Passengers! Ack!

[Derg]

My flight is late so I'm checking in the forums from one of the gate computers.

A passenger walks up and says, "HEY! Where's the crown room?"

"I dunno sir, they don't let us pilots in there!" Jokingly.

"You don't know where the damned crown room is?!" he answers.

"Hey Brian," I asked the captain, "Do you know where the crown room is?"

"Nope!"

So the guy storms off, muttering some expletive that I care not to type...

So I ask myself, here I am in a strange airport and I'm cursed at because I don't know where the darned crown room is? Sheesh!

And this is just day one of my trip!

 

[Alchemy]

Some people are just A-holes I guess. Hope the rest of your trip goes better Mr. Taylor!

 

[I_Money]

You should have heard a customer we had on the phone today, he had a credit score of under 500, no D and B, had his incorporation had been suspended, lied on a binding document about years incorporated, etc.

Well he spoke to the credit manager and it got ugly, we can help people improve their credit so the qualify for financing, however he would have been tough so it was going to cost $5,000.

To get to the point, the guys account manager got him on the phone (we can use the headset, and play it on speaker phone too), and he went off! Your boss is a this and that, I will break his neck if I ever meet him, etc! We were laughing so much. Maybe you had to be there, we have beer and pizza Friday afternoons, so most people had a beer in there hand around his cubical just having a riot!

 

[A300Capt]

You should of thought of the farthest point from where he was currently standing and told him that's where it's at! The walk may have done him some good.

 

[flyitup]

Iain, I’ve got a question and it sounds like you may be “in the know”…

What would you consider a good credit rating??

I just got my credit report, and even though I have nothing more than 30 days late, my score was only 590. It said the main reasons it was lower was because of too many inquires, and lack of longevity (I’ve only been eligible to establish credit for a little over two years now).

What do you make of all this?

 

[robair73]

The main reason may be because of the short time you have established credit. It goes up when you take out loans and pay them off on time or early, maintain good standing with credit cards and increasing the line of credit that they extend to you, and of course keeping your credit balances low. These are some things that increase your score. (at least that's what I've been told and my credit is pretty good with 6 years of credit history)

 

[sxauer]

I may be a dummy for asking but uhh...whats a crown room? Is that like a bar?

-shaun

 

[tonyw]

I feel for you, Doug, I really do. If you wanna have some fun and shake your head in amazement, go to flyertalk.com some time and read the posts. The United board in particular is interesting. There are idiots saying that UAL should shut their doors forever because they got moved from an aisle to a window seat and they didn't get an operational upgrade as a result.

Unbelievable.

 

[farwellbooth]

[ QUOTE ]
I may be a dummy for asking but uhh...whats a crown room? Is that like a bar?

-shaun

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a private bar of which you pay an annual fee based upon how much you fly. Drinks are complementary, lots of tvs, quiet areas, computers, meeting rooms, lazy boys etc. And Delta reservation agents are also available

 

[Derg]

Some guy on airliners.net was wondering what will happen to all of his UAL frequent flier miles if UAL went under.

Uhh, "Hello!"

Personally, I think the whole frequent flier thing is a sham. Down at my local grocery store, people use credit cards to make purchases all the time. Basically, airlines will offer triple miles for purchases made with certain credit cards.

So people walk around with 100,000; 500,000 and 1,000,000 miler cards that probably only have a few segments on the airline and want to cut me in line for food, me to take their coat or give 'em something for free. Bought lots of groceries, bagels and gasoline on the American Express card...

True story - I was in Fort Lauderdale working a Delta Express leg a few years ago. We had a 20 minute turn to fly back to Boston and I was absolutely starving.

So I run out of the jet to go pick me and the captain up a slice of pizza. The line was long, but it was moving at a good clip. The captain was going to do the walk around and I had already set up the cockpit before I left so it was going to work out sweet.

This lady taps me on the shoulder and says, "Excussssssssse may....excuuuuuuuuse may" in that New Jersey accent.

I turn around wondering why someone's in my personal space and she says, "My flight is leaving in 30 minutes and I'm a medallion flyer" and tries to cut in front of me. She even showed me her FF card.

Luckily I had enough politeness next to me and say, "Well, the other 15 people in line look pretty darned hungry and we wouldn't want to start a riot in line at Sbarro, would we?!"

Then she went to the back of the line and mumbled something nasty enough to make a few people look sternly at her.

 

[I_Money]

>>What would you consider a good credit rating??<<

625 and above is considered good credit. The highest I have seen is 790 and the lowest was 440.

>>I just got my credit report, and even though I have nothing more than 30 days late, my score was only 590. It said the main reasons it was lower was because of too many inquires, and lack of longevity (I’ve only been eligible to establish credit for a little over two years now).

What do you make of all this?<<

Be very careful about getting your credit pulled, on the bottom of the report is a list of all people who have pulled your credit. When we look at this we look to see if any competitors have pulled their credit, and if so when. This gives us a clear indication if they have tried other people for the same thing but have been rejected.

I woudl strive to pay all your bills on time, work out your cash flow get the bills in time with cash in-flow (you can actually request to change dates on credit cards and what not) and do not pay 1 bill late.

If you do this then you should have no problem getting a mortgage when you acquire a house, which is also very important. We look to see how they handle their mortgage, it speaks volumes. Having a mortgage that is well managed will serve you well.

ANother key thing is revolving credit. Now I do not have the best understand about this, however I think it is basically how much credit you flip. So basically maxing out credit cards and paying minimums will show up on here, and it is something of great interest.

Doug - Some of these frequent flyers act like God stands in the corner when they are in the room. Virgin opitomises this, their 'upper class' is full of Daily Mirror readers with money. I was checking in at 1st (magic cards), and it seemed that all the time you had to be on guard for a plebian trying to cut infront with some way. I got in a conversation with the lady infront of me about how badly behaved our fellow passengers were, she was awesome, very posh British accent and was stubborn as a rock; no one was getting by her!!

I do think frequent flyer programs are great, they create loyalty! Ever since I became an AA (cough I mean Delta) Gold Member, I fly AA exclusively! They take great care of me, so with a loyalty program I have no reason to fly any other carrier.

 

[flyitup]

Iain,

Thanks for the information... I do have one more question..

I had three high interest credit cards, all with balances to the max. I just recently got a lower interest loan from a family member and will be paying the credit cards off with that. I would like to have one, lower interest credit card for emergencies and the like and was thinking about applying for an AOPA credit card.

Will paying off and closing my three credit card accounts improve my credit? Secondly, if the answer is yes, how long will it take to show up on my credit report?

 

[tonyw]

Oh, I do that, too. I use my Citibank card all the time to make purchases. The difference between me and the maroons that think that makes them special is that I realize that even the most elevated card only means that I've planted my ass in a seat for a particular airline for 100K miles. Big deal. I didn't do anything special to accomplish that. Hell, it was more of an accomplishment to actually get into a cockpit and start the engines!

On top of that, I got all most of those miles on someone else's dime.

I don't understand why anyone would think that makes them special. I'm strange like that, though. I actually believe you have to earn something for it to mean something.

 

[I_Money]

Flyitup - I would definately pay them off but I would not close those accounts. We look for revolving credit, it is best to have it under $35,000 with less then 50% total revolving available. Buy a stick of gum on them and pay them off ON TIME! This will bring your revolving credit way down, and the percent will look good too. For emergencies I would get a credit card of your parents, their's should be low interest, and you will be more likely to use it wisely.

You also said you have a lot of inquiries. Do not do more then 1 inquiry a month, if you have more people will look into it, and it wil show you are either getting into a lot of debt or people are rejecting you.

Also you need a certain amount of trade lines, 10 is a good number however being young that is quite a high number. But the more the better, just make sure you can manage that many.

 

[farwellbooth]

Jack a** of Saturday Award... A guy lands the wrong way at published one way airport today. He taxis to the fuel pump so my instructor goes over to him and informs him that it's a one way airport. The guy tells my instructor to f off and continues to pump his fuel!

 

[robair73]

790 is the highest you've seen Iain. That's awesome, mine is a 740. I've been trying to get mine higher because I thought that was a little low. That makes me feel pretty good right now.

 

[Ophir]

robair that is a great score, you most likely will not get too much higher than that. That was my first score too. The only problem was I was applying for a mortgage and as soon as you have a mortgage you have stacked on the debt (albeit good debt) and it kills your score.

Just a note to those who have credit cards and you are wondering how the credit thing works. THe more available credit you have, meaning the amount you can actually put on all your cards, is considered your liability. Therefore, if you have a combine borrowing value of $20,000, the credit companies see this as essentially borrowed because you could run out and borrow it the moment after your loan is established. The advice is, what your credit closely. Don't allow any one to run a credit check on you unless absolutely necessary. Also, there are hard and soft hits on your credit. The hard hits are when you apply for a card or a line of credit and the reduce you score quickly. The soft hits are when you go test drive a car, they take a copy of your DL and then run a credit report while you are out burning rubber. Make sure it is a soft hit before you go. Essentially, everytime someone checks on your credit, you get screwed. So check your credit and make sure someone like Sears isn't running credit checks on you everytime they send you a card application.

Bottom line is that the credit this is a bit of a scam, but don't find yourself on the wrong side of the curve on this one, you will struggle for a long time to get it back. And the sad reality in American life is that your credit report means a lot to people who will ever loan you $.

 

[flyitup]

Thanks for the info guys...

I really feel like I should close out my existing accounts because they all charge a yearly fee, and there's really no sense in paying that when I'm not using the card...

Does anyone use the AOPA card? Is it hard to get approved for at a decent rate?

 

[E_Dawg]

flyitup, I have the AOPA Visa and it's pretty good. I think the interest on it is 12.99 or something. I had to have my mom as the cosigner because it was my first credit card. Since then I have applied to one other card (they solicited themselves to me in the mail) and was denied!!!! Makes you wonder why they even bother sending you the offer if they're going to bat you down! Oh well I have only had the AOPA card for inside of 6 months, but so far I've paid every bill in full to get in on the grace period! If you use it in that way, it saves a fair amount of money on flying (5% of a $4500 instrument rating for me saves around $230ish). Also if I refuel before bringing the plane back the FBO will reimburse me for the cost of the fuel and in addition I save 5%... Not THAT big of a deal but it does add up; just remember they impose a $250 per year limit on rebates, and you can only get the rebates if you purchased something at an AOPA approved FBO / pilot shop (most are).

 

[I_Money]

Flyitup - I would close them if you have a annual cost, but they will show you closed them on the report.

Ed - I had a similar thing happen to me, I got an offer a while ago, I applied and got rejected. I thought it was a bit off, as it does show on my credit.

Ophir - I do not believe that when you test drive a car they are inside checking your credit, unless you have signed a document stating that is OK. Unfortunately I had my credit pulled by some gay-ass credit card company who sent me something, and then rejected me so I am waiting a few months before I get a credit card (one I am also certain to get). I do not want my credit pulled too frequently, heck with that muppet, and getting a cell phone within a month it will be summer before I try anything else.

The funny thing is in the UK my credit is impecable, I had a credit card with a max of $2250 a $2250 approved overdraft, and was qualified (not pre-qualified) for $15,000 in personal loans (not bad for being 18). And one bloody cc company will not give me their gay credit card for $1K, and Sprint required me to put $125 down as of my lack of credit! BLAH!!!