As the United States Government sends more than 800,000 “non-essential” employees home today due to the politically created standoff in Washington D.C., more than 2,500 of those sent packing are in fact not only essential, but critical to the safety of anyone getting on an airplane, or on the ground with a plane flying overhead….
Twelve hours ago the United States Government was shut down due to political gridlock on The Hill. As the nation’s elected representatives continue to play a game of chess using the citizens of the United States as pawns the business of airline travel must go on. This morning I awoke to a flurry of…
Well today seems like as good a time as any for a reader mail, one of more than 2,200 I woke up to this morning, after posting Did The TSA & JetBlue Deny Travel For Looking Muslim During Ramadan? Nope yesterday evening. I only read a little more than 100 of these emails, as the…
This past Thursday afternoon I began receiving emails alerting me to a disturbing blog post by Aditya Mukerjee regarding his being detained by the Transportation Security Administration then denied boarding of a flight by JetBlue. Mr. Mukerjee’s story of being a Hindu mistaken for a Muslim, then singled out, separated and questioned for three hours…
Just three days after the full-moon, the 25th of July, on a clear warm summer evening in Cologne, Germany, a 24 year old man reportedly got into an argument with his girlfriend and walked out of the house with a few ecstasy pills and a bag of marijuana. The man, named Volkan T. (henceforth “Mr….
There are so few holidays that bring such joy to the faces of aviation geeks (AvGeeks) throughout the United States. The 19th of August is met with anticipation and AvGeeks throw off their covers early in the morning, burst down the stairs and crane their necks to the sky looking for planes, contrails and the…
I dedicate this post to all my flight attendant friends … so put your seat in the upright position, turn off your electronics, except the one you’re about to use to watch the following video and prepare to laugh. The following video is one that should leave you in stitches … you should also…
This afternoon the United States’ State Department issued a Worldwide Travel Alert for United States citizens globally (which links back to a February 19 2013 worldwide travel warning). Travel warnings from the State Department have become a little bit like Chicken Little yelling, “the sky is falling.” Travel cautions are constantly released, and worldwide…
Over the past few weeks I have received a number of requests from people regarding airline bereavement fares, sometimes referred to as “compassion fares.”. I am not sure why these enquiries all seem to have come in a relatively short period of time, but having replied to nine people in a little over two weeks…
I have previously been asked “Why does it seem you hate the TSA,” but this readermail question comes at my coverage of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from a different angle. Today’s reader mail from Alexis W. through me for a bit of a loop. Alexis asks “I have been following you on Twitter…
