Yep American Airlines Still Suck part 2

On top of the trend started by American Airlines of charging customers for their luggage, and then increasing the cost of said fees.(AA.com) If you where in the group of consumers who purchased their airline tickets before August 14, 2009 then you will be required to pay $15 for the first bag and $25 per subsequent bag. Its not enough these fees are a bullshit charge passed on to the consumer by a crappilly run airline. If your tickets where purchased between August 14, 2009 - January 31, 2010 then you will be required to pay $20 for the first bag and $30 per subsequent bag, but wait!!!! There is more, in preparation for their travel season they have raised their prices again on checked baggage for tickets purchased on or after February 1, 2010 you will be required to pay $25 for the first bag and $35 per subsequent bag. At these pace, you might as well not travel with baggage. Just take your $50 that would be used for the bags to buy shit when you get to your city of choice.

Its no secret that I think American Airline sucks
1. It was in 2001 they said this and in the present that company is still unprofitable spending Tax payer money. American Airlines; the benefit of years of socialized loses. How do they get off charging luggage fees? (TTM.blogspot 10/14/2008)

2.AA Company of the year (TTM.blogspot 4/11/2008)

3.AA blocks the NY consumer Bill of rights (TTM.blogspot 12/19/2007)

4.American Airlines Still Suck (TTM.blogspot 4/10/2008)

NPR reports on February 10, 2010 that the FAA is going to hit American Airlines with a record penalty that can be as much as 20 million, for the defective wiring on their entire fleet that was shut down a year in a half ago. Over safety concerns that this wiring could lead to fires, and of course AA didn't find anything wrong. In fact they had the nerve to say that the passengers where not in any direct danger. My knowledge of vehicles is limited at best, but i don't think a fire should be a risk when 1000's of feet above the surface. With an underpaid pilot flying this vehicle that can just have a random fire, I don't think commercial airlines have a parachute provided. It would simply meant that the passengers would have been fucked if a fire broke out.

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal said that "the proposed American penalty, government and industry officials said, is likely to top $10 million, and could be as much as $20 million, unless the agency changes course." (NPR 2/10/2010)

Congrats American Airlines for your suckatude. To bad these fines will not truly penalize the airline or protect/compensate the costumers who flew in inadequate jets. Expect by the end of the summer fees being 35 for the first bag and 50 for every other bag. How does this really punish the airline? I could see it as a punishment if the airline had to reimburse their customers who flew on these defective jets in their fleet. To pay some government bureaucracy that doesn't always do a great job in oversight of the industry. At the very least it can be agreed on, that the FAA hasn't done anything to protect consumer rights in the last 3 years. it is obvious why government regulations need to exists, but I can also see why people want to get rid of regulatory agencies.

Unions, Corporations, Government, Government, Government

Last time someone said "Uncle Sam may have more say in (Private Buisness) operations."[Buisness Week]
It was in 2001 they said this and in the present that company is still unprofitable spending Tax payer money. American Airlines; the benefit of years of socialized loses. How do they get off charging luggage fees?

GM to close stamping plant near Grand Rapids[AP, CapeCodTimes.com]
Auto Unions don't mean anything if this is really happening. Didn't they just sign a new labor agreement in 2007?

GM Timeline

2005 - GM pays $2 billion to Fiat to cancel "put" option under its deal and buy its way out of the alliance.
2007 - GM signs a landmark four-year agreement with the UAW, which includes shifting of GM's retiree health care liabilities to an independent trust.
June 2008 - GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner announces GM is reviewing Hummer and considering all options, including selling the brand.
July 2008 - GM announces plans to cut costs by $10 billion and raise $5 billion through borrowing and asset sales.
October 2008 - GM holds talks with Chrysler about a deal to combine the two American automakers, according to sources familiar with the situation. GM declines to comment.

AA company of the year

American Airlines canceled more flights today,

"American Airlines canceled nearly 600 more flights across the U.S. today as part of its MD-80 jet fleet remains grounded for maintenance checks."(LA Times)

and tomorrow

"American Airlines says it has canceled about 200 MD-80 flights scheduled for Saturday and plans to resume a full, normal schedule on Sunday... At least 250,000 passengers have been affected by the American cancellations this week."(MSNBC)

Normally when you piss off 250,000 customers you care enough to apologize instead of blaming the FAA for finally monitoring airlines.

-Maybe Daniel Gross can tell us when Airlines will become customer oriented again.(NEWSWEEK)

I am sure it excited potential travelers to hear American Airlines decided to match United Airlines rate hike.

"The nation's major airlines have matched a fare increase of up to $30 per round trip that was started by United Airlines. American Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, matched the fare hike on Friday afternoon, which may have removed the last obstacle to making the increase stick.Airlines say they need to raise fares to cover jet fuel costs. The price of fuel tracks the price of oil, which hit a record Wednesday before declining Thursday and Friday."(MSNBC)

Yes American Airlines Still Sucks

American Airlines inconveniencing customers, nooooooooooooo.
American Airlines has done it again, done what you ask what else. Stranded customers in places around the country, and blamed it on someone else than themselves.

"AMR Corp.'s American Airlines will scrub 900 more flights today, adding to 1,550 already canceled this week, as it continues another round of inspections and groundings that stranded 171,000 passengers.

American said it had ``no choice'' in parking almost half its fleet of Boeing Co. MD-80 jets, after the planes again failed to meet a U.S. safety order. The move came in response to spot checks by the Federal Aviation Administration that found the world's largest carrier" (Bloomberg, April 10)

171,000 passengers and all they can say is, we had NO CHOICE. So it is the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA's fault for finally trying to protect the consumers from a potentially dangerous situation.

"Falling short of FAA requirement for the earlier wiring adjustments meant that American didn't have the option of parking some jets on a rolling basis while flying others, Chief Executive Officer Gerard Arpey said. Fort Worth, Texas-based American checked all the MD-80s in March in response to the FAA order, resulting in groundings and hundreds of scrapped flights.

``A very high percentage'' of American's 300-plane MD-80 fleet wasn't in compliance as the jets were rechecked"(Bloomberg, April 10)

So if it was up to American Airlines, they would have continued flights without wiring adjustments that are deemed necessary for safety. It's not our fault consumers, you cant have it both ways. "You can either be delayed and receive horrible service on in compliant planes, or we can fix them and you will be delayed and never have to receive our horrible service" Ill take the never flying on American Airlines, and not worrying about their service. Maybe they will go the way of ATA.

I have a valid idea instead of crying about not having a choice to inconvenience customers, how about you do regular maintenance on your planes. You shouldn't need the governing body to remind you by grounding your fleet, to maintain the planes. The amount of money the federal government has given AA seems to make them feel invincible as a company, since they know they can't go out of business. The government wont let AA file bankruptcy again to forgo paying for the millions in loans they owe to the government. Shouldn't the fact our tax money continues to support this airline make their rules and compliance more stringent? Shouldn't all citizens get discount tickets since they all technically paid for part of the company?



You can use your cell phones on planes.... In the Europe

"European regulators have dropped the ban on in-flight cellphone calls, but passengers' ability to chat will depend on which airline they fly. European Union regulators on Monday loosened the rules on cellphone service, a satellite-based technology that can be turned on by a captain at about 10,000 feet. It also can be turned off at any time. The ban remains in place in the United States, so U.S. airlines aren't affected. Air France last week became the first international airline to offer mobile service as part of a six-month test to gauge customer response. Other carriers, however, are shying away from the feature, saying that passengers don't want chatter and ring tones invading their space."(USA TODAY, April 10)

Sounds like some cool technology, I just didn't think about the negatives. That would be horrible on a cross country flight, if this technology was available for use in the United States. They amount of conversations you would have no choice but to listen to, unless you had some good earplugs. That's is a bad dream, that you would be paying for. But honestly I think it would be cool at least once to call someone from 20,000 feet up, to say I almost home.

FAA Blowwing hot air

Another day, another government organization with egg on its face
The grounding of the part of the Southwest Airline fleet on March 12 for maintenance, would have been huge news any other year than this current one. With the snailing economy, two wars, Elliot Spitzer's resignation, Democratic party in fighting, the collapse of investment banking, & the rising price of gas it is easy to understand how this was forgotten so quickly.
The recent decision by American Airlines, and Delta Airlines to ground part of their fleet for overdue maintenance. Has brought air travel concerns and the FAA consistent failure to protect the American Consumer to the forefront. The FAA lassie z Faire attitude was made apparent last week, when the New York Passenger Bill of Rights was deemed illegal by the federal courts.

"NEW YORK - A federal appeals court Tuesday (March 25, 2008) struck down a state law
requiring airlines to give food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to
passengers stuck in delayed planes, saying the measure was well-intentioned but
stepped on federal authority...The law was passed after thousands of passengers
were stranded aboard airplanes for up to 10 hours on several JetBlue Airways
flights at Kennedy International Airport on Valentine’s Day last year. They
complained they were deprived of food and water and that toilets overflowed. A
month later, hundreds more passengers of other airlines were stranded aboard
planes at JFK after a daylong ice storm" (MSNBC.com)

As an American I expect the government organizations that the people give authority via congressional representation, to have the citizens best interest in mind. Everyone identifies that airlines respect for their paying customers has gone down in recent years, to the point that they can care less about their comfort. Why was it necessary for the NY legislator to pass a bill of rights, where was the FAA during this time. Do they not think passengers stranded deserve clean bathrooms, water, and food. The ticket prices should easily cover these cost, but the FAA couldn't care less about you and me.

A government audit of the FAA released in February found that:
U.S. aviation regulators have ``weaknesses'' throughout their system for overseeing quality control at aircraft manufacturers and suppliers, a federal inspector reported.

"Government auditors found ``widespread discrepancies'' at 20 of 21 suppliers, including miscalibrated tools, incomplete product testing and inadequate vendor supervision, a U.S. Transportation Department inspector general's report said today...The FAA doesn't ensure manufacturers regularly audit suppliers or routinely examine those audits, and it doesn't do enough of its own examinations of vendors, according to the report released in Washington...The FAA requires a maximum of four supplier audits, regardless of the manufacturer's size, the report found. FAA inspectors scheduled four supplier audits for a maker of crop- duster planes for two straight years and didn't perform any one year for suppliers of a major airline engine manufacturer."(Bloomberg.com, Feburary 29, 2008)

The FAA found about about the missed inspections by southwest airlines by a whistleblower inside the organization.

The whistleblowers said the FAA's chief inspector for Southwest allowed the airline to delay the repairs because of a "cozy relationship" with a former inspector hired by the company. One whistleblower was removed from his position after an "anonymous complaint." The other whistleblower claimed other inspectors friendly with the airline spied on his work by preparing a report about his use of Southwest's maintenance database, called Imagio. He says the other inspectors improperly shared the information with airline executives. "I asked myself why and who would they be discussing this with at SWA and for what purpose?" the inspector wrote. The FAA later removed two officials, including the chief inspector, after an internal investigation. (NBC Dallas/Fort worth)

The FAA has computers capable of handeling communications from all registered aircrafts at once, but fail to put in a system that could alert them of an overdue inspection? USA today had a similar report of lax oversight.

"FAA officials overseeing Southwest Airlines ignored safety violations, leaked sensitive data to the carrier and tried to intimidate two inspectors to head off investigations, according to previously undisclosed allegations by the inspectors."

Thank you FAA for worrying about the great people in this nation over your pocketbook. ASSHOLES!

Airlines and KGB

The airline industry is about the only industry outside of the petroleum industry that has free range to do what they want. The difference between the airline and petroleum industry, is one sells a service while the other sells a product. Though they are both subsidised by the people of this great county. After my second delay in DFW airport I was a little bit frustrated with the service. The attitude of the airline industry is that they are doing you, the customer a favor by letting you fly the unfriendly skys. Ignoring the fact the we the customers paid to fly and that our tax dollars continue to keep miss manged companies like United Airlines, Delta Airlines, and American Airlines in business. How do they thank their customers and citizens of the United States of America? They lower service expectations, increase delays and raise their prices and give their executives a 70 million dollars in bonuses while they ask their employees to take a total of 1.6 billion dollar in pay cuts.(USA Today 2006) It is no wonder why planes are always late and delayed, their employees are pissed off. When a person normally buys a service and a company fucks up, the customer gets some type of compensation.

Think delivery services, food, package, and taxis. If you order food there is a reasonable expectation that it will be delivered within an hour, or the company will discount your order, since it is there mistake. If a customer request next day delivery from UPS, FedEx, or DHL a customer expects it to be delivered within 24 hours. If it takes 2 days for it to be delivered they will discount the cost, because they fucked up. Taxis will take the long way to a destination and pass on the cost of their mischiefs to their customer. The same way the airlines do to their customers, congratulations American Airlines, you run your company like Yellow Cab Taxi Company. Its nice that the airline provides free drinks to their customers, as they charge them 3 dollars for a bag of Lays potato chips, 5 dollars for freeze dried fruit mix, and 5 dollars for beer. The beer is a good deal, it cost more at a ballpark. You can't even provide peanuts to anyone, I hate those things but it was the thought that counts. My ticket cost 100 dollars plus for each leg, of a trip. Owell necessary evil, can't live with them, hope they go out of business. Screw You American Airlines.



The Airline industry wanted to show people just how much they cared so the Airline Industry Seeks To Block NY's Passenger Bill Of Rights

"A federal judge is hearing arguments challenging New York's law requiring airlines to give passengers food, water, clean toilets and fresh air when they're delayed on planes for more than three hours...The Air Transport Association wants to stop the law from taking effect on Jan. 1, arguing that states aren't allowed to regulate airlines, which are overseen by the federal government." WNBC

Brilliant, lets argue that a state has no right to protect their citizens from the airline industry because of constitutionality.

Man uses his Obesity to retain custody of his adoptive child and get free surgery. Houston Chronicle

A man who gained national media attention by claiming he was not allowed to adopt a baby because of his weight was awarded temporary custody of the child, but the judge chided him and his wife, saying they knew the primary reason the boy had been removed from their home had nothing to do with obesity. Gary and Cindy Stocklaufer had violated adoption law when they failed to obtain some required paperwork when the baby was moved into Missouri from another state, Jackson County Circuit Judge John R. O'Malley said in his order, which he made public Tuesday. After their petition to adopt the baby, Max, was denied in July by another judge, the couple publicly said it had been because Gary Stocklaufer weighed 550 pounds at the time. The 35-year-old underwent gastric bypass surgery for free from a Dallas clinic in August after the publicity and has lost about 200 pounds. "He seeks to extort a favorable result by his
accusations," O'Malley said. "Fortunately, Missouri courts base decisions on the weight of the evidence, not the weight of the litigants."

All I can say is Kudos, not only did he get to keep his kid he got free surgery. The judges statement is classic though, way to get in that punch. He was huge 550 that is out of control.

Gravity switched off due to '"Essential maintenance work"newsbiscuit.com

Malaysia doesn't believe in human rights, but has DVD sniffing dogs thanks to the MPAA (A.P 2007)

Malaysia will get two new sniffer dogs to unearth pirated DVDs after the resounding success of their predecessors, Lucky and Flo, earlier this year, an official said Wednesday...During their six-month stint in Malaysia, Lucky and Flo helped find 1.6 million pirated DVDs and other optical discs and equipment, worth $6 million. The dogs were also deployed in the Philippines briefly before returning to the U.S.

Who is 55, and ex-KGB? The Times man of the year.

Ex-Hyundai CEO Elected President in S. Korea (A.P. 2007)

A former Hyundai CEO known as "The Bulldozer" for his determination to get things done rolled over all opposition and financial fraud allegations to win South Korea's presidency Wednesday, ending a decade of liberal rule...Lee Myung-bak pledged to work for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and strengthen Seoul's alliance with the United States...It was the biggest margin of victory in any South Korean presidential election. The candidate with the most votes wins and there are no run-offs. Turnout was a record low 63 percent of 37.7 million eligible voters...Just days before the election, parliament approved an independent counsel investigation into allegations that Lee manipulated stock. The investigation is to be completed before the Feb. 25 inauguration, and Lee has said he will step down if found at fault...Lee emphasized the economy in his campaign with a "747" pledge — promising to raise annual growth to 7 percent, double the country's per capita income to $40,000 and lift South Korea to among the world's top seven economies. He also proposed a "Grand Canal" linking Seoul to the southern port city of Busan that would improve transport and be a tourist attraction.