Would you pay for food in economy class? USAirways may be considering whether to price tickets with and without food service differently. The article cites the example of Canadian low-fare carrier Tango. I remember People Express. If customers are paying marginal dollars, the food will likely be better or it will go unsold. I like the idea! Meanwhile, the New York Times food section says that airline food is getting better.
According to a piece in
According to a piece in yesterday’s Washington Post James Wilding, head of the Washington Airports Authority, grapples with a powerful but frustrating new tenant at his airports: the Transportation Security Administration. He said he lost patience as months passed and the TSA couldn’t answer any of his questions about how airlines at Dulles and National would be able to screen all luggage by the Dec. 31 deadline set by Congress. “They’d just say, ‘We don’t have anything to say to you yet,’ ” Wilding said. “They said, ‘We’re going to rely on these contractors to do it,’ and we said, ‘When are they going to show up? Have you all looked at a calendar lately?’ ” By June, 10 months after the attacks, Wilding still hadn’t had a “substantive conversation” with anyone from the TSA…
Reporters smuggle knives
Reporters smuggle knives onto 14 airline flights during Labor Day weekend. So the one thing the current security model seeks to do — detect weapons — is failing badly. When will Mineta stand up? (Link via Instapundit.)
New Possibility for American Express
New Possibility for American Express Membership Rewards Points. The analysis in my post about laundering points through Amtrak means that you can finally transfer American Express Membership Rewards points 1:1 into united miles. Amex MR points transfer 1:1 into Continental. Continental transfers 1:1 into Amtrak (in blocks of 5,000). Amtrak transfers 1:1 into united. Voila! Amex MR–>united… a previously impossible task.
Mineta Spin-Cycle. Get the Media
Mineta Spin-Cycle. Get the Media to Blame Magaw. The Washington Post carries a front page piece on the problems at the Transportation Security Administration. The piece reports that the TSA avoided involvement in the July 4 shooting at LAX, hasn’t improved the security of cargo shipping, and uses outdated methods for selecting passengers to screen. The piece lets Norm Mineta, the Transportation Secretary, off the hook. It quotes him offering a mea culpa: “We got to the point where we didn’t have credibility. . . . We were not moving the ball down the field.” Then says that Mineta has been trying to solve the problem — after all, John Magaw (Mineta’s deputy in charge of the TSA) was pushed out. That’s scapegoating of the first degree. The thesis about what went wrong focuses on…
Happy Fun Pundit
Happy Fun Pundit has a take on Mineta that’s even more subversive than mine.
Sexually Suggestive Lines
Sexually Suggestive Lines from the Star Wars Trilogy.
500 bonus miles for Priority
500 bonus miles for Priority Club transfers to American. Between now and October 15th, transfer 10,000 points to American miles and receive 3,000 miles instead of the usual 2,500.
This San Francisco
This San Francisco Chronicle article describes the general trend of cutbacks by the major airlines that I’ve been talking about for the last several days.
This morning’s Washington Post carries
This morning’s Washington Post carries a column by Jackson Diehl that details the $25 million that the US Agency for International Development is giving to Egypt this year for democracy promotion. The U.S. has given Egypt the right to review and veto any of the projects. The US is funding “democracy” projects that a non-democratic government approves of. Most of the funds are going to the country’s courts which “used to throw democracy advocates in prison.” Moreover, “not a dollar is going to the independent Egyptian groups that, at great risk, are trying to advocate democratic reforms for Mubarak’s rotting autocracy.” It’s not only that the huge AID bureaucracy in Cairo chooses to ignore the fact that the courts it is funding in the name of democracy are being used to destroy Egypt’s most important…
