Warning: Old Man Rant coming up.
My first flight on an airplane was in 1975. I was flying from Seattle to Indianapolis to start my first year of college. It was OK. My family went right out to the gate with me, I boarded by seat number, I happened to sit next to a schoolteacher from Brownsville, IN who told me all about Indiana — the weather, the history, geography, cool differences from Washington state to watch out for. I still remember his kindness.
The flight was only remarkable in hindsight, because the airlines now have fucked up a mundane form of transportation beyond recognition.
Security theater is ridiculous. Get in a long line, take off your shoes, pull out any personal electronics, go through a scanner, get patted down by a guy in a blue uniform. Today is a light traffic day, so I was amused that there were more security personnel than passengers in the terminal.
Boarding is a nightmare of privilege. Now we board in the order First Class, Diamond Medallion, Premium Select, Comfort+, Sky Priority, Main Cabin 1, 2, and 3, and Basic Economy (on Delta; every airline has their own series of ranks). You have to pay extra to go first on the plane. I’m afraid I’m a Basic Economy person, every time.
I’m flying on Sun Country today, which is one of those no-frills airlines, so maybe I’m something even lower than Basic Economy. You will pay extra for every piece of luggage you bring on, which is fair, I guess. I’ve pared everything down to the bare essentials — everything I need for 8 days away packed into one tight little backpack. I sorta fondly remember that first flight when I packed a year’s worth of clothes into an oversized cardboard suitcase held together with packing tape. No extra cost for the flight, but this was before wheelie bags and I blistered my hands dragging that thing across the university campus.
When you buy a ticket through Sun Country, you don’t actually buy a seat — you have to go through a map of the plane where each seat has a dollar value attached, depending on their desirability. I booked a $12 seat, the lowest, because I didn’t want to spend $50 for an aisle seat near the front. I assume standing in an aisle is not an option.
And then there’s the lack of reliability — you pay for a ticket, but that’s not a promise that they’ll deliver you to your destination. They can cancel your flight at any time, there’s no recompense. There are often delays. I’ve learned that if they announce a 15 minute departure delay, that actually means they’re going to nudge that time upwards while you wait. It’s going to be hours, at least, and often ends in cancellation.
It’s all about corporate greed anymore. They’ve taken a service that used to be routine and reliable, and turned it into a hellish gamble, with the only guarantee being that the airline will get its money, whether they deliver or not.
I’d rather stay home anymore. But I’ve put my money in the slot, pulled the handle, and I’m hoping what comes up is a safe arrival in reasonable time in Seattle. So far, I’m not enjoying myself.
It’ll get better once I’m out of an airport.
All that I’ll say is, deregulation is obviously a grand capitalism success story, making airline flight even less reliable than fly by night bus lines.
But, there is an adventure component. Remember ValuJet? Ran around two emergency landings per week, a major crash in the Everglades, then they eventually “merged” with a slightly better budget airline (well, they sold their name, which got scrapped instantly and an old, worn out printer, their aircraft already being or already repossessed). Adventure! Will I arrive at my destination? Or will I arrive as flaming debris a lot short?
Shouldn’t one pay extra for an adventure?
But, don’t dismiss security theater. After all, because of that security theater, a couple of flights got to experience a real life version of a Maxwell Smart plot, such as the diaper bomber and sandal bomber, both bombs being duds, rather like their creators and mules. Again, a new, innovative way to entertain passengers!
But, we’ve a plus. Now, we don’t have to wear suits to get onto an airplane. We also don’t get those fine meals any longer, but we do get entertainment.
Like, flying first class to London on US Air. Entertainment system was on the fritz for a transatlantic flight, no biggie, had my video ipod and video glasses. Entertaining was duck tape holding trim up on the first class to galley bulkhead. And the food and booze didn’t give me indigestion, like economy class versions did.
After that, I honestly considered walking to my destination – a transatlantic destination. Instead, I stopped contracting abroad and rejoined the serfs in the Fascist States of America.
It could be worse. And perhaps it will be.
Uber-style private airplane trips are here
The Irland based budget airline (I refuse to write its name) is also pretty horrible. Even the pilots suffer. As for allowing the pilots to stop a flight if they see safety issues – that can lead to them losing their job.
If the budget airlines could, they would introduce the practice you saw in the film Gandhi -having some passengers sitting on the roof or dangling from the side.
You are getting on a $12 flight because of the terrible bargain the US voters and Capitol Hill has struck with the fossil fuel and transportation billionaires.
As a nation, we subsidize oil and gas production with jaw-dropping tax subsidies. Oil companies get tax credits/subsidies to pull the oil out of the ground, subsidies to transport it and refine it and as a crowning insult, oil companies get to write off the depreciation of their “assets” (ie., the fact that the oil is no longer in the ground because they pumped it out and so now the ground is worth less because it no longer has oil in it), with said “assets” usually being sweetheart leases on federal lands to extra special friends of Congress. Oh, and we limit the amount of money said fossil fuel companies can be sued for when they damage and decrease the the value of other peoples’ assets, like farms, businesses and homes to the point where it isn’t financially viable to even try to sue them in court.
We send the youth and treasure of our nation to fight wars over oil and die in them, all for corporate greed.
When fossil fuel companies pollute the land and water and air through fracking, oil tanker spills (Exxon Valdez anyone?) or through eminently preventable disasters like the Deepwater Horizon drilling spill, do we make said companies pay? No, we let them skate off free as a bird (but not the oil-soaked dying ones from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Live birds unencumbered and unaffected by environmental disasters. We are talking about oil billionaires after all.) and stick the federal government/US citizens with the bill, which can come in the form of higher taxes, destroyed businesses, useless contaminated farmland and fishing waters or just with homes so badly contaminated with toxic chemicals that the inhabitants/owners can no longer live there and can’t sell it either. Because it wouldn’t be fair to hold oil companies and their billionaires responsible for their criminal actions.
We let the fossil fuel companies kill their own employees too, without so much as a blink or reproving word, whether it’s through mine cave-ins, fires, explosions or just plain unprotected exposure to the toxic chemicals used in and spewing from the fossil fuels themselves.
When transportation and fossil fuel companies are in danger of going bankrupt or otherwise out of business, the US federal government rushes in to help with special acts of Congress and bailout money regardless of how egregious the behavior of said companies was. (“Couldn’t you have jet-pooled?”) The people affected by said companies? Not so much. Congress isn’t moving mountains to help them. Kindly note that Alaskan native peoples still to this day have not been made whole or fairly compensated for the Exxon Valdez disaster.
When messages are sent this clearly and continuously, that the criminal behavior of said companies will be tolerated, winked at and otherwise be swept under the rug and forgotten, perhaps no one should be surprised that transportation companies continue to treat their customers–and contract law–with the same indifference and contempt that they’ve shown all along for literally everyone else.
When you buy an airline ticket, regardless of cost, you are entering into a contract with said airline to deliver you and any accompanying luggage to your agreed-upon destination safely and in a timely fashion. It’s basic tenet of tort law. But when transportation and fossil fuel companies receive clear and consistent signals that such such contract law breaches will be ignored if the companies only, only provide cheap goods or at least the promise of such, then it should not be a surprise that the transportation shitshow you have described is the end result.
Like the axiomatic bargain with Hell, you first had to consent. We all had to consent.
Steerage?
@6 Possibly being strapped to the nose of the plane, like a dead deer in hunting season?
Or are we talking a string and hang glider?
I don’t like to fly any more for all the reasons given; but sometimes I can’t avoid it.
I had some meetings in Varna, Bulgaria in June. I took Amtrak between St. Louis and Boston, but flew the rest of the way. The Queen Mary 2 wasn’t making the transatlantic crossing on the right days, and I couldn’t find good train connections between Eastern and Western Europe.
I had some meetings in Kailua-Kona, HI early last month. I took Amtrak round-trip to the Bay Area and flew United between SFO and the Big Island.
One good bit of news for me: because of decreased mobility these days, I get wheelchair assistance at airports. This lets me cut in line at Security and at the gate. (I’m not sure that I deserve that, but I’ll take it.)
Next October or November I’ll be off to Wroclaw, Poland. We’ll see whether the QM2 is sailing on reasonable dates; but even if I have to fly between Boston and London, I can still take Eurostar to Brussels, an overnight train to Warsaw, and a day train to Wroclaw.
In November of 2019, shortly before COVID struck, I made a trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland all on the surface. 8-)
wzrd1 @1:
True; but I still have a navy blue pinstripe suit that I wear anyway, even on trains, because I like having all the pockets.
Reginald Selkirk @2: I confess that I once actually looked into that. 8-)
Twelve bucks from Morris to Seattle? Coming back from the PNW, according to my Boy Scout map reading skills, New York would be within walking distance! NB: bring a wheelie bag.
This is why I prefer road trips.
Capitalism ruins everything it touches, and these days it touches everything. The Right are determined that every aspect of our daily lives will function only to make profit for some already rich person.
Isn’t this the at least partial answer to that debate you had on whether or no there is actually a god?
Geezer here.
It did used to be more fun to fly—more amenities, less frenzy. Flying was also for the privileged few. If you complained about your trip, it was a form of humble-bragging. Only someone with your wealth and importance could complain about something unattainable for most of us.
Now flying is usually a miserable experience—”security,” smaller seats, always jam-packed seating, delays, cancellations, etc. More people can now afford to fly, but it’s still an activity reserved for people with more money—a minority. You’ve got a little more slack for complaining about it, but not much.
“You have to pay extra to go first on the plane.”
I’ve never understood this… why would you pay extra to sit in a cramped seat, have people climb over you, have a lot of smelly people in close proximity, have a lot of annoying kids screaming around you, etc…
I make sure to get an aisle seat, have very little luggage. I’ll grab a book and wait comfortably in the lounge until the last dozen people are boarding, then I get in line. I try to minimise my time in the torture chairs that are airline seats.
It’s not like the plane will depart sooner if just you get in your seat earlier…
Menu signed by China’s Chairman Mao sells at auction for $275K
“Boarding is a nightmare of privilege. Now we board in the order First Class, Diamond Medallion, Premium Select, Comfort+, Sky Priority, Main Cabin 1, 2, and 3, and Basic Economy…”
I’ve always found this weird. Why is everyone in such a rush to get on and off the plane? It’s not like you’re going to get there before anyone else. I always wait til the “everyone else” call to even bother getting in line, and I always wait on the plane til everyone gets out of my way, so I don’t have to stand in an aisle getting pummeled by people’s oversized carryons falling like hail.
Thanks for ruining my week. I am flying to Australia this week. A redeye flight on a budget airline. Aisle seats are extra, no food unless you pay for it. Basics like water you pay through the nose for and of course security won’t let you take your own on board. Its a 10 hour flight with no inflight movie unless you hire one. The cabin temperature is always somewhere around freezing and no blankets to keep warm unless you buy a “comfort pack” The only thing going for it is that it is less than half the price of its nearest full-service rival who has jacked up its post-Covid fares by about 75%. I fully expect to arrive at my destination cold, hungry and sleep deprived with my body fused in a fetal position from sitting in a torture device with zero leg room.
@robert79 @14
One reason is so that you can put your carry on in the overhead compartment. The last (United) flight I took , everyone who was boarding in the last group had to check in their carry on luggage (complementary!).
@17 The TSA rules have changed, you can’t carry water through security but you can carry an empty water bottle and then refill it after security. If you forget to empty it before security, they empty it and then run it through the xray again to make sure there are no secret false bottoms or something, so remember to empty it.
Security theater is ridiculous.
Yes, it is. But more importantly, it shows that the terrorists won. Their leaders are sitting back and laughing at us, slapping each other on the back and saying, “Look! The fools have to wait forever to go through metal detectors, and take off their shoes now! Can you imagine such stupidity?”
@19 the water bottle can be either a plastic one or those permanent stainless thermoses.
silvrhalide @5, bodach @9
I don’t think PZ paid $12 for the flight, I think he had to pay that on top of the ticket price to book a seat. But I could be wrong.
Probably not well known outside Australia, but Qantas is currently in big trouble with our consumer affairs body for selling tickets to flights that had been cancelled weeks earlier but had not been removed from the bookings website then refusing to refund the fares, only issuing vouchers for future travel. This is clearly illegal, but the Qantas legal team seriously argued in court that the airline does not sell tickets to flights but ‘a bundle of rights’ to take a flight at some stage.
Oh, and the CEO was allowed to sell $17M of his Qantas shares the day after they had to submit their consumer data to the ACCC.
We can all thank the Theatrical Security Agency (TSA) for protecting us from the mortal threat of snow-globe wielding terrorists. Zero incidents (so far)!
I think it would work better if TSA hired unemployed actors for their Security Theater…
…is this a dagger I see before me?
Maybe clowns too.
I used to listen to Rollins’ “Airport Hell” at the airport.
Because that is the kind of person I am. Until I realized that the security screening part hits right when you are at the metal detector…
At least smoking is banned now.
Hey, the ‘security theater’ is vital for making sure a trans woman doesn’t bring a penis onto the flight without being assaulted by a goon!
I’m reminded of that episode of Dragnet where they have to take a plane to a new jurisdiction and Joe Friday’s partner shows him how he doesn’t need luggage because he has all of his things (including extra underwear and toothbrush) secreted around and inside his suit. You might try it!
chrislawson, interesting. Online, too.
https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/services/access-to-files-and-transcripts/online-files/accc-v-qantas
@22 I don’t pretend to know what PZ paid for his flight. I am responding to what he wrote, which admittedly is less than clear on the actual price of the airline ticket.
That said, I had a friend who used to fly from NY (LaGuardia or JFK) on standby to Puerto Rico… for $25. Prepandemic and you could not travel with luggage. A backpack or handbag & that was it. No amenities and no guarantees of even getting on a flight. But yes, $25.
Like the dollar menu at McDonald’s, the cheap airfare is only possible with heavy subsidies for Congress’s extra special friends.
(The convenient ignoring of contract law–we didn’t sell you a seat we sold you a vaguely defined right to transportation at some point to somewhere–is allowed because the judiciary has extra special friends too. Exhibit A: Clarence Thomas.)
silvrhalide, good point.
“I booked a $12 seat, the lowest, because I didn’t want to spend $50 for an aisle seat near the front.”
I took that to mean the cost was split into stuff like booking fee, seat fee, arrival fee, airport tax, [etc], and that the seating fee included a variable rate for seats, in this case ranging from $12 to $50.
(Peon class, presumably)
It was a $400 flight. They just nickel-and-dimed me with a stupid seat charge.
Thirty years ago the airline I was travelling on in the US told US citizens that our flight was 15 minutes late. Realising I am German they told me the delay would be at least three hours.
“Old man yells at the clouds below him”
Honestly I don’t recall flying ever being pleasant. Exciting, yes, because aircraft are technological marvels and because there’s usually a fun trip involved. But even in the 1980s when I was a kid, it was all about the hurry up and wait.
Imagine if the US (and Canada) had invested in an extensive high speed rail network. It would have been so much win-win. I guess that’s also ruined by capitalism. I’m not raving about the European rail coverage either nor its pricing which makes it much cheaper for me to just drive still, which really sucks, but it’s still miles… kilometres ahead of the American situation.
Well, if it reduces the numbers flying, I’m all for it!
I DO recall long-distance flying being pleasant. My first experience of it was in 1957, when I was 8 years old, mostly living with my grandmother in England when not attending boarding school (I was a privileged kid from a family that struggled to pay those fees but could not imagine not doing so) but the summer vacation was long enough to make it worth visiting my parents and younger siblings in Singapore, where Dad worked for years. BOAC (now British Airways) was fine with me traveling alone, and the stewardesses (50s language, of course) took great care of me; it helped that I loved to read. I got to visit the cockpit where the Captain and Co-pilot were just as friendly. The flight paused for an overnight stop in Pakistan, which was quite civilized.
I may be a raving leftist now but I did once have a glimpse of how the other, er, 2% (?) lived and it was, relatively speaking, pretty sweet. Evidently not scalable in the airline industry, which is a reason to get rid of it though not as pressing as the ecological ones. Aux armes, citoyens!
The uses of the positive ‘anymore’ really weirded me out, it isn’t a construction I can ever recall encountering before.
CEO of Qantas got hauled before the Australian senate for that sort of corporate chicanery .