As you know, I was at Media Day for US Airways yesterday, but when I read this article from Reuters, I began to wonder if I was in the wrong place. I didn’t hear anything that could lead to the headline stating “US Airways CEO see airline industry heading down.”

Oh sure, they got the quotes right, for the most part. But they were taken completely out of context.

Did Doug say, “Our industry is in a mess, if you haven’t noticed”? Yeah, well I remember him saying “Our industry is a mess” but that’s close enough. But what wasn’t cited here was that Doug was talking about the industry from a general perspective, not at this current moment. And it had nothing to do with the economy. And as we know, this industry IS a mess and always has been.

Did Doug say, “We’re about to head into what looks like another downturn”? Yep. But he was referring to the economy, not the airline. Doug went on to confirm that the airline hadn’t seen any weakness so far, despite the economic indicators that are out there.

Wow, just a brutally twisted report. It’s going to take me some time to get my full post on this together, but I should have it for Monday. Until then, why don’t you keep yourselves entertained with this giant rat.

This rat was outside airline headquarters yesterday as part of a protest involving US Airways labor groups. Next time the unions ask for a raise in the face of $100 oil, I think US Airways can just say the rat took all the money. I hear he works for ExxonMobil.

When I first put up the link to Cranky Gear online, I figured I wouldn’t sell too much of it. Turns out, at least some people are interested. I started asking people to send in pictures wearing their Cranky gear, and sure enough, they have. I’m going to have to create a page of Cranky Gear around the world, or something like that. So, if you purchased Cranky Gear, take pictures and send them in!

As you can see below, we’ve even got some kids in on the act already.

Then a friend sent some pictures of himself posing down the mountain from Christ the Redeemer in Rio.

His wife was not to be left out. Here she is in front of Leblon beach with Ipanema in the distance.

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to US Airways Media Day, so there’s a good chance I won’t post again until Monday. I’ll be back with all kinds of fun US Airways info later on.

You might be surprised to know that it’s not just airlines that can get the Cranky Jackass award. Today, I have the pleasure of awarding it to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the girls who say that being so hot got them banned from Southwest for life.

Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, it is. But this irresponsible piece of journalism from a Tampa news station proves that it must have been a slow news day when it happened. The girls claim that they were harassed from the moment they got on board, and at the end of the flight they were met by law enforcement and banned for life from flying Southwest. Why? Because they’re “decent looking.” Don’t believe me? Watch the video yourself, complete with camera panning head-to-toe in order to give you a good look.

Now, last time Southwest had a sex scandal, they ignored it and it blew up to epic proportions. The girl with the short skirt, Kyla Whats-Her-Face, even got herself invited to a Richard Branson party for Virgin America. When they finally did respond, it was a day late and a dollar short. The damage had been done. So you knew Southwest wouldn’t make that mistake again, and it was exactly their response this time that even made me consider writing about this event.

First, they put out a press release with all the facts from the point of view of the crew members involved as well as uninvolved passengers on the flight. Also, I received a quick response from Southwest spokesperson Paula Berg when I asked for more details. She immediately pointed me to an updated story from the same person who filed the original report. This one presented Southwest’s side of the story.

As you might imagine, they have a very different interpretation of events, and one that I find to be far more believable. They say the girls (or at least one of them) got angry that someone was in the bathroom so long. They pounded on the door, and when asked to stop acting that way, they refused. When the person came out, words were exchanged, at the very least. Once they landed, they took them off the plane and canceled the return on their tickets, giving them a refund for that fare. Oh, and Paula added, “the two ladies are not ‘banned’ from ever traveling on Southwest in the future.” Sounds a lot more plausible to me.

But what’s really interesting here is that they fought the YouTube video with a response video of their own from spokesperson Brandy King.

She may very well be a good spokesperson behind the camera, but she didn’t come off very well in front of it. The content was fine, but she fumbled and stumbled her way through the minute-long video. I still like the proactive effort, but really, the entire time I was watching this video, I kept thinking two things.

1. Nice strategic placement in front of the picture that says “A beautiful way to fly.” Hah.
2. If Southwest decided to ban pretty people from flying, Brandy King wouldn’t be able to fly her own airline

Despite the fumbling in the video, I think this was handled pretty well by Southwest. It’s nice to see them learn from their past mistakes. A look at the 900+ comments on that news story shows that most people side with the airline on this one (but definitely not all). My favorite comment? “I didn’t know Paris and Nicole were still friends?!!”

Looks like US Airways has decided to match United’s effort to charge $25 to check a second bag. Raise your hand if you’re surprised. Hey you . . . yeah, the guy over there in Sheboygan . . . put your hand down. Nobody should be surprised by this.

If you buy your ticket from today forward and travel after May 5, you’ll pay $25 for that second bag. There are some important differences between the United policy and the US Airways policy, so definitely take note.

US Airways will not exempt refundable fares. Any fare pays. Oh, and this applies to the entire US Airways system and not just domestic flying like under United’s policy. First Class passengers and Elite frequent flier members will be exempt, of course, and so will active military personnel, unaccompanied minors, and “those checking assistive devices.” I assume that means a wheelchair or something else “assistive.”

I’m not quite sure why unaccompanied minors don’t have to pay, but the rest of the exemptions make sense. We all knew this was inevitable, especially for an airline like US Airways. The good news? Um. I don’t think there is any good news for travelers here. I’m sure the PR spin is that this will help keep base fares lower in the face of rising fuel costs, or something along those lines. Ultimately it’s just another way to extract money in the face of $100 oil.

The good news for me is that I get to head over to US Airways Media Day on Thursday, so I’m looking forward to hearing more about what they’re working on.

Looks like Ryanair’s upgrade went well, and the site even came back up a day early. When I read through the page describing the benefits of the upgrade, one thing stood out.

You can now check-in for your flight online up to 5 days in advance of travel. If both your flights happen to be within 5 days, you can check in for both of them. Interesting.

It used to be that if you had checked in for a flight with most airlines, you were somewhere in the airport. Gate agents could be pretty sure that if they showed a certain number of people checked-in, they could expect them to show up, unless they were on a delayed connecting flight. Even then, it was easy for the agents to predict how things would go. That was really helpful on oversold flights.

But then people started having the ability to check in from home. All of a sudden, people could show up as checked-in, but they could have been stuck in traffic or had a last minute change of plans so there was a better chance they wouldn’t show up. It made it harder to predict how full an aircraft would be.

Now, you can check yourself in 5 days prior to your flight. Imagine all the things could happen in that time? Yet now, people will check in 5 days in advance on Ryanair, because it’s still first come, first serve seating. So, even if you think your plans might change, you’re not going to take a chance that you get stuck with a late boarding number. So they can expect even less certainty.

This makes me think. What’s the point of having you check in at all?