Hartmann

On 4/18/2016 at 5:24 PM, The Voice of University Oaks said:

 

An Emirates A380 flew right over my head when I was driving down Will Clayton a couple of weeks ago. Did they not go back to the triple seven, or am I missing something?

 

 

The A380 will run until June. It switches to a 777 in July.

Will you be there? My attendance all depends on whether or not I get stuck at LaGuardia again.

If you are talking about WN, the largest plane that they operate is a 738 (which are configured for ETOPS). If the international terminal is approved, I could see Y4 or CM taking interest.Volaris operates A320's and Copa has E-190's and 737/8's. The longest runway at HOU is 7600 ft., so I would imagine anything larger than a 757 would be hard to operate profitably (due to weight restrictions, fuel, etc).

There is no way Copa is going to operate out of Hobby. They're ties with United are just too strong (they're even entering the Star Alliance later this year). Plus, they're happy to devote their fleet to Panama City - LatAm routes and let United feed it from IAH. I don't see them ever coming to Houston.

I can see Volaris, VivaAerobus, Allegiant, and maybe Spirit operating out of HOU.

Agree, I'm all for Southwest going international from Hobby. Great to have some competition on flights to Latin America.

And in general I'm excited to see Southwest expanding and going international. Can't wait to see the 727's in Southwest colors, that'll be interesting.

Who's flying 727s around? I'd love to see that period.

They're carrying handmade corn tortillas from Hugo's now.

Unless they sell them by the kilo like El Bolillo, I'm not interested.

I have the inside scoop! My sisters German band is playing their grand opening, it will be April 9. They will have hoffbrau beer on tap. They're starting it off right! Oh yeah, and a full bar, so more than just beer on tap.

Interesting.

Would have preferred they had something that isn't considered the Bud Light of Bavaria on tap, but I guess it's a start. I'll have to check it out.

Looking at the pictures of the outside, it looks like it'd fit in more in Berlin over München. It has that Bauhaus look to it.

You may be correct about the date; I only recently noticed the price hike. I tried the free headphones once awhile back, but they seemed useless against the background noise of a 737. That and the frequent PA interruptions made my ears want to bleed.

The free ones are the same ones they charge for, so you're probably better off avoiding them.

They now charge silver elites $59 for exit row seats prior to check-in time.

Prior to that Silvers weren't able select exit rows until check-in at all. So you had to pray someone moved or got upgraded. Now you at least have the option to select the seats.

It should be noted that Continental has announced that Economy Plus will be part of the new United: http://www.united.co...67,1314,00.html

As it is now, all elites are able to select the E+ seats free of charge on United and as they roll the product out to the Continental planes, I'm sure the story will be the same there too. Me, I'd rather have five more inches of free pitch rather than free pretzels.

They didn't wait long to start charging elite customers for exit row seat upgrades. And I noticed on my flight yesterday they're now asking $3 for those crappy headphones that used to be $1 or free for elite/first class.

The headphones have been $3 for almost two years now. If you're on a flight with DirecTV, they're free.

And which elites do they charge for the exit row? Plats and Golds can pick them for free at booking and Silvers can have them for free at 24 hours out (online check-in time).

The Buy-on-Board program pretty much sealed the deal that we'd see Continental adopting more of the United way of doing food.

I'm not surprised by them getting rid of pretzels since the evidence is there that a lot of people either refuse them or don't eat them.

Ein bier bitte is all you need to know.

You want a big stein so it'd be: Ein groß Bier bitte

This is the part that I find interesting. Even with a stop in Tokyo, going from IAH to SIN is brutal. I can't imagine being in coach for the entire flight!

I like that the price for the IAH-Moscow segment is actually somewhat reasonable. I bought a $650 ticket a few weeks ago and I'm happy with that.

The Singapore stats are extremely interesting. A lot of people have been worried that that particular route would be killed off.

Going to be at 19th and Durham.

Yes, will be within walking distance to Cedar Creek according to Ricky.

I'm fairly sure this is related to the finishing of the trail. You can see them working on it along White Oak Bayou as it heads toward the railroad tracks just south of Hogan.

The buy-on-board announcement has been made: http://phx.corporate...5060&highlight=

With the menu:

The upside is that there will be hot options, similar to what Alaska Airlines offers.

Did they happen to answer questions on how driving access to the Wal-Mart would be arranged? I know that Koehler was mentioned but will Yale be the main access point or are they going to build out Boerne?

My other thing is a bunch of talk I saw on the news about "pull the 380 money". My understanding is that without it the developer is not obligated for any infrastructure improvements, so why would anyone want them pull the money? Common sense says, if they are committed to putting in a Wal-Mart, don't we want them to improve the area? I mean, they even mentioned during the meeting that the Heights trail would be extended with the 380 money. That sounds good to me.

An excerpt of comments on the HBJ....

Let's hope we do not equate this sense of "progress" with a sense of "normal'.

Well I think it's a stupid quote and would argue that Target attracts a very similar audience to Wal-Mart. I wonder if the person quoted has actually gone to Target. I also wonder if they ever shop at Loews or Home Depot off the north loop.

Well it's either hipster elitism or racism. Or a combination of both.

I don't think a majority of people in the Heights are either of those things. There certainly is a hipster element in the area but it's down in Montrose too.

For the most part, people here are "normal".

After seeing some of the posts about traffic and where exactly the Wal-Mart will be located, I don't think Yale north of 10 will be that much more inundated with traffic (originally I did). I wonder what they're going to do about the 1 lane headed north near Washington though. I no longer care if they put the Wal-Mart in, I've got more important things to worry about. Don't want to support their "tactics", just don't shop there.

The other thing I think is just ridiculous is the charge that people against the Wal-Mart are racists and don't like Latinos. That's as much of a stretch as Wal-Mart being put on this earth to stick it to the poor.

I wonder how people would feel if it was a Costco instead of a Wal-Mart?

Exactly. Whereas the suburbs situated just beyond the loop are already adequately-served by various Wal-Mart stores, much of the inner loop is poorly served.

Moreover, the Heights needs to recognize that this is more than just a Heights issue; it's a community issue affecting dozens or possibly hundreds of individual neighborhoods. A few vocal Heights residents don't get to dictate terms or crowd out everybody else's preferences. And frankly, I don't understand why Heights NIMBYs are fretting over someone else's back yard.

I agree the inner loop is under served, I just wonder if the Yale location is a good one (traffic wise). I'd rather them shut down the Kroger on 19th and build the Wal-Mart there.

I guess the plus is that the lot on Yale is fairly large and easier to develop. There was a site choice crew followed around on an NBC special on Wal-Mart and they have a lot of metrics that help them choose locations. Yale must have the demographics close-by and the predicted traffic that Wal-Mart wants to see before they build a store. They know their business fairly well, I probably shouldn't second guess them.

Except that it's harder to get to and less central than the supposed Yale location. Besides that, Heights residents would obviously not be able to use it then as it would fall outside their comfort zone. Use HEB as a great case in point (there's an entire thread about it somewhere but lord knows where it is). Many Heights residents hoped beyone hope that this property would be filled with an HEB as there are no convenient HEB locations nearby... despite there being an HEB on TC Jester and 18th. Putting a Walmart outside the loop would be like putting it on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It would miss a substantial part of its intended clientele.

I wouldn't like the traffic an HEB created either.

I'm sure with the changes to the access roads they'll time the lights accordingly though (hopefully).

I wonder how well that HEB on 18th does. It is never busy.

You say that...but I gather that you've been indoctrinated to a subculture propagated by over-educated white people that features class-based shame and douchey shame-avoidance behavior as a central tenet.

If you were a low-earning Mexican that had called the Heights home all your life, you'd have likely lamented in 2005 that the Target on Sawyer Street was not a Wal-Mart Supercenter and would be thrilled at these rumors because you were tired of packing several generations of family into a car for a day trip to a distant suburban Wal-Mart.

If a Wal-Mart does go in on Yale, my only concern is the traffic. I frequently use Yale to avoid the possibility of a train on Heights Blvd.

As for shopping at Wal-Mart, I generally do not find any deals there that I couldn't find at one of the larger Fiestas and like supporting a local chain. I've actually come to know a few of the workers at the one on 14th and Studewood and will shop there because of them.

The large chains are a product of people wanting cheaper goods, I can appreciate that and take advantage of it from time to time. I can't really imagine what home repair goods would cost if there weren't a Home Depot or Lowes. To be honest, my worst shopping experiences have been in Randall's and Kroger, both of which are big stores but have a total of three lanes open and charge more.

I flew RyanAir in Europe about 5 years ago, and it cost under US$50 total for me to fly from Germany to Ireland and then from Ireland to Prage via London (3 tickets altogether). So, as long as i had change to pay for the bathroom, I wouldn't care It's when I'm flying two dollar flights that i don't paying for everything (even if paying for use of the bathroom is pretty ludicrous) ... it's when I get hit up for everything on my $400 flight to EWR that i get pissed.

My legs barely fit in the RyanAir seats. Whoever is sitting in front of me is getting two knees in the back. They're definitely a bus in the sky but they're cheap.

I'm flying Air Berlin for some intra-European stuff in July, they're supposedly a decent low cost carrier as well. I'm so used to Lufthansa's no nonsense attitude that I'm sure Air Berlin will be a relief (hopefully).

Get over it already.

Flying these days is no different than taking the bus. The "food" that was served was in so small portions and of such poor quality that it was nothing more than a diversion during the flight.

Just get me to where I want to go as fast and as cheap as possible.

If you fly RyanAir, it's about to get worse: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=86948.blog

They're going to try and charge people to use the toilet facilities on the plane.

For people who fly a lot, having loyalty to an airline does pay off. Free bags, usually better seating choices (United's E+), etc.

In the news today, Spirit air will charge for carry-on bags. The end is nigh...

http://www.cnn.com/2...ref=igoogle_cnn

I doubt the legacies will follow this. Remember when US started charging for sodas? There was nearly a revolt and they backed off and kept them free.