IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff talks about the week in aviation

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Nice day today seventy seven for the high or low
slod to mid seventies, partly cloudy skies, maybe a nicely
to shower thunderstorm overnight down to forty nine, clear skies
for the eclipse tomorrow, mostly cloudy eighty one overnight down
to sixty one, and a rainy Saturday, so your weather
is expected. One of two inches of rain and some
gusty winds are possible. Seventy three for the high right
now forty three. Time for traffic from.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
You see how Traffic Center. When it comes to stroke,
every second counts. That's why the UC Health Comprehensive Strokes
Center is the clear choice for rapid by saving treatment.
Monmritt and you see health dot com. He spend two
seventy five continues to crawl between four seventy one and
the emergency road work at the New Richmond Excent with
a right wing blocked off. There's a wreck on twenty

(00:43):
eight near Woods Point and below Buckweet. Also an accident
on Montgomery Road. Bubbo, Columbia, Chuck Ingram on fifty five KROO.
See the talk station.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
It's a thirty two fifty five kerr. See talk station.
Get a little bit of late star but better late
than never with I Media bas expert Jay Ratliff. Welcome back,
my dear friend, Jay. It's always a pleasure to have
you on the morning show.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Pleasan good morning.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Let's start out of order because I want to give
a little more time to the first story about the
passenger shaming. Let's just jump to one that made the
stack as stupid this week Air India passengers stopping up
the toilets on the airplane. What the hell, Brian, I've.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Said this before, I'll say it again. You'll never hear
me make that arrogant claim of well, I've seen it
all because fails to recognize people can still come up
with ways to surprise us. And this stems from a
fourteen hour scheduled flight from Chicago to Delhi when eight
of the twelve lavatories and yes, I said eight of

(01:41):
the twelve stopped working because passengers had flushed clothing down
the lavatories. Now, I remember a number of years ago
with Gilbert and Narley, with our friend Gary Burbank, he
called one of the airlines panic that he he was
in trouble with the law because he flushed a foreign
objects down the toilet. It was a chicklet made in Mexico,

(02:04):
and he thought for sure he'd broken some sort of
FAA rule because there is a sign in the lavatory
saying no foreign objects in the lavatories. I guess we
need to expand that. My attorney friends to clothing is
not allowed down the I just well, you know, we
went around the industry since October of eighty one. I've
never heard of a story where the clothing caused the

(02:27):
laboratory to stop working. Certainly not at eight of the
twelve Okay, the.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Flight and see now that was my point because I
wanted to ask you about that. This sounds like, you know,
it was a concerted effort. It was an intentional thing
to sabotage the toilets for some reason.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
I don't know if it's sabotaged, Brian, or if it's
a thing that I'm just oblivious to. But they were
five hours into the fourteen hour flight and they turned
around and came all the way back to Chicago. Because
anytime we're on a flight where you don't have an
appropriate number of lavatories that are operational, you're not to
operate the flight. So at that point in time, it

(03:02):
was it's quicker to go back and land than it
is to go forward in land. And to think that
it wasn't a mechanical situation with the laboratories, which happens
from time to time, but it was the fact that
people were flushing clothing down the last When the story
hit my my desk, I thought, okay, this is you know,
somebody's having fun with something, because this isn't a real thing.

(03:24):
And I saw report after report after report after report,
and yeah, because I'm always very guarded on anything you
and I talk about, I want to make sure that
I've got all the facts, and this one just blew
me away. But yeah, eight of twelve lavatories on the
Boeing Triple seven inoperative because of clothing that people had flushed.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Down the lavage.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Again, it made the stack as stupid earlier this week, Well,
pause and bring day ratlif back talker. Is it actionable
to passenger shame plus a lot more. I'll be right
back after these brief words.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Fifty five KRC dot com. All right, Gary selfing here
for shull Off TV station.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
It is a Friday. He always enjoyed closing up to
pick about Teressey morning shows on Thursdays, with iheartmediavas next
work Jay raight Low. So let's resume the conversation and
this next topic goes back to an incident I think
that happened in December. Remind my listeners about that, and
we've got a new development on it, which is well
a lawsuit.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, it's a twenty nine year old. She was flying
low cost carrier South American carrier Gaull GOL. She boarded
her flight Brian, she noticed that a child he was
seated in her window seat. She asked the child, you
know she could sit there, and he moved. Everything was
nice and once the passenger sat down, the mom of
the child approached her saying, hey, is it okay if

(04:41):
my son sits in your seat? Now, apparently he had
another seat, another window seat, but he preferred her seat,
and this traveler polightly refused, saying no, I'm I'm just
going to sit here. And that's when the moms started
yelling at her and takes out her phone and starts
recording her say she was a bad person. Well, this video,

(05:02):
as most travel videos do, went viral more than two
million views, and this woman was forced to quit her
job as a banker. Lived in seclusion at her home
as a result. And now she's seen the airline and
the passenger who took the video saying they were trying
to shame her when all she was trying to do
was sit in the seat she had paid for. And

(05:23):
we're seeing so many times I hear from somebody I
know at least once a week that's on a flight
where there's normally a family of a bunch that bored
and they started asking a bunch of people to change
their seats that they paid for to accommodate them so
they can all sit together. Now, keep in mind, this
family could have gotten the seats together, could have paid
whatever they had for the family to sit together. But

(05:46):
somehow we're the bad guys when we say no, thank
you and bright some of these requests are so ridiculous.
It's like, can I have your aisle seat in row
eight so you can sit in my middle seat in
row third?

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's a hard.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
But people are upset when you say no to that.
I mean, I just you know. And sadly, this is
getting more and more prevalent as the behavior on board
airplanes continues to spiral. In fact, a term you're going to.
We've talked about gatelights, the people that try to board
the flight earlier that they're supposed to. There's a new
term out there that's called speakers come. These are people

(06:24):
that are on board an airplane that fail to use
their earbuds air buds where they have the recording the
noise just to them, not to everybody else. Right now,
we've got so many people on planes that, for whatever
the reason, just play their their electronic device at high
volumes where it's not only where they can hear it,
but everybody was in seven rows and light intents are

(06:46):
trying to tell the people to stop it. But we're
seeing more and more of that kind of behavior. So
it's getting to the point where it's just absolutely ridiculous
to fly. And yeah, I mean speakers come. If you
hear that, that's what they're talking about.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
I always learn a new term from you. I think
this has become a common occurrence with you, Jay Ratlers.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
I'm not making these up. It's sad that we have
behaviors so bad we have to assign names to it,
but hey, that's what we do.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, and don't be that person. You know, if you
were on an airplane, would you want someone playing their
favorite music, which might you might find offensive or not
within your liking, sitting next to you, and that is
just the most inconsiderate thing. Jay.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, well you and I can't comprehend it because I
know how you were raised. I know, yes, there's no
way on God's green earth we would do that. But
the idea that not only do people feel comfortable doing it,
they take exception when you ask them to please, could
you turn that down? So you know only four rows
can hear it instead of seven. It's just yeah, Now,

(07:46):
there's been times where you have people on board the
airplane decide to watch porn in the flight, oh my god,
and say would you please turn that off? Because other
passengers could find it offensive. So you just have this
behavior that is just permeating from flights these days that
you know, yes, the number of irate passengers is down

(08:08):
compared to years before, but some of this behavior is
just beyond my ability to comprehend because I don't think
that way, and thank God I don't think that way
because it just makes no sense to me.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
I am still reeling when you said someone had the
audacity to watch porn on an air airplane.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Lord, my irregular occurrence, Oh my god. And you I've
talked about these flight attendants already not getting the respect
that they deserve from the people who fly that are
responsible for protecting incident, emergency and all the things they
have to do. Just add that on top of it
where they have to, you know, tell people to try
to act in something that would be considered a civil
fashion of some kind. I don't know, I just you know.

(08:49):
That's why they continue to get my undying gratitude because
of the crap they have to put up with people
that fly every day.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Amazing. Well, it's pause, we'll bring it back. We'll talk
about Southwest with a new baggage policy and red reductions
summer capacity for airlines just in time for the summer
travels season. More with Jay Ratliffe after these brief words.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Fifty five KRC the talk station.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
We know you're loving the new one. More time for
the nine first one and weather forecasts. Isolated showers thunders
us are possible today. We'll see high in the load
the mid seventies with partly cloudy skies, clear overnight for
the lunar clips three am. If you're up forty nine
for the low eighty one, the high tomorrow with partly
the mostly cloudy skies and the overnight partly cloudy in

(09:31):
sixty one and the rain comes in heavy on Saturday.
Expecting some severe weather. One to two inches of rain
and gusty winds are possible. Seventy three for the high,
closing out at forty six. Time for final traffic.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Chuck from the UCL Trainphic Center. When it comes to stroke,
every second count. So it's why the UC Health Comprehensive
Stroke Center. It's a clear choice from rapid by saving treatment.
Learn more. ABE see how dot com you spend two
seventy five continues slow Just after you got pan us
forth seventy one to the roadwork at the new Richmond Day,
I said, right, vans block, there's an accident on the

(10:02):
web shoulder southbound seventy five slows through Lachland southbound seventy
one heaviest between two seventy five and Red Bank. Chuck
Ingram on fifty five KRC the talk station, Hey.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Forty nine, I think about FARRACD talk station one more
with I heard Mediadas expert j Rat left all right,
moving over got a new in Southwest Airlines baggage policy.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Yep, they're you know, bags fly free right well as
of me I think twenty sixth or twenty eighth, that's
not going to be the case. Southwest has announced that
they're going to have to start charging for checked bags,
and this is after fifty four years of bags fly free. Now,
if you are a member of their frequent flyer program,
I believe you're still going to get the two bags

(10:47):
if you have the credit card for through Southwest, I
think one bag, but everyone else is going to be
paying for the further bags. And of course, you know,
Southwest is seen for years lines their competitors making hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars a year
in bag faith and they have constantly consistently said.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
No, we're not going to do that.

Speaker 3 (11:10):
Well, the Elliott management group, who came in to try
to do it hostile takeover here a while back, has
really forced Southwest into adopting things they had not done before,
such as a signed seating which is supposed to begin
sometime next year, premium seats where people can pay for
more leg room, and now for bags that the passengers
are going to have to pay for. And we don't

(11:32):
know yet what the cost is going to be, but
it is a it's a step that Southwest had to take,
and pretty much my only surprise is that it took
so long. I thought they would have done this years
ago because Southwest used to make money falling out of BED.
I mean, it was they would make money when everybody
else was losing money decade after decade. But the problem

(11:53):
is that right now they've changed their business practice. They
used to be successful in flying in and out of smaller,
not regional airports, but smaller airports where they could get
in and out quickly, limited flight activity, very few, little congestion,
and they could use that silver revenue tube for five
segments a day. Well, then they decided, well, we're going

(12:15):
to go to La Guardia, We're going to fly in
out of it Atlanta, We're going to do this, this
and this, and now they're dealing with airports that are
known for some of their flying delays. And now that
aircraft can't be used for five segments a day, it's
three or four, and all of a sudden they start
making much less in revenue. Well, obviously they're hurting, and
this is a step that they're going to be taking
to try to get it back, and of course passengers

(12:36):
are either understanding or ticked because now they have to
pay per bags. Well you had fifty four years, come on.
And the other thing is I like that Amtrak had
fun with this. They put out a tweet saying, I
guess we're the only ones where bags go free, so
come on. So I love it when a business has.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Fun like that. Yeah, but the Amtrak train will most
likely be delayed and those always yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
Yeah, this is all true. But I'm still going to
give them credit for having fun. Oh yeah, I'm glad
Southwest is making the changes they need to make because
they're a great airline. They have been struggling over a
lot of different self inflicted issues over the last several years,
and they're trying to turn things around, and I think

(13:19):
that they're going to be able to do it. And look,
this is an airline that the passengers are the employees
rather At one time, they only had four airplanes in
the early early days, and for them to make money,
they had to turn that airplane in ten minutes, that's
six hundred seconds, and they found a way to make
it happen.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
Now, a lot of times they were business travelers and
a lot of things have changed since those early days.
But the bottom line is, if anybody can pull this
turnaround off, it's going to be the people at Southwest.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Airlines all right, Well, just in time for summer traveling
vacation season, airlines are reducing summer capacity.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
In fact, Delta announced late last week that they are
reducing their future guidance. They're slashing some of those expectations
in half. So as a result, they're saying that the
economy is starting to slow or the future demand for
travel is slowing, so they, as a result, are going
to reduce the number of flights during the busy and
incredibly lucrative summer travel season. A Brian, This scares me

(14:16):
because if we see Delta and now United and other
carriers do that where they're reducing the number of seats
during that busy summer travel season, it means that the
fares for the remaining seats are going to.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Go up, up, up, up, up up up.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
I'm hoping that most of the people listen to us
that li every summer bought their tickets six seven months ago.
But if you've not yet done it, I would suggest
quickly doing so, because the fares are only going to
go up, and you know, grab the trip cancelation insurance
to protect yourself and make your reservations as quickly as
you can, because as this trend continues, the fares are

(14:54):
going to go up, go up, and it's going to
be considerably more to fly this summer than it was
last simply because we have a few receipts.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Sound advice from Jay Ratliff as always, and finally, as
we always do to part before we part company, Hub
Delights for today Today.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Los Angeles has given us issues, some big time issues there.
If you're flying to and through there, Ryan, the real
story is going to be later tonight over the next
couple of days where we're going to storm through the
central in the eastern part of the United States. If
you're gonna be flying over the next forty eight hours,
please make sure the airlines have a way to get
a hold of you. That way, if your itinerary is impacted,
they can get a hold of you long before you
get to the airport. Maybe give you options where you

(15:30):
can decide, you know, what you would like to have
if something happens to your flight. But yeah, it's gonna
be problematic over probably through Sunday, so if you're scheduled
to fly, just make sure the airlines can get a
hold of you.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Thank you, Jay Rattler for all the information and sound advice.
I look forward to another segment of this top or
another segment of our aviation discussion next Thursday, and between
now and then, best of health you and your better half.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Imagine the fun that will happen between now and then, brother,
But I'll.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Be right, no doubt about it. It's going to be
a long list expected. Thanks Jay, have a great day.
Fay fifty five, afty five krsite talk station, Corey Bowm
and Merrill Canada joined the program this morning. Got quite
a few things to talk about on his campaign trail
as well as a fundraiser that's coming up April eighth
at price ol Chili. Donald and Eel about the state
of the state with Dwine and the poll that was

(16:19):
taken about what's important to Ohiolans that preceded that, and
find out if Mike got it right on the issues
podcast fit five car Sea dot Com. Senator Bill Blessing
will Empower You seminar tonight beginning at seven with the
eighteen fifty one Center talking about property tax and Senator
Blessing with some legislative ideas on helping you with property tax.
Podcast and the conversation tonight empower You America dot org

(16:43):
beginning at seven plus on my conversation with Jay Ratliffe
on the podcast page at fifty five cars dot com.
Tune in tomorrow with Tech Friday Dave Hatter every Friday at
six thirty Joe Strecker, Thank you for all the work
you do producing the program. God love you and folks
have a great day. Stick around. Glenbeck's coming up next.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Covering Trump's first one hundred day. Every day we stand
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