You know what really grinds my gears?

[dubcity]

I feel like those property shows for their audience is the equivalent of me watching those sneaker YouTube shows where they spent like $10,000 on shoes. Throwing $50k-$100k in costs like it's nothing. Granted, houses tend to hold their value just slightly better than sneakers, but you know.

[Caulfield]

People who eat all the good candy out of the Halloween candy dish and leave the worst candy behind.

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by dubcity

I feel like those property shows for their audience is the equivalent of me watching those sneaker YouTube shows where they spent like $10,000 on shoes. Throwing $50k-$100k in costs like it's nothing. Granted, houses tend to hold their value just slightly better than sneakers, but you know.

To be fair, would you expect a $5000 renovation to be tv worthy?

There are requirements for these shows. I looked into a closet renovation show years back, thinking it was like entering a contest. Turns out even for that, it requires a minimum 20k job.

[mike24forever]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blzer

Slightly related, but a family friend of ours who has a local restaurant was just on an episode of one of these shows. The daughter was a waitress on it and she doesn't work there, and nearly every featured customer who raved about it was a mutual friend that we knew. That's too bad that they were all plugs, because it's a fantastic restaurant to begin with. They don't need that kind of schlock. I guess you could say that it's just a nice favor to get them on TV, but it also lacks that genuine feel when you see that all the same. Pertaining to the OP topic, I hate how fake all reality TV is.

My reality TV experience is know to some of the guys at #OS from when my house was renovated by Mike Holmes. It was very real. They had given me over $110,000 in improvements not including their labour.

My wife and I are going through our 3rd major renovation in 6 years, and i prefer the quality of work by Mike Holmes and his crew over the 2 contractors I've dealt with. Thinking about it, maybe Holmes On Homes was fake because hey we kinder and better than the two i used...and my 2 contractors are good people, just Holmes was something special.

[woodjer]

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

That's kid stuff in the realm of 'reality TV'. Those house-choosing shows ("Love it or Leave it", etc) on HGTV or the like? Those 'decision moments' are all BS, because the couples in the show have all already bought one of the houses before they ever go on the show. Half of the time, one of the properties they're 'considering' is just a friend's or neighbor's house that agreed to let their house be used on the show. It's 100% baloney. Re: things that grind my gears - this is a HUGE one for me. When airlines cancel a flight because of a "mechanical" issue, but everyone knows they're cancelling it because it's not full enough to be profitable for the airline to fly it. They cancel the flight and call it a "mechanical" because no one will verify it and they don't owe anyone that's inconvenienced anything because that's one of the few things, like "weather", that absolves the airline of any responsibility to their passengers, then re-shuffle everyone onto later flights (sometimes even the next day). Your time, plans, aggravation, etc. are of no concern to them. If I were head of the FAA, I would force airlines to reimburse passengers 150% of ticket price every time they cancel a flight unless it's weather that I - as FAA head - declare to be too dangerous to fly. Any cancellations for 'mechanicals' would be subject to passenger reimbursement, unless an independent body verifies the nature of the mechanical malfunction. The pendulum in air travel has swung so far in favor of the airlines, it's ridiculous. I can think of literally no other industry (other than tech, I guess) where companies treat their customers so poorly with no recompense or avenue for justice whatsoever. De-regulate the airline space. I mean, REALLY de-regulate it - not this oligopoly that we have now that is called 'deregulation'. If the airlines were really de-regulated in this country, I should be able to take an Emirates Air flight from NY to LA, or an Etihad flight from SF to Chicago. But I can't. I'm stuck with the worst domestic air carriers in the free world.

Man, airline crap gets my blood pressure soaring. I had a crappy trip out to Philadelphia this summer to try to deal with some things that I didn't want to get in the middle of. Had to buy a one-way flight out because I didn't know if I was going to be a couple days or a couple months. Flight out was fine. Once I figured out that I could leave after a day, I wanted to drive home so I could decompress from a REALLY stressful visit. It was a 12-hour drive but I don't mind that at all. And especially not when the alternative is dealing with airlines. But my wife told me to fly instead and, for some reason, I listened.

So I get to the airport 2 hours early (as the airlines suggest) and, after about 10 minutes at the gate, they announce a gate change. No big deal...plenty of time. Then I'm at the new gate and things are looking like a delay is in the works judging from the staff's faces. Sure enough, they delay it 20 minutes and say that it's because the crew isn't there yet. Connecting in Charlotte and had a 90-minute layover so I figure I'm ok. The 20 minutes go by and it turns to about 45 and they start boarding. I'm getting a little nervous but figure I'll still have time to hurry to my next flight. Then we sit on the runway for another 30 minutes and I realize this is going to be way too close. So I stop a flight attendant while we're still on the ground, explain that I have a connection to catch, and ask if they will hold that flight since I've been on the waiting end of a flight like that. He says "no" and keeps walking. Comes back later and shows me where the next flight will leave from adding that I will have to hurry but that they aren't too far apart. We finally land about 20 minutes before my next flight is scheduled to take off and I literally run all the way to the next gate where the plane is still sitting and I have my boarding pass in hand. I got there 8 minutes before takeoff but I'm told that they've already closed the gate. According to the re-scheduled boarding pass I had to get, company policy is to close the gate 10 minutes before departure so I literally was 2 minutes late. They send me around the corner to get re-booked and it's a huge line and I barely made it through before I would have been stranded there for the night.

So I get that I was late based on company policy but here's my beef:
- It was the same airline for both flights so they should know that I was checked in and where I was en route.
- The first flight was late because THEIR crew wasn't on-time.
- I was literally on the ground and running there when the second gate was closed.
- I've had flights held for other passengers in the past where I waited 15 minutes or more.
- Not once did anyone at the company apologize.

In the end, I know that I don't fly nearly enough to be considered a VIP and that's clearly the only set of passengers the airlines care about. Holding the gate for 2 minutes (for a passenger that had already landed, no less) could have made a world of difference in my experience. Or better yet, the flight attendant could have contacted someone to make the request on my behalf.

To a bigger point, I'm convinced that the FAA is in the pockets of these airlines anyway so your suggestions, while great for consumers, would never see the light of day.

[dsallupinyaarea]

People don't realize just how cheap air travel is these days. I flew to Portland, OR this year from Raleigh. For $300, they pinged me 3000 miles across the country in 4.5 hours. It's really remarkable when you think about it. For that price point, you sacrifice convenience. Studies after studies have shown that the only thing people *actually* care about when traveling is the cost.


What's the first thing you do when you're booking a flight?
Click the "sort by price" button.




The improvements people want (better seats, looser flight change policies, more convenient connections, more properly staffed crews) would come with ticket increases. You don't want that.
Is the service irritating at times? Yes. But air travel is more accessible to "regular" folks than it's ever been and that's the deal we made to make it happen.


P.S. - While they won't do anything for weather (act of God), I've always been accommodated for mechanical and/or staffing cancellations. I do fly 60-70x a year so I have some level of status but nothing close to VIP.


P.S.S. - I've never heard of a flight being cancelled because of a lack of seats sold. I've flown on planes with 10 people on them. It's more important for them to get that aircraft to where it needs to be so they can keep the schedule humming because the schedule is tight because.......... you want cheap tickets.

[ProfessaPackMan]

How you gonna say you fly 60-70 times a year but don’t have VIP status? You probably have some of the Pilots and Flight Attendants Numbers on speed dial LOL.

Don’t be trying to go all humble on us now, bruh, lol

[dsallupinyaarea]

Quote: Originally Posted by ProfessaPackMan

How you gonna say you fly 60-70 times a year but don’t have VIP status? You probably have some of the Pilots and Flight Attendants Numbers on speed dial LOL. Don’t be trying to go all humble on us now, bruh, lol

LOL! nah man, you have to basically live on an airplane to get high tier status on major carriers. The top tier with American is 120 flights a year and 12 grand in ticket revenue.