long time no post

And tonight's is going to be kind of a lame-oh. But at least I'm trying.

Here are four interesting aviation stories that have come out in the past few days:

U.S. Acts to Ease Crunch at New York Airports (NY Times)

The gist: Flight cap during peak hours makes for less delays.

Gulf Remains Between US Airways Pilots (TheStreet.com)

The gist: After more than a year of integrating US Airways and America West Airlines, pilot seniority lists are still not integrated. Pilot unions are also separate.

Smoke in Cockpit Sends Plane Back to LA (AP/NY Times)

The gist: A faulty oven sent smoke into the cockpit, which caused the pilots to immediately declare an emergency and head for the shore.

Airline descends to a new low: a death fee (LA Times)

The gist: Daughters plan vacation in Hawaii with mom. Mom dies. Everyone else offers a hassle fee trip refund ... except for Hawaiian Airlines, who charge them a $75 cancellation fee, per ticket (3 of them). Luckily, American Express steps in and refunds the customers money (and likely demands their own refund from Hawaiian).

post deux

I swear I won't be starting every post with the sequential French language number in reference of the post. That is, I won't be after I run out of French numbers that I know.

So there's been quite a few news stories about airlines and aviation lately. There's always a myriad of topics to write about in this industry, but here's two fairly typical stories:

Aboard Planes, Class Conflict (New York Times)

Rumors, Merger Talk and Denial by Airlines (New York Times)

The NY Times is definitely my most favorite media outlet - and you'll find me referencing their articles often.

The first article is your typical discussion of the supposed "newfound" differences you'll find flying inside the cabin of a commercial airliner today. First class is glamorous, coach class is cattle class. Blah blah blah - there's been pretty huge cabin class differences in the past 60 years of airline history at least - if not longer. The only things you don't get in Coach now that you used to get is a meal - and in some cases, a pillow and blanket.

Boohoo - is a pillow and a blanket really going to matter that much? Maybe on a flight longer than 6 hours - but you're probably going to get one of each on a flight longer than that anyway.

The outcry over a lack of meals I can kind of understand ... but when I was growing up everyone used to complain about airline food anyway. So now you have to pay $5 for a cold sandwich (seriously, it's pretty hard to screw up a sandwich), cheese and sweet treat instead of getting some gross hot dish and vegetable that's already been around for 12 hours before it was reheated in a crammed galley oven? It doesn't make that much difference to me either way - frankly I'd rather buy my lunch/dinner in the terminal and have some options than eat canned airline food. But that's just me ...

So bottom line, people are making way too much out of this perceived class disparity ... don't be complaining about it when you paid $300 or less for a coach seat while they paid $900 for the same seat up front. They get a little bit more leg room, a little bit wider seat width, and for the most part free booze. Good for them - you can hang out crammed in coach sitting in a middle seat drinking a $5 can of beer and still have at least 595 more dollars in your pocket than that first class person did after both of you booked a ticket. And even if they upgraded using miles - that still means that passenger is likely flying thousands of miles every year crammed back in coach drinking $5 beer just like you - they just have to sit through it more often. Don't they deserve a little reward for their commitment to keeping your favorite airline solvent so you can book that cheap fair to wherever?

And for the second article - I'll get to that in a later post. Nip/Tuck's on again and I need to pay more attention to it than I did the last time it was on nine minutes ago. Solid second post...