Everyone Hates to Fly

A columnist at the Washington Post raises her complaint, but the force of the article is a discussion she had with a reformer who has some thoughts on how to fix it.

Flying for me is a mixed bag. Because I am what the government is pleased to call 'a trusted traveler,' and because I fly out of a small regional airport rather than a big hub, the experience can be not-so-bad. I object to being disarmed on a philosophical basis, but aside from that it's mostly just a minor set of annoyances punctuated with expensive beers at airport bars if there are long waits. 

If anything goes wrong, though -- and it so often does -- it can quickly become an ordeal even with those advantages. The last trip was bedeviled by honesty horrendous weather, which is nobody's fault (not even the Romans'), but the airline abandoned me in Charlotte and didn't ever try to reschedule the flight. I had to get my son to drive halfway across the state and back to collect me. (At least I didn't have to hitchhike: few are going to pick up a bearded biker!).

So I'm sympathetic to the complaint and the desire to make improvements. Unfortunately most of the suggestions here are either (a) government regulations, or (b) pipe dreams like 'building a high-speed train network.' The author is wise enough to realize the latter isn't going to work out -- "pipe dream" is her choice of words for it -- but it still makes the list. 

Competition usually improves things more than government regulation (which is more likely to break things), but as she also points out there are very high barriers to market-entry with airlines. You can't just open up another airline like you can another bakery or machine shop. It requires a substantial amount of capital just to buy the planes and recruit the skilled labor necessary to operate them. 

So it could be the answer is really just to fly less: use more internet and phone instead of in-person meetings, travel by car instead, take the train if you live in the northeaster corridor (which is basically the only place in America where that option makes sense). The fewer people who fly, the less stress on the system.

11 comments:

  1. Even going cross country, I'd rather drive myself. I can carry my firearm. I can also bring my golf clubs with me wherever I have to go.

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  2. Anonymous5:40 PM

    I try not to fly unless I have no choice (Transatlantic.) I do not enjoy being a passenger after 10+ years in the left front seat. TSA et al do not add pleasure to the experience.

    LittleRed1

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  3. raven8:11 PM

    Yep. Left seat is definitely the best!

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  4. LR1, with the growing pilot shortage, you could land a new job.

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  5. The Virtual Reality programs of being not only able to travel to Vienna, but some simulacrum of Vienna 1925 will also change things. Support companies will figure out how to provide the food and music. However expensive, it will be cheaper than a flight, especially when there are multiple people in the party. "But it won't be the same!" True, but if your family of four can buy five really cool vacations for the price of one that might have flight delays, bad weather, and jerks in the next seats, I think it will have a market.

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  6. The Virtual Reality programs of being not only able to travel to Vienna, but some simulacrum of Vienna 1925 will also change things.

    Indeed. My last job was test director for my employer's F-22 simulator. We installed an actual cockpit inside a geodesic dome onto which was projected the outside world as the pilot would see it, right down to clouds and birds as well as the terrain below and aircraft in the sky. It was sufficiently realistic that our visualization software engineer, who was prone to motion sickness in the real world, would get motion sick whenever I maneuvered hard, so I'd have to warn him off when I was about to start.

    Now upgrade that capability to a hologram inside which the virtual tourist could wander, and there's some virtual travel to be had. There's already the beginnings of that--not yet holographic, though--in the virtual tours some realtors set up for the houses they're pushing. Lots of computer games where the player follows a gun around and watches the mayhem in front of it do that pretty well, too.

    I don't think holographic virtual tours will replace actual travel, though; I think there'd be a measure of complementarity and of overlap. See what there is to see, and then decide in many cases to go see and experience in person.

    Eric Hines

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  7. Anonymous5:34 PM

    Tom, if I were younger, I'd consider it.

    Complicating things is that it appears that I can no longer hold a medical certificate. (Long story, but I was prescribed something without being asked if I was a pilot. Taking that once may have been enough to keep me from ever flying as pilot-in-command ever again.)

    LittleRed1

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  8. That really sucks. I admire the discipline it must have taken not to hunt down and whack that doctor.

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  9. E Hines...guy I know is a very experienced pilot, has flown many kind of aircraft & has worked as an FAA Designated Examiner. Tried one of the Navy flight simulators in the museum at Patuxent River. Sim was configured as a Cessna 172, an airplane in which he has had probably at least 2000 hours. Something went wrong, the simulated plane pointed at the ground and the controls had no effect. He said he was absolutely terrified.

    Also, I read about someone flying another military flight sim who got into simulated trouble, decided he'd better eject, and realized that he'd neglected to remove the safety pin from the ejection seat. He screamed.

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  10. @ E Hines - yes, through the first generation at least, among those who have actually traveled, there will still be a hankering for real experiences. We still want to have live music now, or live theater, even when a better product is available more easily. There's just something about Other Human Beings, y'know? Even the stupid ones.

    And yet as with music, where there is far more recorded than live experience over the last hundred years, I think the travel market will gradually erode as well. I love to drive a standard still, despite the inconvenience. But this will not last, even with me. I had the opportunity to drive something similar to my first (1966 VW Hatchback) car a few years ago. It was such fun to look at the dashboard, the controls, the way the windshield tilted, the feel of the seat. But as it got cold and the foot-heat did nothing, the wipers did not clear, and the control on ice was far worse than I remembered, I was glad to do about 40 minutes of shifting and get out. Those were great adventures, great stories. In the end, I saw that I had gradually been spoiled by improvements and really did like this much anymore.

    A concierge travel will persist for quite a while, I think. But I can't really project out very far, can I?

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  11. AVI, what you say about music is certainly true for me regarding sports. I've had occasion to attend in person NHL and NBA games, and it was great to be part of the crowd and to see the players and the plays more closely than I could on television in the days when I still watched professional sports.

    However.

    On television, I could see far more of the game and each play's development, than I could from the supposedly favored seats of just a few rows back from court- or rink-side. The multiplicity of camera angles, the presence of replay, all enhanced the overall experience. Still, were I interested in professional sports, I'd go to particular games to be there in person. I just wouldn't be a season ticket holder.

    Eric Hines

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