I hate flying. A decision to fly anywhere means handing over an unlimited amount of time to a soulless corporation. I know the statistics, driving is more dangerous. I understand the clock - planes fly fast. But the pain is just not worth it.
My previous flight in 2008 was more typical for my flying experience. Arriving on a morning with questionable weather, I checked in to a plane that was initially listed as on-time before its status was updated several times, leading to lots of confusion. Eventually on the plane, departure was greatly delayed as the Captain informed us there was a minor mechanical problem with the plane. Eventually we took off, exceedingly late and arrived in a special kind of hell - Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport. Missing the second flight of the day, I sat in the airport for several hours. The airline decided the first flight's delay was due to weather, not the mechanical problem the Captain knew about. Eventually, I asked to be put on the next flight home. This was not possible since one connecting leg of my return flight was not on the same airline, meaning I had no choice but to sit several more hours in Atlanta. Eventually, I was put on a plane in an opposite direction from my final destination of Las Vegas, NV. I was again blessed with several hours sitting in another airport. While Fort Lauderdale seems like a nice place to spend some time, airports are like public restrooms - they are pretty much all the same and the goal is generally to get out as fast as possible. Eventually I was put on a plane bound for Las Vegas. By the time I was outside of McCarran Airport, I could have driven from my home to Nevada in less time than what the airlines were able to do.
And that gets to my biggest problem with airline travel. Arriving a day late, stinking and feeling shitty, after being routed all over the country counts as a win for the airline, "You got there, it was only a day late." But the Las Vegas Trip in question was only a few days. There is nothing I value more than my vacation time and the airline stole a considerable percentage of it. Once I bought that ticket, I was under the whim for whatever the airline wanted to do.
My 2008 flight was glorious compared to a recent situation. Filed under current events, a doctor was recently physically dragged of a United Airlines flight from Chicago O'Hare bound for Louisville, KY. He wasn't drunk. He wasn't unruly. He was a paying passenger, sitting quietly in his seat, just trying to get home. The flight was overbooked and United found it more important to get a few employees to Louisville rather than any passenger; United Airlines found its business more important than the reason for the business.
I understand why airlines overbook, but when it doesn't work out in their favor, they need to bite the bullet. Better options include:
Moving employee schedules since they screwed up and paying lots of overtime or whatever it took.
Putting the employees in a nice rental car to drive the five hours (yes, only five hours) to Louisville.
Chartering a plane since United screwed up.
Continuing to raise the amount paid to overbooked passengers until someone volunteered (give me lots of cash and a rental car and I'll drive myself to Las Vegas!).
Paying to move people to other airlines.
Anything ... other than dragging a bloodied elderly man off of a flight after he was allowed to sit down.
Making the situation even worse, the CEO issued a statement applauding the employees, while one of the officers involved in dragging the man off of the plane was put on leave. A CEO should not make up words like re-accommodate to try to sugar-coat the situation. What a wretched euphemism. Maybe the CEO should be re-schooled in the reason for an airline.
One of the rules we all learned in kindergarten was when we screw up, admit and say sorry. Doing otherwise makes a bad situation worse. Perhaps Oscar Munoz didn't learn this early in life; there is also a relatively high possibility that he may be a psychopath.
In the sad state of airline travel, there is no way to win. Paying more for a business class flight doesn't change the likelihood of getting anywhere on time (private jets probably do, but...). The people in the front of the plane are just as unlikely to arrive on time as the proletariat. The only way to slightly hedge the odds in the favor of the average traveler is to minimize connecting flights - a cheap 3-leg flight has at least 3x the chance of mayhem over a more expensive direct flight.
I never lived through this, but I sometimes wonder what flying was like before it was brought down to the lowest common denominator? Before people were crammed in a seat only big enough for a prepubescent anorexic girl. Before a short flight becomes an all-day affair. Despite my poor personal record with airline travel, I'm always friendly with the people at the gate and on the plane; at times, they have a painfully tough job becoming the face of bad corporate policy.
I'm hoping to head south for a day of ocean fishing in a few weeks. My travel time will be more than the time spent at the coast, but I'm looking forward to that as much as the fishing. I'll get to see familiar sites, and look for opportunities on taking a new route. I'll stay in cheap hotels and eat at small restaurants. I'll probably get to talk to interesting people and see things impossible to comprehend from 30,000 feet.
Thankfully, I love driving. I've turned "travel" from the worst part of my vacation to the best part. I've ridden my motorcycle through 50 states (*Hawaii was a rental). I love the areas that look like home in the Midwest; familiar, yet different. I love crossing the Mississippi and seeing the rolling hills transition to the great American plains - so much better than the lousy United planes. I love the big empty. I love the mountains and how arriving at them having crossed the whole country brings with a better frame of mind compared to being dumped out of an aluminum tube. I love the heat, the cold, the smells, the rain. I look forward to the challenges of roadway travel, because I know I have a little more control in how to resolve them. And I'm reasonably certain that nobody will drag me out of my vehicle because the road is overbooked.
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