Having to throw away your water bottle at security is ridiculous.
Buying something in the duty free shop, only to have them take it away at the next airport on connecting flights.
On some flights they don't even serve drinks anymore (unless you pay). Great recipe for dehydration.
Seats are so cramped that more and more people suffer from thrombosis after flying.
There's no space for your hand luggage because the airline charges extra for checked baggage and everyone takes the biggest suitcase they are allowed to take on the plane.
Ridiculous forms you need to fill out online (hoping you don't fall for a scam website), where you can pay only by credit card (not so common in many countries), just to fly through a country that is visa free? Flying via US or Canadian airports has become a major hassle...
Flying used to be different.
I remember that on one flight you could just walk to the front, and watch the pilots fly the plane through the open cockpit door.
> On some flights they don't even serve drinks anymore (unless you pay). Great recipe for dehydration.
Flights that don't serve free drinks tend to be (at least in my experience) SUPER cheap budget airlines. In the bygone age of luxurious leisurely air travel, you weren't flying from San Francisco to San Diego for $50 or from Paris to Barcelona for 30€.
Not in the period under consideration, and a generally overstated case regardless.
Robert Gorden in The Rise and Fall of American Growth:
surprisingly, the period of most rapid decline in the real price of air travel occurred before the first flight of a jet plane. As shown in figure 11–10, the price of air travel relative to other goods and services declined rapidly from 1940 to 1960, declined at a slower rate from 1960 to 1980, and has experienced no decline at all in its relative price between 1980 and 2014. The growth rate of passenger miles traveled has mirrored the rate of change of the relative price except with the opposite sign, because lower prices stimulate the demand for any good or service.
I remember that on one flight you could just walk to the front, and watch the pilots fly the plane through the open cockpit door
That changed in the USA even before 2001, at least by typical policy if not statute.
I recall a trip in the late 1990s flying Aur Canada (maybe YYZ-SFO) and while in Canadian airspace, I was invited in right behind the copilot to hang out for 20 minutes or so. I was surprised how much air traffic could be seen just with the naked eye.
You can request a companion pass from some airlines. I know Delta allows it...one of th budget ones do t (Spirit?)
Essentially you ask their service desk for a companion pass and tbeu run your ID and print you our a ticket to go through security. I use it because I have family that do not speak English test visits me and I walk them to their gate...but if you just want a hug you can, they don't need a reason to issue one.
But I understand what you are saying, and the ability to be at the gate to drop off or meet domestic passengers brought back old memories.
Flew domestically in Australia two days ago, and yep - no boarding passes needed for security. Liquids fine, no taking off shoes, no queue (and not even space for one to form). Like a whole different world.
Yes, the security aspect is ridiculous (and more than likely completely unnecessary) but also bear in mind that airports are busier than ever. If everyone flying took an average of one person to the gate with them, that's twice as many people in the airport. Most I've passed through lately (Europe and Asia) have been crowded as it is.
In 1999 I had bags in the hold but had to respond to a page, by the time I had resolved the incident I had missed the flight. I was super-stressed but the check-in girl just laughed and said, get the next one, it’s fine. And it was. Can you imagine that now?
Yes that is very common, unless you buy the cheapest tickets available. I'm sure people in 1999 would be shocked to learn that a ticket from Berlin to London is available for around 50 USD if you don't have luggage and expect to actually board the planes you have booked.
Yeah, you get quantity, and lose quality. I've been overbooked few times (so sorry, please fly tomorrow unless we overbook you again, we don't care what this causes for your plans/further travel, and here go through crazy online forms and month-long process just to get those 250 euro you are entitled to by EU law).
Or cancelling flights for 'bad weather' reason, when all other flights departed just fine from the airport - in this case, airline doesn't have to compensate anything (freakin' Easyjet - I realized I am not rich enough and don't have enough extra vacation to use such a crappy random-quality services).
> In 1999 I had bags in the hold but had to respond to a page, by the time I had resolved the incident I had missed the flight. I was super-stressed but the check-in girl just laughed and said, get the next one, it’s fine. And it was. Can you imagine that now?
It actually literally happened to me in November 2001, even for an international flight: I missed my flight due to a 3-hour line at MDW, but my luggage had already boarded. I was assured by everyone concerned that it would be offloaded, but it flew ahead, and was (somewhat miraculously) still waiting for me at the luggage claim when I got there over 12 hours later.
Happens pretty often - by accident, that is. My luggage went on a trip all of its own (someone loaded it into a plane bound elsewhere than I was going), so I was peppered by e-mails where it's now for the next few days, while it was misrouted to all sorts of weird places "oops, lost it again! no wait, there it is! no wait, lost it again!". Got it back at last, no damage.
Why not? It's been through the same security as everything else, including all the air freight that's also on board that nobody seems to think about. Usually they'll offload it as a convenience for the passenger but not always if time doesn't allow.
Sometimes this happens even without a strike. Once I flew San Francisco - Houston - Little Rock with about a four-hour layover in Houston. When I got to Little Rock my bag wasn't on the baggage carousel - it turned out they'd put my bag on an earlier flight. (I wasn't on that earlier flight because the long connection turned out to be a lot cheaper than a short one.)
You can board a flight in the United States without ID as well, though I'm not sure you're strictly allowed to.
This happened to me in 2007. Arrived at a regional airport at 6am bleary eyed and without my wallet. Had to jump through some hoops and I assume some regulations might have been bent/broken but I made my flight. Someone made a judgment call and waved me through.
Buying something in the duty free shop, only to have them take it away at the next airport on connecting flights.
On some flights they don't even serve drinks anymore (unless you pay). Great recipe for dehydration.
Seats are so cramped that more and more people suffer from thrombosis after flying.
There's no space for your hand luggage because the airline charges extra for checked baggage and everyone takes the biggest suitcase they are allowed to take on the plane.
Ridiculous forms you need to fill out online (hoping you don't fall for a scam website), where you can pay only by credit card (not so common in many countries), just to fly through a country that is visa free? Flying via US or Canadian airports has become a major hassle...
Flying used to be different.
I remember that on one flight you could just walk to the front, and watch the pilots fly the plane through the open cockpit door.