Mr. Putney, I'm not convinced. Corbyn's electoral kryptonite.
If I were looking at the 2020 election, I'd be considering how the Lib Dems might fare.
Morris - I'm not sure what you mean.
How do you see Labour faring at GE 2020, assuming Corbyn and his ilk have by then departed and how do you see the Libdems faring? Do you really expect the Tories to win as many seats as they have at present, even with all the Brexit hurdles to surmount in addition?
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
There was a legal battle over this, I think the passenger - or at least future passengers - lost the right to do this.
I am wondering how they would ever know given it is two different airlines and with an overnight layover your bags will not be stored at the airport?
Also could you not claim you missed the original flight and got the ferry overnight?
The first airline undoubtedly has to communicate stuff with the second, such as ticket numbers, baggage ID. They would just say that you were a no-show.
As for telling them in advance that you are going to miss it. That might work, but they might be suspicious if you always missed it.
Has anyone else read this remarkable NYTimes piece on London, in which they grudgingly admit London might be the capital of the world, but - yay! - Brexit will probably destroy it.
Despite its absurd bias, it is stylishly written, and, much more importantly, exquisitely designed with flowing videos and compelling imagery. Stunning. It works best on an iPad or maybe a large cellphone, it's a bit more frustrating on a laptop.
But the format of this article points to a new future for "print" journalism. It's kinda magical.
A number of media outlets have experimented with this format. The BBC did a load like that, but seemed to have dropped it recently.
It's near enough unreadable on my laptop. A triumph of design over user effectiveness.
Like I said (several times), you have to read it on a tablet or a large smartphone, that's what it's designed for.
Thus negating one of the greatest rules in web design. You're immediately limiting the number of readers who can access it.
The BBC have done some good ones, but it's almost as if they don't wish as many people as possible to read it. All web pages should be readable on Lynx.
Meh, that's OK and interesting and all, but I've seen lots of websites and news outlets do that stuff. The Times (of London) does it better.
The point about the NYT piece is that they've closely linked the stunning imagery and clever words to make something more than the sum of its parts, it's positively poetic. The slo-mo is mesmerising, the choice of photos delightful, the dying fall at the end - with the embracing couple on a houseboat, perfectly matches the elegiac final paragraph.
Genius. Is there a word for this new kind of journalism? There should be.
Yes.
Inaccessible.
Most of the professional journalists on Twitter are raving about it. We can see what it means.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
Is it because air passenger duty is much higher for long haul leaving the UK, compared with nearby countries?
I wonder what United are offering for overbooked flights at the moment? Free first class trips with free accommodation and food....
If the CEO has any sense, his public weasel words will be accompanied by a serious look at how certain aspects of their business work. Airlines and hotels have always overbooked, but with much better data analysis in recent years they've been pushing it further and further - until this quite predictable result.
Removing the cap on comp they seem to have would be one way of pretty much solving it. I find it hard to imagine no one would have nibbled at $5k, as an extreme example.
Yes, a good starting point would be empowerment of those at the gate to take decisions up to a higher value to avoid an escalating situation. A serious amount of customer service training also required, including drumming it into people that it's 2017 and people now all have phones with video cameras.
$5k would have bitten someone I would have thought, there must have been someone retired or student on the plane.
I don't know if they still do it, but BA captains used to have a company credit card with absolutely no limit for emergency use - such as buying 300 hotel rooms and 100 tons of fuel if diverted somewhere unexpected.
My first ever trans-atlantic flight as a scruffy back-packing student I managed to get upgraded to first class on BA....been downhill ever since then.
I am not sure other the other dwellers of the first class section were too happy to have a pleb in their midst.
About 1990 I was flying out of Jakarta on UTA, as a fairly newly qualified Doctor. Economy was overbooked so I got a First Class upgrade. I suspect they upgraded me as a European Doctor.
Unfortunately what they got was a backpacker who had been in transit in Jakarta airport, un airconditioned, with raging dysentry. I could barely keep a mouthful of water down.
After weeks of rice and noodles, Filet Mignon and Champers was on the menu. I couldn't touch it and was expending all my best efforts in not crapping the seat. It was torture.
Hm, wonder if I should feel more sorry for you, or for your fellow first class travelers
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
Is it because air passenger duty is much higher for long haul leaving the UK, compared with nearby countries?
I read the wiki - APD is not due on connections shorter than 24 hours. So you don't have to pay any APD on that itinerary.
I wonder what United are offering for overbooked flights at the moment? Free first class trips with free accommodation and food....
If the CEO has any sense, his public weasel words will be accompanied by a serious look at how certain aspects of their business work. Airlines and hotels have always overbooked, but with much better data analysis in recent years they've been pushing it further and further - until this quite predictable result.
The more I think about, the more I believe the problem IS the CEO. United let a situation get out of hand. Stuff happens, particularly in a complicated, high stress environment like an airline. Staff don't always deal with situations in the best way, but I think people can understand. Surely a CEO surrounded by highly paid PR people could do better than issue a factually incorrect non-apology apology, then ignore it and go onto blame the victim?
In terms of policy. What I would look at: Is it acceptable to force paying and booked passengers off a plane in favour of airline staff on standby? How to deal with passengers who really don't want to be taken off the plane and aren't necessarily aggressive? How to manage security staff who aren't employees, when the airline will be be blamed for any bad behaviour?
Mr. JS, I rather liked The Night Manager (although I would've kept the original ending).
Mr. Putney, 'more seats' is a bit of a tricky term because the seat number will fall from 650 to 600. [Also, see my second response to you, as I missed part of your post before].
I think Labour will decline, Lib Dems will rise, SNP will edge back a bit and the Conservatives will have a majority as large or larger than the one they currently have.
Obviously there are a few big potential game-changers, most notably how the EU situation develops and whether Corbyn is toppled.
An NOM only arises when third parties do well AND the larger two are in close contention. Whilst SNP dominance in Scotland and a likely LibDem revival in the South West and Remainia makes the first criterion easily fulfilled, the second one looks like a long shot, Corbyn or no.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
I think there is a whole industry around finding those sorts of tickets:
I wonder what United are offering for overbooked flights at the moment? Free first class trips with free accommodation and food....
If the CEO has any sense, his public weasel words will be accompanied by a serious look at how certain aspects of their business work. Airlines and hotels have always overbooked, but with much better data analysis in recent years they've been pushing it further and further - until this quite predictable result.
Removing the cap on comp they seem to have would be one way of pretty much solving it. I find it hard to imagine no one would have nibbled at $5k, as an extreme example.
Yes, a good starting point would be empowerment of those at the gate to take decisions up to a higher value to avoid an escalating situation. A serious amount of customer service training also required, including drumming it into people that it's 2017 and people now all have phones with video cameras.
$5k would have bitten someone I would have thought, there must have been someone retired or student on the plane.
I don't know if they still do it, but BA captains used to have a company credit card with absolutely no limit for emergency use - such as buying 300 hotel rooms and 100 tons of fuel if diverted somewhere unexpected.
Thing is, suppose you are at the gate as a new supervisor. Flight's overbooked, everyone not budging and you, yes you, offered $5k.
No one will ever know that had you stuck to $800 there would have been a short yard off the shareprice following the forcible removal of a stubborn passenger.
It's the same conversation that eg. CFOs have that we were all taught about in financial modelling about explaining their hedging strategies to the Board.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
We found a cheaper way to come back from Toronto in 2015 was to fly Icelandair, via Reykavik. So we decided to spend the difference (and more) on three days in iceland. On the plane back to Gatwick I sat next to someone who’d done something like Seattle > Reykavik > London, with an hour in Keflavik airport as it was much cheaper. TBH I don’t recommend Icelandair though. The guy next to me said he hadn’t slept much, either.
And I have a son in Thailand who is proposing to fly his family to Lapland from Thailand at Christmas, see Father Christmas, then fly on to London for less than the cost of Bangkok > London.
Agree 4/5 is decent for Theresa May to remain as PM in 2020. 10/1 to remain in the SM might be OK too, depending on what they mean by "Single Market" and when it pays out.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
We found a cheaper way to come back from Toronto in 2015 was to fly Icelandair, via Reykavik. So we decided to spend the difference (and more) on three days in iceland. On the plane back to Gatwick I sat next to someone who’d done something like Seattle > Reykavik > London, with an hour in Keflavik airport as it was much cheaper. TBH I don’t recommend Icelandair though. The guy next to me said he hadn’t slept much, either.
The deal I have found is with pah pah Virgin....But the BA flights are £1100 direct.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
We found a cheaper way to come back from Toronto in 2015 was to fly Icelandair, via Reykavik. So we decided to spend the difference (and more) on three days in iceland. On the plane back to Gatwick I sat next to someone who’d done something like Seattle > Reykavik > London, with an hour in Keflavik airport as it was much cheaper. TBH I don’t recommend Icelandair though. The guy next to me said he hadn’t slept much, either.
The deal I have found is with pah pah Virgin....But the BA flights are £1100 direct.
Is this where the railways get their ticketing ideas from?
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
If you don't start from Dublin they *will* cancel your entire booking. You'll get away with walking out of the airport at London on the way back though - as long as you don't make a habit of it.
In 2006 I'd had a BA gold card for 16 consecutive years. That's a huge amount of flying and all club class. I'd been in outside seats where the person on the inside got the whisper and inside seats where the person on the outside got it but never me.
Then in 2006 on a flight to South Africa it happened. "Excuse me sir would you like an upgrade to first" "Why not" I replied casually......
I later got into conversation with this attractive stewardess and told her my tale of being overlooked for 16 years......
She said "I'm afraid it comes down to dress. If you wear jeans and no tie as you are doing at the moment we are told to look elsewhere. I said 'well why now?' She said she was leaving to get married next week so she could do what she liked.
Remoaners to work out how democracy works before 2099 1000/1
Leavers to work out how to be magnanimous in victory 350 million to 1.
Leavers will be able to be magnanimous in victory when Remoaners actually accept defeat. That is the root cause of the problem. There are plenty of Remain voters on here and in the country who have accepted the result with good grace and have now made clear they are as keen as anyone for Brexit to work. They deserve and get respect and kudos for that.
Those who persist in claiming that somehow the referendum should be declared invalid because of supposed lies, thick voters or they just don't like the result, deserve nothing but scorn and contempt.
Just as well Nigel Farage didn't take your advice in eg. 1992.
I don't remember him ever declaring that any results were invalid, nor that voters were too thick to understand the issues. Both of those are common threads amongst Remoaner complaints.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
If you don't start from Dublin they *will* cancel your entire booking. You'll get away with walking out of the airport at London on the way back though - as long as you don't make a habit of it.
Looks like I am going to Dublin for a few hours then.
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
If you don't start from Dublin they *will* cancel your entire booking. You'll get away with walking out of the airport at London on the way back though - as long as you don't make a habit of it.
Can't you just tell them that you got pissed on duty free booze, fell asleep in the WC and whoops. When you woke up the flight was just about to leave. Weave around a bit at the check in desk, slur at the clerk that you love them. And then fall flat on your face on the belt that takes your bag away.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
If you don't start from Dublin they *will* cancel your entire booking. You'll get away with walking out of the airport at London on the way back though - as long as you don't make a habit of it.
Looks like I am going to Dublin for a few hours then.
And make sure you don't get offloaded on the flight to Dublin.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
When I used to fly back from Abu Dhabi in the late 80s there was a flight that went Abu Dhabi-London-New York. Taking the flight from Abu Dhabi to London was only £20 cheaper than taking the flight all the way to New York. I always used to wonder if you could just get on the London to New York portion and only pay £20.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
We found a cheaper way to come back from Toronto in 2015 was to fly Icelandair, via Reykavik. So we decided to spend the difference (and more) on three days in iceland. On the plane back to Gatwick I sat next to someone who’d done something like Seattle > Reykavik > London, with an hour in Keflavik airport as it was much cheaper. TBH I don’t recommend Icelandair though. The guy next to me said he hadn’t slept much, either.
The deal I have found is with pah pah Virgin....But the BA flights are £1100 direct.
Is this where the railways get their ticketing ideas from?
Yes, I think so. Or the airlines caught it from the UK railways.
Private Eye recently had a story on the fare anomaly re. Lancaster or Preston to Euston return tickets. The longer journey costs less but it's considered fraud to board the train at Preston if you have a ticket from Lancaster. A Virgin passenger was detained by police until CCTV footage showed that in fact he'd boarded at Lancaster.
How this complies with consumer law which is supposed to ban unreasonable terms and conditions, I've no idea. It's hardly reasonable to charge a positive amount of money to travel a negative distance.
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
Fact.
Ha, really?
That's actually the sort of thing one imagines their cabin crew being trained to do. Maybe the senior management at the big US airlines should spend some time travelling with the likes of Etihad and Singapore, it might show them what customer service looks like.
How do you see Labour faring at GE 2020, assuming Corbyn and his ilk have by then departed
That's a big "if". I reckon he'll stay, and I add it isn't a market I've played particularly well at all.
Not that big an "if" - Betfair currently make him around 1.6 to go before the 2020 GE. Admittedly this is the one big risk against there not being an overall Maj at the next GE, but the risk: reward ratio looks attractive imho when compared with odds of 3.0 or better.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
They'll be matching Dublin -> US fares, which could be cheaper than London -> US fares. I quite often find Edinburgh -> US fares are cheaper than direct London -> US fares, even though they involve a layover.
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
Fact.
Ha, really?
That's actually the sort of thing one imagines their cabin crew being trained to do. Maybe the senior management at the big US airlines should spend some time travelling with the likes of Etihad and Singapore, it might show them what customer service looks like.
Yes, really really. BTW - we had some great weather out there last week. A pity we had to work!
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
If you don't start from Dublin they *will* cancel your entire booking. You'll get away with walking out of the airport at London on the way back though - as long as you don't make a habit of it.
Looks like I am going to Dublin for a few hours then.
And make sure you don't get offloaded on the flight to Dublin.
If airlines can just dump passengers who've already boarded, does that imply you could be part-way through a long journey & get dumped at some stop-over place because they want to board unexpected passengers?
I wonder what United are offering for overbooked flights at the moment? Free first class trips with free accommodation and food....
If the CEO has any sense, his public weasel words will be accompanied by a serious look at how certain aspects of their business work. Airlines and hotels have always overbooked, but with much better data analysis in recent years they've been pushing it further and further - until this quite predictable result.
Removing the cap on comp they seem to have would be one way of pretty much solving it. I find it hard to imagine no one would have nibbled at $5k, as an extreme example.
The trouble is Rob, that it is not real money. I took the $400 and hotel once in Chicago O'Hare. It was $400 of vouchers for future travel on United, but exclude the cheap tickets. So if you'd normally buy the ticket for $400, but now to use the voucher you had to buy the $800 ticket, the voucher is essentially worthless. And the hotel sucked, they gave me a $10 voucher for food and I had no luggage with me.
So, in short, never again, even at $5000 (of non-cash).
Perhaps that is one of the fixes, make the offer a real cash-in-hand offer, not these ridiculous vouchers.
Remoaners to work out how democracy works before 2099 1000/1
Leavers to work out how to be magnanimous in victory 350 million to 1.
Leavers will be able to be magnanimous in victory when Remoaners actually accept defeat. That is the root cause of the problem. There are plenty of Remain voters on here and in the country who have accepted the result with good grace and have now made clear they are as keen as anyone for Brexit to work. They deserve and get respect and kudos for that.
Those who persist in claiming that somehow the referendum should be declared invalid because of supposed lies, thick voters or they just don't like the result, deserve nothing but scorn and contempt.
Just as well Nigel Farage didn't take your advice in eg. 1992.
I don't remember him ever declaring that any results were invalid, nor that voters were too thick to understand the issues. Both of those are common threads amongst Remoaner complaints.
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
How do you see Labour faring at GE 2020, assuming Corbyn and his ilk have by then departed
That's a big "if". I reckon he'll stay, and I add it isn't a market I've played particularly well at all.
Not that big an "if" - Betfair currently make him around 1.6 to go before the 2020 GE. Admittedly this is the one big risk against there not being an overall Maj at the next GE, but the risk: reward ratio looks attractive imho when compared with odds of 3.0 or better.
Yes but there is the scenario where Corbyn goes (late 2019 say) and his succesor is no more appealing.
I don't think its as simple as Corbyn -> Pasting, AN Other -> NOM. I think AN Other has a big chance of getting hammered too.
I wonder what United are offering for overbooked flights at the moment? Free first class trips with free accommodation and food....
If the CEO has any sense, his public weasel words will be accompanied by a serious look at how certain aspects of their business work. Airlines and hotels have always overbooked, but with much better data analysis in recent years they've been pushing it further and further - until this quite predictable result.
Removing the cap on comp they seem to have would be one way of pretty much solving it. I find it hard to imagine no one would have nibbled at $5k, as an extreme example.
Yes, a good starting point would be empowerment of those at the gate to take decisions up to a higher value to avoid an escalating situation. A serious amount of customer service training also required, including drumming it into people that it's 2017 and people now all have phones with video cameras.
$5k would have bitten someone I would have thought, there must have been someone retired or student on the plane.
I don't know if they still do it, but BA captains used to have a company credit card with absolutely no limit for emergency use - such as buying 300 hotel rooms and 100 tons of fuel if diverted somewhere unexpected.
Thing is, suppose you are at the gate as a new supervisor. Flight's overbooked, everyone not budging and you, yes you, offered $5k.
No one will ever know that had you stuck to $800 there would have been a short yard off the shareprice following the forcible removal of a stubborn passenger.
It's the same conversation that eg. CFOs have that we were all taught about in financial modelling about explaining their hedging strategies to the Board.
Spot on.
It's the value of insurance, too. Or safety. How do you value the bad things that don't happen.
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
Fact.
A few years ago I took an Emirates flight from HK => London first class. It was a morning flight and I'd been to a party the night before. As such, when I got on the plane, I went straight to sleep. I awoke to find an Emirates air hostess squatting beside me, distraught that I had missed breakfast and was there anything she could do for me.
There was, I said, and thus began the Dom Perignon phase of the flight.
In case PBers didn't see Kimmel's United ad, here it is again. Brilliant!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjRBuWlNLF8
Is it a Ratner moment? Or will it all be forgotten?
I do not think this will be forgotten, and I wonder how long the CEO will survive. There is already more than one site calling for United boycotts, and my wife spontaneously suggested starting one on her Facebook page.
People are rightly offended, and but for the grace of God ...
I wonder what United are offering for overbooked flights at the moment? Free first class trips with free accommodation and food....
If the CEO has any sense, his public weasel words will be accompanied by a serious look at how certain aspects of their business work. Airlines and hotels have always overbooked, but with much better data analysis in recent years they've been pushing it further and further - until this quite predictable result.
The more I think about, the more I believe the problem IS the CEO. United let a situation get out of hand. Stuff happens, particularly in a complicated, high stress environment like an airline. Staff don't always deal with situations in the best way, but I think people can understand. Surely a CEO surrounded by highly paid PR people could do better than issue a factually incorrect non-apology apology, then ignore it and go onto blame the victim?
In terms of policy. What I would look at: Is it acceptable to force paying and booked passengers off a plane in favour of airline staff on standby? How to deal with passengers who really don't want to be taken off the plane and aren't necessarily aggressive? How to manage security staff who aren't employees, when the airline will be be blamed for any bad behaviour?
Give it a couple more days and the CEO will tell us he wants his life back.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
If you don't start from Dublin they *will* cancel your entire booking. You'll get away with walking out of the airport at London on the way back though - as long as you don't make a habit of it.
Looks like I am going to Dublin for a few hours then.
And make sure you don't get offloaded on the flight to Dublin.
If airlines can just dump passengers who've already boarded, does that imply you could be part-way through a long journey & get dumped at some stop-over place because they want to board unexpected passengers?
Good afternoon, everyone.
It's unlikely they'd bump you in the middle of a trip, but yes these things happen for a number of reasons. United are learning the hard way about customer service today though, they could have resolved the situation quite quickly by upping the compensation offer until volunteers came forward.
It turns out that this flight was only five hours to drive the distance, which makes it even more moronic. They could have put the travelling crew in a limo or chartered a small plane for them for a few hundred dollars.
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
If you don't start from Dublin they *will* cancel your entire booking. You'll get away with walking out of the airport at London on the way back though - as long as you don't make a habit of it.
Could be an issue if the baggage is checked through to Dublin on the way back.
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
Fact.
A few years ago I took an Emirates flight from HK => London first class. It was a morning flight and I'd been to a party the night before. As such, when I got on the plane, I went straight to sleep. I awoke to find an Emirates air hostess squatting beside me, distraught that I had missed breakfast and was there anything she could do for me.
There was, I said, and thus began the Dom Perignon phase of the flight.
Many, many years ago my wife and I were on a half-empty Sydney to Auckland flight. ‘Red, whiet or spraklig?’ asked the steward. ‘Sparkling’ we said. Half an hour later he came back to us. ‘No-one else is drinking this' he said. ‘You might as well have the bottle!"
I have just found a ridiculous cheap flight via a reputable online booking site...but it is Dublin -> UK -> US, with an overnight layover in London. The two flights are on different airlines. Note I am not based in Dublin.
What is stopping you just not taking that Dublin -> UK portion and walking into the airport the next day when the UK -> US portion of the flight leaves?
If you don't take the first leg the entire trip is cancelled.
Might have to have a day in Dublin then...worse things to do.
The flight is nearly half the price as just taking the London -> US leg !!!
That's surprising, as I thought the main difference in price would be APD, which I I think is due even for short layovers (could be wrong there).
I have no idea if it is a glitch. But standard London -> Seattle direct on dates I want, £953....Dublin -> Lodon -> Seattle, £575...RyanAir one way to Dublin, £26.
If you don't start from Dublin they *will* cancel your entire booking. You'll get away with walking out of the airport at London on the way back though - as long as you don't make a habit of it.
Could be an issue if the baggage is checked through to Dublin on the way back.
I think he said that the Dublin flight was with a different airline, but yes a good point to check your bags aren't going to the "wrong" place!
I wonder what United are offering for overbooked flights at the moment? Free first class trips with free accommodation and food....
If the CEO has any sense, his public weasel words will be accompanied by a serious look at how certain aspects of their business work. Airlines and hotels have always overbooked, but with much better data analysis in recent years they've been pushing it further and further - until this quite predictable result.
The more I think about, the more I believe the problem IS the CEO. United let a situation get out of hand. Stuff happens, particularly in a complicated, high stress environment like an airline. Staff don't always deal with situations in the best way, but I think people can understand. Surely a CEO surrounded by highly paid PR people could do better than issue a factually incorrect non-apology apology, then ignore it and go onto blame the victim?
In terms of policy. What I would look at: Is it acceptable to force paying and booked passengers off a plane in favour of airline staff on standby? How to deal with passengers who really don't want to be taken off the plane and aren't necessarily aggressive? How to manage security staff who aren't employees, when the airline will be be blamed for any bad behaviour?
Give it a couple more days and the CEO will tell us he wants his life back.
I agree it is the CEO. This is clearly the culture of the company - efficiency at all costs, including the customers'.
Culture provides context for decision-making where there are no other instructions or guidelines. The fact that the management staff thought it ok to kick off unwilling passengers rather than hire small aircraft to transport the staff, and the fact that none of the aircrew, including the captain, did not see fit to intervene with this physical assault on an otherwise compliant customer, tells you that the culture encourages decision-making that ignores customer service.
That is a big ship to turn around. United's stock will fall a long way before there is any evidence that they are capable of doing so.
Sorry when I saw that at first I wondered If he had had a problem with vampires when he was out campaigning. Too much Buffy.
But on the specifics the law is the law. It doesn't matter if it is £80 or £80,000, he should have been prosecuted for it.
I guess they felt given the sums it was not in the public interest spending mass amounts on a prosecution, but it is troublesome in general how the parties all clearly have contempt for the rules, since they either break them willingly or don't bother putting in time to understand them.
Sorry when I saw that at first I wondered If he had had a problem with vampires when he was out campaigning. Too much Buffy.
But on the specifics the law is the law. It doesn't matter if it is £80 or £80,000, he should have been prosecuted for it.
It does matter if it is £80 or £80,000. The law and the CPS have always taken extent into account, a single simple omission is human error - systemic fraud is something else. It is the latter the CPS rightly prosecutes in any field.
If every human who'd ever made a mistake was prosecuted the CPS would have a never ending backlog and make an even bigger mockery of the law.
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
Fact.
A few years ago I took an Emirates flight from HK => London first class. It was a morning flight and I'd been to a party the night before. As such, when I got on the plane, I went straight to sleep. I awoke to find an Emirates air hostess squatting beside me, distraught that I had missed breakfast and was there anything she could do for me.
There was, I said, and thus began the Dom Perignon phase of the flight.
Many, many years ago my wife and I were on a half-empty Sydney to Auckland flight. ‘Red, whiet or spraklig?’ asked the steward. ‘Sparkling’ we said. Half an hour later he came back to us. ‘No-one else is drinking this' he said. ‘You might as well have the bottle!"
Airline stories pt. 94
I was in my seat on Air France HK => Paris and for the only time ever, the most beautiful girl came and sat down next to me.
I don't know what I thought but they were all good thoughts.
Just as the plane began to taxi away from the stand, she turned to me and said: I want to get off this flight, I am terrified, I need to get off.
We called the air stewardesses and they didn't have whatever tranquilisers they usually have for this kind of (quite common, apparently) thing. So I chatted to her intensely, discussing this and that, and, talking through her fears and why and how. And when the flight was in the air we called the stewardess over and said: champagne. And we drank it all night and drank so much they eventually ran out.
And when we landed she was super-grateful and I gave her my number thinking this is it, this never happens to me meeting such a beautiful girl, lucky me, and I never heard from her again.
In case PBers didn't see Kimmel's United ad, here it is again. Brilliant!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjRBuWlNLF8
Is it a Ratner moment? Or will it all be forgotten?
The CEO's response, essentially saying that the guy deserved it, has made sure it's a Ratner moment.
Absolutely. Saying that all "procedures were followed" da da da, when the whole world is watching an old man dragged off the plane, is indicative of a rotten corporate culture that can't see past the bottom line - to the point that they treat paying passengers like an inconvenience.
It will need a complete clearout from the top down and some serious customer service focussed people brought in. It's a big ship to turn around, these things take years to learn to do properly at such a large company. In the meantime they're screwed, comedians are taking aim and boycotts being organised. This one's not going to go away any time soon.
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
Fact.
A few years ago I took an Emirates flight from HK => London first class. It was a morning flight and I'd been to a party the night before. As such, when I got on the plane, I went straight to sleep. I awoke to find an Emirates air hostess squatting beside me, distraught that I had missed breakfast and was there anything she could do for me.
There was, I said, and thus began the Dom Perignon phase of the flight.
Many, many years ago my wife and I were on a half-empty Sydney to Auckland flight. ‘Red, whiet or spraklig?’ asked the steward. ‘Sparkling’ we said. Half an hour later he came back to us. ‘No-one else is drinking this' he said. ‘You might as well have the bottle!"
Flying BA once, a small kid was having air sickness. He got out of his seat to go to the bathroom, but vomited on the passageway just by me. I hit the call button, but noone came. So I went back to the staff station, and said that there was vomit that needed cleaning up. The harassed flight attendant said "Sorry, I'm dealing with this" pointing to a slopping sea of vomit all over the floor of the station. She handed me a roll of paper towels and a plastic trash bag. I dealt with my problem
Later, she came looking for me, thanked me, and handed me two bottles of Echezeaux from First Class.
Sorry when I saw that at first I wondered If he had had a problem with vampires when he was out campaigning. Too much Buffy.
But on the specifics the law is the law. It doesn't matter if it is £80 or £80,000, he should have been prosecuted for it.
It does matter if it is £80 or £80,000. The law and the CPS have always taken extent into account, a single simple omission is human error - systemic fraud is something else. It is the latter the CPS rightly prosecutes in any field.
If every human who'd ever made a mistake was prosecuted the CPS would have a never ending backlog and make an even bigger mockery of the law.
Given the endemic abuse that seems to permeate the Tory party when it comes to election expenses I am afraid I do not believe this is a case of simple error or omission. Besides if I or any normal person broke the law I would expect to be prosecuted even for small sums.
In case PBers didn't see Kimmel's United ad, here it is again. Brilliant!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjRBuWlNLF8
Is it a Ratner moment? Or will it all be forgotten?
The CEO's response, essentially saying that the guy deserved it, has made sure it's a Ratner moment.
Absolutely. Saying that all "procedures were followed" da da da, when the whole world is watching an old man dragged off the plane, is indicative of a rotten corporate culture that can't see past the bottom line - to the point that they treat paying passengers like an inconvenience.
It will need a complete clearout from the top down and some serious customer service focussed people brought in. It's a big ship to turn around, these things take years to learn to do properly at such a large company. In the meantime they're screwed, comedians are taking aim and boycotts being organised. This one's not going to go away any time soon.
In case PBers didn't see Kimmel's United ad, here it is again. Brilliant!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjRBuWlNLF8
Is it a Ratner moment? Or will it all be forgotten?
I do not think this will be forgotten, and I wonder how long the CEO will survive. There is already more than one site calling for United boycotts, and my wife spontaneously suggested starting one on her Facebook page.
People are rightly offended, and but for the grace of God ...
Is it known why they selected a doctor with appointments to keep for dumping? Was everybody else on even higher-priority business?
It's almost as if they were looking to maximise the adverse publicity.
Given the endemic abuse that seems to permeate the Tory party when it comes to election expenses I am afraid I do not believe this is a case of simple error or omission. Besides if I or any normal person broke the law I would expect to be prosecuted even for small sums.
Really? You'd expect to be prosecuted, in a criminal court, if you inadvertently and without any dishonest intent claimed on your tax return a non-allowable expense of £80 amongst tens of thousands of pounds of perfectly valid expenses?
Edit: In fact, in this case the expense was perfectly valid.
In case PBers didn't see Kimmel's United ad, here it is again. Brilliant!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjRBuWlNLF8
Is it a Ratner moment? Or will it all be forgotten?
I do not think this will be forgotten, and I wonder how long the CEO will survive. There is already more than one site calling for United boycotts, and my wife spontaneously suggested starting one on her Facebook page.
People are rightly offended, and but for the grace of God ...
Is it known why they selected a doctor with appointments to keep for dumping? Was everybody else on even higher-priority business?
It's almost as if they were looking to maximise the adverse publicity.
Apparently, the computer randomly selected 4 passengers to 'deplane'. The first three got off with no objection, this guy refused as he had patients to see.
How do you see Labour faring at GE 2020, assuming Corbyn and his ilk have by then departed
That's a big "if". I reckon he'll stay, and I add it isn't a market I've played particularly well at all.
Not that big an "if" - Betfair currently make him around 1.6 to go before the 2020 GE. Admittedly this is the one big risk against there not being an overall Maj at the next GE, but the risk: reward ratio looks attractive imho when compared with odds of 3.0 or better.
Yes but there is the scenario where Corbyn goes (late 2019 say) and his succesor is no more appealing.
I don't think its as simple as Corbyn -> Pasting, AN Other -> NOM. I think AN Other has a big chance of getting hammered too.
In America it is frequently said that the Vice President is "a heartbeat away from the Presidency". Under our Parliamentary system even if an electable figure is made Leader of the Opposition and becomes PM what is to stop someone like Corbyn or McDonnell from being "a heartbeat away from Downing Street"?
Sorry when I saw that at first I wondered If he had had a problem with vampires when he was out campaigning. Too much Buffy.
But on the specifics the law is the law. It doesn't matter if it is £80 or £80,000, he should have been prosecuted for it.
It does matter if it is £80 or £80,000. The law and the CPS have always taken extent into account, a single simple omission is human error - systemic fraud is something else. It is the latter the CPS rightly prosecutes in any field.
If every human who'd ever made a mistake was prosecuted the CPS would have a never ending backlog and make an even bigger mockery of the law.
Given the endemic abuse that seems to permeate the Tory party when it comes to election expenses I am afraid I do not believe this is a case of simple error or omission. Besides if I or any normal person broke the law I would expect to be prosecuted even for small sums.
If you read the article, you will see why he was not prosecuted.
Mr. T, reminiscent of the lady Balls summarily fired after she had a horrendous press appearance and said all the boxes had been ticked after a child (perhaps Baby P) had been brutally killed.
She ended up getting substantial compensation, of course.
How do you see Labour faring at GE 2020, assuming Corbyn and his ilk have by then departed
That's a big "if". I reckon he'll stay, and I add it isn't a market I've played particularly well at all.
Not that big an "if" - Betfair currently make him around 1.6 to go before the 2020 GE. Admittedly this is the one big risk against there not being an overall Maj at the next GE, but the risk: reward ratio looks attractive imho when compared with odds of 3.0 or better.
Yes but there is the scenario where Corbyn goes (late 2019 say) and his succesor is no more appealing.
I don't think its as simple as Corbyn -> Pasting, AN Other -> NOM. I think AN Other has a big chance of getting hammered too.
If Labour and the unions take the big step of forcing out Corbyn before GE 2020, it won't be to replace him with anyone even vaguely similar. Even if this happens in late 2019 which is very unlikely, the huge sense of relief + the honeymoon period awarded the new leader would be more than sufficient to deprive the Tories of an overall majority. But obviously follow your own instincts, personally I'm convinced the Tories will do significantly less well, with or without boundary changes, especially with major Brexit difficulties ahead , even if not of their making, and for that reason I'm building a large NOM position for as long as the odds remain at 3.0+.
In case PBers didn't see Kimmel's United ad, here it is again. Brilliant!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjRBuWlNLF8
Is it a Ratner moment? Or will it all be forgotten?
The CEO's response, essentially saying that the guy deserved it, has made sure it's a Ratner moment.
Absolutely. Saying that all "procedures were followed" da da da, when the whole world is watching an old man dragged off the plane, is indicative of a rotten corporate culture that can't see past the bottom line - to the point that they treat paying passengers like an inconvenience.
It will need a complete clearout from the top down and some serious customer service focussed people brought in. It's a big ship to turn around, these things take years to learn to do properly at such a large company. In the meantime they're screwed, comedians are taking aim and boycotts being organised. This one's not going to go away any time soon.
Sorry when I saw that at first I wondered If he had had a problem with vampires when he was out campaigning. Too much Buffy.
But on the specifics the law is the law. It doesn't matter if it is £80 or £80,000, he should have been prosecuted for it.
It does matter if it is £80 or £80,000. The law and the CPS have always taken extent into account, a single simple omission is human error - systemic fraud is something else. It is the latter the CPS rightly prosecutes in any field.
If every human who'd ever made a mistake was prosecuted the CPS would have a never ending backlog and make an even bigger mockery of the law.
Given the endemic abuse that seems to permeate the Tory party when it comes to election expenses I am afraid I do not believe this is a case of simple error or omission. Besides if I or any normal person broke the law I would expect to be prosecuted even for small sums.
If it was endemic abuse then there would be more than £80 at stake here and there would be grounds for a prosecution.
I don't believe you would be prosecuted if there was a single simple omission where everything else was above board. The CPS and the courts are not that extreme.
How do you see Labour faring at GE 2020, assuming Corbyn and his ilk have by then departed
That's a big "if". I reckon he'll stay, and I add it isn't a market I've played particularly well at all.
Not that big an "if" - Betfair currently make him around 1.6 to go before the 2020 GE. Admittedly this is the one big risk against there not being an overall Maj at the next GE, but the risk: reward ratio looks attractive imho when compared with odds of 3.0 or better.
Yes but there is the scenario where Corbyn goes (late 2019 say) and his succesor is no more appealing.
I don't think its as simple as Corbyn -> Pasting, AN Other -> NOM. I think AN Other has a big chance of getting hammered too.
If Labour and the unions take the big step of forcing out Corbyn before GE 2020, it won't be to replace him with anyone even vaguely similar. Even if this happens in late 2019 which is very unlikely, the huge sense of relief + the honeymoon period awarded the new leader would be more than sufficient to deprive the Tories of an overall majority. But obviously follow your own instincts, personally I'm convinced the Tories will do significantly less well, with or without boundary changes, especially with major Brexit difficulties ahead , even if not of their making, and for that reason I'm building a large NOM position for as long as the odds remain at 3.0+.
We are more than one leader away from "huge sense of relief + the honeymoon period"; the replacement will be Michael Howard 2003, not the Camgasm of 2005.
Come to think of it that means huge sense of relief = yes, honeymoon period = not really.
I`ll be amazed if May is still PM in 2020.She looks really old for 59 her only idea since becoming PM was more Grammar Schools which does not resonate with many people,she bottled Hinckley Point,the budget was incompetent and devoid of ideas and all the problems of Brexit are likely to have emerged prior to 2020 as it is likely to be a new Labour leader The main reason why May might stay PM is for the same reason she got elected the lack of an alternative leader but Tories have 3 years to find somebody with charisma and fresh ideas
In case PBers didn't see Kimmel's United ad, here it is again. Brilliant!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjRBuWlNLF8
Is it a Ratner moment? Or will it all be forgotten?
The CEO's response, essentially saying that the guy deserved it, has made sure it's a Ratner moment.
Absolutely. Saying that all "procedures were followed" da da da, when the whole world is watching an old man dragged off the plane, is indicative of a rotten corporate culture that can't see past the bottom line - to the point that they treat paying passengers like an inconvenience.
It will need a complete clearout from the top down and some serious customer service focussed people brought in. It's a big ship to turn around, these things take years to learn to do properly at such a large company. In the meantime they're screwed, comedians are taking aim and boycotts being organised. This one's not going to go away any time soon.
Snap. See my comment to the same effect below.
The video's been removed but it sounds like the exact opposite of well-run companies, like John Lewis for instance.
My worst flight ever was coming back from Malta in 1987. About 5 minutes after take off a woman started having hysterics and screaming the the plane was going to crash. Alcohol may have been taken. The stewards spent the entire flight pinning her to the floor while she struggled. Which meant no service whatsoever and no access to the toilets for most passengers. And to make matters worse, we were diverted from Heathrow to Luton.....
There was also the time on an internal flight in China on the day Indira Gandhi was assassinated. An elderly American had a heart attack. There was a nurse on the plane, who said she thought he would be ok until landing if she could just give him some oxygen. They said they had no oxygen available. We were on an airbus at 30,000 ft. He died. They wrapped him in a blanket and stuck him on a shelf next to the toilets. With his head sticking out, to the shock of people wanting to use the loo who weren't aware of what had gone on.
I`ll be amazed if May is still PM in 2020.She looks really old for 59 her only idea since becoming PM was more Grammar Schools which does not resonate with many people,she bottled Hinckley Point,the budget was incompetent and devoid of ideas and all the problems of Brexit are likely to have emerged prior to 2020 as it is likely to be a new Labour leader The main reason why May might stay PM is for the same reason she got elected the lack of an alternative leader but Tories have 3 years to find somebody with charisma and fresh ideas
She does look older than 59, but that's not necessarily an indication of how energetic she may or may not be going forward. Brexit is what she will rise and fall on.
I had a friend who is a GP in Northern Ireland staying in Devon a few months ago. He does on call work for the police (fights, car crashes etc) and wanted to go to Buckfast Abbey to give thanks for the amount of work, and therefore money, they have given him over the years.
We discovered last week that the difference between Silver and Gold status on Etihad is that if you are Gold the flight attendant squats down for you, while with Silver she only bends over.
Fact.
A few years ago I took an Emirates flight from HK => London first class. It was a morning flight and I'd been to a party the night before. As such, when I got on the plane, I went straight to sleep. I awoke to find an Emirates air hostess squatting beside me, distraught that I had missed breakfast and was there anything she could do for me.
There was, I said, and thus began the Dom Perignon phase of the flight.
Many, many years ago my wife and I were on a half-empty Sydney to Auckland flight. ‘Red, whiet or spraklig?’ asked the steward. ‘Sparkling’ we said. Half an hour later he came back to us. ‘No-one else is drinking this' he said. ‘You might as well have the bottle!"
Airline stories pt. 94
I was in my seat on Air France HK => Paris and for the only time ever, the most beautiful girl came and sat down next to me.
I don't know what I thought but they were all good thoughts.
Just as the plane began to taxi away from the stand, she turned to me and said: I want to get off this flight, I am terrified, I need to get off.
We called the air stewardesses and they didn't have whatever tranquilisers they usually have for this kind of (quite common, apparently) thing. So I chatted to her intensely, discussing this and that, and, talking through her fears and why and how. And when the flight was in the air we called the stewardess over and said: champagne. And we drank it all night and drank so much they eventually ran out.
And when we landed she was super-grateful and I gave her my number thinking this is it, this never happens to me meeting such a beautiful girl, lucky me, and I never heard from her again.
Ah .... that is such a sad story and I was so much looking forward to a happy ever after ending. I wonder if she even recalls the experience?
I`ll be amazed if May is still PM in 2020.She looks really old for 59 her only idea since becoming PM was more Grammar Schools which does not resonate with many people,she bottled Hinckley Point,the budget was incompetent and devoid of ideas and all the problems of Brexit are likely to have emerged prior to 2020 as it is likely to be a new Labour leader The main reason why May might stay PM is for the same reason she got elected the lack of an alternative leader but Tories have 3 years to find somebody with charisma and fresh ideas
She does look older than 59, but that's not necessarily an indication of how energetic she may or may not be going forward. Brexit is what she will rise and fall on.
Both TMay and Corbyn could pass for a good 10 years older than they actually are IMO.
I see the likelihood of the LibDems making a significant recovery, even with Farron at the helm, winning somewhere between 25-35 seats (i.e. 5 - 7 London Cabs full), principally from the Tories.
Are you prepared to take odds on that?
In principle yes, but it's simply too far ahead to be placing bets, ask me again in two years' time!
Comments
Night Manager fails to win any awards.
Sean T said it was rubbish IIRC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39564174
How do you see Labour faring at GE 2020, assuming Corbyn and his ilk have by then departed and how do you see the Libdems faring? Do you really expect the Tories to win as many seats as they have at present, even with all the Brexit hurdles to surmount in addition?
As for telling them in advance that you are going to miss it. That might work, but they might be suspicious if you always missed it.
Never mind the quality, feel the width.
In terms of policy. What I would look at: Is it acceptable to force paying and booked passengers off a plane in favour of airline staff on standby? How to deal with passengers who really don't want to be taken off the plane and aren't necessarily aggressive? How to manage security staff who aren't employees, when the airline will be be blamed for any bad behaviour?
Mr. Putney, 'more seats' is a bit of a tricky term because the seat number will fall from 650 to 600. [Also, see my second response to you, as I missed part of your post before].
I think Labour will decline, Lib Dems will rise, SNP will edge back a bit and the Conservatives will have a majority as large or larger than the one they currently have.
Obviously there are a few big potential game-changers, most notably how the EU situation develops and whether Corbyn is toppled.
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/07/20/are-airlines-cracking-down-on-throwaway-ticketing/
On the plane back to Gatwick I sat next to someone who’d done something like Seattle > Reykavik > London, with an hour in Keflavik airport as it was much cheaper.
TBH I don’t recommend Icelandair though. The guy next to me said he hadn’t slept much, either.
And I have a son in Thailand who is proposing to fly his family to Lapland from Thailand at Christmas, see Father Christmas, then fly on to London for less than the cost of Bangkok > London.
Then in 2006 on a flight to South Africa it happened. "Excuse me sir would you like an upgrade to first" "Why not" I replied casually......
I later got into conversation with this attractive stewardess and told her my tale of being overlooked for 16 years......
She said "I'm afraid it comes down to dress. If you wear jeans and no tie as you are doing at the moment we are told to look elsewhere. I said 'well why now?' She said she was leaving to get married next week so she could do what she liked.
Some way behind is APPLE TREE YARD
Commended
HAPPY VALLEY
LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX
Fact.
When you woke up the flight was just about to leave.
Weave around a bit at the check in desk, slur at the clerk that you love them.
And then fall flat on your face on the belt that takes your bag away.
Edited extra bit: breaking - he's been replaced by Wehrlein.
Private Eye recently had a story on the fare anomaly re. Lancaster or Preston to Euston return tickets. The longer journey costs less but it's considered fraud to board the train at Preston if you have a ticket from Lancaster. A Virgin passenger was detained by police until CCTV footage showed that in fact he'd boarded at Lancaster.
How this complies with consumer law which is supposed to ban unreasonable terms and conditions, I've no idea. It's hardly reasonable to charge a positive amount of money to travel a negative distance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF-U9nL9Ios
That's actually the sort of thing one imagines their cabin crew being trained to do. Maybe the senior management at the big US airlines should spend some time travelling with the likes of Etihad and Singapore, it might show them what customer service looks like.
Good afternoon, everyone.
So, in short, never again, even at $5000 (of non-cash).
Perhaps that is one of the fixes, make the offer a real cash-in-hand offer, not these ridiculous vouchers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjRBuWlNLF8
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/#/politics?loginStatus=SUCCESS&ott=XRJ30L03d2BL83QM0KSQU155vscwk66/KfbLDi333C2WZRMjrWAoEz9AkZlzFmPW
I've taken half my profits on him from betting when he was 30+...
I don't think its as simple as Corbyn -> Pasting, AN Other -> NOM. I think AN Other has a big chance of getting hammered too.
Is it a Ratner moment? Or will it all be forgotten?
There was, I said, and thus began the Dom Perignon phase of the flight.
People are rightly offended, and but for the grace of God ...
It turns out that this flight was only five hours to drive the distance, which makes it even more moronic. They could have put the travelling crew in a limo or chartered a small plane for them for a few hundred dollars.
Https://twitter.com/undefined/status/851824021394132992
But on the specifics the law is the law. It doesn't matter if it is £80 or £80,000, he should have been prosecuted for it.
Culture provides context for decision-making where there are no other instructions or guidelines. The fact that the management staff thought it ok to kick off unwilling passengers rather than hire small aircraft to transport the staff, and the fact that none of the aircrew, including the captain, did not see fit to intervene with this physical assault on an otherwise compliant customer, tells you that the culture encourages decision-making that ignores customer service.
That is a big ship to turn around. United's stock will fall a long way before there is any evidence that they are capable of doing so.
If every human who'd ever made a mistake was prosecuted the CPS would have a never ending backlog and make an even bigger mockery of the law.
My smiley fu has deserted me.
I was in my seat on Air France HK => Paris and for the only time ever, the most beautiful girl came and sat down next to me.
I don't know what I thought but they were all good thoughts.
Just as the plane began to taxi away from the stand, she turned to me and said: I want to get off this flight, I am terrified, I need to get off.
We called the air stewardesses and they didn't have whatever tranquilisers they usually have for this kind of (quite common, apparently) thing. So I chatted to her intensely, discussing this and that, and, talking through her fears and why and how. And when the flight was in the air we called the stewardess over and said: champagne. And we drank it all night and drank so much they eventually ran out.
And when we landed she was super-grateful and I gave her my number thinking this is it, this never happens to me meeting such a beautiful girl, lucky me, and I never heard from her again.
The Tories reportedly 'accidentally' overspent by £200,000.
That's some overachievement if true.
It will need a complete clearout from the top down and some serious customer service focussed people brought in. It's a big ship to turn around, these things take years to learn to do properly at such a large company. In the meantime they're screwed, comedians are taking aim and boycotts being organised. This one's not going to go away any time soon.
Le Pen 24 (nc)
Macron 23 (nc)
Fillon 19 (+0.5)
Melenchon 18.5 (+0.5)
http://dataviz.ifop.com:8080/IFOP_ROLLING/IFOP_11-04-2017.pdf
Did no-one in the company read that before it was uploaded? Idiots.
Later, she came looking for me, thanked me, and handed me two bottles of Echezeaux from First Class.
It's almost as if they were looking to maximise the adverse publicity.
Edit: In fact, in this case the expense was perfectly valid.
If you read the article, you will see why he was not prosecuted.
She ended up getting substantial compensation, of course.
Mr. Tyndall, too much Buffy? Surely not.
But obviously follow your own instincts, personally I'm convinced the Tories will do significantly less well, with or without boundary changes, especially with major Brexit difficulties ahead , even if not of their making, and for that reason I'm building a large NOM position for as long as the odds remain at 3.0+.
I don't believe you would be prosecuted if there was a single simple omission where everything else was above board. The CPS and the courts are not that extreme.
I'd make it more like 1000/1.
She'd have to become an MP first.
Come to think of it that means huge sense of relief = yes, honeymoon period = not really.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/11/monks-could-lose-charitable-status-production-dangerous-wine/
The main reason why May might stay PM is for the same reason she got elected the lack of an alternative leader but Tories have 3 years to find somebody with charisma and fresh ideas
Now for the odds on UA entering Chapter 11?
There was also the time on an internal flight in China on the day Indira Gandhi was assassinated. An elderly American had a heart attack. There was a nurse on the plane, who said she thought he would be ok until landing if she could just give him some oxygen. They said they had no oxygen available. We were on an airbus at 30,000 ft. He died. They wrapped him in a blanket and stuck him on a shelf next to the toilets. With his head sticking out, to the shock of people wanting to use the loo who weren't aware of what had gone on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_0rf3HYjTA