Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Air Travel is gone to the dogs

So why should I be losing sleep over the fact that air travel is nothing like it used to be? I don't know why, but I know I just am.

It seems everyone now takes for granted that you pay for checking your bags onto the airplane and that all you'll get in flight on a plane like Delta flying to as far away a place as Florida from NY for close to or a little over 3 hours...is peanuts OR pretzels OR cookies with soda is just beyond me.

I am so jonesing for Air Jamaica right now...for the next time I fly at any rate, which probably means I'll have to put up with all the taking for granted that they there sometimes have a tendency to do....

BUT at least they try to show you a movie in flight! At least they try to serve you something that is something to look forward to, like a hot meal!

You at least feel like the flight experience is going to be a good one and something to say you did. It seems the American Travel industry experience is so racked with financial problems and other races to the bottom of the customer experience that they don't realize the premium people from elsewhere put on actually getting a chance to go up in an airplane...

These days it seems the people behind engineering the customer service experience believe it should be nothing more than a bus ride. You know like leaving the city and going across to New Jersey and in fact some plane rides aren't even like the Greyhound experience but are more like catching the Chinatown bus to DC or to Boston. Just ordinary.

As if anyone cared, I protest.

As far as I am concerned, all that energy, all that excitement put into preparing oneself for the trip is not to be treated lightly...but alas in the race to the bottom, it seems to be no less than a bus ride in the sky.