I found, with American at least, the only seats you can reserve are either cheap, terribly cramped or 1st class & extremely expensive. To get a decent seat, you need to upgrade for about $40. The only airline that offers reasonable seats for a reasonable price is Southwest, but they don't go to Miami, only Ft. Lauderdale, about 75 miles from where I live.
The 757 is a narrow-body plane, I believe. The 737-200 is almost the same capacity and range, so if they go with the 737, they get a maintainable aircraft with little or no downside.
What a mess. I call commercial flying these days as a refined form of torture. I won't do it unless there's no viable alternative, such as a cross-country trip.
The airlines always claim they need to overbook, but the airline I use most frequently (AA) when I have been traveling always asked for the volunteers BEFORE boarding the plane. This avoids most of the problems.
That fellow was lucky that thing wasn't more poisonous than it was, or that he was no apparently allergic to it.I wonder, didn't he realize what it was in the first place? You just don't pick up a scorpion.
As a meteorologist, I can assure you that the global models get updated with satellite winds just after model initialization, and the satellite winds can see otherwise unforecast storms out over the oceans even if there are no surface stations or other upper air observations available. Therefore, if the aircraft didn't load enough fuel to complete the flight, the problem is with them, not the weather. Even if the storm forecasts are not perfect, they are still good enough for proper flight planning.
The Brass hats have wasted more $$ in the last few years than it took to fight WW-II. The A-10 was properly designed for its role, the F-35 is not. The idiots that thought one plane could fill the roles for all the services are proved wrong once again, they never learn. If they want a new fighter, they should build improved F-22's, or better reprise the YF-23. A new ground-attack plane, build more A-10's. In such a role, stealth buys you nothing and costs a fortune.