Yours truly is suffering through the first cold of the season. A fact that was probably not helped by my sitting outside in 40 degree weather late last week watching a high school football game.

But hey, it was Texas high school football. It was worth it.

I had a great time.

I’m just paying for it now. Sniff, sniff. Sneeze. Sneeze.

I would like to thank the PBB subscriber who shall remain nameless who sent me the text message this morning that read simply, “Go Vols.”

Yes, well you can chow down on two day-old dog food too.

Yep. Thanks to the typically inconsistent, but this time successful in the end, playing of LSU’s offense, the UT Vols are no longer in the hunt for any meaningful end of season SEC championship effort. LSU beat Tennessee Saturday night in front of more than 106,000 Big Orange faithful. Now Tennessee’s just playing for style points to see what bowl game it can snare.

A fact at least three Vol players must have been quite aware of Saturday night, as they proceeded to get arrested in Knoxville for drunk and disorderly behavior. “Oh hell, the season’s over, who cares?”

However, on the pro side, it was a great weekend — as the Bless You Boys, aka New Orleans Saints, beat up on Tampa Bay. The Saints are now 6-2 in the NFC South, enough for first place.

Marques Colston — Rookie of the Year. No question.

Okay, enough pigskin pokes.

Leading the airline news today is the fact that the AMFA strike against Northwest Airlines is now officially over. I say “officially” because we all know Northwest was successful in breaking the union over this dispute a long time ago — as the airline continued to fly using mechanics it had hired, and eventually, many of its own mechanics who crossed the union picket lines.

It was announced today that 72% of eligible workers voted to accept the tentative agreement that the airline and the union recently negotiated. The agreement settles the strike legally — something Northwest needed as it proceeds through its bankruptcy process — and it will give some small amount of benefits to those mechanics who remain on strike against the airline. While their old jobs are not part of the deal — mechanics who accept “layoff” status will be able to re-apply to Northwest for a job.

As I have said before — AMFA leadership totally blew this one.

Before I wander off to find the Kleenex box, one last mention. It was announced today that Southwest Airlines won the Business Travel News Annual Airline Survey for 2006.

Now I usually don’t make much of such contests, awards, etc.

But I think this one is a fairly nice grab for the folks at Southwest (LUV:NYSE)as its the first time in the nine-year history of the award that neither Continental (CAL:NYSE) or American (AMR:NYSE)took top honors.

Or as BTN said, “For the first time, a low-cost domestic carrier that does not offer corporate contracts, an international network, a business class cabin or global distribution system participation drew the highest marks in an annual survey of executives responsible for purchasing corporate airline services.”

There was a rather amusing quote from American Airlines’ vice-president Frank Morogiello in the BTN announcement. “I would think managed travel programs would give Southwest the worst ranking: They don’t offer corporate discounts, they don’t run agency programs—they’re totally against a managed travel program. You can’t fail if you don’t have a corporate contract that you have to do a review on, you can’t fail if you don’t have an agency program that you win or lose, and you can’t fail if you don’t offer amenities.”

Ah, is it just me or does Mr. Morogiello sound like he is living in the past? Who needs corporate discounts when your base fares are lower to begin with Frank? Oh, and what amenities does American offer these days? Having recently flown first class on American, I can’t say I was overly impressed by the experience. And I’m still trying to think about what amenities I received, as food was certainly not one of them.

As BTN explained in their release, “However, for buyers responding to this year’s survey, price was king. In response to an open-ended question about the primary way their preferred carriers in the next year could keep their business, respondents overwhelmingly asked for more favorable pricing.”

The release included one excerpt from a participant to make its point, “Southwest has made us feel like they care and value our business, even though we are a small account.”

Let’s look at these reasons. Low price and “they made us feel like they care and value our business.”

Mr. Morogiello, did you write these reasons down? Do we need to explain how this works any further?

Okay, we’re off on a Kleenex hunt.

Talk to you guys later.