The Travel Thread

[Shirley]

an 8-day trip to the ISS now looks like it’ll be 8 mo+

boeing…

Talk about a co. that has squandered its good name and reputation.

[KUTradition]

an 8-day trip to the ISS now looks like it’ll be 8 mo+

boeing…

Talk about an American co. that has squandered its good name and reputation.

i hate to be all “rah, rah, ‘murica”, but it really is a sad and disappointing thing. aviation has kinda been our jam since forever (or at least since Kitty Hawk)

[Shirley]

an 8-day trip to the ISS now looks like it’ll be 8 mo+

boeing…

Talk about an American co. that has squandered its good name and reputation.

i hate to be all “rah, rah, ‘murica”, but it really is a sad and disappointing thing. aviation has kinda been our jam since forever (or at least since Kitty Hawk)

^^^

Consolidation made them essentially the only kid on the block, so no competition and lots of greed later, they've lost their edge.

Yay the market !

[Sparko]

Catch 23 is shareholder value. And it is the greatest catch there is.

[jfish26]

We usually stopped off at attractions along the way. The Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest/Painted Desert etc.

Once there we would go camping or up to their cabin in King's Canyon. Once we hit Yellowstone and camped there for a while. Driving from LA through the desert up to Tahoe then across the salt flats was some pretty cool stuff for a little kid. And of course, Yellowstone is amazing.

My fam, 3 boys, mom, dad, would take the ol Ford Windstar from Kansas various routes up to Seattle - hitting up a lot of the places you mentioned. My memory is fairly faded ( bison and brown bear walking in front of us ) but I recall pieces of all of these trips and they were so so worth it and i'm very glad my parents forced us on em.

He would buy five to ten cases of Coors (not Coors Lite, there was no lite beer then) and he'd bootleg it in. No Coors in California at the time.

allsome

Over several summers, my dad would pick me up from camp and we'd do various eastern seaboard-ish road trips. Colonial Williamsburg, maybe, one year. Groton CT (where lots of our submarines are made) another. And so on. Anything from battlefields to skyscrapers.

Tomorrow night, I'll be picking my older daughter up from the same camp, and driving to ... Cleveland. Or, specifically, Sandusky, Ohio. This daughter is my only kid who loves giant roller coasters, so we're gonna head to Cedar Point and its 18 roller coasters.

Captain’s Log, Saturday, August 17

After sitting on the tarmac hunched over a laptop while airline mechanics took two and a half hours to fix a hydraulic fluid leak in Engine 1 (a total of six working hours on planes yesterday), I woke this morning to the worst stiff neck of my life - it hurts, a lot, to breathe.

And facing a seven hour drive today and then monster roller coasters tonight and tomorrow.

[KUTradition]

ah, the memories

[jfish26]

This will be at LEAST the flu game and the Willis Reed game, combined.

[KUTradition]

This will be at LEAST the flu game and the Willis Reed game, combined.

i’d try to get a massage before hitting the park

[jhawks99]

an 8-day trip to the ISS now looks like it’ll be 8 mo+

boeing…

You can only turn your underwear inside out so many times.

[Back2Lawrence]

So it’s $30 cheaper for me to fly MCI-Manchester, making stops at PHL and Heathrow than flying the same flight to Heathrow, only stopping in Philly.

Help me make sense of that.

[zsn]

So it’s $30 cheaper for me to fly MCI-Manchester, making stops at PHL and Heathrow than flying the same flight to Heathrow, only stopping in Philly.

Help me make sense of that.

After that help me with why SFO-PVG is about $400 more than either SFO-LAX-PVG or LAX-SFO-PVG! The last leg on the latter flight is the same as the nonstop!!

[Back2Lawrence]

So it’s $30 cheaper for me to fly MCI-Manchester, making stops at PHL and Heathrow than flying the same flight to Heathrow, only stopping in Philly.

Help me make sense of that.

After that help me with why SFO-PVG is about $400 more than either SFO-LAX-PVG or LAX-SFO-PVG! The last leg on the latter flight is the same as the nonstop!!

Bidenomics, right?

[TDub]

an 8-day trip to the ISS now looks like it’ll be 8 mo+

boeing…

I assume other missions are sent up to bring them food, water, supplies etc? I'd imagine they don't pack enough emergency supplies for 8 months on the initial mission?

[Overlander]

an 8-day trip to the ISS now looks like it’ll be 8 mo+

boeing…

I assume other missions are sent up to bring them food, water, supplies etc? I'd imagine they don't pack enough emergency supplies for 8 months on the initial mission?

Door dash

[KUTradition]

an 8-day trip to the ISS now looks like it’ll be 8 mo+

boeing…

I assume other missions are sent up to bring them food, water, supplies etc? I'd imagine they don't pack enough emergency supplies for 8 months on the initial mission?

not sure, but i’d imagine there’s quite a stock of supplies on the ISS for just such a situation

if not, they better get to better contingency planning if Mars is ever gonna happen

[Back2Lawrence]

an 8-day trip to the ISS now looks like it’ll be 8 mo+

boeing…

I assume other missions are sent up to bring them food, water, supplies etc? I'd imagine they don't pack enough emergency supplies for 8 months on the initial mission?

Door dash

More likely GrubHub, considering their relationship/stake with Amazon, and Amazon having a rocket company.

Unless Space X and Door Dash could figure things out.

What kind of tip you giving your Astronaut Delivery Driver? I mean, there was a 44.8million dollar delivery fee already!

[Shirley]

I heard the other day that the one-size-fits-all form of the space suits used to fly in the Boeing capsule are too bulky for the astronauts to wear if they're picked up by a Space-X vehicle. Space-X space suits are made to fit for each individual wearer, and don't take up as much room.

[Shirley]

I'll go out on a limb, and when it comes to customer opinion, take the under.

Southwest Airlines asks customers about ditching free-bag policy

From Seeking Alpha:

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) is mulling whether to start charging for checked bags, reversing a policy that distinguished the Dallas-based carrier from rivals.

The carrier is polling customers for feedback on potential changes to its policies including bag charges, along with travel habits, booking preferences, and loyalty status benefits, Bloomberg reported.

“There’s no work currently underway to change our industry-leading two bags fly free policy,” the company said in a statement to Bloomberg, “but it’s important for us to know what customers want,” it added.

Southwest (LUV) is currently the only major U.S. carrier that does not charge for two checked bags. The benefit has distinguished the company from competitors who charge $35 to $60 for the first checked bag, with certain exceptions, like using an airline-branded credit card for the airfare. The world’s largest carriers made $33B in checked baggage fees in 2023, up 15% year-over-year.

Southwest (LUV) might be encouraged to end its “Bags Fly Free” perk and take a piece of the multi-billion-dollar bag fee windfall amid pressure from Elliott Management which recently acquired a substantial stake in the carrier. The activist investor has been pushing for changes in management, as well as modifications to Southwest’s operational policies to lure in travelers, increase efficiency, and raise revenues.

Last month, Southwest changed its free-for-all-seating procedures, added a new premium class, and began offering red-eye flights.

[pdub]

So Southwest is just going to be another meh airline like American and United.
:/

[Overlander]

I prefer Alaska Airlines