What happened to the golden days of flying?

Have you ever seen pictures of passengers aboard commercial aircraft in the 1950’s and 1960’s? Everybody is dressed up. Some trans-Atlantic flights had dining rooms with seats made of black walnut (http://www.planebuzz.com/dining.jpg). Although mainly used by the rich and business people, it was really a service industry designed to make air travel a memorable (good) experience. Delta has announced recently that they are changing their uniforms and the designer of these uniforms says they “evoke the time when air travel was glamorous and sophisticated.” Although it is great that the airlines try to do things to make travel more enjoyable, there is only so much they can do as air travel has become a mass transit low cost affair.

Flying today has become an aggravating, stressful and low service affair. This is, in part, from the massive amounts of people traveling as airlines have become more discount carriers as well as the post 911 world we now live in. You arrive at the airport an hour or so ahead of your departure. Driving around outside looking for the sky cap to take your bags, you realize that most of these have disappeared in a post 911 world. If you find one, you better not leave your car at the curb for any length of time or the airport police will come to see why on earth you would leave your car for a second while checking in. If you decide to check-in inside, you wait in a ream of endless queue lines. You finally get to the front. It used to be that helpful people would man the ticket counters to take your bags. Now, in the push to have people use E-Ticket machines, those same people just stand at the E-Ticket machines encouraging people to use them. They do everything they can not to provide human service and to force you to use the machines. In our airport, we have to lift our bag onto the TSA counter so it can be inspected. My back goes out every time with all the juggling of the bags every time I fly. In other airports, they do not even take your bags. They make you lug them around to another station to have them screened.

Next, you wait in the security line. Take out your laptop, have any toiletries in a specific sized bag, take your shoes off – you are about to be searched if you are lucky. If, for some reason your ticket contains an SSSS on it, you are going to get “special screening” – an extensive search. Once you are done with either of these processes, your put your disheveled self back together and go through the airport to get to your flight. All this and you have not even boarded the plane. When you finally board the plane, you see that there is a mad rush for overhead space as travelers nowadays seem to bring as many bags as they can carry onboard. I usually carry on a beverage. Most of the time, the flight attendant walks by and insists on taking it. If a person is lucky, there are no runway delays or screaming babies onboard. You connect at a hub airport and the assuming you made your connecting flight the whole boarding process happens again. When you to get to your destination, many times you are worn out after flying, waiting to get your bags from the baggage claim, riding a bus to get your rental car and getting out of the massive airport. All this usually adds another hour on the back end of the flight.

For private air travelers, the glory days have not gone away – they have improved. For starters, you can arrive at your plane about five minutes before departure. Usually, there is no security check whatsoever. Most of the time, you can arrive ‘at’ your plane meaning you can drive onto the tarmac so that your luggage can be loaded onto the plane by the flight crew. You are traveling with just the people you want onboard. Before you go, you can get yourself a beverage and snack of your choice. When you are ready to go, you give the command and you are off in the air. It is like a private club at 35,000 feet. You can have extensive catering if you choose. You usually can go direct without any stops which bypasses all hub connecting airports. Usually, the charter company will arrange your rental car or car service. Before you land, the pilots can arrange for the rental or car service to be driven up to the plane. The pilots then load your luggage into the car and you are on your way. It is amazing how much time you save on each end of your flight. Basically, to sum it up. Whenever I fly commercially, I dread the experience. Whenever I fly private especially for a vacation, flying private becomes part of the vacation and something to look forward to.