According to employees of the companies surveyed, these are the top 10 worst CEOs (of CONSUMER companies) to work for.

Rank – Company – CEO – approval rating

10. US Postal Service – Jack Potter – 21%
9. Sun Microsystems – Jonathan I. Schwartz – 21%
8. eBay – John J. Donahoe – 20%
7. Convergys (a horrible call center company) – Dave Dougherty – 19%
6. Pfizer – Jeff Kindler – 19%
5. Sears Holdings – W. Bruce Johnson – 19%
4. RadioShack – Julian C. Day – 16%
3. Sports Authority – Doug Morton – 12%
2. United Airlines – Glenn F. Tilton 8%
1. Office Depot – Steve Odland – 7%

Source for the information

I haven’t had the displeasure of working for any of these companies, but I do come into contact with at least one of these on a daily basis it seems.

In the bigger chart (including companies that don’t come in contact with the consumer on day to day transactions) from Glassdoor, the absolute worst CEO to work for is Krishna Srinivasan, the CEO of Frost & Sullivan.

The best CEO to work for is Ken Powell at General Mills.  Number 3 is Steve Jobs and number four is Eric Schmidt at Google.

Well, I’m going out of town today and I was checking in online and noticed something funny; U.S. Airways is now charging $20 at the airport for your first checked bag BUT if you pay for it on the internet, then it’s still *only* $15.

So, what is the extra $5 for?

Most likely, in my opinion, the fee is just another way to stick it to the consumer. I believe that I paid enough for my ticket to not have to pay for a checked bag, but that’s not my choice. I did, however, pack the biggest suitcase I own as well as the biggest carry on allowed by this particular plane (I’m flying regional jets).

I did a little snooping around and noticed that the change took affect at the beginning of July. I also noticed that US Airways isn’t the only carrier to do this.

Delta Air Lines has also added a $5 surcharge for paying the checked bag fee at the airport instead of when the flier does online check in. However, Delta has decided not to make the change happen until August 4th. This also means that Northwest and all the Delta Express, Northwest Airlink, Mesaba, etc will be doing the same.

United Airlines and Continental have also followed suit with their own “fees for paying fees” fee.

I find it absolutely stupid that I have to pay for a checked bag, now I have to pay a fee because of the fee if I don’t want to pay for the bag on the internet.

Airlines’ rules are strange, along with TSA regulations. This is why I’m getting to the airport at 10:30 for a flight that leaves at 12:45.

Southwest, for example, is offering $39 one way tickets between its airport in Houston to other Southwest airports nearby.

It’s reported that some are even finding great deals to other parts of the world:

Qantas Airways is offering one-way fares between Australia and California for $299, and New York for $399. United Airlines is selling a new Moscow route for as low as $119 one way, before taxes and fees. American has fares from Chicago to Dublin for $147

I haven’t been able to find deals like these for a trip after graduation from Memphis, but I suppose knowing that the airlines are offering them is better than not knowing even where to begin.

Source

Unlike the bird strikes that took down the “Hudson Miracle,” this plane never lost power to the one engine that sucked in the bird. The pilot of the Denver flight just wanted to make sure everything was fine.

Bird strikes are common, and while it is better to be safe than sorry in many occasions, the story out of New York probably has many people nervous about it happening. While it doesn’t say how many strikes were birds or if they were sucked into the engine, the FAA reported 257 “wildlife aircraft strikes” from the Denver airport just last year.

The thing is, you always hear stories about the “bad” airplane experiences…failing engines, bird strikes, crash landings, etc…but the news doesn’t report how many flights take off and land every day without incident. That’s just something we all have to remember. We’re much more likely to land safely than not.

Around 11 am this morning, Bloomberg News broadcast the story as new… That’s when the madness happened. Between the time the story was broadcast as “new” and 12:30 pm, when trading was halted, the stock dropped from around $12 a share, to $3. Even when trading resumed, it still didn’t completely recover from the damage done by the false story.

The staff at the Sun-Sentinel online still don’t know what happened or why the story was posted on their website. I am thinking it was probably just an accident, after all, I’ve seen some pretty disorganized newsrooms. Fowl play would be a little more fun though, as far as reporting on the story goes.

It doesn’t help that people are more and more unhappy with airline service. People are paying more for tickets and also having to pay for things that were always free like sodas and the first checked bag. I have never been a frequent flier. I’ve only really flown 5 times. I do look though. I mean, if we wanted to take a trip somewhere besides Memphis, St. Louis, Atlanta, or the Gulf Coast, we’d have to fly, because I’m not driving. We drove to Dallas in January and I promised Chris I would never drive that far again.

Airlines are talking about becoming more fuel efficient. They have a long journey ahead of them to find something that will get them off the ground though. It takes a lot of energy to keep a plane in the air. So good luck airlines.

This is disappointing. How did a tick get into the passenger part of the plane, and how did anyone actually see it? I’m thinking this guy who saw it was wearing magnifying glasses as lenses or something, because most ticks, when not engorged, are smaller than the size of the end of a matchstick. In passing, who would be able to see and and tell it’s is for certain a tick? The airline said they found 1 – 3 ticks on the plane and didn’t know how they got there.

It’s just strange to me. I have found ticks on my dogs, but have never actually seen one anywhere else. Well…on other people’s dogs. It’s just good to know that the people made it to their destination, and without having to find ticks on them or their kids.