@pecan 3.14159265: Not sure if this scenario applies to Joy, but if she lives somewhere near Harrisburg PA or Wilmington DE, she might be in the habit of flying out of whichever airport has the better fare or is more convenient that day. She might have just forgotten which one she booked from. Either that, or she moved recently, and accidentally entered BWI out of habit. Whatever happened, it's nice of Airtran to fix her mistake at no extra charge - I'm sure it helped that Joy was willing to admit that she screwed up and didn't try to blame the airline!
@GitEmSteveDave_IsStrongInTheSnark: interesting! wonder how much they charge to ship a pound of gold?
Charlie Jane, do you know which method most of these use to count attendance or are the numbers already corrected for that? I know DragonCon counts by individuals, ie, someone with a four-day pass gets counted once. Some other cons would count that person four times (turnstile count, IIRC)?
Of the ones on this list, I've only attended D*C - is it the only one on the list that actually occurs in the hotels, as opposed to a convention center?
@NikkiSweet: I definitely see 4, not sure about the 5th. The three in the inset, one directly above the rightmost face from the inset, and maaaybe another directly below. Are those the ones you see?
@Geekybiker: If the online system can't deliver a firm quote, then it shouldn't be able to take a payment until the firm quote is delivered. If I am reading the OP correctly, the only piece of new information given between the first quote and the increase in premium was her credit card #.
so for all the people complaining that Wal-Mart should be free to price the way they want and that this is a non-story, do you seriously think there is something wrong with the news channel and Consumerist publicizing this information? Why shouldn't they provide info so that consumers, to the extent possible, can shop the way THEY want?
What sort of data would one need to prove that the cancellation was not weather-related? We have abundant evidence on one side that flights can be affected by weather conditions that are neither at your origin or destination, and also evidence that the airlines are willing to call things weather-related so that they don't have to pay up...how would you convince someone in court that it was the second, if the airline actually did show up? Would you have to have a statement from an airline employee?
I usually don't let my kitty actually have oatmeal (MINE) but she will sit there and meow until I ball up the little brown paper packet for her. She likes it far more than a standard wad of paper, so I figure there has to be something about the oatmeal that she loves!
Plus, part of the frustration of all of this, is that after you get that rare-as-a-unicorn competent person on the line, you never really get a chance to just rate THEM. If you get a feedback survey automated call, you end up getting one about your overall experience, or at least that's how it works in my area. If I talk to four idiots and a genius, I want to give the genius good marks, but I don't want to make it look like I thought the idiots did a good job too.
are they including their own "tablespoon"?
Probably best to take this up with AAA, actually. They may not realize that their members are being directed to Circuit City and receiving little or no benefit in return.
@steininger: Not quite. I am not sure if the term "real wages" was applied correctly in the summary, but per the article, if wages increase 2.8%, and inflation is 4%, then people can purchase less than last year. (The article says "wages", not "real wages".)
@ARP: Might I suggest that you use median for your average rather than mean? Median is more reflective of the population as a whole, while mean can be skewed by a small number of people making a lot more money.
@GavinEstecado: not sure which company that was, but fairly sure it was here in Maryland...they all managed to find some way to line their pockets in the name of promoting energy efficiency, either giving away lightbulbs or coupons and then charging everyone a fee that more than paid for the cost of it.
@linbey: I've actually seen including a picture as a "don't" on lists of resume do's and don'ts. the reasoning being that it gives none of the information needed to fairly evaluate you as a job candidate, and a lot of information that could be used to unfairly discriminate. However, I could see it being included in certain fields where the appearance of the applicant could be important.
@festivus802:
From the NYT article --
"The increased second-bag fee, and the other fees, will apply to passengers who book tickets on or after Thursday for travel after Tuesday."
So you are good.
Still trying to see if I can get Airtran to not charge me the second bag fee for my Labor Day trip though -- I booked my ticket before the fees were announced, and according to an article here, the Transportation Sec'y said they can't impose those retroactively. They're trying though, and I can't see who if anyone is actually enforcing that.
@Craig: ha! yes. that one does freak me out, because everyone should be able to expect some privacy there! Then again, I don't even like to continue regular conversations in the bathroom -- that might just be me. :) I once heard a woman drop either her phone or her headset into the toilet, fish it out, and immediately start in with the "oh no, can you hear me" without leaving the stall to clean it.
Obviously it's rude to expect everyone else in a line and the server to wait on you to finish your phone call. But if you're holding the call while you take care of the order and paying, then no. I'm SO sure that all of the people who are complaining that there is no way to be polite to a cashier and place an order while holding a call are absolute paragons of politeness to customer service workers at all times, yup. The sign would be a lot better if it said "If you're not ready to place your order, you will be sent to the back of the line." That way, it would cover people who can't hold their calls, people who don't know what they want, people who can't order and keep an eye on their kids, people who won't stop chatting w/ the person next to them...cellphones are just a scapegoat here.
@Rectilinear Propagation: agreed on that and TheLadyK's note...I wouldn't hold any conversation in public that I wouldn't hold if the person was standing right next to me. And I'm someone who says "Can we NOT talk about that here?" with half the conversations my parents come up with in public when I visit! But otherwise, I don't see what it matters -- I think a lot of the people that freak out at overhearing half of a perfectly innocuous conversation are actually just annoyed at not being able to overhear the whole thing.
and how much of the criticism here is iPhone vs. an ideal, rather than iPhone vs. other phones? for those of us who don't keep phone features and stats handy, what phones are considered better alternatives based on these criticisms?
I'd be interested in some more info...I see a lot of people who would also be in the same whinefest if coach passengers got off ahead of them as a first class passenger, but I don't see where it says that all coach passengers were allowed to exit ahead of all first class passengers...just this guy. If he was drunk enough to think pulling the chute was a good plan, he was probably drunk enough to be a hazard by way of blocking those exiting the plane and might have been told to stay put. We don't know. Paying more doesn't entitle him to inconvenience or endanger everyone else.
@fostina1: Congratulations! You have a regular schtick. I am so happy for you.
@Eyebrows McGee: Oh, I had a run-in once with a salesman at Carmax that was SURE that even though his sales price was higher than what I had been quoted at a different dealership, they could finance for less and come out cheaper. He was just stunned when I pulled out my vintage graphing calculator with the formula programmed and did the math right there to prove him wrong. He had already been asking about "my boyfriend" (noting that I wasn't wearing a ring) and evidently hadn't thought that I was capable of doing math myself.
@Kevin Cotter: I love the prenegotiated price programs that Costco, AAA and the credit unions operate. They're a great tool for starting the shopping and evaluating dealerships, as well as for rookie shoppers like I was last time, and you're under no obligation to buy through them if you can get a better deal elsewhere. I did end up buying my first car through the program, exactly because I ended up with a salesperson who found the car I wanted, told me the prenegotiated price up front, and didn't try to jack me around with dealer extras -- and then the other dealerships wouldn't come down to that prenegotiated level (which at the time was $1000 below invoice plus any factory rebate). Plus, if you still run into salespeople who try to jack you around by NOT telling you a number or a number that is other than what the program agreed to, it's really fun to report them back to the program -- at least in my experience with the credit union program, they took that very seriously.
