Activists suggest boycott of “Air Kevorkian”

by Aaron Hotfelder on

To say it’s been a rough couple weeks for Southwest Airlines is like saying Eliot Spitzer had a minor lapse in judgment. Women are claiming that they’re being thrown off flights for just being too damn good-lookin’; the airline was fined over $10 million by the FAA for flying unsafe planes; and now they’ve voluntarily grounded about forty planes because of “safety-related issues.”

So what’s a disgruntled consumer to do? One aero-activist group thinks it has the answer: hop in your time machine, set it for the 1960s, and stage a BOYCOTT!

The lawyer for Quiet Rockland, a New York-based activist organization, thinks that a boycott, combined with more hyperbole than you’ll see anywhere this side of the “War on Christmas,” will send Southwest the message.

From a recent press release announcing the boycott, with original random commas left intact:

  • “The persons that should be flying Southwest at this point, should be only those referred by Doctor Kevorkian.”
  • “Irrespective of what forensic lesser charge might technically ultimately apply once further Congressional investigation concludes, the acts and omissions of Southwest and collaborator FAA were tantamount to attempted murder, on a massive scale. This WILL not stand.” [Shouldn’t the “not” be capitalized in that last sentence instead of the “will”?]
  • “Quiet Rockland asks and encourages those Southwest employees tired of subscribing to their company tombstone culture, to leave their sinking airship now to find other and better employ at a responsible airline that actually acknowledges the dignity of the individual human traveler.”
  • “[B]oycott the airline which we today re-name “Air Kevorkian” – and just say “No” to Southwest.

There are more, but I’ve gotta go. My Southwest “Ding” bell just went off. Check out the press release in full after the jump.

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“QUIET ROCKLAND” CALLS FOR NATIONWIDE BOYCOTT OF SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

Rockland County, NY – March 12, 2008:

Aero-activist group Quiet Rockland of Rockland County, New York, enraged over “callous criminal disregard for safety and human life” demonstrated by Southwest Airlines (NYSE: “LUV”) and the FAA, today called for: (1) a nationwide traveler and consumer boycott of Southwest, and (2) a federal criminal investigation of Southwest and “failed regulator” FAA to be spear-headed by the United States Attorney General and a special prosecutor.

Said John J. Tormey III, Esq., attorney and Quiet Rockland co-founder: “The persons that should be flying Southwest at this point, should be only those referred by Doctor Kevorkian. Although the depraved Southwest spin-machine audaciously ‘assures’ us Southwest’s six (6) cracked-fuselage aircraft were “never a safety problem”, Southwest should tell that to the victims of the 1988 Aloha Airlines disaster. There, metal fatigue on an aging Boeing 737 caused 18 feet of fuselage to be ripped off the plane causing grievous injuries and loss of life. House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar in his press conference Saturday, posted on “www.cspan.org”, presented detailed evidence incriminating Southwest and “Bobby” Sturgell’s failed FAA. The incriminating events occurred while “Bobby” Sturgell was Deputy Administrator and Acting Administrator of the FAA. On Saturday, Representative Oberstar thereupon rightfully excoriated the aero-perps for their long-standing “tombstone mentality”. Although criminal and morally reprehensible, and now apparent after a many-month detailed Congressional investigation, Southwest and FAA are clearly in the insalubrious business of making those tombstones happen, in addition to simply reacting to those tombstones post facto.

“As recently as last year, Southwest Airlines, with the complicity of supposed federal regulator FAA, on at least 47 of Southwest’s Boeing 737 aircraft, on between 1,451 and 60,000 flights, over a period of two-and-one-half years, deliberately put approximately 200,000 or more unsuspecting travelers in harm’s way – making them fly in un-inspected, non-compliant, aged, and in some cases fuselage-cracked commercial aircraft. Southwest knew the names and faces of their potential victims. Southwest gladly took their money, and for that matter at this point Southwest owes each of them at least a rebate in full of their ticket prices. This was not mere negligence. Irrespective of what forensic lesser charge might technically ultimately apply once further Congressional investigation concludes, the acts and omissions of Southwest and collaborator FAA were tantamount to attempted murder, on a massive scale.

This WILL not stand.

“Quiet Rockland asks and encourages those Southwest employees tired of subscribing to their company’s tombstone culture, to leave their sinking airship now to find other and better employ at a responsible airline that actually acknowledges the dignity of the individual human traveler. We further ask every American consumer to now act in solidarity – cancel all flights and other business with Southwest – boycott the airline which we today re-name “Air Kevorkian” – and just say “No” to Southwest, to FAA, and to the greed of the aeromercantile complex that continually and habitually puts profits over people’s lives. And, as to Southwest stockholders? Vote your conscience”. #

US Congress may lift HIV travel restriction

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Here’s something I didn’t know: Since 1993, the US is one of only a few countries that has heavily restricted foreign visitors who are HIV-positive, forcing them to obtain approval from the Department of Homeland Security before entering the country.

Several lawmakers want that seemingly outmoded rule changed, however, and a bill is being introduced to do just that. From the AP:

“Now language in a bill extending the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief would delete the restriction. The bill, which directs billions to AIDS programs worldwide and is enthusiastically supported by President Bush, is set for a vote Thursday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”

The Bush Administration has expressed that they too are troubled by the HIV-positive travel ban, but many are worried that the proposed solution might be worse than the problem. Under the new scheme, HIV-positive travelers would likely need approval from the US consulate in their home country before visiting the US. In addition, they would need to agree not to apply for an extended stay or permanent residency in the US.

It’s unclear how many HIV-positive travelers are denied entry to the US every year, especially since US officials have no way to know the medical history of every person who enters the country. But international AIDS conferences and summits have frequently had to be held outside the US because of the HIV restriction.

For more, read The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan on why he thinks the policy is “anachronistic and stigmatizing.”

Did China stage those attempted terrorist attacks?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

A couple days ago, we told you about a report from Chinese officials that an attempted terrorist attack forced a plane to make an emergency landing in the western Chinese city of Lanzhou. Chinese investigators had almost no details about the incident, but they were quick to call it the work of terrorists and seemed to imply that an Uyghur separatist group was responsible.

Now, questions are being raised about the veracity of the Chinese officials’ claim. Steven Tsang, an Oxford professor and expert on China, wonders why the supposedly almost-hijacked flight was allowed to continue to Beijing after landing in Lanzhou. “There’s no way any anti-terrorism police would have released the plane and passengers to fly on without extensive interviews of the passengers, forensic examination of the plane and so on.”

According to Time Magazine: “Tsang also noted that it was particularly easy to blame a shadowy Islamic separatists movement in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics, possibly as a deterrent to those or any other groups who might want to disrupt the Games.”

The exiled leader of the Uyghur people also claims that China fabricated the attacks, saying, “The real goal of the Chinese government is to organize a terrorist attack so that it can increase its crackdown on the Uighur people.”

That doesn’t sound like the Olympic spirit to me.

EasyJet busted for misleading advertising

by Jeffrey White on

Frequent travelers of Europe’s budget airlines have known for years that the industry relies, to a certain extent, on misleading, if not outright false, advertising.

Usually this has to do with their pricing. Log onto any of the big European budget carriers — easyJet, Ryanair or Germanwings, for instance — and you’ll be hit with a great offer. Take Germanwings, for instance. You’ll see them pimping April flights from Zagreb, Croatia to Cologne for €5. Not bad. Click on it, choose a random set of dates (say an April 8 departure and an April 16 return) and you can get both legs for €14. Ah, but then the tax is figured in, and that trip is now €77.36 (more than $120).

European budget airlines don’t usually come under fire for this because (1.) technically there was a flight in this case for €5 and (2.) they make it clear that the prices they pimp often do not include taxes. But that doesn’t completely wash off the stench of ‘scam’ in my book, if simply because I always feel like the promotions these airlines run and the ridiculously cheap prices they quote reflect how stupid they think consumers are. Obviously we’re not smart enough to view a €77 round-trip plane ticket as still a pretty good deal.

So, it’s nice when one of these carriers gets busted for not playing it straight with customers. This has just happened to easyJet, which was running a special recently along the lines of “book by Friday and if you find a better price, we’ll pay you up to triple the difference.”

Well, a Swiss woman did just that, and then played hell trying to get the Luton, England-based airline to pay up. It claimed the woman hadn’t delivered proof, and then tried something along the lines of saying she had not found a comparable ticket, since it was a competitor’s return fare she found rather than the two single fairs (there and back) she booked on easyJet. Gimme a break, right?

That’s what Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority essentially said. They’ve ruled the easyJet promotion was misleading, since the fine print implied that the refund was easy to claim, when it really was like dealing with the IRS. Only bookings made at certain times and dates were eligible. Refund requests had to be made within an hour of the original booking. And so on. The Guardian newspaper reports the whole sordid tale.

There was good news for the Swiss woman, however. EasyJet told the Guardian that she would receive close to $1,500 in her bank account within a week.