351–360 of 464 posts
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NYC has a 24/365 hour Apple Store which reflects the vibrancy of the city 24/365. Need I say more? Europe is very beautiful. But for the creative energy and vibrancy NYC is the place to be.
Different strokes for different folks. I find NYC extremely overrated.
http://www.theonion.com/article/84-million-new-yorkers-sudde...
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The other issue is to stop overbooking every single flight and allow some slack to handle these unexpected situations that inevitably come up.
I don't understand the hate for overbooking flights. Most of the time, I don't care at all about the system where flights are overbooked, because most of the time I don't get bumped. When they do overbook a flight and I've blocked out more time than I need for travel, I can make a few hundred dollars (not bad even in vouchers since I usually tend to fly the same route with the same airlines frequently enough) for the…
And great point about how it is more efficient this way. Reminds me of surge pricing, or congestion pricing. Economics ftw.
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The other issue is to stop overbooking every single flight and allow some slack to handle these unexpected situations that inevitably come up.
I don't understand the hate for overbooking flights. Most of the time, I don't care at all about the system where flights are overbooked, because most of the time I don't get bumped. When they do overbook a flight and I've blocked out more time than I need for travel, I can make a few hundred dollars (not bad even in vouchers since I usually tend to fly the same route with the same airlines frequently enough) for the…
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> My wife and I just got back from a trip to Italy. The flight was full on the way there. We went from Chicago to Rome. However on the way back we flew from Venice with a stop over in Madrid back to Chicago. The plane was only 1/3 full at most. I remember commenting to my wife how empty it was. That's most likely just the normal variation in the flight schedules - they can vary dramatically not just by time of year,…
True. I don't do enough international travel to indicate it one way or another. Just thought it was strange. This is only 1 small data point where many are needed in order to see any trending.
In general terms, you can't really have a direction imbalance - especially due to the reasons you are positing. The vast majority of people flying (either direction) is on a tourist visa. Those people have to return as well as get there, so if a flight is full headed to Europe pretty much the same number of people must return. And vice versa.
Immigration/long-term business stays/etc. are a tiny fraction of the folks on the airplane. I suppose there could be an epidemic of US tourists overstaying their EU visas but I kind of doubt it :)
You'd see a reduction in load factor in both directions if there is a dropoff of EU tourism.
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I have multiple times deboarded a plane before take off. Due to change in business plans, flight delays, etc. In one case a passenger was sick on board and I asked to deboard as I didn't want to risk getting their cold. This was all on Asian airlines. My few experiences on United have been terrible. So in this case I'd say the regulations guiding airlines is fair. United's execution of these regulations is the proble…
So the computer picks 8 people, and you call out the first four on the list. One of them refuses, just like what happened here. Now what? Your solution just has the airline crew going, "Fair enough, sir, you can stay" and then calling the next name. At that point, the next person knows that refusing is allowed, so he does too. Pretty quickly, you're absolutely going to be on a flight where five of the eight refuse, a…
You inform the refusenik that he is trespassing; if he continues to refuse to leave, you inform him that police will be waiting for him at his destination, then call out the fifth name on the list. When you arrive at the destination, he goes to jail, while the four bumped passengers get vouchers and fly later.
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I asked United whether I could use their lounge at SFO as they cancelled my flight to Heathrow and I was going to be waiting the best part of a day for a flight to Dulles to take an alternative that would get me home 1.5 days late. By the look on the faces of the two lounge receptionists, you'd think I'd asked if I could take a dump on their desk. "Other people have paid membership to use this lounge" I was told in a…
I have a paid United Club membership. Those lounges are already pretty full a lot of the time, and one of the biggest reasons I (and many of the other members I know) pay for it is exactly the situation you describe. When something goes wrong with a flight, it's well worth the cost of the membership to have helpful agents, minimal lines, and a nice place to relax. It's not about the free mediocre food. Having a place…
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Apparently united position is that you haven't "boarded" until the door has closed and plane has left the gate
It must be defined somewhere in law or regulation. Based on http://www.askthepilot.com/how-to-speak-airline/ it seems like "boarding" means to enter the plane.
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NYC has a 24/365 hour Apple Store which reflects the vibrancy of the city 24/365. Need I say more? Europe is very beautiful. But for the creative energy and vibrancy NYC is the place to be.
This has to be a joke. You can't seriously be toting the availability of a 24/365 store (even an Apple store!) as some sort of benefit.
Number of Apple Stores in Manhattan = 7 (incl. one 24/365)
Number of Apple Stores in NYC 5 Boroughs = 10
Number of stores Paris (incl. La Defense) = 4
Number of stores London = 5
Number of stores Berlin = 1
Jazz/Blues/all kinds of music, a city open 24/7 full of creative vibrancy. 40% of New Yorkers not born in USA. We don't do BrExit here forcing (legal) residents out.
NYC has a 24 hour subway system which costs about $120 / month for unlimited rides. London and Paris shut down their subways at 12:30 AM. Thus, NYC is more committed to green, not forcing people to use gas guzzlers at night.
I'm appalled by how this frontal assault on human dignity is shielded by law. What many of us learned this week is that it seems to be perfectly legal to bump off poorer or less privileged people specifically from a plane. This is boat allocation on Titanic all over again.
Contrary to James Cameron's abominable film, boat allocation on the Titanic was quite fair. One's odds of survival were better in First Class, but this was likely due to First Class passengers being closer to the life boats. Notably, women & children had a markedly better chance of surviving than men, despite not being notably 'privileged' in early 20th century society.
C.f. http://blog.minitab.com/blog/real-world-quality-improvement/...
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Nonsense. The FAA actively encourages general aviation and small air charters. They bent over backwards to help the VLJ manufacturers through the certification process. The VLJ segment failed (so far) because they're still too expensive, too slow, and too dangerous. But perhaps further improvements in engines and lightweight materials will eventually make it viable?
The operating costs of a VLJ are still insanely huge. Example: a piston plane - SR22 can fly 200mph for 1200 miles on one tank of fuel. Approximate cost of that flight including amortised repair and maintenance costs: $1000. A VLJ, like SF50 can do that same flight at 320mph, but at an amortized cost of about $2600. Mostly it is due to engine overhaul costs. Overhauling a piston engine like in an SR22 is about $40k a…