Why I hate flying

I just got back from a trip to Las Vegas.  As it is a few thousand miles the only practical way to get there is by flying.  The past few trips out there were on Southwest,  direct flights,  long boring flights.  You have to entertain yourself.  They do two drink and snack runs though, which is nice,  they also say “it is a long flight,  take a few” when refering to the crackers or cookies they offer you.  They also let you check baggage.  Their boarding procedure is not perfect but it allows you to get on the plane,  and get a seat in a more organized way than the zone and assigned seat airlines.

My flight this time was on Delta,  I wanted a break in the flight and I wanted entertainment.  The seats wear cheaper and even with the stops the trip there was only about an hour longer (layover in Atlanta).  The flight home was a fucked up red eye, but we wanted an extra day in Vegas, so I took it.  I cannot blame the airline for the red eye,  I knew what I was getting into.

What I do blame Delta for is disorganization and a cost cutting environment which destroys any value to the customer.  A checked bag was $15.  We decided to check one bag.  If we had not checked it we would have carried it on, just as we did one of our bags.  There would have been no cost saving in fuel,  the bag would have still been on the plane.  I am guessing some people probably pack lighter or do not take an extra bag because they don’t want to pay the fee.  What I saw though were bigger bags being crammed in the bins.  Maybe this cuts down on the number of baggage handlers, but I am guessing people check enough baggage that again this savings is small,  as they still need them to pack the bags that do get checked.  No this fee is just a way to make some people pay more money for the same service they got before.  This adds no value to the flyer and actually makes us wait while fucktards with huge bags clog the isles trying to stuff it into a spot that is too small.

Getting on the plane is a chore.  They let wheelchairs, elite flyers, first class and blah blah blah on first, then zones 1-4 on.  The zones are not broken into seat assignments,  I am guessing they assign these in a way to maximize confusion and aisle blockage.  NWA flights for some reason still do the “better than you” followed by back of plane and then front of plane seating.  This still sucks because by the time the front of the plane folks get on all of the bin space is used and they stand around reorganizing peoples bags to fit their own.  Again,  this adds no value and only pisses me off more.

Food and drink service is sparse.  Anything beyond 2 cookies or a bag of peanuts costs you money.  On a long flight you either pack your own food or do like I did and pay $5 for a box of crackers and other snacks.  It was not worth $5 but I was hungry.  No value added, not much saved and it pisses people off.

Three of the planes I had the honor of being on seemed to be older than me.  The seats were old and not well padded.  they were dirty and one smelled of piss,  real piss.  Only one of the planes was newer and had in seat screens.  This is what I will pay more for, but SW is adding pay for use Wifi.  I will use that on my next flight to keep my mind on other things.  TV sucks anyway.

Basically all of these changes act in the airlines favor and serve to piss off the casual flyer.  Southwest understands this and that is why they have loyalty.  I used to hate them because of the seating clusterfuck,  but now with check in online and an assigned place in line I think it is better.  There is a reason people swear by Southwest,  they add value to their ticket price.  If they can do it so can the other airlines.

I will never fly another airline when I have a choice.  I will fly Southwest.  If it costs more so be it,  I know that for the extra few dollars I will not get frustrated.  I know that I can check my bag,  get a decent snack and probably have a plane that was assembled in the past century.