Off Topic Rant About Airlines

Maybe you should have kept the jet, eh art?

"One flight was mostly gay guy cabin staff"

I know I ain't PC - but that's true. Every time I fly at least one of the flight attendants is gay. Except on American where they!re 60 year old women.

Take me back to the days of "Coffee, Tea, or Me?"

How about this guy?


HONOLULU -- A flight attendant is landing in the Guinness World Records book after spending 63 years moving about the cabin.

Ron Akana, 83, worked his last route over the weekend on a United Airlines flight from Denver to Kauai, ending his career in the state where it began.

Airline deregulation in the U.S.A. was sold as the best new way to give passengers more choices and lower fares. One big lie. It made it easier for the airlines to cut operating costs and increase fares while reducing service. The public balked and began flying less. Over decades business travel has been cut. The spoke and hub system makes a non-stop flight a rarity, unless you pay top dollar.

Lobbyists have been successful in changing the way space between seats is measured. End result is two more rows in coach and your knees jammed.

Cost cutting has eliminated meals, closets for garment bags, pillows, blankets, free baggage check, free ticket exchange or rebooking, current magazines and even souviner (sp?) wings for children.

True, the War on Terror has caused many new restrictions in the process of ticket purchasing, boarding, checking baggage and airport security. Air travel had already started to suck before 9/11/01.

Every major U.S airline has gone or is going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. TWA, Eastern, PanAm and Braniff, among others, have disappeared. Delta, United, American, USAir and Northwest survived chapter 11, but Delta acquired Northwest.

When the dust clears, the U.S. will have three major airlines controlling the market, rates and routes. Perhaps that is as it should be in a deregualted free market economy.

When they charge to use the lavatory on the plane--an idea once presented and quickly killed--I will pee in the aisle.

Hooters had an airline. We need it back.

Airlines are a good early warning gauge for the collapse of western civilization. The government gives them money hand over fist so the government types can continue living the lie about what is happening in this country. Since The Sexual Assault squad (TSA), I haven't flown at all. Fuck em.

I miss the days of PSA in California.

"Hooters had an airline. We need it back."

One of the airports Hooters used to fly out of was Gary, Indiana. I met a dancer at Industrial Strip, located in nearby Hammond, that claimed she was a flight attendant on Hooters Air.

She was pretty hot and gave a helluva dance. I would fly Hooters if dances were part of the service.

It sucks, Art.

SD- Was that a "cut and paste", or an extemporaneous post based on your accumulated knowledge/experience ? If the later, good writeup, except for the part about higher airfares. Overall, fares are 10% or more lower in inflation adjusted $$ compared to 1980s.

Art- You get what you pay for. A big shot oilman like you using RYANAIR, fer chrissakes ! If they haven't already, many searches on Ryanair generate articles about them spearheading the idea of charging for lavatory use in flight PLUS removing 2-3 toilets from aircraft so they can add ~ 6 more seats. For your future travels, airlines like Korean Air, Emirates, Qatar, Singapore, etal, have predominantly attractive 20- something females as flight attendants. Then again, those countries don't have western world standard human rights / age - sex, etc workplace discrimination laws/practices, either. Check out their websites for fares,please let us know how they compare to Ryanair, and Air Canada internet specials, 'kay.

Of course, being retired and having no car gives me a certain flexibility. I check the days and if I can't get a reasonable flight on SW, I take the bus. Southwest seems to be no worse than the others and seems friendlier.

minnow - Yeah, Qatar Air is gonna serve me really well when booking my next flight to Disney World, DTW-MCO, LOL. But I'll keep 'em in mind for my next booking to Beirut or Entebbe.

JFK to Beirut (BEY) for the low, bargain price of $1113 USD.
Kevlar vest not included.

Minnow--That was me blowing off steam on this thread. The errors or misinterpretations, if any, are solely mine. I have a real anger about unpredictable airfares that makes me long for the days when there was one fare--fixed--right up to flight time. Yes, fares are generally lower, if you buy far enough in advance. I'll learn to live with these changes when I grow up.

i travel regular from UK to Canada, i never use air canada...
try www.canadianaffair.ca

i pay about £300/$450 return, always spot on.

it's air transat flights, but its always cheaper through this british travel company.

just thinking... you lot pay loads more tax, prob about $600-700 from canada return, but still a cracking deal...

oh... and ryanair, easyjet, jet 2, best for europe, very cheap as you say.
please tell me you managed a quick trip over to 'the dam' art ?

@minnow,

I was traveling with family for most of my vacation. I wasn't about to pick up the tab for business/first class travel for my 20 family members so I just went with the flow of the trip as organized by an anal female cousin. I bought a few meals for the group in Sweden and that was expensive enough.

@steve229,

That Netjets share might have come in handy for this trip but I am still embarrassed about that Netjets episode during my retirement. Way too 'nouveau riche' for this old hillbilly.

I spent 42 years working for Delta Air Lines in a professional job. I had no public contact but the decisions that I made, in many cases, had a direct impact on the traveling public. I have seen the ups and downs of the industry.

I much preferred the job prior to deregulation. Deregulation gave the public what the wanted. Lower fares but it came at a price. In order to keep their customers the established carriers had to cut fares to match the upstarts that had way lower operating costs. Rent a couple of jets and hire a bunch people off the street and they were in business. No pensions to pay. No labor contracts.

In order to cut fares, they had to cut service. No more free meals, etc. I saw my pay and benefits get cut. I saw the Chapter 11's. I am just glad that they have been able to recover and be where they are today. I like those pension checks. And I still fly free.

"Deregulation gave the public what the wanted. Lower fares but it came at a price. In order to keep their customers the established carriers had to cut fares to match the upstarts that had way lower operating costs. Rent a couple of jets and hire a bunch people off the street and they were in business. No pensions to pay. No labor contracts."

Count me in as a fan of deregulation. The airlines can keep the free meals, which by and large sucked anyway. With a little advance planning, I can go just about anywhere in the country for a few hundred bucks (roundtrip), whether I am flying weekdays of have a weekend stay-over.

Now there is no question that the service currently sucks on these airlines. I also cannot fly directly to many far flung places anymore, and I am normally flying out of NYC! I also hate the baggage charges, though as a preferred member on my favorite airline I don't have to deal with them when I fly with that carrier.

But even with all of these extra charges and other inconveniences, I'll take the current state of affairs anytime over the high costs and limited options that used to exist prior to deregulation. It is not my responsibility to pay for the bad economic decisions of certain airlines and I think that competition has made things much better overall.

Anyway, just my two cents.

I have not flown since 1998. I don't wish to put up with the security BS, and the nickel & diming fees of the Airlines. I don't plan to EVER Fly again.

"Count me in as a fan of deregulation"

You're right Rick. I have flown to a Florida property probably 200 times since the late 1980's.

I often pay the same or slightly more than I did in 1988. It does take some diligent planning, but the Internet makes that easy. Sure, back then I got a hot breakfast and now I don't even get a full can of Coke, but what other product has maintained prices like that.

Hell, let's just charter a jet for TUSCL use, think of the conventions we could have !!

I hate and fear those traitors at the TSA. I've gone from flying a couple times a month to flying once or twice a year.

Traitors. That's a good word.

Um, I will point out that the *real* traitors are the ones who conceived, created and continue to fund that abomination of an agency. The workers are just flunkies. Still contemptible, but not intm the same league as the schmucks in the White House and Legislature.

Interesting comparison - my holiday experiences with the realities of flying in Canada's northern bush.

Jets vs. DC-3: even though the DC-3 was packed with drums of diesel and pallets of food I was much more comfortable in my pull-down hammock seat in the noisy, unpressurized DC-3, lots of leg room and no smelly fat lady or crying baby seated next to me.

Security? - stifling, intrusive, inefficient at airports; nonexistent at the bush charter company's offices. I showed up, greeted the secretary by name, she shouted down the hall 'farmerart's here', return shout 'send the old bugger out to the plane', went out to plane and clambered up the little ladder, threw my bag on the floor and pulled down my seat, plane took off 5 min later.

Cost? - all flights during my holiday came to about $8k; each charter from Yellowknife to the strip at my exploration camp costs my company $15k.

Ambience? - pure misery on commercial airlines; jolly camaraderie on the DC-3, bullshitting with the mechanic about the merits of F-150 vs. Dodge Ram and sitting in cockpit chatting with pilots as we landed at camp.

GMD: Right you are, although it's hard for me to remember that while I'm being groped by some goon. I wish Romney would take a stand on TSA. Right now I'm not seeing much difference between the candidates on this issue.

Art, last time I flew a DC-3 was Provincetown to Boston. Even better was the Ford Tri-motor, with its wicker seats, on the Sandusky to Put-in-Bay run.

Heck, I loved the DC-3 we flew on from Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands. Got to love duct tape, it was being used all over the place to hold the plane together. LMAO Sweet ride, and the landing was superb !!