Teller1900
En-Route
Amen to that!
Airlines to charge passengers by weight?
- Thread starter JohnR
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Amen to that!
It's just Rick
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I'ts just Rick
Of course, that's what the autopilot has been for in the past, Teller.
I'm suggesting rewiring for the future.
Is anyone out there interested in designing a new system?
I'm suggesting rewiring for the future.
Is anyone out there interested in designing a new system?
judypilot
Cleared for Takeoff
Hear, hear! I'm taller and therefore heavier than most women, but if I can get a man-sized seat, it's worth it.
But what I would REALLY like is to be assured that I get my whole seat without having to share it with someone in the next seat who is obese. I have spent many miserable hours hanging out in the aisle or jammed up against the window by people sitting next to me who should be in first class seats based on their size. One woman was so fat I couldn't even get the arm rest down!
Judy
judypilot
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ausrere
Pattern Altitude
rubber314chicken
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Rubber314chicken
if there is a base rate for the first 170 lbs (wich would make sense), and its a 170 lb woman with a 20 lbs of baby and milk, will they charger her for her 170 lbs and then the baby for its 20, or her for her 190 lbs?
ScottM
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iBazinga!
Witht eh fuel the way it is now and the subsides for the rural air program not keeping anywhere near up to the increases get ready for air service to being to cease for all but the largest cities. The good thing may be that when that happens the US will finally get real inter city rail service using state of the art high speed trains like they seem to have everywhere but here.
Loupark
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Lou
Can't you just see the law suits in the future? If a 5'2" woman is considered over weight
past 120lbs, she has 50lbs of "over weight" before she has to pay extra, but a 5'9" man
is considered over weight after 170lbs, then he should be allowed 50 extra lbs before he
is charged extra. Let them charge me, I'll be happy to give it a try.
Lou
past 120lbs, she has 50lbs of "over weight" before she has to pay extra, but a 5'9" man
is considered over weight after 170lbs, then he should be allowed 50 extra lbs before he
is charged extra. Let them charge me, I'll be happy to give it a try.
Lou
Teller1900
En-Route
I know it's nothing personal, I just think it's a very common belief held by about 98% of travelers, and it's not entirely accurate.
Now, I'm not saying that 100% honesty happens 100% of the time across the board, but EVERY time there's a delay people ask us the "real reason."
We say it's mechanical and we don't know how long 'till it's fixed, they ask us the real reason. Something broke, we ain't mechanics...that's the real reason. (I'll admit, a lot of guys think that we should never explain what broke, just that something is broken. Personally I think that's stupid. I'm probably not going to volunteer the information, just because a) it would bore most people and b) it might scare some people what all we can defer on these planes, but if they ask I'll tell 'em).
We say it's weather or ATC implemented delays, they ask us the real reason. Weather's crap 300 miles from here and it causes delays, I don't work in TMU and the guy on clearance delivery tells me to **** off when I ask how much longer the ground stop is...that's the real reason.
Yes our pay starts when we drop the brake with the door closed, but nevertheless, we don't stand to gain anything by lying about the cause of a delay. Likewise, we're not going to push off a gate and make people sit in a plane for hours unless it's the only way we're going to get out of the airport at all. If it's LGA/JFK/EWR, the only way you can get to the runway is by sitting in line for two hours and waiting your turn. If we have a wheels up time, though, we'll sit at the gate and let folks be comfortable for as long as we can. It's even less pleasant for us up in the green house...our a/c sucks, we always seem to be in direct sunlight, and we can't use the head...we don't want to be sitting out there any more than the folks in the back.
In your #2 scenario...well...that guy's either an idiot, or company told him to try to cover. If the ground crew is delaying us (as happens a lot) we're usually more than happy to put it off on them...I can't tell you why he wouldn't have told the truth, makes no sense to me and is a perfect example of why most people hate/distrust pilots.
#3 - a lot of time Center will give us a wheels up time. We have +-5 minutes on that time to be in the air. Miss it, and we go back to the bottom of the list. So we anticipate that, start taxiing early enough to be #1 at the hold short when our window opens. But halfway out to the runway, Center or the TRACON at our destination decides that the weather has gone down/volume is too high/they just want fewer airplanes...so they ground stop. We're stuck a mile and a half from our gate (which is by now occupied by another a/c anyways); there's no where to turn around; our wheels up time passed during the ground stop, so we're back at the bottom of the list and the local controls have no idea what our new time is going to be.
We can try to fight our way back to the gate but we'll probably miss the new release time if we do, especially since they can come with very little warning. Options are thin, so usually we just pick the one that will get us the hell outta dodge, which usually means sitting in the penalty box until we get released. We're not going to push off the gate with an hour + delay if we know the taxi is only going to take 20 minutes...we'll sit at the gate for 40 minutes then leave. But often times we have a 2 hour delay and anticipate a 90 minute taxi...at that point, we're gonna go because the release could come early or the taxi could run long. Sometimes we really just have no other options, and it has nothing to do with trying to make an extra few bucks...sitting in the penalty box just isn't worth it.
wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
Barry,
While I share your frustration (last year, I ended up driving from DeeEfffDubya to San Antonio at midnight a couple of times, and ended up coming in at 4 AM on a flight that originated at EWR), Brian is 100% correct on this one.
I lost power at my house (DC 'burbs) around 3 PM. It was 24 hours later before I got it back. My parents lost power at their house (DC 'burbs) around 3:30 and didn't get it back until late Friday night. There are some folks with no power still.
The problem with BWI is that it's gotta merge it's traffic into DCA, IAD, and PHL traffic. While BWI is generally pretty easy, when the weather gets bad on the east coast, it can back up pretty badly - likewise ORD is awful.
From what I saw, ORD has also been a mess the last few days.
bstratt
Cleared for Takeoff
I'm not disputing that Brian is right. He absolutely is! I was just venting some of the frustration one gets from flying these days. Two significant delays, with one followed by a cancellation in one week is very trying.
And airlines don't always tell the truth. Back in the days when I was a very frequent flier, and well known in the "club", one of the attendants tracked me down to tell me they had re-booked me on a different airline because my flight was going to be cancelled because something was broke that couldn't be fixed until the next day. She mentioned that they hadn't made that announcement yet. When I walked by the gate for my old flight they were announcing they hoped to have the problem resolved in the next half hour!
I try to never fly the day of a meeting these days. I always book a flight the night before.
P.S. Just noticed - I FINALLY BROKE 1,000 POSTS!
And airlines don't always tell the truth. Back in the days when I was a very frequent flier, and well known in the "club", one of the attendants tracked me down to tell me they had re-booked me on a different airline because my flight was going to be cancelled because something was broke that couldn't be fixed until the next day. She mentioned that they hadn't made that announcement yet. When I walked by the gate for my old flight they were announcing they hoped to have the problem resolved in the next half hour!
I try to never fly the day of a meeting these days. I always book a flight the night before.
P.S. Just noticed - I FINALLY BROKE 1,000 POSTS!
ScottM
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iBazinga!
wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
And that's the truth. After I caught UA doing that - and causing me to miss a very important meeting instead of allowing me to fly on TWA - I dumped 'em. Even though missing the meeting cost me a deal at the time, it's ended up costing UA a LOT more from the loss of my business over the years.
I know the others do it, too, but some at least make the effort when you look them in the eye and tell them why you know otherwise. Not so with UA.
I remember my first 1,000, it seems like just a couple of years ago
Scott, it was a couple of years ago...
