Travel Humor - Could be a Rough Ride

Location: A taxi in Chicago, traveling to the McCormick Center

I saw this sign posted in a taxi in Chicago.  Having never before seen the line item charge for "Vomit Clean-up Fee," it made me wonder if I was in for a rough ride.

Travel Humor - A New Low For Apostrophe Abuse

Location: London, near the Imperial War Museum, British Museum and Shepherd's Bush

I am constantly being irritated by the use of apostrophes to create plurals.  Most of these are garden variety offenses, like this sign seen near the British Museum.

Here is another where the original building painter got "eels" right, but whoever did the awning felt the need for a random apostrophe.  Despite that, A. Cooke's serves a very tasty pie with mash and liquor (sauce, not booze).  I didn't try the eels.

Bad as they may be, they are very commonplace abuses.  However, I saw an example in the Imperial War Museum that takes the cake - two apostrophes in the same word!

It hurts ... make it stop!

 

Travel Story - Who needs FitBit when you have FitBrit?

Location: London for the Network Virtualization and SDN World show

I was spending this Memorial Day in London, so I went to the Imperial War Museum to see some new exhibits. I decided to walk back before dinner to help shake off the jet lag. On my preprandial perambulation I passed the London Eye, Westminster, Big Ben, St. James' Park, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Hyde Park, the Victoria and Albert Museum. Not every day you can have a stroll like that!

Travel Story - Keep Calm and Carry On

Location: Flying from Raleigh-Durham to Chicago

Three interesting events happened on my flight today.  All were minor, but all could have escalated and/or caused disproportionate mental anguish.  The fact that they didn't was a testament to the crews involved.

Medical Event - About a third of the way through the flight the flight attendant came on and calmly asked that any doctors or nurses on the flight make their way to the back of the plane.  Apparently some passenger had a medical incident.  The issue was resolved quickly, and there was no need to make an emergency landing.

Bird Event - We were making our approach to O'Hare airport and were close enough to have the landing gear down.  We then pulled the gear up and climbed back up and started circling.  The change was done so smooth that I didn't realize it had happened.  The pilot came on announced that we had to divert from our approach due to birds on the runway, and that we were going to use a different runway.  Air Traffic Control quickly sorted out the issue and we landed ahead of schedule.

Pushback Event - After landing we stopped just short of the gate. The pilot came on announced that the gate was still occupied.  The plane there was being pushed when the tug's towbar broke.  The ground crew found another very quickly and got the plane pshed back.  We were able to maintain our early arrival.

The TakeawayThree events, none of which was a big deal - but they could have been, or at least seemed like it.  Instead, the various staff sorted out the issue and kept things moving. My personal takeaway was that it is not just how you handle an issue, but also how you appear to others.

Travel Image - Throwback Thursday, Airline Style

Location: Miami Airport, Waiting to Fly to Aruba

American Airlines has now merged with US Airways, and the planes are getting a new paint job.  AA is also creating a few throwback planes, recognizing the former airlines that have been rolled up.  One of these was Piedmont, an old favorite of us in NC.  I was pleased to see this plane in Miami, with a hybrid of the AA and Piedmont colors.

Here's a closeup on the tail:

 

A pleasant reminder of days gone by ....

Travel Story – Efficiency Everywhere

Location: Honolulu

I recently spent the week in Honolulu on business. I shared my hotel with a ton of Japanese tourists. One thing that I noticed was that they would always push the "close" button on the elevator after somebody boarded. Doing so saves a couple of seconds waiting for the door to close automatically. I thought this was a little too efficient, but not a big deal.

I appreciated that spirit of efficiency when I boarded my flight from Honolulu to Tokyo.  As you might expect the passengers were mostly Japanese.  We loaded a new 787 “Dreamliner” in 15 minutes, with no pushing or fighting over bin space. Having been on a lot of flights over the years, I found this achievement to be astounding.

Admittedly it is a dual aisle plane with plenty of overhead space, but a big part of the quick loading was the politeness and efficiency of the Japanese travelers. This was a big contrast with my experience on Qatar Airways.

Travel Story - A Close Call

Location: San Francisco and Dallas-Fort Worth Airports

I was traveling from San Francisco (SFO) to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) on my way home to Raleigh-Durham (RDU).  My original schedule gave me 1 hour and 40 minutes to connect in DFW for my 8:25 flight home.  I had to change terminals at DFW, as shown below, but with 100 minutes between flights there was plenty of time - or so I thought.



Unfortunately it was foggy in San Francisco, so we were delayed in departing.  I received the first update at 11:45 am PST, and it dropped my connection time to 1 hour, so no panic yet.




I started to worry when I received the next one at 12:27 pm PST.  The 8:05 pm CST arrival dropped my connection to 20 minutes, which would be difficult to make.




I received another update 7 minutes later, and my connection time dropped to zero.  I felt that my chances of getting home that night were shot.

That was my last update before boarding.   While in flight I checked the AA.com web site and saw that my departing flight was delayed to 8:35 pm, and that we were scheduled to arrive at 8:20 pm.  15 minutes to make a connection between terminals?  Unlikely, but it turns out that I made it.  Here's how:

• I had gotten and upgrade, so I was the very first person off the plane when we landed.
• The flight attendant asked the gate agent to call the departing gate and ask them to wait for me.
• Both gates were reasonably close to the stations for the DFW "SkyLink" train.  I ran to the station and caught a train almost immediately.
• Upon arrival I ran to the gate, but the plane had already pushed back.
• Best of all, the plane came back to the gate!  Maybe they came back because there were 3 of us at the gate, or maybe it was my status on AA.  In either case, that is unprecedented in my experience.

Here is a summary of the updates.

 

Time of Update	Depart SFO	Arrive DFW	Depart DFW	Connection
Original Schedule	1:20 pm PST	6:45 pm CST	8:25 pm CST	100 minutes
11:45 am PST/1:45 pm CST	2:00 pm PST	7:25 pm CST	8:25 pm CST	60 minutes
12:27 pm PST/2:27 pm CST	2:40 pm PST	8:05 pm CST	8:25 pm CST	20 minutes
12:34 pm PST/2:34 pm CST	3:00 pm PST	8:25 pm CST	8:25 pm CST	0 minutes
4:00 pm PST /7:00 pm CST	3:00 pm PST	8:25 pm CST	8:35 pm CST	10 minutes
Final		8:20 pm CST	8:41 pm CST	21 minutes

Note to self: Even when things look grim, don't give up.