Alaska Forgets Which Route They’re Launching and Has the Person Driving Your Train Also Been Driving the Porcelain Bus?

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Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I think I understand what you were trying for with the post title, but driving the porcelain bus, as I understand it, is slang for vomiting into the toilet, and not, in my opinion, an exact match for a drunk or drug-affected conductor. Sure, hungover folks puke. Impaired employees might exhibit (or more importantly, not exhibit) other symptoms apart from nausea.

  2. The Alaska Airlines mistake reminds me of the Southwest commercial where the band gets the city wrong. Wanna get away?

  3. Worked in the RR industry as conductor for 27+ years. Violation of Rule G ( alcohol or drug impairment) resulted in minimum 9 month suspension. Random drug testing one method used, as well as supervisor-level inspections of crews. Amtrak may be deficient in its diligence to confront this problem, hence one of the reasons it is known in the industry as slamtrak.

  4. Re Mr. Patel who is charged with smuggling foreigners into the USA:

    It is very difficult to understand how he got them aboard flights without visa, and how he got them past immigration at a US airport?

    Whatever the process was, it is reasonable if the authorities don’t want to release any details which might lead others into to copycat attempts.

  5. Gee, what could it be? Visa overstays? Sham marriages? Chain migration fraud? Identity theft? False travel documents? All of the above? Always amazed me that the US lacks even such basic security as a passport control line for exiting the country. But that wouldn’t serve the interests of the powers that be.

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