Whats on my mind? I have just returned from a wonderful cruising tour of several European countries and have concluded that unless you are financially able to fly First Class (which means spending about the same as I paid for my California home), travel by air is cruel and unusual punishment! Especially if you are taller than 5 feet! All classes other than first class are treated with contempt and are nickled and dimed almost to death. Almost everything is for sale (even the time that you board the flight (which gives you the advantage of having your carry-on luggage stored above your seat) to sitting in the Emergency aisle which offers a few inches more of leg room as you promise to open the emergency door if necessary. On any flight other than trans-ocean, you get nothing but a few crackers and a Coke or Pepsi. You pay for any food and wine, even on a Miami to L.A. 6-hour flight. You are at the mercy of Nazi-stewardesses who rule the flight world without due process (I heard my wife scream some words at one that I dare not reveal; anybody that knows her knows that she never uses words like that...:-). Of course, there are some wonderful stewardesses who are kind and do the best they can but are quick to admit secretly that they too are at the mercy of the restrictions imposed by the corporations that own the planes. Airlines are able to delay your flight hours and hours if they wish and theres not much you can do but sit and wait with all the other sheep (travelers) that will be crammed into the rear of the section called coach when the airline finally decides to fly. From Barcelona to L.A., it took us from 8:30 pm (pacific daylight time) Tuesday to 1:30 am Thursday to finally get home--29 hours of traveling or sitting around waiting to travel! We flew American Airlines which featured a plane that was so old it had no WiFi of any kind; the tv in coach was old and unviewable. We flew with the temp in the cabin so cold, you couldnt get warm for several hours after the flight. The cattle herding began when trying to check into the flight at LAX, where my wife lost her bag with her passport and credit cards. Fortunately, a wonderful man who worked for AA helped us find the bag. Everything was still intact in the bag, but it was the stress of trying to check in that contributed to her losing the bag in the first place. The image of my wife sitting in the middle of LAX bawling like a baby will always be attached to our adventures on this trip. Before I fly again, I am waiting for someone to create an airline that treats all its passengers in a civilized fashioned and not as cattle to be butchered! All it takes is going back to the airlines of the past that charged a somewhat higher fee for a ticket. Whoever can do this will revolutionize the flying industry!
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 17:37:05 +0000
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