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The old visuals in my mind? When that damn field goal kicker for the Los Angeles Rams kicked one down the middle to keep the Saints out of the playoffs in the mid-80s. Or then there is the video in my head of the Monday Night Football game I attended in the Dome when Kenny Stabler and the Oakland Raiders erased a 28 point half-time deficit to come back and beat the Saints. Aint's bags. Archie Manning being booed off the field and trash dumped on his head.
I suppose my greatest ire is reserved for Saints owner Tom Benson, who clearly thought he was going to pick up the team and move it to San Antonio after Katrina. Watching him and his squirmy comments after Katrina made me want to reach through my television and strangle him.
But thankfully -- then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue had other ideas. Thank you Paul.
This morning, I am happy to report that the new visual in my mind is that of Drew Brees with his son on the podium last night -- enjoying the moment.
May we all have those times in our lives when we too can -- enjoy the moment.
Speaking of -- any of you want to enjoy a PlaneBuzz moment?
After the return of our long-lost guest columnist Frank Arciuolo last week, (and yes, I was glad to read that some of you got as much of a kick out of his photo as I did), I wanted to let all of you know that, yes, PlaneBuzz is always open to guess columnists.
Last year I began to focus more of my time and attention to our flagship publication of the PlaneBusiness empire, PlaneBusiness Banter. Why? Because those folks who subscribe to PBB deserve the bulk of my attention.
There are any number of blog sites/news sites now that can give you news-breaking tidbits about the various airline-industry antics. At no charge.
But I have no desire to try and compete in that league. I can't. Unless I want to go on food stamps and bask in the knowledge that I am working for a non-profit entity.
And no, I have no desire to do that. No sir-ee.
As a result, for the last six months or so I have struggled with just what I should and should not write about here in PlaneBuzz.
Going forward, I would like to hear from more of you about whatever topics are important to you -- and if you'd like to jot down some of your own thoughts -- just drop me an email.
In addition, from time to time, I am now going to post material from PBB either directly here in PlaneBuzz or I will link to it from here, enabling everyone to read certain columns or interviews. But these will be posted on a delayed basis. Subscribers to PBB will continue to get first dibs.
The first of these reposted pieces will come this week, when, after a tremendous number of requests to do so, I will let everyone read my recent interview with the Chairman of the Delta Air Lines ALPA MEC -- Lee Moak.
Again, look for access to that lengthy interview here in PlaneBuzz this week.
But again -- if any of you have a desire to tell all of us how you feel about something pertaining to the airline industry -- drop me a note. We can hash it out. Polish it up. And give you your own chance at having your own PlaneBuzz "moment."
Submission inquiries can be sent directly to me at hhegeman@planebusiness.com.
Just put "Buzz Comment" in the header of the email.
Now, excuse me while I go finish the in-depth earnings report on Allegiant Travel Company, parent of Allegiant Airlines, that will be included in this week's PlaneBusiness Banter. Yep, another mega-earnings issue is on tap this week. This week we have an interesting mix of airlines that we take a closer look at -- AirTran, Allegiant, and Alaska Air Group.
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Editor's Note: This week I welcome a previous contributor to PlaneBuzz, Frank Arciuolo. Frank has not been seen around these parts in a long time. For reasons he talks about in his latest effort. I figure he felt sorry for me after it took him two hours to read this week's issue of PBB, and thought the environs around here had been much too quiet!
In his previous efforts in PlaneBuzz, we used a "Godzilla" rendering for his ID photo. I figured it's time you get to see the real deal. Mud and all. Enjoy!
Hi there, Godzilla here. I know it’s been a very long time since I’ve contributed to PlaneBuzz but I’ve been preoccupied with some of the more mundane things in life – like trying to find gainful employment. My plan when I left my last job at the beginning of 2008 was to do some part time flight instruction and get a part time job as an FO on a corporate jet – I even got my CE500 type rating.However, like they did so many other people, circumstances conspired against me. Taking flying lessons is well down the list of priorities for most people now, if it makes the list at all. And right seat jobs in corporate aviation are as scarce as, well, the hair on my head.
But, I digress. Anyway, thanks to Holly for letting me fill my idle time and the pages of PlaneBuzz simultaneously.
You know the feeling an ex-airport ticket agent gets when he/she wakes up on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, looks out the window to see dense fog – then rolls over and goes back to sleep because they are off that day? That’s the feeling I got when reading about recent events at WestJet concerning their reservations system cutover and the system cutover at JetBlue this weekend.
In my previous lives I’ve participated in about 8 reservation system cutovers; one as an airline employee and the others as an interested bystander, AKA a vendor. My advice to any IT person working at an airline that is considering switching reservations systems is to dust off the resume and start networking (the people kind). People in the reservations system business (the “biz”) often refer euphemistically to a reservations system cutover as a migration. That’s a nice word, migration. It gives one the vision of a flock of Canadian geese traveling to MIA for a nice warm winter.
However a reservations system migration, or at least the ones I’ve been involved in, does NOT resemble a migration of birds to South Beach for the winter. Picture a reservations system migration as a flock of 1 million geese leaving Canada on a Friday night. On Saturday morning nobody can find ANY geese ANYWHERE. By Saturday mid afternoon 3 million birds arrive in Tampa, but only 25% of them are actually the geese that left Canada Friday night, the rest are pigeons. By Saturday night trucks have been chartered to take ALL of the birds from TPA to MIA because nobody wants to let them out of their sight. The trucks arrive in MIA Sunday morning and are gone through manually (by IT employees) to determine which are the geese they want to keep and which are the pigeons. Sunday night the airline CEO does the math and realizes that 25% of 3 million does NOT equal the 1 million geese he had Friday night. Where are the rest of the geese? Holy crap, what’d we do with those pigeons? Resumes and bird poo simultaneously hit the mail and the fan Monday morning.
Funny story, yes, but perhaps more real than you think. Airline reservations are literally money in the bank. Moving this valuable asset from one point in cyber space to another is fraught with land mines. There are a host of technical issues that would make your eyes glaze over and I’d be happy to talk about them in detail to any other IT geeks out there, but that’s not today’s point.
Since migrating is such a gut wrenching experience where the BEST result is a zero sum gain (and the worst result is working in bird poo), don’t do it! Some cutovers are unavoidable, like the DL/NW move and whatever will eventually happen with YX/F9 and the boyz in IND. Those cases also represent mergers/acquisitions, where the party on each side of the transaction has an interest in avoiding a train wreck. Migrations that are the riskiest are the ones where an airline is changing reservations systems they may have outgrown, or perhaps for a better deal.
Traditional hosting or multi host systems are very good at high volume transactions and at communicating with Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and other systems. Because they communicate with external systems so well, traditional host systems can greatly expand an airline’s distribution reach. However, since those external systems, by design, withhold certain information from the host system (like fare basis code, form of payment, and other key customer information), the host system has difficulty figuring out of someone booking in an external system has simply reserved a seat or has actually purchased a ticket. Traditional host systems are excellent for generating large volumes of bookings and they can ensure tickets are purchased on booking within its system, but not as good as ensuring the purchase of bookings made outside its system.
The newer reservations systems are much slicker at communicating with customers within their system and with the airline’s web site, but are not very good at communicating with outside GDS and other systems. Like the traditional hosting systems, they are good at forcing the customer to purchase a ticket before ending the reservation. One big advantage they have over traditional hosting systems is that the newer systems create a database of the airline reservations. A real database allows the airline to do detailed analysis of its customers and to effectively execute Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) to its customers based on their purchases. This type of information makes airline marketing people salivate at the possibilities for the easiest type of marketing there is – to your existing customer.
For a boutique type airline starting out that has made the decision to remain out of the GDS and its evil and expensive booking fees, the selection of a reservations system would lean towards one that allows better CRM. However if the airline grows to a point where expanding the distribution network is necessary, as is agreeing to booking fees and all the rest, they’ve chosen the wrong reservations hosting system.
It makes sense to either add the robust external communication feature to the true reservation database system, or add the relational database feature to the traditional hosting systems. The first system to truly do that will have the golden egg. However, there are immense technical challenges of taking the incredibly dense set of text files (which is really what they are) that are contained in the reservations systems of AA, UA, DL, etc. and indexing them into a relational database. That would seem to argue for a solution that “bolts on” to the big hosting system and allows both systems to do what they do best.
Until this happens, try to be on vacation the weekend your airline reservations migrate!
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Hello everyone.
The latest issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. Subscribers can access this week's issue here.
I think it's going to run well over 100 pages in length this week as we have four in-depth earnings reviews.
So who are we dissecting this week?
Delta Air Lines, US Airways, United Airlines, and JetBlue.
Our quick take on the results posted by the four airlines?
United Airlines posted a very, very, good quarter.
They surprised everybody. The airline's earnings call was also excellent. I suspect that CFO Kathryn Mikells may be part of this refreshing change. Speaking of -- the airline is going to upgrade its monthly traffic reports -- beginning with this month's edition. Included in the new version? RASM estimates. Again, as Kathy said in the airline's call -- just another attempt to increase transparency. It is appreciated.
Which reminds me. Just where is Jake Brace anyway? Frankly I think the airline's financial management has improved greatly since Mr. Brace left the building.
JetBlue had a fairly good quarter, but the airline apparently scared analysts and investors with their guidance. In addition the airline just made the big cutover to a brand new Sabre reservations system this last weekend. That process is going to take a while to get settled before the folks at the airline can start revving the engines. Add this to the fact that the Bay Runway at JFK International is going to be out of commission starting March 1 -- and JetBlue, along with other airline users of the airport are cutting back flights from the airport voluntarily in an attempt to keep delays to a minimum, and well -- the revenue picture going forward is a bit murky.
US Airways had a pretty good quarter as well. The airline didn't post a net profit, but it did post an operating profit. More importantly, the airline has worked diligently to get its liquidity level back up to a more comfortable position. More importantly, in this quarter's earnings call we get a nice back and forth between JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker and US Airways President Scott Kirby on just whether or not Southwest Airlines is, or is not, losing money by not charging for bags. Conversely, are other airlines losing money because they are? Just another educational experience, compliments of the US Airways management team.
Then there was Delta. If you want to participate in an exercise in futility, try to make heads or tails out of the airline's year-over-year numbers. As a result of the merger with Northwest, the year-over-year comparisons here are all basically worthless. As for the quarter -- the airline missed on the revenue side.
All this and a whole lot more in this week's mega-earnings issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.
It's been almost 12 hours, but the shock has still not completely worn off.
Or maybe it's just my mind and body trying to get back to some semblance of normal after experiencing almost four hours of what was a roller coaster of emotions consisting primarily of terror and anxiety, interrupted occasionally by bursts of excitement. Only to be followed by attempts to keep that nauseous sense of dread from taking over the ride.
Yes, the New Orleans Saints are headed to the Superbowl.
There, they will meet New Orleans-native son Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.
Yes, that same Peyton Manning who grew up watching his father, quarterback Archie Manning, staring up at the roof of the Superdome more often than not on Sunday afternoons -- as the New Orleans Saints of another era were routinely pummeled by opposing teams.
Did I ever possess an "Aint's Bag"? Of course I did. Yours truly can remember many a game in the Superdome where I, along with a group of close pals, would drag in boxes of Popeye's Fried Chicken, along with the requisite strategically hidden stashes of liquid additives for our Coca-Colas, up to the nosebleed seats in the Terrace level in the Louisiana Superdome. Then, almost without fail, we would masochistically endure yet another heart-breaking loss by the then-hapless boys in the black and gold.
But not before we had made our hands sore and red from banging on the aluminum panels that cover the walls in the upper deck of the stadium. They made a huge racket.
And not before we had completely lost our voices.
But for some strange reason, we never lost our faith.
Faith in the team, and, well, in the city itself. And trust me, living in New Orleans will test your faith every single day -- in one way or another.
In fact, the game last night? Long periods of anxiety interrupted by bursts of over-the-top happiness, overlaid with this huge sense of dread that threatens to take over at any time? Yep. That's is essentially the metaphor for what it means to live in the city.
As I tell a lot of people -- it's just too damn complicated to explain. But once you experience it, you're doomed. Nothing else ever comes close.
You might as well face it -- you are going to be hearing a lot about New Orleans from the usual press sources over the next two weeks. Please be patient. Let the folks who still call the city home -- let them enjoy their time in the sun. They more than deserve it.
Besides, think of what the alternative would have been. Instead of learning what it means to "Second Line," what a truly great guy Drew Brees is in every sense of the word, and how you make barbecued shrimp from Mr. B's, you could be watching film clips of pine trees in Kiln, Mississippi, and yet another interview of a deliberately pensive Brett Favre, as he talks about how whether the Superbowl will be his last game or not.
Bzzzzzt. Not.
Brett, it really is now time to go ride that tractor. Ride, baby, ride.
And how 'bout the young man who calmly booted that winning field goal in overtime? Garrett Hartley is a product of that Texas high school football powerhouse that sits just down the road from the Worldwide Headquarters -- Southlake Carroll High School.
I mean, what else can one ask for?
Well, I guess I could ask for someone else to come in my office today and finish writing this mega-earnings issue of PlaneBusiness Banter that is sitting on my computer -- so I could just crawl the net and read all the stories I can find about the game. And continue to wallow in the warmth of the win.
But alas, duty calls. Subscribers, this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter will be posted later today. Talk to you then.
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I had an interesting note from a former subscriber to PlaneBusiness Banter this afternoon. Since he no longer reads us on a weekly basis, he took my earlier post about the Frontier employee rogue blog as implying that I am not a fan of the Republic Holdings/Frontier/Midwest Airlines experiment.
Au contraire. If any of you out there think the same -- continue reading.
I have been a pretty optimistic supporter of Mr. Bedford's experiment over the last year. Although I have been concerned about his lack of cash. But for those of you who are subscribers and read my review of the Republic Holdings third quarter earnings call in November -- you know that I continued, at that point, to give the boys in Indy the benefit of the doubt as they made their way across the mine-filled tundra of their cut and paste business plan. With two BIG conditions.
Those conditions were: that the guts of the Frontier Airlines management team, headed by Sean Menke stay associated with the new venture. In November, this was assumed to be the case.
This is no longer the case.
Second condition: that the brain trust at Republic Holdings did not dismiss the incredible value of the employee/management relationship at Frontier Airlines. That it not start to rip that culture apart -- all in the name of making some numbers look better.
Unfortunately, I am afraid now that the continuation of that valuable Frontier culture seems to be in danger -- given some moves of late by the Republic management team.
So no -- I was, up until recently, a rather optimistic observer of the grand experiment.
Then again, I'm not saying that the whole thing is dead -- I'm just not encouraged by the recent news coming out of Indianapolis. Much less my email box -- especially from those close to the Frontier operation.
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One of the things that airline management team members have to understand is this -- In this day of blogs and internet chat rooms -- you can't sweep the voice of concerned and/or pissed off and/or disillusioned employees under the rug like you used to years ago.
Nope. Those days are long gone.
Need we talk about the series of "Hitler" videos from the various airline pilot groups that popped up last year?
Today, the latest example of this: A blog by the name of "All Things Frontier Airlines."
No, I don't know who is writing this effort, but whoever it is is both very knowledgeable about the airline, and he/she has a razor wit to boot.
Kudos to whomever is writing this. It is one of the better "rogue" efforts we've seen in a long time.
Here is a snippet from the Thursday post.
]]>"Today, Republic found themselves in the news twice. The first article which appeared in the Denver Post, was aptly named "Republic chief has "work to do". For the most part the article was pretty mundane, but for me the most telling quote in the piece was, "Bedford said there are no immediate plans to replace Menke but that if a successor is named, the person will be added at Republic headquarters." Apparently, Bedford has obtained a copy of "Revenue Management for Dummies" and feels that he no longer needs the services of anyone with experience in that field or that moving the functions to Indianapolis will magically solve all of those issues like it has everything else. The article goes on to mention that Frontier will be receiving 3 Airbus 330's and 7 Embraer 190 aircraft. I truly hope that the A330 mention was a misquote or a typo instead of A320, but at this point I can't say I would be surprised if it was not and Mr. Bedford doesn't realize the differences in the aircraft. Most of all, I really like the title of this article, "Republic chief has "work to do". Naturally, I began to wonder what work Mr. Bedford has in store. After much searching, I was finally able to obtain this mysterious "To Do" list and as I think you will see, it offers much insight on what it takes to be the CEO at Republic Airways.
Brian Bedford To Do list:
- Check E-Mail and forward "Obama no birth certificate email" again to the non believers.
- Look up current fuel prices and figure out what can be moved to Indianapolis or who's pay can be cut as a result.
- Take a nap.
- Call CEO of Qwest and convince him to move the business and employees to Indianapolis.
- Prepare weekly letter to employees by incorporating at least 2 scriptures, 1 quote from Winston Churchill, and the evils of same sex marriage."
The New Orleans Saints.
I'm too nervous to write much. Headline says it all.
For those of you who are Phoenix Cardinal fans who I've got bets with on the outcome of the game today -- get ready to pay up.
Talk to you guys later.
]]>No, I am not on another planet.
Yes, of course I am aware the airline filed for bankruptcy.
Yes, I'll be talking about it in this week's issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.
But I have what I think is a pretty good reason for not jumping in here and jabbering about Mesa, or anything else for that matter.
It goes something like this.
Over the last couple of days I traveled to New Orleans where I retrieved PlaneDad, who is now 90. We both drove back to the DFW Worldwide Headquarters, as he planned on staying in this part of the world for a week or so.
Up until that point, all was well, including a perfect flight for me on Southwest Airlines over to MSY.
But it was after he and I returned to DFW that the story takes a little more disheartening turn, for you see, my father decided in the early AM hours to go out to his car to retrieve a banana that he had brought with him. The banana, of course, was to go on his shredded wheat.
Yes, PlaneDad is a creature of habit. No shredded wheat without the banana. And the 2% milk. Accompanied, of course, by a glass of pulpless orange juice.
I told him no, don't go out there. It is icy. He said he would be careful. I said again, no, I will go get my shoes. Just sit down.
You know where this is headed.
I went in to put my shoes and my coat on -- and he went out the door. And not 10 seconds later, he was down on the driveway pavement of the Worldwide Headquarters with what appeared to be, and as of today has been confirmed -- a shattered left hip.
So pardon my silence on all things airline for the last couple of days -- particularly the news concerning the Mesa bankruptcy.
Then again -- I noted when we awarded the Mesa Air Group Board of Directors with our PlaneBusiness Ron Allen Airline Mismanagement Award two years ago that bankruptcy was probably a foregone conclusion for the airline.
Two years ago.
Can't say I didn't give you plenty of warning.
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I am very happy to report that the braintrust at the TSA (is that an accurate assumption?) decided that perhaps slapping subpoenas on travel-site bloggers who posted revised TSA passenger security guidelines that were pretty readily available all over the web anyway was a big waste of time.
But not before some damage was done. Specifically to blogger Steve Frischling's hard drive.
But before I get into the details -- a mea culpa. I forgot to note the address of Steve's blog in my earlier post on this debacle. Steve, who is a photographer when not posting to one of his blogs, writes FlyingWithFish. I had previously only mentioned his work involving the KLM blog.
On New Year's Eve the TSA apparently notified both Steve and Chris Elliott that the previously served subpoenas on both were being dropped in their entirety.
What has not been determined yet is whether or not the TSA is going to repair or replace Steve's MacBook which they confiscated earlier in the week in their quest to find "the truth."
Apparently the machine's hard drive is toast. And of course, everything that was on it. I only hope Steve had backed up all his photographs recently.
Ugh.
Thank you to whomever it was at the TSA who did the right thing -- finally -- and dropped the subpoenas.
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Hello everyone.
Alas, the holidays are almost over. Sigh. That means it's time for yours truly to get back to work. And back here in PlaneBuzz.
You know, most holiday periods are relatively quiet in the airline industry. For the most part, Wall Street analysts are not cranking out research notes. All that fourth quarter "pre-announcement" Wall Street stuff has already been disseminated prior to Christmas. Airline CEOs are rarely squawking. It's not usually a time for any "big time" announcements concerning mergers or other nefarious activities.
This is not the case on the front lines of any given airline's operations, of course, where airline employees are faced with huge crowds of passengers who are sometimes not in the best of holiday spirits. Especially when flights are cancelled, packed to the gills, or weather rears its ugly head.
But I think it would be safe to say that this particular holiday season has been, well, how can I say this? Just a little bit too newsworthy.
Obviously the biggest topic on your minds, as judged by the contents of my email folder, is the continuing actions of the TSA, following the failed attempt by a passenger to detonate an explosive device on Delta Air Lines/Northwest Airlines flight 253 which operated between Amsterdam and Detroit Christmas day.
By now you all know the basics.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year old Nigerian, successfully passed through a security check at the gate in Amsterdam. This check included a hand baggage scan and a metal detector.
Officials say that Abdulmutallab then apparently assembled the explosive device, which included 80 grams of Pentrite, or PETN, in the aircraft lavatory -- after which he returned to his seat where he attempted to detonate the device using a syringe of chemicals.
Passengers and aircraft crew members intervened, and the plane landed safely.
To say that things have been a bit confusing and frustrating for both airline passengers and airline employees since then would be a gross understatement.
Information being given passengers concerning what they can and cannot do while onboard aircraft has seemed to change every hour this week. In some cases it depends on just what particular flight you are on, apparently. One industry veteran we know told us that on his long-haul trans-Pacific flight home this week he was told by the Purser that no, there was no ban on passengers getting up from their seat in the last hour of the flight. This had been the case, however, when this same person flew in the opposite direction earlier in the week. According to the Purser, "All of that is up to the discretion of the Captain."
Huh?
I somehow don't think that is the case.
Meanwhile, our email bag is packed with emails from airline employees, many of whom are flight attendants and pilots -- checking in with their take on how ridiculous the TSA has been in the last week.
But as bad, frustrating, and confusing as things have been at U.S. airports, I don't think they are nearly as bad as they are in Canada, where TSA-mandated emergency rule changes to boarding procedures for U.S. bound flights there have made it a wonder any passengers are flying to the U.S. at all.
As of this writing, if you are in Canada and trying to fly in the U.S, you can only bring "small" purses, laptops, and a very small list of items, including some medical supplies, onboard an aircraft. That's it.
We talked to one subscriber who works with Air Canada yesterday and he was so upset he could hardly keep the words in the email. WestJet passengers are facing the same new "rules."
We are told that U.S. custom agents are telling U.S. bound passengers who have purses they consider to be "too large" that they cannot get on a flight unless those purses are checked.
It got so ugly this week that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called in to help with the process. This, after lines snaking out of Toronto's Pearson International had passengers standing for three hours or more and hundreds of flights had to be cancelled as a part of the collateral damage.
But draconian rules regarding onboard carry-ons is not the only problem. U.S.-bound passengers out of Canada must also now pass through three levels of security: regular pre-flight passenger screening, U.S. Customs, and additional screening that can include physical pat-downs.
And if all of this wasn't enough -- and clearly this next situation hits close to home for me -- TSA special agents went after travel bloggers Chris Elliott and Steve Frischling this week for writing about changes in security procedures put in place by the TSA after the bombing attempt.
Frischling writes a blog for KLM. Chris writes the blog Elliott.
According to Chris's blog,
"We had just put the kids in the bathtub when [TSA] Special Agent Robert Flaherty knocked on my front door with a subpoena. He was very polite, and used "sir" a lot, and he said he just wanted a name: Who sent me the security directive?
I invited Flaherty to sit down in the living room and introduced him to my cats, who seemed to take a liking to him. The kids came by to say hello, too.
'A subpoena?' I asked the special agent. 'Is that really necessary?'
'Sir,' he repeated. 'You’ve been served.'"
Being the good blogger that he is, Chris advised him that he would call his attorney and be back in touch.
According to a New York Times article this morning,
I can certainly relate to that. That is exactly how it goes. Something shows up in our email box. Sometimes we know who sent it. Sometimes we don't."Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.
''It literally showed up in my box,'' Frischling told The Associated Press. ''I do not know who it came from.'' He said he provided the agents a signed statement to that effect.
Clearly these two went with the information.
But hey, you J. Edgar Hoover types with the TSA -- back off. The information was "out there."
I can state, flatly, that there were discussions of parts of the new rules included in emails to me. Not the entire documents. But let's just put it this way -- when these directives came down on the heads of the airlines -- it was to be expected that the gist of them would be "out there" in no short order.
Chris and Steve did not obtain this information "illegally," nor was the fact they posted the information going to interfere with any "security" measures contained in the documents. After all -- thousands of airline employees received the same information. Or are all airline employees who received the information required to sign confidentiality statements? I don't think so.
Ridiculous. Just friggin' ridiculous.
Just like most everything else we've seen and heard from the TSA over the last week as the government tries, once again, to cover its rear as once again, the futility of taking our shoes off and removing our clothes every time we fly is exposed, once again, to be the transparent exercise in futility that it has always been.
Yes, there's clearly a lot more to be said about all this.
But for now -- I'll close today with a short and sweet admonition.
Happy New Year everyone!
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