The plane ran out of gas?
"Passengers on jet asked for fuel money" November 18, 2011|By Associated Press
LONDON - Airlines have already begun charging for food, drinks, seat assignments, and baggage. Now one is demanding that passengers cough up extra cash on board for fuel.
Hundreds of passengers traveling from India to Britain were stranded for six hours in Vienna when their Comtel Air flight stopped for fuel on Tuesday.
The charter service asked them to kick in more than $31,000 to fund the rest of the flight to Birmingham, England.
The situation may represent a new low in customer care in an era when flyers are seeing long lines, long waits, and few perks.
Britain’s Channel 4 news broadcast video showing a Comtel cabin crew member telling passengers: “We need some money to pay the fuel, to pay the airport, to pay everything we need. If you want to go to Birmingham, you have to pay.’’
Some passengers said they were sent off the plane to cash machines in Vienna to raise the money....
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Better ante up and get out now:
"Heathrow braces for UK strike" November 26, 2011|By Cassandra Vinograd, Associated Press
LONDON - A public sector strike in Britain next week threatens to paralyze operations at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport.
An estimated 2 million workers are expected to participate in a 24-hour walkout to protest changes in public sector pensions on Wednesday - billed as potentially the biggest union action since 1979.
The lines at Heathrow’s immigration counters are expected to be so long that passengers will need to be held on planes, and 12-hour delays for arriving passengers are likely, warned BAA, the airport’s operator.
More time to collect money to fund the rest of the trip.
“This in turn would quickly create gridlock at the airport, with no available aircraft parking stands, mass cancellations of departing aircraft, and diversions outside the UK for arriving aircraft,’’ Normand Boivin, the chief operating officer for Heathrow, warned in a letter to airlines....
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