Yay! Google Maps is now showing Czech Republic as Czechia!

Can we rename the tag now?

czech-republic -> czechia

although I must say this is causing a lot of butthurt in the Czech community...

Iberia, BA, Air France, KLM… Many European legacy airlines have introduced LCC practices like extra charges for hold luggage or paying for snacks on short-haul flights. If you really need the full service of days past, I think Lufthansa hasn't, so far.

@Relaxed booked a Lufthansa flight yesterday, intra-European flights now charge 15 EUR for luggage

Time for an Europe wide law that all airticket prices need to be published with 'normal level of service' so including one suitcase and a simple meal ;-) It was the 'you have to include the tax' laws that started all this in Europe.

@Willeke That's silly, it's time to give up on the notion of free snacks being "normal". I happily travel without hold luggage or snacks all the time.

@Relaxed, I do not mind no meal for a Amsterdam-London flights but I think the trend of taking away what used to be normal service and add it as an 'pay for' option is not good.

@JonathanReez Is there any other English-language authority that prefers "Czechia" over "Czech Republic"? I doubt it.

With EasyJet it is no such that if you do not pay for chosing a seat you can be sure to be on a middle seat, between other people as almost all their planes are full.

@JonathanReez Perhaps it has to do with the common head of state/head of the commonwealth.

Maybe we should ask the people on Czech Republic what they prefer as the English version of their country name.

I do not want to use the one ending in 'ia' as it seems to me the wrong country.

@Willeke While I suppose the wishes of the Czechs ought to be taken into account, I am reluctant to support the idea of leaving a decision about English usage to a group of people who are overwhelmingly not native speakers of English.

I feel it is to a nation to decide what they will be called world wide, and not to speakers of other languages. I heard from a Czech to call the country Czech Republic, shortly after the split, I will call it that till they tell me different.

@Willeke Well it's one thing if the country's government expresses some desire (it has the power to change the country's name altogether after all); it's another thing to defer to individual people from the country. Those people might not even agree.

I would be interested to know what is behind Google's apparent change (I didn't notice what they were calling the country before I saw @JonathanReez's message).

I am not going on one person, I am willing to go with an official declaration of the country.

Hm, according to the CIA factbook, "the country changed its short-form name to Czechia in 2016."

CIA, the American institution. The same that claim you can learn to speak Dutch (fluent) in six weeks. Not one I trust.

@phoog here's the government's official declaration: mzv.cz/budapest/cz/aktuality/…

I have to admit that looks very official and very much the nation that asks for it.

the full name remains the same: Czech Republic. But the official short name is now Czechia

I do expect to avoid the name of the country where possible till I have gotten used to it.

So we are still allowed to use it?

The long version?

@Willeke sure, just as you can say Den Haag or 's-Gravenhage.

We are allowed of course (and it's not like the Czechs have authority over English), but then we'd have to consider starting a federal-republic-of-germany tag ;)

Thanks.

I do not mind what the tag says, I am concerned about offending the locals by doing it wrong.

Personally, not the site.

definitely don't say it to the locals :)

@JonathanReez why not?

there's been a huge wave of polite disgruntle after Google Maps made it "official":)

personally I'm in the Czechia camp

Apple Maps is still a holdout, I believe, so Apple fans happily made screenshots of Apple Maps to prove their superiority

Some scope for confusion (Chechnya) but at least not as much as "Congo".

I am in the 'the Netherlands' camp, even though I live in the 'Holland' part of the country. But I do not mind 'Kingdom of the Netherlands'. Or even better, Nederland used all over the world.

I am just a programmer and I use UNTERM

I figure the UN should know what the places are called :)

@chx I tried that but the folks on the business side of things at my last job didn't like "Viet Nam."

I am always happy to obey my stakeholders if they can convince my boss to move from the UN standard as it is

good luck

I love working with the product owners, make no mistake, they are lovely people

but such things are not mine to decide

and Jenny has a lot of better things to do than such a debate so most people don't even try and so we stay with UNTERM :)

@Willeke It goes hand-in-hand with fierce competition on prices...

It's not so much "taking away" as itemizing and giving you the choice not to pay

And what you are saying about easyjet is simply not true

@Relaxed, I know, I am not happy with it and I have chosen to spend more on the flight (by chosing a different airline) to avoid having to pay for service, these days it looks like that option might not be available in the near future.

I am flying frequently with them, never paying for premium seated, and I don't think I get a middle seat more than a third of the time. So not only is not a sure thing but I am not even seeing any evidence that you are less likely to get a window or corridor seat.

It was my experience the last two times I flew with EasyJet, no extra money on a seat, you take what they give you. And I got middle seat every time.

Well it makes a big difference!

On two flights? You do realise it means nothing?

@Relaxed, I think it depends on whether you fly on flights were a lot of people are willing to pay extra and when you check-in. Early check-in did give middle seat every time, so I started to wait with checking in.

Every time = twice ?

It still means nothing

But now I fly KLM, which has a slightly more pleasant method. And the planes I was in to BRS did only have two seats per side.

No big amount of data, (I think 3 times). The strongest reason not to use EasyJet is being fed up by being penned up like cattle in Amsterdam.

@Willeke The flight I use most often uses Embraer 190's with 2 seats on the right and 1 on the left. So I always get an aisle and a window seat :-)

@RoryAlsop I would love those, the 2 to a side is already nice, one to the side is better.

I just opdated my website address, I hope it works.

I recently moved the site onto the server of a friend.

mmm, looks like it needs a bit of tweeking.

Looks like it works now.

@Willeke This site just appeared: hastrumpbeenimpeachedyet.com

:-)

@RoryAlsop, I hope they can change that message some time soon, but I fear that it will not in the next 4/8 years.

@Willeke I'm betting 10 months.

or assassination...

I fear that last is the most likely, but I think hearth attack or stroke is likely as well.

@Willeke Isn't his doctor on record as saying he's the healthiest person ever to assume the presidency or something like that?

There are always doctors willing to predict health problems or the lack of them, truth will show in the future.

True enough.

@phoog that sounds like Kim Jong wassisface