Thom Hartmann: Ralph Nader's Solutions for Saving the Future

[SheilaT]

23. Yes. I always say Washington National Airport. DCA, go use its three letter code.

I will NEVER refer to it by any other name. I am pretty sure I will live long enough to see the name changed back.

What was so nice about those pre-security days was that we could let passengers out on the tarmac if they wanted to do something like take photographs. And many airports had open air balconies of some kind that people could go out on to watch the airplanes. It's a genuine shame that all of those have long since been closed. And air travel was so special that people would simply go out to the airport to watch planes take off and land.

For me, the very best part of working for an airline was the opportunity to travel for free. Sometimes the tickets were totally free, other times there was a small service charge involved. In 1970 Pan Am came out with a deal that gave employees of certain airlines (of which mine was one) one totally free ticket anywhere in the world once a year. I promptly went to Australia. And was boarded in first class the entire way. They also offered (to pretty much every airline employee out there) an ID 80% ticket anywhere on their system. There was no limit on these. ID means Industry Discount. 80% was the amount of the discount. But it gets better. The fare discounted was the cheapest excursion fare out of the nearest gateway city, no matter where you flew from. For instance, I travelled with an airline friend from Dulles to Guatemala City. We paid 20% of the excursion fare out of Miami. I think we paid about twenty bucks each. These particular fares only ever got us into coach, but I still can't complain. Back then, as you well know, flights were rarely full, and the service in coach could be pretty good. I got at least one pass per year on every major airline, sometimes more than one. The service charges were usually less than $20.00, and even considering inflation, it was a fabulous deal.

I wanted an airline job for the travel benefits, and I took advantage of them far more than the typical airline employee. Fellow employees couldn't quite figure out how I could afford to travel as much as I did (our pay scales were public knowledge, so we all knew what each other earned outside of overtime), and I always said, "It's because I don't own a car." Which was true. I took the bus to work, and spent all of my spare cash on travel. I'm very, very glad that I did.

These days I refuse to put up with the bullshit of the TSA. I started before any security of any kind, and I recall EXACTLY why and how we got the security system, and I know that what goes on today is complete and utter nonsense. So I drive if I want to go somewhere. Next year I'm planning a long trip to the east coast (from New Mexico) and I plan to take the train.