Passengers are dropped off at the Fairbanks International Airport Tuesday afternoon, April 2, 2019. Air travel at the airport is expected to be up sharply this summer.
It’s easy to complain about air travel, but the latest Airline Quality Rating study shows, overall, it’s getting better for passengers.
The 29th annual Airline Quality Rating produced by researchers at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University tracks key airline metrics such as on-time arrivals and departures, baggage handling and customer complaints.
Overall, the report found that airlines performed better in 2018 in three of the four factors tracked, but slipped in the most important category: on-time performance.
The report also shows that airlines bumped passengers less frequently than in any year since the study started. That’s likely due to the backlash from the highly publicized bumping of a man who had to be physically dragged off a United Airlines flight in 2017.
“If the public says something, the airlines just might do something,” said Dean Headley, emeritus professor at Wichita State and co-author of the study. “Which they did in this case, and that made a big difference in this year’s numbers.”
With almost 25,000 flights a day in the United States, Headley said it’s amazing that airlines have an on-time rate of 80%, don’t lose many bags and involuntarily bumped virtually no one in 2018.
It’s a much better performance now than it was a little more than 10 years ago.
As for individual airline performance, Delta came out on top. It accomplished that by having the fewest number of involuntary removals, finishing second for on-time arrivals and third in both baggage service and customer satisfaction.
The complete rankings are:
Brian Grimmett reports on the environment, energy and natural resources for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KMUW, Kansas Public Radio, KCUR and High Plains Public Radio covering health, education and politics. Follow him on Twitter @briangrimmett.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
Copyright 2019 KMUW | NPR for Wichita. To see more, visit KMUW | NPR for Wichita.
Fans have the option to purchase adult general admission tickets for $65 and children’s general admission tickets for $49. All general admission tickets include entry onto the field for the event, the opportunity to receive autographs from 49ers players and alumni, a complimentary picnic inspired meal, access to food trucks and local restaurants, craft beer tastings, 49ers prizes and more. A limited number of VIP tickets are also available and include the same amenities as the general admission tickets, plus early entry beginning at 11:30 a.m. VIP ticketholders also have exclusive access to autograph sessions activities with 49ers players, a happy hour open bar including beer and wine, along with admission to a VIP field lounge, and more.
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A video posted on Facebook late Sunday evening shows a passenger on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville being forcibly removed from the plane before takeoff at O’Hare International Airport.
Wochit
The Kentucky doctor who was forcibly dragged off a United flight in 2017 so his seat could be used by an airline employee said Tuesday that while the ordeal pained him and his family, he is glad it forced the airline to re-evaluate its policies.
David Dao, of Elizabethtown, spoke publicly about the ordeal, which garnered international attention, for the first time ever on Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“Everything happens with a reason,” Dao said, adding he was not angry with the Chicago Department of Aviation officers who pulled him from the plane.
“They have a job to do,” he said. “They had to do it.”
Dao, who suffered a broken nose and concussion and lost two two teeth in the incident, said he was finally speaking publicly to thank supporters outraged by what happened.
He said the first few months after the incident were “horrible” and he spent months learning to walk again.
A spokeswoman for the law firm that represented Dao in a civil case against the airline told the Courier Journal he was unavailable for further comment.
Dao’s ordeal began April 9, 2017, as he was trying to fly to Louisville from Chicago O’Hare International Airport with his wife. The airline asked the couple and two other passengers to leave the plane to make way for United employees who needed to fly.
Dao, 69 years old at the time, refused to give up his seat and was forcibly pulled off the plane.
Videos taken by other passengers showed Dao’s face bloodied and his glasses broken as he was dragged down the aisle, resulting in outrage and international scrutiny at how United handled the situation.
Check out: How often do airlines bump passengers?
Male high school teacher aboard flight: ‘This didn’t need to happen’
Dao said Tuesday that he found the videos hard to watch in the months after the incident. “I just cried,” he said.
United reached a settlement with Dao for an undisclosed amount. The airline also instituted new rules, including never removing boarded passengers unless for safety or security concerns.
Dao said he refused to leave the plane because he needed to get back to Kentucky to oversee the opening of a clinic he founded for U.S. veterans.
He started the clinic with his wife as a way to thank American servicemen and women, he said, mentioning he was plucked from the ocean by the U.S. Navy as he fled communism in Vietnam about 44 years ago.
United CEO Oscar Munoz initially characterized Dao as “disruptive and belligerent.” But following a public backlash, he apologized to the doctor and promised a similar incident would never happen again.
In a statement to ABC News, United said the changes it has made since the incident “better serve our customers and further empower our employees.”
“This year, we are focused more than ever on our commitment to our customers, looking at every aspect of our business to ensure that we keep their best interests at the center of everything that we do,” United said in the statement. “As our CEO Oscar Munoz has said, we at United never want anyone in the United family to forget the experience of Flight 3411. It makes us a better airline, a more caring company and a stronger team.”
Dao said on “Good Morning America” that he does not remember anything after bumping his head during the altercation but that he later woke up in the hospital with a trauma team surrounding him.
Dao, now retired, said he still has sleep issues and trouble with his concentration and balance. While he had run more than 20 marathons before the incident, Dao said he now can only run about 3 miles.
Dao said the United employees who asked him to leave the plane could have explained why he was being bumped from the flight “nicely” and “reasonably.”
“That makes a difference,” he said.
The Chicago Department of Aviation later fired two officers involved in the incident, with a third officer resigning.
One of the fired officers sued United, Chicago’s Department of Aviation and its commissioner in April 2018, alleging he was not properly trained on how to use force.
That same month, nearly 300 Chicago Aviation Police officers filed a lawsuit after the city of Chicago and state of Illinois ended their law enforcement authority at airports.
On Tuesday, Dao shared how he made a promise to God to devote his time to charity work if he recovered. Since his recovery, Dao said he helped residents in Texas displaced by Hurricane Harvey and traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia to help install solar power in villages with no electricity.
“Well, the most important thing is the accident turned out the positive way,” Dao said.
Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com or 502-582-7030.
A timeline: What happened on United Airlines Flight 3411 when David Dao was removed
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Over a decade after the retirement of the Concorde, some companies are working to bring back supersonic air travel.
After the retirement of the Concorde in 2003, supersonic commercial air travel came to an end. With an average speed just above Mach 2 (1,354 mph), the Concorde’s fastest Transatlantic trip between New York and London occurred in 1996, lasting just 2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds.
RELATED: NASA SELECTS LOCKHEED MARTIN TO DESIGN AND BUILD A QUIET SUPERSONIC AIRCRAFT
Its retirement was seen by many as a real loss even as there were serious problems with commercial supersonic air travel, primarily the noise. It was prohibited from flying at supersonic speeds over land to spare those down below from the loud sonic boom as it flew. Though a sonic boom seems like a single event, the boom itself is relative to the observer, the boom itself simply being the moment the compressed sound waves of the aircraft finally reaching the observer. Traveling over land, a supersonic aircraft is essentially raking the ground below with its sonic boom.
Thanks to new aircraft designs, there is hope that these booms can be mitigated and supersonic air travel can make a comeback, with several companies betting that it will. UK-based Reaction Engines has been working to produce an engine that they hope will be more than 250 percent faster than the ones used on the Concorde.
Recent tests on the precooler component Reaction Engines has built for its SABRE engine design have achieved air intake cooling of air up to 420 degrees Celsius (~788 degrees Fahrenheit), the air temperature experienced while traveling at Mach 3.3. They hope to get their SABRE engine precooler to the point where it can handle air temperatures in excess of the 1,000 degrees Celsius (~1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) experienced at Mach 5.
“This is a hugely significant milestone which has seen Reaction Engines’ proprietary precooler technology achieve unparalleled heat transfer performance,” said Mark Thomas, CEO of Reaction Engines. “The [test engine] met all test objectives and the successful initial tests highlight how our precooler delivers world-leading heat transfer capabilities at low weight and compact size.
“This provides an important validation of our heat exchanger and thermal management technology portfolio which has application across emerging areas such as very high-speed flight, hybrid electric aviation and integrated vehicle thermal management.”
Testing of the precooler took place in Colorado, but after securing more than £100 million in public and private funding—including investments from BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, and Boeing HorizonX—Reaction Engines is finishing construction of a test site in Westcott, Buckinghamshire in the UK where it will begin testing the SABRE Engine core.
Last year, Boeing unveiled a hypersonic aircraft design concept that they hope can hit Mach 5, capable of traveling around 3,806 mph at sea level. While only in the concept stage at the moment, Kevin Bowcutt, senior technical fellow and chief scientist of hypersonics at Boeing, believes that these aircraft could be in the air in the next 20 to 30 years.
“We’re excited about the potential of hypersonic technology to connect the world faster than ever before,” he said. “Boeing is building upon a foundation of six decades of work designing, developing and flying experimental hypersonic vehicles, which makes us the right company to lead the effort in bringing this technology to market in the future.”
Maybe the skies are getting a little friendlier.
Last year, major airlines in America received the best score ever in the 29-year history of an annual study that tracks consumer complaints, on-time performance and mishaps like mishandled baggage and passengers getting bumped off oversold flights.
The Airline Quality Rating awarded its best overall score ever and noted that industry scores have been improving each year since 2015.
The research found:
• There were 8,865 consumer complaints filed last year with the U.S. Department of Transportation, a 23% decrease from 11,570 complaints filed in 2017.
• Involuntary denied boardings — also known as being bumped from a flight — last year shrank to .14 per 10,000 passengers, compared to .34 per 10,000 passengers in 2017.
• Baggage mix-ups decreased to 2.43 per 1,000 passengers from 2.46 in 2017.
• However, on-time arrivals eked downward, slipping to 79.6% in 2018 compared to 80.2% the year before.
“Improvement in industry performance in three of four areas tracked in the ratings is a positive sign for consumers and airlines alike,” wrote the study authors, Dr. Brent Bowen, a professor and former dean at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s College of Aviation, and Dr. Dean Headley, an emeritus professor at Wichita State University.
The Airline Quality Rating passed the airline industry as a whole with flying colors But some carriers fared better than others.
Delta Airlines
DAL, -0.93%
flew to the top of the nine ranked airline companies. The airline’s on-time performance edged up, its mishandled baggage rate was essentially the same and customer complaints dropped, according to the study. It placed second in the previous ranking behind Alaska Airlines
ALK, -1.13%
which sunk to fourth in the most recent study.
Frontier Airlines came in last. Its on-time performance was 69% in 2018, compared to 78% in 2017. Its denied boarding climbed, as did its consumer complaint rate even while mishandled baggage became less frequent. A request for comment to the Denver, Colo.-based airline offering “low fares done right” was not immediately returned.
Smoother performance is coinciding with high-altitude airline revenues. Revenue increased from $155 billion to $222 billion between 2009 and 2017, according to a report from Deloitte.
Still, it’s not as if air travel grousing has gone away. Stories about misdaventures in flying sprout up routinely, like a mother and child who were forced off a plane allegedly because of their skin condition or a doctor who was dragged down the aisle of an overbooked flight.
Indeed, the findings arrive with the airlines industry in the news for the wrong reasons.
Weeks ago, an Ethiopian Airlines crash killed all 157 people on a flight using a Boeing 737 Max 8. That was the same aircraft that crashed five months earlier and killed all 189 people in a Lion Airlines flight. Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing
BA, -1.38%
has apologized for the crashes and pledged to have the aircraft’s software fixed.
Though airline industry scores have been continuously improving in the past several years, Headley, the report’s co-author, said David Dao’s 2017 dragging off a United
UAL, -0.67%
flight was a key moment. “People became aware it happened and could happen to them. … It made a dramatic improvement,” he said. (A United spokeswoman called the incident a “defining moment” that all of the company’s employees could learn from; the airline later reached an undisclosed settlement with Dao.)
While complaints to the Department of Transportation were down, that doesn’t necessarily mean passenger satisfaction was up, Headley noted. It could be that fed up consumers weren’t even bothering to file complaints in the first place, he said. The carriers didn’t share the number of complaints filed directly with them, he noted.
Paul Hudson, president of FlyersRights.org, a passenger advocacy group,shrugged off the positive-sounding findings. “This is a survey by and for the airline industry and does not represent a true consumer survey,” he told MarketWatch. The survey didn’t get into passenger issues like “price and value for the money, seating and passenger space, boarding, food, frequent flyer programs, reliability, safety, reservation services or any real service comparisons,” he said. The study also only looked at domestic air travel, Hudson said.
Headley defended the results, which, he noted, wasn’t a survey but an analysis of publicly-available facts. Besides, data on punctuality, performance and complaints all have a “decidedly consumer perspective,” he said.
Shares of Delta have been up 15.49% so far this year compared to a 12.76% increase for the Dow Jones Industrial
DJIA, -0.51%
and a 15.25% increase for the SP 500
SPX, -0.35%
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Andrew Keshner is a personal finance reporter based in New York.
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In City of Tamarac Firefighters’ Pension Trust Fund v. Corvi, et. al, C.A. No. 2017-0341-KSJM, the Delaware Chancery Court issued a Memorandum Opinion granting a motion to dismiss under Chancery Rule 23.1 for failing to prove that pre-litigation demand of the Board was wrongfully refused. The City of Tamarac Firefighters’ Pension Trust Fund (“Plaintiff”), a stockholder of United Continental Holdings, Inc., the owner and operator of United Airlines (collectively, “United”), brought derivative claims against United and its board of directors (the “Board”) (collectively with United, “Defendants”) demanding either a claw-back of an allegedly excessive separation compensation award or the rescission of the separation agreement altogether. The Court found that Plaintiff failed to plead particularized facts raising a reasonable doubt that Defendants acted with due care and in good faith in rejecting Plaintiff’s demand.
In 2011, when David Samson (“Samson”) was chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, he and then-chief executive officer of United Jeffery Smisek (“Smisek”) entered into an arrangement where United would re-institute a retired route that traveled between Newark, NJ and Columbia, SC (the “Route”). The Route had historically operated at a loss, but Samson owned a vacation home there that he wished to travel to more easily. In exchange for the Route’s resurrection, Samson approved several development projects at United’s regional hub. The renewed Route generated losses for United of approximately $1 million.
Three years later, a federal investigation into an unrelated Port Authority scandal uncovered the Route arrangement, prompting further probes into the organization. In the midst of these investigations, Smisek and United entered into a separation agreement negotiated by a special committee (the “Committee”) made up of nine independent and disinterested directors. The separation agreement netted Smisek benefits in the amount of $37M, including almost $5M in cash. By its terms, the separation agreement permitted United to claw-back the benefits if Smisek failed to cooperate with the federal investigations, pleaded guilty to a felony, or was convicted of a felony. Eventually, United settled the case with the SEC, and paid a $2.4M penalty.
In 2016, Plaintiff sent the Board a litigation demand letter seeking to claw-back Smisek’s separation compensation or rescind the separation agreement. Thereafter, the Board delegated consideration of the demand to the Committee. The Committee rejected Plaintiff’s demand, citing the fact that the circumstances under which United was empowered to claw back the award had not occurred. The Committee also stated that it had considered potential disruption to or distraction from the business, the efficacy of the requested action, and the actions United had already taken responsive to the federal investigations.
In 2017, Plaintiff filed this action. Subsequent to Defendants’ original motion to dismiss, Plaintiff sent a supplemental demand adding a request that the Board institute legal action to rescind the separation agreement. The Board again delegated consideration of this demand to the Committee, who in turn formed a subcommittee (the “Subcommittee”) made up of the five members of the Committee that were added after the approval of the separation agreement with Smisek. The Subcommittee rejected Plaintiff’s second demand for essentially the same reasons as the first demand. Subsequently, Plaintiff filed an amended complaint and Defendants renewed their motion to dismiss.
In deciding Defendants’ motion to dismiss, the Court considered Rule 23.1 and how it applied to derivative suits where a plaintiff makes a demand. The Court considered the long-standing rule that making a pre-suit demand constitutes a “tacit” concession that the board is sufficiently disinterested and independent to consider the demand. Refusal, therefore, is subject to the business judgment rule. The Court cited Spiegel v. Buntrock, 571 A.2d 767 (Del. 1990) for the proposition that the two ways in which a plaintiff can show that the board acted outside of its business judgement are raising a reasonable doubt that (1) the board acted with due care, or (2) the board acted in good faith.
Plaintiff argued that the Committee and Subcommittee members were conflicted, and thus the Board acted with gross negligence in relying on them to consider the demands. Defendants relied on Spiegel for the proposition that the Court is precluded from analyzing conflicts at the committee level, as the plaintiff’s tacit concession of disinterestedness flows to the committees as well. The Court acknowledged Defendants’ reasonable interpretation of Spiegel, but turned to Grimes v. Donald, 673 A.2d 1207 (Del. 1996) and Scattered Corp. v. Chi. Stock Exch., Inc., 701 A.2d 70 (Del. 1997) [hereinafter Scattered III] for a discussion on the distinction between directors’ status as disinterested or independent and directors’ actions relating to disinterestedness or independence. Specifically, the Court cited Scattered III for the proposition that even where pre-suit demand is made, the Court should inquire into the good faith and reasonableness of the actions of any committee making up less than the full board.
The Court concluded that “Grimes and Scattered III demonstrate that a tacit concession does not establish for all purposes the disinterest and independence of every member of the board.” While acknowledging that the Court should consider arguments that individual members or committees might not have acted independently, it found that all of Plaintiff’s arguments of conflict within the Committee and Subcommittee fail. Plaintiff argued that members of the Committee had been involved in the negotiation of the separation agreement, which would leave them unable to fairly decide whether to claw-back the award. The Court dismissed this argument because Plaintiff failed to allege any actual involvement, other than that some were on the board when the claw-back provisions were decided. Plaintiff also argued that Jenner Block’s “dual-representation” of the Committee and United was a conflict. The Court acknowledged that while “dual-representation” can be a conflict, it would only be triggered here if it was alleged that Smisek was also represented by Jenner Block. Lastly, Plaintiff argued that the Committee approved the separation agreement before the federal investigations concluded, but the Court found that Plaintiff would have had to allege particularized facts that approving the separation agreement at that time constituted gross negligence.
Plaintiff’s arguments that the Board acted in bad faith were quickly dismissed by the Court. Plaintiff would have had to plead with particularity that the Board intentionally acted in disregard of the Company’s best interest. Instead, the Court noted that Plaintiff merely characterized the decisions as “egregious,” “irrational” and “inexplicable.” Ultimately, the Court found that Plaintiff failed to show that demand was wrongfully refused and granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss.
CHICAGO — Dr. David Dao, who was dragged off a United Airlines flight at O’Hare International Airport two years ago, is speaking out for the first time ever.
Dao was removed from the plane when he refused to give up his seat on the overbooked flight.
RAW VIDEO: UNITED PASSENGER DRAGGED OFF FLIGHT AT O’HARE
The image of Dao on his back with his face bloodied touched a nerve with a lot of passengers. The incident led to protests, legal action, and eventually rule changes at United.
RELATED: VIDEO: United passenger dragged off overcrowded flight at O’Hare; officer placed on leave
On Tuesday’s Good Morning America, Dao speaks for the first time about the encounter at O’Hare seen worldwide.
Dao was pulled from his seat by Chicago Department of Aviation officers, smacking his face on an arm rest.
His face bloodied and glasses broken, Dao was dragged down the aisle of the United Airlines jet.
RELATED: Outrage grows after United passenger dragged off plane; family ‘appreciative’ of support
Dao then returned, appearing disoriented.
“I have to go home! I have to go home!” he shouted on video taken by other passengers at the time.
His family said he suffered a concussion and broken nose.
RELATED: Who is the Kentucky doctor dragged from the United plane?
“Have you watched the video?” GMA’s Amy Robach asked him.
“Later on,” Dao replied.
“What’s that like to watch to see?” Robach asked.
“Few months later after I get my cell phone back, my iPhone back, the first reaction is I just cried,” Dao said.
Dao had refused to be bumped from the Louisville-bound flight for a United crew member.
RELATED: United Airlines, doctor dragged off flight settle lawsuit
United initially called Dao “belligerent,” but later apologized. The airline settled with the Kentucky doctor for an undisclosed amount.
The airline instituted new rules, including never removing boarded passengers unless for safety or security concerns.
RELATED: United announces new customer policies
Two aviation department officers were fired, and a third resigned. One of the officers filed a lawsuit against the city and United, saying he was never properly trained to deal with such an incident.
RELATED: 2 more officers placed on leave after passenger dragged off United flight
The full interview with Dr. Dao will air on Good Morning America Tuesday at 7 a.m.
United Airline’s is becoming the latest airline to make it harder for frequent flyers to plan how many miles they will need to book an award flight. For flights on and after November 15, 2019, the United Airlines award charts will no longer be available. United will begin charging variable award prices for United-operated flights instead. You can already see these changes for flights on and after November 15, 2019.
United also announced that they would be eliminating close in booking fees after November 15, 2019 as well. This is a positive change.
San Francisco, CA, USA – May 22, 2018: Commercial United airline airplane
Getty
This move follows in the footsteps of Delta and discount carriers Southwest Airlines and JetBlue that also use a variable pricing model. At this time, American Airlines and a few international carriers, including Aer Lingus, continue to offer fixed price awards.
Despite this negative news, variable pricing isn’t a completely new concept. United introduced the more expensive Everyday Award that has variable pricing. But, at least it was published with a maximum price for comparison. For instance, a one-way domestic economy class flight currently costs up to 32,500 miles. Being able to book a Saver Award costs 12,500 miles for that same flight.
For now, you can still calculate how many miles you will spend on United award flights by using their interactive award chart.
Redeeming United Miles
The disappearing award charts will be a setback for many award travelers. To avoid some of the future uncertainty, you may try to redeem your miles now.
As of now, United still won’t charge fuel surcharges to long-haul flights. This peace of mind at least lets you know that your fees and taxes for most routes will be around $5.60 each way.
Also, United is still a Chase Ultimate Rewards 1:1 transfer partner. If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Chase Ink Business Preferred, now can be a good time to transfer your miles to get a potentially better redemption value.
Saver Awards
Your best redemption will be booking Saver Awards. These are the last fixed-cost award seats that may be impacted the most when the award chart changes take effect. There are a limited number of Saver Awards per route so you may have to adjust your travel dates or flight times to find a Saver Award.
Economy domestic one-way flights cost 10,000 miles on routes 700 miles or less. Longer routes cost 12,500 miles. If you upgrade to a premium cabin, plan on spending 25,000 miles each way. On Polaris transcontinental routes, add 10,000 miles to the award flight price.
Flying to Europe can also be affordable on United because you won’t pay a fuel surcharge. Economy seats cost 30,000 miles each way and 60,000 miles for business class. On partner airlines, premium seats can cost 70,000 miles each way plus fees and taxes.
Book United Flights With Partner Miles
Another option to consider is booking United flights through a partner airline like Singapore Airlines. Selection may be limited, but it’s another potential tool you can use to maximize award travel.
At this time, it’s unclear how these changes will affect partner flights.
Summary
Although the United MileagePlus program isn’t perfect, the published award charts add credibility to the company and is definitely more user friendly for consumers. Going forward, it may be harder to plan United Airlines award flights. Using your United miles now is one way to know you are getting the best redemption value. While you should still be able to find competitively priced award flights after November 15, it will take by more effort.