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Old 03-22-2015, 04:33 PM   #21
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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 airport.


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Old 03-22-2015, 04:48 PM   #22
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You know you have flown and traveled on business too much when:

1. You clean out your desk and throw away 17 frequent flyer ID cards including ones from Braniff and Eastern Airlines.

2. You have flown on the Concorde and have a souvenir pocket knife to show for the $4,000 one way ticket.

3. You belong to eight rental car programs and the last thing you have a record of is trading in some points for a French made wireless home phone in 1988.

4. You have 600,000 + points in three hotel club programs and they are all expiring by the end of the year and you don’t care.

5. You have flown over a million miles on three different airlines and two are no longer around.

6. You gave your last dozen or so free flight tickets to relatives you don’t like.

7. You neighbor says you are “so lucky” to get all those free flights.

8. You refuse to fly on another airplane for the rest of your sane days.
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Old 03-22-2015, 05:19 PM   #23
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Too bad so many of you got so burned out on travel for work that you won't now travel for fun.

They are like night and day!

I did some travel for work. A handful of trips a year or less, and occasionally we tacked on a short vacation and DH would fly out to join me. Or come with me on a Europe trip.

I disliked travel for work, sometimes intensely, but travel on our own is just fine. The flying there and back is a small percentage of the total trip so we get over that part of it easily. Certainly going to Europe - DH is absolutely not willing to cross an ocean by ship.

I crossed the Pacific twice by ship when a teenager. That was enough for me! LOL!
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Old 03-22-2015, 05:22 PM   #24
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I crossed the Pacific twice by ship when a teenager. That was enough for me! LOL!
I did the Pacific once and the Indian Ocean/Med three times in my late teens/early twenties......loved it!

Chacun a son Goût, I guess.
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Old 03-22-2015, 05:25 PM   #25
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+1000 We have casually thought of traveling somewhere by train someday, but for us that's all. Maybe someday.
I took Amtrak one-way from Eugene OR to San Jose recently and I really enjoyed it. I splurged on a sleeper room ("roomette", actually) for the 16-ish hr overnight trip (nope, I wasn't in a hurry). The roomette might be awfully tight for two people, but for just me it was great -- I had a big window all to myself to enjoy the scenery, I could wander over to the lounge/dining car for snax or company, and the sound of the train lulled me to sleep. It was a splurge, but totally worth it to me.
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Old 03-22-2015, 06:17 PM   #26
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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.
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Old 03-22-2015, 06:35 PM   #27
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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.
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Old 03-22-2015, 06:54 PM   #28
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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.
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Old 03-22-2015, 07:17 PM   #29
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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).
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Old 03-22-2015, 07:48 PM   #30
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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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Old 03-22-2015, 07:50 PM   #31
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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!
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Old 03-22-2015, 09:13 PM   #32
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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.
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Old 03-22-2015, 11:45 PM   #33
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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.
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Old 03-23-2015, 12:09 AM   #34
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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.
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Old 03-23-2015, 05:05 AM   #35
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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.
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Old 03-23-2015, 05:45 AM   #36
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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.
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Old 03-23-2015, 05:47 AM   #37
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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?)
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Old 03-23-2015, 05:59 AM   #38
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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.
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Old 03-23-2015, 09:03 AM   #39
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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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Old 03-23-2015, 09:14 AM   #40
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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.
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