Day: January 10, 2008

Call me Mr. Packrat

ssegraves

Stuff; I keep it. For no reason at all, I have a habit of hanging on to things that are no longer needed, take up space, and look cluttered. How long have I been doing this? For as long as I can remember. The kicker is that it has trickled into my computer habits and now I find myself not deleting PDFs and having data spread out all over my harddrive.

This is bad practice, I know. I can admit it is a form of being a packrat, though I am not sure my room or computer desktop look like those pictures. My reasons for keeping things is purely the possibility needing something later in time, even though, in the back of my mind I doubt the need will materialize. I keep information brochures on things that will probably never be used, text documents containing flight information from three years ago and coupons for pizza that expired years ago.

So, after years of this type of behavior, I am working on just getting rid of stuff. During a recent flight I went through my computer harddrive and just started deleting things that were spread out everywhere. If I did not know what the file was by looking at the name and its location, it went in the trash. In my room, I’ve emptied a basket of papers that I no longer need and filed the ones I do. There is progress but it is sometimes difficult for me to part with something I think I may need or use in the future. I’ll keep trying.

British Airways announces OpenSkies, I won’t hold my breath

ssegraves

British Airways announced a new subsidiary airline called OpenSkies that will operate flights between New York and Continental Europe utilizing 3-class Boeing 757s. The aircraft will be configured with Business, Premium Economy, and Economy seats.

This is somewhat of a surprise since BA’s competition across the Atlantic is fierce, especially with Business Class only carriers. Their idea is novel though, as the plane configuration, with a premium economy section, will attract more customers wanting a comfortable ride to Europe.

OpenSkies has not announced which New York area airport it will fly out of, but my guess would be that they actually split traffic between JFK and EWR to keep some landing slots open for the widebody fleet.

Eventually we will have to see one of these airlines going across the Atlantic in 757s cut service due to lack of demand. The air will be clogged with flights from multiple U.S. and international carriers going between mainland Europe and cities around the United States and there won’t be anyone on some of them. The one upside is the fact that ticket prices should drop significantly when the Open Skies agreement is finally observed.