Throughout the week, our team shares articles they’ve stumbled upon that may interest our readers, even if they might not otherwise merit a full post. Here are some of the posts we found interesting this week: Spirit goes bankrupt again, a Japan Airlines pilot calls in drunk, Austrian Airlines introduces the “Dubai Deal”, and a former bellman shares some of his celebrity-encounter stories.
Spirit Airlines Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy… Again! Now What?
Spirit Airlines just filed for Bankruptcy, and if you’re thinking, “wait, didn’t they just do that?” you would be right. In November of 2024, they also filed for bankruptcy, making this look like a wacky little fall tradition. In March, that first bankruptcy wrapped up, just about a week after their merger plans with JetBlue officially bit the dust. Needless to say, it’s been a rough year for Spirit, and it’s hard to imagine how they might recover. As Ben points out in his post, their margins are so low they’re in the (significant) negatives: -20% according to Ben. That’s a dismal number compared to the already dismal ~3% profit margin that is more standard for the airline industry in general.
Japan Airlines Pilot Calls In Drunk From The Gate In Honolulu, Delaying 3 Flights Up To 19 Hours
If you’re not feeling particularly sober, it’s always the right move to put your car keys away, humble yourself, and call your folks for that painfully embarrassing ride home. That’s what they told us in high school, anyway. Yes, even if you were supposed to be the designated driver. And yes…even if you’re a pilot responsible for getting 239 passengers from Honolulu to Nagoya. While this incident is definitely a little cringey (because it ultimately inconvenienced a total of 630 passengers), I doubt I’m alone in my preference for a pilot calling out drunk rather than trying to fly drunk. But as Gary points out in his article, this seems to be a disturbingly common occurrence, with 5 other pilots creating problems or delays because of drunkenness in the last year or two.
Austrian Launches “Dubai Deal” Test Flights, Admits They’ll Be Unpleasant
Austrian Airlines is launching an experimental flight to Dubai this winter with a modest A320neo, an aircraft that would normally be used for intra-Europe flights and would normally be grounded during the winter. It has no seat-back entertainment and no real business class product, but Austrian Airlines is testing out its appeal for price-conscious travelers to Dubai. They’re being quite up front about how customers should view this as a discount experience, referring to it with the quip “Lean aircraft, lean price”.
The Coolest, Kindest Celebrities I Met While Working at a Hotel
If you like 80’s / 90’s hair bands, you’ll like this unique post by Chris at Eye of the Flyer, reminiscing about his time spent working as a shuttle driver, bellman, and front desk agent at a hotel in Fargo. I’m sure he has plenty of stories and insights that could intrigue our crowd, but this particular post tells of his favorite encounters with celebrities – musicians mostly. The extremely abbreviated summary is that The Rolling Stones were all pleasant, Def Leppard was gracious to their fans and good company for a late-night TGIF visit, Shania Twain’s band was “some of the coolest people [Chris] ever met.”, and Mr. Mustaine of Megadeth was super smart (and his tour manager was next-level charming and sociable). I love that a hotel in Fargo, of all places, positioned Chris well for these encounters. The Bed and Breakfast I worked at in Amish Country, Ohio was less well-positioned, and I met exactly 0 celebrities. Though there was always a rumor going around about how Harrison Ford enjoyed visiting Ohio Amish country after filming “Witness” in Pennsylvania’s version of the same, and I had friends who got to hang out with Vanilla Ice during the “Vanilla Ice Goes Amish” era back in ~2014.
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