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London hotels leave American pilots sleep deprived
American Airlines’ pilots have blasted two central London hotels as ‘completely unsuitable’ for layovers, complaining that they aren’t able to get enough sleep to safely operate flights.
The Hilton Olympia and Holiday Inn Kensington Forum are both on a list of properties that AA pilots say don’t give them the level of hospitality they deserve for overnight stays around the world.
Users of the travel review site Tripadvisor have awarded both hotels a score of 3.5 out of 5. The Hilton was rated excellent buy 15% of users and the Holiday Inn was rated excellent by 19%.
Nevertheless, the hotels are amongst those that the Allied Pilots Association claims fail to allow pilots to get enough sleep, either due to noise, lack of comfort, or lengthy transfers to and from the airport.
The APA, which represents about 15,000 AA pilots, first raised the issue with management earlier this year.
It is complaining that the situation has become worse and wrote in a memo to management that ‘AA’s hotel failures have reached a critical stage’.
AA said it spends $150 million a year more on hotels for crew than it did five years ago.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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