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! :)

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. 

Are you using all of your resources at hand?

When you are trying to accomplish a task, it is sometimes easier if you have friends and connections helping you. 

A friend of mine is trying to get a job as a chef, and she is having no luck in her search. I suggested that she join linked in and see if some of her friends that she already knows would be able to give her a hand.

Social networks are not just for socializing. When I was overseas last year, the trip went horribly wrong, and I needed a way to have somewhere to stay while I regrouped. A social network that I was a part of built a safety net for me when I was making my path back to the United States. It was pretty awesome, to say the least, to think that I was being hosted in a home that was owned by a friend of mine in Europe. 

Twitter is a great tool for telling people what is going on in your life....if your readers see what you are writing. A lot of my friends use Twitter. I have a twitter account, but to me, it is a lot time consuming, and I do not go there. If you do, a shout out can have instant results. I am working on being better on Twitter, and I will be adding it to my phone....when I get back to Dallas! Here in rural Arizona, I am afraid that it would kill my battery life. Once I get back to Dallas, I think that Twitter will be something that I am able to use. A little caution...some of the news feeds on Twitter run all day long, just like the news, and you may want to think about that before you add them to your feed. 

All of the social networks that are out there are being used by many to create connections, find jobs, find places to stay, and many more things. 

A pal of mine who is a flight attendant uses some of her social networks to connect with people when she is in different places all over the globe. She has had a really great time with her social networks, and whenever she is in a new town, she will see what events are going on while she is there. This amazing woman has sipped coffee at the park in Paris where the Eiffel Tower is with people that she had, prior to that, only met online. She has shared vodka with soldiers in eastern Europe when the train they were on was waiting for tracks to be cleared ahead of them. When one of them came to Chicago, her family was able to host them, even though she was out of town when they were there. 

Which is another thing about social networks. If you get something out of your network, don't be a greedy person. Give back.  Return the favor. Take pictures, and share them. Goodness is something that we can all be a part of. 

I am updating all of my social networks this week, and I look forward to you doing the same. 

If I am in your town, or you are in mine, maybe we can have a beverage together in some local place! Fun! 

The Music that you listen to

We all listen to music for different reasons. One of many reasons that people listen to music is for relaxation. 

When we travel,  people like to listen to music for different sub-reasons. When I was traveling to Paris with a friend, we made sure that we were on rows with power ports, so that we could have access to charging our MP3 players, and playing songs that would help us go to bed, wake up, feel energized, etcetera, etcetera. 

When you are traveling, do you have music that you like to listen to? A friend of mine has a play list that she likes to listen to from when she is getting ready to go to the airport all the way to when she is in line to get her rental car. It must be doing something for her, because she seems to be one of the few people that do not suffer from jet lag as bad as the rest of us do. 

Here are a few of the songs that are in my "travel" play list that I thought I would share with you.
Some are fresh, some are classic, and some are old, but they are just suggestions!

Jams --Use your own good judgement for playing around other people! I don't know who your friends are, and I don't know your children! 

• "I like that" by Houston
• "I gotta feelin' "  by Black Eyed Peas (The Club play mix is the one I like!)
• "Hotel Room Service" by Pitbull NOT safe for playing around kids! 
• "Temperature" by Sean Paul
• "Radio" by Flo Rida  (Everytime this song comes on, I am reminded of my tricked out Eddie Bauer Black on Black Expedition with Helo Skid Rims, premium leather custom seats, and a total bling feel to it. I even had Bling Machine embroidered on the seat backs. It was a bad ass big truck, and I still miss my baby.)
• "Whatever you like" by T. I. 
• "Walk it Out" by Unk
• "Baby got Back" by Sir Mix a Lot CLASSIC! I can recall singing this song back in the day with all of my pals, word for word, followed by the next on my playlist :
• "Me So Horny" Beastie Boys
• "Let it Rock" by Kevin Rudolf (Nice use of synthesizers) 
• "I know you want me" AKA Calle Ocho by Pitbull
• "Hips don't lie" by Shakira 
• "Roll" by Flo Rida
• "Stronger" by Kanye West 
• "I love Rock N Roll" by Joan Jett, the First Lady of Rock in my opinion!
• "Kiss me through the phone" by Soulja Boy
• "Disco Inferno" by 50 Cent
• "Move Shake Drop" by DJ Laz
• "Country Grammar"  by Nelly (Classic fun rap)
• "Gold Digger" by Kanye West
• "Krazy" by Pitbull
•  "Calabria" by Enur
• "Beware of the Boys" by Panjabi MC
• "Morena 08" by DJ Laz
• "Party like a Rock Star" by Shop Boyz
• "The Way that You Move" by Outkast
• "Right Round" by Flo Rida 

That is a little bit of a play list that you should listen to when you are in a rush. Nice beat, and will keep you jumping. I will be adding some of my other lists for play as I compile them from my MP3 player. 

Enjoy the tunes!