Enroute

My location is somewhere in the airspace between Chicago and Minneapolis. It is amazing what the airline companies are skimping on to keep scraping by and stay in business. I'm sure that everyone has heard that now most companies won't even let you check a single bag for free. (Fortunately, with elite status, you can still get a few breaks and I am able to bring three bags without a charge…as long as I maintain Gold Status with United!) Bikes…now that's a completely different story. If one my three bags is a bike box, forget the 'free' part…they just raised it to 100 bucks! I actually look forward to traveling internationally because they don't charge that ridiculous fee.

Well, actually, I don't know if that is still in effect. I haven't been overseas in a long time. Flying to Mexico (like my Cancun trip last October) or flying to Canada (Vancouver last month) does not count. I think the official reason the United Rep. gave me was "You have to fly over an ocean for it to be considered 'international'. My counter-argument, that if I need a passport where I am going means it should qualify as 'international,' didn't have the effect that I was looking for…I still had to cough up the fee both ways. I guess I will find out in a few days when I am back in the Orlando airport checking in for my trip to Austria.

Anyways, back to the latest skimping by the airlines. For as long as I have been a frequent flyer, you never got less than 500 Sky-Miles for any flight, no matter the distance. This was great for those silly Colorado Springs to Denver flights when we were in the air for less than 20 minutes. Just being a member and sitting on the plane got you 1/50^th closer to a free ticket. Well, 500 miles is no longer the minimum…that COS to DEN flight will now rack up a whopping 50 miles (or whatever tiny distance they claim). So the Chicago to Minneapolis flight that I'm sitting on right now is something like 354 miles. Talk about getting CHEAP. They really don't want to give away those free plane tickets!

Apparently, they don't want to give away the pretzels anymore either. I have just been on two flights in a row where drinks are served without any form of snack food accompanying it. That has got to be a first! I can remember the days when I flew Delta with my family to go snow-skiing. We would call ahead and request a special 'kids meal' for our seat. Instead of the 'adult' food that they served to every passenger, we would get something specially designed for people under ten years of age. Yes…there were actually days when you could fly across two-thirds of the continental USA and get served an entire meal while sitting in the coach section!

I'm not really complaining…I can pay the bag fees, I can live without the miles, and I can bring my own snacks. I completely understand the crunch that the airlines are in with the price of gas these days. Sometimes I have to skip driving to swim practice for training because I can't justify the 50 miles of gas! I am just looking around the airplane and imagining what is going to disappear next…seat cushions? Tray tables? Bathrooms…or will they just charge you another fee to use the toilet at 8000 feet?