August 16, 2008 9:52PM

“Flying” Back from Vaca

By Brian Sullivan

FareCompare.com’s Rick Seaney wrote a thoughtful response to my airline posting.   You can read it here.  http://rickseaney.com/2008/08/07/pay-more-and-live-fly-with-it/

Rick makes many good points about my statement that “flying is essentially the same” as it was decades ago.   Those points though are mostly off topic.   If I wasn’t clear what I meant was that while there certainly have been many technological and mechanical improvements in the act of travel (emphasis added) by flight, the general concept is the same: board plane, sit in seat, arrive at destination.   The fact that there are call centers in India doesn’t change the act of flying.   Wings, jet propulsion, loft.

Granted I haven’t been flying for that long (my first trip was in 1984 on the long-gone Western Airlines), but I seem to remember that it was about the same then as it is now.  If anything the fit is a bit tighter (some due to my age-based expanding waistline, some likely due to less “pitch” - the space between seats) and the planes a bit more crowded.  There are 747’s still flying that were in the air before my first flight.

I wonder if Rick read my next post about how my flight was delayed that Thursday, forcing me to miss my connection and not arriving until the next day.   I was annoyed because it cost me one less day with my family on vacation, but I was still gentle to the Northwest Airlines agents because I know their job is tough enough.   I can’t say as much for some of my fellow fliers.   As difficult as air travel can be, we should remember that the men and women at the gate have zero to do with any delays or cancellations.

And someday I hope to know what its like to fly free with award travel.   I don’t rack up enough miles.  Wish I did though with all these higher fares…