Fees I object to, and fees I am okay with on the airlines

Airlines are doing everything that they can in order to become more profit making and less red lines in the books. 
People (myself included a few times) have grumbled about all of the fees that are adding up. American has even toyed with adding value to economy seats who want to board first, offering to charge them for this privilege.


Here are some suggestions that I have for all of the airlines to make some money. 

• Charge for any beverage other than water. Soft drinks, juices, milks, included. You will not die if you do not get a soda. Trust me, your kidneys will thank you.
• Increase the charges for drinks with mixers. Want a Rum and Coke? You get to pay for the rum AND the Coke.
•  Charge for cheap, disposable pillows and blankets. You would eliminate the fear of cooties, because every pillow and blanket would be a purchase, not a loan.
• Sell items on the plane such as sanitary napkins, baby diapers, and other toiletries.
• Don't just sell items when you are in Duty-Free. Sell items on every flight. I am sure that Sky Mall would love to stock a few smaller items on board each flight. How many travel neck pillows could you sell per flight?
• Offer lower pricing for the middle seat, higher pricing for the window, and highest pricing for the aisle.
• Charge extra for side checking your luggage. You get your luggage before everyone else, after all.
• Sell weather related items such as jackets, umbrellas, parkas. 
• Pass out those credit card applications on every flight. (To those who are interested)
• Get sponsors for the tray table front and back.
• Get sponsors for power ports on the plane. 
• Get ads on the air sick bags. I have seen some, and some are very clever. 
• Offer usable incentives for smaller mileage amounts to encourage less frequent travelers to still use your brand. (Example..about 10 years ago, a legacy carrier offered to let me convert my modest amount of miles into 6 magazine subscriptions, even making them into gift subscriptions if I wanted to. 6 people in my family got gift subscriptions that year.)
• Offer a pay for play lounge area with internet access available for a fee. (Some miles lounges, like the Admirals' Club offer a $50.00 per day access to their clubs already, but, I was able to use it in one airport, but not the next, where I had a 6 hour layover..GRR!)
• Sell a brand based internet access for a reasonable fee, but offer incentives on the site for miles members, or for making ticket and travel purchases.
• Devise a small GPS unit to attach to pet carriers for pet owners who want to check out the location of their pet in real time. Charge for the service.
• Offer a free basic healthy snack on longer flights, and charge for full meal service, or desserts.
• Free kids means that lap children cannot bring bags without an extra fee. Your lap child, flying for free on your lap should not be able to come with a piece of luggage and a personal item. If you are using your lap as their seat, you should not be able to use more space on the plane by using the kid as a luggage space voucher. I understand that kids need diapers, snacks, etc, but, come on, check some of your things. No one wants to wait behind you when we land and you have to grab your station wagon amount of luggage and miscellaneous,either. By the time that you get off the plane, the luggage will be in baggage claim, and you will be shoving past all of us to get to your rental car. 
• Power charging stations. Yes, we all have electronics, and they all run on batteries that always need to be charged, but it is possible to make every plug in the airport a money maker. For the ones that the cleaning crew use to clean the place at night? A nice lock box cover with a key code or a swipe card would close the access point to the general public. Electricity is not free, and it could generate revenue. Either that, or, in some places, they have large sponsors that host the charging station.

What not to charge for::

• Clean, well maintained restrooms. Some airport lavatories are disgusting, filthy, and vile.
• Great customer service. There is no reason that I should have to bend over backwards to garner the attention of a member of flight crew when I need help with something. (Passenger next to me was air sick.) If I hit the call button, it is because I need something. Hearing you laugh from the galley and "finish your story" does not fill me with happy thoughts. Your primary reason for being on the plane is safety. Also, having you socialize with a fellow flight attendant while serving food and beverages is RUDE. If I was in a restaurant and you were talking across me to fellow wait-staff, I would want an apology. Keep it in the crew lounge. 
• Helpful information. Yes, all of the signs at the airport on the monitor screens tell me when and where the flight was, but, I may have other questions as well. Please be patient with me and let me address all of my concerns. They may not be important to you, but they are important to me.
• Uniform following of the rules. If I can only bring one piece of luggage and a personal item on board, and everyone else is supposed to be made to follow the same rules, why am I seeing so many people come on board the plane with so much stuff? 
• Preferential treatment to armed forces. It would be nice to see a soldier in that seat in first class that no paying customer or frequent flier with extra miles is using instead of "The Honey Mooning couple" who already have plenty to be happy about and look forward to, or "The whiner" who begs for the upgrade when they come to check on something or any other person. Put that soldier up in first class whenever you can. 
• Extra cups of water. Please let us have water!

These are only my ideas, and they do not reflect anyone except me! :)

Comair Reducing fleet and jobs in effort to remain in business

Comair is ridding itself of half of its' fleet in its' latest effort to remain afloat and stay mindful of the bottom line. 
The small regional, a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta has been making cuts and has had a hiring freeze in place for certain positions for years. 
I happen to have a very warm place in my heart for Delta Comair. I interviewed with them a few years ago. I was selected to be a flight attendant (trainee, classes, etc)  with them, and had gotten the packet in the mail. Went to get all of the lab work done, and then there was the phone call. There was a hiring freeze. 


That interview is one that I  still cherish, though. Everything was so wonderful. We were treated fairly and well. The people were so very nice. The man who drove me back to the airport visited with me as we rode back in the newly fallen snow, talking about the weather, and how very much I loved Kentucky and the people there. We talked about my having lived in Kentucky as a child, and he knew all of the places that I had lived. We talked about my (now deceased) grandmother who lived in Tennessee, and he said "Well, you can go and see her if you got the job, it would not be forever away." We talked about making buttermilk and mayonnaise, and about what the best dressings were for different types of salads. I felt like I was talking to family. 


When I got the call saying that there was a hiring freeze, my world took a jolt. Seeing this latest news makes me feel really sad for the people there that I got to meet, as well as the people who I never met, because it seems to be a really fine organization. 


I hope that Comair is able to make a better go of it, because I really like them. 

Part one of a series...Fun things to do in towns you may not know about

Of course, we have all been to big cities when we fly, and we have done all of the big city things.
I am going to have an ongoing series for air travelers about fun things to do in smaller cities in the world, and some of the interesting things to see in the air and on the road. 


Going into Tucson? Well, if you are renting a car, there are a good deal of things that you can see just a couple hours away. 
Tombstone, yes the one that the movie is based on, is a very tiny city, but it is still worth a look. There are a lot of things to see and do, and the town is very well preserved. There is the gunfight at the OK Corral, the Crystal Palace, and the Oriental, all still standing. Of course, you can still go to Boot Hill Cemetery, the place where many of Tombstone's famous and infamous are buried. 
In the same area, there are many true ghost towns, look at a map, but be safe, and no trespassing, please.


Down the road from Tombstone is Bisbee. Truly a jewel in the middle of the desert. Where most of Tombstone's buildings were made of wood and did not survive the fires that swept through, Bisbee decided to make theirs stand of stone after fires came through. The result is a town in the middle of mountains that  showcases the beautiful styles and architecture of a time gone by. 
Bisbee is mainly an artists colony now. Hand crafted glass beads are displayed in windows next to restaurants serving some of the finest Mexican food this side of the Mexican border. A dinner recently with my boyfriend found me enjoying diablo shrimp in the most wonderfully flavored sauce. I drank a favorite of mine, horchata, and it was so smooth and creamy, I just know that it had to be homemade. 
The salsa that came with our chips is better than most I have had. When we return, I will ask if they sell a bottled version of it. 


For me, Bisbee is a place that a great grandfather also worked. He worked in the Queen Mine, a copper mine right there. It was really awesome to discover that I have been eating, drinking and going to places that someone in my family went to way before I was even here. It also leads to fun speculation of "Maybe my great grandfather ate here" , which has turned out to be a fun pastime. 



Also in this area of the world are places to play golf, rent horses, and there is even a lake in the Coronado mountains.  Parker Canyon Lake is a beautiful small lake nestled right into the mountains. You would never even suspect that it is there. It is a reservoir lake, so I am pretty certain that swimming is not allowed.  
Parker Canyon Lake was created in 1966, and I cannot express what a wonderful job that was done. It is very pretty. 
The Coronado National Forest is really stunning all on its' own. Perhaps I will write a separate article on how awesome it is.
If you are going to be going into the Coronado National forest, make sure that your car is in good repair, that you have a full tank of gas, drinking water, sturdy shoes, and a working cell phone. Also make sure that someone knows that you are going out there. 


The areas south of Tucson offer many activities and adventurers for travelers in the Tucson area. There are plenty of things to do, the people are generally friendly, and there is a general attitude of being self reliant and that is nice to find. 

How would you help if you were stranded at an airport?

Hurricane Earl has me thinking about something that happened a long time ago in a Dallas airport.
We were at the airport in the wee hours of the morning, taking the first flight by American Airlines into Hawaii. The mood in the airport for everyone that was in the lines was pretty happy. We were all joking and laughing about the fact that we were off to a "terrible time in Hawaii", which was blatant lies and sarcasm, but, it was all in good fun.


None of the shops and stores were open yet, but, it was okay, because we were all packed and ready to head off to Hawaii. In front of us in line, a woman stood with a small young child. They had been bumped the night before from a flight, and missed the last chance connecting flight that was leaving in the middle of the night. When she went back to the ticket counter after the missed flight, there was no one there to help her. 


They had slept on the airport grounds, something I, also have had to do. The child looked tired and miserable, and so did the mother. They had lost the stroller for the child, it had gone onto the destination. She was attempting to get on a flight, any flight, just so that she would have made some progress. Finally, with a few key strokes, the woman at the ticket counter was able to get them a flight to Chicago, and from there, onto her final destination. Everyone was happy. 


We walked with her to her gate, all of us Hawaii bound passengers. A woman who was with a small child offered the stranded woman the use of her umbrella stroller to get to the gate. A second couple managed to fish out snacks from their child's diaper bag. A third set of parents came up with a few clean pull-up diapers for the boy to wear, since he had soiled his last one. 
It was really great to see all of these people with kids pulling together to try and make what must have been horrible situation at least more bearable. 


The best part of all is that these people all did this without being asked. They pulled together for a stranger at an airport. 


I carry a laptop with me pretty much where ever I go. I have a short (30 minutes) video of Sponge Bob, a short video of some music videos from Russia, and a couple of short Mickey Mouse and similar videos all in a folder that I have labeled "Kid Vids". This folder was created when my nieces were small and I was going to take them with me across a few state lines. I figured that there would be places where a little kid entertainment would be needed while I handled paperwork, rental cars, and the like. That little folder has been such a solid hit that whenever I get a new computer, I move that folder over to it.


In Russia, while at an airport with a plug, a group of kids that had a six hour layover sat in front of my computer watching all of the videos, never touching the computer, but applauding after each one was finished. When they were done (the videos) the Russian kids touched my arm and said (via signs and hand gestures) "Play Again?" which I did.


A delayed plane in the Ukraine made me the star of the airport, when no available televisions made for cranky kids. I powered up the laptop, and at least 30 kids all came over, sat cross legged on the floor and watched my videos. I kept the laptop on my lap, as some of the smaller children kept wanting to touch the screen.


Shanghai's layover made me friends of 3 sets of American couples returning home with their new bundles. The children were young, but one of the older ones sat next to me, pointing to the monitor saying "Bob!" Whenever Spongebob would come on.


My contribution to airport situations is small, but, I would never leave home without my laptop. I would also never leave it unattended, but, that is another story entirely. 

Will Hurricane Earl Cause Flight delays to Airline travelers?

Airlines who fly east coast and Atlantic ocean routes are now posting to their sites and informing travelers that Hurricane Earl may cause travel delays. 
Already, cruise lines are rerouting ships around the storm, with as many as 20,000 aboard ships being affected. 
American and other major carriers are waiving the ticket change fees, attempting to avoid problems for travelers. 


If you are someone that has plans along the east coast of the United States, you may want to have a look at the weather and see if you need to change plans. If nothing else, plan out what you would do if you were stranded, and bring things in case you do meet that fate.