HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sbrenner@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (scott.d.brenner)
Subject: Re: Questions Regarding Boarding Passes and Rental Cars
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 13:44:05 GMT

In article <1992Dec29.002534.13107@ads.com> henry@ADS.COM (Henry Mensch) writes:
|>sbrenner@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (scott.d.brenner) wrote: 
|>->Sorry if these are FAQs; I don't read this group regularly.

|>read: "sorry that i'm too damn lazy to do the right thing, even though
|>i'm asking all of you a favor by asking this question."

Please, Henry, enlighten me.  What, exactly, is "the right thing" in your
view?  Should I have taken 5 hours and read through 600+ articles to make
sure that I don't ask a question that's been asked before?  I searched for
a FAQ, but didn't find one.  Pardon me, but I think I sincerely apologized up
front, and clearly titled my article so that uninterested readers could skip
by.

|>->So the question is: does anyone know a way I could convince Delta to 
|>->mail the boarding passes to me?  I'd rather not have to take a trip out
|>->to the airport just to pick them up.

|>no.  go to any delta ticket counter and get the boarding passes.
|>(of course, if you were ticketed through a travel agent, they could
|>issue the boarding passes for you).

Gee, thanks.  I didn't use a travel agent; I bought my tix directly from the
airline.

|>->Question 2:  What's the cheapest/easiest/best way to rent a car at the
|>->	     Ft. Lauderdale airport?  ...

|>your travel agent should be able to answer this, too.

Every travel agent I've ever used has been completely incompetent.  They have
almost no knowledge of the travel industry and appear interested only in their
commision.  Hence, I do not use agents.

|>->...  Do the airlines have any arrangements with the car rental places?

|>yes; the airlines take your money and deliver you to the car rental
|>places, whereupon the car rental places take some more of your money.
|>clever arrangement, eh?

A bit cranky today, Henry?  Yes, it's a very clever arrangement.  I'm sure no
one has ever heard of "fly/drive" deals or other kinds of discounted car 
rentals when air travel is involved.  Thanks for your help.

|># henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc.  / <henry@ads.com>
|># "fight the real enemy."  -- sinead o'connor, and many others.
|>#     for information on the league for programming freedom, 
|>#                     write to lpf@uunet.uu.net


Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: henry@ADS.COM (Henry Mensch)
Subject: Re: Hard-drives and disks in X-ray
Organization: Advanced Decision Systems; a div of Booz, Allen & Hamilton
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 23:42:56 GMT

lsc124j@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au wrote: 
->I was told that it is quite safe to send them through the x-ray machine,
->although if they are prepared to hand-inspect it then this is not a problem.
->The main tip I have been given is: If they don't make you switch the computer
->on, don't get on the flight. Anything with that much wiring needs to be
->checked.

???

the power-up check doesn't prove *anything* other than you can build
some guts which can cause a "C:\" prompt to appear on the screen.
boxes which hold computing equipment often have lots of space inside
which could be exploited for, uh, "other purposes."

i flew out of dulles international on sunday ... there are directions
to *not* put coats, jackets, etc. through the x-ray machine.  i handed
my keys, coin purse, and cell phone through the side, and walked
through the metal detector.  the "security" person asked me to turn on
the phone (!!) ... i pushed the "on" button and she said "thanks; you
may go."  she didn't even look at the phone; it never powered up (the
"power" switch requires that it be held down for five seconds or so to
prevent accidental switch-on).  

color me unconvinced.

--
# henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc.  / <henry@ads.com>
# "fight the real enemy."  -- sinead o'connor, and many others.
#     for information on the league for programming freedom, 
#                     write to lpf@uunet.uu.net
From: sbrook@peg.pegasus.oz.au
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
Date: 27 Dec 92 13:11 EST
Subject: {ehydration
Nf-ID: #N:peg:541000001:000:185
Nf-From: peg.UUCP!sbrook    Dec 27 13:11:00 1992



Can someone out there explain to me why the air conditioning in passenger
planes is so dry. I'm sick of getting dehydrated!!!

Sapoty Brook
sbrook on Pegasus: sbrook@peg.pegasus.oz.au

Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: henry@ADS.COM (Henry Mensch)
Subject: Re: How many miles for a free tix to India on any FF program ?
Organization: Advanced Decision Systems; a div of Booz, Allen & Hamilton
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 20:11:34 GMT

amg8408@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Avijit  Moitra) wrote: 
->Does anyone know how many miles are required for an award for a free ticket
->to India on ANY frequent Flyer program (e.g. Mileage Plus, World Perks, AAdantage, USAir FF etc). 

yes; each airline program knows.  call them and ask; they'll be
pleased to know you are considering flying them for N thousand miles
and should be happy to help you.

--
# henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc.  / <henry@ads.com>
# "fight the real enemy."  -- sinead o'connor, and many others.
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: staggers@cup.hp.com (Ken Staggers)
Subject: Re: ual #918 from iad to
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 19:42:12 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Hewlett-Packard
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8.1]

"reg lafontaine" (reg.lafontaine@canrem.com) wrote:

: KS>When I was planning my trip to Asia, I absolutely had to travel on a 747-400.
: KS>None of Northwest's printed schedules indicated that a 744 was being used
: KS>from JFK-NRT.  But when I called them up, their computer insisted that it
: KS>was a 744.  Even the last schedule book didnt have it as a 744.  But

: Not being sarcastic, but WHY did it HAVE to be a 747-400?  Is it a 
: more comfortable plane?  Better seat pitch?  Safer?

No...simply put, I had not been on a 747-400 before.  I had been on a 747-200,
so I wanted to try this plane.  Plus, since I went first class, I wanted it
to be on the biggest, most modern 747 NW had.  I wished that they had installed
their WorldLink system by the time I took the trip (about 13.5 hours in the
air), but you cant have everything.  First class cabin was more roomier than
the 747-200 I took from NRT-HNL.

--Ken
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: patth@panix.com (Patt Bromberger)
Subject: Re: Fares when death in family
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 18:14:52 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC
Followup-To: rec.travel.air

In article <724344273snx@tixel.mv.com> jarnold@tixel.mv.com writes:
>My experience in this area (only once, thank goodness, less than a year
>ago with USAir) is that they will sell you the "lowest available ticket"
>for your route of travel, waiving advance purchase restrictions, and also
>waiving capacity controls and blackout dates.  For example:
> [deleted]

This was our experience earlier this year when my husband had to fly
from Vancouver, B.C. (he took a flight out of Bellingham, WA, just
like the Canadians do!) to New York City for his grandfather's
funeral.

Not one of the Canadian Air Lines was interested in making an
accommodation for "emergency" travel.

We felt lucky to have the assistance of a friendly United Air Lines
ticket agent as well as an American Express travel rep - they made the
arrangements and we drove into Bellingham to pick up the tickets and
he boarded the flight.

It's good to know that some business people actually realize they are
in the "service" business and provide same with courtesy and
compassion.

-- 
Patricia Ann Bromberger                            patth@panix.com
This quote borrowed from: Gary.Petraccaro@f12.n2610.z1.fidonet.org 
... "It matters not so much what you sing, but why..." J.S. Bach
From: ridgway@cco.caltech.edu (Alex Ridgway)
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
Subject: One-way for less (was Re: Questions Regarding ...)
Date: 2 Jan 1993 23:38:34 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: punisher.caltech.edu


In article <chang.725825982@aries>, chang@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Bernard Chang) writes:
|> konstan@saturn.cs.umn.edu (Joe Konstan) writes:
|> >	7.  See if the agent ever suggests using Northwest FlyWrite tickets 
|> >	    for one-way travel rather than paying the outrageous amounts.
|> 
|> Can someone post some more information about this NW thing. I am looking
|> for ways to fly one-way quite often (other leg by surface) without
|> having to pay the round trip price for the one-way ticket! Many thanks.

I know nothing about NW, but here's another possibility: there is
a company "1-800-AIRFARE" that advertises in many newspaper travel
sections that used to (and may still) offer to sell you a one-way
ticket for half their round trip price + $20.  When I used them a few
months ago, their round trip wasn't the lowest, but the one-way was
_alot_ below what I could get anywhere else. Look in yoour newspaper, or
just dial the 800 number and see if I remembered it correctly...

-- Alex Ridgway

Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: yfchyan@athena.mit.edu (Yih-Feng Chyan)
Subject: Thanx for the info. about the FF program
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 16:09:46 GMT

Hi,

Thanx to people who answered my questions about the FF program.  Recently, I will
have a flight with Japan Airline.  It is a partner of Delta in the FF program.
According to what I read from this newsgroup, Delta has many restriction in
the program --- like they don't accept the mileages obtained on an economy class
JA flight, they also request the passengers must be US/Canadian residents.
 Are these true?  If so, under such a circumstance, would it be better
for me to enroll in the JA's FF program directly?  By the way, does JA offer
anything for their frequent flyers?


M. -J.
From: patth@panix.com (Patt Bromberger)
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
Subject: Re: Fares when death in family
Date: 24 Dec 92 18:49:12 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC

In article <1992Dec23.052711.27711@math.toronto.edu> joel@math.toronto.edu (Joel Chan) writes:
>In article <1992Dec22.181452.26080@panix.com> patth@panix.com (Patt Bromberger) writes:
>>
>>This was our experience earlier this year when my husband had to fly
>>from Vancouver, B.C. (he took a flight out of Bellingham, WA, just
>>like the Canadians do!) to New York City for his grandfather's
>>funeral.
>>
>>Not one of the Canadian Air Lines was interested in making an
>>accommodation for "emergency" travel.
>
>Are you sure this is true?  There is a section in the Canadian Airlines
>System Timetable which states that it offers special assistance and
>discount fares when there is a death in the family.  I'm not sure
>whether Air Canada does this as well.

	Yes, I am ** positively ** sure of this; our next
	door neighbor works for Canadian Airlines -- even
	she was surprised. We have since relocated ** back
	home ** to NYC!  :-)


>Of course, a problem is that Canadian does not fly to New York.  Perhaps
>that was why Canadian did not offer you accomodation for emergency travel?
>Air Canada does fly to New York.

	Well, United Airlines didn't have a direct flight
	from Bellingham either but they routed my husband
	thru Seattle and then direct to New York.

	Of course, the problem might have been that we admitted
	to being "American citizens"  (the equivalent of having
	a contagious social disease in Canada).  It was our
	unfortunate experience to discover that our northern
	neighbors loved to have us visit and spend our money
	in their northern location but do NOT take a university
	seat that a Canadian might have or live in a home or
	apartment a Canadian might want or take a job that a
	Canadian who previously rejected the offer but on being
	told it  has been offered to an American, has decided to
	accept the position and do the work :-)

	Having to defend our national origin more than three
	times each day got to be utterly annoying and terribly
	boring!

	Although, in all fairness, I have been told by friends
	visiting us in Vancouver, who came from Ottawa and PEI,
	that they also felt as though they were in a "time warp"
	while in B.C. and found it to be the most racist province
	in Canada.

	"There's no place like home."  (Dorthy: The Wizard of Oz)

>Happy Holidays,

	Ditto!


-- 
Patricia Ann Bromberger                            patth@panix.com
This quote borrowed from: Gary.Petraccaro@f12.n2610.z1.fidonet.org 
... "It matters not so much what you sing, but why..." J.S. Bach
Organisation: European Space Technology Centre (E.S.T.E.C)
Date: Wednesday, 23 Dec 1992 11:00:08 CET
From: Roy Jaques <RJAQUES@ESTEC.BITNET>
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
Subject: Re: M1 aircrash (British Midland)

Belfast (I think)

Roy Jaques
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: konstan@saturn.cs.umn.edu (Joe Konstan)
Subject: Re: Questions Regarding Boarding Passes and Rental Cars
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Minnesota
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 23:31:57 GMT

In article <1992Dec30.203528.19212@ads.com>, henry@ADS.COM (Henry Mensch) writes:
|> travel agents can only respond to your requests; if you are
|> inarticulate then you can't blame them for bad results.   certainly
|> some travel agents aren't as good as others, but to paint the whole
|> industry as incompetent is unreasonable.

<rest of long posting sequence on asking the net questions that (I agree)
should have been directed to the airline>

On this point, however, I disagree with Henry.  I feel I'm a rather
articulate, and travel-knowledgeable consumer, and I've only found one good,
and two adequate travel agents out of the ten to fifteen I've tried.  Beyond
this, I spent a year reading a travel agency rag (Travel Trade) and you'd be
amazed at the kind of articles and letters in there.  I don't doubt that there
are good travel agents who learn what you want (asking the right questions)
and spend their time trying to find you the best deals (I had one in 
Cambridge, Mass) but they are few and far between.  Travel agents are paid on
commission and have very little incentive to find special deals and travel
options, especially if it takes a bunch of time.  And, reservation systems are
designed to make it more difficult to find special offers--not easier.  

Try a couple of exercises with a travel agent:

	1.  Ask about travel in a market covered by Southwest (not on 
	    the computerized reservations systems--usually requires a phone
	    call).

	2.  Ask about getting a rental car--see if the agent asks whether you
	    have AAA, or where you work, or tries to find you a similar
	    discount.

	3.  Ask about a trip that Continental flies.  See if the agent
	    suggests buying an Entertainment guide to get the coupons.

	4.  Ask about a trip that American flies.  See if the agent recommends
	    joining one of the dozens of "clubs" such as Premier Dining or 
	    HealthSavers to get their discount coupon.

	5.  Suggest that you plan to fly between two cities, without a
            Saturday night stay several times.  See if the agent suggests 
	    overlapping tickets.

	6.  Ask about train and air excursions.  See if the agent knows about
	    and suggests the Amtrak's Great American vacations.

	7.  See if the agent ever suggests using Northwest FlyWrite tickets 
	    for one-way travel rather than paying the outrageous amounts.

There are lots of others.  

Obviously, Henry's found a good travel agent, but there are few of them out
there.  I chose to just keep up-to-date, call airlines directly, and get
a cut of the commission from Travel Avenue.  Your results may vary.

None of this is meant to suggest that I think it is a good idea to waste 
net bandwidth on factual questions that can be answered with quick 800-number
calls.  I'd certainly wish we saw more announcements of fare wars, specials, 
coupon deals, etc., and fewer requests for "What plane type is flight 304?"

Joe Konstan
konstan@cs.umn.edu
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: bkush@us.oracle.com
Subject: RE:Questions on Boarding Passes
Organization: Oracle Corporation, USA
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 23:27:53 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
              at Oracle Corporation.  The opinions expressed are those
              of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.

If you have booked a flight and then called to get a seat assignment, you
do not need to have a boarding pass in your hand.  When you go to the
airport, you can pass the long lines out front and go to the gate.  At the
gate, they will print your boarding pass.  By the way the gate has the most
control over which seat you get, like exit row or handicapped seats that
are not being used.

You also mentioned that having a boarding pass is safer, it might be, but I
have found, and I am on a plane a couple times a week, that possession is 
9/10'ths of the law.  For example-- You get to the airport and then board the
plane to find someone in your seat.  You both have a boarding pass.  You call
the flight attendant, and at this time people are getting pissed since you 
are standing in the aisle.  After about five minutes, the flight attendant
comes back and says there was a mixup and take any empty seat.  They are 
usually more interested in getting the plane pushed back rather than if you 
are in the right seat.  Therefore get on the plane first/early!

Hope this helps
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: konstan@saturn.cs.umn.edu (Joe Konstan)
Subject: Re: Questions Regarding Boarding Passes and Rental Cars
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Minnesota
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 19:02:09 GMT

In article <chang.725825982@aries>, chang@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Bernard Chang) writes:
|> konstan@saturn.cs.umn.edu (Joe Konstan) writes:
|> >	7.  See if the agent ever suggests using Northwest FlyWrite tickets 
|> >	    for one-way travel rather than paying the outrageous amounts.
|> 
|> Can someone post some more information about this NW thing. I am looking
|> for ways to fly one-way quite often (other leg by surface) without
|> having to pay the round trip price for the one-way ticket! Many thanks.

NorthWest's frequent flyer program sends you two 10,000 mile fly-write 
tickets each time you pass another 20,000 miles.  In addition to being able
to trade these in for overseas travel, you can use them (with reservations
subject to capacity controls) for one-way or round-trip travel (one ticket 
for each way).  I keep them for emergency travel needs (an extra fly-write
can be used to waive capacity controls and other restrictions) and have used
them for one-way flights to save $$$.  

I don't imagine this would be sufficient for a heavy one-way traveller (unless
you charge a lot on a WorldPerks credit card, AMEX, Diner's Club, or MCI), but
it is useful for casual travel.  

You might also look into air-surface packages.  For instance, the Amtrak
deals I mentioned basically give you one-way travel on United for half the
normal APEX fare (advanced purchase excursion).  The details vary (prices are
by zone) but the prices are generally attractive for air/rail combinations.  

Joe Konstan
konstan@cs.umn.edu
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: henry@ADS.COM (Henry Mensch)
Subject: Re: enrollment for FF program
Organization: Advanced Decision Systems; a div of Booz, Allen & Hamilton
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 23:46:30 GMT

yfchyan@athena.mit.edu (Yih-Feng Chyan) wrote: 
->Could someone tell me how to enroll?  Could I just enroll when I check
->in at the airport?

yes.  also, you can usually enroll by calling the toll-free number for
the frequent flyer program of the carrier you will fly with.  finally,
your travel agent can enroll you.

->And also, could I trace back the mileages I accumulated before? (I
->didn't keep the ticket, though I remember which date I had the flights.)

generally, no.  they like you to have the ticket receipt (the last
page of the computer-generated ticket with the most gibberish on it),
as well as your boarding passes.  

of course, it never hurts to ask (do this by phone at the ffb's 800
number; the gate agents and travel agents can't do much about this).

--
# henry mensch / booz, allen & hamilton, inc.  / <henry@ads.com>
# "fight the real enemy."  -- sinead o'connor, and many others.
#     for information on the league for programming freedom, 
#                     write to lpf@uunet.uu.net
From: geek@media.mit.edu (Chris Schmandt)
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
Subject: Re: {ehydration
Date: 3 Jan 93 04:11:50 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory

In article <1993Jan2.2856.4490@dosgate> "reg lafontaine" <reg.lafontaine@canrem.com> writes:
>Cold air has very low relative humidity.  When it is warmed it becomes
>very dry.
>

This is getting slightly off target, but...  The first sentence is incorrect,
or at least not necessarily true, while the second is the real explanation.
Cold air HOLDS LESS WATER than warm air, but we are more sensitive to the
relative humdity, or fraction of water that air (at a given temperature)
COULD hold as compared to what it does.

Even if the cold air outside is fairly wet (say 60% rel. hum.), by the
time its heated from 0 or whatever it is outside at 30K feet to cabin
temperature it could hold LOTS more water vapor, so the rel. hum. will
be down to 10 or 15%.  This is exactly why heated buildings are dry in
the winter unless water is added to the air by a humidifier.

chris
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: geek@media.mit.edu (Chris Schmandt)
Subject: Re: Best seats on a 747-200 ?
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 22:43:26 GMT

In article <1992Dec31.201944.20078@oakhill.sps.mot.com> fmbutt@engage.sps.mot.com (Farooq M. Butt) writes:
>
>I'll be travelling on a NW 747-200 SFO->BKK and was wondering what the
>best [non-smoking] seats in the house are? Are the bulkhead ones nice or
>do they have non-lift-uppable armrests like on some other planes ? I'd
>like to get as far away from smokers as possible since my wife is 
>terribly allergic to smoke.
>

You probably want to sit "up top".  Your mileage may vary; on UA the
upper deck is all non smoking, I can't testify as to NW.  I don't like
the bulkhead seats up there, not enough leg room.  The window seats
don't have the usual advantage of being able to slouch over and lean
against the wall while sleeping; the wall slopes too steeply up there.
The overhead baggage is replaced by side compartments which line the
wall; if you're sitting in a window seat you can use these as a leg
rest.  Because there's less seats up there it also tends to be quieter
which helps sleeping as well.
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
From: staggers@cup.hp.com (Ken Staggers)
Subject: Re: enrollment for FF program
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 00:28:33 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8.1]

Yih-Feng Chyan (yfchyan@athena.mit.edu) wrote:
:Though I had several international flights, I never enrolled in any FF program.
:Could someone tell me how to enroll? Could I just enroll when I check in at the
:airport?  And also, could I trace back the mileages I accumulated before? (I
:didn't keep the ticket, though I remember which date I had the flights.)

I believe most domestic airlines allow you to enroll via their 800 reservations
number.  You can also enroll at the airport (although I think they might just
give you an application, have you fill it out, and then give you a number).

Generally, if you are not a member, you have 30 days after a flight to enroll
if you want that flight mileage registered.  So if you have had several 
international flights in the last 30 days, the airlines will most likely
count them.  You will probably need your boarding pass or ticket stub to
prove it though.  Its good to get in the habit of keeping this until the
mileage appears in your monthly summary.

--Ken

Newsgroups: rec.travel.air