Unfettered Letters

Pilots’ professionalism

It seems to be a rare incident where all the people in an airplane crash live to tell about it (1/17, Opinion, “Pilots’ professionalism averts a catastrophe”).

The pilot and co-pilot, Chesley B. Sullenberger II and Jeff Skiles, acted extremely well under the circumstances, keeping their heads (and everyone else’s) during the crisis. The passengers, too, should be commended for staying calm and listening to safety instructions.

Few as these best-case scenarios are, they should be remembered as an example that not all emergencies end in disaster. What a story for the survivors to tell their children and grandchildren.

Amelia Bachler
Grandview

A group of financial hotshots, many not long out of business school with their freshly minted MBAs, bring the financial system to its knees.

A silver-haired, 57-year-old pilot drawing on decades of real-life experience brings a crippled jetliner to a safe touchdown in the middle of the Hudson River.

Someone once said “Old age and cunning beat youth and enthusiasm any day of the week.”

Ross Warnell
Smithville

The word “sully” is currently a verb defined as “to soil, stain, or tarnish”; “to mar the purity or luster of” and “to defile and detract.”

Perhaps a new definition is in order. Sully: to save by an act of heroism.

Russ Klement
Lee’s Summit

When I saw the cover photo of Friday’s Star, all I could think about was “on a wing and a prayer”

Egan Hasburgh
Prairie Village

Airline upgrades soldiers’ seats

On the morning of Sept. 21, we took our son Daniel to the American Airlines gate at KCI. After an all-too-short 18-day leave, he had to go back to Baghdad. He is a soldier in the U.S. Army, and as part of the surge, he has been over there for 11 months, with four more left.

After going through the security check, he and two other uniformed soldiers were summoned to the ticket counter and had their boarding passes upgraded from coach to first class. This is the second time American Airlines has done this for our son.

We want to thank American Airlines for its patriotism, generosity and courtesy.

John and Karen Bartlett
Smithville

Flying the unfriendly skies

Remember a time when you took a date to the downtown Kansas City airport for dinner and watched the planes take off? Romantic. Does anyone now go to an airport unless absolutely necessary? Being among recent passengers yelled at while going through a San Francisco security check made me want to buy the guards whips. They might as well use those, too.

Every day thousands of passengers are miserable at hundreds of airports. One airline has developed a crass structure for its herdings. First-class passengers get to step two paces across a red carpet before entering the jet bridge. Subsequent “seatings” are shoehorned into the plane across the common flooring.

The distances at O’Hare are so great that last-minute passengers arrive in high-blood-pressure fear of not making the plane, while standby customers pray for empty seats so they will not have to wait more hours among the stress-sweating throngs.

The news that the one civil airline left, Midwest Airlines, is cutting back flights triggered my tipping point: Necessity may require me to fly again, but Kansas City will be just fine for all my leisure needs. The old gal’s looking better every day.

Randy Attwood
Kansas City

Airlines aren’t packing in profits

I’m responding to M. Corinne Corley’s ire about airline fees (7/7, Letters, “Baggage fees pack in profits”). She states, “The American people are being gouged to ‘fuel’ the profit of the airlines.” There is no such thing as “the profit of the airlines.” U.S. airlines were on shaky ground before the rise of fuel prices.

The 1978 Airline Deregulation Act is a stunning example of the proverb, “Careful what you wish for — you may get it.” Deregulation brought the opposite of what airlines envisioned.

Ms. Corley needs to direct her anger toward the current price of oil and our government’s reluctance to enforce conservation and or new production.

No, the third checked bag doesn’t increase fuel use by $100, but the airlines must deflect the economic impact of skyrocketing jet fuel. Some are charging for seat assignments.

However the airlines’ larger overhead compartments provide a way around checked baggage. It’s amazing what fits into a carry-on with planning.

Barbara Herrin
Lenexa

Baggage fees pack in profits

Imagine my surprise to learn that the airlines are losing so much money that they have to charge us to take our baggage where we want to go. I was told by the reservations supervisor, who provided me supposedly up-to-date information, that this applies only to travel between American cities, not to travel outside of the United States.

This policy is absurd. I asked her what we got for our money and she said — with surprising honesty — “Nothing. It is to help us defray the higher cost of fuel.”

So if the first bag is $15, the second is $25, the third is $100 and so forth, you could potentially, if you are traveling by air for an extended trip, pay more for your baggage than your ticket. And the only justification is profiteering, since the third bag surely does not increase fuel use by $100 per item.

The American people are being gouged to “fuel” the profit of the airlines, and we should protest this greedy practice.

M. Corinne Corley
Kansas City

Heavy fliers and hefty fees

On a recent airplane trip I was unfortunate enough to sit next to a very obese passenger. I was in the window seat and he sat in the middle seat. The airline personnel had to raise both armrests, as he could not fit in his space. Then he proceeded to spread his legs into my leg space. His enormous rear end was encroaching on my seat and the aisle seat of the other passenger.

I’m a rather small person, but I was scrunched up against the window for two hours. When it was time to deplane, I had to wait until the whole plane was empty so the airline personnel could shovel him out of his seat.

Since I only had half a seat, shouldn’t I only have to pay half fare?

Obese people should pay for and be given two seats.

LaVerne Fieseler
Olathe

Now that the airlines have taken off down the path of piling-on incidental charges for luggage, pillows, meals and the like, it seems only fair for passengers to return the favor by charging the airlines if we depart or arrive late or if they lose our bags.

The fees the airlines are now adding to the ticket price should only increase our expectation for service as advertised. If the airlines fail to deliver, they should pay or refund us.

Ross Boelling
Tonganoxie

Fliers, dress for safety

I wonder if the rule for proper attire by a major airline is for decorum or safety (6/16, Letters, “Flier’s wardrobe comes up short”).

I am amazed when I travel to see passengers wearing shorts, sandals or flip-flops. I wear slacks and sturdy shoes when I travel on an airplane in case there might be an emergency where the passengers have to deplane quickly.

I remember a few years ago that a plane crashed in a nearby cornfield when it ran off the runway at O’Hare. Imagine trying to exit the plane sliding down a chute quickly with no protection on your legs and running through a cornfield wearing sandals or flip-flops.

I like to think the airline requirement is for safety.

Shirley Hurst
Knob Noster, Mo.

Airline dress codes

I am wondering if the person who was gracious enough to give Ms. Cornelius an airfare “buddy pass” also informed her of the dress code for flying on the airline. (6/16, Letters)

I worked for TWA in the ‘70s where the dress code for traveling first class was suit time for men and women wore dresses or paint suits that required jackets.

In coach, no jeans or denim was allowed. When American Airlines came along, the dress code was somewhat relaxed, with business casual dress. Still no shorts were allowed in any class of service.

People traveling on passes or reduced rate of any type are representing the employees of that airline. Not abiding by any of the rules or dress code can put the airline employee’s job in jeopardy.

Dolores Hadsall
(TWA/AA Retiree)
Kansas City

The future of unfriendly flying

If you think Barbara Shelly’s future flyer has problems (6/6, “‘This is the pilot: That’ll cost you 5 bucks’”), imagine future flyer, economy class, with added security.

To the already long lines, arbitrary charges and other indignities, add worldwide background check, strip and cavity searches, electric stun-gunning or sedating (the unconscious passenger is the only truly trustworthy passenger), destinations stapled to foreheads, passenger boarding and deplaning handled in the same reliable time proven methods used to safely transport our luggage — dumped on a carousel, flopped on a conveyor belt and stacked compactly in an area completely without seats. Seats are only necessary when conscious.

This would certainly allow more people to be jammed on the planes and you could do away with snacks, meals and even those inconvenient bathrooms, after the passengers/luggage were deplaned, the compartment could simply be hosed out.

The airlines could make more money, the skies would be safe from terrorists, and the sheep will arrive safely at their destination ready for slaughter or shearing.

Will FitzPatrick
Kansas City

Flier’s wardrobe comes up short

My granddaughter, her husband and baby were at a New York airport on the way to her other grandma’s funeral. Her aunt, an airline employee, gave them free “buddy” passes for the flight.

When they got to the counter, they were told the young man couldn’t go because he was wearing shorts. They were not allowed, according to the dress code for traveling employees and buddy pass holders. Unfortunately, he had brought only shorts, no other pants.

The airline check-in person’s response was, “We cannot make exceptions to the policy.” My granddaughter tearfully explained the purpose of their trip. Check-in person said, “Sorry, please step away from the counter. Now.”

Having watched the scenario, a man walked over to them, took a pair of long pants out of his bag and said, “Here, son.” Then he disappeared. After a quick change from shorts to pants, the young family boarded the plane.

Apparently, this airline doesn’t question whose pants their passengers are wearing, just the length.

Shirley Cornelius
Kansas City