The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: philw on July 25, 2009, 03:02:18 AM
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after hearing about the crap that Michael has gone through recently
and then on another forum I saw this link so Yep I had to post it here
I think I have found the a song for his next podcast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
When airlines damage or lose their passenger's luggage, they normally - perhaps grudgingly - end up paying back compensation of a few hundred pounds.
But United Airlines are much more out of pocket in this case.
The company has lost 10per cent of their share value - a massive $180million - after being blamed for damaging a musician's guitar.
Canadian singer Dave Carroll composed United Breaks Guitars after his Taylor acoustic was damaged at Chicago's O'Hare airport.
His song has become a YouTube hit with nearly four million views in 10 days.
In the music video, Carroll relates his story, of how in spring 2008 he was travelling to Nebraska when other passengers exclaimed: 'They're [the baggage handlers] are throwing guitars down there!'
Sure enough, his Taylor guitar had been smashed.
He went through a year of trying to gain compensation from the airline before being flatly told by an employee only known as Ms Irlweg: 'No'.
So he took revenge - and, to his astonishment, soared to fame.
The catchy United Breaks Guitars - which cost just £90 to make - became a viral hit, and Carroll found himself appearing on U.S. breakfast shows, with his group Sons of Maxwell's album flying off the shelves for the first time ever.
And as shares of United plummeted, horrified executives quickly offered Carroll money for the repair costs and flight vouchers worth £700.
He told the airline to donate the sum to charity instead. The guitar would have cost about £1,000 to fix.
And it's not over yet.
Carroll has composed another two songs about the incident, and the next one - about his dealings with customer relations, Ms Irlweg in particular - will be online soon.
United must be bracing itself for the onslaught, though Carroll has promised that the song will 'not be unkind' to the unfortunate Ms Irlweg.
Carroll told the BBC today: 'I asked myself: "if Michael Moore was a singer-songwriter, what would he do?" and I gathered my tools together and said I would write three songs about the airline, make videos about the airline and share them with the world.'
He said he was amazed to get so many hits - he had hoped to receive a million over the course of the year.
His song has helped him financially though - it is currently the 20th best-selling track on the Itunes music sale website in Canada.
Taylor Guitars has offered him a new guitar to use in upcoming music videos.
United Airlines said they would like to the video use for training purposes to ensure all customers receive better service from the company in future.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1201671/Singer-Dave-Carroll-pens-YouTube-hit-United-Airlines-breaks-guitar--shares-plunge-10.html;jsessionid=A361BBE0ABE8A0619313EE6FC36F3E0C#ixzz0MFw54YOK
Has anyone had damage done to a gun's courtesy of baggage handlers? or anything else like things going missing
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Good on him!
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My Dad flew from Boise to Manchester NH and had 5 Pounds of Smoked Salmon stolen from his luggage by baggage handlers.
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Has anyone had damage done to a gun's courtesy of baggage handlers? or anything else like things going missing
Yes, and both times it was United Airlines.
I too had a guitar damaged, an old Alvarez Hummingbird acoustic that my brother gave me in about 1968. I actually was standing at the window at S.F. International and watched the knuckle dragging dimwits throw my guitar into the belly of the aircraft.
It played well enough afterward. That was 1977. I finally lost that old ax in a rear end collision in London Ontario in 1989.
The other time they lost my luggage and travel tool box en-route to John Wayne international in So. Cal. It was found three days later in Dallas by my BIL who happened to work for the catering company that services United flights. He was able to pull some strings and a buddy basically tripped over my stuff in TX.
That trip has another good memory. As I was running through the terminal to catch a flight in Dallas, I accidentally gave a full body check to a guy named Morley Safer (CBS gasbag) because he stood up at the wrong time and came face to chest to a 6'1", 200 lb, physically fit 30 year old young man in the prime of his life. I thought I killed him! ;D
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Yes, and both times it was United Airlines.
I too had a guitar damaged, an old Alvarez Hummingbird acoustic that my brother gave me in about 1968. I actually was standing at the window at S.F. International and watched the knuckle dragging dimwits throw my guitar into the belly of the aircraft.
It played well enough afterward. That was 1977. I finally lost that old ax in a rear end collision in London Ontario in 1989.
The other time they lost my luggage and travel tool box en-route to John Wayne international in So. Cal. It was found three days later in Dallas by my BIL who happened to work for the catering company that services United flights. He was able to pull some strings and a buddy basically tripped over my stuff in TX.
That trip has another good memory. As I was running through the terminal to catch a flight in Dallas, I accidentally gave a full body check to a guy named Morley Safer (CBS gasbag) because he stood up at the wrong time and came face to chest to a 6'1", 200 lb, physically fit 30 year old young man in the prime of his life. I thought I killed him! ;D
Better luck next time ;D
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Carroll told the BBC today: 'I asked myself: "if Michael Moore was a singer-songwriter, what would he do?"
He would write a song based on half the facts and use scare tactics to have his listeners burning little airplanes in effigy...and then blame it on conservitives.
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Carroll told the BBC today: 'I asked myself: "if Michael Moore was a singer-songwriter, what would he do?"
He would write a song based on half the facts and use scare tactics to have his listeners burning little airplanes in effigy...and then blame it on conservitives.
LOL! (but true!)
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two out of three times flying through Miami my luggage is damaged. torn, cut or just plain opened and ransacked. I'm a bit limited on where I can enter the US from Peru and not break the bank. also carry all the important stuff in carry on so I won't lose anything too important. this trip my luggage didn't make it to my flight in time, although it was delayed an hour. but that's because TSA sucks and didn't move it along in time. (douche bags)
I hate Miami airport
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Phil, Thanks for posting this. I heard it on the BBC on my way home from work the other night, but was too tired to find it all on the net to post it.
I remember hearing back in the old days how the airlines would Bombay a customers luggage. If someone checking in for a flight drew the ire of the counter person the customer wouldn't get their luggage on the other end. The attendent would put destination stickers or tags on the luggage to send it elsewhere frequently to Bombay.
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I remember hearing back in the old days how the airlines would Bombay a customers luggage. If someone checking in for a flight drew the ire of the counter person the customer wouldn't get their luggage on the other end. The attendent would put destination stickers or tags on the luggage to send it elsewhere frequently to Bombay.
Must be where Pier One Imports got all their crap to sell!
:)
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Saw this on TV a few years ago.....
Two million bags are checked in at airports each day and 99.5% of them reach their destination on the same flight as their owner.
That leaves .5% of the luggage that are "mishandled". The definition of mishandled is that they do not arrive with the passenger, arrive damaged or arrive with missing items.
Doing the math: .5% of two million equals 10,000 bags a day.
The Department of Transportation claims that 80% of the mishandled bags are reunited with their owner within 24 hours and 99% are returned within 5 days. Only 1% are lost forever.
But, 1% still equals about 100 bags per day and 36,500 a year.
Where did they go?
ALABAMA.
Alabama?
Scottsboro, Alabama is the lost luggage capital of the world. It is the home of the Unclaimed Baggage Center where you can buy a lost $1000 Versace dress for $55, a tube of slightly used Japanese toothpaste for 50 cents, a $15,000 sapphire and diamond bracelet for $7500, gold wedding bands for half their value, and a black lace teddy for $3.
http://www.freeenterpriseland.com/BOOK/LOSTLUGGAGE.html
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United was one of my clients once upon a time, had buying managers in the Corp. HQ in Elk Grove Village NW of Chicago. It got to the point that I really really really detested paying their fares cuz I knew of all of the dead weight employees they had to carry. The others may be similar, but this one is one I used to know well.
And that's not counting the times (plural) they tried to check in a DC-10 with 1 - count 'em 1 - gate agent. Or the hostile gate agents and flight attendants. or rarely being on time, or . . .
However, I will say this - they never did loose any of my bags - mostly because I almost never checked!
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Saw this on TV a few years ago.....
Two million bags are checked in at airports each day and 99.5% of them reach their destination on the same flight as their owner.
That leaves .5% of the luggage that are "mishandled". The definition of mishandled is that they do not arrive with the passenger, arrive damaged or arrive with missing items.
Doing the math: .5% of two million equals 10,000 bags a day.
The Department of Transportation claims that 80% of the mishandled bags are reunited with their owner within 24 hours and 99% are returned within 5 days. Only 1% are lost forever.
But, 1% still equals about 100 bags per day and 36,500 a year.
Where did they go?
ALABAMA.
Alabama?
Scottsboro, Alabama is the lost luggage capital of the world. It is the home of the Unclaimed Baggage Center where you can buy a lost $1000 Versace dress for $55, a tube of slightly used Japanese toothpaste for 50 cents, a $15,000 sapphire and diamond bracelet for $7500, gold wedding bands for half their value, and a black lace teddy for $3.
http://www.freeenterpriseland.com/BOOK/LOSTLUGGAGE.html
In manufacturing a failure rate of more than 0.02 is unacceptable, some places I've worked it was grounds for being fired
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Good for this guy, and I will believe because he had witnesses, but something I learned from a professional musician, who learned the hard way, packed his gold top Les Paul, in the hardcase fully strung and tuned. The flight was well over 30,000', when he arrived the atmospheric pressure affected the wood and with the strings tight, snapped the neck. Always destring or really relax the strings when shipping by air.
I would be really sick if that happened to my Taylor, K22C.
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I would be really sick if that happened to my Taylor, K22C.
I would be too Benny. :-[
My Martin will never be more than a few thousand feet above see level...