Dump this! 7 things airlines should jettison

Try jettisoning the CEO's who made these policies. The savings would be astronomical.

The real reason we still have pilots in the seats up front? Passengers feel more comfortalbe if someone with a vested interest in landing the plane safely is at the controls.

While some of these make sense others do not. I agree that with most flights (anything less than 1 hour in the air) it makes no sense to provide a magazine to read. For that matter if you take the reading material off you not only make it cheaper, but also greener (think of the paper and trees affected). But other ideas like the pilots I think that is not a good one.

The Weight issue also impacts a different area and I am just waiting for a group to sue Southwest over that one.

I love the idea of getting rid of the pilots. Weight goes down and safety goes up. For all of you who wouldn't trust your life to a computer; guess what, autoland systems have a flawless track record, compared to a not so pretty record for flesh and blood pilots.

There are even certain weather conditions that the FAA won't let a pilot land in, but if the airport and airplane are equiped with the best systems, the FAA will let them land as long as the pilots don't touch the controls.

Currently, those systems are only in place at extremely important airports in areas with fequent poor weather (Alaska, Colorado, etc) but there's no reason that they couldn't be used everywhere.

In a very polite way, with reference to jet fuel saved and therefore available at the end of the flight, (where you really need it), waiting room passengers should be directed to use the restrooms before boarding. This would save a remarkably useless weight the aircraft would therefore not have to carry to it's destination. A 'Go Now' promotion could save the airlines millions of dollars in the course of a year. Try it... weigh yourself before and after and then multiply that by, say, 100 million.

Isn't deregulation great!

Agreed with outing the CEO's but to be clear...This is exactly why we still have pilots!

The idea of removing pilots with current technology is unrealistic to say the least. The cited British study that showed that a plane can be flown without a pilot is misleading. A human pilot was still controlling the aircraft, just not at the conventional controls. An actual crew performed both the take-off and landing.

Existing auto-land systems are very limited and can only be used at a few airports and in very limited weather. If the aircraft could perform the landing by itself, the extensive training and currency requirements required for the pilots would not be necessary.

While the "not so pretty record" for human pilots may be the case in many parts of the world, the safety record here in the United States is excellent for air carriers. Pilots are the last line of defense in many cases, that is why you see so few accidents as a result of mechanical failure. Most accidents are the result of a chain of failures that accumulates in poor training and bad responses by the pilots.

In the end technology has a long way to go and the nation's current air traffic control infrastructure would need to be entirely restructured, something that will probably not happen with current federal funding levels.

Mr. Elliott's article is merely poorly informed hyperbole based on his own experiences, but I applaud him for at least thinking about possible solutions, which is more than most airline executives are doing.

I think the suggestion that "XL customers" should be sent packing is insensitive, bigotted and hateful. Their money is the same color as everyone else's. How would people feel if it were suggested that people with screaming children be sent packing or people with children at all for that matter? Children and all their subsequent gear necessary for even a 45-minute flight take up a lot of room and inconvenience a lot of people.

I think your suggestion that anyone of any size be booted off an airplane is disgraceful and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Just because someone might be overweight or very overweight does not give us the right to discriminate against them.

If the airlines weren't so greedy and didn't act as if they were doing the traveling public a favor by providing a service for which we dearly pay and get very little return on investment, then we wouldn't be in this mess!

How bout tossing out the little blue carpets at the gate that the special people get to walk on (for a step and a half)?

Not only could they save money on cleaning, hiring the people to put them down just so, but they could cut them up into little pieces and sell them on e-bay for mouse pads.

Now we're talkin! Oh and if the special people feel sad that they don't have their special carpet to walk on - they could just tape off a square - still a savings right?

Thanks for another great one!
Bayley of the Bayley Blog

On my June flight to Portland, Oregon, from New Orleans, LA,  I enjoyed the Continental flight attendants and the in-flight video with safety instructions. However, I'm not keen on in-flight movies where passengers buy the headsets for $1, and can take them with them afterwards. With no headset, you watch the in-flight movie with no sound. Not much fun. 

In-flight mags: I like them, especially Sky Mall, which advertises items most of us don't really need, and can't afford to buy. The in-flight mag articles are interesting, though. It makes more sense to bring your own book, magazine and/or newspaper on board the plane, and make sure you have it with you, when you leave, and take the free Sky Mall mag with you, as well. 

Re replacing flight attendants with vending machines: The flight attendants are more personable,smile, talk to the passengers,  and don't eat your dollar bills and coins, or flash a "Sorry, out of service/out of (name your favorite snack or soda)" just as you pull your money out.Vending machines have a call-for-service # stuck on their front door. That's not much good at 30,000 feet, when there's no one there able to unlock the machine, take your money, and hand you your snack or drink. There are some things airline technology can't (and shouldn't) replace. Flight attendants and pilots are first on my list. Pilots who welcome passengers aboard, remind us of the weather, and when we'll be arriving at our destination are tops on my list of what not to replace. 

Cutting meal service is pretty bad. Continental's meals were in little plastic dishes that the flight attendants retrieved, stacked, and removed. Even prepackaged, the meals were pretty good.  When you have to bring your own meals on board a flight, that's not a good sign. When it's Southwest Airlines (noted for its "peanuts" flights and cattle-car seating), that's one thing. When it's American,Delta,  United, or Continental, bare-bones (or no) customer service is the sign of a major airline in big trouble.