The Joy of Flying

Air travel used to be a wonderful adventure.  People got dressed up in their suits and pumps and pearls and looked forward to the plane trip taking them to parts unknown with great anticipation.

The airlines also used to want to look after its passengers in any way they could.  Included in the ticket price was a hot meal, blankets, pillows, snack, drinks and earphones.

I remember when we fly first class to Paris, France on Air Canada it was the most amazing trip.  The meal served to us was as good as any high end restaurant we used to haunt and the wines were delicious and carefully pared with the food.  You also received a little kit with sundry toiletries to make your trip more comfortable includng slippers and eyeshades.

Now you are lucky if you get a packet of stale peanuts thrown at you. You may also have the option of a tired sandwich for $10.00 or more and all drinks must be paid for.  Cash is, of course, not accepted and the only means of payment has to be a credit card.

There was an allowance for a decent amount of luggage and your comfort and safety were very important to the air crew.

Flying now is not fun.  It is an ordeal at best and you get the distinct feeling that most airlines could care less about anything but the bottom line.

I will give you a recent example.  Someone flying from Toronto to Houston to Guadalajara ran into difficulty when his plane from Toronto left an hour and a half late due to giving two people the same seat on the place.  They, therefore, missed their connection and had to stay overnight in Houston and fly to Guadalajara.

Clearly this was the fault of the airline but the passenger in question was not even offered a coupon for a sandwich and had to pay for the hotel out of his own pocket.  As it was so late there were not other planes flying to Guadalajara with that or any other airline so an overnight stay was non-optional.  You would think some offer of something would have been forthcoming but it was not.

Rest assured this incident will be reported to the President of the airline and some restitution will be demanded.  Having to pay for a hotel was in no way the fault of the passenger and some form of compensation should have been offered.

My mother always told me that if you want to get anything accomplished you should always go to the head of the company for results as the presumption was they would care about their customers, clients or passengers.

I am not so sure that is still the case but it is certainly worth trying.