Flying in a sardine can and other travel misery [View all]

[hyphenate]

People forget that the airlines got bailed out right after 9/11. People forget that for a short while, travelers were uneasy to fly because of their fears, and for while, the airlines were running at a deficit.

Now, the airlines are taking advantage of ALL of us, those people whose taxes went to help the airlines keep going in a post 9/11 world.

And what have we wrought?

I can't speak for everyone or every situation, but I can speak for myself, and what I saw on the recent trip I made to Las Vegas and back to Boston this past week. And what I saw was depressing, and disgusting, and inconvenient, and largely deplorable.

First: The cost of an airline ticket has become overpriced, and predatory. I purchased my ticket several months in advance, looked at dozens of schedules--most of them inadequate, fares, airlines, and everything that used to be easy to research. Not anymore. Even the travel sites that proclaim they can get you the lowest fares are a sham: the difference between the results of these sites was underwhelming--most of the fares were pretty close to what could be found on the main page of the official airline sites themselves. Even Priceline, with whom I ultimately purchased my ticket, offered relatively little bargains in the fares.

It used to be easy to get a non-stop flight from one major city to another. At one time, even, I recall it was more expensive for multiple flights on a trip. Now, the non-stop flights are literally hundreds more dollars than what the travel sites can offer. Having multiple stops now increases the anxiety level, as you are forced to endure more take-offs and landings, wasting time in airports with nothing to offer except overpriced (grossly overpriced!) food, snacks, or anything purveyors hope you will buy at the last minute. Ten dollars for a Burger King Whopper meal is simply untenable.

Inspections: how many people have actually sat down and read the list of ALL the things you can't take on the plane with you? Because it's so damned arbitrary and frustrating and maddening, that for that reason alone, I have lowered the prospects of further trips out of town. On the last trip I took in January, they confiscated two unopened bottles of Gatorade I had. I lived with that, because it had been 5 years since I had traveled, and I wasn't completely aware of the restrictions.

This time around, I refused to spend $10 on the meal available on the plane--again, highly overpriced and, to me, largely inedible. Instead I brought crackers and cheese and peanut butter to make a snack. They confiscated my unopened jar of peanut butter. On the return trip, they confiscated a tube of hair gel, and an unopened jar of blueberry jam. Both, mind you, were also in my carry-on bag on the outgoing trip and were not taken at that time. When I went to check the tube of hair gel so I could remember it when I had to purchase another, I had a VERY hard time with the asshole just to see the front of the tube, because I couldn't read the label.

The airlines are now nickel and dimeing you to death. Because of all these extraneous fees, bringing the cost of your flight up considerably. Going to Vegas, I had to take some items to my brother, and therefore had two suitcases to check. The first bag cost me $25, the second one was $35--an additional $60 on top of the price for the ticket itself. On the way home, I was able to consolidate the two suitcases, and put one inside the other in order to bring them both back. The result was a suitcase that weighed nearly 50 lbs. I don't know about other people, but I have a variety of conditions which leave me unable to carry a whole lot, and I had to rely on others to take that suitcase on my own. In addition, the new rules leave almost every single person bringing on carry-on bags and trying to stuff them into the overhead compartments.

The result? Extreme weight right over everyone's heads during the flights, which, in my estimation, could be disastrous if the plane crashed or was damaged in some way. In addition, it seems to me that this will leave planes top-heavy, and physically crippling in some kinds of weather and conditions. I could be totally wrong on this, but even if I'm wrong, it would take considerably more than an explanation to allay my trepidations on this issue.

The planes themselves are jam-packed to the point of bursting. The airlines justify this by bitching about the price of fuel, but I came up with some numbers:

The average 320A (I believe that is correct) has room for 200 passengers. Now, despite wildly varying prices of tickets, $400 is not out of line for the average fare (this is based on a transcontinental flight like the ones I took), and that means on one such trip, $80,000 is not out of line for the amount brought in for one such flight. Right now, the cost of a gallon of aircraft fuel is $3.12. An Airbus A320 burns roughly 30,000- 35000 lbs of fuel on a cross country flight (approximately 4475 - 5225 gallons). Answer supplied through Yahoo questions http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080114102113AA839TN) Roughly, that means $16,302 is spent on fuel.

So how does the airline justify adding fuel surcharges on every plane that carries a full load of passengers? It seems to me that a new plane design, independent of kick-backs and favored manufacturers, based strictly on design benefits, COMFORT and fuel efficiency could bring the cost of an airline ticket down significantly.

I'm a passenger, not a pilot, not an airline employee, not an estimator, not an aircraft designer, et al, and even I can see where the cost of flying is built solely on profit for the airlines, NOT for the passengers at all, not even an itsy bitsy tiny amount. We are cattle, sardines, or any other synonym you can conjure to illustrate the feeling of traveling with too many people, inadequate passenger comforts, and WAY too much rigamarole to make any person feel right during a flight.

I'm not complaining about service--employees of most airlines are excellent, and I can't really bitch about most TSA personnel, as for the most part, they've been very pleasant. But the arbitrary standards, the "it's just the way it is" attitude, the general agony of traveling on any aircraft, unless you're rich enough to afford first class, fills me with anxiety. I'm short, so my feet don't touch the floor, so I end up with pains in my legs, plus health issues make my legs and ankles swell dangerously (on the trip home, they swelled to about 3x-4x times normal and they STILL haven't come down to normal), catching colds or other problems among other passengers through airborne viruses, seat backs, which do not support your spine with their design, and airlines filling every plane to bursting points makes me hesitate tremendously in flying for any reason. I can't stomach the costs, the food, the stuffiness, or the discomfort unless it is essential that I must endure a long flight.

I don't know about anyone else, but I think we should return to the days when airlines were regulated, where standards were kept up, and when costs were carefully studied and maintained. I don't think I smell like a sardine or a cow, and I know I don't have enough money to buy the "comfort" of first class. I'd love to see a day when travel held a little bit more pleasure and planes weren't so claustrophobic.

(Despite the seeming contradiction I make in questioning the cost of tickets at similar rates nearly everywhere on line, and the idea of returning to regulating airlines, the notion is not contradictory. I think conditions should be monitored by government to make certain that airlines can be limited in the surcharges they make, the additional fees they charge for almost everything to do with a flight, the need for justifying increases in fares, or making at least reasonable standards across the whole industry. Regulating can help lower the cost of travel by making all airlines adopt similar price tiers and conveniences, as well as insure passengers will be treated to roughly the same experience, regardless of which airline they choose to fly. Extras offered by airlines, apart from simple creature comfort, could still be offered, such as flight clubs, airline mileage rewards, etc., with sensible fees for them would not really be affected by regulation.)