Yes, being stuck on the tarmac is annoying. I have been there multiple times; the worst was for 5 hours on Reno Air about 12 years ago – with no food, no water, and a stinking bathroom. They even took us off the plane and told us to leave our carry-ons on the plane. We were in the terminal for about 20 minutes and then they tried to board us on another plane, until passengers reminded Reno Air that our carry-ons were still on the first plane. Once we boarded on the correct aircraft, there were two lawyers trying to pass around a sign up sheet for a class action lawsuit.
Please. That is the risk of flying. You know how long it would have taken for me to get from Reno, NV to Seattle, WA 100 years ago? Of all the thousands of flights every day, how often do we hear about these huge delays? A few times per year, maximum.
That being said, do I want to experience something like that again? Of course not. There are actions people can take other than pushing the government to regulate the airlines, though. When booking, choose an airline that has a good record of not stranding people. Help publicize incidents that make you feel mistreated (i.e. email me). Write to the airline about your dis-satisfaction. I feel the airlines have made improvements and I wish we could give them a bit more time to fix this issue than add government regulation.
I think regulation can be helpful in certain circumstances, although in the past, full regulation of the airline industry has led to higher prices and less choices.
Boeing workers around ZA002 before th002e test flight today.
ZA002, the second Boeing 787 took to the sky today, showing off its ANA livery. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it to this flight, but there were others who saw it first-hand. Check it out if you missed it live:
These are your five choices. Click on the image to go to the voting page.
JetBlue is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary on February 11, 2010. To get the party started, they asked employees to design a new tail fin livery that will be unveiled during the celebration. JetBlue has the same livery on the body of all their Airbus A320’s, but each one has a unique tail design.
JetBlue had to go through a lot of great submissions, but narrowed it down to the top five shown on this blog. Now you can vote and the highest ranked one will start flying sometime in 2010.
Alaska Airline's Boeing 737-900 (N318AS) with Spirit Of Disneyland II livery
Last Saturday, Alaska Airlines showed off its newest livery, “Spirit of Disneyland II.” Back in 2002 Alaska announced their “Spirit of Disneyland I” livery, which was retired about two weeks ago. Can you tell which one of Mickey’s friends was missing on the first livery?
Because they used a Boeing 737-400 on the first livery, it wasn’t long enough to include Pluto, but since the newest livery is on a Boeing 737-900 (which is about 20′ longer), Alaska was able to include Pluto, re-uniting Mickey and his closest four friends.
The new livery took over 300 gallons of paint, 120 gallons of paint remover (before painting the new livery), and 32,400 feet of tape (which is 108 football fields).
Not only did Alaska show off their new plane, they also flew three “Make a Wish” children from Portland, down to LAX to go to Disneyland.
“When a child with a life-threatening medical condition wishes to meet a Disney character or visit a Disney park, we know that Alaska Airlines and Disneyland Resort are there to make it a dream-come-true,” said Andrew Asato, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon executive director. “With donated tickets and passes, as well as extra-special treatment for wish families, these partners have each provided an unduplicated resource to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for more than 20 years.”
Alaska Airlines has supported the Make-A-Wish Foundation since 1985 and provides air transportation allowing about 80 children’s wishes to be granted each year. The airline invites members of the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan to donate frequent-flier miles to the Make-A-Wish Foundation through the Charity Miles program. To make a donation of miles, visit alaskaair.com and click on the “Mileage Plan” and “Charity Miles” links.
Boeing takes Simpliflying on a special tour of the Boeing 787 gallery and a sneak peak of what the 787 will look like on the inside. Check out Simpliflying’s blog for additional information and pictures.
