050224 - Jay Ratliff with Jimmy Lakey

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I welcome into the program, misterJay Ratliff. He's our aviation travel expert
for iHeartMedia and also this very radiobroadcast. Jay Ratliff, good morning,
sir, how are you good?Good morning and absolutely my friend, no
apologies ever needed. I love hearingabout the work you're doing for other people,
and a lot of times when wecan take the focus off ourselves and
try to help other people, itsometimes can add a little bit more of

(00:22):
a purpose to our day to daystuff. So I will wait on that
anytime. A friend. Well,I appreciate you, my friend, and
all the support you give to ourcharity, A River's Promise, sponsoring about
none of the holes that are golffront of it. You help our goal
is eighteen, So give me sometime and down the road we'll have those
stupid times on everywhere. You're fantastic. I appreciate it, and I hope
everybody watch this podcast because it's inspiredby my journey of finding way to do

(00:49):
what God put in front of meto help the kids of Africa. But
man, there's so many things thatcauses that people can be a part of,
and sometimes it's just being a goodparent. Sometimes it's being a generous
businessman. I mean, everybody's gota why on the planet, and that's
what this new podcast is about.And at least in my perspective, your
why is teaching people how to tradeand educate him but aviation, and you're

(01:11):
just so generous in doing so.So you got a purpose. I got
a purpose. It's like an OprahinvY show. Everybody got a purpose.
We just got to figure out whatit is which makes sleep and interruption to
our days. I got it.You got it all right, Jay Ratliffe.
You know, neither of us aregetting any younger. Nobody out there
gets younger except this lady that wantedto catch an airplane, and evidently she

(01:32):
got younger. I wanted, didshe find the well of youth? I
mean, she's one hundred and oneyears old and the airline says she's pretty
young. Well, you know,this one hundred and one year old is
flying a lot and she's in prettygood shape. But she's like a wheelchair.
It's a ticket counter to get herto the gate. She's like a
wheelchair waiting for when she comes offthe plane. She flies American Airlines a

(01:53):
lot, and yet she shows up, they don't have a wheelchair, and
she's the people with there always like, we keep doing this. Why,
well, she was born in thenineteen twenty two, so when they put
the age in for American Airlines,it doesn't understand she's one hundred and one
years old. They think she's oneor two, and they think a toddler

(02:15):
is requesting a wheelchair, and they'relike, we don't do wheelchairs for toddlers.
So every time it used to befun, but now that's happening on
every single flight where she is beingmistaken at least from the computer standpoint of
being a two year old versus onehundred and one. So if you fly
American and you're over one hundred,you're gonna have to work for it even

(02:36):
more than we have to. You'sa good sport, though, she's a
good sport about it. Remember,back in the days of nineteen ninety nine
headed to two thousand, everybody thoughtwould have worldwide explosion because if you entered
in oh, well they think it'dbe nineteen hundred. So I thought maybe
the computer programmers fixed all that andknew, hey, let's make sure we
do four digit dates years instead oftwo digits. But evidently Americans just stated

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the two digits, and they're luckythey didn't shut down in nineteen ninety nine,
which is where I spent New Year'sEve at the airport with Northwest Airlines
waiting for the world to end,and of course it did not, thank
you very much. But you know, I think they still I think they
are using the four digits. Butfor some reason, American Airlines and normally
they're the ones they have the stateof the art computer stuff because they were

(03:21):
the first ones to come out witha computer reservation system SABER, the semi
automated business research environment back in thesixties. They were the first one to
put computers into travel agencies. They'vebeen the first to do freaking flyer for
everything. The American kind of isthe first to do it all. So
for them to see this, yeah, I kind of figured they'd get it
fixed, because for those those techguys and women that lived to change things,

(03:46):
they would make my life miserable.I would think they would look at
this as a challenge that they couldn'tturn down, and they try to fix
it. But apparently they've not.Well, I hope I'm still traveling when
I'm one hundred and one hundred andone, and then I won't mind the
fodder. That'll be good. JustI'll wait here. I got nothing else
to do. I've lived this long, but al I'm ready to await for
another fifteen minutes for a wheelchair.Ses. That's the only thing you and

(04:06):
I have to complain about. Atone hundred and one, I think we're
doing pretty good. I think so. All right, another story United Airlines.
We picked on the American airlines.Here. United Airlines they had a
little one of these diversions and apassenger cost a problem, and now the
passenger you're going to get an invoicein the mail. Yeah. Well,
it happened in March. A flightgoing I think it was London to Newark.

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Man gets into an argument with hisgirlfriend. It gets loud. Flight
attendant comes over, tells him,let's kind of keep it down. Alcohol
guess was involved for those of youwondering, And next thing you know,
it gets louder and louder, tothe point that this man thirty years of
age not listening to the flight attendant, which is against the rules when you're
not abiding by the instructions of auniform flight attendant. So they decide that

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the only way they're going to beable to help this is to land the
airplane. Immediately they get the bangerMaine, they drop it down, land
it. He and his girlfriend kickedoff the airplane. Obviously they're banned from
flying United forever. And now he'sgetting a bill for twenty thousand dollars twenty
six hundred and twenty eight dollars,I think because of the expenses associated with

(05:14):
the diverted flight. Now, whatthis gentleman also may be facing is several
lawsuits SYBIL from people that were onboard dead airplane. Look, I was
on my way to the business meetingof my life. I missed it because
of you. I'm suing. Iwas trying to get to my relative before
they passed away. I couldn't.And now I'm suing. I mean,
he's probably facing ten years of litigationsimply because he could not control himself on

(05:39):
a flight. Now, I wouldlove to see this man's picture with the
amount he was fined underneath it innice, big bold letters, And I
would like this displayed at every singleTSA checkpoint across the country. And I
think every single individual that causes adiversion that's asked, demanded ordered to reimburse
the airline. Their picture should beall over the place so that as we're

(06:00):
waiting to be screened, we canlook up and go, wow, you
know that guy acted up on aplane and look what it costing, or
our wives can say, don't bethat guy. So it would get the
message across so that, you know, perhaps people would begin to understand,
Look, there are some serious ramificationsif you act up on a flight that
maybe you know costly and certainly impactingit for quite a time to come.

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Jay Ratliff, my guest his websitej Ratliff dot com rat l a f
F. Jay, has there everbeen I've heard that people could get sued
for civiliability in the instances like youjust put out. Do you know if
any of those lawsuits have ever beenfiled and been successful or is this a
new world that we're venturing you.Look, when I was in the industry
twenty years ago, we would haveindividuals that they would cause a diverted flight

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or a delayed flight, and fora lot of the business people that were
traveling, it became a situation wherethey were going to be pursuing and did
successfully so because it was clear whowas responsible for the delay period. So
as a result, what ends uptaking place is you do what you can
and you consume them and it's clearthat you know, this individual is one

(07:09):
that caused the delay that prevented youfrom getting where you were at. And
you know a lot of those aresettled out of court and all the time.
And that's one of the things theairlines I'm glad to see right now
are really getting to the point thatthey're clamping down on if you're going to
act up, we're simply just notgoing to ban you from flying. We're
going to actually find you or youknow, in essence make you reimburse us

(07:31):
for what you caused us as faras the diverted landing. And I'm glad
to see it because you and Ilive in a day and age where a
lot of times those consequences aren't spelledout. Now, I'll never be at
the point of saying, well,people should get what they deserve, because
look, I deserve a lot morebad things that I'm getting just under the
grace of God. But the wholepoint is, if you act up in

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certain places, there needs to besome consequences that accompany that behavior. And
we're seeing it and thank you UnitedAirlines for finding this guy. And believe
me, I'm sure that it won'tbe the last that we see. Don't
make us pull this plane over rightnow, we'll find this. Oh yeah,
that's exactly the kid. Don't youmake me ran this plane? Kids.
That's right. Big changes coming toSouthwest Airlines. They've shut down operations

(08:18):
at a couple of airports. Iknow there's four or five flights out of
Denver that have been being ended becauseof airport operations. Southwest Airlines go two
hundred and thirty one million dollar loss. Great airline and they're like, uh,
we can't have this happening. Andplus they were expecting forty three aircraft
from Boeing Crickets. I think they'regetting twenty this year. Maybe. So
they're cutting back service. You mentionedthose four cities, Cosmel, Syracuse,

(08:41):
so I talked to every week.They're not happy, Bellingham, Washington,
and then I can't remember what theit's the Houston, Houston, Houston Intercontinental.
Thank you. That was the fourth. But they're also cutting half their
flights in Atlanta, a third ofthe ones at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, not
midway, but o'h haare. Andthey also said, look, we're gonna
in the year with two thousand fewemployees and we're going to do a hiring

(09:03):
freeze and something that caught a lotof people off guard. We're going to
be looking at changing our boarding processnow, maybe going to assigned seats.
Now. I would love to seethat because it would get rid of all
the forty eight wheelchairs that have toboard before the flight. We're only three
or needed on the other end becauseit's open seating and people are trying to
get on board early. Plus,I think Southwest could generate more cash by

(09:26):
charging for those premium seats of windowsand aisles than they could right now as
far as what they have. SoSouthwest is going to be going through a
lot of things, and this isa great airline that knows nothing but success,
and they're going to find a wayto make it happen. But you
know, if they do lay anybodyoff, it'll be the first time they've
ever done it. When the pandemichit, you and I were talking about

(09:48):
uh oh, I mean Southwest isfinally going to for the first time ever
lay anybody off. And they asktheir agents and customer service people, Look,
does anybody want to retire early?Twenty percent of them twenty percent step
forward and said, I've had agreat career at Southwest, and I'd like
the people behind me to have thatsame opportunity. I'll retire early. That's
just kind of the group that thatSouthwest family is, and they'll find a

(10:09):
way to turn this around. Believeyou never want to bet against Southwest Airlines.
Yeah, just we just came throughthis season of airline traveled where they
were were recovering from the pandemic,recovering from the COVID nineteen and they said,
well, they're short on staff,they're short on TSA, they're short
on gain agents because they you know, they trimmed down during the pandemic.
Now we get staff back up,they're operational, and now Southwest is going

(10:33):
to Are we going to just keepthis ebb and flow cycle? All the
reason it's not working is they needto hire more people. They need to
like it's a kind of a backand forth in the industry. It is
because Look, I was in managementin airlines for decades and one of the
things that we knew is that ifyou're in the lower level of management,
where I was at for quite abit of the times. Yeah, I
mean a slow down of any kindand you're just kind of put off to

(10:54):
the side. Late off, theybring it back, and those kinds of
things. And that's why a lotof my friends had jobs and businesses on
the side so that they could weatherthat storm. I never did, and
that's what led me into trading stocksall those years ago in the early nineties.
But the idea here is that youcan't keep people on the payroll unless
there's justification for it. So that'ssadly what's the case now. It is

(11:18):
easier for them to hire now thanit was coming out of the pandemic,
Thank god for that. For businesses, we're seeing that not only there,
but air traffic controllers, which againwhat seventy seven percent of air traffic control
facilities were understaffed as of December oflast year. So there's certainly challenges that
are out there, but for themost part, the industry is trying to

(11:39):
respond. But again for Southwest,a lot of their headaches as well as
United, Delta and American are tiedright back to Boeing because of the fact
that they do not have the airplanesthey thought they were going to be able
to use for this lucrative, busysummer traveling. You know, they're fighting
the passenger for the restitution for acause them a delay. Maybe there may

(12:01):
be a loss of coming with Boeing. I don't know. All I can
promise you, my friend, thateach airline is going to Boeing and saying
because of the fact that you couldnot give us what we had expected,
it's costing us this many hundreds ofdollars. And I think the last airlines
has received I don't know. Itwas a big, big check, more

(12:22):
than one hundred million from Boeing andpart of that dude the door that blew
out. But there were other reasonsas well. And these airlines are going
either discounts on future aircraft big time, or you're going to see, you
know, some checks written. Becauseright now a lot of these people are
going to air Bus Southwest can't doit. They're married to Boeing, they

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only fly to seven thirty sevens.But these other airlines, Delta America United,
they can go, they can pivotreal quick, and a lot of
them are doing just that, allright. How to like to travel across
the country today, JFKF. Youpass your time. Minneapolis might be kind
of rough, going through Houston goingto be very rough because of thunderstorm of
Chicago late in the day, andother than that, across the country should

(13:03):
be a pretty gooda fly, JayRatliff, I'll be in touched later today
about other matters, but in themeantime, thank you for being on the
program. J Ratlift dot com,R A t L I F F J
ratlift dot com. Find him onthe interro, Googles, and by the
way, when you go to hiswebsite, don't panic, as you're going
to see a lot about day trading. He's a prolific day trader. He
appears on many stations iHeart included onday trading, but he's a travel expert

(13:26):
as well, So anyway, youcan contact him on his website learn more
about a day trading. But ifyou have an aviation travel question, don't
hesitate to go there and he'll oftentimesdiscuss those issues on the show. J
Ratlift R A T l A FF J ratlift dot com