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Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

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Re: Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

#71

Post by fulafel »

triangleman wrote: post #56
fulafel wrote: post #41

We have to drastically reduce air travel to cope with global warming and excess CO2. It's pretty unethical to fly more than a few times a year. CO2 injected into the upper atmosphere causes 2-3x warming vs ground level CO2 emissions.

I believe the spectrums of IR absorbed by CO2 are already fully saturated, so that there is very little effect, if any, of increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

You're right, I misremembered. The 2-3x warming effect is due to other atmospheric effects ("radiative forcing") and nor direct effects of the emitted co2.

End result is the same however - the same fossil fuel is much worse when used in air travel than on the ground.

Re: Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

#72

Post by jl6 »

lmm wrote: post #34
coredog64 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would wager there is more money to be "found" by streamlining operations (e.g. better boarding and overall faster gate turns) than there would be in manufacturing improvements. What most people don't realize is that an airliner is a $40-240 million dollar investment that needs intensive regular maintenance. Nobody gives a shit if you can shave 100lbs off the weight of the fuselage if you also have to replace the en…

Pilot friend told me we know exactly how we could make airliners ~twice as fuel-efficient by making the fuselage a more aerodynamic shape than a flat cylinder. But no-one wants to have to build each seat row in a slightly different shape.

Sounds suspect, as I think airlines would take the hit on seat design if it meant halving their fuel costs.

Re: Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

#73

Post by TeMPOraL »

gnicholas wrote: post #47
jbeales wrote: post #39

The headline is misleading. According to the information in the article itself most of the complaints can be solved by properly training staff to use existing tech as it was designed. One of main complaints of the article - that airline staff doesn't get passed enough information about a passenger's disability, so, for example, deaf people get met at the gate with a wheelchair, seems to be a direct result of using in…

This was my impression of the headline as well. The biggest issues had nothing to do with technology, but rather with people. I guess it's not as surprising/newsworthy to say "Airlines are letting their employees mistakes negatively impact their customers". And they seem to have made the conscious choice not to mention accessibility or PWD in the headline, perhaps because they figured the article would get fewer clic…

> I wonder if websites have considered the impact that clickbait headlines have on people with disabilities.

My guess is they don't give a damn. They don't even think about it, because if they did, they'd realize the damage they're doing to all readers and the society at large, and they'd abandon their practice.

Re: Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

#74

Post by uncoder0 »

adam_gyroscope wrote: post #69

Disclaimer: I built airline reservations systems with ITA Software. I don't recall there being a minimum character count for SSR codes, but in legacy reservations systems (and the passenger name records (PNR) that contain these SSRs) there's for sure a max. Airline reservations systems never met a fixed-width format they didn't like, and the reason is that for a long, long time the unit of storage for a PNR was a blo…

I know a guy with the last name 'Tester' that had to have a gate agent book their flight every ~10 minutes until their flight departed because the reservation system in production would delete any reservations with the last name 'Tester'.

Thought it was a fun story related to the immaturity of reservation / booking systems.

Re: Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

#75

Post by lucaspiller »

stinky613 wrote: post #2

Speaking of tech failings among airlines... Can anyone tell me what the hell the ticket scanning machines at the gate are doing? In the past week United sent a French woman 2,000 miles in the wrong direction; even though her flight had changed gates, when they scanned her ticket at the (now incorrect) gate it did a normal 'OK' beep and let her through. What in the world is the point of scanning scanning tickets at th…

I was flying from Dublin once. They scan your ticket before security and at the gate, and use some sort of facial recognition to identify you in both places.

One woman was stopped as she entered the aircraft, as the attendent checking tickets saw that the flight on her ticket was for the day before!

Re: Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

#76

Post by stinky613 »

joering2 wrote: post #66
stinky613 wrote: post #2

Speaking of tech failings among airlines... Can anyone tell me what the hell the ticket scanning machines at the gate are doing? In the past week United sent a French woman 2,000 miles in the wrong direction; even though her flight had changed gates, when they scanned her ticket at the (now incorrect) gate it did a normal 'OK' beep and let her through. What in the world is the point of scanning scanning tickets at th…

Gates changes soo often it would be truly impossible to have the scanner check if you boarding correct plane. The mess would be disaster. AFAIK, the scanner only checks "okay this is the airport you supposed to be inside within 48hours timeframe". That's all.

...and as the gates change the changes are reflected on screens displayed throughout the airport; it's not like the correct gate information is only stored in the minds of the employees working that day

Re: Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

#77

Post by jakub_g »

adam_gyroscope wrote: post #69

Disclaimer: I built airline reservations systems with ITA Software. I don't recall there being a minimum character count for SSR codes, but in legacy reservations systems (and the passenger name records (PNR) that contain these SSRs) there's for sure a max. Airline reservations systems never met a fixed-width format they didn't like, and the reason is that for a long, long time the unit of storage for a PNR was a blo…

Indeed, disrupting airline-related industry is hard if you're an outsider. The technology is one hard thing, but knowing all the actors in the industry is the main advantage of GDSes.

BTW switching the reservation system is hard, but not impossible. Southwest migrated its international reservations from internal system to Amadeus this very week (after a lengthy development of course).

Re: Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

#78

Post by lucaspiller »

ska wrote: post #63
stinky613 wrote: post #2

Speaking of tech failings among airlines... Can anyone tell me what the hell the ticket scanning machines at the gate are doing? In the past week United sent a French woman 2,000 miles in the wrong direction; even though her flight had changed gates, when they scanned her ticket at the (now incorrect) gate it did a normal 'OK' beep and let her through. What in the world is the point of scanning scanning tickets at th…

Is the beep notifying "correct pass for this flight" or is it just notifying "code read successfully" and the agents job is to check that the ticket matches their flight?

I changed my seat once after getting a boarding pass, and at the gate the scanner raised an error - so yes it does seem like there is some actual checking done.

Re: Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

#79

Post by Ntrails »

Leszek wrote: post #70
adam_gyroscope wrote: post #69

Disclaimer: I built airline reservations systems with ITA Software. I don't recall there being a minimum character count for SSR codes, but in legacy reservations systems (and the passenger name records (PNR) that contain these SSRs) there's for sure a max. Airline reservations systems never met a fixed-width format they didn't like, and the reason is that for a long, long time the unit of storage for a PNR was a blo…

> Most airlines operate with a day or less of cash reserves That's kind of amazing, and kind of terrifying.

I also like the description of British Airways as a Pension Fund with a small airline attached.

A multi-billion pound deficit to be funded by a company with annual profits of a few hundred million iirc

Re: Air carriers are still failing people with disabilities

#80

Post by uxhacker »

stinky613 wrote: post #2

Speaking of tech failings among airlines... Can anyone tell me what the hell the ticket scanning machines at the gate are doing? In the past week United sent a French woman 2,000 miles in the wrong direction; even though her flight had changed gates, when they scanned her ticket at the (now incorrect) gate it did a normal 'OK' beep and let her through. What in the world is the point of scanning scanning tickets at th…

In Europe they are meant to check the name on the boarding pass against an id such as a passport.

I believe that the reader just shows your name.

I also think what the readers do is update the system to say that you are on that flight. This is for revenue reasons. Tickets can be issued by other airlines, and the revenue is not counted until you are on the flight.

Also in Europe the system matches you with your luggage. This is a security measure.

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