Bizarre, Society

Flying Cargo Class: Airline to Introduce Standing Only Section on Flights

280px-Ryanair.svgJust when you thought that air travel could not get more punishing and degrading . . . Ryanair is seeking to have Boeing design “standing only” sections of airplanes to stuff more people into planes.

O’Leary believes that he can increase passengers by 50% by stacking them like firewood. The passengers would be given bar stools with seatbelts in the latest dehumanizing experiment of the industry.

I have come to despise air travel. I now go to great lengths to find a way to drive or take a train. It is ridiculous to sit in seats with your knees against the front seat — so that a reclining passenger virtually kneecaps you. Then there is the charging for bags which now leads everyone to stuff steamer trunks in the plane. Airlines have even dropped ticket paper jackets. Recently, I was even charged for a diet coke on Air Canada. To add to the misadventure, flight attendants seem increasingly ticked off and authoritarian.

There was a time when flying was a pleasure. Now, one feels on most airlines that passengers are barely tolerated — a necessary evil. I suppose the standing room section is a natural extension of this industry approach to passengers as little more than cargo.

Ryanair recently hit a 60 million passenger level in twelve months, here.

For the story, click here.

19 thoughts on “Flying Cargo Class: Airline to Introduce Standing Only Section on Flights”

  2. You’re way off base on this one Turley. If I tried to shoehorn myself into economy class (the only kind I could ever afford), I’d be at serious risk of a blood clot. I would rather stand for two hours than be shoehorned into economy class.

    But the truth is that while I’ve flown in various kinds of aircraft, I’ve never flown commercial because I do not take airline restrictions lightly, and post-9/11 they started making you check in your personhood at the metal detectors.

    Bar stool seating is less degrading than economy seating, but it makes little difference since most people with any sense of self-regard would rather die than submit to TSA B.S.

    I did government forms for TSA employees trying to get promotions, btw. Every one of my qualified clients was passed over in favor of less qualified individuals who went to the same church as their supervisor.

  4. IS,

    Admit it, you’re just supporting Wal-mart because you think it will get us all mad, which btw is the very definition of trolling.
    This one gets a 2/10: WAY to transparent, and even by trolling standards the reasoning is sub-par.

  5. Is it appropriate to use the word wop, even in jest?

    I do not see how this bar stool design could pass muster safety-wise. But silly me to think that safety comes first…

  6. Buddha,

    Not for nothing, but you just reminded me of John Belushi talking about “The Luck Of The Irish.”

  7. Bar Stool with seat Belts. That is a concept I can adjust to. Will there be cup holders? Ah heck, just make sure the Captain has his Booster Seat set and you can even install a Casket for some.

  8. Wal Mart is the second coming. Low prices friendly faces and they put those damn high price mom and pop shops out of business. The ones in those little towns that rape the towns people by charging 50 bucks for a pair of jeans you can get at Wal Mart for 20 bucks. Their children drive nice cars while the rest of the towns folk are scrimping to get buy. I say we need a Wal Mart in every small town in America.

    And don’t give me any crapt about how they send American jobs overseas. The small town proprietors buy their stuff from the same countries that Wal Mart does. The pay is decent and you can get medical insurance and since the company is doing well if you have a brain and some get up and go you can advance. Oh and did I mention their stock is doing well and it pays a dividend?

    Lets see the union companies are all getting taken over by Obama and the Feds. Wal-Mart on one hand and Fascism on the other, ummmm I think I’ll take Wal-Mart. Unions are the hand maidens of the left.

  9. My sister loves to go to Italy (she married a wop–the best brother-in-law a man could have) so I think I can now afford to send them on a trip to Italy because I owe them a lot for room n’ board when I worked in the Farmington Patch oil field in the 1970s. I could secretly purchase the plane tickets and meet them at the airport in Durango. What a surprise:

    All aboard the Sardine Can Fight OOOO(h) to Sardinia, Italy…

  10. Moooooo.

    Here’s an anecdote to go with those cattle stories, Bob.

    I was in Wal-Mart recently (with someone else as I never shop their). This person had a check from a part-time job on him and was going to cash at their instead of his bank for convenience. They didn’t just ask for his DL. They asked for his SSN. And he’d have given it to them if I hadn’t of stopped him.

    There is NO REASON for Wal-Mart to want an SSN to cash a check. Your SSN is private information and you’ve provided it once to the State to get your DL. It’s bad enough you have to trust them with it, much less a corporation looking to get into your pocketbook. Your DL is all the valid ID required to cash a check at a bank. ANY bank. But it’s not good enough for Wal-Mart. Noooooooooooo! They need the number they can unlock your whole life with just to provide a so-called customer service. If I was a shopper there, I’d have called and raised all kind of Hell at their legal department. As it is, I kinda hope every Wal-Mart in the world burns to the ground along with their headquarters and logistics operations but I’m content not to shop there and trying to convince as many people as I can not to shop their either.

    But I could swear I heard my friend moo . . .

  12. My apologies for posting off topic, but the manner in which Obama is picking up the ball where Bush left it while the public offers just a vacant stare just annoys the crap out of me.

  13. *For all the sobbing and moaning I’ve heard about the torture of a few individuals…

  14. June 18, 2009
    NEW YORK TIMES Editorial
    The Eavesdropping Continues

    Once again, the country is learning about how the federal government has been exceeding its legal authority and violating Americans’ most basic rights in the name of fighting terrorism.

    In a disturbing article in The Times on Wednesday, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau said that Congressional investigations suggest that the National Security Agency continues to routinely collect Americans’ telephone calls and e-mail messages — perhaps by the millions.

    These sweeps seem unconnected to specific terrorism investigations, and the communications are entirely domestic. The law does not allow fishing trips through Americans’ communications and only permits the government to read e-mails or listen to phone calls in which one party is “reasonably believed” to be outside the United States.

    The government offered its usual response: Oops. A spokesman for the intelligence community said any “overcollection” was inadvertent and “when such errors are identified,” they are quickly corrected.

    That excuse wore thin long ago. We heard it when the F.B.I. was caught abusing its power to issue “national security letters” to short-circuit constitutional protections. We heard it in April, when the Obama administration first acknowledged that the N.S.A. was exceeding even the expanded authority it was given last year to monitor international calls and e-mail traffic.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/opinion/18thu1.html?pagewanted=print

    US moving cautiously on new cyber security program

    By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Writer

    July 2, 2009

    WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration is moving cautiously on a new pilot program that would both detect and stop cyber attacks against government computers, while trying to ensure citizen privacy protections.

    The pilot program, known as Einstein 3, was supposed to launch in February. But the Department of Homeland Security is still pulling the plan together, according to senior administration officials.

    Einstein 3 has triggered debate and privacy concerns because the program will use National Security Agency technology, which is already being employed on military networks.

    Any involvement of the NSA – the agency oversees electronic intelligence-gathering – in protecting domestic computer networks worries privacy and civil liberties groups who oppose giving such control to U.S. spy agencies.

    http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/a/w/1152/07-02-2009/20090702163507_05.html

    For all the sobbing and moaning I’ve heard about of a few individuals, I’m astounded at the silence as the 4th Amendment is being virtually erased from the constitution via execuitve fiat.

  16. If they want to attract more customers, call it “Coffin Class”. Vampires are hot right now. I’d go with that marketing.

  18. Barstools with seatbelts?

    OK… but there better be pole dancing involved.

  19. Isn’t Ryanair the same company that announced it was going to charge for using the bathrooms? They did that as a publicity stunt. I bet this is more of the same.

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