paid for performance-- or at least for tweaking the stock price. Unions, with their incessant demands for decent working conditions, interfere with the creation of totemic representations of shareholder value.
Yeah, the unions are killing the US airlines.
Your concluding statement contains a doctrinary truism. This hypothesis is not borne out by the evidence.
Experience on European flag-carrier and private airlines is qualitatively better than US service and amenities, in general and overall.
Surely, you don't propose that, somehow, European workers are less unionized than their American counterparts? I laugh at the thought!
Of course Asian premiere carriers also shame the US - so perhaps unionization is a red-herring, and may not be germane to the argument. But don't let that stop you from your neo-objectivist claims. I understand that they are impervious to empiricism. ;-)
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Just saw one at Beijing in ANA colors - looked a lot like a mid-sized twin engine airliner.
I spend a lot of my life on airliners. The things that matter to me are:
Big overhead bins: 787 has them, but so do lat model 747s and 777s.
AC power sockets: These could be put on any plane, but usually airlines only have them in business.
Legroom: Entirely up to the airline to set the seat spacing, nothing to do with the airplane.
In seat video with a selection of movies: Again up to the airline for the interior configuration.
Sufficient restrooms: Again, an airline configuration issue.
The improved fuel efficiency will reduce costs some - which is nice, but that is an ongoing trend. Presumably the airbus A350 will be the next step, followed by a 797 or something. I occasionally look out the windows, but most of the time there isn't much to see - so big windows are only a minor change. If they really operate the plane at lower cabin altitude that would be nice, but the extra weight burns more fuel - I doubt they actually operate that way for long. I couldn't care less about the multi-colored lighting.
It looks like a nice plane, but not in any way a game changer. Give me a Mach 3 SST, or a sub-orbital that can do Shanghai to SFO in 40 minutes and we'll talk. We've had Mach .85 airliners for >50 years now.
In this country, executives get paid for performance-- or at least for tweaking the stock price. Unions, with their incessant demands for decent working conditions, interfere with the creation of totemic representations of shareholder value.
That was a joke right? "Shareholder value" when talking about passenger airlines is pretty much zero. The lifetime profit/loss of the industry is a loss. Every legacy US airline has declared bankruptcy at least once. Southwest has not gone belly up, but you would have been far better investing in the S&P 500 over the last five or ten year periods, perhaps longer.
The problem is that owning airlines is "sexy" and way too much money is invested in it. The result is that shareholders are completely and utterly screwed. The problem with airlines is not the execs, the unions, the corporate structure, or even fuel costs. The problem is the "sexy" factor has caused there to be way too much capacity built and no airline can operate at a long term profit because of it.
All I want is some godammed leg and elbow room.
No you don't. If that's all you wanted, you'd fly first class or business class and get it. What you want is more leg and elbow room and the same amount of money left in your wallet after you buy the ticket.
http://www.glassdoor.com/GD/Salary/United-Airlines-Flight-Attendant-Salaries-E683_D_KO16,32.htm?filter.experienceLevel=TEN_PLUS/
$84k:
try $48K at most.
12-15 days off per month (average):
not if you want that $48K: More like 10 days off...
free travel for you and your family:
There's never any "space available" for those pesky employees. It's nothing but an enormous waste of time to even try.
big discounts on rental cars and hotels
You get the same thing we do...
per diem of $3k-$5k per year:
What? Do you think dining on the road is cheap- you must not travel much. That doesn't even cover it. Take a look next time, most of them carry a cooler full of food with them.
tuition reimbursement, matching 401k:
YGTBSM. Maybe at Southwest, but even with them 401K's are the only retirement.
pensions:
GONE, GONE, GONE. After telling us to take MASSIVE paycuts to save them- tremendous bait and switch. We were totally suckered. Live and learn...
Of course, airline pilots making up to $200k per year and all the above is a pretty good deal too.:
IAAAP (I am an airline pilot) and I don't even make half that- after 17 years. From the devil itself:http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2009/06/16/pilot-pay-want-to-know-how-much-your-captain-earns/. Not everybody gets to be Captain, and it take years to make it. Oh yeah, they keep raising the retirement age: moving the line ever so further away...
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?