Unpleasant airline flights

[WF7I]

I know about the anti-terror element of full cavity searches and interrogations, and I accept that part of the "flying experience".

But, why can't at least *1* major airline have:
-- big, comfy seats
-- REAL food and beverage service (I mean, steak, lobster, spirits, desserts, etc?)??
-- Attractive, or at least average-looking, "flight attendants"? (ie, stewardesses)
-- Friendly service in flight as well as booking/changing tickets?
-- ON TIME service?

And hey, *I* would pay more -- a lot more, possibly -- to obtain this quality, at least on some flights if not all.

Thoughts??

[w2wtf]

After taking Aeroflot from Moscow to St. Petersburg you'll take anything!! Not even a bag of peanuts, but they give you a bottle of spring water that smells as if it was bottled on the New Jersey shore, and the airplanes make noises that aircraft aren't supposed to make.

If you ever get to fly on Aeroflot and there isn't anything leaking from the plane, don't get on.... because its all leaked out!!!

[kc7jty]

Quote[/b] (WF7I @ Mar. 03 2005,11:06)]I know about the anti-terror element of full cavity searches and interrogations, and I accept that part of the "flying experience".
I DON'T!!

In answer to one of your questions: Did you ever hear of first class?

Jet Blue IS amazing. I flew them ONCE. I flew from a place I didn't want to go to to a place I didn't want to come from. Southwest serves the cities I wish to travel between but they CAN'T take me from the one I want to the one I want. As long as the fat lady doesn't sit on me the only thing I care about is ticket cost.

[kb2vxa]

Hello frequent fliers,

For your information Russian spring water IS bottled at the Jersey Shore! The plant is right here on the Manasquan River in full operation at low tide.

As for airline food, ever try to cook a full course meal on a plane? If you fly from Newark International it comes from a food factory in the slum area of Elizabeth. Well, Lizardbreath IS a slum area but it's on Dowd Avenue between the docks and the city housing projects.

I miss the dining car on the train, won't bother with the crud that comes from the same source. Used to be it was cooked on a coal stove and served by those wonderful Black porters you don't see anymore. Yes, that was the last use of coal on the railroad.

73 de Warren KB2VXA

[al2n]

It is ticket cost, plain and simple.

Until the industry wakes up and raises ticket prices, you will see less and less of the things that once were common aboard an aircraft.

Serving meals costs the average airline over 40 million a year.

Bigger seats means less passengers. At 99 bucks round trip you cannot afford to lessen the passenger load.

Flight attendants are being asked to do more and more with fewer people and less pay. Used to be common to see 5 attendants on a 737 airliner, these days you see 3.

With oil over 50 bucks a barrel and cut throat competition, airlines are cutting back everywhere they can (except executive pay).

Aircraft are cleaned less and less. Baggage handlers misroute bags because they cannot read english. Mechanic work is farmed out to the lowest bidder. These things are happening.

Only a matter of time before you look at the flight attendant and they will be wearing a WalMart vest.

[WF7I]

One wonders how bad it will get with the "race to the bottom" mentality of quality on airlines.

[ka5s]

Quote[/b] (WF7I @ Mar. 04 2005,12:48)]One wonders how bad it will get with the "race to the bottom" mentality of quality on airlines.
Another Mencken variation:
"No one ever went broke understimating the taste of the American public."
(emphasis added)

Cortland
KA5S

[wa4brl]

Save for first class, ALL airline experiences are now awful, for all the reasons already mentioned.

But why put up with the dreadful security measures, the lead-time to check in, and all the other crap? Get your pilot license and bypass all of it! On average, a rental Cessna 172 flying at 120mph can beat the time of scheduled airline flights out to about a 500 mile radius. A twin-Beech at 250 mph beats the airlines to over 1000 miles.

How? You eliminate the drive to the big international airport (and dealing with the rush-hour traffic back-ups. You fly out of the local private airport. There's no long walk from the huge, near-full parking lot. There's no wait for bag check-in, no wait for security checks, flight delays, etc. Morover, you get to fly straight to your small-town destination. No layovers, turboprop connector flights and all. Best of all, you never have to sit next to the smelly fat guy!

It's all about the turtle and the hare. Slow and steady wins the race!

[al7n]

Ahhh...don't we wish that could be?

I owned a Cessna 180 for 12 years, have a commercial pilot certificate, and was rated Airplane, single engine land and sea, instrument airplane.

My family and I traveled exensively cross-country in that airplane, and it was and is a wonderful way to travel.

However, Mother Nature rules the sky. #Unless you have an airplane that can handle known icing, you are pretty much limited to Visual Flight Rules (VFR). #In the western US, Canada and Alaska where we did the bulk of our cross-country flying, flight under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) just was not safe or very often even possible because you got ICE anytime you were flying in cloud and the MEA (minimum en-route altitudes) were all high enough where that was always a possibility. #

There is not much more terrifying than picking up a load of ice during climb that slows you 30 knots, and prevents you from climbing above cloud to get out of it. And you don't dare turn back and go through it again to go back down and land where you took off because that certainly will result in your impacting the ground inside a giant airplane-shaped ice cube.

No, flying yourself all over is fun, but unless the weather is ideal, you will be sitting on the ground waiting it out a lot of the time. #I wouldn't take million bucks for my flying experiences, but at the same time, I wouldn't give a dime to do some of it over again....I'm no longer current...and besides that, I'm a little too old to take on the hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror that goes with private flying anymore. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

AL7N

[wa4brl]

Of course you're right, 7N. I fly for fun -- VFR only. That allows me to choose only the great days to go flying. All that CAVU time encourages one to wax poetic and too-easily believe the myth.

Sorry for the mis-info, guys. That stuff only really works during favorible weather/wind conditions.

Thanks for the reality check!

[ka3trx]

WalMart vest? #Will passengers have to wear oxygen masks upside down??

[kc7jty]

Quote[/b] (wa4brl @ Mar. 04 2005,00:11)]Save for first class, ALL airline experiences are now awful, for all the reasons already mentioned.
Jet Blue IS trully amazing. ALL the right things in one. If you get the chance to fly them go for it.
I just bought a transcon round trip tic (N.W.). The cost was $176 for the airline and $54 for all the BS fees. How long will it take for the fees to catch up with the cost of the flight?