I'm stuck at Raleigh Durham airport, trying to get back to Baltimore (hon). I've been in Clayton, NC to celebrate my older (way older) brother's 50th birthday. The navigational computer in the Southwest Aircraft is on the fritz, and they are "swapping" out our aircraft for another (nice that there is one available). So I have a few moments to muse on things associated with airports and flying....
1. Is there anything quite as perfect as a warm Cinnabon Classic? My God, those things are heavenly. Just what you need to get you going for a morning flight....3000 calories and all the sugar a man could want. Yum.
2. Southwest Airlines...gets a big thumbs up from me. For coach class travel, the way they load the planes is the most efficient way I've seen. Not too thrilled with today's delay, but in general, I love this scrappy little (profitable) airline. they also seem to by genuinely happy that you've chosen their airline.
3. Cell phones. Unbelievable enablers of banal conversation (as anyone I call while I'm driving a long way already knows). A delayed plane offers a veritable cornucopia of opportunity to call lots of folks to share one's misfortune. I am particularly happy to be seated next to people in the airport with a long list of folks to inform.
4. What's with people solving their problems aloud? I see this all the time, often the purview of grown women in the company of children. What happens is that the woman encounters a problem, and then begins to audibly solve it, as if the children were suitable interlocutors with something worthwhile to add to the effort. I'm just sayin'.
Well, the swapped plane is here, so I better get going. I've got the Oliver Stone "W" DVD loaded up, and I've had a good time watching it so far. A little heavy on speculative pop psychology, but James Brolin's got the man down pat.
UPDATE:
Forgot to add:
5. Rented a PRIUS this weekend (not my choice, it's what they gave me). I've seen the future, and it is real. Hybrid technology (battery and internal combustion) will only get better, and hopefully the cars will begin to be more attractive (simply an ugly car). It has this great little schematic that shows you whether the engine or the electic motor--or both--is running the show. The instant mileage figures are astounding....I was cruising down the highway at 70MPH getting 60 MPG......
Sunday, February 22, 2009
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4 comments:
#4. Quite funny. One of my favorite sides of The Cee-Dubs - the social commentator.
I had a rental Prius in Seattle last month -- I'll be damned if I could even tell that the car was running, and that was after 15 minutes of trying to figure-out how to start it and put it into gear.
As you were writing your musings, I was preparing to board a flight for some fun in the sun in Key Largo, FL. Haven't flown in awhile, and received quite a sticker shock by the new charges by USAir:
- No more complimentary drinks ($2)
- "snack" box ($5)
- "comfort package" consisting of neck pillow and blanket ($15)
- baggage check in ($15)
Their stewards/esses are dressed in what I can only describe as jogging suits.
It's like taking a greyhound bus with wings.
1. Do you think the illegitimate step-son of HRH Babs will do a sequel to "W" skewering a prominent conservative? Perhaps "CW"? 2. You used the word "Yum". Stop that. 3. My sister is a flight attendant, stewardess, 'goddess of the air' (by her account) for USAir. Or at least was. When a drunk passenger threw her into a bulkhead (about 1.732 seconds before an air marshall introduced his face to that strip of lights on the deck that lights the way to emergency exits, I am told--I so enjoy watching people like that getting their comeuppance) and she fractured her wrist, her employer of 18 years declared it just bruised following a USAir nurse's exam at the terminal...no xrays. USAir denied her request for a doctor's exam. When it just didn't get any better after a couple weeks, she went to a doctor on her own and discovered it was fractured...and now a poor candidate for surgery. Once she got USAir to agree that it was in fact broken, they argued that it was not job related, but she was medically grounded...effectively cutting her monthly pay in half. I've never liked USAir for the reasons GG has stated (and because when people in SW Air (the best airline available for US domestic flights) are breezing through check in, USAir seems to have taken the KMart model of checkout lines for their standard of efficiency...the longer the checkout lines, obviously, the more business you are doing. With the surcharges for using your reading lamp or ventilation nozzle, combined with the way they've treated my sister, you have to wonder if their main selling point is that they have the best track record in the industry for successful water landings. I look forward to saying "good riddance" to USAir as I continue to fly SW Airlines. By the way, I remain disappointed, but not surprised, that the government travel program does not include SWA. I could, in every single case of government sponsored travel, find a better (no connections or if so, minimal layover), transferable, LOWER COST, flight on SWA instead of the absolute worst that the government travel office so frequently bought up. Another case of an expensive government program sustaining pitifully poor performance. AARGGGHHH!
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