As others have said: great story. And the pics aren't too shabby, either. The vignette about setting down in mid-flight to adjust the engine, and then just getting on with it? The best! Imagine if they (the pilot and the owner) wanted to try it today: they'd be micro-managed into Tampa Bay by dozens, if not hundreds, of self-important little bureaucrats.

(Written on 04/03/2022)(Permalink)

Listen to her! Bet you wouldn't be so grumpy-critical if you'd been offered the chance to be on board - - even to serve coffee to the flight crew.

(Written on 21/01/2022)(Permalink)

On a side-note (it's Friday; one can be picky on Fridays): why the semi-colon?

(Written on 14/01/2022)(Permalink)

Great! The easiest off-site place to buy them? The Saudi embassy in downtown Manhattan. It isn't even necessary to be a Saudi. More: they're actually selling them at a discount, and in books, if you can say: "Allahu Akbar."

(Written on 26/11/2021)(Permalink)

Hardly. For every accommodating, professional, or pleasant FA, there's an imperious, "I'm sorry, I'm not your flight attendant," or an airborne parent surrogate;a gate agent who really thinks that s/he has the "power" to herd (paying) passengers like sheep, arbitrarily; a ticket agent who's dismissive, or wasting your time laughing it up with others on that (other) side of the counter while you wait. "Management" is greedy and insensitive at a distance (if any of the senior executives or board members actually fly on the carrier, as opposed to privately, you can bet they're up front (and fawned over), no matter who, or how many people had to be "bumped"). After all, it's really, really necessarily to do one's part to raise shareholder income, to protect one's yearly bonus. no? It's another form of institutional arrogance, hardly limited to airlines. 'Nough said. Enjoy your flight, and thank you for choosing American Airlines.

(Written on 19/11/2021)(Permalink)

New York is not "the big loser." It;s a beneficiary. The "big losers" are those who still are dragooned into flying AA by dint of lack of alternative (or for any other reason). I've logged well over 500,000 miles with the carrier, including four recent segments to different parts of the country, It is the emblem for the phrase, "Just when you think things couldn't get any worse . . ." Cancelled flights. Defective equipment requiring substitution of aircraft. Gate delays and holds, both outbound and inbound. Surly cabin crew (even if one were to exclude the cop wannabes). Cheap, money-gouging seating configurations. Zero on-board service amenities, even for those in the forward part of the aircraft. Its very own brand of "American exceptionalism."

(Written on 19/11/2021)(Permalink)

It almost sounds as though this fool thinks he's "cool." A movie? Riight! But only if Peter Sellers or Harpo Marx could be resurrected.

(Written on 01/08/2021)(Permalink)

You betcha! And in FL, likely with a gun in hand. Cowboys and idiots.

(Written on 18/06/2021)(Permalink)

Not so fast! Read current, up-to-the-minute (and, credible) news reports about increases in case numbers again, and variants, again. Don't be a South Dakota-style denier.

(Written on 09/04/2021)(Permalink)

I disagree with those who approve of or commend AA (and its cop-wannabe flight attendant):while it's true, today, that commercial flying is every kind of bad it can be (people getting trashed-drunk on board;people who've ignored personal cleanliness and hygiene for days, if not weeks; squalling, yowling kids; storage-bin hogs), we have way more than our share of cops roaming the country, more often than not being arbitrary at minimum, and more often, simply abusive and racist. "Flight attendants" have now become tubularized cops. Then, as with ground-based cops, the question becomes: who sets the standards ("offensive" is kind of elastic and essentially meaningless)? Are they definitively published, somewhere? Is what's offensive to a Idaho-based flight attendant "offensive" to someone who flies out of Queens or The Bronx? Does some cockpit-enthralled "flight attendant" have any answerability? And, can she/he (?) decide that, even though the element of "offensiveness" was removed or

(Written on 07/08/2020)(Permalink)