The team does a non-travel-challenge, Southwest gets trolled by the Onion, and cans are up for debate (Saturday Selection)

Throughout the week, our team shares articles they’ve stumbled upon which may interest our readers, even if they might not otherwise merit a full post. Here are some of the things we found interesting this week: The team does a non-travel-challenge, Southwest gets trolled by the Onion, and cans are up for debate.

Guess who won the annual team non-travel-challenge? (And guess who lost?)

Apologies in advance – this week’s Saturday Selection will be pretty light because the whole team has been busy working together in a single location, something that does not happen often! While this trip was designed to give us the opportunity to focus on work together for a week, there are a few things about it that have felt amusingly reminiscent of our annual team travel challenges:

1. 5 travelers – 5 airlines.
   Each of us flew a different airline to reach our shared destination of Colorado Springs. I flew American Airlines (originally from Lewisburg, but ultimately) from Charlotte. Nick flew Southwest from Albany, and Tim flew Alaska from Seattle. Stephen flew United from London, and Greg flew Delta from Detroit.
2. Problems abound.
   Almost everyone had some kind of travel snag that jeopardized on-time arrival. For Nick, Greg, and me, the culprit was the high winds and extreme weather in the East, causing cancellations and/or delays that required, in my case, an unplanned 4-hour drive to Charlotte. Stephen’s cancellation occurred in London because of a mechanical problem, and Tim experienced no delays whatsoever, just the slight inconvenience of his first-class preferred meal being unavailable (Note from Tim: there was nothing slight about not getting to tuck into Alaska’s delicious BBQ Pork Baked Potato – tears were shed).
3. Nick almost didn’t make it on time.
   Perhaps no surprise to folks who followed the Flying by the Seat of our Points challenge, Nick had the hardest time making it on time, arriving at about 4 am local time – hours after any of the rest of us. The success of his itinerary depended on his first flight being so late that the connecting flight was delayed as well. Southwest got him there in the end, but barely.
4. Adventures abound!
   It wasn’t all work all week – we got to enjoy an evening of hiking in the beautiful Garden of the Gods. (It was either that, or a trip to Lululemon…)

As the only person with no serious delays or cancellations, Tim scored the win for this non-travel challenge.

Southwest Airlines Begins Assigning Chores (Satire)

Speaking of Southweest… I’ll spare anyone who’s not familiar with The Onion from the distress of believing a headline so ridiculous: this is a satirical piece, but it’s pretty funny. It’s no secret that Southwest’s process of…well…basically dismantling their brand and becoming like everyone else, has been clunky. Nick recently described his subpar experience with their assigned seating, for example, which you’d think is an extremely simple thing to implement since it’s basically the standard system for most other airlines. In this satirical piece, The Onion teases not only Southwest’s clunky transition but also the implementation of unpopular changes.

“There has always been a degree of chaos around passengers having to choose right as they’re boarding how they’re going to help keep the plane tidy,” said Southwest representative Martin Nieman, explaining that the airline hoped to streamline the task allocation process by randomly appointing responsibilities at the time of check-in. “For instance, everyone in row 18 might now be in charge of trash on this flight, while those in the fire exit rows will push the beverage cart.

Did you know there was a great debate about whether or not it’s ok to receive a can with your beverage on a premium flight? Me neither…

We’re all about humor and frivolity today, I guess, so let’s take a look at a delightfully benign little debate going on around canned beverages on flights. First, we’ve got a hot take from Gary Leff: I’m In First Class. I Shouldn’t Be Pouring My Own Drink. Coach Doesn’t Have Room For The Can Either. Whether it’s a canned drink being handed to you in a tiny little economy seat or a whole in-seat, self-serve minibar in your Emirates first class seat, Gary Leff isn’t a fan. Ben of One Mile at a Time on the other hand feels the exact opposite. He says: Dear Flight Attendants: I’ll Take The Can, Please, Including In First Class! While he agrees the non-refrigerated beverage minibar in Emirates is weird (because who wants a lukewarm drink?), he otherwise prefers the full can so that he can delay needing attention from a potentially busy flight attendant if he wants more. Simple enough. On the one hand, I’d be shocked if anyone actually has a strong enough opinion on this to comment…on the other hand…two professional bloggers just wrote posts about it. So let’s hear it: what’s your vote on the great “can or no can” debate?

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