I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about
something that I saw on Monday, October 27.

I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on
Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on
Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic control.
Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were canceled and I wound up
spending a night in Baltimore.

My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United counter
Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very young
and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from
earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It was
a visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to
what train terminals were like in World War II.

Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them questions
in the Starbucks line or just saying "Welcome Home." In addition to all the
flights that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in
Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy
people in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the
soldiers a bad time.

By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours. United
personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take another
flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman got
on the PA and said "Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in
the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we're trying to get
them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport then
they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the
flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the
soldiers to know that we respect what you're doing, we are here for you and
we love you."

At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a
cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heartfelt applause. The
soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at their
boots. Many of us were wiping away tears.

And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers went
to Denver on that flight.

That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why we
will win this war.

If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel
free. This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw it
happen.

Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense

RGrew176,
Great story, thanks. I'm not in favor of this war but I do support those
that are called on to wage it, they are true heroes.
Paul

"RGrew176" wrote in message
...
I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about
something that I saw on Monday, October 27.

I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on
Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on
Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic
control.
Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were canceled and I wound up
spending a night in Baltimore.

My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United
counter
Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very
young
and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from
earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It
was
a visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to
what train terminals were like in World War II.

Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them
questions
in the Starbucks line or just saying "Welcome Home." In addition to all
the
flights that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in
Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy
people in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the
soldiers a bad time.

By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours.
United
personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take
another
flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman
got
on the PA and said "Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in
the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we're trying to get
them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport th
en
they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the
flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the
soldiers to know that we respect what you're doing, we are here for you
and
we love you."

At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a
cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heartfelt applause.
The
soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at
their
boots. Many of us were wiping away tears.

And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers
went
to Denver on that flight.

That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why
we
will win this war.

If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel
free. This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw
it
happen.

Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense

This might be one of the few uplifting off topic discussion I have read in
this forum.

Thanks for sharing.

"RGrew176" wrote in message
...
I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about
something that I saw on Monday, October 27.

I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on
Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on
Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic
control.
Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were canceled and I wound up
spending a night in Baltimore.

My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United
counter
Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very
young
and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from
earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It
was
a visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to
what train terminals were like in World War II.

Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them
questions
in the Starbucks line or just saying "Welcome Home." In addition to all
the
flights that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in
Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy
people in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the
soldiers a bad time.

By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours.
United
personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take
another
flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman
got
on the PA and said "Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in
the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we're trying to get
them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport
then
they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the
flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the
soldiers to know that we respect what you're doing, we are here for you
and
we love you."

At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a
cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heartfelt applause.
The
soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at
their
boots. Many of us were wiping away tears.

And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers
went
to Denver on that flight.

That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why
we
will win this war.

If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel
free. This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw
it
happen.

Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense

RGrew176 wrote:


By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours. United
personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take another
flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman got
on the PA and said "Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in
the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we're trying to get
them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport then
they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the
flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the
soldiers to know that we respect what you're doing, we are here for you and
we love you."


Isn't it nice that the corporate representative worked so hard to shift
the blame or guilt from overselling the flight from his company onto the
passengers in the terminal?

United acted as it did, "knowing we would oversell the flight."

If United gave a crap, it would have made another plane available, or it
wouldn't have overbooked so drastically.

Here's another issue to ponder: why isn't the military picking up the
tab for getting these soldiers home for leave? Yes, I know, the military
doesn't usually do this, but Bush's dirty little war in Iraq is not our
usual sort of strategic or nation-building exercise.

This mess Bush has gotten us into in Iraq is going to have a serious
impact on the future of the reserve forces.

I hope the troops on leave got home to their families.

We'll all be lucky to survive this incompetent idiot we now have in the
White House.



--
Email sent to is never read.

"Harry Krause" wrote in message

United acted as it did, "knowing we would oversell the flight."

All flights are oversold, because the industry has learned over the last
forty years or so that American travellers are predictably unreliable about
showing up. The various airlines are usually quite accurate in their
predictions, but anomalies arise from time to time.


If United gave a crap, it would have made another plane available, or it
wouldn't have overbooked so drastically.

Contrary to popularly held myth, there usually isn't another plane
available. You simply don't keep a 20M asset lying around a non-hub in case
something comes up. If the occasion arises at a hub, you may be able to
jockey things and cover an additional flight, but it is not likely. If you
latch onto a craft that is scheduled to leave 2 hours from now, the downline
ramifications of such a decision could disrupt your network for days and
possible cost millions.

JG

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 10:45:45 -0500, "John Gaquin"
wrote:


All flights are oversold,

Interesting. I've been on flights that only had 10 or 15 people on
them. Musta been a lot of no shows.

bb

OK, I'll rephrase for the benefit of those who are unable to interpolate
rational detail:

Most flights are allowed to be oversold. Some few flights in specific
high-traffic markets have predictable high show rates, and their allowed
overbooking percentage is usually very low. Other flight segments rarely if
ever fill up at certain times or on certain days, so clearly there is no
need for any overbooking policy there.


"bb" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 10:45:45 -0500, "John Gaquin"
wrote:


All flights are oversold,

Interesting. I've been on flights that only had 10 or 15 people on
them. Musta been a lot of no shows.

bb

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 11:32:54 -0500, "John Gaquin"
wrote:


Most flights are allowed to be oversold. Some few flights in specific
high-traffic markets have predictable high show rates, and their allowed
overbooking percentage is usually very low. Other flight segments rarely if
ever fill up at certain times or on certain days, so clearly there is no
need for any overbooking policy there.


Much better.

BTW, it just might be an opportune time to check your computer's
calendar.

bb

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
-
Isn't it nice that the corporate representative worked so hard to shift
the blame or guilt from overselling the flight from his company onto the
passengers in the terminal?

Even with this touching story, poor Harry can't even find something decent
to say about humanity. What a louse.

He reminds of the kind of person everyone walks away from when he walks into
a cocktail party. What a putz.


"NOYB" wrote in message
m...

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
-
Isn't it nice that the corporate representative worked so hard to shift
the blame or guilt from overselling the flight from his company onto the
passengers in the terminal?

Even with this touching story, poor Harry can't even find something decent
to say about humanity. What a louse.