BBC Blog Network

User Profile

AndyGreen44

Listed below are comments made by AndyGreen44 between Tuesday, 2nd December 2008 and Saturday, 23rd May 2009.

«Newer
Older»

BA: Loaded down 08:28am on 23 May 2009 The ticket flexibility you are describing covers for multiple days and a full refund on cancellation. Here we are discussing arriving at the airport a bit earlier or a bit later even, two different things. The passenger knows that he is depending on luck (availability of seats) and that he may very well end up spending a lot of hours at the airport. The passenger knows that only if there empty seats on the plane, only then he'd be allowed in. So you cannot say that being flexible as a carrier and trying to accommodate some distressed and unlucly passengers will somehow create a mass of system dodgers that will harm the company. To the contrary, the inflexible carrier will lose clients to the more friendly and flexible one , ie where ecommon sense and less arrogance prevails.

The air conditioned car example is also wrong. Selling an A/C car to someone that has paid for a non-A/C car is not the same as offering someone a seat on plane that would otherwise go empty and that the next flight would see occupied (ie null sum for the carrier)!

To make your car analogy work we would have to insert the element of luck/circumstances and the fact that the A/C car will not be sold to anyone else. Trying hard to make this work, let me think. Here it is. You order a Mercedes 320 SL without A/C and you are given a date and time to go and pick it up from the factory in Germany. You arrive two hours early as they are just about to scrap a 320 SL with A/C that has not sold to anyone. You propose to them to let you have the 320 SL A/C, which they are about to scrap anyway, but they say no, you've only paid for a 320 SL non A/C so they go ahead, scrap the A/C car and keep you waiting for 2 hours for you non A/C car to be delivered.
Indebted Britain 00:55am on 23 May 2009 Banks do really have got the governments by the b*lls, being it that the government cannot see a future other than one with plenty of private banks underpinning the commercial and retail markets.

If 90% of the biggest banks, simultaneously threaten to collapse, is there another avenue for the government to take? I think not. Who would handle the billions of daily electronic transactions that facilitate commerce and retail, from credit cards, to personal and commercial accounts?

But now that we know what the risks are, is it not perhaps time for the government to set up a National Bank Of England that would set the benchmark for all other banks ? Is this not better than simply fincancing private banks and hoping they (banks) would somehow follow a socialist model that would benefit the taxpayer who has just saved them?

With a National Bank of England in place we (tax payer) can dictate the results. Pumping more and more cash into private banks the best we can do is simply hope for the results. No brainer really.
BA: Loaded down 00:40am on 23 May 2009 Oil has been in decline since July 08 and only recently rising a bit. Where are the "higher fuel costs" ?!
BA: Loaded down 00:37am on 23 May 2009 Even with a cheaper ticket, if the carrier happens to have an empty seat and the passenger happens to have arrived earlier they should offer it to him/her, and no questions asked.

Most of the comments saying otherwise are indicative of an arrogant mentality which is not suited for today's business, or any business actually, short of the kind that the British empire setup in undeveloped 3rd world countries with the aid of an army!

How can some of you possibly suggest that a passenger is somehow trying to play the system, when in fact arriving a couple of hours earlier and hoping for an empty seat on an earlier flight, or the alternative of a lengthy wait at some airport lounge... Do you think he planned it? For what gain! You have just managed to alienate a passenger...

I had much worse experience with Euro Tunnel. We drove through the whole of France, from the very south to the north and arrived at Calais about 4-5 hours before the crossing time on our ticket. That was in part bad calculation, the roads were not as busy as anticipated and we did not take as many stops, instead we drove almost non stop all day. I remember we arrived at about 11pm and the place was desolate, not a soul to be seen. However the operator at the gate solidly refused to let us through because we were too early and no amount of pleading would convince them otherwise. They also said "fully booked". But the place was really desolate that much was obvious, there was the occasional car arriving and let through, but that was about it. So there we were, at midnight, two young kids in the car thoroughly exhausted, hoping we could cross and get back home in the same night, yet we were denied for no good reason other than the printed time on our ticket. We were tired from the long driving journey (more than 14 hours non stop), Calais was shutdown, and some unknown clerk made us hate Eurotunnel and vouch never to use them again. The ferry carriers were are all too happy to put us on the next boat for half the eurotunnel price.
Road-testing EU rules 11:39am on 27 Feb 2009 GM is letting go of SAAB *AFTER* the Swedish government refused to inject money into GM/SAAB. And rightly so. SAAB will become an independent Swedish company once again, and only then the government will inject money in it. It is called, looking after your own. Had the government injected funds into GM/SAAB most of it would have lined the pockets of American industrialists and bankers and very little would benefit the Swedish economy.

The approach in Britain is radically different as can be witnessed by the lack of any serious industry or infrastructure and the dependence on north sea oil or on the financial sector's gimmicks. It is time we started looking after our own.

The idea of a free market is ridiculous. Follow it to the end and it will come to knock on your door, on your house and threaten your private property. If you want to maintain your house you build walls around it and fences around your garden. You do not let anyone have picnics in your garden or throw parties in your living room. And when you do open your doors to guests, it is by invitation.

Let's see what Britain will conjure this time to take it out of the mess it got itself into with its liberal policies; another discovery of oil perhaps, gold mines in Wales or what. Something short of a miracle so the PM can then go around telling other nations how forward thinking we in Britain are...
Why Sir James Crosby resigned 10:11pm on 11 Feb 2009 "Misjudgement" ? Not at all, he knew exactly what he was doing. Had he misjudged anything he would now be an unemployed factory worker with 3-4 mouths to feed in search of a job. Instead his "misjudgement" means that you and I are now paying the bill - not him, or his family.

Strange how our culture hinges upon the "Alpha" males, those who cannot do wrong, who are meant to lead and who no matter what errors they made in one post can always get another, equally lucrative post somewhere else.
Jumped or pushed? 10:03pm on 11 Feb 2009 The government is not interested in helping the people that are suffering due to unemployment and lack of business. Instead they are pumping billions into the banks which will proceed to repay their debtors - many of whom abroad. The government IS the banks and they are only serving themselves.
Winter of discontent 10:40pm on 02 Dec 2008 #211 you are right. It is all fictitious wealth and growth, there is no underlying, no substrate beneath it.

As I said above we cannot create value by filling forms all day. Someone, somewhere has to produce something so we stop importing. If we carry on importing we will have nothing left to pay with, except our manual or skilled labour, and that is if the other countries want it/ need it. If they are also in recession and they do not then what do we do?

We are not even self-sufficient for energy. We will have to beg the Russians and the French. We will have nothing to pay them back with, we will have to sell them Scotland.
Winter of discontent 10:34pm on 02 Dec 2008 Some excellent posts.

Instead of this VAT nonsense, the government should have started paying gas+electricity bills, for everyone, up to a point, give tax rebates for private schools and private health, tax rebates for loans on houses and cars and other purchases and so on.

They could also invest heavily into infrastructure, eg our ancient trains and the tube, hospitals, electricity power stations, shipyards. Instead of employing 1000s of state employees filling forms all day, they should be sending them out into factories and into manufacturing.

If the whole nation has become white collar workers sitting behind a computer screen all day, then who is going to produce the tangible products that we need? We cannot keep importing for ever.

Foreign money will soon dry out once they realise there is nothing worth of value in this country anymore save the land itself.
Winter of discontent 09:20am on 02 Dec 2008 #14
I agree house prices are still very high, but these are asking prices. There are no sales to back these prices up.

On the issue of investing, land and property may seem basic and fundamentally safe. But if you look on an aerial photo you will notice VAST expanses of "green belt" "agricultural land" "farm land" and so on surrounding tiny little enclaves of houses.

The only reason house prices are what they are is because the councils and government do not allow more land to be developed.

However, we are just a council man's pencil stroke away from redeveloping a lot of land and thereby increase the supply of housing.

In other (EU) countries land is cheap as chips, you pay for the house you are buying (and the quality of its construction) and perhaps an extra 10% for like 1/4 of an acre of land if present.

In the UK you pay millions to buy shoddy old houses, reconstructed barns and 1930s shambles. Which you call "character".

That is another bubble just waiting to burst.

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

AndyGreen44