Archive: Opinions

EditorialI am a lousy traveler.  Or rather I hate traveling by commercial airlines.  It seems to me that I pay a lot of money to be treated like part of a cattle herd, suspected of transporting contraband, crowded into small spaces and subjected to motion sickness with no regard to my plans or schedule.  Commercial air travel has gotten worse and worse, prices are (pardon the pun) sky high, the chances of your bags ending up where you do seems chancy at best.

My family traveled to West Palm Beach to visit family last month.  They were thankful I wasn't along.  They left on a Thursday.  The first flight left Ithaca late, but they were assured that the connection was also running late so they wouldn't miss it.  That turned out to be accurate if you count a canceled flight in the 'late' category.  As usual the airline provided one person to service at least a hundred upset customers. My family waited in line for three hours, and finally got onto a flight to Tampa, which arrived at 1:30 in the morning.  They intended to rent a car for the remainder of the trip, but found that it would cost an additional $300 because they were renting one way.  But that was irrelevant, since there wasn't a single car to be had in the State of Florida: it was Daytona 500 weekend!

So they took the train, which, about a half hour out, struck a double semi.  Apparently it hit the truck only hard enough to tip it over.  The passengers didn't even know they were in an accident until it was announced.  (The truck driver wasn't hurt.)  Three hours later the train started again, only to stop again.  Three burly state troupers with "POLICE" stencilled on their jackets were clearly looking for a fugitive.  They finally made it to West Palm that night.

And my wife says she considered herself lucky: most of the passengers on her flight were still in Philadelphia until Sunday!  However, one of her bags is still missing.

I used to work at home for a Virginia company, and I'd go to headquarters three or four times a year for meetings and training.  The first time I flew, driving to Syracuse, parking my car, then getting a direct flight to Dulles, where the company representatives were having a heck of a time finding all their employees.  After that I drove every time.  It's a pleasant drive (except when you get to Harrisburg, where there is perpetual road construction).  I listened to tapes of old radio shows and barely noticed the time passing.  I calculated I could make the trip in about an hour more than the plane journey could get me from home to hotel.  

It was cheaper, more comfortable, I treated myself with respect, the entertainment was to my taste, and I had nice scenery to look at.

And I didn't have to deal with the negative psychology.  Who wants to travel to a 'final destination' in a tube of metal hurtling toward the runway.  And why do they have to call that destination a 'terminal?'  These are not words that instill confidence.

Back in the 20th century I think we all assumed that by this century we'd have a colony on the moon, that travel would become easier and simpler, and that progress would be made across the board to make life better.  Yet here we are Earth-bound.  I'm not just talking about the astronauts.  I've probably spent more time on the ground in Philadelphia than my cumulative time in the air.

Something is going to have to give.  It is hard to believe the air carriers can survive charging so much for such a bleak experience.  It makes staying home sound like a vacation!

----
v3i13