Dogged by the dog days of summer
Just felt like posting about the general malaise that accompanies this wretched time of year.
Well, for mostly everyone, summer is awesome because the weather's nice. Down here, it's just wretchedly hot. I'm adjusting, but it's still flippin' hot.
Anyway, I'm pissed off about airline tickets. And airlines and air travel in general. What used to be fun and exciting and glamorous has now turned into a necessary evil or something to be endured.
My most recent travel experience had me sitting on filthy planes and dealing with some of the worst customer service ever (this means you, Airtran. Worst. Airline. Ever.). All while paying (well, Mom paid) close to $400 dollars for a connecting flight to the middle of nowhere that resulted in a 17 hour journey home. Ok, I'll knock off the 3 hour drive to the airport and the 45 minute detour to grandma's house. So it was a 13 hour and 15 minute journey home.
Do you know how many awesome places you can get to in 13 hours and 15 minutes? You can fly from New York to Tokyo in 13 hours and 55 minutes. I'm sure there's plenty of other amazing point to point routes that one could take that can get them halfway (or more) around the world in half a day...I just don't feel like researching it right now. But seriously: why should it take someone more than half a day to get from Missouri to Florida when you can go from New York to Tokyo in roughly the same amount of time?
To be fair, we were stuck with all sorts of delays because a thunderstorm in Atlanta shut down the airport for enough time to screw up the entire national air system for the remainder of the day. But this is the 21st century. They should have this crap figured out by now.
But instead, thanks to deregulation, rising oil costs, and the general-yet-retarded business philosophy that demands rising profits every year despite the inevitability what what goes up has to come down, air travel sucks ass and is too expensive for anyone.
Yet we fly anyway, because we have no choice. No adequate rail system exists to lure people into taking the train where they need to go. Unless they're willing to pay more and travel slower, that is. And believe me: as someone who took the train from DC to Orlando and paid for two tickets to do it (one for me and one for my car) as well as journeying on a hellish 13-hour-up and 15-hour-back voyage from New York to Toronto...Amtrak ain't worth it.
Grrr...I'm just being cranky and pissed because I want to go to Jersey for a weekend but I can't because it's too expensive. If I had $400 bucks to throw around I could get the flights that I need in order to make the trip enjoyable, but I don't. And I don't have any vacation time yet either. Boo.
Even JetBlue, the best domestic airline that flies direct from Newark to Ft. Lauderdale, is on my shit list. Their prices really aren't so great anymore and that makes me sad. :(
Ok...better go try and do something to take my mind off of being pissed. Laters.
Well, for mostly everyone, summer is awesome because the weather's nice. Down here, it's just wretchedly hot. I'm adjusting, but it's still flippin' hot.
Anyway, I'm pissed off about airline tickets. And airlines and air travel in general. What used to be fun and exciting and glamorous has now turned into a necessary evil or something to be endured.
My most recent travel experience had me sitting on filthy planes and dealing with some of the worst customer service ever (this means you, Airtran. Worst. Airline. Ever.). All while paying (well, Mom paid) close to $400 dollars for a connecting flight to the middle of nowhere that resulted in a 17 hour journey home. Ok, I'll knock off the 3 hour drive to the airport and the 45 minute detour to grandma's house. So it was a 13 hour and 15 minute journey home.
Do you know how many awesome places you can get to in 13 hours and 15 minutes? You can fly from New York to Tokyo in 13 hours and 55 minutes. I'm sure there's plenty of other amazing point to point routes that one could take that can get them halfway (or more) around the world in half a day...I just don't feel like researching it right now. But seriously: why should it take someone more than half a day to get from Missouri to Florida when you can go from New York to Tokyo in roughly the same amount of time?
To be fair, we were stuck with all sorts of delays because a thunderstorm in Atlanta shut down the airport for enough time to screw up the entire national air system for the remainder of the day. But this is the 21st century. They should have this crap figured out by now.
But instead, thanks to deregulation, rising oil costs, and the general-yet-retarded business philosophy that demands rising profits every year despite the inevitability what what goes up has to come down, air travel sucks ass and is too expensive for anyone.
Yet we fly anyway, because we have no choice. No adequate rail system exists to lure people into taking the train where they need to go. Unless they're willing to pay more and travel slower, that is. And believe me: as someone who took the train from DC to Orlando and paid for two tickets to do it (one for me and one for my car) as well as journeying on a hellish 13-hour-up and 15-hour-back voyage from New York to Toronto...Amtrak ain't worth it.
Grrr...I'm just being cranky and pissed because I want to go to Jersey for a weekend but I can't because it's too expensive. If I had $400 bucks to throw around I could get the flights that I need in order to make the trip enjoyable, but I don't. And I don't have any vacation time yet either. Boo.
Even JetBlue, the best domestic airline that flies direct from Newark to Ft. Lauderdale, is on my shit list. Their prices really aren't so great anymore and that makes me sad. :(
Ok...better go try and do something to take my mind off of being pissed. Laters.
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