Flying sucks!

[Gsinill]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

oh man, now there is something we can all be really thankful for. I can't even imagine spending 6+ hours in a metal tube full of people smoking. that must have been really terrible for non smokers, and deadly for flight attendants. yuck!

Yep, did a lot of business travel back in the mid 90s in Europe.
Cabin divided into smoking/non-smoking by a curtain on rails.
I.e. dependent on the # of smokers they moved the curtain back and forth along the isle.
What a nightmare.

[fkelly]

A couple peeves to add to the other ones here:

if you're lucky enough to be able to book say 6 months ahead. You pick a flight with connections that make sense. (I fly from East Coast to West in Winter, then back at the end of Winter). Don't book through Chicago or another northern city because there is a substantial chance of weather borking your connection. Allow a couple hours for the connection even though airline web sites will try to sell you less than an hour, which of course allows for no delay. Consult seat guru or look carefully and pick your seats on an exit row if you can or at least aisle and the seat next to it. All set. Except 2 months before the flight you get a notice that your flights have been changed. It's almost inevitable. Your connection has been shortened from 2.5 hours to 45 minutes. NO! Rearrange flights. And/or find out that the seats you originally picked have been changed. You are in the middle of the plane toward the back. If there are two of you, you may have been split into two middle seats. NO! Of course the change notice doesn't mention this. Only if you carefully check will you see it. Complain to customer service, maybe you can get it changed maybe not. If you're lucky there will only be one such change in 6 months.

And of course airlines are flying at 100 % capacity (or 99.99%) so there's no slack. One mechanical anywhere in your flight and they don't have a spare plane to stick you on. Spend overnight in Chicago. Or rearrange flights maybe even landing at 2 a.m. at a different airport than you scheduled so you have to rebook your rental car too.

[Ken Robb]

RE: SMOKING ON PLANES. In the 1960s and maybe into the 1970s passengers got OK meals in coach and a small box with 4 cigarettes on the tray too. Heck, I think even people who didn't usually smoke gave the free cigs a try on the plane.

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by Ken Robb

RE: SMOKING ON PLANES. In the 1960s and maybe into the 1970s passengers got OK meals in coach and a small box with 4 cigarettes on the tray too. Heck, I think even people who didn't usually smoke gave the free cigs a try on the plane.

I wonder how much the tobacco companies paid to have these cigarettes placed on the meal trays.

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by rwsaunders

PS...mix of sun for the most part in Seattle this week and near 50F...you should have a good trip.

+1

BTW - you can fly direct into Paine Field these days.....might just be for Alaska Airlines flights, but I think they were going to add some Southwest ones as well. Less misery than going thru Sea-Tac.

Todays weather:

[Mr. Pink]

Haven't read the whole thread, but, I'll chime in with last weeks flight to Utah from Baltimore for skiing. Southwest wins again. Base price was cheap, if reserved a little over two weeks ahead, and, if you pay a little extra up front (I think it was 25 bucks or so), you get bumped up to the early boarding "A" line, which gives you a choice of any seat in the plane in the back, oh, 70% of the plane. I like that boarding system, the A,B, C lines. Civilized. Then they give you TWO non carry on bags free, which is important for skiers. My dual ski bag was overweight going out, the guy said no whoop, but, on the way back I got charged 70 bucks for the excess, which was cool, because, 70 dollars for two big bags RT is ok these days. Nice people, too. They have a real talent for hiring nice, cheerful people who make the miserable experience of flying nicer.

[C40_guy]

Originally Posted by Dekonick

Only for work. I still can't figure out how they stay in the air.

Willing suspension of disbelief.

Question the physics and it may just stop working!

[C40_guy]

Originally Posted by saab2000

Speaking of recline, the old small Dash-8s (100/300 series) had some amount of recline built into the seat. They didn’t recline more but they were pretty comfortable with their prebuilt recline.

Most folks didn’t like those but I enjoyed flying in them, as a passenger, which I did often from about 2005 until 2016 in and out of PHL.

I flew them for a few years between LAX and SBA. Earplugs made a big difference.

[gemship]

Originally Posted by akelman

His aunt died. He's being gouged by one of the least popular industries in the country. You don't want to hear him complain? Nobody's making you read the thread. Get a grip on yourself.

I read the comment you and others quoted and it reads maybe insensitive but I would say it airs on the side of tough love with some good sense to it.

So what is this thread about?....the dead aunt or the airline rip off?...because it seems like there is a whole lot of agreeable replies to the latter rather than "sorry for you loss" statements going on here. So on that note, this is what happens when the regulars of this forum get bored about bikes. They start OT threads to complain about first world problems and demonstrate a rather disrespectful stance on their own situations such as a dead aunt from far way. So off course one can expect at least one of us to come up with some kinda snarky reply because you know that's a coming too.

Honestly my frank thoughts reading the OP was that if I wanna take a flight I need to get a new driver's license sooner than later. Personally I don't like flying. Also I come from a broken family where none of us talk to each other so it would be a pretty easy decision for me to simply not take a expensive flight I don't wanna pay for someone that I may not care about although they maybe family. I also thought if the OP stands to inherit money then at least there's some compensation.

The thing is this is not any of our business and since we don't know the deceased it's OK to talk like this about it because the OP made it so.

Maybe folks should have a bit more respect for the airline biz and marvel at what can be done in terms of travel today vs a hundred years ago?

[Red Tornado]

Originally Posted by fkelly

A couple peeves to add to the other ones here:

if you're lucky enough to be able to book say 6 months ahead. You pick a flight with connections that make sense. (I fly from East Coast to West in Winter, then back at the end of Winter). Don't book through Chicago or another northern city because there is a substantial chance of weather borking your connection. Allow a couple hours for the connection even though airline web sites will try to sell you less than an hour, which of course allows for no delay. Consult seat guru or look carefully and pick your seats on an exit row if you can or at least aisle and the seat next to it. All set. Except 2 months before the flight you get a notice that your flights have been changed. It's almost inevitable. Your connection has been shortened from 2.5 hours to 45 minutes. NO! Rearrange flights. And/or find out that the seats you originally picked have been changed. You are in the middle of the plane toward the back. If there are two of you, you may have been split into two middle seats. NO! Of course the change notice doesn't mention this. Only if you carefully check will you see it. Complain to customer service, maybe you can get it changed maybe not. If you're lucky there will only be one such change in 6 months.

And of course airlines are flying at 100 % capacity (or 99.99%) so there's no slack. One mechanical anywhere in your flight and they don't have a spare plane to stick you on. Spend overnight in Chicago. Or rearrange flights maybe even landing at 2 a.m. at a different airport than you scheduled so you have to rebook your rental car too.

The other day booked a RT for my wife and I to visit family, Texas to Indiana. A few of the options had layovers less than 30 minutes!! I don't understand why they even offer something like that. Your incoming plane is pulling up to the gate as your connecting flight is boarding. If that's at a hub like DFW, ORD, MSP you're probably screwed. I usually shoot for a minimum layover of 90 minutes.

[Peter P.]

Originally Posted by gemship

I read the comment you and others quoted and it reads maybe insensitive but I would say it airs on the side of tough love with some good sense to it...

Maybe folks should have a bit more respect for the airline biz and marvel at what can be done in terms of travel today vs a hundred years ago?

Thank you.

[Mr. Pink]

Ha, it's like that Louis CK bit about marvelling at the fact you're sitting in a chair in a big tube at 33,000 ft moving at 400mph.

[OtayBW]

I've been flying from BWI either to ATL or to San Jose ~2-3 times a month for the last several months. I tend to take the same flights and have had pretty good on-time service with both Delta and SW - both of which I'm happy to fly. On balance, the Delta for both connections has been the cheaper one, especially if you book closer to departure date.

[72gmc]

Originally Posted by saab2000

I wonder how much the tobacco companies paid to have these cigarettes placed on the meal trays.

Wasn't there a time when 747s were cutting edge, and some airlines made the upper deck a lounge (no doubt a smoking-allowed lounge) accessible via staircase? Might be a 70s legend. I was too young to experience it.

[dave thompson]

Originally Posted by 72gmc

Wasn't there a time when 747s were cutting edge, and some airlines made the upper deck a lounge (no doubt a smoking-allowed lounge) accessible via staircase? Might be a 70s legend. I was too young to experience it.

Quick relevant story; my wife and I moved from Hawaii to California in 1972. She was a travel agent so we flew 1st class on a 747. We were in the upper deck lounge, a flight attendant (stewardess in those days) came over, asked me if I would give a cigarette (I smoked back in those days) to Mr Brando, who was seated a few yards away. I did. He lit up and didn’t even acknowledge or thank me.