Oh man. The Brazilian Federal Police have really earned the Cranky Jackass award this time. In fact, I think you could make the argument for renaming the award in their honor at this point.

Remember, the accident where the Embraer Legacy corporate jet collided with the Gol 737 causing the Gol aircraft to crash? Well, the Brazilians have now decided to charge the pilots of the Legacy with “endangering air safety” according to this Reuters article. This could result in up to 12 years in prison.

Now, had the pilots rammed the Legacy into a skyscraper in downtown Sao Paulo, then I would support a criminal investigation (though they’d probably be dead anyway). But this was an accident and should be handled just as all accidents are handled, through an accident investigation process.

Let’s not forgot that the latest information in this case (see my last post) points away from the pilots being at fault. Unless the Brazilians know something that they aren’t telling anyone, it would amaze me if the pilots could be proven to be criminally negligent right now. This just seems like a good excuse for the Brazilian authorities to place the blame away from their crumbling air traffic control infrastructure (or lack thereof).

It is despicable that before any investigation is complete and any cause has been determined, these pilots have been charged. I truly hope that the US gets more involved in this incident, because the American citizen pilots deserve far better treatment. The Brazilians deserve a lot worse than the Cranky Jackass award here.

The marketing minds at JetBlue must not understand the whole college rivalry thing, because their latest promotion is definitely not the brightest idea around.

JetBlue’s brilliant idea was to go to college campuses and make students wear blue and yell “Go Blue” to win free plane tickets. Sounds like a good way to stir up PR, no? Well, not if your arch-rival’s colors are blue and it’s only a couple weeks to the big game.

Problem #1: This article in the Harvard Crimson talks about how everyone thought the promotion was a prank by the Yale students. On November 18, Harvard plays Yale in one of football’s oldest rivalries. Yale’s colors are blue. You think Harvard students want to run around wearing blue and screaming “Go Blue”?

Problem #2: They’re apparently also going to visit Stanford’s campus this week. Um, same problem. Rival Cal’s colors are blue and the Big Game is less than a month away.

Problem #3: I really hope they don’t go to one of their newest destinations, Columbus, Ohio. In case you’re not a football fan, Ohio St is ranked #1 and their arch-nemesis Michigan is ranked #2. They play each other in a mere 9 days, and if an Ohio St fan walks around in blue yelling “Go Blue,” Michigan’s colors, JetBlue might be on the hook for manslaughter charges.

I could go on and on – You’ll find the same problem going to USC’s campus as well. (UCLA is blue) – but there’s really no point. This is just not going to garner good will for the airline at many a college campus, and for that, they get the Cranky Jackass award.

Oh United, why do you do this to yourself?

It turns out that effective today, United is severely limiting access to seats in Economy Plus.

For those who don’t know, Economy Plus is exactly the same as Economy Minus on United except that it has more legroom and a couple other very minor differences. It’s like having a whole cabin of exit rows so you can stretch out, and that’s a nice bonus to have.

In the past, Economy Plus seating was available to a whole host of different people including: