The Bicycle City. Trailer from Greg Sucharew on Vimeo.

What happens to an impoverished developing nation town when you flood it with 20,000 bicycles? You lift three times that number of people out of poverty. Pedals for Progress and founder David Schweidenback have been shipping used American bicycles to Rivas, Nicaragua for the last two decades and the transformation has been incredible.

Help Fund Our Film:
http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Bicycle-City-Film

http://thebicyclecityfilm.com/

Not that I’ve been looking, but I’ve never seen this before.

I was recently affected by the ash plume from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano over the North Atlantic in my bid to travel to the UK. Unsure of the procedure to reschedule my flight due to an act of God, I sent to VIrgin Atlantic an email asking how to go about rescheduling. That was on 20 April 2010 18:20. I ended up flying on 27 April. My response? Today 11 May. 12 days later. What’s interesting is that they updated the subject line of the email with the word ‘crucial’. Here’s the email:

From: customer.services@fly.virgin.com
Date: May 11, 2010 10:14:37 AM EDT
To: josh@xxxx.xxx
Subject: RE: FW: Flight reschedule – cruical

Dear Joshua

Thank you for your email, I apologise for the delayed response.

I am sorry that we were not able to respond to your email before travel commenced. I do hope you enjoyed your flight with Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Thank you for contacting Virgin Atlantic.

Kind Regards

Manu Pillai
Contact Centre Customer Service Team

TRACKING NUMBER: A00001344433-00004618903

—–Original Message—–

From: Joshua Kitlas
Sent: 20 April 2010 18:20
To: Customer Relations UK
Subject: Flight reschedule

On Tuesday, April 20, 2010 I was scheduled to fly Virgin Atlantic # 18 – Departure (EWR): April 20, 8:00 AM EDT (morning)/Arrival (LHR): April 20, 8:00 PM BST (evening).

Obviously due to the ash that didn’t  happen.

What is the procedure to reschedule my flight?

Sincerely,

Joshua Kitlas
josh@xxxxx.xxx
+1 347-xxx-xxxx

http://kitlas.com/

***********************************************************************************
Visit the Virgin Atlantic website for all the latest news and fantastic offers – http://www.virginatlantic.com. This email (and any attachments) may contain privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient please do not disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate or take any action in reliance on it. If you have received this message in error please reply and tell us and then delete all copies on your system. Any opinion on, or advice or information contained in this email is not necessarily that of Virgin Atlantic or its owners or officers. Virgin Atlantic shall have no liability (including in negligence) for any loss or damage that may arise in relation to this email (or any attachments to it) including viruses.
Virgin Atlantic reserves the right to retain and monitor all email communications. Nothing in this email shall be deemed as forming or constituting a binding contract with, or representation on behalf of, Virgin Atlantic, its representatives, its clients or any member of the Virgin Group, unless expressly specified otherwise in writing.

Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited. Registered office: Company Secretariat, The Office, Manor Royal, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9NU. Registered in England, company number: 1600117

Funny stuff from NYTimes.com Some believe that China should embrace the fanciful melding of English and Chinese as the hallmark of a dynamic, living language. more…

Finally got some pictures up from my vacation. Awesome time.

16:23 minutes + 35:37 minutes + too many minutes & counting = I’m so bored waiting on hold with Virgin Atlantic while trying to reschedule my flight that I start transcribing their hold message (I got most of it though not all)…

Hello gorgeous. We’re so glad you called. You are welcome to chat with us here but did you know you can also take care of your travel details  on our website? virginatlantic.com Visitors online can make registrations. You can also check-in online from 24 hours up to 2 hours before your flight, from home or the office.

And don’t forget to sign up for Flyer’s Club to receive exclusive offers and updates from Virgin Atlantic.

Looking for extra space and comfort when you fly? Try our newly designed Premium economy cabin. The of the seats give you plenty of room to relax and stretch out in.

Besides the extra space, you can take advantage of the dedicated check-in and boarding lines. In-seat powers and lots of other touches. Which add up to a lot more.

Book a flight now and experience Premium Economy for yourself. You’ll get a lot more for a little bit more than an economy ticket.

Virgin Atlantic is committed to becoming the most sustainable airline in the world. Each day we’re taking measurable actions both large and small to accomplish this goal.

At virginatlantic.com/offset. Further adding to our effort, we have introduced sustainable products on board, such as fair-trade coffee. Looking to the future, with our partnership with Boeing, we are testing biofuels in commercial jets. And adding Boeing Dreamliners

visit virginatlantic.com/sustainability

There’s no need to fight over the remote when you fly economy. Each personal seat-back entertainment system offers over 40 audio and video channels featuring first run movies, television programs and video games.

While watching your movie marathon, treat yourself to ice cream during showtime or even a complimentary cocktail. If you need to get a bit of shuteye, our nifty amenity kits supply you with

With room to relax or play,  a decidedly front of the place experience.