Ughhh, I wish Tuscaloosa had an airport

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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<p>Yes, indeed! Furthermore, as we learned, an expired child’s passport does not constitute proof of U.S. citizenship. My son had to produce an official, embossed birth certificate and two forms of photo id, as well as make a personal appearance in Atlanta. He feared that since he was born in Hawaii and had only the short form birth certificate (FedExed from the islands), he’d be accused of being a Kenyan, but, much to his relief, he received the benefit of the doubt from the good folks in Georgia. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Roll Tide and never let your passport expire.</p>

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<p>*short form birth certificate *</p>

<p>Ugh…the short form. That’s the default one in Calif…not accepted at the US Post Office when applied for kids’ passports. Had to get an expedited long form sent. Ugh…what a pain.</p>

<p>I can’t tell you how many friends/family have discovered on very short notice that their children’s passports have expired…because of that pre-16 deal. ugh. It’s not like you get anything in the mail warning you. :(</p>

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<p>:):):slight_smile: Thanks y’all. </p>

<p>Just pulled out DS passport (? to self, when did he go on his BSA World Jamboree trip?) Yep, expires this March, he’s still home, new post for “To Do” before he leaves.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, side note, he only comes home for Christmas, Spring and Summer. This T-giving his frat did their own dinner, I got feeling they were excited to prove they could do it on their own. He prepared meatball appetizers, a hit. He’s now in charge of them for family gatherings.</p>

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<p>melanai: thought you would enjoy the below given your son’s story…he apparently is not alone…
[Samuels</a> misses game with passport issues](<a href=“http://www.foxsportsohio.com/01/05/12/Samuels-misses-Toronto-game-with-passpor/msn_landing.html?blockID=640178&feedID=3725]Samuels”>http://www.foxsportsohio.com/01/05/12/Samuels-misses-Toronto-game-with-passpor/msn_landing.html?blockID=640178&feedID=3725)</p>

<p>I have to confess… I had a tinge of sadness earlier today when noting NJBama had started this original thread…would love to be hearing his comments on all the BCS games and thoughts about the 9th!</p>

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<p>^^^Love it! Thanks.</p>

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<p>Does anyone have any experience flying Delta? Delta actually has a direct flight between Detroit and Birmingham which would be great.</p>

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<p>We’ve taken that Delta flight from Detroit to Birmingham once…it’s a very nice, quick flight. We have to drive to Detroit from Mid Michigan so next time we are going to try flying Saginaw to Det to BHM.</p>

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<p>We actually live on the west side of Cleveland, so the Detroit airport is 2.5 hours from us. It might be worth it though to drive to Detroit when there is a short break at Thanksgiving and I don’t want to have to worry about D making connecting flights. My sister lives in Toledo so she could even take D to the airport for us after holidays.</p>

<p>I know many of you have said that your student didn’t come home at fall break and/or Thanksgiving, but I want my D to have the option. She knows no other life than being with her family on holidays. I know that might change, but it’s not on her radar yet. She is not a football fan, so I don’t see her staying on campus for a game. </p>

<p>I wonder if there is a way to check reliability of Delta flights?</p>

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<p>trvlbug, I got a tip from our missing northern expert (via facebook) Bama 24 LSU 13!</p>

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<p>Where DID NJBama go??</p>

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<p>If I had to venture a guess…the “northern expert” is currently alive and well in NOLA experiencing their dixieland hospitality and using his witty personality to make friends with the LSU fans!!! Ha Ha!!!</p>

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<p>aphimommy you’re close! He’s headed to NOLA in about 9 hours!</p>

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<p>God help NOLA…they won’t know what hit them!!!</p>

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<p>Roll Tide!</p>

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<p>linnylu: My son has flown Delay-ta. That’s his name for the airlines. Last year, it messed up his flight so much so that they had to give him a voucher for a free flight – not sure he’ll ever use it. He prefers Southwest.</p>

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<p>Momreads, do you remember if it was a direct flight or one with connections? Delta is the only airline around here with a direct flight to Birmingham. But I guess a direct flight wouldn’t be that convenient if they keep delaying it.</p>

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<p>I think Expedia indicates if a flight often has delays…in some kind of %.</p>

<p>I fly either Delta or AA, and don’t have problems with either. I’m flying Delta to Calif next week. I actually prefer Delta because I fly to Atlanta, and then take one long flight to Calif…which usually means a bigger plane, individual movies screens, inflight internet, and other benefits. The AA flight changes in Dallas, so with 2 rather equal shorter flights, no movies or anything.</p>

<p>Perhaps a certain route may be known for having delays?</p>

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<p>I fly Delta for many of my flights and things have gone very well. Especially when going to/from the west coast, Delta has a lot more flight options than Southwest. Delta and the other legacy carriers also have a lot more options in the event of flight delays. I fly enough to have elite benefits on Alaska, Delta, and American, so I get free checked bags and am able to skip a lot of lines.</p>

<p>Many students fly Southwest, but it hasn’t worked for my schedule as I usually fly overnight to Alabama and Southwest doesn’t fly overnight.</p>

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<p>I would like to know what’s the deal with the T-town airport. I realize that it doesn’t do commercial scheduled flights. </p>

<p>Did the team take a bus to B’ham and then fly to NOLA? What about all the other Bama teams that fly around the country? Do they all bus to B’ham?</p>

<p>But, you’d think that T-town and the school could provide enought business for some small operation to offer a small flight to B-ham, Mobile, HSV, Memphis, Montgomery, and/or other nearby airports…(I’m thinking like the old Wings TV show that had that small operation taking people from Nantucket to Boston, NYC, etc…lol) </p>

<p>I know scheduled flights from T-town were tried several years ago, but Bama has grown so much since then and the activity in T-town is also much different…so many more national chains have set up shop. There is just so much more activity now with OOS people/teams coming to T-town. The earlier attempt may have just been 10 years too early. That happens. </p>

<p>and, now T-town has the Outdoor Amphitheater, so groups are coming to perform. And the Mercedes plant, the whole Midtown Village, new Federal Courthouse, and other expansion must be causing more people to have to come in to T-town right? </p>

<p>Since I’ve been coming to T-town (first came in either 2005 or 2006), the traffic between B’ham and T-town has significantly increased. Certainly not as bad as Calif freeways…lol…but has gone from very light traffic to moderate traffic. Certainly, a number have flown into B’ham and are driving to T’town. Right?</p>

<p>Heck, even Bama has its own plane (not for team use, but for Dr. Witt, Nick Saban, and other people…it’s not set up for lots of occupants…it’s a corporate-style jet…you know how those are inside…lol. I’m thinking that one must fly out of T-town’s airport, right??? Or, am I wrong?</p>

<p>You would think someone (maybe a youngish retired military pilot) could have some kind of small business that could fly 4-10 passengers to various places throughout the week/weekend. the state is filled with military retirees…you’d think some have planes and pilot licenses. </p>

<p>Gee, I wish my cousin (pilot for FedEx) wanted to retire and do something like this. lol He’s an angel with a very smart business sense. </p>

<p>As I’m writing this…lol…I just realized that I know someone else who might want to invest in something like this. Not a military retiree, but a wealthy retired YOUNG business owner with at least 2 planes…only one does the family use regularly. Sold business a few years ago for 100M. Likes to do stuff like this. Very education/school oriented and has soon-to-be colleged age kids. She directed all the fundraising for my kids’ new beautiful campus for their Catholic high school…and gave $1M herself…of course, her kids go there, too. VERY down to earth person…even tho VERY RICH…she started from scratch with just an Accounting degree from a regular ole school, but started an aerospace sub-contracting company that did very well. Yes, she’s a woman! :slight_smile: </p>

<p>I need to have a little chat with her after I return from Calif (leaving for Calif tomorrow and will be there til Feb…closing lose ends from my Mom’s estate and putting her home on the market…ugh…that’s been “home” since I was 8!! :frowning: ) </p>

<p>Anyway…got to do some thinking about this. T-town airport needs scheduled flights to B’ham. Do helicopters fly out of T-town airport? Can they fly into B’ham?</p>

<p>Edited to add:</p>

<p>*Tuscaloosa Regional Airport (IATA: TCL, ICAO: KTCL, FAA LID: TCL) is a city-owned public-use airport located three nautical miles (3.5 mi, 5.6 km) northwest of the central business district of Tuscaloosa, a city in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, United States.[1] It is included in the FAA’s National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility.[2]</p>

<p>The airport had 2,200 commercial passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2009.[3]** The majority of this traffic was athletic charters from the University of Alabama.***
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscaloosa_Regional_Airport[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuscaloosa_Regional_Airport&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It looks like it has a landing strip for a decent sized plane, but I’m not a good judge of those things…lol</p>

<p>OK…so the Crimson Tide teams do use the T-town airport. That means that there are planes there that will seat a decent number of people. Got to look into this more.</p>

<p>*Attempts to restore commercial serviceDuring the 2000s (decade), the city of Tuscaloosa and the airport attempted to lure commercial service back to the airport. **Between 2002 and 2006, the airport received $2.2 million in federal, state, and local money to improve its facilities, including $400,000 from the FAA as part of a program to help restore commercial airline service to smaller cities. The city matched the grant with $100,000 of local funding. In 2006, the city authorized paying $8500 to a consulting firm to court airlines in an effort to revive commercial service to the airport. **City and airport officials stated their belief that the area was in a different economic picture with the Mercedes-Benz plant located in the city (the only one in North America) and new developments in and around the campus of the University of Alabama, including an expansion to Bryant-Denny Stadium.[16][17]</p>

<p>DayJet announced per seat VLJ service on two pilot planes nonstop to 14 hubs in 3 states in July 2008 from Tuscaloosa.** However, DayJet discontinued all passenger service operations on September 19, 2008 **citing their inability to raise financing needed for continued operations.[18]</p>

<p>Jet charters continue to periodically operate at Tuscaloosa, but sustained commercial air service has eluded Tuscaloosa Regional as of April 2011.</p>

<p>*</p>

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<p>You go M2CK! </p>

<p>With the growth of the university, more service might be financially justifiable.</p>

<p>Just booked s’s trip home in March…up $30 from when I looked last week.</p>