The Original NY Racing Community
SARATOGA - Racing Since 1863
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 2:39 pm

All times are UTC - 4 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 8 posts ] 
Links: Handicapping | General Racing Discussion | Off Topic | Photo Forum
Author Message
 Post subject: Air Fares
PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 5:23 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 19, 2009 1:21 pm
Posts: 71536
My son flew to Georgia this morning to see his girlfiend. Non-stop from LaGuardia or JFK costs a good deal of money but you can get there on the cheap by taking a flight to Ft. Lauderdale and waiting for a hop to bring you back up north to wherever he was landing (I don't concern myself with such things since I was not making the trip).

Fly farther and pay less.

One time in early 1969 I was flying to Los Angeles out of JFK off leave but a crash diverted my flight to Las Vegas (the only time I was ever there). I was flying military standby at half fare in uniform as a 20-year-old Marine sergeant and got a voucher from American Airlines for a hotel room overnight. I wandered The Strip. People jerked me every which way for food and drinks and gambling money to come my way. I was astounded at the generosity. There were no hippies in Las Vegas that day.

In the morning I get to the airport but my 1/2 fare military standby ticket is not honored. The flight is jammed with people going to LA and so is every one after it. I am bumped. I don't want to be 'over the hill' but I'm not exactly flush with cash. I raise a ruckus at the gate (but not bad) and one of the crew by the gate tells me to hang tight.

The captain comes down the boarding ramp and tells me that he's a former Navy pilot and that he's putting me into the head (shithouse) and that I will not be officially a passenger on the flight's manifest or have a seat belt for the short flight. OK by me. I go. I get back to Camp Pendleton and 27th Marines on time.

No good no more I suppose but things were different then.

_________________
Image The race doesn't always go to the swift and the strong but that's the way to bet.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Air Fares
PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:10 pm 
Offline

Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:49 pm
Posts: 24
You could have been in millionaire if you got dispatched to the lav in the lawyer/parasite era of today. Standby passenger traveling free on a buddy pass from an airline employee friend Gokhan Mutlu is going to get paid the new way, with a big lawsuit. The head lawyer in Washington is going to make sure there are plenty more opportunity's to empower the parasites, so maybe it isn't too late for you to sue about something. Remember the key mantra, "Yes We Can(collect free stuff, as long as there are still millions of dummies out there willing to pay more and more taxes)".
http://wcbstv.com/local/jetblue.gokhan. ... 22250.html


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Air Fares
PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:26 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 19, 2009 1:21 pm
Posts: 71536
I once flew from Richards Gebaur Air Force Base out of Kansas to McGuire Air Force Base in Jersey as a free hop that was extended to regular GIs. Two Marines were aboard and we were happy to catch a lift. I was 18. The airplane was a 4-engine C-130, a prop-driven wonder.

Somewhere over Iowa or Ohio the engines started to quit, one by one. I was scared shitless and started to pray for forgiveness for all the girls I had ever groped, lusted for, and all the beer and whiskey I had drunk as a young Marine. I prayed to Jesus that he would not let my mother go nuts after I was part of a crater in America's heartland.

The Air Force crew chief came back into the cargo bay (where I was) and announced that the pilot and co-pilot were U.S.A.F. reserve flyers and were being "checked" by a regular colonel. Good engines were being shut down in different scenarios so that the reserve crew could properly trim the airplane and work the throttles to keep the airplane going well.

I learned later: The lieutenant/colonel reserve officer pilot was an insurance salesman. He was also a 1940 fighter pilot as a kid and a guy who went into multi-engines after WWII broke out. He had 31 missions as a B-17 pilot and then came back to Korea to fly the B-29. For kickers he maintained his skills to fly a magnificent cargo plane (the C-130) which is still in service (with upgrades) to this day.

We had some great people years ago. A lot of what I hear now is citizenship awarded posthumously to dead GIs. That bothers me. So does reading about corporals and sergeants being KIA at the age of 30-something into the 40s. Christ almighty, you were an old fart with Marine infantry in my day beyond the age of 23.

Obamacare is going to make my old age better, nevertheless. Everybody with a job or any wealth is going to make healthy millions of wefare recipients and illegals and I'm all for that after busting my hump for 40 years with two and three jobs.

_________________
Image The race doesn't always go to the swift and the strong but that's the way to bet.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Air Fares
PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:19 pm 
Offline

Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 12:28 pm
Posts: 1040
Pole I was reading a book on a flight home from Vegas this week..The book the Last Patriot was actually some pretty good fiction surrounding some really cool stuff I never actually knew..marines getting the name Leathernecks...the shores of tripoli and of course the islamic extreme..All of these were intertwined back in Jefferson's time..I am sure you knew all of this but I was quite suprised to learn of the Marines first international engagements being against the Islamic Jihadists of their day..The Barbary Coast pirates and all of the surrounding African countries/Governments who supported them..the leather collars the marines were outfitted in to ward off losing their heads to the sabres of these pirates..Also the role Jefferson played in abolishing appeasement and payment for protection...cool stuff. TJ was outspoken even than of the impending danger "worldwide extremists" would play under the role of Mohammed (he himself being a victim of murder)..


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Air Fares
PostPosted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:03 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 19, 2009 1:21 pm
Posts: 71536
Marines to this day wear a high collar on their Dress Blues for the leather collar that Marines wore 200 years ago to thwart saber cuts. Marine non-commissioned officers (corporal and above) and officers (not privates, PFCs, or lance corporals) are authorized to wear a red stripe down the seams of their trousers for the 90% casualties that Marine officers and NCOs took in the storming of Chapultepec Castle during the Mexican War. (halls of Montezuma and the shores of Tripoli)

Tripoli is my favorite. The Irish guy, Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon U.S.M.C., led a nasty crew of Marines and sailors and nutty Arabs to be the first American to raise the Stars and Stripes in victory on foreign soil. Three cheers for President Thomas Jefferson!

The Marines, though few in number, and after a long desert overland trip, fired a musket volley and attacked with bayonets to free their fellow countrymen that were being held hostage by the Muslims. No boot at Parris Island in 1965 was allowed to forget that. Jeez, that stuff happened in 1803 I think.

_________________
Image The race doesn't always go to the swift and the strong but that's the way to bet.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Air Fares
PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:50 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue May 19, 2009 12:42 pm
Posts: 1928
Location: Mechanicville, NY
Hoppy caught a flight round trip to the Spa for $237.40 from Plano. Should see him on the 19th


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Air Fares
PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:01 pm 
Offline

Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 1:56 pm
Posts: 37
Ironically, I just wrote a letter to our local mayor about airfare. $600 out of Shreveport, drive three hours and its $250 out of Dallas. No brainer. How is that good for anybody, but Dallas? Brutal.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Air Fares
PostPosted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:34 pm 
Offline

Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:49 pm
Posts: 24
That is a competition issue. Dallas has massive competition so the prices are driven down. Shreveport is likely serviced by a limited amount of airlines so they can charge more. In addition to competition issues there are few passengers departing from Shreveport and it does not not pay the bills to offer service out of there for $250 with the small amount of volume out of that station. The way to drive down prices is to get Southwest/Airtran to fly there, but the airport has to have the requisite traffic to attract a low cost airline that could drive down prices.

Some airports pay airlines to service their airports. Maybe the Mayor could increase your property taxes to what we pay here in New York and the money could be diverted to Southwest airlines to fly there 3 times a day with empty airplanes. Southwest will likely offer your elected officials free flights if they want to pull off that deal. Now you are wheeling and dealing New York style.
knicks23 wrote:
Ironically, I just wrote a letter to our local mayor about airfare. $600 out of Shreveport, drive three hours and its $250 out of Dallas. No brainer. How is that good for anybody, but Dallas? Brutal.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 8 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 4 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2010 phpBB Group