Morning Box:

Hope each of the dwellers herein is well!

Guy I grew up with was killed in an F-16 midair - just saw it on NJ.com. Wow.

Fallen N.J. fighter pilot is recalled as driven, loving family man

That's a real punch in the gut. Sorry to hear.

That sucks, sorry to hear. :(

Thanks. He grew up around the corner from me, and this is the fourth guy that I either knew or served with that has died too young in the last few years: two victims of motorcycle shenanigans, one cancer victim, and now a midair.

Condolences CM. We should keep him and his family in our prayers.

That's terrible, Mike. Sorry to hear it.

Very sorry to hear that Mike. :(

Well I say professional in a different way than you mean. You speak to the cabin crew were I meant to the style in which they serve. IE in LH Business they serve from the cart and the crew seems to have more people to serve than the BF crews usually have to serve. In addition, I don't like the, lets stack the cart so high that the meals get cold by the second cabin. I can't confirm that this happened but I could see were it could. I did feel like I never had to worry about a beverage though, that part of the service seemed great. I had fallen asleep when they did service for the arrival meal into DEN. The FA crew in my asile had already passed me up when they did service. I had to go to the galley and ask for a meal even though I was up and set by the time they were a few rows behind me and the crew in the other row was next to me. Nothing terrible but more an observation.

I dont know if I mentioned this in the Box Saturday or not but when talking with a UA Rep in the West RCC there she mentioned that the PC crew in DEN had come over and toured the facilities there. It was interesting that she brought up the union concerns to me as a patron. It seems that because of the unionized workers at United that a PC person could not work or help any of the UA folks that would be entering the lounge or needing assitance. To me this will set up the relationship for failure from the start. I could see a lot of people being very upset that they were unable to get assistance from an agent in the RCC/PC if this was the case. I know this is not the only issue, but interesting none the less. I am still surprised that a club of that size has such a small bar/bar area. seems concealed and hard to us if you ask me.

Mike, sorry to hear of your friend. My thoughts are with you and his family and friends.

Yes, I am awesome! Worked through my first case as a mortgage foreclosure mediator -- resulted in needing further discussion -- but got it wrapped up in 20 min!! So, am hanging out in the cafeteria as the Essex Cty courthouse -- having an early lunch before my 11:30am case!:cool:

Hope all are doing well, today!http://www.flyertalk.com/starsmilie.gif

So sorry to hear about that -- life is too short! It reminds us that we have to savor each moment -- & make memories whenever we can!:-:

With LH you know what you're going to get in terms of service. It's done with German efficiency. Nothing wrong with it, it's reliable and consistent. I've often called CO the American LH because of the consistency. CO FA's however generally do more personalized service under the constructs of a formalized process.

I've had a few run-ins with LH FA's which refused to deviate from their sequence of service.

One notable instance is after the supper service they were coming through with coffee and tea and I asked (in German) for some still water when they had a moment. I got a pretty strong lashing that now was not the time for the water service and that would be performed at 6 minutes after the hour and I just needed to wait. On any other carrier they would have said "no problem. We'll be back in a bit after done with the coffee service."

The other good example of LH robots was when I went to use the loo when they were passing out menus for the flight. I got to my seat and instead of leaving a menu there, the FA had simply gone past it. When she came back up I asked for a menu and she walked away from me.

She came back a few minutes later and asked to take my order. When I said "what are my options" she told me to consult my menu. I informed her I hadn't been provided one, and there was no one seated next to me, so I couldn't share theirs.

She huffed, and walked away, continuing to take orders from the rest of the cabin.

She came back to my seat and provided me with a menu. She then said "for lunch, you will have the spaetzle. It is what we have left. For pre-arrival snack, you will have the spaetzle, it is all we have left."

Sorry to hear that.

I am thinking about stocking up on the PHL-PHX fares to insure status for next year. $65 o/w is hard to beat.