I thought I booked a flight Sunday to Ottawa, Canada, on Expedia.

I learned in a half-hour phone call with Expedia Tuesday that the travel service that invites you to “find your perfect trip” online doesn’t honor the reservations that it purports to make. So I won’t be flying to Ottawa on an Expedia reservation. Or anywhere. Ever again. I can’t understand a business that doesn’t honor its commitments.

My experience with Expedia underscores three important principles of doing business in the digital age:

• Above all, you must be trustworthy. If people can’t trust you, they are not going to buy your services and they won’t give you credit card information.
• You must provide a good user experience. If somewhere in the fine print of Expedia’s disclaimers, it provides a legal basis for its refusal to honor the reservation I made, it still provided a horrible user experience. And that’s just bad business.
• Screw a customer in the age of social media and that customer won’t just share his or her anger with a few friends. We share our anger on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other platforms, costing you far more than the few bucks it would have cost to honor your original commitment.

Here’s what happened: I need to fly to Ottawa next month for some workshops at Carleton University and the Ottawa Citizen. Mimi’s flying with me and it’s a bit of a tight travel squeeze, because we need to fly out of Minneapolis and need to leave late enough that she can attend a baby shower in the Twin Cities on the afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 17.

I found a flight that worked and booked Mimi’s flight on United using frequent-flier miles. When I went to book my flight through United, the fare seemed a bit high, so I checked Expedia, which I have used many times before (at least twice this year, according to confirmation emails I still have).

Expedia offered a flight through Air Canada on the same United flights Mimi was booked on for $528.46 total. I booked it immediately and received an email “Travel confirmation” starting: “Thank you for booking your trip with Expedia. This email is your receipt for the travel item(s) you just booked.”

So I was set for my trip to Canada. Or so I thought.

I got a call Tuesday from Expedia, telling me that the fare had gone up (over $700, though I didn’t get the right amount, because I wasn’t paying it, at least not to Expedia). I said I didn’t care. Expedia offered the trip for $528.46. I booked it at that rate and that was what I would be paying. The rep kept trying to offer me options that I found unacceptable, so I insisted on talking to a supervisor.

While I was holding for the supervisor, I went to the email account I use for Expedia (my third account, one I don’t check daily) and saw a Monday email informing me:  ”Due to technical difficulties beyond our control we are currently unable to confirm your reservation.” Interesting choice of words. I had an email from them the day before confirming the reservation.

I never talked to that supervisor. After several minutes on hold I gave up. But first (since I had been informed the call was being recorded for quality purposes), I said aloud that I expected Expedia to honor the reservation I had booked.

The confirmation email that apparently didn’t mean anything included a link to customer service, where I got a form to fill out. I expressed my displeasure at the refusal to honor the commitment and at being left on hold for unreasonably long and insisted that someone call me immediately. I got an auto-generated email, telling me someone would get back to me in 24 hours.

After a few hours of no contact, either from the supervisor I had been holding for in the first place (they had called me, so they had the number) or from the online customer service, I called the number in one of the two emails I had received.

There I went through a song-and-dance with a “customer-service” rep who explained Expedia’s business model. Apparently they aren’t actually making reservations for you. They’re quoting recent fares from the airlines and after they book (and confirm) your flight, they try to buy the actual ticket. And if the fare goes up, they try to stick the customer with the increase. (I’m pretty sure I’m not using the rep’s exact words.)

The rep directed me to the “my itineraries” page, where a disclaimer told me: “Your ticket purchase has not been confirmed by the airline. Please check back in 24 hours for ticket confirmation information.”

Funny. Nothing indicated that when I was booking this trip and it didn’t say that on the confirmation email. In fact, I’m not sure I had ever looked at the “my itineraries” page until that phone call.

I went back through the reservation process, looking for some sneaky disclaimer I must have missed all the times I booked with Expedia. Closest I could find was this vague (passive voice is great for obscuring meaning) warning: “Fares are not guaranteed until purchased.” I presumed, as any customer would, that this meant the fare would be guaranteed once Expedia took my credit card number on the next screen and sent me the confirmation email, but that it might not be there if I came back later to make the reservation (or if the fare changed before I got to the next screen).

The language right under that warning clearly indicates, though, that I would be buying the ticket immediately: “Due to the restrictions associated with this fare, tickets must be purchased immediately. It is not possible to reserve this fare for later ticketing.”

The customer-service rep and his supervisor both offered me two unacceptable options:

• Pay the higher fare for the flight I originally booked.
• Accept an alternate flight closer in price to what I initially booked. (I did not explore this option with them, but looking later at Expedia, the lowest price offered was for a trip from Minneapolis to Tampa to Washington Dulles to Ottawa. No, thanks. I don’t hate O’Hare that much.)

After a half-hour conversation with this Expedia rep and his supervisor (who identified himself only as Leon and refused to give his last name and said he was the highest supervisor on duty), I tweeted my disgust with Expedia:

Just hung up after a half-hour phone call with Expedia, which is refusing to honor reservation I made Sunday. Last time I do business there.

I received three responses on Twitter and Facebook (where my tweets appear as status updates):

• Someone named J.D. Raimer tweeted: “I have the most burning hatred ever for @Expedia right now, a cheating, scumbag of a company. No one should ever use them!” This was one of many tweets by a most unhappy traveler, followed by: “@Expedia I would like to be on an airplane on my way home right now…like I paid you to do!”
• Facebook friend Rick Thomason said: “Dealt with them once…the first and last time.”
• Christine Cavalier of Philadelphia (@PurpleCar), not knowing I had already emailed, suggested email instead of calling. When I tweeted back that email hadn’t worked either, she suggested, “go up the food chain at Expedia. They are a travel agency and should honor their quotes.”
• @Expedia also responded: “sorry to hear about your situation. We’ll try to help. Follow us and DM us your itin # and any previous customer service convos.”

I responded quickly to Expedia, providing my itinerary number, phone number and email address in two direct messages. That was 20 hours ago and I haven’t heard from Expedia, except for two automated emails:  One told me they wouldn’t call in response to my email request for help and wouldn’t help by email. They gave me a phone number to call. A second email promoted a special on hotels. I won’t be taking advantage of that special.

I will, though, offer Expedia a couple of options:

• Honor the deal I booked in good faith with you.
• Never receive another nickel of my money and be sure that I’ll warn friends, family and tweeps against using Expedia.

CNBC keeps noting that airline stocks may be a good buy for 2010. Delta and United were the top two picks and have the potential to increase 50%. They are cautious on Southwest (LUV) due to the fact of increasing ticket prices that will try to absorb non fuel related costs.

Airline passengers get a porthole-sized view of the Tarmac Winter Olympics

What is your time, as an airline passenger, worth?

The Obama Administration says $27,500. That is what you – one passenger – will cost an airline, if you are left stuck in a plane, on the tarmac, for more than three hours. A planeload of 300 people could run up a fine for an airline of about $10 million.

The airlines argue that you are worth much less – more like nothing.

But they have lost that argument, with the adoption this month of new rules by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The rules (see them in entirety here) are intended to provide enhanced rights for airline passengers (Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has championed similar legislation).

Predictably, the airline industry threatens dire consequences, out of control cost increases, and – get this – “more canceled flights and greater passenger inconvenience”.

Can anything be more inconvenient than being stuck on an airplane for 11 hours, with no food, no water, and no sanitary facilities? Certainly, passengers on the Eurostar/TGV trains that broke down last week in the English Chunnel, would answer, “Yes!” But those beleaguered train passengers are only now experiencing what U.S. airline passengers experience on more than 1,500 occasions – per year, on average. Ground delays of more than three hours affect about 115,000 passengers each year, the transportation department reported. (Oooh! That would be worth $3,162,500,000 in fines now!)

Since it is hard to imagine any airline willingly incurring those kinds of fines – heck, they won’t even spring for free peanuts anymore – it will be interesting to see how they try to avoid them.

Will they return to the gate after 2:59 of delays, open the door for a minute, then close it, and taxi back out – like pro basketballers, with a new 24-second shot clock?

You just know they will think of something devious – like they do now, to avoid putting delayed passengers up for the night – such as boarding people on planes which they know aren’t going anywhere for hours. Or telling us when our plane has arrived that we can’t unload “because there’s another jet that hasn’t left, at our gate.” Like they didn’t know about that hours ago.

Or they may just out and out lie.

On a recent delay at O’Hare Airport that was going to last all night, United told passengers they were not entitled to any compensation, no overnight accommodations, and no meal vouchers. That was a lie, as I pointed out to the customer “service” agent (who gave me a voucher for the Hilton across from the terminal, and rebooked me on the first scheduled flight out in the morning).

Two things fall short, in the new rules announced Monday by Ray LaHood, the Transportation secretary. One, we – the people – don’t get any of the fine money in our pocket; in Europe, delayed passengers are entitled to as much as $860 in restitution. And two, the rules don’t go into effect until mid-April 2010.

That’s plenty of time for the airlines to give you a parting gift this holiday season.

Jerry Garrett

December 22, 2009

Stop the snow, stop the snow, stop the snow

I’m a bit spoiled when it comes to air travel. For the last several years I’ve had status on American Airlines. Once you have status, it’s hard to travel on airlines you don’t. Here’s a quick example…

Our flight to Denver has been delayed three hours. We arrived two hours early (just to make sure we had confirmed seats given how many other flights have been delayed thanks to the Storm of the Century). The line at the regular counter was insanely long. The line at first class was nonexistent. On American, I can pop up to any counter because of having status. With status (or priority access), you get to breeze through check-in and go through an extra-special security line (which isn’t all that super special, but they make it seem like it is so that you feel better).

Today on United, no status, no breeze-through, which meant, wait in the long line. Ok, not so bad right? I mean, we did have a five hour wait till our flight so why worry about waiting in a long line? Because I’m spoiled. And because frankly, there is no reason to wait in an incredibly long line if you don’t know whether all the other people are waiting to check in, or waiting to reschedule flights (I suspected the latter given all the delays).

I wanted to cut the line and go right to the computer check-ins. My travel partner, we’ll call Mr. K, did not agree. He wanted us to wait in the line. Everyone else was waiting in line, thus we should too.

But as I mentioned, I am spoiled. I walked up to the agent managing the line and inquired as to whether this line was for rescheduling or check in. She said it was for people waiting to talk to an agent. I said we were just checking in. “I’ll pull you from the line when you get closer,” was her response. Closer to what? There were 50 people waiting to talk to an agent, and 10 computers open with no one using them. We were about 45 people back…didn’t it make sense for us to just go use the computer now? Mr. K again disagreed and convinced me to be good and wait in the line.

Five minutes passed, ten, then fifteen. Did it matter? That meant we still had four hours and forty-five minutes till our flight. For me it did. I asked Mr. K to hold my bags and did the limbo under the ropes to get to the computers. I started the check-in process. We didn’t need an agent, we just needed our bags checked and our boarding passes printed.

I finished pressing all the right buttons, and Mr. K was convinced. He jumped from the line with our bags.

We checked in. Only four and a half hours left to wait! Hurrah.

Covered in snow. In Colorado. Go figure (and other applicable Americanisms…)

Still in “big airport” mode from Heathrow and Kennedy, I arrived at LaGuardia spectacularly early, much to the bemusement of the check-in staff. I was expecting the endless conveyor belts and multi-terminal hell of LHR or JFK and instead got a gentle stroll around the corner to security and leisurely amble to my gate, not an escalator or belt in sight. The flipside, I suppose, is that there was no-one trying to sell me discount perfume, no caviar-and-champagne bar (no bar at all, come to think of it), in fact very little do to at all. Therefore, I spent the next two hours drinking orange juice and watching a car chase on CNN. The televised car chase is a little slice of Americana that you don’t really imagine finding, like lemonade stands on front lawns (something I really did see in Winnetka, IL in 2006, but that’s beside the point…); it’s something else you read about but don’t actually see. This one was complete with a stream of 20-odd patrol cars (what are the last 15 or so going to do that the first couple can’t manage?), overhead camera footage not from the police but from news networks (well, you’ve got to do something with all that advertising revenue I suppose) and scrolling text commentary. This sky blue Ford F-150 was carving through Dallas County at a little under 100mph for no apparent reason while, as the world looks on in high-definition widescreen, men with no discernable qualification to do so speculate wildly on things like how far such a pickup could get on a full tank at this speed and what the man inside could possibly have done to warrant such behaviour. This sort of thing is so fascinating to the British observer that we like to collate such footage and put it on shows with titles like America’s Most Violent Car Chases on those obscure channels you only find when operating under the mistaken impression that you’ll get back to BBC One quicker by continuing to press the up button until you get back to the start. Of course, everyone else went about their business like nothing out of the ordinary was happening (because, I suppose, it wasn’t), catching flights to Chicago or Atlanta, reading the New York Times or calling their families.

Having added a United Airlines napkin to my American one and thereby begun a collection of sorts (one that would go on to include US Airways as well as Amtrak and Acela trains) and been pleasantly surprised by The Brothers Bloom (which, among other things, features Rachel Weisz crashing Lamborghinis and making pinhole cameras out of hollowed-out vegetables to pass the time; what’s not to love?), I passed the remainder of my flight (window seat!) admiring the agricultural patchwork of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas. Passing over the south of Illinois I had chance to reflect on what took me on this leg of the journey. A remarkable set of coincidences when I considered them, and a story I have told countless times since (and ended up telling a couple of days later at a party). Like many good stories, it stars a beautiful girl and a chance meeting. Unlike most chance meetings, this one occurred on a school trip to Berlin. It also featured an exchange of emails about far-fetched dreams of a trip to America. Duly encouraged, these became not so-far-fetched after all, and led to a trip to Chicago in August 2006 and a few of the most impulsive, enjoyable and ultimately free days I have ever passed (and including a double-header Counting Crows/Goo Goo Dolls show at Tinley Park, IL that might as well have been made for us, so perfect was the musical match). Said beautiful girl was now studying at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and it was time to catch up. Flying within the US being so cheap and convenient, it was, to abuse another Americanism, a no-brainer.

Denver International Airport is the first one I have ever been to where I was required to take a train to baggage reclaim. A totally automated train, indeed, and one that announced your arrival on it with a few staccato piano chords. I’m sure it was really just announcing the fact that the doors had opened, but wherein lies the fun in such a quotidian explanation? It runs back and forth between the terminals and the central baggage hall/transport hub, underground. Well, it’s more interesting than another set of escalators and conveyor belt walkway things…

Wandering through the airport (looking for someone who knew which carousel our bags were really on, ie not the one we’d been told on the plane), I was struck by the number of US servicemen and women flying in uniform; America is proud of its armed forces and the people who serve with them. Not for the first time I found myself looking back at my small island and wondering why we had to be so critical, so cynical, and why we couldn’t have enough pride in our soldiers to allow them to travel in uniform. Countless times whilst catching trains south out of Leeds on a Friday I watched painfully new recruits trying to disguise the fact that a couple of hours ago they had left Catterick Garrison and were now going south for a weekend of home comforts. Hats, bandanas, hoodies, all attempts to conceal the buzz cut that was the ultimate giveaway, but there were other signs too, most often the issue kitbags. In America they would expect congratulation, little nods of deference and discounts; I feared that at home they would get suspicion from some, anger and rejection from others.

Baggage claim negotiated, I made for the exit. Stepping out of the airport was a shock. Early October in New York had been mild and I’d been out in shirtsleeves. The cold wasn’t vicious, just omnipresent. The air was different, crisp as I passed through the curtain of warmth in front of the automatic doors and into Colorado. The vista that presented itself was instantly different to everything I’d seen in New York, even before I looked up and saw the Flatirons looming. Wide open spaces, even in airport bus terminals, are the order of the day where the Midwest meets the Rockies.

The aggregation of humanity lingering around the bus stop spoke volumes about Boulder. Students, yes, but also assorted bohemian types, utterly at odds with the ultra-busy New Yorkers I’d spent the past few days rubbing shoulders with. The bus appeared, late but welcome. The sun was setting over the Rockies, and soon after that over the airport bus stops too. It got dark quickly, and soon after that began to snow. I was on edge; no real idea where I was, and whilst logic told me that Boulder was an hour’s drive from DIA and the final destination of the bus (and that I could therefore afford to relax a little), nevertheless a paranoid fear of missing my stop made me jumpy. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the student types who had said they were getting off at Euclid (a street, apparently; I was still expecting numbers, not Greek mathematicians) decided to get off early. Neither, I suppose, was I put at ease by the driver, who attempted to explain the notion of the request stop to the assembled travelers in a “comic” scary voice more suited to the festival of Halloween still nearly three weeks away. “Make sure you ring that bell, kids, or I’ll just….keep…on…driving…through the night!”

Eventually I put my earphones in and found something to fit the mood. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals live from Leeds Academy, an electric, blistering, brilliant set I’d seen nearly a year beforehand (and, thanks to the benevolence of said band and the wonders of modern technology, had a crystal-clear bootleg recording of). Pedal steel, songs of wide open spaces and loneliness, suddenly appropriate on this bus ride through the dark and the snow, further from home than I had ever been.

I stepped off a bus and into the life of someone I once knew briefly but deeply, filled with uncertainty.

Writing to a friend:

Erin and I spent 4 days catching up like the old friends we are. We ate good food, talked endlessly, carved pumpkins (another American ritual for the collection) and walked in the snow. And yes, the snow was awesome. On the night I arrived, having flown from NY LaGuardia to Denver International then caught a bus to Boulder (following Erin’s instructions), I stepped off said bus and was fairly jumped on by an excited Erin.

Greetings dispensed with, we made our way quickly into warmth and shelter, walking through the still-falling snow to The Sink.

11th October

Snow, unexpected and unseasonal even here, has cast a magical blanket over this place. Erin met me from the bus and we went for the best burger I’ve had in ages while we caught up on life.

For “in ages” read “ever”.

It had started snowing as I was on the bus, so we walked through it to this burger bar she wanted to show me. The Sink, as it’s known, has been there since 1930 and is something of a landmark. Robert Redford worked there when he was a student at the University of Colorado, which is pretty cool. We ate burgers and fries and drank coke and felt very American. This proved to me that there is such a thing as a good cheeseburger, because that’s what I had. Good beef, cooked how you like it (medium in my case, medium-rare in hers), SO tasty. Boulder is a college town, dominated by the bohemian presence of some 20,000 students and the associated hippy types who gather for the bars, the music and the marijuana. The looming Flatiron hills, the leading edge of the Rockies, are visible every time you look west.

From there we went back to her place, dropped my stuff, changed and went straight out to a party. A themed affair, “Professors and schoolgirls”, which mostly meant the girls trying to outdo each other in the sluttiness stakes, short plaid skirts and tight white blouses while the guys stood around wearing button-down shirts and jackets and looking awkward. Drinking games ensued, much like a student house party anywhere else. We did one other party during the weekend, a much more civilized affair involving good food, wine and coffee; they can, it seems do both crazy drunk and quite refined.

The first question everyone asks when you tell them you went to a keg party is, “Did they have those red cups?”

Maybe I didn’t watch enough bad American teen movies or something, but my first encounter with these 12 fl oz marvels was in Chicago. They’re another of those things that just don’t exist in Europe, for no good reason that I can see. There is a chicken-egg dilemma though; which came first, the red plastic cups or the drinking games that create the demand for them?!

The second party referred to was indeed a civilised one; good food, wine and conversation, and awesome Irish coffee. The secret, I was told in no uncertain terms, was freshly whipped cream, sugar and Bourbon. Far be it for me to suggest that Irish coffee should have had Jameson’s in it… Speaking of alcohol, before said party I was called upon to go shopping for wine, another American college experience to add to my growing collection. It’s difficult for an outsider to judge whether the fraternisation between year groups encourages underage drinking or whether the desire for illicit alcohol drives said fraternisation, but either way I’d answered the question of how it makes its way down to the under-21s as I knew it must; the duty is foisted on the older ones, clutching money pooled by the group. Until the point where I presented a UK drivers licence, it felt reasonably authentic; the document tends to cause much confusion/suspicion in a Midwest wine warehouse.

Writing to my father, evidently in reply to a show of concern about the weather:

There’s about two inches of snow in Boulder, started falling about an hour after I landed in Denver. This is apparently early for snow, even here at the foot of the Rockies. It’s very beautiful. I took my long tweed coat for a very good reason, and it proved invaluable. Scarf and gloves in the coat pockets, which was a good thing! That plus Timberland boots saw me through, although I did have to buy a hat. (In answer to his question as to what I meant by the term…) Flatirons are the first bit of the Rockies, as it were, and loom at the end of streets in Boulder, every time you look west.

Here was an experience of American life unlike any I’d seen before (not difficult really, seeing as my experience extended to Chicagoland(they actually use the word, apparently) suburbia and New York hotels); watching American students going about student-y things Subtly different to their British counterparts in all sorts of ways. For a start, almost everyone drives, and in Colorado it’s usually 4×4s like Jessi’s gorgeous, dilapidated ’78 Chevrolet Cheyenne, complete with doors cannibalised from another truck at some point in its long life.

Suddenly there was space. I had become, arriving in the mountains after four days in the city, “a man who gauges bucolic distances by New York City blocks” (Salinger, J.D., Seymour: An Introduction).   I had never felt so much an inhabitant of a city, never so inhabited by one, rarely so alienated by a change in landscape.

Another email:

Other than student parties, my time was mostly spent walking the Boulder Creek trail, trying not to freeze to death and fending off Max the kitten, who was rescued from a sewer and is the most excitable life form of any kind I have ever met. Like your average kitten on speed or something.

Max

wish hotels came with kittens for alarm clocks

Max was a part of the experience, no doubt, and after a short while developed a keen sense for when it was appropriate to climb on me (and another for which bits of the duvet he could paw at without risking a gentle nudge of dissuasion).

The weekend drew inevitably to a close, but Monday was Erin’s birthday. Buying Franny & Zooey for friends is hugely satisfying, no more so than in America, where Salinger books come with the original cover art. It took all my willpower not to buy a full set to take home! Here is not the place to go on at length about the genius of J.D. Salinger, but I can summarise most of what I’d like to say by simply compelling you to look beyond Catcher in the Rye, either with Franny and Zooey or Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters/Seymour: An Introduction. F&Z is a book I’ve bought for several friends. Filled with the best of Salinger’s observational work, the opening page is simply some of the most delicious description of humanity the 20th century American canon has to offer.

THOUGH brilliantly sunny, Saturday morning was overcoat weather again, not just topcoat weather, as it had been all week and as everyone had hoped it would stay for the big weekend– the weekend of the Yale game. Of the twenty-some young men who were waiting at the station for their dates to arrive on the ten-fifty-two, no more than six or seven were out on the cold, open platform. The rest were standing around in hatless, smoky little groups of twos and threes and fours inside the heated waiting room, talking in voices that, almost without exception, sounded collegiately dogmatic, as though each young man, in his strident, conversational turn, was clearing up, once and for all, some highly controversial issue, one that the outside, non-matriculating world had been bungling, provocatively or not, for centuries.

J.D. Salinger, Franny

Having raved about it to Erin the day before, and having known (and planned) that I would be with her on her birthday, I set about getting a copy. The bookshop in Boulder was a revelation in itself (and not just because I found myself reading C.S. Lewis’s lectures). Late night opening hours, vast stock and beautiful wooden staircases with brass rails. Lewis was my first conscious effort at engaging with one of the elephants in the room, the God question. How long can you travel in the US and not meet it? Regardless, the bookshop provided me with both a copy of F&Z and a card with the Goethe quote I refer to in the very first entry in the blog:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

(I should point out that, should you wish, there is a raft of discussions and articles about the veracity of this quote’s ascription to Goethe, but I’ll leave that up to you and Google…) It’s a delightful sentiment, and seemed to fit the morning.

12th October

Norlin Library, University of Colorado at Boulder

Sunshine! Mountains finally creeping into view. Bagels with Erin and Jessie, beat-up ’78 Chevy Cheyenne adds to the sense of Americanness.

If I was on a search for the essence of this nation, riding shotgun in a Chevy pickup to go and get bagels for breakfast gets close. I can’t handle the cream cheese on everything, but hot cinnamon and raisin bagels with butter and honey are pretty remarkable.

That night we dined at Antica Roma, the best Italian restaurant Boulder had to offer. I eat a lot of Italian food, in Italy when the chance arises but otherwise in both independents and various chains in the UK, to varying success. The combination of Italian food and American service, however, is utterly incongruous and faintly unnerving. Somehow it just feels wrong that there’s a waiter at your elbow just dying to rush around at your beck and call, ice water, bread and oil arriving without so much as a word (or a charge) and with such politeness as to be a little discomforting for the hapless Brit. Leaving aside the service for a moment, the food was good. Quite how one gets hold of mozzarella in the Rockies I’ve no idea, but the pizza was authentic and unpolluted by America’s idea of what pizza ought to look like. I’ve nothing against deep-pan Chicago-style; indeed, Erin introduced me to the magical place that is Gino’s East (and somewhere in there our names are scrawled on the walls!), but this was proper, wood-fired stone-baked thin, crispy and tasty Italian pizza, in the heart of Middle America. Just when you could have slipped away into a recollected reverie of Rome, our ultra-helpful waiter arrived to ask if I’d like a doggy-bag. Ah, America the gluttonous…

The following morning I was awakened by Max, whose uncanny sense of timing prevailed once more. A quick breakfast then Erin guided me back onto the airport bus. A sad farewell, but safe in the knowledge our paths will cross again, wanderers both. Back to Denver International and onto a United flight to Dallas/Fort Worth.

Take note: This is an experience sharing blog entry of my recent attempt in flying en femme. The content and materials (pictures) are to be treated as copyrighted and with respect. I prefer to remain anonymous and hope you will not blow my cover, if you do know my real identity. Thank you very much.

Hey girls,

This is my first attempt in flying en femme in both domestic and international flights. I am writing this lengthy blog entry to share my experience and encourage others out there who would like to try the same thing. Before I begin, let me assure you that flying en femme is legal. However, you are strongly advised to carry your male clothing in a hand carry bag, that is accessible to you all the time. This is a precautionary step for those whose photo ID documents (e.g. visa, passport) look like a man.

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The full blog entry is at irenetan-cd.blogspot.com

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This time of year, are you turning your pockets inside out to find nothing but lint? Wondering if you can stick an I.O.U. in a stocking that’s hung by the chimney with care? Believe me, I get it. I’m flipping sofa cushions looking for spare change. And we’re all so busy around the holidays that it can be just as tough to donate hours as it is to donate dollars to charities that depend on us.

You may, however, have an unexamined and unrealized resource to help you keep the spirit of giving going while not putting you in the red. Those frequent flyer miles that you’ve accrued but can never seem to redeem can be donated to your favorite charity or sometimes specific partner charities of the airlines. You needn’t open your wallet to make a difference. You can help without trying to get blood from a stone.

Your favorite charity may have  system in place to make use of your donated miles, and your air carrier’s website will have their own specifics for donating, but here’s a quick roundup of links to explore:

American Airlines Miles for Kids in Need

Continental Airlines OnePass Charity Partners

Delta Sky Wish

Northwest Air Cares

United Mileage Plus Charity Miles

US Airways Miles of Hope

UAL Corp.’s United Airlines confirmed Tuesday that it placed initial firm orders for 50 wide-body planes, evenly split between Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner and rival Airbus’s new A350 model, and arranged future purchase rights for 50 more of each.

United, the third-largest U.S. airline by traffic, hadn’t ordered new aircraft for 11 years. The carrier began shopping last summer, figuring it could drive a better bargain by pitting the manufacturers against each other at the bottom of the business cycle. The airline hired aviation-consulting firm Seabury Group LLC to help it negotiate.

At catalog prices, the order is valued at more than $10 billion, but major customers such as United usually win substantial discounts. These can exceed 40% off list prices, industry officials say, although actual pricing varies widely for each deal.

While United wouldn’t comment on precise terms of the deal, Chief Financial Officer Kathryn Mikells said the airline benefited from the timing and “secured the right aircraft and the right deal,” one that requires minimal capital through 2013.

“They are clearly buying at the bottom of the market, which is always a smart thing to do,” said Airbus Chief Operating Officer John Leahy, the company’s top airplane salesman.

Ms. Mikells said United won significant “backstop” financing from the manufacturers, meaning Boeing and Airbus will finance the purchases if the airline can’t find more attractive options in the credit markets when the planes are closer to delivery.

Dividing the order also gives the airline an opportunity to have the manufacturers compete all over again when United looks to convert the additional future purchase rights into firm orders, she said. The airline also can substitute other versions of these models in the future. Between favorable deal terms, the fuel and maintenance savings the new planes will bring and the revenue boost from serving new international markets with the smaller planes, Ms. Mikells said, the aircraft will produce a return on investment.

United said it will take deliveries between 2016 and 2019, with the new planes replacing its existing Boeing 747s and 767s used on overseas routes. Chicago-based United said it will hold another competition next year for a potential replacement for its aging 757 narrow-body planes.

Boeing’s new-technology 787 has been delayed by developmental problems. The manufacturer isn’t expected to begin deliveries until late 2010, 2 ½ years late. Boeing has said the plane could make its first test flight as soon as next week. Dozens of 787 orders have been canceled as airlines have grown frustrated with the delays—and because the recession has taken a toll on airline budgets.

United’s order is Boeing’s first for the advanced new plane since May and the first new customer named for the Dreamliner in more than 18 months, a big boost for the manufacturer, also based in Chicago.

The first version of the 787, which seats as many as 250 passengers and is designed to fly about 8,000 nautical miles, has attracted 840 orders from 55 customers, including Delta Air Lines Inc., AMR Corp.’s American Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc.

Airbus’s rival A350 model has logged 493 orders from 31 customers, with US Airways Group Inc. and Hawaiian Holdings Inc.’s Hawaiian Airlines being the first U.S. customers. The A350 is designed to seat 270 passengers and fly 8,300 nautical miles. Airbus is expected to start delivering the new A350 to customers in 2013.

United’s split purchase also is a victory for Airbus, which has never sold wide-body jetliners to the carrier, even though United was the first major U.S. airline to buy Airbus’s A320 single-aisle planes roughly 20 years ago. Boeing had tried to keep United exclusively in its camp for long-range planes by proposing its existing 777 model, in addition to the 787, according to people familiar with the negotiations. United operates 52 777s. But Airbus was able to make a case for its A350 model, now in development.

This deal is the sixth time airlines have opted for both models. The two often are considered direct competitors, but the A350 family of three versions is larger than the two long-range 787 models. Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Qatar Airways have ordered both planes. “A big airline like United can use two wide-body types efficiently and optimize for their route network,” said Mr. Leahy, the Airbus operating chief.

The A350-900’s range is 11% greater than the existing 747’s, and the 787-8 can fly 32% farther than United’s existing 767s. Having both allows the airline to fly to a broader array of farther destinations with fewer seats, while saving on fuel and maintenance.

Officials at Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. are likely to tout such decisions by private airlines to procurement officials at the U.S. Department of Defense, who must choose between competing jetliner models from Boeing and Airbus as the basis for midair refueling planes the Air Force plans to buy. The Pentagon wants to buy only one plane model, while some members of Congress are pressing for a split purchase.

Airbus Tools

Consumers who complain by letter or phone risk getting worse service as companies protect their image by concentrating on higher-profile online gripes, a watchdog warns.

Consumer Focus said a silent majority of ordinary customers who complaint by letter or by phone might be left behind as firms switch to monitoring internet postings to protect their corporate image. Recent research by information management firm Convergys found that a negative review or comment by a frustrated customer on the Twitter, Facebook or YouTube web sites can lose companies as many as 30 other customers.

Comments by popular bloggers or Twitterers such as Stephen Fry, who has more than one million followers, can have an even more damaging effect. In 2007, furious Patrick Askins became so angry with BT that he posted a YouTube video about his experiences that was viewed thousands of times, shaming the company into a response.

BT now has its own Twitter feed where it contacts users who ‘Tweet’ negative comments about its products and services, but other companies have been warned not to neglect “ordinary customers” who still have to raise complaints in person or through call centres. Christopher Rawlings, head of strategy at Consumer Focus, said greater use of social media to solve problems was to be welcomed but warned firms not to neglect consumers who “cannot access, or are simply not interested in using, the likes of Twitter or Facebook”.

He said: “There is a risk that too much attention is paid to customers those who have online influence and it is important that the traditional ways of getting problems resolved remain open. “We are conducting researching into ways consumers can benefit from social media. Equally, we recognise that there are those who do not have online access or do not want to share their personal information over the internet.”

The Convergys research, published last month, found one in three of those affected by bad customer service share their problems on the internet. It also found that each post on a social media site reaches, on average, 45 users and over 62 per cent of those who took part in the research said they would stop doing business with companies they had heard bad things about.

Among those who have taken the online route is musician Dave Carroll, whose song about how United Airlines broke his guitar notched up almost four million hits. The Consumer Focus warning came as a retail consultant predicted shoppers would be less tolerant of poor service this Christmas.

Derek Bishop, managing director of Abeo Consulting, said: “Customers simply don’t have the time, money or inclination to deal with poor levels of service this year. “It has been a difficult few months for many and the last thing they will want to deal with at Christmas is unnecessary stress on the High Street.”

He said firms that have “a good reputation and word of mouth advocacy from customers, particularly during the pre-Christmas rush” would be the most successful.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/6802019/Silent-majority-risk-worse-customer-service-as-companies-monitor-Twitter-Facebook.html

Make sure to check our newest page titled Airfare sales. Baughman Travel will update this page often. United Airlines is offering a fare sale to Hawaii when booked by 12/15/09.  Additional taxes and fees may apply. A 14 day advance purchase is required. Travel must occur between 1/12/10 – 3/4/10.  Outbound travel must occur Sunday – Wednesday and Inbound Tuesday thru Friday. Travel is valid daily. A 3 night friday or saturday night minimum stay is required with a maximum stay of 60 days.

Well that was gross.

Did you ever see the episode of The Office where Pam is pregnant and she asks Dwight not to eat his hard boiled egg at his desk because the smell will make her throw up? He refuses and proceeds to eat the egg and she promptly yaks. That sets off the rest of the office throwing up one by one. Welcome to my flight.

I missed my earlier flight by minutes and therefore had 4+ hours to kill at Dulles. Dinner, some work, bookstore, more work, phone calls, more work, CNN, more work, and finally it was time to go. Take off was fine but as we started our descent it was very rough. Like, the plane is sideways rough. And that is when the throwing up started. Luckily I was far enough removed and I escaped without being a throwee or thower and am now in the car service home.

Woo hoo – two full days without flying!

Read this post in Russian, translated by Google. Читать этот пост на русском языке, перевод Google.

I guess I was showing some travel fatigue the other day in Barnaul. As our interpreter translated for a Russian speaker, I felt a vibration from my iPhone and looked down at a text message from Mimi, sitting about four feet away on the other side of the interpreter.

“U ok?” my phone asked. My stomach was grumbling a bit. “Maybe,” I texted back.

We exchanged a look and I shrugged and resumed listening to the interpreter. Then the phone vibrated again and I looked again: “U ok?” I might have rolled my eyes. Yes, I was fine, just a bit tired. I looked over at her and nodded. She looked back at me quizzically.

The questions just kept coming: “U ok?” “U ok?” “U ok?”

Actually, getting a little annoyed.

By the time the conference took a break, we were both annoyed. Her phone was repeating, “Maybe,” “Maybe,” “Maybe.”

We were trapped in some kind of text-message loop, like a 2-year-old impatient for dinner and oblivious to redundancy. We tried clearing out our conversations, turning off our phones and turning them back on. The messages just kept coming: “U ok?”

I wondered whether 611 would take me to AT&T customer service all the way from Siberia. No. I got a voice in Russian and then in English telling me that the number didn’t work.

Back in our hotel room, lots of messages later, I went to AT&T’s web site, looking for either an international customer service number I could call or some online troubleshooting help. I tried several links and asked some questions, but the automated answers didn’t help.

I gave up in frustration and turned to Twitter:

AT&T’s online customer service is worthless. The international section gives no way to call customer service when traveling internationally.

But I didn’t just want to vent about AT&T and its web site. I wanted help. So I tweeted again:

Since AT&T’s customer service wouldn’t help, does anyone know how to stop a text message from repeating endlessly on the iPhone?

My first response came from @ATTJason:

I’m with AT&T and saw you were having trouble. Can I help? I’m following.

I replied in a direct message:

Same text message keeps repeating. How can I get it to stop? Thanks, Jason

Meanwhile, @ATTTina http://twitter.com/ATTTina/status/6358135307:

I will be happy to assist Jason has left for the day.

But Jason hadn’t stopped helping me. He suggested I turn the phone off for a few minutes. I had already turned the phone off a couple times, but wasn’t sure how long. I tried it again and the messages stopped coming.

After 7 public and direct messages from the two of them and seven direct messages from me, AT&T had a happy customer. My text messages had stopped and @ATTTina had assured me we wouldn’t be charged if the message spree sent us over our plan limit.

So I tweeted my pleasure as readily as I had tweeted my disgust:

I was frustrated with AT&T website’s customer service, but @ATTJason & @ATTTina jumped in quickly & helpfully on Twitter. Thanks!

Jason and Tina helped not only me but @davidwolfgang, David Wolfgang, a media law student at the University of Missouri. Early on in the exchange, he tweeted:

I’m having the exact same problem, so I’m curious to see what you find out from AT&T.

After I shared Jason’s solution, David tweeted back, “Thanks for the info – it helped.”

I have been watching the growing use of (or failure to use) social media for customer service, aware of Jeff Jarvis’ “Dell Hell” saga, Dave Collins’ “United Breaks Guitars” YouTube sensation (6.3 million views and counting) and the exchange between “Dooce” blogger Heather Armstrong and Maytag.

I asked Toby Bell, Research VP at Gartner and an expert in reputation management, how companies are using social media to improve customer service (and head off angry customers who could harm their reputations using social media).

Twitter is a “customer sentiment analysis goldmine,” Bell said. Smart companies can use Twitter and other social tools to “build a foundation of trust,” he said.

In my case, AT&T certainly did that. Like many iPhone users, I’ve always been annoyed at the exclusive deal Apple struck with AT&T. I hit enough dead spots in the 3G coverage that I’ve always chuckled at Verizon Wireless’ “there’s a map for that” ads (though I had some customer service complaints when I had a Verizon phone a few years ago). I was one frustrated AT&T customer, obviously willing to share my pique broadly, that day in Siberia.

And now? Well, I’m OK. Thanks for asking.

Full email response from Toby Bell:

Yes… most companies with a stake in customer service remember ‘Dell Hell’ and the trouble one blogger  - in this case Jeff Jarvis – can cause. And, most now monitor (or work with agencies that have digital media practices to do so) all social media to both understand and leverage influence there as well as react to negative reputation signals quickly and engage in conversations with the people who mention them or their products.

Twitter users jumped in with little appreciation for the potential downside of micro-blogging. Early examples of risky behavior included the woman who, after interviewing for a job at Cisco, tweeted to everyone “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.” Despite not actually deciding to take the job, Cisco’s people were monitoring and reacted. Much din follows on monitoring, engagement, and reputation.

In another early case, an account executive for Ketchum lands in Memphis and tweets that it ’sucks’. FedEx, having made substantial effort to promote the town to its people, is dismayed to have its ad agency badmouthing its HQ in public. Changes ensue to policies and practices in both companies.

Twitter has become a customer sentiment analysis goldmine, but detecting and reacting appropriately to influential tweets is still art – not science. But many companies use Twitter to keep track of issues, launch trial balloons, and locate experts. It is an ‘unfocus group’ with enormous potential if related to by interested, enthusiastic, and social media sensitive pros.

Gartner published a report called “Negative Reputation Events and Their Outcomes” in 2008 that describes a number of business problems caused by social media and approaches taken to solve them – whether successful or not. The number of such negative events are growing. The number of technologies to help uncover the culprits and react faster is also growing. But ideally, companies will focus not simply on crisis management but instead on building a foundation for a positive relationship with customers by whatever means possible.

I think that Twitter monitoring can have substantial value in uncovering and remediating problems identified by the early adopters there. It can also build a foundation of trust in the companies who engage positively in social media to support enterprise Internet reputation management.

From the AP via the New York Times: Deliveries of the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, which will replace United’s Boeing 747s and 767s, are expected between 2016 and 2019.

Like many airlines, United will replace the 747 completely with smaller but more efficient jets. Unless airlines order the new 747-8, there will be fewer of these iconic jumbos flying in the near future. It’s a beautiful plane—more so than the Airbus A380—and smooth to ride. Despite its age it’s always exciting to fly in one.

One year in the late 1990s, on a flight back to college from LA to the Bay Area, United canceled most of the flights between the two cities due to really bad weather, mine included. (This was when United operated its Shuttle by United service on Boeing 737s.) To compensate all of us stranded at LAX, the airline loaded everyone onto a 747. We felt like cattle, but it was exciting since no 747 flies domestically anymore. I think most people were glad they were able to get on a flight.

My first trip to New York from California was on a Pan Am 747. When my family moved across the Pacific it was on a China Airlines 747. I flew on a Lufthansa 747 to Frankfurt (although the coach cabin in Lufthansa’s 747-400s need an overhaul).

A very cool plane that I will miss if they disappear from service.

United Airlines (Chicago) has invited Embraer to bid on the narrow body offer next year.

News link:

www.reuters.com/article/idCNBFA00099720091209?rpc=44

A United 767 taxis to gates..United will be replacing these with the 787

United Airlines yesterday announced that it placed an order for 50 new widebody jets, to be delivered between 2013-2016. The order consisted of 25 Boeing 787 dreamliners, and 25 Airbus A350 widebody jets. Both are twin aisle, and will carry between 255 and 315 passengers. These are long range jets and will replace Uniteds aging 747 and 767 fleet. With a maximum range of 9481 miles, United will be able to serve any city pairs in its system..

CHICAGO/PARIS (Reuters) – Taking advantage of down market prices, United Airlines said on Tuesday it placed a $10 billion-plus order for 50 wide-bodied jetliners divided between Airbus (EAD.PA) and Boeing Co (BA.N), in a bid to slash fuel costs and emissions.

Read the full story here…

United Airlines today (Dec. 08) ordered 25 Airbus A350s and 25 Boeing 787s with options for an equal number.

It’s clear why UA did this: the A350 is too big to replace the Boeing 767-300 and the 787 is too small to replace the Boeing 777 and 747-400.

Here is the press release.

A conference call with UA is to begin shortly. We’ll provide a running log.

Call begins:

Glenn Tilton, CEO

Cathy Michaels, CFO

John Tague, Pres/COO

Greg Taylor

and others

Tilton:

• We will retire 747s and 767s as new deliveries come in 2016-2019. Manufacturers were eager to refill their order books. The A350 and 787 provide right size and range to meet diverse needs of UA’s global network and have capacity discipline. We will be able to serve new markets we weren’t able to cost-effectively serve.

Michaels:

• We got the right aircraft and we got the right financial deals. We ordered at the bottom of the cycle when manufacturers were anxious to fill their books.
• We also stipulated financial objectives that would not inhibit our to build liquidity.
• A350 and 787 will provide UA with step-change improvements, serving very long-haul markets with smaller aircraft.
• Improved fuel efficiency of about 15% gain fuel burn and all-in 33% reduction with capacity adjustments vs current aircraft they will replace, or $400m a year.
• Full life cycle maintenance costs are 40% below existing fleet and greater with maintenance holidays in early years.
• Cash payments to Airbus and Boeing only $60m in next three years and $152m over next five years. Have significant backstop financing from both lenders.
• Will compete future airplane orders (Note: single-aisle competition coming next year).

Tague:

• Selecting aircraft from both manufacturers gives UA best airplanes for diverse network which clearly “overwhelms” commonality.
• Initial A350 order is for -900; initial 787 is for the -8, which is some 30% better fuel efficiency than 767.
• We have substitution rights on both airplanes.
• Increased range will allow UA to take full advantage of domestic hubs to Africa and elsewhere.
• Holding engine competition on 787. A350 is only offered with RR Trent XWB.
• Company advised by Seabury Group.

Q&A Begins

• Michaels: Narrow-body, follow-0n order will be next year.
• Michaels: Pilot contract includes these aircraft.
• Tague: No consideration of the long-rumored merger with Continental in ordering the 787, which CO has on order.
• Michaels: We have deferral and substitution rights in the prospect of special events (NOTE: the context of the question related to M&A but Michaels did not address specifically cancellation potential).
• Michaels: concerning backstop financing–declines to tell details, but generally referred to economic details providing flexibility for financing in the future.
• Tilton: Not interested in the 747-8 or A380 because of our view of capacity discipline in order to manage down cycles and downside risks.
• Michaels: we split the order because of an economically driven decision. One the one side the cost savings of one type vs the economics of two types for our route system and route potential.
• Tilton: declined to discuss discounts.
• Michaels: timing for fleet renewal is driven by economics when it makes sense to replace fleet. We are timing the replacements optimally for current average fleet age. Not looking at interim lift.

Please click on AG icon for a direct link to the United photo gallery.

United Airlines (Chicago) has ended its order drought and ordered 25 Airbus A350 XWBs and 25 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The company also secured 50 purchase rights for each type. The new aircraft will arrive between 2016 and 2019 and will replace its Boeing 747-400s and 767-300s.

Press release:

finance.yahoo.com/news/United-Invests-in-Future-prnews-2547784775.html?x=0&.v=1

by Doug Zanger, Guest Blogger

For years, my wife and I dreamed of taking a big adventure. We thought about cashing in as many hard-earned miles as possible to do something truly unique. Destinations ranged from a couple of weeks to Scandinavia, a jaunt down to South America and the trek to the edge of the earth in the deep South Pacific. It was even-money on all of them until we started talking to United Airlines about what was possible. We went through a first round of research (the United people were VERY helpful) and were still unable to make a clear decision.

Until we had dinner with some Kiwi friends of ours at their home outside of Portland, Oregon.

They talked about all of the great adventures that can be had in New Zealand. As they talked, we could almost see ourselves taking long hikes. We could feel the crisp, fresh air. I actually saw myself trying out a little adventurous bungee jumping. By the end of the night, it was clear that our destination was set: New Zealand.

We called United back and they were able to find us flights (on United and Air New Zealand) for a 20-day adventure, starting Christmas Eve 2007. What’s somewhat odd about leaving Christmas Eve is that, by the time you get to Auckland, you arrive December 26th. We decided to call it our “Christ-miss” vacation.

My wife and I are fairly outdoorsy. So we knew that walking, hiking (trekking as they say down there) and outdoor activities would be a must throughout. We met with our friends once again and the itinerary was created: start on the South Island in Queenstown and work our way up the west coast to Nelson and our friend’s house in Marahau next to Abel Tasman National Park. Then, it was off to Wellington, a quick flight up to Auckland and a drive to Pahia and Russell on the North Island. That was about the extent of it. We knew that we wanted to do as much as possible but the advice we received was simple: get there, and let the rest take care of itself. It can be easy to over-plan — and we’re used to that — but this was the best advice we could have ever received.

Having flown to London quite a bit, I was used to the long flight. My wife has traveled extensively throughout the world as well — so we knew that we just had to be mentally prepared for the haul from Portland to Los Angeles to Auckland. What made the journey so special to start, though, was the flight attendant on our Air New Zealand flight from Los Angeles to Auckland. I don’t recall his name but he was nothing short of amazing. We told him exactly where we were going on our trip. After he had finished the first service, he went to the galley and returned 30 minutes later with a detailed list of things that we should consider doing on our trip. He walked us through everything step-by-step and shared his own experiences as a native Kiwi. We were excited to throw caution to the wind but it was very nice to be able to at least have some things to think about and consider for the trip.

This was the perfect start to the trip. Little did we know that this was all part of the service on Air New Zealand. In December of 2007 (when we traveled), the airline introduced “Concierge In The Sky Service.” This was exactly part of the promise they made to passengers and it was an invaluable part of our experience as first-time travelers to New Zealand. Admittedly, it was a bit of a relief to have something resembling a plan. All I had to worry about next was relearning how to drive on the left side of the road.

We arrived in Auckland a bit tired but excited for the next part of our journey to Queenstown on the South Island. That flight was a bit of an adventure on arrival. Flying into Queenstown is borderline epic. The airport sits at the base of The Remarkables, the main mountain range just outside of Queenstown. We were so close, and flying below the summit. Exciting? Yes. Harrowing? A bit. The runway at Queenstown is short so the landing was different than what we were used to but the pilots did a great job getting us there safe and sound.

After a quick stop for a delicious flat white coffee (more on that in upcoming posts) and a look at the Icebreaker Touch Lab, we gathered our things and started Day 1 on a vacation that is very much worth sharing.

Interested in exploring the beauty of New Zealand? Take a look at some current travel opportunities to one of the most beautiful places on earth. when you arrive at the page.

The NFL has lost one of the great ones.  And this one was not a player, coach, or general manager.

Tim “Barrel Man” McKernan has passed away at the age of 69.

Tim "Barrel Man" McKernan

One of the best known “superfans” in the world of sports, McKernan missed only four Denver Bronco games from 1967-2007, when the barrel was formally retired due to McKernan’s health issues.

Sure, the idea of a grown man attending football games in little more than a barrel and suspenders is crazy.  And, yes, only a certain few would ever don the barrel on a dare – as McKernan first did in 1977 – much less spend 30 years in such a get-up. 

But there is no denying that the passion of Barrel Man and others like him personifies the rabid interest that the NFL has maintained in ascending to the throne of American professional sports. 

In fact, Barrel Man is likely the second person most outside of Denver think of when the Broncos come to mind.  Only John Elway has more instant recognition as the face of the team. 

And that is because, even if we would never dream of painting our faces or wearing barrels, NFL fans feel the passion for their teams that Barrel Man brought to life in a literal – and bizarre – fashion.

His grandkids grew up “knowing grandpa in the barrel” and we knew Barrel Man as a breed of fan who could never get enough of those 16 NFL Sundays in the fall rooting for his team.

For an in-depth profile of Barrel Man, check out this 2006 interview with CBS4 This Morning anchor Brooke Wagner from her weekly interview series, Breakfast With Brooke.

Good stuff that gives you a little more insight into McKernan, who comes off as a regular guy – which you would expect from a former United Airlines mechanic.

The Broncos will be trying to win one for Barrel Man – not to mention their playoff lives – tomorrow against the Kansas City Chiefs.