homesick_american

www.flightaware.com is a better site for tracking. you get more stats and is more accurate.

I've seen it; I prefer Flightview. I found Flightaware's interface to be hard to use.

hmmm..flight tracking....never tracked sanita's, assumed she get here sooner or later....

the purpose of tracking a flight is? to check on delays? or for some psychological comfort?

It will make me feel better knowing fellow VJers are keeping an eye on us traveling over to the USA. Makes me think the plane won't crash with the whole board watching! My fear of flying is...well....extremely severe.

Underpants...aside from the pair I was wearing.

I also frequently forget my toothbrush.

i doubt is it passes..and if so, bush veto it

Vetos can be overridden.

nah, not by the dems..they will not support it.........

Dems are pro-amnesty?

Does a bear sh*t in the woods? Is the Pope German?

The Dems are betting their political future on millions of amnestied illegal aliens to become US citizens and to vote for the party that panders to them...the Democrats. That is Teddy Kennedy's claim to fame and the name of his lame game. The game is pandering and patronage. Teddy is sleazier than George W and has been at it longer.

Cheap votes and cheap labor unite to screw the American people.

This Democrat voter (not a party member) is NOT pro-amnesty.

Thanks for assuming I'm stupid because I had a passing thought. I'm sure you've heard about what assuming does. I'm also sure that SW will be fine..they've never had my business, so "losing" it won't really affect them will it? Ever heard of personal preference??? Oh..and please come down off your high horse before you hurt yourself. Now I *am* out of here... have a good day everyone! M.

Nobody actually called you stupid, but your theory that a budget airline is less safe than a flag carrier is stupid. And wrong.

*sigh* I specifically said please don't be offended...it was just a passing thought. I can't make you not be offended, so whatever, but it was intended as a serious thought by me, not as something I just threw out there to be rude....I'm glad their safety record is stellar...glad to hear it!!

Btw, I'm sure when people rag on United, etc. someone on this board has some sort of relation to someone who works there too. Can't please everyone! Night all. M.

ETA: Also, I never said budget =cheap I said TO ME budget=cheap...in other words, it's what it makes me think of, and that makes me uneasy..not that it's so. Big difference. That's something you should be able to understand with a fear of flying yourself...differnt things make dif. people feel unsafe. and your cousin isn't making me feel safe, becasue I don't fly SW. M.

I don't think he's going to cry himself to sleep if you don't fly Southwest, but it is stupid to assume that just because it's a budget carrier it is somehow less safe. The company will do just fine without your business, though.

Well they did have that little ordeal while landing at Chicago Midway a year or so ago. No one on board died but there was a death on the ground. A lot of ithe reason there have been no major catastrophes has to do with the fact that they have not been around as long as the legacy airlines.

On another note...isn't Southwest one of the worst airlines for lost luggage?

So? Do you want to know how many ordeals American and Delta have had at DFW ALONE? One of the most vivid memories of childhood that I have is arriving at DFW in 1985 when my parents were putting my brother on a plane to San Antonio and seeing the smoldering wreckage of a Delta L-1011 where over 100 people were killed. The only intact part of the plane that I saw was the tail section; the rest of it was shattered into a zillion pieces.

I've also seen a Delta plane throw an engine fan through the fuselage and kill people, and I've seen several American jets at DFW with collapsed landing gear.

Your theory about Southwest not having been around long enough is, frankly, rubbish. Look at how many mishaps other US carriers have relative to the number of segments they fly and the size of their fleet, then look at Southwest. That's the only meaningful statistic you should pay any attention to. A company could be around for 80 years and that does NOT make it safe. Go to AirDisaster.com sometime and do some research.

As for lost luggage, I've never had any problems with Southwest. Ever. Nor has anyone that I know.

Read these and weep:

http://www.airsafe.com/airline.htm

Yay, thanks y'all!

I heard Jet Blue was great from a lot of people, and I would LOVE to be able to afford Virgin!@!! We usually fly United (well, Craig did British Airways a lot, too) and although everyone has different experiences with different airlines, United has always treated me really well and I've had nice flights. We all want to go over this Fall, possibly even my parents, but we're not sure yet. I'd probably choose United again,but it depends if another airline we like is less expensive then too...a lot of it depends on what job I can find..and SOON or we won't have any time to save up!!!

Anyway,the main thing I was going to say is this: and please don't anyone be offended! (Like I know you work/worked for SW, Shonnie) as I don't mean this in a rude way, and quite possibly I'm not even correct in thinking it...as all airlines have standards they MUST abide by here. (and most places I would think!!!) So, ok (getting there...you should know how I write by NOW!!!) So I thought SW was a budget airline basically. Well, that's good for the most part...but I'm nervous enough when I fly that I want to fly a major carrier that is NOT known to be a budget airline...as to me, budget=cheap=not as good (with airlines, not with most other things around our house anyway...I would love Gucci and Coach, but we're not about affordin' THAT right now! ) I bet a lot of nervous flyers might feel the same way I do...I'm not taking a budget airline overseas...I'm scared enough to fly already...ya know? Just a long, rambling thought. M.

Southwest Airlines isn't A budget carrier, it is THE budget carrier that companies like EasyJet based themselves on.

Do you know how many passengers have died in accidents on board Southwest Airlines? Zero. That's right....zero. They've NEVER had a major catastrophe, so there goes the budget theory. My cousin is one of the ones making sure you're safe in the air when you fly Southwest, so it offends me when people assume that Southwest Airlines cuts corners on safety. I can assure you that they do NOT, and their safety record speaks for itself.

Yeah... you do have a point. I must confess that I've only ever really admired Ikea's furniture from the distance of the website/catalogue, rather than actually buying any (ok, so I've been there with friends and they've got some decent stuff which seemed to last ok, but I agree the quality can be, uh, questionable), but I was hoping I'd be able to find some half-decent stuff there. Is it really all that bad? (I guess I don't need to ask after the description of your bookshelves!) I got all the stuff in my last place from Habitat (oh, how I miss you, Habitat bed :( ), but I thought Ikea might just be the place to go if we want to find reasonable-quality stuff that's actually going to be in stock anytime during the next decade! Perhaps not, though...

But ohhhhh yeah, Ikea bargain kitchen stuff, plates, cutlery, glasses, vases, all that stuff... plus the £5 lamp that I bequeathed to my mother when I left - THAT is what Ikea is great for!

(And as for OXO Good Grips... my boxes arrived from London on Friday, complete with assorted Good Grips kitchen utensils. I think my poor husband thought I must be insane, to import a potato peeler all the way from the UK... and yeah, I know you can get that stuff here too... but I like that stuff! )

We bought Ikea furniture for this house in 2001 and while most of it is still here, it looks knackered. I wouldn't waste money on Ikea furniture except for the odd piece that has held up well. It's cheap and even worse, it LOOKS and FEELS cheap.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO thanks, friends on the ground.

I took 2 ativan several hours ago as ordered by my GP; she wanted me to see if that dose would be enough. I feel fine now, but when the ativan was active it felt pretty darn funky. I think I'll take 2 before going to the airport, then one to top up about half an hour before takeoff. I should snooze for an hour on that.

I cannot WAIT for Ikea to open here - I was all excited last year because it was due to open 'in the spring'. Now it's opening, hmm, in the autumn, next spring, who knows. Bah.

(*edited to say... okay, that might have been a slight exaggeration. But several evenings/weekends were spent driving round everywhere that sells furniture within a god-knows-how-many-miles radius, and failing to find anything that was even close to what we had in mind!)

But Ikea is SHITE! We bought a sofa and an armchair from there....god, NEVER again. Those slipcovers never go back on after you've washed them according to the instructions on the tag. I swear to god I contemplated divorce the last time we had to put the slipcover back on the sofa. Plus, the furniture feels so cheap.

I'd rather spend a bit more and get something of a better quality. A few Ikea pieces have lasted us the 5.5 years we've been in this house, but most have not and we do not abuse our furniture. The bookshelves in particular are rubbish; that printed piece of cardboard at the back is just manky.

It all looks so nice in the catalog, but once you get it home it looks like total student furniture.

Ikea is GREAT for some things, though; I love getting plates and cutlery from there because it doesn't matter if you abuse it; it's so cheap to replace. I also have some kitchen items from there that have stood up pretty well, though I prefer those OXO good grips ones, or gadgets from Williams Sonoma which last forever.

Having just moved house, I embarked on a shopping trip for new furniture. What a disaster !!! I am used to shopping at Next, M&S, Debenhams etc and can't find anything similar here in Northern Virginia / DC. Everything is either too modern or a bad replica of something from the 1800's. I managed to purchase a sofa from Thomasville but thats it! I like Ethan Allen but for all the things I need, there won't be enough cash.

Does anyone know of a store that has similar items to Next and M&S, isnt too pricey and has fairly good quality stuff? Any help would be appreciated!!

thanks

Just go to Ikea; that's what that stuff from Next reminds me of, except it's of a slightly higher quality. Kidding.

I think what you'll find is that our style of furniture is very different from yours. American furniture tends to be larger in proportion to European furniture, and it's not because WE'RE so much bigger than Europeans...at this point we're really not...it's because our houses are much larger, hence the rooms are much larger, hence tiddly European furniture would look silly in those giant rooms.

As for the style...you're clearly shopping in the wrong stores or you simply don't like American-style furniture. If you want something more moderately priced but with clean lines, try Crate and Barrel. It's not the cheapest furniture around, but you could do a lot worse. It's sort of like limey furniture but larger.

Ethan Allen is so fuddy-duddy anyway. I had a look at their site recently and was just really turned off by their furniture. It used to be nicer. Crate and Barrel and Pottery Barn are probably where we'll get a lot of our furniture from once we arrive NEXT WEEK! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Flying solo or getting a lawyer. Is it really worth getting a lawyer or is it possible to do it ourselves? I'd like peoples opinion, especially those who did it solo.

We did it solo. Unless your case has complications there's no reason why you couldn't do it yourself. Plenty of people here have done it themselves without any problems.

If you have an overstay or a criminal conviction in the background of the beneficiary, then you may want to talk to a lawyer.

I bring my own food on domestic flights, while others drool, as they eat their pretzels.

I may take some spare Quiznos prime rib subs on board and auction them off next time...

LOL, that's what I used to do too!!! Sometimes some woman with rugrats crawling all over her would ask me to share my food and I'd be like...no. Bring your own. I didn't bring cookies for THEM.

I love Southwest - I personally think the only thing non-budget domestic US carriers have over them is assigned seating.

Southwest has piloted assigned seating at various airports and from what I hear it hasn't gone well. As far as I know they have no plans to introduce it in the future, but this info is third-hand.

One consequence of FCFS seating is that you check in extra-early to get a high boarding card number so you can be part of the first stampede onto the airplane and get those cushy leather seats up front or one of the exit row seats. That's what my friends and I always did: showed up super early and by the time the other people were schlepping briefcases and garment bags on board, we were sitting pretty in those leather seats up front. I LOVED FCFS seating because we usually beat the system and ended up with the best seats on the plane. More often than not, some jagoff with a boarding card number in the 90s would try to steal my seat by telling me how much he paid for his ticket and it was important for him to be first off the plane, blah blah blah. I was like...dude, first-come, first-served. Watch me care. Tell that sob story to the stew, who was often my second cousin working her way through college...see how far that gets ya. When I was doing Austin/Dallas, I'd let her know and she'd try to snag that particular flight. I got extra peanuts. I wub my cousin.

I love Southwest - I personally think the only thing non-budget domestic US carriers have over them is assigned seating.

Plus some facsimilie of "meal" on ultra-long-haul (such as N/S IAD-LAX) flights.

Really? I have flown LAX-JFK and LAX-Orlando recently on American and United and all I got was the option to buy a crappy sandwich.

On LAX-DTW (a four hour flight) the only option is to buy pretzels/chips/cookies.

I flew Southwest so often that I got used to bringing my own bag lunch on the plane. It's a habit I have to this day. The stews don't eat the airplane food; that ought to tell you something. Just bring your own.

I love Southwest - I personally think the only thing non-budget domestic US carriers have over them is assigned seating.

Plus some facsimilie of "meal" on ultra-long-haul (such as N/S IAD-LAX) flights.

I'd rather pay less and do without the constant reek of scorched plastic and overcooked beef/chicken on a flight, thanks.

RAM ? Whats that?

Windows Vista sucks it up by the gigabyte.

After watching the show, "Airplane" about Southwest, I don't care if they fly from here to the moon. I'll grab another airlines

One of my cousins is a VP at Southwest and he LOATHES that show. He says the production company didn't tell them that their aim was essentially to make the airline look like it was run by azzholes. I wish he'd asked me to send him some episodes of the UK program 'Airline' which is in the same format. They make EasyJet employees look like complete and utter prats.

I flew Southwest more than any other airline when I live in Texas and its safety record speaks for itself. It is by far one of the best airlines in the world and if you don't want to fly with them you're welcome to try your luck on a more accident-prone carrier.

Oooh, one more thing....our cats are going on BA 2193 on June 25th (Monday) and we'd be grateful again if someone could track them.

American Airlines won't fly pets across the Atlantic but BA is quite happy to fly them as cargo. We're going to DFW to pick them up the day after we arrive but we most likely will not have regular net access for several days after we arrive in the States, though I'll try to get to an internet cafe and let you guys know how we're doing.

My parents are still in the stone ages so they don't even have a computer. BLEH! I told mom to get DSL set up before we got there but I'm sure she hasn't done it.

This is something a lot of fearful fliers do, i.e. ask people on the ground to monitor the progress of their flight because it makes them feel safer, and it makes them think the plane surely won't crash if somebody is watching it. It would make me feel a lot better if a few people volunteered to track my flight.

It's easy and it's free.

My flight info is:

American Airlines 101 departing LHR Sunday June 24th around 10:20am BST, arriving JFK around 1:00pm EDT, same day

American Airlines 1389 departing JFK Sunday June 24th around 5:45pm EDT, arriving DFW around 8:45 CDT, same day

To track these flights really all you need is the airline's code (AA) and the flight number.

Go here:

http://www.flightview.com/TravelTools/

Enter 'AA' in the airline code box and '101' in the flight number box. Make sure the date is set to Sun Jun 24. Click the 'Find Flight' button.

A page is displayed with some data about the flight; if it has not taken off yet then the status is 'scheduled'. This site is US-based and sometimes has trouble tracking flights into and out of European air space so even if the flight does not show up as having taken off an hour or two after departure, don't worry as this is normal. Usually westbound Atlantic flights don't show up until they're well clear of Ireland's west coast.

Once the flight data is up and you can see a photo of the world with a line from departure point to arrival point with a plane icon on it, then you can click the 'Launch Live' button. On the pop-up screen, click the orange 'Go Live' button on the bottom left. It can take a little while to load the Java interface but you should see the planned flight path as a blue line and an orange plane icon inching its way across the screen. You can zoom in and out on the image of the plane and the closer you get to it, the more movement you see. As it is taking off or descending the altitude, heading, and ground speed readings are often not accurate. The screen goes blue when the flight is recorded as having landed.

You can also ask this program to track a random flight and it also tracks some flights around the world. So...if you want to use it for when your loved ones are coming to America, go right on ahead!

I would be eternally grateful if a few people would track our flight for me; it'll make me feel better knowing that someone down there is looking out for us up there. If someone could take a screenshot for the scrapbook, even better! :thumbs: :thumbs:

Thanks in advance.

I wish you both luck though.....I assume you will be staying with family when you first arrive, which will be nice then sort out things gradually.

Only because we're not going to rent a house sight unseen. We plan on starting to look for one the first week we are there and the goal is to be out of there by my birthday (17 July). I love my parents but I do not want to live with them.

That is what we did, rented a place unseen. It turned out ok for us fortunately.

Good luck with the search.

I did that once.....never again. I'm extremely EXTREMELY picky, so I won't plunk down the kind of money it takes to rent a house without seeing it. Luckily there's a ton of nice big rental properties in our budget in the suburbs so we shouldn't have to wait long.

I don't watch that many movies nowadays because most of them seem to be formulaic, derivative garbage.

Well jeez, look at the drivel you're renting. I don't think it's fair to write off an entire artform because you chose to rent Deja Vu!

You didn't see what else was on offer!

SICKO is gonna PWN!! time to open our eyes!! against the evilz monopoly of healthcare... :angry:

It has already come under criticism in some parts of the UK for its extremely rosy portrayal of the NHS which does not in any way match reality.

I wish you both luck though.....I assume you will be staying with family when you first arrive, which will be nice then sort out things gradually.

Only because we're not going to rent a house sight unseen. We plan on starting to look for one the first week we are there and the goal is to be out of there by my birthday (17 July). I love my parents but I do not want to live with them.

We rented some vids last week at Blockbuster.

Happy Feet was cr@p.

Deja Vu was cr@p.

The Sentinel was cr@p.

Stranger than Fiction...dunno, fell asleep during it. I'll give it another try.

Dang you are tough! Thumbs down on Happy Feet and Deja Vu even! I liked both of those movies. I sat down and watched Dream Girls on Sunday. I don't know what the hype was. It was lame.

Happy Feet just went on too long and I didn't like all the musical numbers. I just didn't really care for it; I found it patently unfunny and at many points, unwatchable.

Deja Vu had potential, but all it was really about was Denzel saving a piece of hot a$$. Save the pretty girl! Would have have been interested in saving her if she looked like Star Jones? Doubt it. It's all about the superficial. Plus, the plot was tissue-thin; I knew who the bad guy was almost instantly. I don't like it when it's that obvious.

I think I've heard of Dream Girls but haven't seen it. I don't watch that many movies nowadays because most of them seem to be formulaic, derivative garbage.