Posted by Seth on October 4, 2009 under TSA | 
I spent much of Friday morning like I spend many mornings, doing a bit of work, reading news on the internet and watching SportsCenter on ESPN. The buzz of the day was all about the 2016 Summer Olympics, mostly about Chicago’s bid to host the games. Listening to the broadcasters or reading the US-based media (and random friends of mine who were blogging and tweeting about it) you’d think that Chicago was a shoo-in to win, or at least to represent well.
And then, at 11:10am EDT, reality set in. The results of the first round of balloting were announced by IOC President Rogge and Chicago was out. Yes, the selection of a host city is a terribly political process. How else do you explain that the President of the United States made a presentation and appeal to the IOC regarding the bid? And the politics were heard loud and clear. The rest of the world doesn’t really like the USA right now. Chicago finished in “fourth place of the four finalists,” according to the AP wire report. In other words they lost. Badly.
During the presentation to the IOC the Chicago Bid Committee was asked a number of things. Among them, how the United States would deal with the fact that the Olympics inherently involve thousands of foreign visitors entering the country and that the current policies aren’t particularly friendly towards such visits. The fact that such a question even needed to be asked is a rather sad commentary on just how far the country has fallen in the eyes of the world. But even worse was the answer.
This was the perfect opportunity to acknowledge that there is a problem and to outline a path over which it would be fixed. Doing things like rescinding the $10 ETSA fee that was recently announced and making it less onerous and expensive for visitors to apply for and receive tourist visas would be a great start. Increasing staffing at international airport clearance centers and killing the scheme that requires all visitors to be photographed and fingerprinted – just like suspected criminals when they are booked – would be a great step forward, too. But no, nothing even close to that came out.
Instead the Bid Committee replied that they would work with the US Federal Government to establish a new organization dedicated to facilitating the process for Olympic visitors. More layers of bureaucracy. More reams of paperwork. More red tape. And the same miserable, xenophobic and unfriendly policies.
Fortunately, the IOC and the international community saw through the charade and bounced Chicago from contention in the first round of voting. Sure, the pundits and the folks gathered on Daly Plaza in Chicago were stunned. But it makes a lot of sense in the real world. No one likes arrogance, a bully or an asshole, and the United States embodies all of those these days on the international stage, especially when it comes to opening borders. And that is a big part of what the Olympics are all about.
Congrats to Rio! Looking forward to the first South American-hosted Olympics.
Posted by Seth on September 13, 2009 under Uncategorized |
I’ve run into a lot of random people in my flying adventures. Whether meeting my parents for a drink in Rome or heading to Portland for drinks with friends just because it is there, fun things seem to always be around the next corner or at the next airport. Sitting in Chicago and searching for dinner near the jetBlue gate (easier said than done) I managed to fall into another such cool situation. I got to meet a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. The bad news is that I have absolutely no idea who he is.
A fire department water canon salute is not all that common at airports. They are generally saved for special occasions, like new routes being launched. So when a US Airways A320 pulled into its gate at O’Hare this afternoon I was somewhat surprised to see it receiving the treatment. It isn’t like they are adding service at Chicago. I had sufficient time and inclination so I made the quick run over to the next terminal to see what all the excitement was about. Once at the gate I noticed a few folks waving American flags and some carrying yellow roses so I figured it was something military related but still didn’t have much of a clue. Fortunately the gate agent took care of that when he announced that the first passenger deplaning was a recipient of the Medal of Honor. And the name was announced but I didn’t catch it. I was too busy moving over to the end of the jetway to try to grab a photo. I got this slightly blurry one and then had the opportunity to shake his hand and thank him for his service. But I have absolutely no idea who he is. There are only 94 living recipients right now so I think that I could probably track him down but I haven’t a chance to try yet. Still a very cool moment for me.
Posted by Seth on December 1, 2008 under Uncategorized |
I should’ve kept my mouth (fingers??) quiet about the relative ease of Thanksgiving travel on Thursday. Sunday made up for it in spades. Certainly some of the problems we experienced are just things that happened, but the troubles were definitely exacerbated along the way. Ultimately we got home safe, which is the most important part, but the 4 hour delay and various missteps along the way don’t make me particularly keen to travel with American Airlines again.
The day started with an attempt to catch an earlier flight. Sure, not a highly likely event on Thanksgiving Sunday, but the flights had seats for sale, so there was a chance. We got to the airport in plenty of time, made our way through security and made our way into the Admirals Club to wait out the standby list. When I asked at the counter they said no chance. And we missed the flight, but only by one position. In talking to another agent after missing the standby I learned that apparently our standby status was mis-coded by the agent in the lounge. Apparently we should’ve made the cut with room to spare.
Missing that first flight, combined with weather in St. Louis and New York meant no standby to be had. Fine, we’ll just wait for our original flight times. At least we got decent seat assignments out of the deal.
And wait we did.
Our flight eventually left St. Louis two hours late for Chicago. That shouldn’t have been too much of a problem as our connection was well delayed, too. Right up until we boarded in St. Louis. They managed to pull out a spare plane and crew to get the Chicago-Newark flight slightly back on time. We still had plenty of time on our connection and eventually started boarding the flight in Chicago with expectation of a departure only two hours late. Not horrible, but we didn’t miss our connection, and the flights to LaGuardia were much, much worse.
And then we sat. And sat. And sat. About 30 minutes after scheduled departure for the flight they finally made an announcement. Apparently the replacement crew that they had found for us actually wasn’t at the airport, and the pilots were over their FAA maximums for flying. Eventually they found another set of pilots, but that took a further two hours. We finally departed just over 4 hours late, including a bit of a wait while the taxiways around O’Hare were overcrowded by the volume of planes trying to take off at 11pm, all several hours later than they should’ve been.
Yes, flying through O’Hare was a mistake, one that I really try to avoid as often as possible. In this case I should’ve just paid the extra cash for the flight that didn’t involve Chicago. And flying on Sunday probably wasn’t a great idea either. Bad weather in both Chicago and New York certainly didn’t help the situation. Still, this is a pretty good reminder of the pain that can come with Thanksgiving weekend travel, and the way an unpleasant experience with a crew can bias someone badly against an airline for future flights.
