Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It used to be fun!! Believe it or not...meals were quite good. Lots of good snacks. People behaved then. Rarely was there a disturbance. No one complained about anyone else.
Of course you could take whatever you chose on board with you then. No taking off of shoes. No feeling up and down the body by strangers who act like you are the next terrorist. Long lines were rare.
Now it's a travesty. It gives you a headache. I have chosen not to fly on recent years.
The reason rich people have their own jets because of the same reason I hate flying. I hate waiting for the plane to take off. Sometimes you sit at the runway for almost an hour why even put us out there.
Flying at holiday seasons are the worst because often you get seated with people who just wouldn't stop talking or have bad hygiene.
Even rich people who have 1st class seats still do not like seeing people walking back and forth around their cabin.
Then the worst part is waiting to get off the plane. Some lady once took almost 10 mins to get her crap and holding up exiting.
That's why I always prefer trains over planes if there is such a choice as I can freely get off and do not have to wait so long and leaving the airport is such a pita to do as oppose to leaving a train station.
It is not flying that I hate but airports. It is the uncertainty of how long the check in process will take, whether there will be a delay (we have been delayed for eight days once and another time three days) and especially the inconsistency in the security checks.
On our very recent trip to the US we found ourselves at Honolulu airport headed to Vancouver without the correct ETA,( our fault but very stressful) At an airport in Alaska my husband managed to lose an envelope containing some cash (his fault but it was midnight and he was careless) In SLC we managed to need to go through security twice.
Generally once the plane has taken off I am fine. But delays of three hours on the runway before leaving are no fun. This time, for the first time, my husband has had a very inconvenient follow up to the 15 hour flight home. He has experienced nosebleeds which have taken two weeks to clear up and the specialists are blaming the dry air in the plane and before that in the mountains where we were travelling.
I even hate getting to the airport. If we go by road the trip can vary from twenty five minutes to one and a half hours, if we get the train, we have to arrange to get to and from the station.
And if we have to go to Europe it is a bit of a worry as to whether the twenty-four hour or so trip will be in the company of unpleasant neighbours.
The airline industry has always been an easy target for “consumer watchdog” groups when in reality no other consumer travel supplying industry is subject to the same amount of regulation, transparency, oversight and disclosure. There’s tons of publicly available financial and operational data mainline commercial U.S. carriers that exceed $1 billion in annual revenue have to file with the USDOT and FAA. Car rental industry regularly fleeces consumers with fees and is hardly subject to any regulation or oversight; cruises employ flags of convenience internationally to shield themselves of regulation; hotels are subject to state, county, and city ordinances as opposed to federal regulations.
The public hates flying because the airlines have given them by and large what they want-access to safe, cheap and reliable transportation. Traveling through a major airport today you truly see a cross section of the general public as the cost to fly is attainable for pretty much anyone in the lower middle class and above.
People can’t have it both ways and want polished Cathay Pacific style service at ultra low cost carrier fares. Unlike the subsidized gulf carriers who illegally dump capacity US carriers have to earn back their cost of capital and provide a return to shareholders and other stakeholders including their employees.
I hate it because my legs and back get VERY uncomfortable not being able to move for hours, I get bored, I have to pee and I hate the tiny bathroom with the wait, and it's terrifying for me. That's really it, not the prices, not the schedules, just being trapped in a seat with no room for hours.
I did have my first abort and go round experience earlier this year- high winds going into Salt Lake City, and the pilot caught a gust on approach when weather reports indicated things had calmed down enough for safe landing. And have to say that both cockpit and cabin crew showed the utmost professionalism throughout and were very good about status updates once we were back in the air and in a holding pattern so the pilot in charge and airline operations could come to a decision about waiting for calmer skies and landing in Salt Lake City or diverting to Las Vegas. Second landing attempt was uneventful in all the right ways.
Airline travel in North America and the EU is impressively safe these days compared to the Golden Age when we hadn't throughly debugged the process and design flaws like the DC-10's cargo door issues killed a bunch of people.
I had one of those too. I don’t remember exactly when and where but I vividly remember it happening. I remember looking at the other people in the cabin as it was happening. Only a very few seemed aware of the significance. We were coming in for a landing, the main wheels had touched down but before the nose wheel made contact the pilot really hit it and pulled up steeply. I remember thinking oh hell, this is it as soon as he hit the gas.
We circled once and before we landed the pilot explained that another aircraft had pulled into our landing path. I’m glad the pilot didn’t hesititate to get us up in the air again.
It used to be fun!! Believe it or not...meals were quite good. Lots of good snacks. People behaved then. Rarely was there a disturbance. No one complained about anyone else.
Of course you could take whatever you chose on board with you then. No taking off of shoes. No feeling up and down the body by strangers who act like you are the next terrorist. Long lines were rare.
Now it's a travesty. It gives you a headache. I have chosen not to fly on recent years.
Yeah back when people were more respectful and wore nice clothes out of pride. Seems pajamas and such are where we are headed. Kind of gross, but it is the sign of the times. The old saying, "one bad apple spoils the barrel", seems to hold true. The norm is getting lower and lower it seems unless you really create isolation for yourself somehow. Not easy. I tend to fly major airlines only to avoid some of it, but whatever.
I understand it. Most times, air travel goes smoothly, but many times it doesn't. And airlines don't exactly handle those situations well.
My last flight (Southwest) from Philadelphia to Austin had a layover in Atlanta. Our flight from Atlanta to Austin was delayed by 6 hours. Southwest agents told everyone, via several announcements, not to leave the terminal because we could be boarding any minute. They said this for all 6 hours. Their website still listed our flight as "on time" 3 hours after it was supposed to me in Austin but was still in Atlanta. There is more, but it was one of the worst flying (or actually not flying) experiences I've had. I get that things happen, but Southwest could not have handled it worse.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
