New US Airways Fees

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer has a story about new fees at US Airways, including a $2 cash charge on the plane if you want to consume a NON alcoholic drink.  This is just absurd.  I actually feel this is a public health risk, because some people will probably choose not to drink anything on the plane who would drink a non-alcoholic drink if one were made available for free.  Furthermore, ATM’s typically dispense $20 bills, and flight attendants are going to gripe about making $18 in change from a $20 bill over and over again over the course of a flight.

I would not be surprised if there is a news story later this summer about someone passing out on a US Air flight due to dehydration.  If this occurs, it has the potential to result in a significant amount of negative press coverage of the airline, which could lead to financial consequences.  The water in the bathroom doesn’t really count as a drinking option, in my opinion.

The airline can’t even afford 3 cent bags of peanuts.  What’s going to be next?  A policy that only food and drink purchased from flight attendants on board the aircraft may be consumed on the aircraft, similar to rules regarding food and drinks being brought into events at stadiums?

What gives this airline the right to fly and treat their customers so poorly?  Would our country be better off if US Airways went out of business?  Maybe, maybe not, who knows…

Cheapest Amtrak Ticket Ever

One of my earlier postings detailed a trip to Paoli, PA I took last year on Amtrak which was extremely inexpensive for an Amtrak trip (the ticket was $6 from Philadelphia).  I recently found what probably is the absolute cheapest Amtrak ticket possible (other than free tickets earned through Amtrak Guest Rewards) — a trip from St. Louis, Missouri to Alton, Illinois.  The base fare on this run varies from $2 to $7, and with discounts such as student advantage, military, etc. the price can be even lower.

Here’s a photo of an actual ticket to prove that it’s real.

Obviously, earning points should not be the only reason to take a train trip.  But it’s not a bad thing to earn points on a meaningful trip, such as one for business or to visit friends or eat dinner.

Darwin Awards

Some people are so stupid that it could be said they are in “mental group four”.  The Darwin Awards caters to this group of people, designed to “honor those who improve the species…by accidentally removing themselves from it.”  For instance, someone who accidentally dropped some pocket change into a storm drain went through desperate measures to get the money back including removing the drain cover from the road, and ultimately was almost killed.

Today, on the Consumerist blog, I read about an individual who spent over $55 on an Ebay auction for a $50 gift card to target.  I can’t think of any logical explanation for this behavior… and numerous commenters on Consumerist can’t figure it out either.

Chase Utley

Angelo Cataldi feels that Chase Utley might be one of the best Philadlephia sports figure ever.  I might just have to agree with him.  I appreciate that a large portion of his argument relates to how Utley is a “class act” player who is friendly to anyone; it’s amazing that this fact is so often overlooked when evaluating prominent individuals.

How do we spell . . . Grand ?

I don’t think this one needs any explanation.

Why can’t airlines offer a guaranteed-on-time airfare?

I think it would be cool if Southwest Airlines offered another fare option beyond the ones that they currently offer, which might be called “Business Guaranteed”.  It would come with the options that Business Select already includes - extra rapid reward credits, free drink, and guaranteed “A” boarding pass, and it would additionally include a guarantee that the flight would arrive at its destination within a certain amount of time compared to the scheduled arrival time.  The fare would be priced higher than the current business select prices and would be limited to a certain number of seats on each plane.

Here’s how it might look when someone goes on the web site to buy a ticket:

Depending on how late the plane arrives at its final destination, a refund would be offered to the customer.  On-time or minimally late planes would not result in any refund, a delay of 1/2 an hour to an hour might warrant a 50% refund, and a delay of over an hour would result in a 100% refund.  I’m sure Southwest could look at the on-time performance of its planes and set the premium for this type of a fare at a level that would not result in a loss of profitability over the long-run, and it would also serve as an incentive for the company to make its planes run on time.

Be careful of checks from Moola.com

Moola.com is a web site that offers cash rebates for doing online shopping, and the ability to play games against other users of the site to earn small amounts of money.

Their check to me for $11 bounced out of my checking account and I was charged a $10 fee for a returned deposited item.  Based on a search of web forums about Moola.com and other online “points” type sites, there do not appear to be other people complaining about checks from Moola.com bouncing.  This leads me to believe the problem lies with my bank.

Stupid Wachovia walks all over you.  Maybe it’s time to move to a different bank.

Detecting Land Mines from Photographs

Amazon Mturk is running an interesting project to see if general Internet users (after a minimal amount of orientation and training) can detect land mines in digital photographs taken from roads, grassy fields, and wooded areas.

Here’s an example of an image from a field that clearly has land mines and unexploded ordnance visible.

I’m curious to see how this experiment will turn out.  It would really be something if robotic equipment could be sent into areas that might have landmines and the images could be remotely analyzed, protecting humans from unnecessary danger.

How to talk to skeptics about global warming

For those of you who have friends who aren’t convinced that global warming is not a hoax, you might want to learn some strategies on how to make them think about their beliefs. On the Grist Mill blog is a well-organized list of arguments skeptics employ and ways to show disprove the erroneous beliefs. The arguments are laid out in four frameworks - stages of denial, scientific specifics, argumentation methods, and level of sophistication.

I get a chuckle out of some of the skeptical arguments against global warming, such as “Scientists can’t even predict the weather next week, so why should we believe what some climate model tells us about 100 years from now?”

G. W. Bush likes Chase Utley!

From an interview on Politico.com…

Q Mr. President, I know you’re going to hate this, but I’m hoping that we may twist your arm and talk about baseball for just a moment. (Laughter.) Mr. President, you’re a Major League Baseball team owner again. Everyone is a free agent. You have a Yankees-like wallet. Who is your first position player? Who’s your pitcher?

THE PRESIDENT: That’s a great question. I like Ottley from the Philadelphia Phillies. He’s a middle infielder, which is always — you know, they say you have strength up the middle — there’s nothing better than having a good person up the middle that can hit. And Roy Halladay from the Toronto Blue Jays is a great pitcher. He’s a steady guy, he burns up innings. And I’m sure I’m leaving some other good ones out, but those –

Q We thought you were going to go A-Rod, Josh Beckett.

THE PRESIDENT: Josh Beckett is good, yes, he’s real good, too. I mean, look, that’s a tough question to answer on the fly like this, Michael.