And once the decision is made, you’ve got to change the stationery, signage, business cards and other related marketing materials; redo the Web site; and so on.
An ATA official, asked why the name change, told us: “We think Airlines for America sounds like the perfect name for such an important industry that literally connects the U.S. to the global economy.”
The new name is kinda catchy — if fatuous. And the group says it’s A4A for short, presumably so as not to be AFA, which stands for the Association of Flight Attendants, the dreaded union that represents about 60,000 airline workers.
One wag suggested the name Airlines for Themselves (A4T), given the alacrity with which the airlines pocketed some $400 million — rather than reduce fares — this summer when a federal ticket tax expired for a couple of weeks.
All the majors but Alaska Airlines continued to collect the 7.5 percent tax and a ticket fee. (There was some halfhearted chat in Congress about recouping that windfall, but naturally that went nowhere.)
Apparently this move — the new name was registered Sept. 28 — had been held close pending a big rollout Wednesday night on the Hill.
Whatever the name, many members, as we noted this summer, will still try to charge for blankets, bags and legroom and stick it to active-duty service members trying to rebook their flights.
Barney’s Greatest Hits
Politicians are most often solicitous, and their responses to even the most outrageous affronts are typically, well, politic. Not so with Barney Frank. The Massachusetts Democrat, who
announced
this week that
he will retire
after more than 30 years in the House, has a tongue that’s more acid than silver.
Our last conversation — a brief one at that — was many years ago when Frank called even though we’d written nothing about him. He said he was just calling to say, “I hate your column.” Well, he’s not alone.
On the other hand, we’ll miss his quips and pithy, sometimes withering comments (some of which his erstwhile campaign compiled at www.barney2012.
com/quotes). Here are just a few of our favorites:
●“On what planet do you spend most of your time? Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to have an argument with a dining room table — I have no interest in doing it.”
— During a town hall meeting about health-care reform in 2009, Frank handled a woman’s question about President Obama’s “Nazi” politics in typical form.
●“The problem with the war in Iraq is not so much the intelligence as the stupidity.”
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