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A front page story in the Post-Dispatch this morning reports that American Airlines will be cutting 43 daily departures flights beginning in the fall out of St. Louis. Direct flights to several cities will be eliminated completely.
Not only is this true in St. Louis, but it will happen in Chicago as well. American will be eliminating 62 daily flights out of O'Hare.
Southwest Airlines is looking better and better. Trains? Not so much.
Missouri senator, Claire McCaskill, an early Obama supporter, received an ordinary handshake rather than the hug and air kiss other senators got when Hillary Clinton returned to the senate yesterday.
25 year old Stephen Webber, running for a Missouri House seat in the 23rd District democratic primary, received the endorsements of two more unions yesterday, the Missouri UAW and the Gas Workers Local. He previously won the support of the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, and the Sheet Metal Workers Local 36. His opponent, Cande Iveson, has a list of individuals endorsing her, but no major organizations or unions.
Madison County republican board member, Hal Patton, filed a petition to get on the November ballot as an independent candidate for County Board Chairman. He needed 4029 signitures on his petition to get on the ballot and turned in 5305. This is quite the amazing feat for heavily democratic Madison County.
Collinsville is finally going get working on reconfiguring, fixing, Spring Street. All I can say is...Yahoo. The project, which will hopefully eliminate the narrowness, the sharp drop offs at the edges of the road, and the curves which make for blind spots, will cost $1.2 million.
It looks like American Airlines is on the way out. They announced today that starting June 15 they will begin charging $15 for the first checked bag. They recently began charging $25 for a second checked bag. AA will also cut the number of flights they offer by 12 percent and layoff possibly thousands of employees.
The airline may also begin charging for reservation help (hahahahahaha) and oversized bags.
Supposedly this is because of the high price of oil.
Could they not just charge everyone the same price? As much as our family flies, one thing is pretty clear, and it is that everyone on the plane has paid a different price for their ticket. They may have paid a different price from one week ago when they went to the same place. When we go to buy a loaf of bread, whether in St. Louis or Chicago or Atlanta we pretty much know how much it is going to cost. People who eat more bread each week don't get to pay less and people who buy their bread in the morning don't pay less than those who buy at night.
So why can't there be a one price airplane ticket? One price for first class, business class and economy?
And, this charging for the first bag...doesn't anyone believe this will just cause more flyers to overload a carry on bag, leading to a totally unbalanced weight in the plane? I don't want to be in a plane with all the weight on the top.
Funniest line in the story: Chairman and Chief Executive Gerard J. Arpey said, "The fees are an effort to get customers to pay for services they want." What services do customers want? Just get my ticket stamped to the correct destination and my bags too. Don't cancel or delay so many flights. What's so hard about that?
The more you learn about how each is made and operates, the worse you feel.
The Post-Dispatch has a report on how airlines are outsourcing their airplane maintenance and repair to foreign countries, often countries we used to call "third world" countries.
The story gets muddled up with an argument about how unions are protesting this which gets in the way of the real issue: How safe are these planes? Anyone who flies frequently has to feel just a little uneasy about this story. Missouri's Claire McCaskill is doing a good thing by being in the forefront of looking into this, unions or not.
It doesn't matter whether you are a republican or democrat, everyone flies at some point and wants to feel secure. Someone has a duty to check this type of thing out and I thank McCaskill for taking the point. American Airlines is one of the few which does not outsource.
It's quite amazing to drive from St. Louis over to the Illinois side and take in posted gas prices. In Missouri gas goes anywhere from $3.41 (with BP Visa card) to $3.59. In Illinois the prices are, at least as of yesterday, $3.79 and up.
Illinois must have a whale of a lot more built in taxes.
More on this later, after our anger subsides.
Ok. First from Peggy Noonan earlier this week. Who knew her words would hit close to home so soon? "America is in line at the airport. America has its shoes off, is carrying a rubberized bin, is going through a magnetometer. America is worried there is fungus on the floor after a million stockinged feet have walked on it. But America knows not to ask. America is guilty until proved innocent, and no one wants to draw undue attention." "And, as always: Why do we do this when you know I am not a terrorist, and you know I know you know I am not a terrorist? Why this costly and harassing kabuki when we both know the facts, and would agree that all this harassment is the government's way of showing "fairness," of showing that it will equally humiliate anyone in order to show its high-mindedness and sense of justice? Our politicians congratulate themselves on this as we stand in line."
Let me say at the outset of what could be an undistinguished rant: According to the TSA website on flying regulations: "If you aren’t traveling and need to go through the security checkpoint to accompany someone such as a child or other traveler with medical conditions who is traveling, check with the airline for required documentation."
All of the above applied to our daughter today as she tried to fly home to Washington D.C., except "child" was plural. The American Airlines ticket agents would hardly give us the time of day when we asked for permission to accompany her to the gate. One turned out to be very kind and helpful, but the other shooed us away with the order to go back to the nice woman and have her call the "supervisor" Kevin. No one could find Kevin and he wasn't answering his phones. Finally, after 20 minutes we get sent back to the crabby ticket agent and she curtly told us Kevin said no.
So Lizzie had to struggle through the security line and the boarding gate with a two month old and a two year old plus their stuff. The flight was delayed. Surprise! When they were finally allowed to board, two very nice TSA agents came along and helped her corral the two year old and the two month old and settled everyone in their seats. She told them what had happened when we tried to get permission to go with her to the gate and they laughed. It is just not true that we couldn't have come with her. They told her that they would much rather screen an extra person then to have mayhem or problems. And, they laughed when they heard who the "supervisor" was. "Write a letter", they told her.
Oh, we will. Believe it. And I hope our daughter does too. And, we got the name of the ticket agent who went out of her way to help our daughter, even changing her seats to the bulkhead and giving her an empty middle seat for the baby. We'll write a letter about her too, but in a very good way.
I hope anyone reading this will have a better understanding of what you can do at the airport should you find yourself in a similar position some day.
After 3 days of flight cancellations, the NY Times has some advice for air travelers today.
Avoid flying. You don't have to work too hard to accomplish this one these days.
Be wary of American Airlines hubs, Dallas and Chicago. But if you're in Dallas and plan to head home or are forced to layover in Chicago which seems to be the norm, being wary only means you just know you are likely to be stuck.
Know your aircraft. The MD-80's are the planes affected by the inspections and your ticket will tell you if you have reservations on one, but don't expect to be put on a different model, there are too many passengers in the same boat...so to speak.
Trust no one. My personal favorite. "Calling ahead or checking the airline's website may not be the best way to get accurate information. You probably won't know the truth until you arrive at the airport." Even if your flight is not one of those canceled delayed, you may lose your seat as American will be filling up those planes with passengers canceled from other flights.
I'd advise checking lots of air travel websites as opposed to AA. You'll have some idea of the truth, if not the whole truth. Flight Aware will show your flight number's history through several days and this is helpful if only to learn if the plane has been flying...or not.
Turns out New York's almost out of work governor, Eliot Spitzer, is a democratic super delegate. Yes, one of those shadowy figures holding up this primary election. Who did he commit to?
I'd love to see one of those political wives who are trotted out to stand beside her husband who has been caught in a sex scandal wait until he finishes telling the world how sorry he is and how hard he will work to mend his family's hurt and then...
Give him a hard shove right into the orchestra pit of reporters and photographers.
Timothy Jay, author of "Why We Curse" and "Cursing in America" says adolescents and preteens are swearing more publicly than ever before. Conversational swearing, he calls it, with young people using 80 to 90 swear words a day.
Jay is a psychology professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts who has been studying swearing trends since the 1970's. Here is what this psychology prof says:
"Our language values are shifting, and it's just different, not better or worse."
Baloney. When grade school children pepper their speech with swear words all day long, using these words in casual fashion, this is a bad value trend. This is not a neutral change in behavior.
Jay believes these kids are learning this casual use of cursing from their parents who use it regularly, and without much thought, in the home. "The solution, says Jay, is for parents to teach the etiquette of swearing."
The etiquette of swearing. From a man who's based his entire professional academic life on this subject.
