For a few months now, we’ve been soliciting reader questions for Captain Steve, a pilot with a major U.S. airline. You can find his first few batches of answers here, and he’s back now with another round. You can leave new questions for him in the comments section below.
Steve, what airline would you not fly? — Dave Ashton
Most U.S., major European, and Asian carriers are fine. I would avoid nonscheduled airlines and very small airlines. These tend to have little oversight and less maintenance and training. These are very broad guidelines.
My personal preference would be not to fly Qantas. They’ve never crashed, and I feel that they’re probably due. Once they have, I won’t worry as much! — Dave Ashton
Faulty reasoning. Qantas has the best record by choice. These things are not by happenstance. They are a superb airline!
The earth rotates east to west. Does it take less time to fly from New York to California than from California to New York because of this? — Mike Myler
No. Prevailing winds aloft make eastbound flights in North America (typically) shorter. Watch the Weather Channel. Where is the jet stream and which way does it flow?
Why do airline ticket prices seem to start low and then go high? It’s the opposite of what happens when scalpers/ticket brokers resell tickets: people pay a premium to get the ticket early and be sure they have a seat. The price typically falls leading up to the event. At the time of the event, the resale prices will go higher if it’s sold out (as many plane flights are). — Kitt Hirasaki
It’s the same supply and demand you describe but with twist. The seats you see at low price are a select few. They go fast. Then as the date is nearer, the price climbs because the selected few seats are priced in different batches. There may be 12 to 15 different priced seats in the same flight on the same day. Just prior to departure (hours), the price will drop in an attempt to fill any last remaining open seats.
Wouldn’t passengers be safer if they sat facing the rear of the plane? — doug
Yeah, but many would get sick. It’s been done. Ever sat facing the rear in a fast express train? Next time you are on a train, watch to see if the rear-facing seats in a train are the first or last to be taken!
Does it make sense to provide avionics that prevents planes from flying to certain points — for example, avionics that would prevent a plane from ever flying anywhere near a nuclear power facility? — doug
No. It seems like a good idea, but then that adds another threat. All I need to do is alter software and make the plane fly to those points. Manned airliners are the lowest common safety net.
I understand what turbulence is (a weather event); what I would like to know is how safe/traumatic/avoidable/recoverable it is in reality. The flight attendants don’t seem phased by it, but I am sitting there white-knuckled and ready to scream. — Ah-mei
Relax. It is uncomfortable but safe. Word to the wise: watch flight attendants a lot. They know what is normal and what is not. When they begin to scurry around working at a fever pitch, take notice and be proactive; ask if you can help!
and 
. You can also watch it on 
I recently flew into JFK, coming home from overseas. I had planned to take the bus down to Washington, DC, but I thought I would check at the gate of a shuttle flight to DC just to see what the price would be for a one-way.
The day before I had priced the flight at $150 – too much for me to afford.
Two hours before the flight (and many hours before other shuttle flights that day) I checked at the gate. The flight, which still had over 10 open coach seats, was now going for $240! I asked the gate agent why the prices were raised and why they would fly empty seats rather than sell at a lower price and he responded that the prices were controlled by the corporate office and often rose the day of to capture the demand of desperate passengers.
Needless to say I took the bus. But what gives, shouldn’t the airlines try to salvage some money by selling extra seats at a discount hours before a flight?
Some airlines allow passengers to listen to the pilot’s communication with air traffic control. I’ve noticed control on the ground will ask the flight, referred to by carrier and flight number, to respond with some number. The pilot will then repeat the flight number, presumable to indicate who the response is from, but what’s the other number?
“Yeah, but many would get sick. It’s been done. Ever sat facing the rear in a fast express train?”
Done that lots of time, never got sick. In fact, I’ve never witnessed *anyone* actually get sick from being on a rearwards-facing seat, though lots of people will claim they do. When they don’t have the choice, nothing happens. In a plane, there is not even a theoretical reason why anyone would get sick. It’s nothing but a silly preference and a great example for the fundamental stupidity and lack of reason with which people treat even life-or-death matters.
brazzy, personal observation does not make for scientific fact. I have witnessed otherwise (including myself). It’s like riding in a boat. Sometimes the passengers get sick, sometimes they don’t. Most times it’s factors outside their control (i.e. the movement of the boat, whether it’s side to side, front to back, etc.). Moral of the story is, don’t take your experience and assume everyone else will have the same kind.
Brazzy: The problem isn’t really that you’re sitting backwards, it’s that you’re sitting backwards at an angle. Imagine take-off for example, you’d be hanging out of your seat until you reach cruise. But then that’s just the beginning since the aircraft flies at a slight angle (angle of attack) until near the end of the flight (related to the fuel burn). Again, this would mean you couldn’t lean back and enjoy the flight. To compensate for that they’d have to lean the seats further back and reduce the passenger density, something no airline would ever agree to do.
jack: the airline saves money by flying with less weight, the profits from flying fully loaded at a cheap fare are much smaller than flying almost full and having the chance of a few despreate passengers who are willing to pay for a more expensive ticket.
@1:
The calculation the airline is making is that they would rather sell half of their available seats for $240 then all of them for $100. I have no idea how accurate their assumptions are (i.e. the elasticity of the demand curve), but I believe this is the reasoning they are using.
In turbulent conditions, how much does the plane actually move? Is it like a bump in the road while driving a car and the movement is measured in inches? Or is it significantly more than that?
I have frequently flown to and from NYC and the Middle East. One way is about 2 hours quicker than the other? Is this because of the jet stream?