I'm sure that's true but I can't be that sympathetic. Once in Bangkok, I flew China Airlines to Taipei and the same Thai gate agent gave the boarding announcement in Chinese, Thai and (excellent) English. Accents are OK and while I've never experienced a gate agent who could not speak English clearly, yes, that should be a basic job requirement. I realize expecting trilingual gate agents would be a bit much in the U.S. but surely we can settle for clearly spoken English at least, no?

Another thing: Why no urinal booths (strategically placed swing door would do, like on Japanese bullet trains)? Would save space, queuing time, and make the floor much nicer for female passengers (and male passengers who wish to sit down).

Not really. You might tell the FAs and they might tell you that they'll inform the pilots, but there isn't much point in doing so most of the time so they likely don't bother.

I'd bet that the pilots are smart enough to know how the system actually works and that they know SOC is working on it.

I've been in the Ops center at ORD for United and they absolutely do keep track of delayed flights and potentially connecting (or mis-connecting) passengers and make a decision on what to do in every case. More often than not the answer is to keep as much as possible flying on time. Why? Delays cascade and the DoT reports delayed flights as a bad statistic, even if the reason for the delay is a "good" one. Combine that with the airlines giving their employees a bonus if they can hit on-time targets and there isn't much out there that will compel a carrier to delay a flight that doesn't need such. Even if it might mean inconveniencing some passengers.

Love the urinal idea...I'm sure my wife would agree as well!!

You would think that an airline could accept about 4 or 5 different kinds of credit cards and have nearly the entire world covered. I'm surprised that any airline, anywhere, would want to be handling cash in 2011. Giving 3 or 4 percent vig to the bank is a bargain compared to having FAs deal with cash.

Aren't most cards issued in most countries in the world capable of processing on one of the Visa, MC, or Amex networks?

I know this is an extreme example, but for West African airlines the most attractive credit card processing rates available are between 16-35%. Card penetration is <1% of the population. And chargebacks occur on >90% of transactions. Cash is the only logical option for transactions of up to $10k or so.

Agree with this. I noticed the newer portapottys have a urinal and toilet in a similar size space. I like the new NH 787 toilet seats with the bottom washing function!

I dislike the baggage checking fees. Now everyone tries to carry as much as possible onto the plane, and I often see people poaching overhead space, slipping a case into a forward compartment and then going to sit in the back. Furthermore, items that are really too large to be carry-ons are allowed on board, and everyone has to stand in the aisle behind people who are struggling to hoist overstuffed 22" suitcases into the overhead compartments.

I flew LHR->ORD right after the 2006 terrorism scare, but fortunately after the period when they had banned passengers from carrying on anything at all. At that time, the restriction was modified so that you could carry on one item that would fit under your seat. No rollaboards, no duffles. I had a large handbag that was just roomy enough to hold my laptop and my money and passport.

Well, I have never seen a plane empty out so fast as when we landed at ORD. Everyone picked up their one easily manageable little carry-on and walked off. With no one strugggling to lift rollaboards out of the overhead bins, there were no traffic jams in the aisles.

I would urge the airlines to reinstate their former policy of allowing one free checked bag and avoid the situation in which people who do follow the rules about carry-ons have to struggle to find space.

Yes. But good luck putting "must speak English without a thick accent" on a job requirement. The ACLU and Co. would be filing a lawsuit about 3 seconds after the requirement was posted. I don't blame the airlines for this, I blame our insane PC mentality for it. I've been on several flights where I couldn't understand most of what the FA was announcing because his/her accent was so thick. No big deal if the announcement is something about the peanuts about to be served. Big deal if the announcement is we're about to make an emergency landing and here is what you need to do....

Maybe women find urinal booths disgusting.. or if you're sitting on a toilet and because the urinal booth is in your face..

One slip of hand and eew..

Inaudible inflight announcements. Many times it is very difficult to hear the announcements on the plane. A couple of times I've asked a flight attendant what the announcement was, and they said it was about duty free sales or some such. One time they were giving connecting gate information, and I could only catch parts of it. Another time, on taxi out, we heard several loud bangs, an unintelligible announcement was made, and we returned to the gate. It turns out that we had a compressor stall, and they were going to locate another aircraft for us. But I didn't know this until I pressed my call button so I could ask a flight attendant. What if it were a real emergency and we couldn't hear the announcements? We wouldn't have any idea what was going on. By the way, there is nothing wrong with my hearing.

They have no business in there. I'm talking about separate booths - like on a shinkansen. They're quite tiny, because there is no need for seating room. I agree that having both in the same room (if that's the word) is a daft idea.

Spam!

Airlines have allowed their various opt-in email communications to devolve into basic spam programs.

Long ago, I used to eagerly open airline emails because I knew there was a good chance that it contained something of interest to me. They used to have regular, recurring weekend getaway fares that were actually attractive fares. Also, when they emailed a "fare sale", there was a good chance that it actually included sale fares.

If I had ORD set as my home airport, the email might have $159 R/T to SFO or $299 R/T to LHR or CDG. Something a bit interesting...not just a "normal" leisure fare that I could always find on the website.

Now it's just spam. They send so many more emails that don't contain actual sale fares that I rarely open any of them. I've taken to unsubscribing from some.

Some websites try to help by allowing you to set routes and target fares for alerts. So if ORD-LHR drops to $299 on any airline, Kayak (or whatever) will email me. That's fine and good...but I'd still be willing to open an email and read about a fare sale if I knew it was a legitimate fare sale.

I guess I'm not asking for any new functionality: just a more restrained use of emails. Unless there are different checkboxes: one for "Email me all fare sales" and a 2nd one for "Just email me the really good ones, like the one you usually announce in January for January-March travel."

In theory, you are correct. In practice, I really don't want to have to wait 30 minutes to get a checked bag after a short domestic flight. That bag may have been pilfered through by the bag contractors and/or TSA, and it may or may not arrive. If bag service was more efficient, reliable, and secure, I think there would be a lot more checking.

You're mistaken. Only protected classes are immune from hiring discrimination, and accents are not included. Virtually every white collar job advert in the United States used to include the phrase "No Jews". And many more included "No Negroes".

Whether or not the government intervention which drove societal change is "insane PC mentality" is a matter of opinion.

Seperate booths is ok..

Current setups would be tough.. would have to make one for the man.. and the other one with just a toilet accessed by both men and women.. if there is only two stalls say in the middle and/or back of the plane..