Last time i flew with American they were asking passengers to volunteer their seats up so i did and they put me in the Hilton for the night up at Ohare, nice hotel (part of the airport i believe) but damn its expnsive! Even with them paying for the room it was a fortune just to eat! (Which i didn't).

agreed....my wife and were looking at taking a train holiday, a western states tour etc....we cannot do the European orient express this year do the friggin dollar..anyway, we took an Amtrak ride to san deigo and back as a teaser. Forget it. No wonder they are ion a constant sate of bankrupt with uncle sam picking up the tab every 5 years.

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No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

Works pretty well with British Airlines, Air France, KLM, Luftansa etc. The two best airlines in the world, Qantas and Singapore Air are both subsidized. I am not saying it is right. I am just point out that there are plenty of examples to prove this statement categorically false.

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Abstinence Education at its finest:

Ohare is a city unto itself. Never had any reason to stay in a hotel there, though

And, I'd probably take a later flight too for a freebie, if I were traveling for work. As it is, I've just got my fingers crossed for a first class upgrade tomorrow...

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

I should have stipulated that we got a free meal too.

And yeah i remember telling my wife at thw time too that it is the size of a small city, its enormous!

Problem is that like every hub for every airliner is outta there so now i only fly non stop when i fly commercial, and that isn't often. (Always try fly private if you can).

I'm wondering if tossing all these freebies to customers is cheaper than if they had just done things right in the first place...There's got to be some sound business strategy in all this clusterf*&@

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

I'm willing to bet that it isn't with this kind of public gaffe. But I'm also willing to bet that they planned to fudge for a while and quietly come into complying, which would have cost nothing.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

NYC to LA? Approximately 3000 miles (straight-line on land) or 2400 by air. NYC and Houston? Approximately 1800 on land 1500 by air. Thats MILES, not KILOMETERS.
Yeah, so that's 3x as fast even ignoring the fact that tracks cant go straight-line between cities. We have mountains and big rivers in the way.
On what planet?
Think HUGE investment and in this case, air is more efficient.
The average American? Not too often, but there are thousands of business travelers who do it weekly.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.

They didn't really mess anything up Ajax, it was just frequent flyers trying to get tickets and some of us obliged them seeing as they were somewhat in a rush and i wasn't particularily eager to get home.

False assumption.

The Rockies are mostly granite. Drilling a hole or ten through them is not exactly easy and we'd be dealing with distances FAR greater than 150km.

Same thing with going under things like the Mississippi.

I really dont think you have a concept of the scale involved.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.

I think I'd shoot myself if I had to take a train from LA to New York. Although, when I go to California for work, if my company wants to pay me to spend six or seven days in transit, I think I could live with it

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Seriously? Seems better just to pay the air-fare yourself!

Really? Never heard of THAT. Do you have a link?


BTW, just because something can be done over short distances doesnt mean it can be done over longer ones.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.

Earth. More specifically, the Schengen Zone.
You could be nibbling Belgian chocolate on the Avenue Louise in Brussels, decide to change venue on a whim and be sitting sipping a café au lait on the Champs Elysées in Paris less than two hours later. No customs, no reservations, no luggage check, no nothing. Completely impossible by air.

Granted that a transcontinental high speed railway system would be a bit of a challenge (although: where are the days there were no limits in American enterprise ?) but I see at least three feasible possibilities in the midrange :
the East coast, connecting Boston, NY, Philly, DC and say Chesapeake.
the West Coast, connecting San Diego, LA and Frisco.
the 'Plains', connecting NY, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago.

Oh, and I do know the conversion rate between miles and kilometers, as well as the breadth and depth of rivers, and the composition of rock (the French Alps are not made of Swiss cheese either).

I'm not a fan of public transport myself. I'd take the car to Wladiwostok, but it is definitely a economically viable, ecologically friendly and overall efficient means of transportation in the 50-1000 km range. That is, the 30-625 miles range.

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"Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time"
Hillel the Elder

30-625 miles would be feasible by train, but in the US we typically cover that distance by car. Makes far more sense for us.

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In case you were wondering, yes, there really ARE more idiots these days....technology has made natural selection obsolete.