What we’re reading: Qantas reduces premium seats, Cuba suspends Mexico flights, Delta asks blind woman to move

by Stephanus Surjaputra on April 29, 2009

Qantas: ‘We have too few seats’

With business travel plumetting, Qantas has decided to reduce the number of premium seats on its planes.

CEO Alan Joyce conceded yesterday that “we have too few seats on some of our aircraft,” with premium seats making up 40% of the total on some.

The industry expectation in Australia is that first class will be removed from more 747s while business class will be reduced across the fleet, providing more room for premium economy and economy.

Cuba suspends Mexico flights

Cuba became the first country to suspend all flights to and from Mexico for 48 hours.

The travel restrictions were imposed by Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer in a statement read on state-run television.

There are no reported cases of swine flu in Cuba, but the government said it may take further steps to restrict travel to Mexico.

Delta asks blind woman to sit somewhere else

A blind woman, who is a Medallion member of Delta and travels with a guide dog, was recently asked to move from her bulkhead seat because the flight attendant sitting next to her is afraid of dogs.

The blind woman always asks for, and normally gets, a bulkhead or emergency row seat so her guide dog can sit or lie down at her feet. There was, however, one instance that made her trip uncomfortable. Her daughter, Natalie, relates the story to the Consumerist:

On the way home on Flight #4693, where the bulkhead seat was not an emergency row, she thought she was good to go. But then she was approached by a Delta employee and told that a flight attendant on the flight was scared of dogs and that she’d have to change her seat. No, I’m not joking.

My mom didn’t budge. Delta didn’t either. Until a CRO [Complaint Resolution Official] told them that my mom needed to be allowed on the plane.

Throughout the flight, the supposedly terrified attendant bothered her every time the dog’s tail was in the foot space of the seat next to her — which was empty — asking her to move the dog.

Of course the question becomes, why didn’t the flight attendant move if she was uncomfortable with the dog? Read the comments that follow the article and you’ll get some interesting insights.

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Tagged as: Cuba, delta, Qantas, swine flu

  • http://feistync.wordpress.com feisty tourist

    re the delta story – that’s INSANE! i don’t object to the fear of dogs, but the flight attendant could have easily found someone to swap places with her. i’d absolutely have volunteered to sit next to the woman and her dog.

  • MarkieA

    Does anyone else have a problem with the statement, “…blind woman…normally gets, a bulkhead, or emergency row seat…”? How in the world is it that a blind person scores a seat that is supposed to be reserved for persons willing and able to help in an emergency? Is that the person you want trying to open the emergency exit to the plane? Oh, and there’s a dog in the way, too. Bulkhead row, OK. Emergency exit row, No way.

  • The man who notices things

    yeah, its the employees needs that are important, not the customer. This attitude permeates the airline industry – you think you are going to have a nice uncrowded first class section on an airplane and what you get is a flood of non-revs coming on during the last 5 min filling up every seat = then YOU do not get a preferred meal choice because all the non-revs take the salads. . . and somehow the airline is ok with this.

  • SpotLightofTruth

    I wonder if the unnamed flight attendant is more concerned by a service animal or flying with a bunch of tourists from the epicenter of the swine flu epidemic. May I suggest that the unnamed flight attendant seek a new career.

  • Skip

    Being afraid of dogs is not unreasonable. Some dog owners are irresponsible: let heir dogs off the leash in restricted areas, allow the dog to jump on people, be amused when a person recoils at their dog charging them barking and snarling. I could understand the FA being afraid of undisciplined beasts. I learned how to handle unruly dogs, and if I was an FA I would not have allowed that dog to fly in the cabin.

    That said, this FA was probably called on the carpet over this incident. Her fear cannot extend to the interference of her doing her job. That was a service animal performing its duties, not a pet and certainly not an undisciplined beast. I wonder if, after this incident, she still has her job at Delta?

    I’m proud of the woman for standing up to this unreasonable FA.

  • A.E.”BUDDY” WOOD, JR.

    IT APPEARS DELTA HAS COMPLETELY FORGOT WHAT MADE IT A GOOD AIR LINE-CUSTOMER SERVICE FIRST AND ALWAYS. WHO DOES THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT THINK SHE IS? I TRUST THE COMPANY WILL FIND A WAY TO GET RID OF THIS PERSON, BEFORE THEY FIND THEM SELVES IN A MAJOR LAW SUIT. THANK YOU

    ANGORILLA6

  • Louise

    Except for take-off and landing, what’s the flight attendant doing sitting down? Isn’t she paid for something like working?

  • Elisa

    Having been attacked twice by dogs, I’m utterly scared of ordinary dogs – but a GUIDE dog is trained and used to contact with human beings in a completely different way, and they don’t scare me at all.
    I wasn’t some kind of fighting dog, and in any case, what is a flight attendant doing with being scared? In this job, you have to be in contact with the public and you shouldn’t be scared of ANYTHING imho. Less than ever of a trained dog……………..

  • Tom

    It it another case of the FAs who think they have all this perceived power since 9-11 that they get to treat passengers worse than ever and kick people off the plane for even looking at them funny. It didn’t help that the airlines cut their pay so much while we fly coast to coast for under $300.

  • Scott

    The selfish man who notices not much…

    A nice-uncrowded first class section….are you kidding me? Did you pay for extra seats? Then why should you get them? This probably from somebody who is annoying agents constantly begging for free upgrades.

    Those employees that are constantly serving you and helping get you where you need to go….they are not worthy of traveling on the airline on their off-time if they have to sit next to you? What a selfish, piggish attitude.

    On my airline, revenue customers ALWAYS get their meal choices before non-revenue. We understand and appreciate most customers. You must have been such an ass to a flight attendant that they went out of their way to keep you from your salad. Perhaps you should treat people better and these kinds of things would not happen to you.

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