I have my own stuff to take up the space in my head, I don’t get all bent out of shape about the corporate giants and politics. That’s not to say I don’t care about stuff outside my front door, I just don’t get bothered by it as generally, there is nothing I can do any way.
I can gripe and bitch about the price of gas and big oil companies with profits, but honestly? I can control my consumption of high priced gas by buying the cheap gas at Walmart and trying not to go so many places, but there is nothing I can do about the big oil companies, so I just don’t bother. Politics? I don’t go there.
I am annoyed right now at Stride Rite, the children’s shoe company, and I guess I could spend a lot of time and energy fighting with them, but it’s not worth it to me. My issue with them is that I bought 2 gift cards for $50 each from their store in Memphis. When you buy a gift card from a national or regional retailer, don’t you expect it to work at all their locations? HA! You’re a fool then!
There was no sign on the gift card display that warned me the gift cards only worked at THAT location. I bought the cards and gave them to my grandchildren who do not live near Memphis, they live near another city with a Stride Rite store. The other store would not honor the cards and the Memphis store will not refund my money. So I am stuck with $100 of Stride Rite gift cards I can’t really use unless I go to a lot of trouble which includes long car trips with 2 toddlers in an SUV that gets 18 mpg. I could initiate a charge back through my debit card issuer, but that involves an investment of my time and energy. I’m not even wasting the energy trying to decide what to do, I’m just sitting on it for now.
So even with $100 invested, I don’t care about Stride Rite right now other than passing along this story and saying to all of you: Don’t do business with Stride Rite. They’re assholes and tricksters.
But there is something I am all worked up and excited about in the corporate world. That is the merger between Delta and Northwest Airlines. The actual merger doesn’t bother me even though I will be affected. I am a Northwest Gold Elite Kryptonite Princess Platinum Silver Granite Crude Oil Frequent Flyer. I like direct flights when I can get them and with Northwest’s hub in Memphis, it makes flying a little easier.
I understand the economics behind the merger. I am not opposed to it, and if it weren’t this one tiny thing, I wouldn’t care one way or another. I’ll still fly and maybe I’ll get direct flights and maybe I won’t, but it is part of my job and I’ll just do it.
I have a dog in the fight on this merger. That dog is Pinnacle Airlines. Pinnacle is a regional airline for Northwest, and who knows, maybe other major carriers. Pinnacle operates many of the regional NW flights I fly on a regular basis so I have flown on hundreds of Pinnacle flights.
Pinnacle flies the small regional jets. However, those itty bitty planes are hard to avoid when flying to smaller airports, so I can’t hold that against them even though I don’t like the small planes.
In the last year when booking my flights, I take my time in researching options to make sure I can avoid Pinnacle flights, no matter what the cost or where I have to fly. I can’t always avoid Pinnacle, but by George, I try hard. My hope in the Delta Northwest merger is that Pinnacle Airlines will go away and I will not have to go out of my to avoid their flights.
Since you all know what a laid back tolerant flyer I am not you are probably shocked that I would have such a strong opinion against Pinnacle Airlines. What’s up with that?
Most airlines are about the same. A flyer is going to be delayed, have lost luggage, get ground stopped, rude gate agents, gestapo flight attendants, cancelled flights, bad service, annoying seat mates, etc no matter which airline he/she is on. Those are the facts of flying. TSA rules are going to be enforced differently at every security checkpoint. Don’t try to pretend they are not. The metal detectors are set differently as I wear the SAME clothes and the SAME jewelry just about every time I travel. Most of the time I go right through the metal detectors and at some airports I don’t. The only thing different is the metal detector.
So for me to notice that one particular airline is REALLY and CONSISTENTLY bad means this airline has beat me over the head with how bad they are on a consistent basis. Most of the time I can’t tell you what state I was in last week, much less what airline I flew to get there, but I can tell you in detail about my last 5 Pinnacle flights because they are bad enough to be burned in my memory.
It wasn’t turbulence, delays or cancellations. It was the rudeness of their staff. Consistent rudeness from various flight attendants and gate agents. There was the flight where I heard the pilot and copilot laughing in the cockpit after we landed. The cockpit door opened. I was standing in the aisle ready to deplane. I saw one of the men in the cockpit pass a men’s magazine opened to the centerfold to the other. Laughing. As a passenger, I am just so thrilled to know my life is the hands of men flying the plane at 30,000 feet going 550 mph while enjoying porn.
There was the sudden enforcement of the “one bag” on regional jets. I realize that is an FAA rule, not a Pinnacle rule. On every other airline I fly, when on a regional jet, I obey the one bag rule. I remove my laptop computer (company policy) and valet check my briefcase. This leaves me with a medium sized purse (my one bag) and my laptop in my arms like a book. This is not a problem on any other airline I fly. Just Pinnacle.
This first time this was enforced, I was blindsided. I can’t gate check my purse. I’m not supposed to check my laptop. I work for a company with very strict rules about laptops. The gate agent let me pass but the flight attendant would not let me on the plane with my laptop in my arms. I stood in the gate wondering what the hell I was supposed to do. I saw people getting on the plane with their “one bag” while carrying bags of fast food and a drink. I considered pulling a fast food bag out of the trash, sticking my purse in it and getting on board. I saw people getting on with one bag and a newspaper. I considered grabbing an old newspaper and wrapping my laptop in it.
Why couldn’t I get on with my laptop and purse? I approached the flight attendant again and asked her what she suggested and she flatly and rudely told me to step aside and “get myself organized.” What a bitch.
I stretched my purse straps out as far as they would go and jammed my laptop between the straps. It was not IN my purse, it was between the straps, but that was enough to get me on the plane, where I immediately removed it and carried it in my arms. The flight attendant was rude to everyone for the rest of the flight, which I noticed moreso than normal because she was so rude to me while boarding.
Since I figured out Pinnacle’s rule, I change from my medium purse to a large travel bag when I am forced to take a Pinnacle flight now. This seems absurd to me because my large travel bag takes up more space that my medium purse and my laptop. I have witnessed so much rudeness from Pinnacle staff. I like they way insist the “one bag rule” is not THEIR rule, it is TSA’s rule and they are just enforcing it. I’m wondering how every other airline that flies regional jets is not completely shut down and on trial by the TSA since Pinnacle seems to be the ONLY regional carrier enforcing this rule and not allowing people to carry a laptop in their arms onto a plane.
Since I know almost every Pinnacle flight attendant is rude, I avoid all interaction so that I am not a victim, however, I see the rudeness to the other passengers. Since this seems to be the norm on all Pinnacle flights, it is a company issue, not the case of one or two disgruntled employees.
I have concluded that to work at Pinnacle, you must be fired from another airline for rudeness and treating your paying customers like shit as that seems to be the culture of the airline. I avoid Pinnacle like the plague.
So the thought of a Delta-Northwest merger is interesting to me as rumor has it that may eliminate the need for Pinnacle airlines. When that happens, perhaps I will believe that jingle about the friendly skies again. In the meantime, you can find me flying to Charlotte on US Air regional carriers or to Atlanta on Delta connectors. I will not pay people to treat me like shit.
This entry was posted on June 17, 2008 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Mergers and Such
By donlynjonesI have my own stuff to take up the space in my head, I don’t get all bent out of shape about the corporate giants and politics. That’s not to say I don’t care about stuff outside my front door, I just don’t get bothered by it as generally, there is nothing I can do any way.
I can gripe and bitch about the price of gas and big oil companies with profits, but honestly? I can control my consumption of high priced gas by buying the cheap gas at Walmart and trying not to go so many places, but there is nothing I can do about the big oil companies, so I just don’t bother. Politics? I don’t go there.
I am annoyed right now at Stride Rite, the children’s shoe company, and I guess I could spend a lot of time and energy fighting with them, but it’s not worth it to me. My issue with them is that I bought 2 gift cards for $50 each from their store in Memphis. When you buy a gift card from a national or regional retailer, don’t you expect it to work at all their locations? HA! You’re a fool then!
There was no sign on the gift card display that warned me the gift cards only worked at THAT location. I bought the cards and gave them to my grandchildren who do not live near Memphis, they live near another city with a Stride Rite store. The other store would not honor the cards and the Memphis store will not refund my money. So I am stuck with $100 of Stride Rite gift cards I can’t really use unless I go to a lot of trouble which includes long car trips with 2 toddlers in an SUV that gets 18 mpg. I could initiate a charge back through my debit card issuer, but that involves an investment of my time and energy. I’m not even wasting the energy trying to decide what to do, I’m just sitting on it for now.
So even with $100 invested, I don’t care about Stride Rite right now other than passing along this story and saying to all of you: Don’t do business with Stride Rite. They’re assholes and tricksters.
But there is something I am all worked up and excited about in the corporate world. That is the merger between Delta and Northwest Airlines. The actual merger doesn’t bother me even though I will be affected. I am a Northwest Gold Elite Kryptonite Princess Platinum Silver Granite Crude Oil Frequent Flyer. I like direct flights when I can get them and with Northwest’s hub in Memphis, it makes flying a little easier.
I understand the economics behind the merger. I am not opposed to it, and if it weren’t this one tiny thing, I wouldn’t care one way or another. I’ll still fly and maybe I’ll get direct flights and maybe I won’t, but it is part of my job and I’ll just do it.
I have a dog in the fight on this merger. That dog is Pinnacle Airlines. Pinnacle is a regional airline for Northwest, and who knows, maybe other major carriers. Pinnacle operates many of the regional NW flights I fly on a regular basis so I have flown on hundreds of Pinnacle flights.
Pinnacle flies the small regional jets. However, those itty bitty planes are hard to avoid when flying to smaller airports, so I can’t hold that against them even though I don’t like the small planes.
In the last year when booking my flights, I take my time in researching options to make sure I can avoid Pinnacle flights, no matter what the cost or where I have to fly. I can’t always avoid Pinnacle, but by George, I try hard. My hope in the Delta Northwest merger is that Pinnacle Airlines will go away and I will not have to go out of my to avoid their flights.
Since you all know what a laid back tolerant flyer I am not you are probably shocked that I would have such a strong opinion against Pinnacle Airlines. What’s up with that?
Most airlines are about the same. A flyer is going to be delayed, have lost luggage, get ground stopped, rude gate agents, gestapo flight attendants, cancelled flights, bad service, annoying seat mates, etc no matter which airline he/she is on. Those are the facts of flying. TSA rules are going to be enforced differently at every security checkpoint. Don’t try to pretend they are not. The metal detectors are set differently as I wear the SAME clothes and the SAME jewelry just about every time I travel. Most of the time I go right through the metal detectors and at some airports I don’t. The only thing different is the metal detector.
So for me to notice that one particular airline is REALLY and CONSISTENTLY bad means this airline has beat me over the head with how bad they are on a consistent basis. Most of the time I can’t tell you what state I was in last week, much less what airline I flew to get there, but I can tell you in detail about my last 5 Pinnacle flights because they are bad enough to be burned in my memory.
It wasn’t turbulence, delays or cancellations. It was the rudeness of their staff. Consistent rudeness from various flight attendants and gate agents. There was the flight where I heard the pilot and copilot laughing in the cockpit after we landed. The cockpit door opened. I was standing in the aisle ready to deplane. I saw one of the men in the cockpit pass a men’s magazine opened to the centerfold to the other. Laughing. As a passenger, I am just so thrilled to know my life is the hands of men flying the plane at 30,000 feet going 550 mph while enjoying porn.
There was the sudden enforcement of the “one bag” on regional jets. I realize that is an FAA rule, not a Pinnacle rule. On every other airline I fly, when on a regional jet, I obey the one bag rule. I remove my laptop computer (company policy) and valet check my briefcase. This leaves me with a medium sized purse (my one bag) and my laptop in my arms like a book. This is not a problem on any other airline I fly. Just Pinnacle.
This first time this was enforced, I was blindsided. I can’t gate check my purse. I’m not supposed to check my laptop. I work for a company with very strict rules about laptops. The gate agent let me pass but the flight attendant would not let me on the plane with my laptop in my arms. I stood in the gate wondering what the hell I was supposed to do. I saw people getting on the plane with their “one bag” while carrying bags of fast food and a drink. I considered pulling a fast food bag out of the trash, sticking my purse in it and getting on board. I saw people getting on with one bag and a newspaper. I considered grabbing an old newspaper and wrapping my laptop in it.
Why couldn’t I get on with my laptop and purse? I approached the flight attendant again and asked her what she suggested and she flatly and rudely told me to step aside and “get myself organized.” What a bitch.
I stretched my purse straps out as far as they would go and jammed my laptop between the straps. It was not IN my purse, it was between the straps, but that was enough to get me on the plane, where I immediately removed it and carried it in my arms. The flight attendant was rude to everyone for the rest of the flight, which I noticed moreso than normal because she was so rude to me while boarding.
Since I figured out Pinnacle’s rule, I change from my medium purse to a large travel bag when I am forced to take a Pinnacle flight now. This seems absurd to me because my large travel bag takes up more space that my medium purse and my laptop. I have witnessed so much rudeness from Pinnacle staff. I like they way insist the “one bag rule” is not THEIR rule, it is TSA’s rule and they are just enforcing it. I’m wondering how every other airline that flies regional jets is not completely shut down and on trial by the TSA since Pinnacle seems to be the ONLY regional carrier enforcing this rule and not allowing people to carry a laptop in their arms onto a plane.
Since I know almost every Pinnacle flight attendant is rude, I avoid all interaction so that I am not a victim, however, I see the rudeness to the other passengers. Since this seems to be the norm on all Pinnacle flights, it is a company issue, not the case of one or two disgruntled employees.
I have concluded that to work at Pinnacle, you must be fired from another airline for rudeness and treating your paying customers like shit as that seems to be the culture of the airline. I avoid Pinnacle like the plague.
So the thought of a Delta-Northwest merger is interesting to me as rumor has it that may eliminate the need for Pinnacle airlines. When that happens, perhaps I will believe that jingle about the friendly skies again. In the meantime, you can find me flying to Charlotte on US Air regional carriers or to Atlanta on Delta connectors. I will not pay people to treat me like shit.
Tags: Scathing commentary
This entry was posted on June 17, 2008 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.