A Portland screener is accused of stealing $1300 from a passenger. There may even be a videotape. The incident was reported, and the money was found in a nearby trash can. The TSA dismisses it… “We believe that we have 55,000 of America’s finest working on the front lines of terrorism at the airports. Obviously we hire from the human race. We are a small microcosm of society, and people steal things from society. Are we going to be able to eliminate this 100 percent? Your guess is as good as mine,” Nico Melendez of the TSA said. And meanwhile… While the TSA is protecting our money.. from ourselves… the higher ups are using every bureaucratic maneuver possible to delay the arming of pilots. There’s no secret that the TSA objects to the congressional mandate.…
Shiney Happy People, Shiney Happy Toilets
David Rowell‘s weekly newsletter alerts me to the story that Singapore has launched a Happy Toilet initiative Singapore’s public toilets will be judged this month on cleanliness, design, construction and daily maintenance criteria, including the supply of toilet paper. Association president Jack Sim told The Straits Times there are three grades for loos – three, four and five stars. Singapore is the first in the world to adopt this system, the report said. Washrooms that are clean and well-designed, with facilities for handicapped users and clothing hooks, will be allowed to put up the “Happy Toilet” logo, he said. The National Environment Agency last month cleaned up 29,000 public toilets in Singapore as part of the effort to contain the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). It’s already illegal in Singapore to fail…
It’s about time
What’s unfortunate is that something like this should be ordinary — a non-event — rather than news: Hundreds of LAX screeners fired for poor performance The workers were let go for poor performance and failure to show up for work, the newspaper reported. The Daily Breeze, citing an airport worker who attended a recent briefing held by a Transportation Security Administration supervisor, also said 100 more workers will soon be fired.
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Arkansas Airport Petitions to Permit Non-travelers Past the Security Checkpoint
Refusing to allow family and friends to escort passengers to the gate and pick them up from their arriving gate is just one more barrier to millions of infrequent travelers from getting back on planes. And airside vendors are suffering from the reduced traffic. One airport is seeking to change that. “The way we see it, as long as they are screened, they pose no threat,” [Airport Manager Kelly] Johnson said.
Liar Liar Pants on Fire
Low fare (and profitable!) carrier JetBlue has developed Long Beach into it’s major West Coast facility. At town council meetings, though, there are constant complaints about noise and airport expansion. Long Beach residents are against JetBlue’s expansion. Or are they? JetBlue didn’t really believe the opposition was as widespread as vocal residents claimed. So they commissioned a study and most locals kind of like a convenient lowfare carrier building up flights. The results: Eighty-three percent of 900 registered voters surveyed agreed that Long Beach Airport is a “valuable asset’ because it stimulates the economy, enhances tourism, creates jobs and provides convenient transportation for residents and visitors. The survey showed 12 percent thought the airport should be closed because it creates traffic, increases the number of people coming into the city and degrades air quality. Another…
20,000 BA miles richer
Jaguar test drive miles posted overnight!
United Free Ticket Promotion
Register and fly 3 United roundtrips by September 30th (coach tickets can’t include a Saturday night stay) and earn a free roundtrip ticket. Up to 2 tickets can be earned this way.Naturally, the free ticket will not earn miles. Unfortunately, the free ticket cannot be upgraded. The ticket is good for the lower 48 states only.
Hidden Cities, Hidden Headlines
News of the Supreme Court’s decision to permit a class action lawsuit to go forward against Delta and Northwest is being overblown. Headlines like “Delta, Northwest lose appeal” make it sound as though the court was inclined to agree with the plaintiffs on the merits. The Supreme Court has simply refused to intervene — and the Supreme Court rarely intervenes — to stop the suit which alleges that barriers to “hidden city ticketing” are illegal. (Hidden City Ticketing refers to when a passenger books an itinerary that takes them farther than their final destination but doesn’t take the last leg of their journey in order to receive a lower fare.) If the case reaches a jury, public anger against the airlines will be on the side of the plaintiffs. But the most likely outcome is…
United’s Not-so-great Offer
The United Great Offer (offering bonus status miles for faxing competitors’ frequent flyer statements and flying marginal segments at fares other than the lowest) makes the news. What the story doesn’t cover is all of the confusion that the offer has wrought. It’s still unclear whether only marginal flight segments have to be at higher fares, or the initial flight segments that match previous flight history also. Noone at United seems to really know, and customer service continues to provide conflicting answers.
