Welcome back to The Up Front Update — and good evening from Paris, on the way to Tokyo.
What a weekend, and indeed a week. I’ve spent a good part of today half looking out of my Charles de Gaulle airport hotel window at the best part of a dozen aircraft either stuck or diverted here as airspace across the Middle East closed, and half talking with guests at breakfast and in the lobby.
It’s so fascinating how people respond to their trip being delayed by an indeterminable number of days. Some accept it, some abandon their journey, some get cross at hotel staff — and some have a good old moan about how airlines tell you that they have so many global partners who can get you going where you want, but when things get tough you’re stuck in a Roissypôle hotel.
(I have a bit of sympathy for that argument, less for the fellow on a Teams call who apparently didn’t know why Dubai airport was closed, arguing very forcefully that, and I paraphrase here, it was nowhere near Iran.)
This week on The Up Front we brought you just about 5,000 words diving deep into the finalists for the Crystal Cabin Awards, the passenger experience Oscars, and what they tell you about the state of the industry — and the problems they’re encountering from AI sludge in entries (fake graphs, nonexistent holographic doctors), as well as categorisation issues.
Thank you to everyone who’s got in touch since the piece to share your views, and please continue to do so.
Now, on to the rest of the Update…
