Fear of flying

Sorry, I just can't handle American. Their terminal at LAX is insanity and I just can't handle their bullshit. They might not be the worst but to me they are damn close to it. I'd rather fly US Air than American.

But I'm not smart, I fly United most of the time.

 

I agree and I did exactly that on my flights, but I would also imagine they're trained to remain calm under stressful situations so they don't get the passengers worked up. Don't you wonder why they don't do food service if it's really rough? Perhaps they're instructed to stay belted in so that no one sees the look of worry on their faces. Of course, it could be that they don't want the food carts running amok.

 

I agree. But American is the only airline (in the OneWorld program) i can apply the miles to where they will be worth a shit to me. I wont use BA or any of the others for a vacation anywhere.

BUT...the one thing i do like about American is their "Platinum Challenge". You can call them (it isnt listed on the website) and enroll in a program where if you fly more than 10,000 miles in 3 months you are automatically bumped up to Platinum.

It is about 5k to Rio de Janiero and back, so i got Platinum status in 1 month.

Keep that in mind if you know you are going to be flying with them alot in a short time period.

 

That's why I drove the boat


F that helo stuff....I never felt comfortable in the damn things.

But what was almost as bad was when we were doing helo evacuations off my boat. It seemed like that chopper was only 50' above me, and I always had an evac plan in my head if it looked like it was about to fall out of the sky on top of me:up:

 

Wha wha what!?!?

Do you then have to hit the 100K (or whatever they use to qualify) before the end of the year? I cut way back last year and sneaked out Gold with United but most likely will hit 100K this year.

Got to check to see where 'merican hubs out of for the DC area. Dulles and I might look at them, DCA they can keep their status.

 

Nope, once you do that and get Platinum, you keep it. You do have to earn your way to "Executive Platinum" though. But you can completely bypass Silver and Gold.

Like i said, it is a "word of mouth" kinda thing, you have to call and tell them you want to do it.

 

Yea, like that JetBlue attendant that activated the emergency slide at JFK

I think their training only goes so far. They're still young women (for the most part) and don't want to be a statistic any more than us.

We sat next to the flight attendant in Germany twice (jump seat is next to the center exit isle), so we talked to them about our rough flight. Goal to was to convince the misses that this is no big deal. Both of the attendants were quite cheerful and just shrugged off the turbulence as nothing. Don't think they were putting on act, for the plane was shaking so bad you could barely talk.

Overall, love the Lufthansa flight crews. Most professional, and best looking of any crews i've seen. :up:

Too bad some of thier US bound 747s need a date with the scrap yard :down:

 

Either you're old, or I was on the wrong flights. I'd guess the average age of all of the attendants on my flights were 48 or so.

Oh, and the DC-9 we flew on from Vegas, was definitely in need of a salvage yard! I sat right next to the starboard engine with no damn window in a torn up seat, and wondered how long that engine was going to last into our flight. It was making all sorts of squealing and whistling sounds.

 

You obviously havent flown with Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines or Emirates.

I used to fly Lufthansa from ATL to Frankfurt. The service was decent; not the best i have had and not the worst.

 

I was talking with some executive from singapore air when a few of the attendants went by. Blah blah blah, two sized outfits, size 1 and size zero and fired if they can't fit, blah blah blah, HOT!!!!

Swiss air has some cuties.

 

Anyone fly Air Canada? I'm headed to S. America next month and this will be my first time flying with them.

 

Yep. Well actually they aren't fired, they are laid off (without pay) until they can fit again. If Delta was like that, we would have to get our own drinks.

And Singapore Airlines has by far the best service of any airline I have ever traveled with (with Malaysian Airlines in 2nd). 1st class or economy, it doesnt matter. They treat you like you are the only person on the plane.

 

Doing it wrong...

 

I'm thinking of flight to and around Europe. Domestic US flights, yea, that's a different story. Seems to be a case of seniority over looks. . I also thought attendants had to be a under a maximum width, but seen a few exceptions to that rule here as well.


DC9s? they still fly those things? I thought they were all mothballed.

 

Sorry, it was actually an MD90. Pretty much the same thing though. That one definitely should have been put out of it's misery.

 

Air Canada is not bad, not great. You flying to Lima, Bogota or Buenos Aires? They used to fly to Cuzco a few years back. On occasion they have some really good deals if you don't mind flying the wrong way (up north to go to S. America) for an hour or two.

 

Thats hilarious, I flew from Izimir to Istanbul once on Turkish Airlines in the early 90's -they weren't that bad. I did avoid their meals. Landing form was better than that. (trust me I've been in worse)

 

I was VERY impressed when I flew Kuala Lumpur to London.

 

Santiago. lol...doing the northern migration from Philly to Toronto. But, it'll be a 777 on the long leg. Ends up being the same total duration as going from here to ATL or MIA on feeders with Delta and AA. But, better seating options so I went with Canada.

I flew to Lima to Cuzco on an a local carrier, I think it was called Americana. It's been awhile so I'm not 100% on it. Anyway, we were there flying missions with the Navy and our maintenance crew was bartering for equipment needs with the Americana maintenance crews. They were exchanging nitrogen, oxygen, etc for Jose, JD, etc. The Americana crew would drink the booze during lunch, go back to work and continue drinking. I was pretty nervous getting on that plane for that flight.

From Cuzco, we flew on a helo up to Machu Pichu. They flew Russian MI-6's. We then found out they averaged a 4 or 5 crashes a year. We then looked at the switch back road that we just took up to the ruins, with the big avalanche streaks going right through the road.

It wasn't looking good overall, I was just wondering which one was going to kill us.

 

I've heard bad things about the helo's that fly to Machu Pichu. I took the Hiram Bingham Train instead. (there's no way I was doing the 4 day hike on the Inca trail)