Oops!

Sometimes it just doesn't come out right: "Mary's House of Hope was designed exclusively for pregnant women or
women with newborns by architect Tom O' Neil...."

Wonder how many children architect Tom O'Neil has??

Swinging

A well-placed duck

I think you get it.

"I support wasteful spending..."

So it goes like this....

I get a letter from the republican national committee (RNC). It says I'm a special guy and they want my opinion on issues that matter to me. It's a loaded survey, and the real point is trying to get people to give money and join the RNC (you get to answer a special question about who you support for president if you give money).

At the bottom, where it lists various levels of support, there's an additional check box: "No, I can't contribute right now, but I'm including $11 to cover costs to process this survey." WHAT???

It costs $11 to type a person's response into a database? And that takes what, 5 minutes? So some dude is getting paid $121/hr for sitting at a computer??

I had half a mind to send the survey back, not filled out, with a little note: "Instead of contributing to the RNC, I decided not to complete this survey and in fact save you $11. You're welcome."
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Nickname

I think only two people in the world (my brother and JC in KC) will appreciate my logic, but here goes.

While playing basketball this morning with my mad skills, I blocked a number of passes while on defense. I thought to myself- I'm like a "white Gary Payton" so that would make me the "white glove." and who wore a white glove? None other than michael Jackson.

So next time you're on the floor with me, watch out for michael Jackson, cuz I'm gonna be your nemesis.

(told you you wouldn't understand!)
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Open Letter to AirTran

On my return flight from MEM-IAD with a connection in ATL, the first leg was flight 532 out of MEM at 6:00am on 03/05/07. Due to mechanical problems, we were 60-65 minutes late departing. We touched down in ATL at 9:03am. My connecting flight (Flight 78) departed at 9:20am. However, after deplaning and presenting myself at the departing gate, where the plane was still at the gate, I was not able to board. In fact, 4 other customers were also coming from MEM to IAD, and none of us were able to board.

The gate agent and customer service agents stated there was nothing they could do, as the flight had closed. Whether this was the case or not, I have a number of complaints about the situation.

1) There was no mechanic on site in MEM, and it took about 45 minutes for one to show up. The issue only took 5-10 minutes to resolve. I believe AirTran should have a better system in place for mechanical problems that arise in the early morning hours. This is especially critical as many business travelers need to make connections and choose to travel early in the morning.

2) AirTran was well aware that our flight was late departing and late arriving. I understand the intent of not holding connecting flights when there are additional flights that day. However, we landed 17 minutes before my connecting flight departed. My connecting plane was still at the gate when I arrived at the gate. AND, the next flight out was not for 4 more hours. I was at the gate about 5 minutes after the flight closed (which was 5 minutes BEFORE the departure time) and was forced to wait 4 hours. That is not acceptable.

In today's airline mentality, airline executives believe that "on-time departures" is what matters to passengers. Unfortunately, that is not really what passengers care about. We care about "on-time arrivals." AirTran has a policy of closing a flight 10 minutes before departure. Relaxing that policy to assist 5 late connectors - who were present BEFORE the flight's departure time - would not have adversely affected the "on-time arrival" of the connecting flight. In fact, often times a few minutes can easily be made up in air travel time or taxi time. Instead, this policy made 5 customers very upset at AirTran and will cause us to second-guess flying your airline again.

3) While walking through the concourse, I overheard a customer service agent mocking other passengers who had a similar situation as me and had asked for a free-flight voucher. The agent in essence rolled her eyes and stated that these people were nuts. I didn't approach her, but I think it is unprofessional for a customer service agent, especially in public, to speak negatively about a passenger or passenger's complaints. I, too, felt that I should receive some sort of compensation for my time and inconvenience, as I was at the gate for my connecting flight before the plane pushed back. I did not make that request, though.

One final point - business travelers have a reason for traveling. We aren't just casually trying to make it home. We have places to be, jobs to perform. A mere 5 minutes late (which was actually 5 minutes early!) caused me to be 4 hours late for work and miss a critical meeting. A situation like this doesn't impact an airline - it's part of your routine. But an impact like this can make a world of difference to someone on business. I don't get paid for the hours I don't work, so I am forced to use vacation time or other means to cover the time missed off of work. All because AirTran could not hold a flight 5 minutes for connecting passengers.

I sincerely thank you for reading this far  and hope that you will seriously consider your hard-set policy of closing a flight 10 minutes before departure, especially for a connecting flight which has landed and is deplaning.

Sincerely,
Danny Davis
A+ Member: **********

Update

It's been non-stop the last couple of weeks. First, it's budget time at work, so I'm at meetings 2-3 times per week until 9 or 10 or 11 at night. That kinda hampers one's desire/ability to blog.

We all had a great time at Angela's brother's wedding. My return home was a "deja vu" of my trip there (see post below). I thought about blogging about it, but it was just going to make me more frustrated. Maybe I'll post my letter to AirTran.

Virginia has again proven to be the leader in wacky weather during spring:
Wednesday: High - 75
Thursday: High - 72
Friday: SNOW and sleet!! Yeah, snow. 2 inches. And it was 32 for a high. 40 degree difference in one day, and snow on the ground. Yikes!

Finally, a picture of Amelia's first time in a swing at a park. She apparently LOVED it!

Always an adventure

I somehow always end up with great flying stories. So here it begins (I'm writing this on my blackberry at 20,000+ feet.)

I was scheduled to leave Dulles at 8:30pm, arrive in Atlanta at 10:30pm, and leave for Memphis at 11pm. During the day, I checked the flights, only to find that my 8:30 departure had already been pushed back to 9:30. However, the prior flight was also delayed, and scheduled to leave at 8pm.

I called up airtran and had them rebook me for the earlier flight. I decided to arrive early, which was good, because the plane left about 7:30pm. At the exact time we took off, though, a line of thunderstorms was making its way to Atlanta and up the east coast. The entire flight was very turbulent.

Coming in to atlanta, we were getting beat around, and the pilot had to plow the plane into the runway so as not to get blown off. Pretty nuts-o. Oh, and the normally hour and a half flight ended up as two and a half. I saw a picture of the radar after we had landed, and it looks like we landed right as the worst of it hit Atlanta. Great timing.

But the fun had just begun. I walk into the terminal to find that my flight to Memphis wasn't scheduled to leave until 12:30am (it was 10:15pm at the time). I called up my dad (who used to work for delta) and had him check out the remaining delta flights to Memphis. Sure enough, there was one flight left.

So, I headed to the next concourse over and asked the gate agent to help me out. He couldn't at first, thinking there weren't any extra seats. But, after waiting a bit, he hooked me up and I got on the delta flight (we backed out of the gate at 11:30pm). It took us 35 minutes to get off the ground, due to heavy traffic, so I can only imagine how late the airtran flight will be leaving.

I'm still in the air, so who knows when I'll get to Memphis, much less millington. But the good news is, I'm on my way. And the moral of the story is: it doesn't hurt to ask. For all I know, I may have never even left Washington if I hadn't rebooked that first flight....
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry