Time to vent on the Airlines.

@f00l I also remember when every person did not try stick all their fucking luggage into the the overhead bin - I hate them! (check it bitches!)

p.s. that plane would not have a single open seat - the magic of movies.

@mfladd The luggage thing is a recent phenomenon caused by basically all the airlines (except Southwest) now charging a fee for all checked bags. So everybody crams everything they possibly can into their "carry-on-sized" suitcase. Then that in turn leads to a stampede for boarding, because what if there isn't room for your bag in the overhead?! Then you'd have to... let them check it for you for free, like you would have done yourself, on a sane airline that didn't charge you for it! Dear God, the horror of the free checked bag! But when we hairy apes are told that a resource we're entitled to may not be available to everybody who's entitled to it, the part of our hindbrain that hoards resources against lean times kicks in and we will shiv a fellow passenger with the checkin desk clerk's pen to make sure our bag goes in for sure.

(When they announce that overhead space is limited and they need volunteers to gate-check their carryons, I am first to the desk because screw dragging another bag around through CLT, let the airline handle it. It's just got my clothes and bathroom stuff and other easily-replaceable things in it anyway; the worst that'll happen is they'll have to buy me new clothes and toothpaste.)

(Why do I end up connecting through CLT so much?! It's a horrible airport! There's no way to get anywhere in it except by walking and it's HUGE! Whoever left an airtrain out of CLT should die in a fire that also consumes the entire airport in a towering inferno of the collected hatred of every air traveler who ever had to make a tight connection between the E gates and the B gates and pass right by that row of inviting-looking rocking chairs that YOU'LL NEVER GET TO USE YOU POOR SAP BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS FLY IN TO TERMINAL E AND HAVE 20 MINUTES TO GET TO TERMINAL B, HURRY UP THE DOOR IS ABOUT TO CLOSE.)

The other part of it is nobody trusts anything valuable to make it past TSA screeners, so all the stuff like digital cameras, jewelry, etc. -- things that aren't that fragile but are valuable and easily pocketed -- ends up in the carryon instead of the checked bags like it would have in previous decades. (Sorry if anybody here is an honest TSA bag screener, but like cops and lawyers your profession's reputation is now measured by the worst of your colleagues.)

And of course anything fragile gets carried on, but that was true already because nobody has ever trusted airline baggage handlers, ever.

(I'm serious about CLT by the way. You will definitely get your 10,000 steps in if that is your connecting airport. If I heard tomorrow that the entire airport burned to ground level in a freak fire while somehow everyone inside escaped with no deaths or injuries, I would immediately hit the nearest bar to toast the cause of that fire. Airtrain, CLT -- look into it. Or even the rooms-on-wheels Dulles has.)

@f00l @kensey I usually only stuff my coat in the overhead ( in cool seasons). I have to check a bag because work travel always always involves taking tools that can't be carried on any more (since 2001), and on the rare personal travel, I decline to be elsewhere without my EDC pocketknife and leatherman tool, which also aren't allowed by the current security kabuki. So I pay the 'tax' and always check a bag.

@kensey You need to stop flying US Air if you want to avoid Charlotte.

@kensey Flew out of LAS on the way home from vacation in Las Vegas and the security check point closest to my departure gate was closed, I'm like ok it can't be that bad................. Yes it was. I swear it was like a Mile to get there.

@jqubed
My brother did that. After his first crash (mechanical or electrical failure, i forget which), he gave up flying and airplane-owning and paid for his kids to go to college instead.

@jqubed I actually did a travelzoo coupon about a year ago where I received 1 hour of flight time where the pilot let me fly for most of the time. I was able to fly over the Chesapeake Bay with some sick turns and fly over the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Some of the best money I have spent (not much money) and have a few flight credits under my belt. Have considered doing a few more lessons just for fun.

@mfladd
I would love to have the time and $ for flying. My dad was a flight instructor on C46's and wound up with something like 20K air hours because the brass thought that men of younger than 25 years did not need luxuries like sleep.

I've always been in awe of that. When dad would find C46's at airshows, he and his war buddies could always talk their way into the cockpit. The airshow pilots were also in awe of my dad's group.

@f00l I'd be very curious to hear more about this crash. I did ground school and the instructor was pretty adamant that we've been flying long enough that no one can come up with a new way to crash now (except maybe in a new plane and even then someone probably did something similar already in a different plane, unless the plane does something radically different), so every crash is preventable, even if the preventive measure is "don't fly today."

@mfladd @f00l Ah, the old issue of time and money. When I had the money I didn't have the time, and when I've had the time I haven't had the money.

@f00l same experience with my dad flying his own plane. A Cessna tail dragger. Crashed it on the taxiway of all places (thankfully) and that was it. Minor damage but that was it.

I have fond memories of him letting me take the controls (before I had my drivers license) for most of the trip between take off and landing on flights between SE Michigan and small airports north of Chicago. That meant flying over Lake Michigan - at least a crescent of it.

@jqubed
My brother (this particular brother) is a physician. He is an ultra-precise sort. He learned to fly both for pleasure and because he likes to attend certain football games. He does suffer from the classic amateur pilot's problem: that someone who earns enough to own a plane is always overworked and busy and pressured. I don't know how much "overwork" had to do with this instance. Perhaps nothing, perhaps much.

This happened 15-20 years ago? Not sure now. I can't remember what model or type of plane, beyond "small, nothing fancy".

Bro routinely flew to attend football games, sometimes alone. From what i heard, he was alone, returning, and developed some sort of engine problems close to his home airport, on a dark evening, quite late. I think the conditions were clear and calm. Don't know about the moon. He often flew under these conditions and had done so for years. My brother does not use drugs and barely drinks beer even at parties. I presume he'd had zero intoxicants. He just doesn't. Also i have no reason to believe he was not rested, but have no details, and perhaps that was a factor. I never asked.

The plane went down in a pasture with trees, far enuf from the landowner's house that they didn't even know a plane had come down on their land. It's astonishing to me that he was not badly hurt, just climbed out of the plane. It was so late that he didn't want to wake the landowner's household. And, he didn't want to wake any of us, his family, either. (He got pilloried for that.)

He was flying alone that weekend, and expected back very late, no set time. He left a note on the plane for the landowner, and walked the several miles to the airport where he reported the accident (don't know how that's done) got in his car, and drove home. (Over the next days and for much longer he talked in detail to lots more people, official and otherwise. Of course it was all investigated.)

I don't know in crow-fly terms how far out the crash was, my impression is a few miles. The morning after the crash, he got up very very early, went back to the site, waited for lights to come on, and explained to the landowner in person what had happened, showed him the site and explained that insurance and accident investigators would be visiting. They were very surprised and very nice. I think he went back to the airport for more discussions also, but am hazy on that, except that afaik he did all he was supposed to do in reporting and providing detail. He spoke to his insurance people of course. Afterwards he just went to work and on with life. I don't know whether he returned to work the day after the crash or not. He said he was sore for a few days.

He told our Dad (a military flight instructor and pilot during his service years, something like 20k hours in the air) about the accident in detail. I did not even hear about it until 6 months or more later, when i asked about his flying. They had just forgotten to tell me, and i never got the details.

Dad told me he was satisfied my brother had been fairly careful and not foolish, but did not go into detail. Dad said it was his impression that the FAA people did not believe my brother had been seriously irresponsible. Beyond that, i don't know their conclusions, and am certain i have only a bare-bones version. Not really my biz to demand an accounting, and it's possible my dad did not tell me all his thoughts or everything he knew. Had i asked my Bro, i suspect Bro would have told me the full story. When i found out many months later, mostly i just expressed relief, and Bro and i talked about mortality and responsibility, and i threatened him about not calling his family after a near-death situation. He agreed it was idiotic of him not to tell family until he got home, and to drive home as tho he was certain of his own condition.

I don't know maintenance details either, except that i believe my brother was by life philosophy and habit notably attentive, competent, and careful about that, and paid competent persons to do work and check things out.

My Dad has told me many stories of his own flying during the war years on basically zero sleep, because some general wanted something done. One general said, in front of pilots who had worked 12 hour days and then been ordered to take off again for various 5 or 8 hour flights, "they're young, they don't need sleep at that age". (This happened a lot.) And at the time, Dad accepted and mostly welcomed his duty as a soldier. Of course, during a war for the future of civilization, with people understanding they offer their lives in signing up, the perspective on the safety of a single flight or mission is quite unlike that of civilian aviation. Dad accepted his risks during those years, tho sometimes he wondered if he would live thru a flight because of fatigue. He developed all sorts of tricks to stay awake, and if possible, alert. Sometimes he had co-pilots, sometimes navigators, sometimes not, depending on the plane and the assignment. Primarily C46's but plenty of other aircraft. He considered his job "the least i could do, and would do more if i saw how", given the dead, and his buddies in the Ardennes or the Pacific. He and his fellow instructors kept asking to be xferred to the front. They were always told to do their jobs as assigned. They considered daily volunteering in every possible way to be part of the gig. After the war, when Dad flew privately in his friend's planes, he acted like a sane and careful pilot. I only mention his war experience because his service years probably colored his attitude to my brother's situation in ways i can't begin to estimate. Dad mentioned his own fatique while flying only when talking about his own life and war history over the years. He seemed to remember the fatigue vividly and spoke of it often when i was a child, as a kind of mental numbness and fog that he learned to fear. Dad did not mention fatigue in any context to me when he talked about my brother's plane. I just don't know the factors.

The insurance covered Bro's plane, of course. Bro rented a plane for a while, but his kids were old enough to fantasize of college and careers, and even tho he was financially ok, the accident made him very aware of mortality. He finally decided to stop flying until all his kids were settled as adults and then re-evaluate, but he works a lot and is dedicated as a physician, and has other interests. His family and profession are his primary commitments. He may have been up a few times, perhaps he's been much more active. I don't know if his license is current. To my knowledge, he hasn't flown for years, but i may be quite wrong. We stay in touch, but i don't know the details of all his free time. I know that when he gave up flying regularly, other interests and commitments filled his life and he has managed to see a lot of football.

@RedOak
I regret never having gone up with either Dad or Bro. Dad never made a practice to fly after the war except when he went up with planes owned by his war buds. Once during an airshow he and his buds attended, decades after the war, the C46 exhibit pilot found out there were C46 alumni present, and they all went up together and each got time at the controls. A C46 is gigantic or something.

When Bro was flying, we talked often but didn't see each other much, we were both busy people. I never even saw his plane.

Went up with various friends and had a blast. Never took the controls, but did various spins and stuff. I always made them talk to Dad. He would say either Yes or Wait, depending on the pilot.

---

When my Dad was an instructor, and stateside, in the early years, he and his buds were stationed all over the place. Sometimes stationed near various extremely evil university football rivals.

Hmmm. /Ahem./
I suppose it's possible some evil schools got buzzed, and bridges were flown under, and if students were playing pickup or intramural games, well, those games possibly have become a bit disrupted. All the base pilots, from many colleges and universities and regions, seemed to agree this was needful and justified and part of the war effort.

And i suppose, the buzzed school's president or chancellor might frequently have called the nearby Army Air Corps base and complained to the base commander, who became very upset to hear of this conduct by supposedly responsible adult soldiers. And then the base commander would under the circumstances with stern face and serious intent chew out his pilots, and threaten trouble and the brig and whatall, and then the commander might have possibly laughed and said "let them rest for a few weeks", because said commander also knew the nearby university, a football power where a golden dome was whispered of, was, in fact extremely evil, in the universe if football.

And it's possible one of these evil schools with a national reputation might have been somewhat near the location of Indiana, and people have spoken in legend of a famous golden dome.

Perhaps it never happened. And perhaps i was never, as a child, taken to visit any such school, somewhat in the vicinity of Indiana, and shown ponds and fields where hockey and football and baseball games might have been disrupted, and shown golden domes with were in need of a good buzzing. But i hear there are in fact famous evil football-power universities around the area of Indiana, esp with famous golden domes, where such stories might have been quite true.

After all, there was a war, and these pilots were pledged to defend freedom and the values of civilization, including football.

@phatmass Ummmm...no. The point was that whole experience is just different. Times have changed.
I remember flying Midwest Express (late 80's) - business class seats in the entire plane - leather seats - two per side. I received eggs benedict with warm cookies and a glass of champagne. This included a real cloth napkin and glass salt and pepper shakers for only a little more dollars than the competitors at the time. Best airline ever!

Does anyone remember this?

I understand that times have changed and you are standing up for who you work for - I do the same - but, the experience sucks all around.

Also remember we are talking airfares before all the added costs (bags, upgrades, seat assignments, etc, etc, etc, and benefits. I am not saying that they don't deserve to survive - but come on - enough is enough. What is next?
http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/blog/seat2B/2014/05/don-t-believe-the-airfare-spin-cost-to-travel-is.html

@mfladd Legend Airlines tried to bring this type of service back about 15 years ago, and they went bankrupt after 5 years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_Airlines

The public didn't want it.

You may have a case of "good ol' days" syndrome, because today's seats look way better than those 80's seats.

@phatmass ha! That's not the airline I fly, or probably most of the people here.

You must have an upgrade as an employee.

@phatmass Without reading the article, several airlines went tits up post-9/11. The early 2000s were a tough time for the airline industry, so I don't think you can necessarily take a specialty airline's failure during that period as proof that they had an otherwise fatal flaw.

I mean, Hooters Air failed during that period too. I aced my business capstone in '99-00 inventing that concept, only to see it come alive shortly afterward.

@mfladd Sorry if I'm a bit defensive. My company just gave it's employees the largest profit sharing payout in the history of profit sharing payouts of any company ever. Haha. Maybe we should use that money to better your experience instead. But, some would say, happy employees, happy customers! :)

@phatmass define happy customers.

@Kidsandliz A person who can go from NY to LA in under 6 hours while sitting in a chair in the sky seems like they should be a happy person. If not, they must have never played Oregon Trail.

@phatmass no matter what - this makes for a lively discussion which is what I Iike.

@phatmass Nor played tall ship crosses the ocean back when the world used to be flat. Although I think I would rather play either than when I played sit in the seat between husband and wife, both of whom sweated profusely and weighed at least 400 pounds each while going from NYC to Munich (had a job in Germany). And there were no empty seats on the plane either. Even if no one had been assigned my seat I would not have referred to it as empty.

@phatmass
I think AA's perpetual lawsuits killed Legend as much as anything else.

@phatmass Since when are you the voice of reason? Can we goat you again for this? And your avatar?

@djslack Midway Airlines declared bankruptcy the next day. From what friends who worked there told me they were going down anyway; management just used that as an excuse. Their new management had been running them into the ground for a while at that point.

@phatmass "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. Any landing where you can use the plane again is a great landing."

@phatmass I was just going thru and starring everything posted here, but since you gave yourself stars on many of your posts I will consider us even.

This is a philosophical argument. I like what I post. One could argue if you do not like what you post, don't post it. In my view, people who do star their own posts do not like what they post. Those people should not be posting.

@phatmass
I star my own posts only by accident. I think diff personal patterns and prefs on this are likely allowed.

@phatmass

In my view, people who do star their own posts do not like what they post. Those people should not be posting.

huh?

@Kidsandliz You. Seriously. Rock.

@f00l I have only flown southwest once and I understand that they receive some good reviews but the cattle call lines leave me baffled - can I just have a seat assignment please.

Am I 382 or not?

@mfladd
Maybe I love them cause they still operate out of the old Love Field instead of the well-designed but soulless DFW.

@mfladd no assigned seats is fastest boarding: http://mythresults.com/airplane-boarding (satisfaction not as good though...)

@f00l Just actually got to read thru that.

I have just seen another side of you I love.

@mfladd Next time you fly Southwest, get to the gate early (I mean like an hour early, not anything ridiculous), and ask the desk staff if Business Select is available. 9/10 times (that I fly with them at least) it is, for a $15 upgrade fee. That gets you in guaranteed as one of the first 15 passengers to board after the wheelchair and small-children people. You can pick pretty much any seat you want, window, aisle, whatever.

I find that usually works out better for me than having a guaranteed seat that's guaranteed to suck more than 1/3 of the time.

@mfladd
I sat next to two guys w lots of "consumables". Smoking was legal, of course. The sign didn't mention any limits on what you smoked.
One of the guys was crew, one was a non-speaking-part actor. Name long forgotten. He was in the "who's in charge" scene, and also, i think, made up different, the Kurtz compound scene? He wanted some cool violent deaths. He really wanted into the Duvall helicopter surfing scene. Dunno if he made it into that one.

@canuk @mfladd I don't get what everyone complains about. I'm always able to get a window seat; what more do you want?

@f00l Oh you actually mean cast and crew! I thought you meant some sort of metaphor for how scruffy everyone was getting after waiting so long.

@jqubed
Yeah these were real hollywood hippies with serious hollywood jobs. The 70's, and Coppola the master of excess. They were all looking forward to getting serious SE Asian weed.

@jqubed I love flying. Either myself or with someone else up front, being in the air is one of my favorite things.

@f00l reminds me of landing in Hong Kong in the middle of a typhoon and one side of the plane lifted while we were landing and we saw China air upside down on the runway. True to Chinese form all the TV's were off so for the longest time we had no clue what was going on. The Italian women's soccer team was in the airport along with a bunch of kids doing that Semester at Sea and so there was a pick up soccer game in the international transit area until it got too full of people (we were there 16 hours, got there around 4am or something). When I came back to go home I finally saw the city in the light. OMG we landed in a typhoon in the middle of all those steep mountains. I am truly glad I didn't realize it on the way in.

@Kidsandliz
Went thru 1 typhoon in Manila. There was devastation in the countryside, and desease and loss of life. But Manila just flooded and electricity went out and life went on, like "we're used to this, no problem".

Not a direct hit, could have been way worse.

A bunch of jeepneys and VW Beetles stayed on the road. The drivers attached some kind of flexible hosing to extend the tailpipes over the vehicle roofs.

@brhfl I would love to do that too, but have you ever routed a trip that involves multiple lines or more than 1000 miles? I mean, let's play pretend here: it's quarter of four AM on a Saturday morning and my aunt Tillie in Chicago just got in a car accident. Now I can take the Capitol Limited from DC to Chicago pretty much direct -- and all it will cost me is $125 and just shy of 18 hours in a standard coach train seat. And it doesn't leave till after 4 PM, so it might just save me the trip because Aunt Tillie dies around 3 PM.

Or I could fly Southwest (the only airline I will fly voluntarily), which has a flight leaving from Dulles (which is closer to me than DC Union Station anyway) at 6:10 AM, takes 2 hours and costs me $204 (and with my status I get a free boarding upgrade, and if I want to upgrade all the way to Business Select it's almost always available at check-in for a paltry $15). I get to say goodbye to Aunt Tillie and I even get to have a free drink if I do the Business Select upgrade. Even without the emergency circumstances I would rather do that than spend 18 hours trapped in a train car where the bathroom (which I will need at some point on that trip) may be... questionable.

Don't get me wrong, for short trips or a rolling vacation trains are great, but in terms of actually getting anywhere in a timely fashion, forget it. The US is just too damn big.

(I've driven from where I live, near Harpers Ferry, to Chicago, and I would do that again over taking the train -- it's a beautiful drive in the fall -- but I'd still rather fly for that trip. 8-10 hours driving is about my limit, in recent experience, unless I get plenty of sleep the night before and an early start in the morning, then I can do 16 with a break for a nap somewhere late in the day.)

@kensey
I am a wuss now, but when young could do Dallas-NYC in 36 hours, driving alone. 3 hours sleep. I thought it was so much fun!

Re Amtrak, don't all roads go thru Chicago? I love trains, but if i'm starting in Tampa heading for Santa Fe and Chicago is involved, i better have a lot of free time.

@f00l I think the two mid-country hubs are Chicago for the northern routes and New Orleans for the southern. I remember looking up a route from Charlottesville, VA to someplace on the west coast for a co-worker once and everything went through one of those two cities. I just checked though and it does look like the only routing you get for that trip is through Chicago. Specifically you take a bus to the train station in Orlando, transfer through DC, Chicago and the last leg is you get off the train at Lamy, NM (?!) and board a bus to Santa Fe, on which no checked baggage is allowed. So, uh, good luck with that one I guess... Oh and if you leave this morning you'll get there on Thursday afternoon.

@kensey
I've flown a bit in the last 3 years cause all the nieces and nephews are marriage-minded. Every single time i checked Amtrak. Each time no way unless i had impossible free days. Greyhound usually took 1/4 to 1/3 the time & way cheaper. Of course a train is nicer, but as long as i'm still among the working morons, can't do trains.

I wish we had a decent nationwide high-speed train system with many more hubs, but my brother assures me it would be an enormous $ pit. I dunno, some private investors are trying to do a high-speed DFW-Austin-San Antonio-Houston circuit. Would be loverly if they made it happen.

@kensey You know, I have found routing through Chicago or New Orleans an effective strategy in Ticket to Ride.

@kensey Obviously, emergencies always involve weighing one's priorities in new and different ways. Hard to evaluate that in a pure hypothetical. But in a normal situation, I'd absolutely prefer the train. Of course, I spend three hours on a train every day anyway, as I hate everything about driving. Anyway, the most important thing here is that being train-routed through Chicago means you can stock up on Malört, which I highly doubt you can get on any self-respecting plane.

@brhfl
Current local situation:
Texas is for freight trains.
Texas is not for passenger trains :(
Texas is for cars and trucks.
Texas is for bigger trucks.

Texas is for miles and emoty space and when you get out there, solitude.
Audible is the universe's great gift to drivers.
A kindle fire phone is otherwise not great, but does a fine job of reading your kindle books aloud if there is no recorded version. I just listened to Capote's bio that way. If you wanna try this, get one from ebay. No need to activate.
When i need to run an errands, if my choice is local 20 miles construction, or another town, 100 miles, empty roads, if i have the time i'm going for a drive.

When i get really stressed, a few times a year, there is nothing like 200-300 miles of empty blue highways with nothingness landscape no cars and a few Dairy Queen stops to put things right. Normally i am educated and citified and eat healthy but but not always. When we were too young to drive, we got away on bikes and horses. Then came cars and sneaking out after the house was quiet and oh those long empty miles at night and talking thru everything with your best friend. Best moments of growing up.

Ok this might not be low-impact.

@f00l Texas is for speed traps between here and Houston while on interstate 20. Seen one every single time I travel that on my way between MS and Houston. Yes do love that there are DQ's all along the highways. TX is for deciding to stop following the flow of traffic on I-20 because they are going 90+mph and boom bang around the corner there is a speed trap and a zillion brake lights lighting up. By the time I passed there were a ton of cars pulled over.

@Kidsandliz
Why would people wanna speed and shorten a 14 hour drive through nothing?

In the 70's i used a CB or watched the truckers for speedtrap clues. Got to know where they would hide, learn their ways.

If you aren't in the fastest 25% chances are you'll skate past.

In major active drilling areas in far west TX, i don't think they enforce on speed. The drillsite crews already spent all their dough in town.

The laws have changed a bit. Harder for for small towns and rural counties to finance themselves entirely using outsider ticket fines. That's why the outlet malls. They watch you and your $ cruise by with much bitterness.

@f00l OMG...we are going CB's? I so did this in my dad's VW rabbit. You are scaring me.

@mfladd
Then CB's.

Now Waze.

Tomorrow the self-driving cop car gives my self-driving tesla a ticket while they make eyes at each other.

@goldenthorn Not all foreign carriers, though. For the love of all that is good and holy avoid Ryanair. They take nickel & dime to a new level; they even charge for the toilets! Coins only! Bring a €1 coin, it's cheaper than a £1 coin.

@jqubed
If they charge for toilets, have any passengers ever been creative about a "free" alternative?

@goldenthorn I recently had to buy a carry-on, and only weeks later did I realize the manufacturers blatantly lie about the size. They DON'T COUNT THE WHEELS when they are listing measurements! As a result, Southwest is the only major airline that accepts my behemoth.

@dashcloud flew to Hawaii last may as well with my wife and 1 1/2 year old. Best plan for us was southwest out of bwi to San Diego. Stay a few days bc we love San Diego. Then flew Hawaiian air over. Best choice ever. They are the last US carrier to serve a full meal on a domestic flight. Return flight was united on points with a paid upgrade to plus. Not a bad trip.

@dashcloud Part of me feels like TSA Pre-check is a scam. "We're going to make getting on a plane really difficult and maybe slightly dangerous to your health with security measures that repeatedly fail when tested, but if you pay us an extra fee we'll let you skip all that because we ran a background check on you that says you're probably not the people we're trying to stop."

@jaremelz Share some stories from your travel agent days!

@dashcloud I could, but names will have to be changed to protect the slightly guilty. I'm running around today and going out tonight, but I'll try to remember a few.

I will say, my all time favorite client name was Tittylayo Ateabanjo...she was sweet too. The old fam trips were the stuff legends are made from. I miss those more than anything. My liver doesn't.

@jaremelz There are far more people on the Internet with that name than I would have suspected.

@jaremelz I really miss fam trips too. When they started cutting commissions and reducing perks, I knew it was time to get out.

@hallmike Oooh, the fam trips. We were located within a corporate travel company for a couple years in the early 90s. They always took us with, and corporate travel fam trips beat all others! Oh, the insane level of debauchery. San Francisco goes down as the most likely weekend to have ever gotten me arrested, up until recently.
Sigh, the good old days. *wipes away a single tear

@jaremelz Again with the not telling stories! It's like you enjoy teasing your audience. :)

@dashcloud As I'm sure@hallmike can attest to, most of the stories just go like this. ..

Get hotel to put you up in sinew decent rooms, get airline to fly you for next to nothing. Drink. Drink. Drink some more (all on the company's dime)...end up dancing in a 1920s slip on a barrel after 14 shots of Wild Turkey.

:)

@jaremelz Damn whoever always brought that slip!

Swap Wild Turkey with Singapore Sling / Beaujolais Nouveau / beer / sake, or whatever the national drink was.

I'm just glad phones with cameras weren't as prevalent back then.

@jaremelz *some. Don't meh before coffee

@hallmike So much tequila, as the great trip of 2004 proved.

And couldn't agree more, regarding the pictures. Although it would help to remember what happened half the time. Booze and retained memories, not so much a thing.

@pitamuffin ha! Nice catch, I didn't even notice, WTF? Normally it would have been the first pic I posted.

Hey meh - can we please get a new topic bubble pic (pinging @mehcus). How about this:

Thanks!

@mfladd Or he could leave it and we run with it. Something like, "Flights these days are like mug cakes because...

not much is included in either of them."

@pitamuffin that is pretty weird. the mug image was the last one saved to our image library before this topic was posted... it's like it failed to upload the first pic in the post and then fell back to the most recent upload. i fixed it.

@katylava Thank you :)

@OldCatLady
I'm interested. Thx.

@OldCatLady Whoa, I found New York to Helsinki for under $500 r/t in April!

@RedHot but you missed @fool skinny dipping, smoking ganja, and chill'n with the cast and crew of Apocalypse Now.

@djslack Thanks :) With my luck they will have oversold the slots for questions and I will be put on standby for the next show.

@mfladd which will aired at 4 am

@El_Oel that's why you need to crack open a window to vent