Participants in Cathay Pacific's 'I Can Fly' program for students in Hong Kong.
By Nicholas Kralev
The Washington Times
March 9, 2009
It’s no secret that times are rough for the airline industry, and the glamor once associated with it is long gone. Many children, however, still dream of a life in the sky. Should they be encouraged?
The answer of Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong’s main airline, is a resounding yes. In 2003, it started a program for high school students called “I Can Fly,” which teaches young aviation enthusiasts the basics of the industry at no cost — from piloting and engineering to marketing and customer service.
About 3,000 students have graduated from the three programs in Hong Kong so far, said Elsa Leung, Cathay’s corporate communication manager. Pilots, flight attendants and other airline and airport staff share their knowledge and experience during lectures, field trips and hands-on exercises.
So if you — or your child — ever wanted to take a behind-the-scenes look at the cockpit, the air-control tower or parts of the airport that are off limits for the public, this might be your chance.
“The program is not just about career — it’s more about building up the youth in their personality and mentality,” Ms. Leung said. “Youth is a very important resource of the community who deserves more opportunities and guidance. We believe it’s good and necessary for us to offer these young people more chances to know more about aviation.”
This year, Cathay has organized its first “I Can Fly” program in the United States. It started last month in the San Francisco Bay Area and runs for nine weeks, with evening classes once a week.
“All of us remember our youth when we knew exactly what we wanted to do when we grew up,” said Gus Whitcomb, Cathay’s communications manager for the Americas. “This program allows young people to explore that career in advance and decide if it’s really what they want to do before they have to commit.”
The program is also rewarding for the airline’s staff, most of whom volunteer their time.
“Seeing the aviation industry again through the eyes of wonderment and fascination makes you doubly happy to be doing what you’re doing,” Mr. Whitcomb said. “I have done programs like this with other airlines, and I still have the kids — now young adults with kids of their own — e-mailing me about their promotion to captain or asking advice on a possible job change at their airline.”
Cathay employees, referred to as “leaders” during the program, usually send messages to participants after graduation.
“Learning to fly is a challenging and intensive experience,” wrote Michael Jardin, one of the pilot leaders. “There will be those that question your decision. But I can also promise you that, if you have the passion and will to see it through, it will be one of the most rewarding and satisfying experiences of your life.”
The application requirements for “I Can Fly” are simple: a grade point average of at least 2.0 and demonstrated interest in aviation or community service. That’s right — the program is as much about community service as it is about the airline industry, and participants’ performance is judged by their abilities in both areas.
“We want to let them learn about contribution to the society,” Ms. Leung said. “We hope the members, under the leadership of our pilots and staff, understand how to care for people in need. And that’s why one of activities in the program is that they have to organize social services on their own.”
Community service and charity are no strangers to the airline industry — both its employees and customers. Just last week, representatives of United Airlines paid a visit to children undergoing cancer treatment at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington to deliver teddy bears.
United, which partnered with the American Cancer Society for this project, had previously surprised young patients in Denver and Chicago. Last year, the airline asked its customers to donate frequent-flier miles or money to the organization so that children who need to travel for treatment could be flown to the respective hospitals.
“Nonprofits feel the economic punch as much as anyone, but our customers have found a way to continue contributing to a cause that’s important to them,” said United spokesman Jeff Kovick. “This year’s two-month initiative raised 55 million miles from our customers — last year’s was 45 million — in addition to $160,000.”
This column was first published by The Washington Times
Tags: aircraft, airlines, aviation, Cathay Pacific, Chicago, Denver, flight attendants, Georgetown, Hong Kong, plane, students, United Airlines, United States, Washington
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Jakarta. (State Department photo)
By Nicholas Kralev
The Washington Times
February 22, 2009
BEIJING — So much for the “diplo-speak” U.S. officials usually offer on trips abroad.
Newly minted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton showed last week that she will not be constrained by diplomatic protocol or follow an official script and, so far, she seems to have the stature and celebrity to pull it off.
As she returns home Sunday from her first overseas trip since taking office, Mrs. Clinton leaves behind thousands of Asians thrilled to have met one of the world’s most famous and powerful women. At the same time, awaiting her in Washington are puzzled analysts, angry human rights activists and career diplomats not quite sure what to make of some of her comments.
On her way to Seoul on Thursday, for example, Mrs. Clinton spoke candidly and extensively about a possible power struggle in North Korea. She was broaching an issue that has occupied intelligence officials and diplomats ever since the country’s dictator, Kim Jong-il, was reported to have suffered a stroke last summer.
Her remarks immediately made headlines, mainly because the subject is rarely discussed publicly by senior officials. But she told reporters a day later that she could not understand what the fuss was about since she was simply stating the obvious. She did not appear to be concerned about angering the North or irritating its close ally, China.
“I don’t think that it’s a forbidden subject to talk about succession in the Hermit Kingdom,” she said. “In fact, it seems to me it’s got to be factored into any policy review that one is undertaking.”
Just before going to Beijing on Friday, Mrs. Clinton infuriated human rights advocates by saying she would not let thorny issues such as human rights and Tibet prevent the United States and China from making progress on climate change, security and economic matters.
Even though previous administrations did not admit it publicly, in practice they adopted a similar approach.
“Maybe this is unusual, because you are supposed to be so careful that you spend hours avoiding stating the obvious, but you know, that’s just not productive, in my view,” the secretary told reporters traveling with her.
“It’s worth being perhaps more straightforward and trying to engage other countries on the basis of the reality that exists in a number of these settings,” she said. “That’s how I see it, and that’s how I intend to operate.”
Analysts and other observers said such remarks are refreshing and note that Mrs. Clinton, as a former senator, may be impatient with diplomatic talking points. But they wonder how long she can continue without worrying about the consequences of her words.
“Clinton’s comments most likely suggest a more open approach to U.S. diplomacy than occurred with the previous administration, where secrecy reigned supreme,” said Patricia Kushlis, a retired career diplomat who writes a foreign-affairs blog called “Whirled View.” “What difference, if any, a more open approach will make in terms of outcomes is premature to say.”
Mrs. Clinton’s approach of speaking her mind, rather than following a script, could present a challenge for the State Department bureaucracy, where every public statement must be cleared by several offices, and where even a minor policy change can take months to become official.
Her two immediate predecessors, Condoleezza Rice and Colin L. Powell, for the most part stuck to the script that had been prepared by the bureaucracy under their direction. Ms. Rice was particularly disciplined, officials said, which was always welcomed by her aides.
Attempts to rein in Mrs. Clinton last week proved futile. She usually answered questions at press events without the help of notes. But a day after her North Korean succession comments, she read from a previously scripted statement when responding to a question during a press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan in Seoul, apparently to make sure she did not stray from State Department orthodoxy.
A few hours later, however, she did just that, telling reporters at a round-table discussion that she should not be expected to keep quiet just because some may consider an issue to be taboo. “To worry about something which is so self-evident is an impediment to clear thinking,” she said in reference to the North Korean succession.
Mrs. Clinton’s style is perhaps closest to that of Madeleine K. Albright, the first female secretary of state and a close friend of Mrs. Clinton’s. The former first lady is said to have lobbied her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to appoint Mrs. Albright as his chief diplomat in 1996. Mrs. Albright was known for straight talk and colloquial quips, as when she explained differing policies toward different countries with respect to economic sanctions as “different strokes for different folks.”
Another similarity between the two women is their interest in holding numerous public events in the countries they visit, beyond meetings with top government leaders. Although both Mr. Powell and Ms. Rice did some of that, they often limited their activities, which allowed them to visit two or three countries in one day.
One thing Mrs. Clinton has in common with Mr. Powell is the celebrity factor, although she is an even bigger star overseas than the retired general. The rapturous welcome she received during her Asia tour was a novelty for both State Department staffers and the press corps on the trip, who found themselves listening to the secretary talk about love before a live audience of 2,000 and millions more on South Korean television.
“How does anybody know about love? If you can describe it, you may not fully be experiencing it,” she mused when a student at Seoul’s Ewha University asked how she knew she loved Mr. Clinton.
All but one question during the hour-long town-hall meeting at the world’s largest women’s university were personal, having to do with her upbringing, family and career. “I feel more like an advice columnist than a secretary of state,” she said at one point.
Many of the questions at Ewha on Friday and during a town hall at the University of Tokyo on Tuesday began with such compliments as “You look stunning today” and “It’s glorious to meet you.” One questioner in Tokyo could hardly speak, breathing heavily from the excitement of meeting Mrs. Clinton.
She said she plans to “repair relations” with foreign countries in part by using her — and her boss’s — ability to excite people and interest them in worthy causes.
“President Obama has an extraordinary capacity to do that because of the really positive feelings that he personally engenders,” she said. “To a lesser degree, I have some of the same capacity.”
This story was first published by The Washington Times
Tags: Asia, Barack Obama, Beijing, China, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Diplomacy, diplomatic, Hillary Clinton, Japan, Kim Jong-il, Madeleine Albright, North Korea, protocol, Seoul, South Korea, State Department, Travel, trip
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Yokota Air Base in Japan.
By Nicholas Kralev
The Washington Times
March 2, 2009
Flying more than 22,000 miles in a week filled with dozens of official meetings, public events and media interviews didn’t seem to have taken a toll on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during her much-publicized trip to Asia. How does she do it?
I’ve been asked the same question about three of Mrs. Clinton’s predecessors I’ve traveled with — Condoleezza Rice, Colin L. Powell and Madeleine K. Albright. My answer is always the same, but it’s not the queen-size pullout sofa in their plane’s private cabin, though having a real bed in the air certainly helps.
It’s what Mrs. Albright’s former chief of staff, Elaine Shocas, used to call the “fire in the belly.”
Being the U.S. secretary of state is not only one of the most challenging and powerful jobs on the planet — it’s also one of the most exciting. You probably know people who want to change the world — or perhaps you are one of them. This job actually offers many opportunities to do that.
Wouldn’t you be thrilled if your arrival in every country were front-page news and TV cameras at the airport waited for you to come down those stairs? Wouldn’t you get motivated if foreign governments and citizens closely followed almost every word you uttered in public?
By the end of a trip, the secretary usually looks less tired than most of his or her traveling party. That was certainly true during our 19-hour journey from Beijing back to Washington on Feb. 22. I realize it takes less time to fly between the two cities, but read on to find out why it took us that long.
At the end of last week’s column, we were still in Tokyo, the first stop on Mrs. Clinton’s maiden voyage as the nation’s chief diplomat. After two days there, we flew to Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, which happens to be just south of the equator — a guarantee of heat and humidity all year round. On the tarmac, Mrs. Clinton was greeted by a children’s choir from the elementary school President Obama went to in the late 1960s.
About 24 hours later, we were back on the plane for a seven-hour flight to Seoul. That’s how long it took to go from a temperature of 80 degrees to 20. Talk about climate change. The Seoul Air Base, where we landed, is much closer to the city than its two commercial airports, Incheon and Gimpo, which is important to us when we have stories to file and need to get to the hotel quickly.
The next day, it was on to Beijing and a short two-hour flight. Another question I’m often asked about these trips is whether we have time to see the places we go to. The answer in most cases is no. This was my seventh time in Beijing, and except for an hour I managed to steal during a visit with Mr. Powell in 2003 to see Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, I haven’t really done any sightseeing.
In fact, we hardly had time to sleep on this trip. It wasn’t enough that Mrs. Clinton’s schedule was packed, but the huge time difference with Washington — between 12 and 14 hours, depending on the country — made it even more difficult to go to bed before early morning because of our filing deadlines.
That was particularly challenging for TV correspondents, who had to broadcast live in the middle of the night. Andrea Mitchell of NBC News, for example, did five reports for the “Today” show, four for “Nightly News,” hosted her own hourlong show on MSNBC five times and also reported for CNBC. Ms. Mitchell got an average of an hour or two hours of sleep a day, as did her producer, Libby Leist, who flew commercially to three of the four stops on the trip.
Ms. Mitchell, who had a broken ankle and was wearing a walking boot, surprised some Chinese officials when she sat on the red carpet in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to take notes at the beginning of Mrs. Clinton’s meetings with President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
Remember those middle seats on the plane I mentioned last week? James Rosen of Fox News, who sat in one of them, brought up the subject during his on-camera interview with Mrs. Clinton, asking whether she was “making any headway” in securing a better seat for him.
“You all decided on a lottery system,” she said, playing along with the humorous line of questioning. “I believe in empowering people to make their own decisions. That’s part of smart power, and so we gave you all the opportunity, and you drew the middle seat.”
As for the 19-hour journey home, it took that long because we made two refueling stops — one at Yokota Air Base in Japan, where Mrs. Clinton warmed up a crowd of hundreds of U.S. servicemen and women stationed there, and another one at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, as we had done on the way to Asia at the beginning of the trip.
This column was first published by The Washington Times
Tags: Asia, Barack Obama, Beijing, China, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Elmendorf, Forbidden City, Fox News, Gimpo, Hillary Clinton, Hu Jintao, Incheon, Jakarta, Japan, Madeleine Albright, NBC, secretary of state, Tiananmen Square, Tokyo, Travel, trip, Washington, Wen Jiabao
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton departs Tokyo. (State Department Photo)
By Nicholas Kralev
The Washington Times
February 23, 2009
Have you ever wondered what it’s like traveling with the secretary of state around the world? Although I’ve been doing it for more than eight years, I’ve resisted frequent suggestions by friends and colleagues to write about it.
Now I’ve found an excuse. There is a new secretary — Hillary Rodham Clinton no less — and she has just completed her first overseas trip since taking office. So it’s time to step back from what has become a routine for us in the press corps and try to look at it through a fresh pair of eyes.
The State Department usually gives us 13 seats on the secretary’s plane, but this time we got three more, to accommodate the bigger interest in Mrs. Clinton’s maiden voyage to Asia.
As usual, the days before the trip were occupied with filling out visa forms for the countries on the itinerary — Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China. Two days before departure, we were given a notional schedule for the trip, a weather advisory for the stops, and a staff and guest memo explaining the basic procedures of official travel.
On the day of departure, Feb. 15, staff and press gathered at the State Department for the ride to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.
We spent about 50 minutes in the terminal’s so-called VIP lounge, while our luggage was being swept and loaded on the plane. The staff there usually has coffee and cookies. I always recommend to new travelers to eat whenever and whatever they can on those trips because one never knows when the next meal will be. Even if there is a scheduled service on the plane, its timing depends on when the secretary decides to hold a press briefing.
In the lounge, the traveling press, as we are known, engages in a ritual the rest of the passengers are lucky enough to avoid — drawing numbers for seat assignments.
The secretary of state, along with the vice president, the first lady, key members of Congress and sometimes the president, flies on a C-32 aircraft — an Air Force version of Boeing 757 for civilian use. When the small fleet of those planes was delivered a decade ago, all passenger seats were the same. They were in a 2-2 configuration, with a single aisle, and resembled most domestic first-class seats on commercial airlines.
After Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration decided to install additional communications technology on board, which required more space. In order to preserve the number of seats, they replaced the last two rows with coach seats, in a 3-3 configuration.
The victims of that change were, of course, reporters. The prospect of writing stories in a middle seat and spending sometimes 15 hours a day crammed, after having had hardly any sleep on the ground because of a busy schedule, would depress anyone. We still get a few big seats, which is why we draw numbers.
We boarded the white-and-blue plane half an hour before departure and waited for Mrs. Clinton to arrive. When she did, she walked back to say hi and meet those in the group she hadn’t met before, and then retired to her private cabin.
She decided to brief toward the end of the first leg, so the meal service began about an hour after takeoff. The crew doesn’t use carts, but meals are still served on trays. They offered a small green salad, pasta with meatballs and a chocolate mouse.
As for entertainment, there are small screens for every two rows on either side of the aisle. For some reason, they played “Juno,” a more-than-a-year-old movie we had seen on a trip with Mrs. Clinton’s predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, back in March.
We were headed to Tokyo that day, but we had to make a refueling stop in Alaska. At Elmendorf Air Force Base outside Anchorage, we filed the stories we had written after Mrs. Clinton’s briefing a couple of hours earlier.
On the next leg, after dining on chicken breast and chocolate cake, we tried to get some sleep, but it wasn’t easy in those seats. After a turbulent descent, we landed at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, which is much closer to the city than the better-known and larger Narita, in early evening.
Mrs. Clinton was greeted by athletes, coaches and managers from Japan’s Special Olympics team, who had just returned from a competition in Idaho.
Over the next several days, she received a celebrity welcome everywhere she went, drawing large crowds both at scheduled events and along the streets of her motorcade. She kept a very busy schedule, and that kept us and the staff up most of the nights.
This column was first published by The Washington Times
Tags: Air Force, Anchorage, Asia, Boeing, Bush administration, China, Condoleezza Rice, Congress, crew, Elmendorf, Haneda, Hillary Clinton, Indonesia, movies, Narita, secretary of state, South Korea, State Department, Tokyo, Travel, United States, Washington
A Northwest Airlines plane at Washington National Airport. (Photo by Daryl Osbrink)
By Nicholas Kralev
The Washington Times
February 16, 2009
Do you consider yourself one of the most loyal customers of the airline you fly most frequently? Are you starting to feel like your loyalty is no longer being sufficiently rewarded? It may be time to rethink your strategy.
It’s no secret that, little by little, U.S. airlines have been reducing elite benefits in the last several months — decreasing the frequent-flier miles you can earn for flights but increasing the number of miles needed to redeem “awards,” while adding various new fees.
Although most of those “enhancements” — as the airlines call them to constant mocking by their customers — affect all loyalty-scheme members, top-tier elite passengers seem to be hit particularly hard. Those are the people most commonly designated as platinum members, who fly at least 75,000 or 100,000 miles a year, depending on the carrier, so they value their benefits more than the average traveler and keep flying because of them.
“Status is the crack cocaine for frequent fliers,” said Walt Frank of Wilmington, Del., who owns a chemical industry safety consulting company and travels constantly on business.
One of the most important elite benefits is the ability to redeem miles for “award” tickets in first and business class, but that has become more difficult recently because the mileage requirements for such tickets have jumped more than 40 percent. Coach-redemption levels have gone up less drastically, and a few have not been changed at all.
At the same time, carriers such as Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines are reducing the elite bonuses their platinum members earn for paid flights by 20 percent, to levels consistent with their competitors.
However, it was Delta Airlines that last month ventured into territory considered sacred by its most loyal customers. It caused furor when it announced the end of free changes to “award” tickets and redeposit of miles if those tickets go unused, the fee for which is typically $100.
The decision was made because many customers book “awards” but don’t use them, calling days or weeks after their scheduled trips to get their miles back and depriving others of those seats, said Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott.
Customers, however, didn’t buy the company’s reasoning. After hundreds of complaints, Delta gave up some ground but didn’t go back all the way. It said it will waive the fee for two reservations a year, and there will be a $50 charge for each subsequent change. All other major carriers still waive the change fee for all “award” tickets booked using platinum members’ miles.
“From my perspective, it seems a bit bizarre for Delta to drive away its best customers during a growing recession,” Mr. Frank said. “Delta enticed us to give it our business in 2008, based upon the description of the benefits we would receive in 2009. Now, bit by bit, it’s trimming away at those promised benefits.”
While some airlines officially announce benefit reductions, others choose to make changes quietly or even in secret. That was the case with United Airlines, which started blocking access to thousands of “award” seats made available by its partners in the global Star Alliance to save money. Although some frequent fliers became suspicious, United kept its practice secret from both its customers and reservations agents for a couple of years until this column exposed it in September.
That policy doesn’t specifically target elite travelers, but they end up being the most affected because they try to redeem miles for more complex “awards” that include flights on partner carriers. Despite its public admission, the airline’s only acknowledgment of the policy on its Web site is a line reading, “Capacity-control restrictions do apply.”
“I find that many of my friends have been turned off by loyalty programs such as [United's] Mileage Plus for reasons exactly like this,” said Brendan Vaughn, a frequent flier from Seattle who flew more than 160,000 miles on United last year.
In spite of the benefits devaluation, however, most elite travelers say the loyalty programs have not become completely worthless yet, and they are ready to give them another chance.
After flying on Delta for 35 years, Mr. Frank said he is “now giving every bit” of his business to Southwest Airlines on routes the low-cost carrier serves. Still, he said he will wait for Delta’s expected announcement of more program changes at the end of the month before he decides if maintaining his platinum status is worth the effort.
“Flying is such a miserable experience, and elite status is about all there is to take the edge off the pain,” he said.
This column was first published by The Washington Times
Tags: airlines, Continental Airlines, customers, Delta Airlines, elite, loyalty, Mileage Plus, Northwest Airlines, passengers, Seattle, Southwest Airlines, Star Alliance, status, Travel, United Airlines