News and notes from around the interweb:
- Miracle flights are real. Passengers request wheelchair assistance in the airport for the priority through security, early boarding, but when the flight is over they’ve been touched by an angel! No more assistance needed.
The problem is that requesting a wheelchair when you don’t actually need it denies one to someone that does.. or at a minimum makes them wait.
Another flight on @SouthwestAir, and I’m happy to report being witness to more miracles. These poor souls came seeking a flight, and instead were healed. 🙌🏻🙌🏻
Always grateful for witnessing the miraculous healing power of flight. pic.twitter.com/7TCYn2T6BB
— Dave Ruminates (@dave_ruminates) April 5, 2023
- 20% off Virgin Atlantic economy awards between London Heathrow and LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Tel Aviv and Johannesburg. Book by April 27 for travel through May 31.
- At Philadelphia Airport, “checked 36 power ports and have only found two of them completely working” They call it Filthadelphia. Yet somehow the OTG iPads that sell you food seem to work.
- In 2017 American Airlines told me they were developing a program to test and repair non-working seat power outlets. They even had a special tool for the job. That program did not roll out, however, due to cost.
hello @AmericanAir the least you can do is have functioning outlets so we can charge our phones when you DONT have any TVs on this plane. Your flight attendants don’t know how to get the outlets to work. Why do we pay all this money again for your flights?! I’m on flight AA1530 pic.twitter.com/LwHFSdueBl
— Priyanka Naik | chefPriyanka 🌶️ (@chefPriyanka) April 5, 2023
- There’s surely better wordplay possible at Sioux City, Iowa; Pensacola, Florida; Fresno, California; Kochi, India; and Fukuoka, Japan.
What’s better? The “Have an LAX-ceptional day!” PA announcements at LAX, or this? pic.twitter.com/K7gcFIVk3V
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) April 6, 2023
- American AAdvantage status members earn Avis Preferred Plus status after 60,000 Loyalty Points and Avis Presidents Club status at 100,000 Loyalty Points. Well, Alaska Airlines MVP members earn Preferred Plus too, it seems, and 100K members receive Presidents Club. So it’s sort of a U.S. domestic oneworld thing. Remember when Hertz was joining SkyTeam?
@Ron Mexico:
> The number of people with so-called “invisible disabilities” that *require a wheelchair* but *don’t actually require a wheelchair at any time other than when it gets them on a plane quicker* is near-zero.
You have no idea of whether they require a wheelchair at other times. If my mother-in-law didn’t require a wheelchair at other times why is there still a wheelchair at our house?? She was one of those people whose limit was somewhere between gate to car and car to gate. The latter is considerably harder because it is time-limited and it involves standing in the security line (and perhaps the immigration line as well.) She also needed someone for balance while walking and that wasn’t allowed in the metal detectors–she would have needed a wheelchair even if the distance posed no problem for her.
I used to cackle (like “Carmella” Harris) when I worked in reservations for an airline. “I wanna go from “LaGwahdea to “Fuort Leuwaderdale”. I need a wheelchaiah when I get to a “LaGwahdea” but I don’t need one when I get to “Fuort Leuwaderdale”. Coming back, I don’t need a “wheelchaiah” in “Fuort Leuwaderdale” but I do need one when I get to “LaGwahdea” What I wanted to say was, “So ma’am (when you could say that and NOT get in trouble!) are you telling me you get healed on the way down and sick on the way back? “And I need a special meal.” What I wanted to say was, “Well ma’am, we don’t have meals on that flight but if you want to get liquored up….” But I didn’t! I was in “Fuort Leuwaderdale” on business and waiting on my flight back home. There was this older woman who was in a wheelchair being pushed by a porter. “I need to buy a book.” He’d push her to the bookstore. She tipped him $5. “I need to buy a soda.” He pushed her to get a drink”. She tipped him another $5. Hell, he’d push her all the way to “LaGwahdea” for $5 a pop. Some wheelchair passengers are just like those with fake support animals. They think they’re above others or entitled. That gawd the airlines have cracked down on carrying “support pigs” or “support peacocks”, etc.
I think one Southwest flight a year should be a benefit of all insurance plans as I too have witnessed this phenomenon. As a physician I realize that getting wheelchair bound people to walk after a Southwest flight is truly a miracle. But first we need some well controlled randomized blind trials before getting FDA approval.
It says there are 53 comments, but I only see 3.
Re: wheelchairs. My mom is 76 & has bad knees. She can walk, but she can’t walk all the way from checkin at IAD to the gates easily or In a timely or efficient or painless manner. So, I get her a wheelchair assist every time she flies.
Yes – she can walk down the jet bridge and she can board a plane – but when she’s traveling solo, which she often does these days, it’s better for her body to have the assistance – especially with luggage (even though it’s usually a small carryon as she usually checks).
I don’t think there’s that many people who aren’t getting services that need them.
Just my 2 cents…older people do need assistance. Especially when traveling solo. Pain & disability isn’t constant and isn’t always visible.
@Win Whitmire:
> “I wanna go from “LaGwahdea to “Fuort Leuwaderdale”. I need a wheelchaiah when I get to a “LaGwahdea” but I don’t need one when I get to “Fuort Leuwaderdale”. Coming back, I don’t need a “wheelchaiah” in “Fuort Leuwaderdale” but I do need one when I get to “LaGwahdea” What I wanted to say was, “So ma’am (when you could say that and NOT get in trouble!) are you telling me you get healed on the way down and sick on the way back?
I would interpret this as they consider the walk in Fort Lauderdale doable but not the one in LaGuardia. I’ve never so much as been in Florida so I have no idea what the Lauderdale airport it like, perhaps it’s not as far to go? What you’re missing is that there are many people who can walk some but not unlimited distances.
@Samir Bhatnagar
> It says there are 53 comments, but I only see 3.
They’re organized into pages of 50 comments each, but I see no way to get to anything other than the last page.