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Hernando Today

Abandoning Our Commercial Airlines

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By JOHN NASH, Of Cabbages and Kings

Hernando Today

Published: March 12, 2009

John Herbert's March 1 column about "Giving Up On The Airlines" is right on mark. Nevertheless, a predictable gaggle of readers take exception to his comments and conclusions. I'd like to add my weight to his argument.
My introduction to commercial air travel began back in the late 1930s, when my mother often drove the family to the marvelous new New York Airport (later named "LaGuardia") where we watched our father board twin-engine, prop-driven, tail-dragging aircraft for long flights to places such as Boston, Chicago or Atlanta. The terminal was then a seeming marble palace, where the few persons seen were well dressed and behaved. I especially recall mink stoles, hats (not the baseball variety) on men as well as women, high heels clicking along polished floors and even an occasional poodle on leash.
When Dad returned from such adventures, he'd happily fill us in on the details of his frequent flights. He spoke glowingly about the charming, talented and highly-trained registered nurses who worked the cabin, but was less complimentary about the food, which, he recognized, was a challenge to serve while in-flight.
When World War II spread to our shores, I was just old enough to get involved. I was then to have my first personal experience with commercial air travel. I traveled from New Jersey to San Francisco, aboard one of those DC3s that my father knew so well: The trip took nearly 30 elapsed hours, with interminable stops at just about any and every air patch between coasts. The cabin temperature was poorly controlled, the seats rather uncomfortable, the food forgettable but the cabin crew and fellow passengers were great.
Since that early flight, I have traveled aboard just about every type of passenger aircraft: the largest propeller-driven; the first jet; seaplanes and amphibians; flying boats; helicopters; blimps; and the largest jet aircraft. I have, at one time or another, been in most of the world's air terminals and experienced about every known airline while traveling to/from more than a hundred different nations. I've slept, using four adjacent seats in a 747; been the only passenger in a 707 traveling from Rabat to Nairobi; enjoyed various first-class accommodations; and recently suffered so much from air travel that I no longer use it at all!
Today's air travel has become an intolerable situation. The passengers are often uncouth, unpleasant, socially irritating, boorish, inconsiderate and even unwashed. That tends to cause the cabin crews to become unfriendly and less than helpful.
Seat space has gradually shrunk, so that long flights are physical torture. Onboard meals are basic sustenance, but cost as much as a decent snack at a restaurant — and many passengers now bring aboard their own smelly food, which they tear into while seated next to (even partly in) your assigned space. The cabin is soon ripe with odors of garlic, tomato sauce, peanut butter, onion and sardines.
One must usually wait in line to use the mop-closet-sized sanitary facilities, and, when walking the narrow aisle, it seems to be a stroll through the village dump. Sleep — even rest — is impossible because lights and in-flight movies are left on all night, your neighbors are jabbering away at full volume and the children behind you are either kicking your seat or crying at the top of their lungs.
Terminals add to the misery. They are usually overcrowded, reminding one of a disturbed ant hill or perhaps a snake pit. Children run helter skelter, with no apparent supervision, or else pause briefly to stuff greedy little faces with fattening snack foods, before tossing the residue on the floor and finally wiping greasy hands on their chair seat.
Boarding the aircraft is reminiscent of herding cattle into a chute, so that they can be burned with a hot iron before being castrated. Once aboard half the passengers try to stuff oversized bags into overhead bins, loudly arguing with each other and with the cabin crew. The bins quickly fill to overflowing; bags that then won't fit under the seats are lugged away by mumbling unhappy attendants.
Then there's the small matter of lost, delayed, and/or pilfered checked luggage, which is becoming endemic. As if all that were not bad enough, there's the added chance that you'll come down with some unpleasant respiratory disease, within a few days after completing a flight of any significant duration: poor sanitation; inadequate air changes; careless personal health habits; flight-induced stress; and dry air in the cabin all contribute to the high probability of contagion.
For at least a generation, I have traveled far and wide, while researching and photographing exotic locations for use in travel stories. I've given that up, because of the intolerable pain involved with "cattle class" air travel (my budget never allowed for upgrades). Today, I still travel to create new stories and photos, but go only by private motor vehicle and confine my trips to some eight states in the Southeast.
Incidentally, I've found that, within that region, there are places as exciting, pleasant, educational and enjoyable as may be Paris, Rome, Madrid or Bali. Try taking your next vacation trip within a few hundred miles of home, and drive yourself to get there.
You may well agree that it was wonderful — especially not having to suffer the tortures of today's commercial air travel.

Of Cabbages and Kings is a regular feature of this paper. The author invites relevant, thoughtful comment, which may be sent to him at john@have-eye.com.

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