Hooters Air Trip Report
 

Not mine, but published on Page C-2 of today's Washington Post. You'll find the full story at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Jun24.html

Here's an excerpt:

Grandma Hooter, as Joyce Wilkie likes to call herself, is flirting again. The 56-year-old flight attendant works the aisle on a mid-June Hooters Air jaunt from Baltimore to Myrtle Beach, S.C., like a drink-pouring, nearest-exit-pointing Mae West.

Dressed in a conventional navy blue flight skirt and flashing a wicked grin, Wilkie -- one of three attendants on board with Federal Aviation Administration training -- doesn't have to be so chummy. That's the job of the two scantily clad blond women with smiles as bright as their orange hot pants at the front of the plane.

But we'll get to those giggly, wiggly Hooters Girls in a moment. It seems that Grandma Hooter is about to make her move.

"I want you to have this," Wilkie whispers in my ear. She drops a Hootersfied version of those classic toy pilot wings in my lap. It's a metal pin featuring a half-naked blond woman straddling a gaudily decorated orange-and-white plane.

Thanks for the link.

I liked this one
Sixty-nine-year-old Jackie Freundel of Gettysburg, Pa., didn't know much about Hooters before boarding. Her son ... bought her the ticket ... she didn't know what to expect.

start collecting any inflight give away junk you can from Hooters..it will be worth more when they go belly up http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

wonder why you have to specify your gender when you enter the Washington Post site...is this co-branding?

or more appropriately tits-up

Hope they carry an automated external defibrillator with them for those cases...

Interesting article, thanks for the link. My favorite line was, "the only real drawback to flying on Hooters Air is the shame factor. When a shuttle driver at BWI asks for airlines, I receive more than a few disapproving looks when I cheerfully shout, "Hooters, please!" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I flew on Hooters Air (H1) a few weeks ago ATL-MYR. I keep meaning to type up a report, but haven't found the time. A few random comments for those interested:

In a nutshell, I was not particularly impressed. The flight was mildly choppy, which meant the seatbelt sign was on about 3/4 of the way. And with the seatbelt sign on, the Hooters girls just sit on their cute butts in row 1 doing nothing.

Service-wise, the older F/As were great, nonetheless. But c'mon, I don't travel on Hooters to get served by ummm... normal flight attandents.

There was a full beverage service (sodas, juice, coffee etc...). Plus a sausage muffin wrappen in foil (looked worse than it tasted, but only just).

The aircraft was a B737-200 built in 1982 (N252TR from memory). It was immaculate inside, and, in fact, looked a heck of a lot better than most a/c I have travelled on in the US.

Seating was excellent. The article says it is first class seating which is not entirely true. It is laid-out 3-3 in one class. The seats are very comfortable and are made out of leather. The big plus in my book is the seat pitch, which seems as good if not a little better than UA's Y+ on 320s.

Ground handling at ATL is done by Delta, and is fine. Separate (deserted) check-in queues for Hooters.

If Hooters is to succeed (IMHO) they need to train the Hooters Girls to be the F/As. At the minute they really just sit there and do nothing during most of the flight. Even if our flight wasn't so turbulent, they still wouldn't have been able to do much as the drink carts were blocking the aisles, and these were manned by the F/As. If SQ can train their pretty young girls to be F/As, then H1 can certainly find some Hooters girls who they can train to FAA standards.

For those interested, they have a trivia game where they ask you a whole stack of hooters-type questions (as mentioned in the article). There is also the opportunity to purchase Hooters Air T-Shirts at USD10 a pop. We bought 4 of these shirts because we thought they would be worth somethinbg when the airline collapses ;-) The shirts have on the back "Hooters Air - Getting there is half (which is crossed out and replaced with ALL) the fun.

And finally, as much as they thought they would, they did not include the following line in their safety demo:

In the event of a water-landing, your flight attendents can be used as a flotation device.

As a side-note:
The good old TSA in MYR must be the most under-employed of all TSA employees (and that is a BIIIIG call). We had SSSS on our departing flight ex-MYR and we have never had such a thorough grilling.

Even the guy who swabbed our checked bag for explosives went through every compartment and every little part of the bag. At most airports they just give it a little swipe on the inside, but the guys at MYR seem to have nothing better to do than swipe it like 25 times.

Anyway, we ended up doing like 24 flights in the USA, and I will type a full report of this flight, and the others, the first chance I get.