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Charter Flight Websites / Services?
X86Daddy asks: "TSA's latest announcement banning all fluids (toothpaste even) from carry-on luggage is the icing on a very sour cake. Many passengers are growing tired of the invasive security screenings, the increasing prices, lost and stolen luggage, and the decreasing quality of service with commercial flights in the United States. However, given the geographical size of this country and the lack of rail options, flight remains the only practical method of travel for most destinations. Can anyone suggest alternative flight services? Are there websites that connect Cessna or other small scale air charter services with interested passengers? I've found CharterX and CharterHub but they seem more geared toward executives looking for jets. Does anyone have experience traveling this way? Is the price point a lot higher, making this a dumb idea (just resign myself to buying toiletries at every destination and prepare for the mandatory anal probes in '07)?"
I find the entire attitude of the poster's blurb a perfect summary of the prevailing attitude here at /.
"I'm inconvenienced"
"I have to buy toilettries everytime I take a trip"
"Another anal probe"
"My rights of Do-What-I-Please are being trampled on"
Amazing that when something is done about a possible attack, people find a way to complain. Suck it up, or find another means of travel. Why do you need /. to ask this question? Can you not take any personal responsibility to determine the best course of action after analyzing the options? What next? "Dear /. - should I wear the black Hope 2006 t-shirt today or the Lara Croft: Revelations E3 limited collector's shirt?
Take control of your life and your reactions to misfortunes or other occurences. Tocome on /. and complain with a thinly-veiled question that masks your discomfort becasue some people's lives may have been saved is sad and pathetic.
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but make sure that the last line
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is it that bad seein a hot chick again? if i see a hot chick walkin down the hall i dont say "repost"
Yeah, because invading Afghanistan worked so well for getting rid of Al Queda . . . .
Does somebody give you an extra ration of crack every time you sucessfully articulate what they want you to believe?
Geez!!! You're the guy all the neocons love --- you accept all their BS and then some. I bet you're just itching to have the draft brought back so more poor souls can die for Halliburton. You might consider learning a little about this history of this country - and to be an informed citizen start with reading: Nomi Prins - "Jacked" and "Other People's Money" --- Major General Smedley Butler - "War is a Racket" - Dave Sirota - "Hostile Takeover"
It sounds like you got lost on your way to the US and ended up in Nazi Germany...US airports don't take fingerprints, as you so blatantly lie about, nor do they ban you from packing toothpaste. Why exactly do you need carry-on toothpaste on a domestic flight again?
I'm not sure where you got this idea that you have a "right" to travel around the country on a privately-owned airplane carrying whatever you want, but its definitely in the Constitution. You see, there's a guy that owns the airplane you're flying on. You know, the guy who paid for it, with his own money? He gets to decide what you can and can't bring on his plane, since its his property. Think about that for a minute (not too hard though, I wouldn't want you to get a headache.)
is where air travel is protected in the Constituion. Maybe I'm the enemy but I never understood why it's an invasion of privacy to be searched before boarding a plane. I would rather be searched than have the government take my name and SSN when boarding a plane. Big deal, so they see me in my undies and know that my napsack has a questionable book by Anne Coultier (ok, it really doesn't, but I'm currently sitting on the tarmac in Huntsville because my Delta FLT1492 to ATL got rerouted and I heavily considered buying one over her books at Dulles, instead I bought Freakanomics).
Anyway, last I checked, air travel wasn't forced on me. I could have driven to ATL, in fact at this point it would have taken less time, but I voluntarily flew. So why should I presume to have too many rights? And why is getting searched for any immediate risks a bigger deal than the repeated ID checks and potential government tracking?
I'm sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm about to board a vehicle that's going to fly at over 500mph at 35,000 feet. I'm voluntarily getting on it, and Delta, Southwest, the CIA, whoever, can do whatever the hell they want to ensure that said vehicle lands where it's supposed to land when it's supposed to land, barring weather.
Anyway, I've always been confused because I think a more effective security measure is a thorough searching without any ID checks are more appropriate. It doesn't matter who I am, it matters what I have with me.
Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
why not pack your toothpaste, nail clippers, etc in your luggage and check it in?
ahhh... freedom of travel = freedom to fly commercial airline with whatever I want as hand luggage
My mistake, I had confused freedom of travel as being about direct or indirect prohibitions on travelling. I had not appreicated the necessary connection with access to personal hygiene and grooming products.
.... is exactly what we need. America is the only country stupid enough not to do this. Let's review what we know: Terrorists are 1) usually middle eastern 2) always Muslim 3) aged 15-35. I'm not saying do away with security checks for everyone else, but come on, quit wasting my time by pulling aside an 80 year old couple to once them over with the metal detect wand. His hemroid medicine isn't a bomb, let him go.
I can't wait till we all have bar codes on our forheads and wear uniforms. It's going to be great!!!!!!! (sarcasm)
I actually think doing the opposite of what we're doing now would work better. We should give every adult who boards a plane a gun, that way the first terrorist to stand up and yell "allah ackbar" would get his brains splattered on the cabin ceiling and that would be the end of that. It's just like the Texas mentality, if everyone has guns and everyone knows it, no thief would be dumb enough to break into a house. (and despite what Penn and Teller's BullS*$T says, there is actually less crime in texas and that's why)
I can understand the hating to wait for 2+ hours in line (hell who wouldn't? though there are people who are willing to wait upto 2 months before something comes out in line just to be the first) but if it means I can board the plane knowing I don't have to worry about some whacked out fucknut thinking he will go to heaven by killing hundreds of innocent people blowing me up then I am all for it.
I have nothing to hide, if you pay taxes or have a social security card they can already find out everything about you, what's the big deal with having your finger prints on file so you can go through that crap faster? (granted it doesn't mean the flight will be faster cause they have to wait for the passengers in the 2+ hour line to get on) unless of course you fall into the category of not paying your taxes and are in the US illegaly.
it all comes back to the extrimests, if you want to blame anyone for the slow moving security at airports, your inability to bring toothpaste and shampoo on the flight it's not the government you should be blaming.
The thing that I wonder most though, what if the liquid you have is medication? Since they have banned ALL forms of liquid (last I knew) that would include that. So do they have to violate their own law by allowing the person on the place with the medication? or do they break the law by denying the person on the place for something that isn't under their controll?
Of all the idiotic posts to this story I've picked yours as the most idiotic, for the use of the collective 'WE' in your rhetorical questions. Why aren't 'WE' focusing on making safer cars, researching cancer, and helping the less fortunate?? 'WE' are. There are millions of people right this very second doing each of those things and other noble causes like researching global warming, studying endangered species, trying to find ways around wars and conflict. 'WE' do this every single day. If you feel more people should be working on these things then 'YOU' need to get on the bandwagon and work towards this yourself. Everybody in free a society has the right to choose what they want to work on. There is no 'WE' imperative. Quit using it. But beyond that, it doesn't mean that stopping a thousand people from being murdered is of no consequence in the world. Bravo to those who cracked the case. Had this happened for the WTC fiasco, we wouldn't be in half the shit we are now.
Now for your second paragraph... You don't think that the 'hype' is about stopping deaths? You are unwilling to believe that there were even terrorist plans? And you are linking to a wikipedia article about contemplated simulated attacks in 19fucking62 that (even if the article is accurate) were subsequently cancelled? Where to even begin here... If your entire position is one of total skepticism then there is absolutely nothing that can be done for you. You, as have many others here, have already taken the position that you will believe only the stories that appeal your your 'intuition' as to what could be true in light of your own political and philosophical worldview.
To all those idiots who think that not being able to bring toothpaste, sun screen and personal lubricant in your carry-on bags is an assault on your civil liberties; check your damn bags and STFU. [cliche]An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.[/cliche] It's oft quoted because it's true.