I’m kicking around the idea of heading to Japan to volunteer with the rebuilding work. Found a great price for a rounrtrip of 535$. Go to total it, and Delta adds on a 650$ “International surcharge”. Never heard of that one. What gives? :-\
It’s like when you sometimes look on priceline or kayak, and the price seem really great, but when you go to the site to buy the seats are mysteriously unavailable. Lame lame lame if you ask me. I wish I could take the train everywhere.
Even at $650 that is an amazing price. Is that RT or one way?
I think it’s 1185 total but still not a bad price to japan from Idaho I would think
I think he meant $535 + an additional $650, which is more than twice the original price.
Weaz I think if you can somehow drive to a bigger airport you might be able to find a better price… Perhaps Oregon/Washington?
Yeah, total price is around the 1200$ area. I always fly out of Salt Lake City, don’t think I would do any better by driving to Denver, or even LA for that matter. By the time you figure gas, hotel, and the price to park the car for 2 or three weeks, where’s the savings? It was a nice dream. I guess Japan will have to find a way to rebuild without me.
$1200 round trip to Japan…pretty good price.
Just think of it as a years worth of tithing,
and dwell on all the good works
a tall pirate like yourself could do there.
Is that a bit of Senryū? :
nah,
while a bit satiric
I am just partial to the return button
Back in February I had to fly to France for my mother-in-law’s funeral. I keep seeing these amazing deals, but when I read the fine print there was a surcharge more expensive than the ticket. I ended up getting one for around $900 round trip from El Paso on United. But for a suitcase it was another $50 each way, what a freakin ripoff.
Yeah, it would seem that the airlines have taken a play from Congress’s playbook.
“You have to buy the ticket to find out what’s in the ticket.” ???
Sigh… I leave all that S#_t at the airport and come home to you guys bitc__ing about it here? :-\ 
Trust me when I say that I wish the idiot that said, “Hey let’s charge for bags.” was shot on sight.
Just raise the ticket price $100 for the trip and cancel the bag fees…
I hope you guys take my word for it that everything the airlines do is for a valid reason…They don’t seek out
and anger people just for kicks…
So to lighten the mood one of my many many anecdotes working for an airline (remember working for an airline
is the reason I brew.) 
So one of my gate agents was making an announcement on the plane. The flight was fully boarded (250+
passengers) Reiterating what our gate controller had told him. Something along the lines of a 40 minute delay
that involved some maintenance and optimism on the departure in THAT amount of time (really).
Now consider that this agent is a strong type-A personality that is never wrong or rarely admits he is wrong…
He had just finished the announcement along the lines of, " and we are confident our maintenance department
will be ready 40 minutes from now." No sooner did he put the PA mike down the Captain on the flight chimes in.
" I am sorry the agent was completely wrong in sharing that last bit with you." Remember the Type-A? Well
just as he is storming up to the flight deck to tell the pilot off, he continues, “The machine we use to break your
luggage is down and we have to damamge your luggage manually. It is taking longer than we are used to so
bear with us as we continue to damage your checked luggage and we will go as soon as our grunts are done with it.” ;D 8)
Now as far as the surcharge…just rephrase it as taxes…probably what it really is. Flying to Mexico and back is super cheap if taxes aren’t involved. It MORE than doubles your ticket price. I have a wedding to go to 3rd week of September. I am going to Tucson and driving. It is cheaper to rent a car…
I always thought that it was FOR SURE better to fix the mechanical parts
of the plane while on the tarmac… :o
Ruben, that was awesome! That pilot should be given a raise. Oh, and sorry, I did not mean to come off as whining. I was just curious as to what the charge was for.
A while back my wife and I were flying from Orlando to New Orleans. As we taxied out to the end of the runway the flight attendant give the usual information over the PA. Then just as we were about to accelerate down the runway she said,
“Ladies and gentleman we ask that you keep your arms and legs inside the aircraft because we are going to go REALLY fast now!”
No worries, really. It is what I do for a living and let me tell you reading it does not do it justice. Listening to it whooee that grates the nerves…
For the life of me, I have always wanted to memorize the speech roller coaster operators
give before hitting the fire button. Just so I could to the same before boarding… ;D
From a Southwest Airlines employee: “Welcome aboard Southwest Flight XXX to Chicago. To operate your seatbelt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seatbelt and if you don’t know how to operate one, you probably shouldn’t be out in public unsupervised. In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with two small children, decide now which one you love more.”
Southwest often has the best ones, I can’t remember the full details of the one for a redeye ISP->ORD but it was quite funny, along the lines of “you’ve heard this before and aren’t paying attention so we make it super funny”
Yeah I enjoy flying southwest largely for that reason. I am not sure if they just try to hire funny people, train them, or if it is just a different corporate culture thing. The other day I was flying from boulder to sacremento on a flight that was destined for L.A. and the pilot upon landing in sacremento explained that the plane would now be continuing to L.A. or, as it is sometimes known, west phoenix
I should note that re: Southwest and also re: airline surcharges, I would be quite happy to pay extra for my baggage if the flight attendants still looked like this:
If your feeling good summarization, another option might be to hold off a week and wait to assist in the hurricane Irene mess soon to come. Looks like a doozy headed up the entire east coast, possible cat4 or 5 on Florida.