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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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Gig apps trap reverse centaurs in Skinner boxes

Enshittification is the process by which digital platforms devour themselves: first they dangle goodies in front of end users. Once users are locked in, the goodies are taken away and dangled before business customers who supply goods to the users. Once those business customers are stuck on the platform, the goodies are clawed away and showered on the platform’s shareholders:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Enshittification isn’t just another way of saying “fraud” or “price gouging” or “wage theft.” Enshittification is intrinsically digital, because moving all those goodies around requires the flexibility that only comes with a digital businesses. Jeff Bezos, grocer, can’t rapidly change the price of eggs at Whole Foods without an army of kids with pricing guns on roller-skates. Jeff Bezos, grocer, can change the price of eggs on Amazon Fresh just by twiddling a knob on the service’s back-end.

Twiddling is the key to enshittification: rapidly adjusting prices, conditions and offers. As with any shell game, the quickness of the hand deceives the eye. Tech monopolists aren’t smarter than the Gilded Age sociopaths who monopolized rail or coal — they use the same tricks as those monsters of history, but they do them faster and with computers:

https://doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9690cce6

If Rockefeller wanted to crush a freight company, he couldn’t just click a mouse and lay down a pipeline that ran on the same route, and then click another mouse to make it go away when he was done. When Bezos wants to bankrupt Diapers.com — a company that refused to sell itself to Amazon — he just moved a slider so that diapers on Amazon were being sold below cost. Amazon lost $100m over three months, diapers.com went bankrupt, and every investor learned that competing with Amazon was a losing bet:

https://slate.com/technology/2013/10/amazon-book-how-jeff-bezos-went-thermonuclear-on-diapers-com.html

That’s the power of twiddling — but twiddling cuts both ways. The same flexibility that digital businesses enjoy is hypothetically available to workers and users. The airlines pioneered twiddling ticket prices, and that naturally gave rise to countertwiddling, in the form of comparison shopping sites that scraped the airlines’ sites to predict when tickets would be cheapest:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/27/knob-jockeys/#bros-be-twiddlin

The airlines — like all abusive businesses — refused to tolerate this. They were allowed to touch their knobs as much as they wanted — indeed, they couldn’t stop touching those knobs — but when we tried to twiddle back, that was “felony contempt of business model,” and the airlines sued:

https://www.cnbc.com/2014/12/30/airline-sues-man-for-founding-a-cheap-flights-website.html

And sued:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/business/southwest-airlines-lawsuit-prices.html

Platforms don’t just hate it when end-users twiddle back — if anything they are even more aggressive when their business-users dare to twiddle. Take Para, an app that Doordash drivers used to get a peek at the wages offered for jobs before they accepted them — something that Doordash hid from its workers. Doordash ruthlessly attacked Para, saying that by letting drivers know how much they’d earn before they did the work, Para was violating the law:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/tech-rights-are-workers-rights-doordash-edition

Which law? Well, take your pick. The modern meaning of “IP” is “any law that lets me use the law to control my competitors, competition or customers.” Platforms use a mix of anticircumvention law, patent, copyright, contract, cybersecurity and other legal systems to weave together a thicket of rules that allow them to shut down rivals for their Felony Contempt of Business Model:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Enshittification relies on unlimited twiddling (by platforms), and a general prohibition on countertwiddling (by platform users). Enshittification is a form of fishing, in which bait is dangled before different groups of users and then nimbly withdrawn when they lunge for it. Twiddling puts the suppleness into the enshittifier’s fishing-rod, and a ban on countertwiddling weighs down platform users so they’re always a bit too slow to catch the bait.

Nowhere do we see twiddling’s impact more than in the “gig economy,” where workers are misclassified as independent contractors and put to work for an app that scripts their every move to the finest degree. When an app is your boss, you work for an employer who docks your pay for violating rules that you aren’t allowed to know — and where your attempts to learn those rules are constantly frustrated by the endless back-end twiddling that changes the rules faster than you can learn them.

As with every question of technology, the issue isn’t twiddling per se — it’s who does the twiddling and who gets twiddled. A worker armed with digital tools can play gig work employers off each other and force them to bid up the price of their labor; they can form co-ops with other workers that auto-refuse jobs that don’t pay enough, and use digital tools to organize to shift power from bosses to workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/02/not-what-it-does/#who-it-does-it-to

Take “reverse centaurs.” In AI research, a “centaur” is a human assisted by a machine that does more than either could do on their own. For example, a chess master and a chess program can play a better game together than either could play separately. A reverse centaur is a machine assisted by a human, where the machine is in charge and the human is a meat-puppet.

Think of Amazon warehouse workers wearing haptic location-aware wristbands that buzz at them continuously dictating where their hands must be; or Amazon drivers whose eye-movements are continuously tracked in order to penalize drivers who look in the “wrong” direction:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/17/reverse-centaur/#reverse-centaur

The difference between a centaur and a reverse centaur is the difference between a machine that makes your life better and a machine that makes your life worse so that your boss gets richer. Reverse centaurism is the 21st Century’s answer to Taylorism, the pseudoscience that saw white-coated “experts” subject workers to humiliating choreography down to the smallest movement of your fingertip:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/great-taylors-ghost/#solidarity-or-bust

While reverse centaurism was born in warehouses and other company-owned facilities, gig work let it make the leap into workers’ homes and cars. The 21st century has seen a return to the cottage industry — a form of production that once saw workers labor far from their bosses and thus beyond their control — but shriven of the autonomy and dignity that working from home once afforded:

https://doctorow.medium.com/gig-work-is-the-opposite-of-steampunk-463e2730ef0d

The rise and rise of bossware — which allows for remote surveillance of workers in their homes and cars — has turned “work from home” into “live at work.” Reverse centaurs can now be chickenized — a term from labor economics that describes how poultry farmers, who sell their birds to one of three vast poultry processors who have divided up the country like the Pope dividing up the “New World,” are uniquely exploited:

https://onezero.medium.com/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs-b2e8d5cda826

A chickenized reverse centaur has it rough: they must pay for the machines they use to make money for their bosses, they must obey the orders of the app that controls their work, and they are denied any of the protections that a traditional worker might enjoy, even as they are prohibited from deploying digital self-help measures that let them twiddle back to bargain for a better wage.

All of this sets the stage for a phenomenon called algorithmic wage discrimination, in which two workers doing the same job under the same conditions will see radically different payouts for that work. These payouts are continuously tweaked in the background by an algorithm that tries to predict the minimum sum a worker will accept to remain available without payment, to ensure sufficient workers to pick up jobs as they arise.

This phenomenon — and proposed policy and labor solutions to it — is expertly analyzed in “On Algorithmic Wage Discrimination,” a superb paper by UC Law San Franciscos Veena Dubal:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4331080

Dubal uses empirical data and enthnographic accounts from Uber drivers and other gig workers to explain how endless, self-directed twiddling allows gig companies pay workers less and pay themselves more. As @[email protected] explains in his LA Times article on Dubal’s research, the goal of the payment algorithm is to guess how often a given driver needs to receive fair compensation in order to keep them driving when the payments are unfair:

https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-04-11/algorithmic-wage-discrimination

The algorithm combines nonconsensual dossiers compiled on individual drivers with population-scale data to seek an equilibrium between keeping drivers waiting, unpaid, for a job; and how much a driver needs to be paid for an individual job, in order to keep that driver from clocking out and doing something else. @ Here’s how that works. Sergio Avedian, a writer for The Rideshare Guy, ran an experiment with two brothers who both drove for Uber; one drove a Tesla and drove intermittently, the other brother rented a hybrid sedan and drove frequently. Sitting side-by-side with the brothers, Avedian showed how the brother with the Tesla was offered more for every trip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UADTiL3S67I

Uber wants to lure intermittent drivers into becoming frequent drivers. Uber doesn’t pay for an oversupply of drivers, because it only pays drivers when they have a passenger in the car. Having drivers on call — but idle — is a way for Uber to shift the cost of maintaining a capacity cushion to its workers.

What’s more, what Uber charges customers is not based on how much it pays its workers. As Uber’s head of product explained: Uber uses “machine-learning techniques to estimate how much groups of customers are willing to shell out for a ride. Uber calculates riders’ propensity for paying a higher price for a particular route at a certain time of day. For instance, someone traveling from a wealthy neighborhood to another tony spot might be asked to pay more than another person heading to a poorer part of town, even if demand, traffic and distance are the same.”

https://qz.com/990131/uber-is-practicing-price-discrimination-economists-say-that-might-not-be-a-bad-thing/

Uber has historically described its business a pure supply-and-demand matching system, where a rush of demand for rides triggers surge pricing, which lures out drivers, which takes care of the demand. That’s not how it works today, and it’s unclear if it ever worked that way. Today, a driver who consults the rider version of the Uber app before accepting a job — to compare how much the rider is paying to how much they stand to earn — is booted off the app and denied further journeys.

Surging, instead, has become just another way to twiddle drivers. One of Dubal’s subjects, Derrick, describes how Uber uses fake surges to lure drivers to airports: “You go to the airport, once the lot get kind of full, then the surge go away.” Other drivers describe how they use groupchats to call out fake surges: “I’m in the Marina. It’s dead. Fake surge.”

That’s pure twiddling. Twiddling turns gamification into gamblification, where your labor buys you a spin on a roulette wheel in a rigged casino. As a driver called Melissa, who had doubled down on her availability to earn a $100 bonus awarded for clocking a certain number of rides, told Dubal, “When you get close to the bonus, the rides start trickling in more slowly…. And it makes sense. It’s really the type of shit that they can do when it’s okay to have a surplus labor force that is just sitting there that they don’t have to pay for.”

Wherever you find reverse-centaurs, you get this kind of gamblification, where the rules are twiddled continuously to make sure that the house always wins. As a contract driver Amazon reverse centaur told Lauren Gurley for Motherboard, “Amazon uses these cameras allegedly to make sure they have a safer driving workforce, but they’re actually using them not to pay delivery companies”:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/88npjv/amazons-ai-cameras-are-punishing-drivers-for-mistakes-they-didnt-make

Algorithmic wage discrimination is the robot overlord of our nightmares: its job is to relentlessly quest for vulnerabilities and exploit them. Drivers divide themselves into “ants” (drivers who take every job) and “pickers” (drivers who cherry-pick high-paying jobs). The algorithm’s job is ensuring that pickers get the plum assignments, not the ants, in the hopes of converting those pickers to app-dependent ants.

In my work on enshittification, I call this the “giant teddy bear” gambit. At every county fair, you’ll always spot some poor jerk carrying around a giant teddy-bear they “won” on the midway. But they didn’t win it — not by getting three balls in the peach-basket. Rather, the carny running the rigged game either chose not to operate the “scissor” that kicks balls out of the basket. Or, if the game is “honest” (that is, merely impossible to win, rather than gimmicked), the operator will make a too-good-to-refuse offer: “Get one ball in and I’ll give you this keychain. Win two keychains and I’ll let you trade them for this giant teddy bear.”

Carnies aren’t in the business of giving away giant teddy bears — rather, the gambit is an investment. Giving a mark a giant teddy bear to carry around the midway all day acts as a convincer, luring other marks to try to land three balls in the basket and win their own teddy bear.

In the same way, platforms like Uber distribute giant teddy bears to pickers, as a way of keeping the ants scurrying from job to job, and as a way of convincing the pickers to give up whatever work allows them to discriminate among Uber’s offers and hold out for the plum deals, whereupon then can be transmogrified into ants themselves.

Dubal describes the experience of Adil, a Syrian refugee who drives for Uber in the Bay Area. His colleagues are pickers, and showed him screenshots of how much they earned. Determined to get a share of that money, Adil became a model ant, driving two hours to San Francisco, driving three days straight, napping in his car, spending only one day per week with his family. The algorithm noticed that Adil needed the work, so it paid him less.

Adil responded the way the system predicted he would, by driving even more: “My friends they make it, so I keep going, maybe I can figure it out. It’s unsecure, and I don’t know how people they do it. I don’t know how I am doing it, but I have to. I mean, I don’t find another option. In a minute, if I find something else, oh man, I will be out immediately. I am a very patient person, that’s why I can continue.”

Another driver, Diego, told Dubal about how the winners of the giant teddy bears fell into the trap of thinking that they were “good at the app”: “Any time there’s some big shot getting high pay outs, they always shame everyone else and say you don’t know how to use the app. I think there’s secret PR campaigns going on that gives targeted payouts to select workers, and they just think it’s all them.”

That’s the power of twiddling: by hoarding all the flexibility offered by digital tools, the management at platforms can become centaurs, able to string along thousands of workers, while the workers are reverse-centaurs, puppeteered by the apps.

As the example of Adil shows, the algorithm doesn’t need to be very sophisticated in order to figure out which workers it can underpay. The system automates the kind of racial and gender discrimination that is formally illegal, but which is masked by the smokescreen of digitization. An employer who systematically paid women less than men, or Black people less than white people, would be liable to criminal and civil sanctions. But if an algorithm simply notices that people who have fewer job prospects drive more and will thus accept lower wages, that’s just “optimization,” not racism or sexism.

This is the key to understanding the AI hype bubble: when ghouls from multinational banks predict 13 trillion dollar markets for “AI,” what they mean is that digital tools will speed up the twiddling and other wage-suppression techniques to transfer $13T in value from workers and consumers to shareholders.

The American business lobby is relentlessly focused on the goal of reducing wages. That’s the force behind “free trade,” “right to work,” and other codewords for “paying workers less,” including “gig work.” Tech workers long saw themselves as above this fray, immune to labor exploitation because they worked for a noble profession that took care of its own.

But the epidemic of mass tech-worker layoffs, following on the heels of massive stock buybacks, has demonstrated that tech bosses are just like any other boss: willing to pay as little as they can get away with, and no more. Tech bosses are so comfortable with their market dominance and the lock-in of their customers that they are happy to turn out hundreds of thousands of skilled workers, convinced that the twiddling systems they’ve built are the kinds of self-licking ice-cream cones that are so simple even a manager can use them — no morlocks required.

The tech worker layoffs are best understood as an all-out war on tech worker morale, because that morale is the source of tech workers’ confidence and thus their demands for a larger share of the value generated by their labor. The current tech layoff template is very different from previous tech layoffs: today’s layoffs are taking place over a period of months, long after they are announced, and laid off tech worker is likely to be offered a months of paid post-layoff work, rather than severance. This means that tech workplaces are now haunted by the walking dead, workers who have been laid off but need to come into the office for months, even as the threat of layoffs looms over the heads of the workers who remain. As an old friend, recently laid off from Microsoft after decades of service, wrote to me, this is “a new arrow in the quiver of bringing tech workers to heel and ensuring that we’re properly thankful for the jobs we have (had?).”

Dubal is interested in more than analysis, she’s interested in action. She looks at the tactics already deployed by gig workers, who have not taken all this abuse lying down. Workers in the UK and EU organized through Worker Info Exchange and the App Drivers and Couriers Union have used the GDPR (the EU’s privacy law) to demand “algorithmic transparency,” as well as access to their data. In California, drivers hope to use similar provisions in the CCPA (a state privacy law) to do the same.

These efforts have borne fruit. When Cornell economists, led by Louis Hyman, published research (paid for by Uber) claiming that Uber drivers earned an average of $23/hour, it was data from these efforts that revealed the true average Uber driver’s wage was $9.74. Subsequent research in California found that Uber drivers’ wage fell to $6.22/hour after the passage of Prop 22, a worker misclassification law that gig companies spent $225m to pass, only to have the law struck down because of a careless drafting error:

https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2021-08-23/proposition-22-lyft-uber-decision-essential-california

But Dubal is skeptical that data-coops and transparency will achieve transformative change and build real worker power. Knowing how the algorithm works is useful, but it doesn’t mean you can do anything about it, not least because the platform owners can keep touching their knobs, twiddling the payout schedule on their rigged slot-machines.

Data co-ops start from the proposition that “data extraction is an inevitable form of labor for which workers should be remunerated.” It makes on-the-job surveillance acceptable, provided that workers are compensated for the spying. But co-ops aren’t unions, and they don’t have the power to bargain for a fair price for that data, and coops themselves lack the vast resources — “to store, clean, and understand” — data.

Co-ops are also badly situated to understand the true value of the data that is extracted from their members: “Workers cannot know whether the data collected will, at the population level, violate the civil rights of others or amplifies their own social oppression.”

Instead, Dubal wants an outright, nonwaivable prohibition on algorithmic wage discrimination. Just make it illegal. If firms cannot use gambling mechanisms to control worker behavior through variable pay systems, they will have to find ways to maintain flexible workforces while paying their workforce predictable wages under an employment model. If a firm cannot manage wages through digitally-determined variable pay systems, then the firm is less likely to employ algorithmic management.”

In other words, rather than using market mechanisms too constrain platform twiddling, Dubal just wants to make certain kinds of twiddling illegal. This is a growing trend in legal scholarship. For example, the economist Ramsi Woodcock has proposed a ban on surge pricing as a per se violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act:

https://ilr.law.uiowa.edu/print/volume-105-issue-4/the-efficient-queue-and-the-case-against-dynamic-pricing

Similarly, Dubal proposes that algorithmic wage discrimination violates another antitrust law: the Robinson-Patman Act, which “bans sellers from charging competing buyers different prices for the same commodity. Robinson-Patman enforcement was effectively halted under Reagan, kicking off a host of pathologies, like the rise of Walmart:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/27/walmarts-jackals/#cheater-sizes

I really liked Dubal’s legal reasoning and argument, and to it I would add a call to reinvigorate countertwiddling: reforming laws that get in the way of workers who want to reverse-engineer, spoof, and control the apps that currently control them. Adversarial interoperability (AKA competitive compatibility or comcom) is key tool for building worker power in an era of digital Taylorism:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

To see how that works, look to other jursidictions where workers have leapfrogged their European and American cousins, such as Indonesia, where gig workers and toolsmiths collaborate to make a whole suite of “tuyul apps,” which let them override the apps that gig companies expect them to use.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuyul-apps/#gojek

For example, ride-hailing companies won’t assign a train-station pickup to a driver unless they’re circling the station — which is incredibly dangerous during the congested moments after a train arrives. A tuyul app lets a driver park nearby and then spoof their phone’s GPS fix to the ridehailing company so that they appear to be right out front of the station.

In an ideal world, those workers would have a union, and be able to dictate the app’s functionality to their bosses. But workers shouldn’t have to wait for an ideal world: they don’t just need jam tomorrow — they need jam today. Tuyul apps, and apps like Para, which allow workers to extract more money under better working conditions, are a prelude to unionization and employer regulation, not a substitute for it.

Employers will not give workers one iota more power than they have to. Just look at the asymmetry between the regulation of union employees versus union busters. Under US law, employees of a union need to account for every single hour they work, every mile they drive, every location they visit, in public filings. Meanwhile, the union-busting industry — far larger and richer than unions — operate under a cloak of total secrecy, Workers aren’t even told which union busters their employers have hired — let alone get an accounting of how those union busters spend money, or how many of them are working undercover, pretending to be workers in order to sabotage the union.

Twiddling will only get an employer so far. Twiddling — like all “AI” — is based on analyzing the past to predict the future. The heuristics an algorithm creates to lure workers into their cars can’t account for rapid changes in the wider world, which is why companies who relied on “AI” scheduling apps (for example, to prevent their employees from logging enough hours to be entitled to benefits) were caught flatfooted by the Great Resignation.

Workers suddenly found themselves with bargaining power thanks to the departure of millions of workers — a mix of early retirees and workers who were killed or permanently disabled by covid — and they used that shortage to demand a larger share of the fruits of their labor. The outraged howls of the capital class at this development were telling: these companies are operated by the kinds of “capitalists” that MLK once identified, who want “socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.”

https://twitter.com/KaseyKlimes/status/821836823022354432/

There's only 5 days left in the Kickstarter campaign for the audiobook of my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller about Silicon Valley scams called Red Team Blues. Amazon's Audible refuses to carry my audiobooks because they're DRM free, but crowdfunding makes them possible.

Image: Stephen Drake (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Analog_Test_Array_modular_synth_by_sduck409.jpg

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[Image ID: A complex mandala of knobs from a modular synth. In the foreground, limned in a blue electric halo, is a man in a hi-viz vest with the head of a horse. The horse's eyes have been replaced with the sinister red eyes of HAL9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.'"]

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handweavers · 3 months ago

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found a copy of this book at an antiques mall the other day. it's a visitor's guide to aleppo dated 1965, filled with black and white photographs and descriptions of the city and its history. i don't know how many of the places and objects in the photos still exist, nor how many copies of these photos still exist, so i hope to make scans of them

what's also interesting has been researching the american friends of the middle east (AFME), which was a CIA-linked org founded in 1951. my reading has suggested that AFME played a role in the US government establishing its intelligence network in the southwest asia ("the middle east") after ww2

the text, from top to bottom:

soubhi saouaf, technical attache of the antiquities service technical advisor of the archaeological society of aleppo

aleppo, past and present. its history, its citadel, its museum and its antique monuments. 3rd edition

visitors' guide aleppo 1965

english edition by georges f. miller representative in aleppo of the american friends of the middle east

the back page is an advertisement for middle east airlines in arabic

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nientedal · 2 years ago

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@minecraftgender Southwest offers family boarding between groups A and B specifically so younger kids don't get split up from their parents no matter what group they're in! I'm not saying this means they're a paragon of virtue or anything, they're an airline lol. But the first-checked-in first-seated system is not the only thing they've got going on. Shit still happens, but "almost 100% will get split up" is not true. And if families flying together check in as early as possible, they'll almost 100% be able to sit together because they will board first anyway!

I am pointing all the other guns with the rest of y'all, though.

I am pointing a gun at all airlines and demanding an explanation as to why we are forced to board planes in the least efficient way possible (front to back) other than stroking the egos of the like 12 "priority" passengers.

I am also pointing a second gun at all airlines and demanding to know if the priority passengers in the aisle seats actually like to be jostled around by the hundreds of other passengers trying to squeeze by them.

#and if you want a guarantee of sitting together no matter what time you check in #don't.....fly with Southwest? lol #idk i just prefer southwest when i have the chance BECAUSE they don't overbook #and because whenever they have screwed up they have compensated me for their fuckups #i am sure this doesn't always happen #but like. don't attack Southwest when you can fly American Airlines or something and definitely sit together #southwest is the only airline I've found that actually is not actively unpleasant and to work with #and again: they don't overbook their flights. i think that's worth some hassle #the only time I've seen them have to shuffle passengers around it was because a smaller plane showed up than expected #and there weren't enough seats because the plane the flight had been booked for was bigger #flying

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threepatchpodcast · 2 months ago

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Hello Threepatch! Long time listener here with a question about 221b con 2025: Have the dates been announced yet? I only recently found out it'll be the last one, and seeing as I've never gone before I would love to go, but costs and travelling from the opposite end of the globe aside, my main obstacle might be the dates and if I can schedule around university.

Thanks! Can't wait to possibly see you there next year!

Hi there nonny! Caroline here answering, and thank you for the ask! @221bcon 2025 is indeed on the books and the hotel block is open -- the dates are April 13-15, 2025.

You can buy a membership and book your room at the con rate on the con's website at 221bcon.com. Membership costs do get a little more expensive as you get closer to con, so better jump on that sooner rather than later. (Unless, @221bcon, you have any plans for a membership sale between now and April?)

But the biggest way to defray costs would be get at least one roommate for your stay. For airfare, Atlanta is relatively cheap to fly to domestically (look into Southwest airlines, which don't always show up on all multi-search sites), but if you're traveling from abroad and flying directly into Atlanta, that might not be the case. Also, food might be pricey depending on your budget, so buddying up with anyone for things like grocery runs, splitting a door dash or delivery order, that kind of thing, can also potentially save you from doing $15-25 meals in the hotel restaurant. And if our TPP con suite is anything like previous years, we'll have some type of food at some point, so definitely come by and say hello, grab freebies and things, all that jazz. We'd love to see you!

2025's con was announced this year to be the last con in planning, but there's a possibility, as announced at the Last Bow panel, that it might not be if the stars truly align in terms of finances, energy, and attendance. There hasn't been any further updates, as far as I'm aware, beyond that, so don't quote me; there's basically nothing to quote. Plenty of us are operating on the assumption that it really is the last hurrah for this fantastic con, and lots of people are mourning that, planning to attend 2025's, and hoping it either continues or has something else the fandom can attend in its place. Either way, I hope you and others are able to make it and have the wonderful time that we do each year.

#221bcon #221b con #221b con 2025 #three patch podcast #threepatchpodcast

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whumped-by-glitter · 8 months ago

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I saw this post about crazy museum stories, and I see lots of retail stories, but I don’t see a lot of airport stories….

So here are some of my craziest stories from working at an airport.

Airport behind the scenes:

• The random passenger who told me to get off the carousel (I was fixing it) then absolutely couldn’t believe I was a female and a mechanic. Then he proceeded to insinuate my military rank before getting out meant I messed up (AF just ranks slower, we had a bit of a bottleneck problem when I was in). He then suggested my supervisor didn’t know how to do his job well and could “just take us all under his wing”. All of this before asking for a job…..

• The passenger who insisted I check him in for his flight that left 2 hrs ago, when I was fixing the ticket counter conveyor belt, all the lights were off and I was literally black up to my elbows in grease….

• The woman who rode up and down the glass elevator in ticketing, lifting her skirt repeatedly, until the sheriffs had to come get her. Bonus points: it was only around noon, and no she wasn’t flying anywhere.

• The woman who got demanded she get on a plane at 11 pm, when flights are no longer going out, with no ID or money, to a city that was literally a 45 min drive away, with no airport. She proceeded to stop pick up traffic with an airport use wheelchair.

• A man who went through an armed door to the ramp, took all of his clothes of and sat there (that one made news).

• A woman who decided to take off all of her clothes and run around the main part of the airport. A sheriff and 2 cleaners had to catch her, she ran through the parking structure at 1am, in January in the northern Midwest.

• The absolutely insane contract manager that almost got sued by Southwest Airlines for wearing disguises and hiding to catch their ticket counter agents putting begs on the belt wrong (they weren’t, also wearing 2 hats and a fake mustache is not inconspicuous sir) that was the talk of the airport for quite a while��

• The gate agent that somehow messed up the jetbridge so bad I had to take every single limit sensor apart so I could override it. When he called it in all I was told was “the wheel locked up and I kept moving it, and I made an ooopsies.”

• The coworker that would insist on wanting to empty the lavs (which is easier than loading bags) but would mess it up at least once every other week and spill on himself, then just look horrified but not move….

• A woman rode an unattended baggage belt, luckily she was read as an oversize bag and sent directly to TSA, she literally could have been killed. She scared the daylights out of some TSA agents though. Could you imagine- you expect a golf club bag or something and get a person popping out?

• The lady who was really scared to fly, got really drunk, and fell down an up escalator. It was Christmas and luckily the gate agents were able to book her on a new flight the next day for free. But when asked if she had someone to pick her up, she called her husband, in Texas… (this is an airport near Chicago) she literally didn’t even know what airport she was at. A sheriff took her to a hotel to let her sleep it off, and to my knowledge she made it out safe the next morning.

I found a cat stuck in a wall, well actually she climbed through the wall and became trapped in a plumbing closet. She is really lucky some Southwest agents heard her crying and called us (they figured since we worked on conveyors and had tons of tools, we might be able to help. We called airport ops to open the closet door, and there she was. I still have her to this day, her name is Delta, and she is a very weird cat, I blame it on the fumes 🤣

All of this and more, and I work at a relatively small airport, and I was only there 5 years, and primarily worked 3rd shift as a mechanic.

@karmaisntab

#crazy airport tales #Airport workers #things i got to be a fly on the wall for #Airport stories

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laceandsilkhandkerchiefs · 2 years ago

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The Tutor (Snzfic, Original Characters)

I was trapped in an airport for about six hours this weekend (curse you, Southwest Airlines) and for some reason that was just the kick I needed to crank out... 18th century snzfic?

Huh.

Well, regardless, here is the result of my boredom. Eleanor Seton is the poorer cousin of a wealthy noble English family, and has lived with them since her parents passed away when she was a teenager. Christopher Annesley (known as "Kit" to his friends) is a graduate of Edinburgh University who aspires to be a lawyer but can't afford the school fees, and so is employed as a tutor for Eleanor's younger cousins. I do love this pair and I'd like to do more with them (possibly a part two?) so if you have any ideas for what I could write next with them please let me know!

England, 1770

Eleanor's face glowed in the dim firelight as she sat in the parlor, the only sound disturbing the silence of the evening being the rustle of pages turning as she read a novel. It was late, past 9 o'clock, and almost everyone in Ashwood House had gone to bed. This was perhaps her favorite time of day, as she could unwind and recharge in complete solitude, without the Dowager Marchioness lurking around every corner making snide comments or the children running after her and smearing jam and other sticky substances on her skirts.

Lost in her own thoughts, Eleanor was startled when the door opened and her cousin's tutor, Mr. Christopher Annesley, entered the room. He appeared surprised to see her as well, and stopped in his tracks.

"Miss Seton! My apologies, I didn't intend to disturb you. I thought everyone had already retired for the night."

"Everyone except for the both of us, it seems. But please, do not worry." Eleanor waved away his concerns. "You haven't disturbed me in the slightest."

Mr. Annesley gave her a small smile at that, nodding as he cast his gaze around the room. "I only came looking for one of my books. I seem to have misplaced it, though I can't recall where."

Eleanor followed his eyes, and spotted a stack of books on a low table across from the sofa. "Perhaps it is among those?"

Mr. Annesley crossed to the table, sorting through the volumes quickly. As he did so, Eleanor noticed he was sniffling softly every few moments, and there was a pink blush to the tip of his nose which could not be explained by the warmth emanating from the fireplace, seeing as he had only just entered the room. Something in her chest tightened sympathetically- the poor man appeared to be coming down with a cold.

"Ah, here it is!" Mr. Annesley held up a thin, leatherbound volume triumphantly, then suddenly sniffed (much more sharply this time) and began patting down his waistcoat, likely searching for a handkerchief.

"Here, Mr. Annesley, are you in need of this?" Eleanor asked, offering him one of her own handkerchiefs from her pocket. He looked more than a little sheepish, but accepted it gratefully.

"Yes, thank you. My apologies, once again," he said, turning away from her as he steepled it about his nose and gave it a soft blow.

"It is no trouble at all, truly. Though I hope you are not unwell?"

"A slight cold, I fear, but nothing more." He gave his nose one last wipe, then straightened up looking relieved.

Eleanor hummed sympathetically. "It is a dismal time of year to be unwell, what with this cold weather."

"It is only a mild annoyance, truly." Mr. Annesley folded the handkerchief in half neatly and awkwardly held it. "I should like to return this to you, but I fear that in such a condition..."

"Keep it," Eleanor cut him off with a smile and a shake of her head. "It is not my only handkerchief, and you may yet have need of it."

He once again returned her smile, gratefully, and tucked the cloth away in the pocket of his waistcoat. "Thank you, Miss Seton. You are very kind."

Breakfast at Ashwood House was usually a quiet affair.

The Marchioness, Lady Ashwood, breakfasted in her room every day, and all of the children (with the exception of Lord Edmund, who was away at Oxford, and Lady Charlotte, who was deemed old enough to eat in the dining room) ate in the nursery. The Marquess, Lord Ashwood, and Mr. Annesley were usually Eleanor's only breakfastime companions other than Charlotte, and all tended towards silence in the early hours.

The next morning, however, soon became an obvious exception. While Mr. Annesley's cold had indeed been relatively mild when he had gone to bed the previous evening, he woke up with his nose dripping more than ever despite being completely blocked and a nagging itch in it to boot. He tried to alleviate his symptoms by blowing his nose before leaving his room, but to no avail. Thus, he was forced to spend the entirety of breakfast sniffling damply and resisting the urge to sneeze.

"Are you quite well, Mr. Annesley?" Charlotte asked after he had forced back what must have been his tenth sneeze that morning (still using Eleanor's handkerchief, as he had forgotten to remove it from his pocket the previous night).

"A s-slight cold, milady, nothing more. My apologies for the disturbance." He winced as the words came out sounding garbled and nasal, and sniffled yet again in an attempt to rectify the situation (with little success).

"Not at all." Charlotte shook her head, her eyes wide with earnestness and concern. "I only meant to say... perhaps you would be more comfortable in bed today."

Whether it was her phrasing, or the fact that it was hardly a secret that the girl had something of a crush on Mr. Annesley, an awkward silence immediately descended over the table. It was broken only when Lord Ashwood, who had been concentrating on his meal with a wholly uninterested air, looked up.

"Leave the man alone, Charlotte. Have you not finished breakfast yet?"

She looked down at her plate, her cheeks having flushed pink. "I have, Papa. Please excuse me."

After Charlotte had all but fled from the room, the silence was practically impenetrable. Eleanor, who had been deliberately avoiding looking at Mr. Annesley up until now, chanced a glance at him. He was neatly dressed as always, with his hair pulled back and tied at the nape of his neck. However, the dark shadows under his eyes and the redness of his nose betrayed the fact that his cold had indeed gotten worse. Charlotte had been correct- he looked as though he should be in bed.

"Well, I must attend to some business matters this morning. Please excuse me, Annesley. Eleanor." Lord Ashwood stood, flashing the pair a smile, and then was gone from the room.

Eleanor knew this was her only chance to say something. "I see you are still making use of my handkerchief."

Mr. Annesley blinked at her, appearing slightly startled. "Yes, I, ah, seem to have misplaced my own."

"Then I am glad I could be of some small assistance to you in your time of need," Eleanor replied, allowing a smile to cross her face.

Mr. Annesley let out a breathy chuckle, though this seemed to be a mistake in his condition as his face almost immediately crumpled and he was forced to duck to the side with a wet sneeze, barely muffled by the handkerchief.

"God bless you, Mr. Annesley!" Eleanor exclaimed.

"Th-hhh... hih-tzshew! Ah-schew!" He was interrupted by two more powerful sneezes, each directed into the rapidly dampening handkerchief. "Snf... my apologies once again, Miss Seton. Those took me quite by surprise."

"No apology is necessary, Mr. Annesley, truly. Though it sounds as though Lady Charlotte was correct. You ought to be in bed."

He looked at the handkerchief sheepishly, and may have blushed a little at Eleanor's remark, though it was difficult for her to tell as they were already flushed pink from the sneezing (and a possible fever). "It sounds much worse than it is, I assure you. And I would not wish to leave my pupils unattended, as I believe education to be of the utmost importance regardless of one's own feelings." He punctuated this statement by wiping at his nose, though the effect was slightly ruined by the fact that it had clearly lost most of its effectiveness.

Eleanor considered him for a moment, then reached into her pocket and pulled out another handkerchief. She held it out across the table to him, smiling softly.

"Will you at least take this then, sir?"

Mr. Annesley hesitated for a moment, then accepted it with a grateful smile. "My deepest thanks, Miss Seton."

#snzfic #my snzfic #my writing #colds and illnesses #snz ocs #historical snz

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alphagodith · 1 year ago

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tips for flying about the usa

what to wear

comfy shoes you can take off and put back on easily/quickly, such as flip flops or velcro shoes/zipper boots. if going somewhere requiring a different kind of shoe, you'll need to decide whether you want to get through security faster, or have more room in your suitcase.

light jacket with large, secure(can close/things won't fall out easily) pockets for storing phone, wallet, and any other especially important items, so you can simply remove the entire jacket without having to empty pockets during screening, and don't risk losing said items if a bag needs checked or is otherwise lost.

comfy pants that don't require a belt(which would need to be removed for screening), such as sweatpants, and if they have pockets, don't use them so you don't have to empty them for security.

a face mask is recommended due to the high volume and density of both airports and planes, as well as the higher risk of illness from foreign bugs you may be newly exposed to and thus have no natural immunity for. just be aware you will probably be asked to remove the mask briefly during the initial security check to compare your face to your id.

choosing tickets

from my personal experience, southwest airlines suck (the layover they gave us wound up too short and our next plane left before we could even disembark the first one, and they did not reimburse us for the hotel we had to get while waiting for the next available flight), and united is good.

also just from my personal experience, la quinta inns are just nastier, shoddily put together versions of the nicer holiday express inns. (like they had the same exact showers but the ones at la quinta were put together wrong so the shower curtain couldn't close at all and stuff like that)

try to book tickets several months in advance, and use private browsing/clear your cache often, to get lower prices

early morning flights are best as they are less crowded, the staff are nicer, and you are less likely to be tempted to try to squeeze in more activities before departing, thus risking missing your flight entirely

plan to get to the airport no less than 2 hours early in case of traffic, issues getting through security, or other unforeseen delays

if possible, try to avoid any layovers that are less than 1 1/2 hours long, as they often result in either rushing or just straight up missing your next flight. if you can afford it, it may be worth manually booking individual flights, or just staying overnight somewhere rather than risking a tight layover.

try to only fly 2 hours or less per day if possible so that you can feasibly drive the distance in a day instead in case you miss a flight.

luggage

pack light. wear clothes multiple times and only bring what you are HIGHLY likely to need. do not bring extra entertainment items. your destination and/or phone apps should be plenty.

if you must pack an extra pair of shoes, maximize space efficiency by putting small clothing items like socks and underwear into plastic bags and then into the extra shoes.

miniature bottles of toothpaste and meds should be stored in clear plastic bags but likely won't need to be removed from suitcase during security check. you may want to pack them so they are easily accessible just in case though.

electronics larger than a phone may or may not need to be pulled out so pack them in a way that makes them quick to pull out and put back.

no knives. ever. some airports allow small ones but some don't, so you may get them through initially and then not be able to take them back home.

don't bring neck pillows, there's typically not enough room to use them on the plane anyway.

try to leave some room in your main suitcase/carry-on if you can, and bring an additional purse or other smaller bag even if you don't need it, so you can fit potential souvenirs.

verify that all tags on luggage have up-to-date address and phone number, and make sure bag isn't too easy for others to mistake as theirs. (if you like plain black suitcases like i do, cover it in ribbons or keychains to make it easy to identify at a distance. i've had someone mistakenly take my bag and then turn it into security when they realized it wasn't theirs before)

other general tips

don't eat less than an hour before any flight, as you may become ill due to turbulence/gas fuel smell and the enclosed space of an airplane is pretty much the WORST place to be sick.

if you have time before a flight, go to the restroom even if you don't currently feel a need to. you REALLY don't want to have to go on the plane.

don't be afraid to ask to swap seats if your ticket doesn't get you where you want to be. people are generally nice about it, especially within the same row. (just be prepared to accept a no- they payed for that seat and aren't obligated to give it to you)

if you drive yourself to the airport, make note of exactly where you parked. the spots are usually numbered and lettered.

#airplane travel #flying #airlines #flight tips #travel tips #based on the 6 (supposed to be 8 but we missed one and they were all layovers) flights my husband and i took for our redwood vacation #important life tips

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acommonloon · 1 year ago

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A last few thoughts on our trip to California.

Southwest Airlines provided flawless service for our four flights. After reading many accounts of poor behavior, mostly by fliers but also airline personnel, I was pleased to witness nothing but courteous service by staff and kind behavior by fellow passengers. The flight attendants were especially welcoming and in good humor. All flights were on time and I got exit row seats for every leg...lol.

California dreaming is something I totally get, even after being there for only a week. To my surprise, D wasn't as enamored with it as I was. It was serendipitous we and Hurricane Hillary coincided there as the temps we experienced in SoCal were cooler than normal. For us, it brought one evening of steady rain and...said lower temps. I found Rancho Cucamonga (delightfully cooky name) to be lovely.

We had a day at Venice Beach, also lovely. There we witnessed more illegal drug use in a few hours than we'd normally see in a year. Still, there was nothing menacing about it. The human condition in the best of settings I suppose. I had the muscles at the Ale House there and they were not good. Lol the bread was fantastic though and the broth was tasty. An hour later I was drinking at the famous Firestone Walker Brewery and everything was fine.

After, we experienced an hour and a half of the storied LA traffic to get to Macleod Ale Brewing in Highland Park. With 4 cask conditioned ales on it was OUTSTANDING! I yearn for it now.

Throughout I was constantly in wonder at the sublime flora of SoCal. The trees and flowers were strange and precisely exquisite. Most everyone I encountered was friendly...except the woman overseeing the self-checkout at Ralph's. Truely she was New York nasty! Lol

The food?...was fine. Our trip wasn't aimed to be a foodie endeavor. I twice had interesting Mexican food but nothing remarkable. Had a good tri-tip sandwich heaped with tender slices of steak, chilli relleno, tacos del buche, regretable mussels, and sundry other tacos. One tasty burger and perfect onion rings at the side of a picturesque river but we never got to In-N-Out or any other fast food restaurant.

I found amazing sour beer and drank a bunch of West Coast IPA's. Oddly, I drank the east coast's most famous IPA, "Heady Topper" for the first time as well. Before traveling to California, I was talking to a bartender in Louisville, who was from the west coast, and she said west coast IPAs tasted different on the west coast. I asked why she thought that might be and she said it was likely the water. I drank at least 10 different west coast IPAs on my visit and I think they tasted like they taste everywhere else -anyway.

The night before Sequoia, we rented a home at the town of Three Rivers (Rosie called it our mountain house) near the southern entry to Sequoia National Park and TBH I think the views and surroundings there were my favorite of the whole trip. I wish we'd booked more time there.

The best constant of our trip was our granddaughter. She is very bright, funny, and more than a little head strong. I'm glad she is experiencing SoCal and can't wait until she's back here.

#socal

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longwindedbore · 7 months ago

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Today in Boeing 737 Safety Issues

My Thoughts:

1. Bring back enforcement of anti-trust laws still on the books and break up the USA’s airplane manufacturing ‘too-big-to-fail’ duopoly.

2. Indict the current/ex- Boeing Execs and Directors for flagrant violations of safety regulations.

3. Indict the Boeing Executives responsible for the self-crashing software that killed 300 crew and passengers and any involved on the attempted coverup.

4. Have the Federal government investigate the ‘Suicide’ and ‘Mysterious Virus Death’ of the Boeing Whistle blowers.

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nimuetheseawitch · 1 year ago

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getting to know you tag

Thanks for the tag @colonelshepparrrrd!

Relationship Status: Living with my partner for many years

Favorite Color: Green!

Favorite Food: So many. I joke that my favorite food is butter because everything is better with butter, but if I have to seriously pick something, I'm going to go for pie.

Song Stuck in My Head: All My Friends by The Revivalists

Last thing you Googled: Southwest airlines (I have a flight soon)

Time: 5:58 PM

Dream Trip: One where I don't have to fly but get to do cool things, so probably one of those luxury train adventures.

Last Thing You Read: Been rereading whizzy's black helicopters fic series

Last Book You Enjoyed Reading: Last book I finished was Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells, and I very much enjoyed it.

Favorite Thing to Cook/Bake: Pie.

Favorite Craft to do in Your Free Time: knitting

Most Niche Dislike: pineapple. Everyone seems to like pineapple, but I hate it.

Opinion on Circuses: never been. I really know nothing about them, but stiltwalkers are cool.

Do You Have Any Sense of Direction: Generally, yes. Last time I went on vacation with friends, I was the one reading the maps and figuring out how to walk to places. But driving sometimes can be a lot harder (one way streets!)

#tag game

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marmolita · 1 year ago

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are we just cursed in December or??? details behind the cut, cw for cancer, death (don't worry me and my husband and kids are fine)

So last December we went to visit my family for the holidays as usual and it was kind of a total nightmare. Mr Lita was having panic attacks because we found that chipmunks had excavated a city under our porch and destabilized it and he was afraid of rodents getting into our house, my sister had COVID, and Southwest airlines totally fucked up so that we had to book a different flight home days later than we intended. It was altogether a miserable month.

This year, my mom's coming out here and everything was looking good! Mr Lita was doing fine, nothing's wrong with the house, etc.

Except, we just found out his dad has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. This was literally a couple days ago so we don't have much info yet but his parents had a friend pass from pancreatic cancer recently and it was only six weeks from her diagnosis to passing. He's already trying to sort out his financial papers and make funeral plans and he hasn't even had a biopsy yet. I believe he intends to only seek palliative or hospice care, which tbh is very reasonable given the extremely short timeline for most people with pancreatic cancer.

The day after we found that out, my kid who has anxiety and emetophobia had her first major panic attack in months because having a cold with a wet cough freaked her out, and is still not quite back to her normal yet. We haven't told the kids about their grandpa's cancer yet.

My mom's coming out to spend the holidays with us next Friday and I'm like gosh!!! How am I gonna make this a fun holiday season for my kids when their grandpa is dying!!! How am I gonna make sure my anxious kid doesn't start having panic attacks about whether she herself might have cancer!!! I don't know if he's going to die in two weeks or a month or six months and I don't know how to plan fun things for my kids with the knowledge that we may have to cancel at any moment if things go south even faster than they already are.

My sister-in-law is on vacation in New Zealand for this entire month so gosh I hope he at least has a month of time so she can get back to see him. He has a biopsy on Tuesday and his first appointment with the oncologist the day after Christmas which seems interminably far away. I feel completely helpless to help my in-laws or my husband right now and I fucking suck at keeping a brave face because i will cry at a moment's notice.

We're going to have to tell the kids tomorrow I think because my brother-in-law is gonna come down and they'll want to get together and so they'll need to know. I know it's better for my kids if I can be calm and confident talking to them about it but I simply cannot have a conversation about this without bawling.

And I wanted to do all this fun stuff with my kids and my mom for Christmas! And I know that my father in law wants my kids to be happy and having fun and not worrying about him! But how am I supposed to do that!! My sister and her family are coming a couple days after Christmas too and idk whether everything will be fine or whether there will be additional drama there. 😩 What do I do if he takes a turn for the worse very rapidly and doesn't even make it through the month?

I kind of hate how this part of it was easier at least when my dad passed away. He was in ill health for a long time and we knew he probably wouldn't be around more than another year but we didn't have a specific terminal outcome for most of that time so it was easy to not think about it too much. Then when he couldn't do dialysis anymore it was basically a very specific timeline and we knew he would not be around more than two weeks from that point. It was awful and I hated it but at least we knew.

#lita talks about herself

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sixbucks · 2 years ago

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Lemme see all my AARPeeps!

This list is floating around on the social medias. I can’t speak to each of these discounts, but some of them are legit.

Not all these are AARP discounts but are available to anyone over 65, 60, 55, or even 50.

I know there are at least 3 tumblrs who fall into this category, because I am one of them.

Embrace your seniority and go get that discount!

Dunkin Donuts gives free coffee to people over 55 .

If you're paying for a cup every day, you might want to start getting it for FREE.

YOU must ASK for your discount !

RESTAURANTS:

Applebee's: 15% off with Golden Apple Card (60+)

Arby's: 10% off ( 55 +)

Ben & Jerry's: 10% off (60+)

Bennigan's: discount varies by location (60+)

Bob's Big Boy: discount varies by location (60+)

Boston Market: 10% off (65+)

Burger King: 10% off (60+)

Chick-Fil-A: 10% off or free small drink or coffee ( 55+)

Chili's: 10% off ( 55+)

CiCi's Pizza: 10% off (60+)

Denny's: 10% off, 20% off for AARP members ( 55 +)

Dunkin' Donuts: 10% off or free coffee ( 55+)

Einstein's Bagels: 10% off baker's dozen of bagels (60+)

Fuddrucker's: 10% off any senior platter ( 55+)

Gatti's Pizza: 10% off (60+)

Golden Corral: 10% off (60+)

Hardee's: $0.33 beverages everyday (65+)

IHOP: 10% off ( 55+)

Jack in the Box: up to 20% off ( 55+)

KFC: free small drink with any meal ( 55+)

Krispy Kreme: 10% off ( 50+)

Long John Silver's: various discounts at locations ( 55+)

McDonald's: discounts on coffee everyday ( 55+)

Mrs. Fields: 10% off at participating locations (60+)

Shoney's: 10% off

Sonic: 10% off or free beverage (60+)

Steak 'n Shake: 10% off every Monday & Tuesday ( 50+)

Subway: 10% off (60+)

Sweet Tomatoes: 10% off (62+)

Taco Bell : 5% off; free beverages for seniors (65+)

TCBY: 10% off ( 55+)

Tea Room Cafe: 10% off ( 50+)

Village Inn: 10% off (60+)

Waffle House: 10% off every Monday (60+)

Wendy's: 10% off ( 55 +)

Whataburger: 10% off (62+)

White Castle: 10% off (62+) This is for me ... if I ever see one again.

RETAIL & APPAREL :

Banana Republic: 30% off ( 50 +)

Bealls: 20% off first Tuesday of each month ( 50 +)

Belk's: 15% off first Tuesday of every month ( 55 +)

Big Lots: 30% off

Bon-Ton Department Stores: 15% off on senior discount days ( 55 +)

C.J. Banks: 10% off every Wednesday (50+)

Clarks : 10% off (62+)

Dress Barn: 20% off ( 55+)

Goodwill: 10% off one day a week (date varies by location)

Hallmark: 10% off one day a week (date varies by location)

Kmart: 40% off (Wednesdays only) ( 50+)

Kohl's: 15% off (60+)Modell's Sporting Goods: 30% off

Rite Aid: 10% off on Tuesdays & 10% off prescriptions

Ross Stores: 10% off every Tuesday ( 55+)

The Salvation Army Thrift Stores: up to 50% off ( 55+)

Stein Mart: 20% off red dot/clearance items first Monday of every month ( 55 +)

GROCERY :

Albertson's: 10% off first Wednesday of each month ( 55 +)

American Discount Stores: 10% off every Monday ( 50 +)

Compare Foods Supermarket: 10% off every Wednesday (60+)

DeCicco Family Markets: 5% off every Wednesday (60+)

Food Lion: 60% off every Monday (60+)

Fry's Supermarket: free Fry's VIP Club Membership & 10% off every Monday ( 55 +)

Great Valu Food Store: 5% off every Tuesday (60+)

Gristedes Supermarket: 10% off every Tuesday (60+)

Harris Teeter: 5% off every Tuesday (60+)

Hy-Vee: 5% off one day a week (date varies by location)

Kroger: 10% off (date varies by location)

Morton Williams Supermarket: 5% off every Tuesday (60+)

The Plant Shed: 10% off every Tuesday ( 50 +)

Publix: 15% off every Wednesday ( 55 +)

Rogers Marketplace: 5% off every Thursday (60+)

Uncle Guiseppe's Marketplace: 15% off (62+)

TRAVEL :

Airlines:

Alaska Airlines: 50% off (65+)

American Airlines: various discounts for 50% off non-peak periods (Tuesdays - Thursdays) (62+)and up (call before booking for discount)

Continental Airlines: no initiation fee for Continental Presidents Club & special fares for select destinations

Southwest Airlines: various discounts for ages 65 and up (call before booking for discount)

United Airlines: various discounts for ages 65 and up (call before booking for discount)

U.S. Airways: various discounts for ages 65 and up (call before booking for discount)

Rail:

Amtrak: 15% off (62+)

Bus:

Greyhound: 15% off (62+)

Trailways Transportation System: various discounts for ages 50+

Car Rental:

Alamo Car Rental: up to 25% off for AARP members

Avis: up to 25% off for AARP members

Budget Rental Cars: 40% off; up to 50% off for AARP members ( 50+)

Dollar Rent-A-Car: 10% off ( 50+) Enterprise Rent-A-Car: 5% off for AARP members Hertz: up to 25% off for AARP members

National Rent-A-Car: up to 30% off for AARP members

Overnight Accommodations:

Holiday Inn: 20-40% off depending on location (62+)

Best Western: 40% off (55+)

Cambria Suites: 20%-30% off (60+)

Waldorf Astoria - NYC $5,000 off nightly rate for Presidential Suite (55 +)

Clarion Motels: 20%-30% off (60+)

Comfort Inn: 20%-30% off (60+)

Comfort Suites: 20%-30% off (60+)

Econo Lodge: 40% off (60+)

Hampton Inns & Suites: 40% off when booked 72 hours in advance

Hyatt Hotels: 25%-50% off (62+)

InterContinental Hotels Group: various discounts at all hotels (65+)

Mainstay Suites: 10% off with Mature Traveler's Discount (50+); 20%-30% off (60+)

Marriott Hotels: 25% off (62+)

Motel 6: Stay Free Sunday nights (60+)

Myrtle Beach Resort: 30% off ( 55 +)

Quality Inn: 40%-50% off (60+)

Rodeway Inn: 20%-30% off (60+)

Sleep Inn: 40% off (60+)

ACTIVITIES & ENTERTAINMENT ;:

AMC Theaters: up to 30% off ( 55 +)

Bally Total Fitness: $100 off memberships (62+)

Busch Gardens Tampa, FL: $13 off one-day tickets ( 50 +)

Carmike Cinemas: 35% off (65+)

Cinemark/Century Theaters: up to 35% off

Massage Envy - NYC 20% off all "Happy Endings" (62 +)

U.S. National Parks: $10 lifetime pass; 50% off additional services including camping (62+)

Regal Cinemas: 50% off Ripley's Believe it or Not: @ off one-day ticket ( 55 +)

SeaWorld, Orlando , FL : $3 off one-day tickets ( 50 +)

CELL PHONE DISCOUNTS :

AT&T: Special Senior Nation 200 Plan $19.99/month (65+)

Jitterbug: $10/month cell phone service ( 50 +)

Verizon Wireless: Verizon Nationwide 65 Plus Plan $29.99/month (65+).

MISCELLANEOUS:

Great Clips: $8 off hair cuts (60+)

Supercuts: $8 off haircuts (60+)

Remember YOU must ASK for your discount!

#discounts for grown-ups #senior discount #your reward for not dying #aarp #for the olds

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