Letters to the Editor
J T
Published Letters: 298 Editor's Choice: 26
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What the Snickers ad was advocating
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Truely, I'm shocked at the Snickers commercial and how it shows the eroding values of this country. Not because it showed two men who appeared to be kissing, or being shocked about it later. No, it is the sense of entitlement that it displayed. That candy bar was clearly the possession of one of the men, who unwrapped it and began eating it. The other man obviously desired the candy bar and, without any permission, started eating the other man's possession. It was basic theft. What does it say about us that our commercials are showing someone so disrespectful as to just take things that do not belong to them? That is the true travesty of this commercial, not anything that happened afterward.
I'm still trying to decide how serious I want this post to be.
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Rulon not ready for a movie
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While I'm all for a movie based on the life of Rulon Gardner (with Beyoncé or otherwise), the main problem is the guy isn't dead yet. He's had so many eventful occurances since 2000, when more than Greco-Roman wrestling freaks first heard of Gardner, just imagine what'll happen if you give him a few more years.
I'm guessing that his mini-sub will break down while exploring the Mariana Trench, and he'll have to swim up to the surface while fighting giant squid and sharks the entire way. And through it all he'll loose his pinky finger.
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Legisation woes
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The proposed legisation might look like it'll fix the problem du jour, but likely in the end it'll just cause other problems. You just can't write enforcable legisation that says "treat your customers with respect." It doesn't work that way. You have to set up specifics (plane held x hours, offer passengers y compensation, airline given fine of z dollars). Sooner or later a situation will come along where those regulations cause more problems than they solve and then people will be screaming about that.
I don't know what the solution is, though some airlines seem to be able to win people over with their service. I've heard that Milwaukee, WI, is trying to fend off a takeover of hometown Midwest Airlines because they like the service so much and are worried what a new corporate boss will do to that service.
We don't have a lot of options other than air travel though. I currently live on the east coast where Amtrack is an almost reasonable alternative if you're going from the right place to the right place. If you're going between DC, New York City, or Boston you can pay extra for the Acela train that gets you to your destination about 20 minutes faster (it would be faster but track sharing with freight slows it down) in more luxury. Last summer I took Amtrak from DC to Chicago (I had the luxury of having time to take a more leisurely trip) and from what I've been told, the trains did really well getting me there and back again with only a delay of 2 or so hours each way. Regular Amtrack passengers I talked to on the way told me that they considered 1.5 hours late as "on time" for the train.
Maybe I would feel different if I've had worse experiences. On a trip on United Airlines from DCA to ORD, I've experienced a delay on the tarmac of DCA longer than the flight itself due to a ground stop in Chicago. Perhaps I was lucky to have gotten a good crew and a not quite full flight, but the flight crew handled the situation very well. They explained what was going on, let everyone know they could use those electronic devices, came around with some refreshments, and played a movie. There were regular updates from the cockpit on the situation, and in the end, I got where I was going.
It would be better if the government could concentrate on making our air traffic control better able to handle today's flight volumes and safer, and find a way to improve the airport experience while maintaining or improving security.
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Frequent Flyer miles inflation
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sharon Gadburry wrote about how United is increasing the amount of miles it takes to earn award tickets. She also notes how the arline tells her about all the ways she can "double up" on miles through partner programs. Strangely, these likely go hand in hand.
By offering more ways for customers to aquire the "frequent flyer miles currency" that's available to the people, they have essentially devauled the worth of the "miles" worth. As more and more people are aquiring enough miles there are still limited numbers of "award" seats available, as the airline does best when customers actually pay for seats. So what to do? Raise the amount of "miles" currency it takes to aquire the limited resource. You keep your best clients (those that regularly get that many miles) happy since they can continue to get award seats. It has the added bonus of
- Making you stick with the airline (and other airline partners) to earn enough miles to meet the new award levels.
- Driving you to their other partners (hotel, credit card, resturant, rental car, others) to try to earn more miles.
Either way, it works out well for the airline and their partners. And if you and others manage to start earning more miles, guess what happens! The amount goes up again.
As for legisation to deal with this, well, it's not real currency we're dealing with, just "award" currency. A program dreamed up by airlines to help keep customers choosing their airline over their competitors. And keep in mind that you agreed that they airline could change the award levels when you signed up for the miles program. It was somewhere in the program agreement, probably in 6 point type. Not the government's place.