Flying: A Necessary Evil

[athena53]

When flying for work I found it wasn't too bad when flying economy plus and having a black car service. The car service made a huge difference in getting to and from

The extra services money can buy can certainly ease the trip- but there's just so much the airline can foul up that money doesn't help. You may be in Business Class but if the flight is 3 hours late, you're late no matter how much you paid for your ticket.

 

[imoldernu]

Oh dear!...
Mixed memories... 1982 through 1984 four flights/week.

The bad:
JFK to Japan via Hawaii via JAL... Flew over the ocean for three hours until the pilot announced we were returning because the landing gear didn't deploy. Dumping fuel over the Atlantic. False alarm, but who knew?

Private 6 passenger from Keene NH to Bangor Me. St. Elmo's fire on wings.

Boise ID - lightning bolt through cockpit between pilot's feet.

Elmira NY -Steep take off between mountains. Fuel pouring off wings. Panic! Tried to warn pilot. Turns out it was water from the de-icing.

Crying kid--- threw up in my coat pocket.

Good stuff:

Claustrophobic flight DC9 3-5-3 seating. seated in middle, with 300 lb lady on right, 6 ft. sleeping man on left... Panic! Stewardess moved me to 1st class with a double martini.

Racing though Oakland airport... past checkin, past detector, past gate... banging on plane door, and being let in... you could do that in those days. Used to figure 5 minutes for check in.

Smoking... what some of us did back then...S.F to Bremerton commuter and couldn't see from back of plane to the front.

Free... meals, snacks, coffee and $1 tiny bottle cocktails.

Los Angeles to Chicago red eye, with a name that is like 'patriotic" (can't remember)... most fun ever . Attendants... a comedy team, jokes, ventriloquist, Laughed all the way, every time.

Riding co-pilot seat DC-3 as a boy scout in 1949.

Flying the Gulfstream V... our corporate jet... Cross country in glove leather seats, glass windows that went down to under our feet... flying at 300 feet over the painted desert... A week of hopping between CA,WA, TX, NY, CO, MD, MN... incredible luxury, food, and a taste of being rich.

Now?
Hope to not have to fly again. Arrive 2 hours early to check in? Never!

But... there isn't much appeal to driving to FL on Rte 75 @ 85m.p.h. and looking to the left to see a young lady, driving and talking on her cell phone....3 feet away from my car.


oops... edit to add aborted landing at O'Hare when a Cessna flew underneath us after we had committed... Cleared the trees by about 10 feet, with all engines at 100%+ power.

 

[marko]

NorthWest had a few older 747s that they had not converted the upstairs to coach.

Instead, you got two rows, four across. A total of eight people. On one flight from MSP to Narita it was just me and another guy but the other guy got sick before take off and it was just me for the entire trip. My own private flight attendant and an extra large bathroom. Instead of trying to sleep in the (extra large comfy) seat, I got some pillows and blankets and just slept on the floor most of the way.

Only thing better: First Class on Singapore Air's 747....OMG. A leather bound wine list (with $80 bottles) and (incredibly) Dom Perignon for mimosas.

Watching the Aurora Borealis over Siberia on an Amsterdam to Seoul run....priceless.

Had my share of some extremely scary moments too but those are not what I focus on.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

We're in our late 50's, not yet retired, and recently returned from a lovely week in the Caribbean. The trip home was enough to make us consider driving everywhere in the future, so I guess it's a good thing we got the Caribbean off the list, because that would be a tough drive.

The day before we were to return home, we are notified our connecting flight has been cancelled. We can get off the island and fly to the east coast, but the connecting flight home is cancelled. Our only option is to make the trip home in two more plane changes, with a 10 hour layover.

Leaving the island, we are stranded in the plane, in the heat, for ~3 hours, while they tried to figure out why there was an extra 2000 lbs. of weight. About 15 people voluntarily got off for $$$$, and off we go, flying into a snow storm. Rough flight, they lost our luggage, screaming babies, I think you get the picture.

Even though we had a lovely week, the trip home will be the stinky cheese in our memories. I never really loved flying, but it seems my last few times have been riddled with problems that almost make me thing it's just not worth it.

I need to learn to roll with the punches, but the older you get, the less appealing sleeping in an airport, or not getting to use the restroom, or not having regular meals becomes. Anyone else?

I'm reminded of a vacation we took in Zihuatanejo (Yep, the place where Tim Robbins escaped to in The Shawshank Redemption). On the return flight, a couple and their brat kids arrived at the airport about six hours early and killed time before departure by stuffing the kids full of Mexican junk food (we observed part of the stuffing process). Once we boarded, we were seated about two rows behind them.

About a half hour into the 3-1/2 hour flight the kids started vomiting copiously. The aroma was revolting. Mom and Dad laughed and joked through the whole flight, like their kids tossed their cookies on airline flights all the time (I wouldn't be surprised if it was a regular feature of flights they were on).

 

[Ronstar]

I don't know how people that fly for a living can stand it. My niece's husband is a corporate pilot that flies at least 4 days a week, multiple legs a day, with several overnight stays, and weeks away from home on training, etc. And those pilot seats are a lot more cramped than commercial coach. I'm glad I didn't have a job that required many nights away from home.


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[MooreBonds]

Leaving the island, we are stranded in the plane, in the heat, for ~3 hours, while they tried to figure out why there was an extra 2000 lbs. of weight. About 15 people voluntarily got off for $$$$, and off we go, flying into a snow storm. Rough flight, they lost our luggage, screaming babies, I think you get the picture.

If a mere 2,000 lbs of 'extra weight' was causing them that much trouble in getting airborne, I would have gladly volunteered to take another flight for nothing!

 

[rodi]

I love travel - and plane travel means venturing further from home... so I get excited.

That said - I *hated* business travel... My routine disrupted for reasons not of my choosing, having to line up coverage for kids, chores, and life's little worries. I actually pulled the plug on retirement 6 months earlier than planned because it looked like I'd be doing every other week on the east coast for an entire summer. And the company had a policy that one of the travel days be on a weekend - so lots of unpaid time in an economy seat eating my knees.

My worst flight was coming back from Milan after an awesome trip. The hydrolics for the landing gear made a loud "bang" (causing 2 ceiling panels to land on passengers) when we were in our final approach to Newark. Next thing you know we're pulling up and all the flight attendents (and some off duty ones as well) are grabbying 3 ring notebooks and heading to the cockpit. Turns out they weren't "sure" our landing gear was locked in place. We got to do the tuck your head and pray emergency landing (they shut down our runway and lined it with firetrucks, just in case.). I never flew Continental again after I told friends at work and 2 different friends had similar experiences - both on Continental. (There were other maintenance issues like seats falling apart with exposed foam sticking out of the traytables and broken sinks in the lavs so I suspect maintenance wasn't being done properly.)

That didn't stop me from flying - just from flying on that airline.

 

[check6]

I don't know how people that fly for a living can stand it. My niece's husband is a corporate pilot that flies at least 4 days a week, multiple legs a day, with several overnight stays, and weeks away from home on training, etc. And those pilot seats are a lot more cramped than commercial coach. I'm glad I didn't have a job that required many nights away from home.


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I did it for a living and for the most part enjoyed it. Additionally I commuted 1200 miles to work 3 times a month so I can relate to what it was like in the back. With the exception of the 737 and MD-80's, the cockpits are quite comfortable. Boeing cockpits were extremely loud and Airbus the most quiet. Fatigue was a problem on international flights across the Atlantic. Four crossings in six days left me zombie on days off. That has changed with 2-man cockpits as they are all augmented with an extra relief pilot.

Having said all that, even with our low cost air travel, my wife has to hold a gun to my head to fly anymore.

 

[check6]

Only because you didn't know what was going on in the very front two seats of the airplane!

Just to dispel any fears for those flying commercially, icing is taken VERY seriously and has been since the Air Florida accident. Everyone errs to the conservative side and takeoff is prohibited when "freezing drizzle" conditions exist. Having been based in the upper Midwest, flying in winter conditions is completely safe when adhering to established company procedures.

 

[kramer]

With flying, I focus on results. I have crossed the Pacific Ocean 15 times in the past 8 years. I can almost never sleep on a plane and I certainly don't look forward to long flights.

But I can't get over these amazing facts: I wake up on one continent, and go to sleep later that same day on another continent, 1/3 of the way around planet earth. And all this for well under a week's average pay for an average guy in the USA. And the travel is extremely safe. It is a superlative technical and economic achievement that I simply refuse to take for granted. My ancestors could never have dreamed that such a thing would be possible. I always tell people that, if I were an engineer at the dawn of air travel, I probably would have assured everyone that air travel would be too expensive and unsafe for such routine commercial applications.

I will be crossing the Pacific again in June, going from the Philippines to California, for the amazing low cost of $408 on an excellent airline ($815 Round trip). Simply incredible. Focusing on results makes me not mind the 18 hours in a couple of planes.

 

[jollystomper]

Though I have done a ton of flying for work, I don't mind it. Maybe because I had never been on an airplane before I was 21 and saw it as an exciting part of work. However, even I have my limits these days . A couple of years ago I could have increased by base salary between 10-20% if I had been willing to take a job that required 100% travel, almost all of it air, and I declined. If I am going to fly a lot it, it will be fore my own pleasure.

As was mentioned before, focusing on the destination instead of the journey helps. I don't mind getting to the airport early, I learned how to dress/pack to get through TSA quickly (plus find I get the TSA pre-check close to half the time I fly), I sleep easily on flights (even through takeoffs and landings), and having traveled with our kids when they were young have empathy for those who do so (which almost got me a date once, but I was already married ).

The most troublesome things I find are connecting flights (I'd rather pay extra for direct where possible) and not getting an aisle seat. I have been in weather/equipment delays many times, but my attitude is that I'd rather them take the time to check things out than rush and risk the alternative.

 

[marko]

But I can't get over these amazing facts: I wake up on one continent, and go to sleep later that same day on another continent, 1/3 of the way around planet earth.

What's also quite amazing is that before 1904 nobody ever flew at all! (ok, I know that's not exactly accurate, but...) The year I was born (1952) 'flight' was only 48 years old!!!

My grand-dad was born before anyone ever flew and lived to see a man walk on the moon within 65 years.

We went from the Wright flyer going a few hundred yards to sitting there drinking a cocktail and watching a movie at 35,000 feet in less than one lifetime.

Astonishing! (and why can't we make those leaps today?)

 

[marko]

And all this for well under a week's average pay for an average guy in the USA.

There used to be something called a 'round the world fare' which the airlines kept quiet about. Not sure they still do this.

As an example, if you were going to Europe, you'd pay like $3K for a RT Business seat. But for an additional $500 or so, you could then go all the way to Asia from your European city and then on home completely around the world.

So, even if there was a minor issue you needed to attend to in Japan, for the price of a ticket to Pittsburgh, you could head from Europe and get there for peanuts. It made a "one day trip to Asia" possible for practically no cost and allowed you to deal in person on something that otherwise would've been too expensive to fly in for.

I would take these jaunts about 8 times a year and would joke that sometimes I'd go clockwise, then counterclockwise so that I wouldn't get dizzy.

 

[Mulligan]

A 3 hour flight know matter how fat the person next to me stealing part of my paid for seat is still better than a 20 hour drive. TSA can poke and grab anything on me they want so I can avoid being in a car that long.


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[ArkTinkerer]

Use to do flights to nearby Dallas and return the same day. With the overbooking and TSA delays at each end that doesn't make sense anymore. In fact, almost any place I can drive in less than 4-5 hours don't make sense for a flight any more.

 

[aaronc879]

A 3 hour flight know matter how fat the person next to me stealing part of my paid for seat is still better than a 20 hour drive. TSA can poke and grab anything on me they want so I can avoid being in a car that long.

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I don't think that's a reasonable comparison. First, it's only a 3 hour flight if you leave a big city to go to another big city. Otherwise there would be at least one connecting flight. Second, that's 3 hours of time in the air, but you can add another 3+ hours in airports even if there's no lay-over. Plus there's time to get to the airport from your house and from the destination airport to your final destination. Flying would be much more expensive(generally) and more of a hassle for a short time savings. Don't see why it would be worth it unless you have some medical problem that limits your driving ability or if money is no object.

 

[mpeirce]

But I can't get over these amazing facts: I wake up on one continent, and go to sleep later that same day on another continent, 1/3 of the way around planet earth. And all this for well under a week's average pay for an average guy in the USA. And the travel is extremely safe. It is a superlative technical and economic achievement that I simply refuse to take for granted. My ancestors could never have dreamed that such a thing would be possible. I always tell people that, if I were an engineer at the dawn of air travel, I probably would have assured everyone that air travel would be too expensive and unsafe for such routine commercial applications.

+1

Seriously, we live in an amazing time.

I simply can't imagine the ordeal my various ancestors went through to cross the atlantic back in the 1600/1700/1800's.

I just walk from air conditioned terminal into air conditioned aluminum flying tube and am mildly uncomfortable for a few hours to retrace their steps. I'll take it.

 

[aja8888]

Use to do flights to nearby Dallas and return the same day. With the overbooking and TSA delays at each end that doesn't make sense anymore. In fact, almost any place I can drive in less than 4-5 hours don't make sense for a flight any more.

+1

Plus, no rental car, baggage hassles, possible cancellations, etc. Anywhere within a 1,000 mile radius of where we live has become a driving trip. That's one of the reasons we bought the cars, too.

 

[Bestwifeever]

It probably makes a difference too if the airports are relatively big and close. We are close to two, and using the bigger airport means we rarely need a connecting flight (will even be flying nonstop to and from Japan in May).

All things considered we still love road trips regardless of distance so we prefer them (leaving on one in a week), but if weather (like the three inches of snow now falling grrrr), time, and little things like large bodies of salt water between us and the destination interfere, we can put up with the temporary annoyances of air travel.

I know our travel by whatever means won't continue indefinitely.

 

[ArkTinkerer]

This might deserve its own thread but I'm curious how many drive more than fly now that they are RE? Some of our best trips were just taking off with a rough idea of where we were going to go and wandering the back roads.

My mother has made two major roadtrips with her friends, all in their 70's. Across the US, loop up thru Canada, or down the coasts. Trips that took 3-5 weeks and tallied 1000s of miles.

 

[Nodak]

This might deserve its own thread but I'm curious how many drive more than fly now that they are RE? Some of our best trips were just taking off with a rough idea of where we were going to go and wandering the back roads.

My mother has made two major roadtrips with her friends, all in their 70's. Across the US, loop up thru Canada, or down the coasts. Trips that took 3-5 weeks and tallied 1000s of miles.

I love road trips and avoid interstates just so I can see more of the country side.

 

[Nemo2]

I love road trips and avoid interstates just so I can see more of the country side.

Haven't done a road trip in a while, but DW & I never had a set itinerary and would often take roads at random......I swear that, in places such as WV, the only people who drove these routes either lived along them or worked for UPS.

 

[38Chevy454]

Pre 9/11 flying was not too bad, much less troubles and hassles. Post 9/11 it sucks. I have done plenty of work flying and my general feeling is the current flying process is nothing more than a flying bus, with additional security hassles to go on top of it.

Flying now is merely to get somewhere faster, it has no enjoyment. The only good thing is the efficiency of time.

 

[athena53]

This might deserve its own thread but I'm curious how many drive more than fly now that they are RE?

We'll be doing more. The family weddings in Austin and Atlanta are good examples: we'd rather drive 12 hours over 2 days than fly. We're also pretty sure that the days when DH just can't hack plane travel are approaching. That's when we'll do more serious road trips, probably to California on one trip and the Grand Canyon on another. He did 99% of the driving to/from Austin and came home perfectly healthy. Put him on a couple of domestic plane flights and he gets sick.

 

[Texas Proud]

Use to do flights to nearby Dallas and return the same day. With the overbooking and TSA delays at each end that doesn't make sense anymore. In fact, almost any place I can drive in less than 4-5 hours don't make sense for a flight any more.

Yea, prior to the long security searches and 'required' early check in... there was one time I had to deliver something from Houston to Dallas...

So, boss said 'take this to Dallas'... go downstairs and get a cab to Hobby and jump on a SW airlines plane... fly to Dallas and land (say 12 noon)... take a cab to a bldg downtown and tell the cab to wait... take the paper in and deliver, take the cab back to Love filed and get on the 1 PM plane back to Houston... I do not think you could do that today....