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Shanghai Yummy: The State of Air Travel
Years ago, a first class ticket entitled one to lounge in the upper deck piano bar of a 747. Today first means having a seat that actually reclines enough to take a nap instead of crumpling yourself against the window if you're fortunate enough to have a window seat and pretending not to notice every time the guy next to you elbows you. And that's on an international flight. Domestically, first just means you get free alcohol and there's no middle seat. Which counts for something... but not as much as paying ten times the fare. Who populates the vast majority of first class seats today? Are they rich? Are they powerful? Perhaps. But a far more accurate term would be "frequent flyer." First class today exists not as a sanctuary for the rich like in the early days of air travel and the legacy of the steamships, but rather as a marketing product to attract frequent travelers. In large part, they are not paying the first class fare to sit in that first class seat. They got ...
I haven't flown in quite a while and I don't remember many happy experiences on planes. There have been a few exceptions. Business Class on Thai Airways was one exception this was about 7 years ago, but it was great. I've never gotten off of an international flight feeling so refreshed and ready to go. Air Canada's brand spanking new Airbus A340 was another one. It has bathrooms that were actually pretty big with comfortable seats even in coach. Other than that most of the times have sucked. JAL was a nightmare since the flight was packed with screaming Japanese kids and I had to stay over at Narita for a night because there was no connection the day I arrived in Japan. I mean they supplied a hotel and all, but talk about inconvenient. And what's up with Narita these days? I've been through there about 12 or so times in the last few years and everytime it's under construction and everytime it's chaos. There are never enough seats for waiting passengers (about 75 seats per gate instead of the 350 you need for each plane) and it's a pain in the ass to get to other terminals if you have a connection on different airlines. Good points about Narita are the showers ($3 for 1/2 hour and it's ultra clean) and free playstation games. They have about 3 times more planes landing than gates and have to bus everyone in (which sucks). I hope they complete their upgrade someday and I hope they planned to make it about 10 times the size of the current airport.
Anyway, didn't mean to get off on a rant...The current state of affairs is sad in the airline industry. They are literally losing their ass and there is really no way to stop the slide unless air travel spontaneously picks up again. Of course that is not likely due to a very freaked out citizenry and businesses trying to save on costs by limiting travel. Also, the pressure of high speed trains will soon arrive as bullet and maglev projects spring up around the country. Soon, many people will avoid the BS and wait times of the airport for the ease and convenience of bullet trains. Imagine downtown San Francisco to Downtown LA in 2 1/2 hours. I mean it'd take you about 30 minutes just to get from downtown SF to SFO and about 30 to 45 minutes to get from LAX to downtown LA. Not to mention the hour you'll wait in the airport and the hour plane ride. I'm looking forward to the first bullet train in CA. I know I'll be middle aged by the time it's finished, but I'm going to be one of the first to ride it. San Jose to LA in 2 1/2 hours. Wow!
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