GregL

Last night I arrived back in St. Louis from a trip to visit my mom who has been sick in Seattle. Due to the inavailability of PlanAAhead coach seats, I was forced to choose between spending 40K miles for an AAnytime coach award or a PlanAAhead first class seat... guess which I chose.

Anyways, when waiting around the St. Louis airport for my friend giving me a ride, I was approached by a local TV camera crew who asked if I was delayed. When I replied "No, I got in twenty minute early," it was apparent I wasn't going to be on the news. The cameraman then turned in my direction and commented "Yeah, it seems everyone is early tonight!" I guess he just wanted to get the story covered and go home. (Today's paper said there were 30 flights delayed due to another security screening issue here in STL.)

On another note... F class service on TWA is still not up to AA catering standards.. although the F class cabin crew was one of the best I have seen on any airline -- drinks were constantly filled, they kept checking if we needed anything, and most of all had a great attitude.

Greg

afang

This makes one wonder about the Bias that News Stations have, and if they want a story about people getting delayed, they better have it

bonzaiflyer

Just goes to show, good news (and deeds) are seldom recognized by the media.

After all, look at the number of posts of good stuff -vs- bad stuff on all these boards-The bad outnumber the good. Or, how many times have you written a letter for something good someone did for you in their job -vs- writing for a screw up?

I know I'm guilty.

------------------
Not sure where I'm going, but I'm gettting there fast.

homey

i was once interviewed after getting off a plane by the local news in a little town in louisiana. they indeed were looking for a "story" and i didnt give it to them. they wanted to hear what a nightmare air travel was, and how expensive it was. i told them it was fine, that you need to have the proper expectations and attitude, and that it wasnt that expensive unless you purchase at the last minute. i also said that travellers are highly empowered (i hate that word, but i used it) these days, due to the competition among arlines and hotels and the internet. the nice thing was they labeled me a "frequent flyer" on the screen. then when the other four people pissed and moaned about the deplorable state of affairs, they were labeled as, "flies twice a year." it seemed to discount their opinion. when i talked to people in the office the next day, after we got past my celebrity status as a randomly interview dipwad, they had concluded that people who dont travel a lot are out of whack, and things are ok in the air. (this was last april)

let me say, THIS IS THE EXCEPTION. the local news here in austin is more normal, which is to say, it sucks. i once sat on the parking shuttle with a local anchor and cameraman, who were trying to interview travellers for a story, and i hassled them quite a bit, and all the other riders laughed at them. it was incredibly rewarding, as i feel that in general, those people should all be ashamed of themselves. she introduced herself, sort of to the whole bus, and asked us if we had any comments about the new airport. not wanting to miss the chance to really tell these folks how i felt about their news program, i said, "oh i cant wait to see the promo spots for your story!" i then lowered my voice to sound like those sensationalist narrators, or car dealership ad narrators, "tonight on your local news afffiliate we will struggle to fill 22 minutes of airtime with mundane stories that affect YOU [i pointed at her] accompanied by live video footage of our reporters standing on the side of the road somewhere! this just in: is austins new airport bad for your health? over four thousand people have died in austin this year, the same year the new aiport opened! is it coincidence? or is the new airport [i deepened my voice further] A DEATH TRAP! tune in at eleven, where we will have LIVE news footage of one of our junior reporters standing IN FRONT OF AN ACTUAL AIRPORT!"

the reporters mouth was hanging open, and the cameraman had a barely suppressed grin. the other folks on the bus all clapped their heads off, and after that, she was ignored, and everyone got into the act, mocking the way they try to scare people with their 20/20-like news slant. i think it was the longest three minute bus ride of her life.

too bad i was outbound, i would have watched the news that day to see if they ran anything. :-D

afang

Well done bonzaiflyer. I hope this will teach her a lesson!

kwick

I agree with the sentiment regarding television news generally and local news specifically, but I have to ask, whose fault is it? We the audience keep tuning in when stations offer the salacious details of death at the Austin airport and very few of us tune in to watch The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.

It's like politicians. Everyone loves to complain, but then we either don't vote or keep electing the same yahoos. If we want either of these things to change, we have to start making different choices.

Oh, and in case anyone forgot what forum this is: I flew AA last week. It was nice.

zipual

This may be off-topic, but talking about bias in the news reminded me of the book I just finished....Bias by Bernard Goldberg. He points out the Bias that is generated in the evening news with Dan, Peter and Tom. Pretty good book written by an insider.

------------------
Never put off till tomorrow the flight you can take today.

tfjim

I saw this news piece the other night on Channel 4, our CBS affiliate, it was a terrible example of "make-a-story-out-of-nothing" reporting. Matt Sczesny did the report. Shameless. I'm glad you didn't oblige them in any way. Local news cameras are best avoided in all instances in my opinion.

In any case, they showed interviews with two people, both of whom said they landed 20-30 minutes early but then had to wait on the tarmac until a gate opened up (normal under any circumstances). Both people eventually disembarked on time or early (8 minutes for one guy).

Guaranteed there will be another cheezy story on tonight as they're at it again at Lambert.

http://www.kmov.com/news/News_storie...t_baggage.html

GregL

Hmmm... maybe if I told them it took 5 minutes to get someone to operate the jetway, I could have made it...

Greg

Eli Gorin

I totally agree with this. Did you get the box meal too?

-Eli

------------------
Washington,DC/Miami
AAdvantage Gold

GregL

The box meal is only on medium-haul flights. West coast service still offers one hot and one cold meal choice.

But, unlike AA's serving of a salad course, followed by an entree, followed by a dessert, TWA flights still have a one-tray service with (at least on STL-SEA) a styrofoam dixie cup of ice cream for dessert.

The main entree choices were good (steak or chicken cesar salad) but the portions were not the size AA serves (at least prior to 9/11).

Greg