It’s a rare Wednesday post here on Cranky, but there has been some big news around these parts that I wanted to share. The first piece of news is that Cranky Flier was just named the Blog of the Year for 2010 by Flightglobal in its annual Webbies. I was told an official badge was on its way, but alas, it hasn’t arrived in my inbox. So I used my famously terrible Photoshop skills to create my own monstrosity.
Nice, huh? Thanks to Flightglobal and the judges, Mary Kirby (aka Runway Girl) and Addison Schonland (IAG) for picking Cranky. And congrats to pilot site MzeroA and friend o’ the blog, Airline Reporter for joining me on the pedestal.
The other big piece of news is that this week marked my first column for CNN.com. I’ll be writing the weekly “Out of the Office” column for business travelers until they decide they don’t like me anymore. For my first topic, I picked a particularly controversial one:
Why airline fees are good for travelers
So far, there are more than 300 comments, many of them calling me an idiot, moron, or of course, shill for the airlines. And they say civil discourse is dead . . . . Hopefully as the column matures, so will the commenters and we can get some good, substantial discussion over there. Come on by every Monday at cnn.com/travel to join in.
I’ll be back tomorrow with a regular Thursday post. Thanks to all of you for helping make Cranky what it is today.
23 comments on “A Big Week for Cranky: Flightglobal Webbies and CNN.com”
congrats cranky! well deserved recognition.
Congrats…you work hard at producing this free blog, and it is nice to see you get the recognition you deserve.
Congrats on the Webby.
I thought you made some great points in the CNN.com article. I thought that most of the commenters got stuck on the airline fees are here to stay part of the article and totally missed the part where you say that travellers hate them as they are currently implemented and the next step is to have a pricing structure in place where such ancillary products can be added during the ticketing process.
Yeah, the point was that a la carte pricing is a good way to set things up. Does that mean that the airlines have done everything right along the way? Hardly. And does that even mean it’s where it needs to be now? Nope. But I agree – people just got stuck on the fee thing and stopped reading.
CF, Congrats from the Nuts About Southwest Team.
Brian
LONG LIVE CRANKY!
Congrats, Cranky!! A well-deserved recognition for the fine work you do!!
Congratulations! Keep making us think!
JM
Thumbs up – from frigid Denver.
james..
I tried to give a thumbs up, but my thumbs froze while waiting on the 16th Street Shuttle. Can’t wait for our warm weekend!
Congrats Cranky. Keep up the good work and I loved the CNN article. Well done and presented. Sadly critical thinking and civilized rhetoric has long been on life support.
It’s a unique blog. Yes, you’re cranky, but you educate, inform, have opinions, and your negativity comes across as constructive (most of the time). Your love for this industry comes across in your in-depth reporting and you for the most part you stay away from the “story of the week” you see on so many airline sites.
GREAT JOB (no, I’m not yelling, I’m emphasizing your good work)
Congrats.
A “Cranky” Congratulations to you and all your hard work putting out this entertaining and educational blog!
Looking forward to many more editions!
-Denver Dan
Really impressive! You know that my job has nothing to do with the airlines and yet I love your blog. I read it almost every day and am constantly surprised how many random people are also big fans!
Cranky, Congrats!
I started to read the comments on your CNN article, and I thought some of them were reasonable, but most of the people can’t get beyond the fact that there were fees involved.. Alas, they’re also the ones who want the airlines to pay them to fly…
Cranky,
Congratulations, and well deserved!
MJ
Thank you, everyone, for chiming in today.
Congratulations! Keep up the good work!
Congrats Cranky!
LOL… Congrats on the award & the 300+ comments! That means you have arrived into the must-read blogworld!
I know I’m a day late, but congrats! Very well deserved.
Congratulations on a great site. I enjoy reading it on a daily basis. As former Excec Plat on AA, Gold for Life now retired, it’s a pleasure to keep abreast of the travel market. I still do over 25K miles per year visiting grandchildre.
Hey Cranky, congrats on the award and the new gig. I suspect you’ve already looked at the comments that CNN stories typically attract, but if not, here’s an example:
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/11/3-teenage-boys-face-death-in-malaysia-piracy-case/?hpt=T2
Basically, don’t expect the quality of comments you receive here (even including me… hehe). Basically (and sadly) it’s not even worth reading them, IMO. Doesn’t mean there aren’t intelligent/interested readers over on CNN.com, but they probably never show up in the comments section.