“ FLY AWAY “
I had
occasion recently to go to California to visit children and grandchildren. My
flight involved a plane change in Denver on my way to San Jose.
In my
business career I flew a great deal. This trip allowed me the time for a trip
down memory lane.
When I
started my career in business we lived in Pittsburgh. Flying was still a
novelty in those days. I remember a few years flying on prop planes and then
the jet engines arrived.
In the beginning
flying was such a novelty that people “dressed” for the trip. Men wore sport
coats, suits and ties. Women were always attractively dressed with purses,
jewelry and often gloves.
Flying
was quite a treat.
I also
remember in those early days that you would be served coffee before take off on
a morning flight. Meal service always included a three cigarette pack on every
tray. In the back, in coach, there was a “booth” like arrangement for people
who might want to play cards or have a drink together.
On
dinner flights they actually brought a moving card down the aisle and would
carve you a slice of beef right at your seat, spoon vegetables on the plate,
and deliver your drink order. And this was in COACH class!
And, as
an aside, the airlines made a profit.
In those
days, there were no “stewards,” just “stewardesses. And designers competed to
get contracts to dress these ladies in strikingly beautiful uniforms. In fact,
in those days being a Stewardess was considered an exciting profession that allowed
you to travel all over the world.
Every
trip was an adventure. Those who got to fly enjoyed the experience, they felt
special. And of course, flying made it possible to stay in touch with distant
family and for businesses to expand.
That was
the beginning of the end of the pleasure of flying although it does remain an
adventure!
Fast
forward to today.
Getting
to, and through, airports has become a tedious chore.
Taking a
morning flight, best to get your coffee in the terminal and carry it on the plane.
It takes most of the carriers at least an hour to get their coffee/breakfast
service underway.
Forget
the snazzy stewardesses and their great smiles and wonderful uniforms. You are
now most like served by Flight Attendants who had enough seniority to claim the
best flights (read here: the oldest and longest serving attendants). Union
protection also enables many of them to be surly and not helpful.
Forget
the full meal in coach. Today you get roughly twenty stale peanuts in a very
small package, or perhaps five potato chips, unless you want to shell out more
money to buy a dry, unattractive and unappetizing box of food.
Of
course, no smoking.
Cocktails-sure!
But you have to purchase them and, by the way, only with a credit card, no
cash. I thought about that and decided they must have felt they were “losing”
too much cash and moved it all to a cashless business.
Now
medical experts have shown that breathing the recycled air in planes is not
exactly healthy, especially if any of the other hundred passengers might be
ill. So the longer the flight, the greater the health risk.
Unless
you want to pony up an extra couple hundred dollars, or in some cases
thousands, you will be wedged into a very uncomfortable seat and, in some
cases, you will have the pleasure of your neighbor taking over part of your
armrest or spilling over on part of your seat.
Today it
helps if you are willing to fly with your knees up around your nose. The floor
space is non-existent and if you actually do use the space under the seat in
front of you for a carry on, you have to do a magic dance to find a place for
your feet.
This
might be bearable if you are flying a short distance, like Boston to New York.
It become less so if you are flying across the pond to Europe. And it is madness
if you are flying from the East Coast to any Asian destination.
So today
airfares are high. Planes are packed. The amenities are few. People are herded
like cattle. There are no more empty seats. Food is non-existent.
Yet the
airlines are not profitable.
It is
not necessary to have a Harvard MBA to realize that if you sell all the seats
and spend little on amenities the airlines should be turning a profit.
So what
is wrong?
There
are so many deals available at all times that one person may be paying $500 for
his ticket while the person sitting next to him is paying $!50 and the person
across the aisle is flying free on frequent flier miles.
Unions
have set rules and regulations that have forced airlines into payrolls that
simply make no sense financially.
The cost
of oil is both unpredictable and outrageous. Since our friends in the Middle
East have a lot to do with the pricing I don’t think relief is on the way.
So we
have companies that are supposed to exist to make profit for their shareholders
falling more and more by the wayside or into serious debt. We have employees
bargaining their way out of important jobs. The traveling public is ignored so
customer service is a forgotten quality.
Are
their exceptions, possibly. But what I describe is rampant in the airline
industry.
On this
most recent trip we were told in advance there would be no empty seats. We were
implored to take only one carry on bag and we were told what the dimensions
should be.
As I was
seated in an aisle seat I could watch what my fellow travelers were doing. I
could not believe the size of bags people described as “carry on.” I was
annoyed that they ignored the pleas for small bags. I saw people with a bag
under the seat in front, a bag twice as large as was permitted in the overhead,
thereby insuring that a late arriving passenger would have zero space to store
his bag, and then they would also have a “purse” or briefcase on their lap.
As if
this lack of consideration was not enough, the woman in line ahead of me when I
boarded asked for TWO seat belt extensions from the attendant. And I can attest
she needed both of them. Seeing that I was not seated next to her brought a
peace to me and I decided all my other complaints were “small stuff.”
My
conclusion is that the airlines have no one to blame but themselves. They sell
tickets for the same seat in a huge range of prices. So someone always gets
screwed. They announce carry on sizes but do not enforce the rule. They talk
about insisting seriously obese people purchase two seats, let me know when you
actually see that happen.
I would
tell you to take the train, or the bus, but I think those modes of
transportation are having similar problems.
As
usual, I miss the old days in so many ways.
The writer welcomes comments on the subject.
Please email comments to jacksonblair@gmail.com
or
post them on my blog at
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