It never really sucked to be honest. As long as you don't have to run across Greenbow County, Alabama on your two feet, then it's all good. Count your blessings folks.
It never really sucked to be honest. As long as you don't have to run across Greenbow County, Alabama on your two feet, then it's all good. Count your blessings folks.
Freqent Flyer wrote:
Finisher wrote:
In general, I strongly disagree, but:
"Airplane travel" - depends on airline, aircraft type and seat
"Security" - depends on country, airport, time of day and TSA status in the US
"Airports" big variance here, and again it depends. Terminal B at LGA is shameful compared to places like Seoul or Singapore, and have less amenities to many municipal airports I fly in/out of.
I agree. I dislike American carriers and find Asian Airlines to have much better service.
Add Taipei to that list of airports along with Seoul/Inchon and Singapore.[/quote]
Absolutely agreed, transferred through all 3 of these airports many times and it just doesn’t compare to anything we have... Anytime I’m flying over the Pacific, I prefer Asian airlines ahead of our own, no questions about it.... Better service, comfort, food, etc. Asiana and EVA Air are my preferred choices!!!
KawauchiFTW wrote:
Freqent Flyer wrote:
In general, I strongly disagree, but:
"Airplane travel" - depends on airline, aircraft type and seat
"Security" - depends on country, airport, time of day and TSA status in the US
"Airports" big variance here, and again it depends. Terminal B at LGA is shameful compared to places like Seoul or Singapore, and have less amenities to many municipal airports I fly in/out of.
I agree. I dislike American carriers and find Asian Airlines to have much better service.
Add Taipei to that list of airports along with Seoul/Inchon and Singapore.
Absolutely agreed, transferred through all 3 of these airports many times and it just doesn’t compare to anything we have... Anytime I’m flying over the Pacific, I prefer Asian airlines ahead of our own, no questions about it.... Better service, comfort, food, etc. Asiana and EVA Air are my preferred choices!!![/quote] I agree. As a frequent flyer to Asia my choice of airlines is EVA and Singapore. Thai used to be good but have slipped a lot over the past 10-15 years. Do be careful on some of the low cost Asian regional airlines. They are a bit lacking in comfort and service.
Hardloper wrote:
Luv2Run wrote:
Bars have always been plentiful in airports.
Free Wifi is nice and as you note charging station are more prevalent.
However, the plane ride part has gotten worse. Seats are narrower, leg room is lessened. Airlines nickel and dime people. Harder for many flyers to sit together without additional fees.
I forgot to specify that yes, one downside is narrower seats, but if you're a skinny runner it's not an issue
The legroom has gotten shorter and I am average height.
The narrow seats are a problem when the guy next to me is large.
don't sleep on the subway either wrote:
Bad Wigins wrote:
it's a piece of cake& Most of them have plenty of benches to sleep on.
Danger, danger Will Robinson! That does not compute!
You realize I'm talking skyside, right? Everyone bought an expensive ticket and went through security to get there. There's also cameras everywhere. Not a profitable venue for criminals.
Heartland runner wrote:
sub_3_is_the_goal wrote:
The worst part of air travel has nothing to do with airports or the airlines. It's our antiquated air traffic control system where s single cloud in the sky can back up traffic for hours.
Updates to ATC won’t make storms safer to fly through. Pilots and airlines avoid severe weather for the sake of safety and it’s going to cause delays when there are fewer good weather routes available to fly. It’s a part of air travel, deal with it. If you take a bus you don’t expect it to run red lights or roll right through construction zones at 70 mph.
But the ATC is criminally antiquated. It is funny that people say we should have socialized medicine like in Europe and Canada but balk at privatizing ATC when it is privatized in Europe and Canada (at least to a great extent).
35” inseam wrote:
Hardloper wrote:
I forgot to specify that yes, one downside is narrower seats, but if you're a skinny runner it's not an issue
It is an issue if you’re anything approaching tall on a transatlantic flight. I’m 5’11” and I cannot stretch my legs unless flying business class which, to counter your earlier argument, has got more and more expensive with respect to economy (the price gap used to be more reasonable). And since the people next to me are rarely fellow skinny runners, I can’t really maneuver in my own seat.
I purposely dehydrate myself on long flights so that I don’t have to go through the acrobatics of getting out of the window seat past my “average sized” fellow Americans.
Aisle seat for me to avoid that problem and be able to get up and stretch whenever I want. It helps that I cannot sleep well on plane without ambien.
Precious Roy wrote:
I agree that airports are generally much nicer with good food options. As a kid, I remember eating a microwave burger at Atlanta Hartsfield airport. We have come a long way since then.
But a lot of things are still very annoying. I hate the fight for overhead luggage space and the charges for luggage. I hate having to pay extra to get a decent seat or just to keep your family sitting in the same row. I hate having to pay extra for food, wifi, etc. I hate that frequent flier miles are now a joke. It used to be that you could just get a ticket wherever you needed to go with your miles. Now, you have to fly super standby, leave at 4:27 am, take three connecting flights just to go from NY to Chicago.
Now you can get The Varsity in the ATL airport!
Luv2Run wrote:
35” inseam wrote:
It is an issue if you’re anything approaching tall on a transatlantic flight. I’m 5’11” and I cannot stretch my legs unless flying business class which, to counter your earlier argument, has got more and more expensive with respect to economy (the price gap used to be more reasonable). And since the people next to me are rarely fellow skinny runners, I can’t really maneuver in my own seat.
I purposely dehydrate myself on long flights so that I don’t have to go through the acrobatics of getting out of the window seat past my “average sized” fellow Americans.
Aisle seat for me to avoid that problem and be able to get up and stretch whenever I want. It helps that I cannot sleep well on plane without ambien.
I tried Ambien once. I was still texting when I fell asleep and when I looked at those texts later I had no recollection of the last 10 or so. Not to mention you’d think I’d taken peyote not Ambien.
I can’t do aisle on long flights. I just flew KLM last month and ended up with an extended legroom economy aisle seat for 7+ hours. The person next to me overflowed her armrest so I was squeezed off to the aisle side of my seat. I was bumped into constantly from both sides the entire flight. Knowing my seat assignment, I’d asked my GP for a valium, which I washed down with a brandy as soon as we took off. I think I watched movies for 7 hours because I was too uncomfortable to sleep but in too much of a stupor to read. It’s all a bit hazy.
I’ve flown a lot my whole life and I’d say the last 2 years is when flying has really hit its absolute low. I hate burning all my points for upgrades on leisure travel, plus I guess most people hate economy as much as I do so it’s becoming harder and harder to get bumped up on points on intercontinental flights. And even flying business class for work I’ve seen a huge decline in service on European airlines, maybe except Air France. As for domestic airlines, I flatly refuse to go on American or United. Delta is still decent, though I recently got stuck on a regional jet on a 3-hour Delta flight. It was economy and peanuts only. I didn’t think such flights existed unless they were last minute substitutions.
OK, end of rant. Yes, I realize I’m lucky to not have to travel by bus along with crated chickens, etc. etc.
Hardloper wrote:
Airplane travel used to be terrible, but not anymore. The security lines move quickly and they have enough staff to keep the wait times down. There are tons of good restaurant and drink options within airports and the prices are pretty much the same as in the city. Phone chargers everywhere and free wifi is standard. Airline tickets have come way down. I actually like taking short flights now where I may have chosen to drive the same route in the past.
For the planet, it does.
world traveler sometimes wrote:
i totally agree. flew Air Nippon from Tokyo to LA, 15 hrs. i didnt want to get off. the service was so great. non stop movies, hot towels, booze. i love it.
I call this one. It's no way 15 hours from Tokyo to LA on any airline flying non-stop. You have a tailwind and it's somewhere between 9.5 to 10 hours max for that route on any airline. Even Beijing to LA is only 12 hours. Taipei to Seattle is about 10.5 add another 2 for LA. Nippon also codeshares with Thai and United but they are all about the same time give or take a few minutes.
But yeah, Nippon has great service as does Turkish. EVA, Asiana, and Korean are pretty good although last time I was on Korean the food sucked worse than usual.
Hardloper wrote:
Airplane travel used to be terrible, but not anymore. The security lines move quickly and they have enough staff to keep the wait times down. There are tons of good restaurant and drink options within airports and the prices are pretty much the same as in the city. Phone chargers everywhere and free wifi is standard. Airline tickets have come way down. I actually like taking short flights now where I may have chosen to drive the same route in the past.
He’s right on this one. I’m traveling today, and even on one of the busiest days of the year airport travel hasn’t been too bad.
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35” inseam wrote:Delta is still decent, though I recently got stuck on a regional jet on a 3-hour Delta flight. It was economy and peanuts only. I didn’t think such flights existed unless they were last-minute substitutions.
Sadly, Standard Operating Procedure from Delta from majority of my recent experiences out of MSP. Delta seems to use regionals whenever they can.
Avoid airplane travel like the plague. I actually enjoy my home state enough not to travel much even in the winter. Most of my fam is local. I find traveling overrated as I've gotten older. Much rather kick back and watch a National Parks documentary.