New airline rules thoughts:

[jeffreyab]

If the British restrictions spread:

One thing I thought of was to buy a disposable camera when you get to where you are going and then put it in checked luggage on the way home. If it breaks well it was disposable in the first place.

With all the cutbacks in services the airlines have made in services, no pillows, food, movies etc. this is going to make flying like riding in a cattle car during World War One. Since you can no longer bring your own food and entertainment.

We will see the return of checked baggage and long waits for it and if they lose it you are really out of luck.

Flash drives loaded with the necessary programs and data and plugged into borrowed or complimentary or rented computers will be more common.

Comments

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

But with TSA baggage searches you are hearing more and more stories of bags getting searched and valuables going missing in the process. I have heard of people losing cameras, etc. out of their checked baggage. I have lost small items from my checked baggage, too. This business of trusting the airlines with your valuables only works if they are really trustworthy, and they are not. I'm thinking working TSA security is like shooting fish in a barrel. Your crime will not be discovered until the victim arrives at a distant destination, and then they have basically no recourse.

Sad to say, but I have almost given up flying already. The new beverage restrictions that are being put in place all over aren't *too* bad, but I don't like it. And if we are going to see a "no carryons" rule--well, forget it. How would musicians travel? You cannot check a $100,000 cello through checked baggage. (Cellists usually buy a ticket for it.)

Well, anyway, obviously this bugs me. I used to like flying. Now I avoid it in the extreme. After 9/11, I predicted that they'd end up stripping passengers completely and then loading them onto the flame in individual compartments. Looks like we're getting closer.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm seeing a business opportunity, here. An independent courier service to get your valuables to your destination separately.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

It would give the DVD player rental people something to do.

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

An independent courier service to get your valuables to your destination separately.

We could call it UPS. Or perhaps FedEx?

Though, based on a number of experiences at work, I'm losing my trust in those companies. UPS managed to absolutely manage a box and lose most of the contents of a box shipped to the plant. They are now spending a very long time denying any responsibility for the loss.

Shipments also damaged in the last six months:

• custom dewar purification column
• cylinder valving machine
• mobile work desks

On the whole, just driving anywhere not overseas is starting to seem like the best solution. Not only has flying become a huge hassle, but those hassles chew up so much time that it can frequently be faster to just drive 500 miles, rather than fly.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Hee. UPS and Fedex are not set up to handle personal belongings and it would be prohibitively expensive to ship, say, a 30 lb suitcase to your destination. But they do fly their planes out of the same airports. It would be complicated, but I could envision a parallel baggage transport system run by Fedex or a similar company. They would have their own baggage desk at the airport, but their employees would be bonded, your luggage would be insured and guaranteed much the same way that overnight mail is. It would travel separately from you, but ideally arrive within a reasonable time of your own arrival.

That, or the commercial airlines could contract out their baggage handling to independent airlines that can do a better job.

Or, gee, here's a revelation. Maybe they could actually take some responsibility for baggage and not let their employees pilfer shit out of it. I wish people would collectively get angry enough about this to get the airlines to crack down on it.