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SteveDallas · 09-25-2003, 01:48 PM

I recently returned from San Antonio, TX where I attended the SIGUCCS conference. The conference itself was good, but jeez. The travel.

Without boring you with the whole story, my flight left San Antonio for Chicago an hour late. Sometime while I was in the air the airline decided that rather flying Chicago -> Philadelphia I would fly Chicago -> Charlotte -> Philadelphia (getting in 2.5 hours later than my original schedule). I learned this because they called my house and left a message on my machine. Mrs. Dallas discovered this message when she came home from work and left me a voice mail on my cell phone, which fortunately I received as soon as I landed in Chicago. I proceeded to the counter and asked why I couldn't take the direct flight to Philadelphia since it was running late too. And so I did. (I did not even ask when I was supposed to have found out about the intinerary change.)

This sucked. Between security delays and weather delays and just general airline ball-ups, I spent the whole day travelling to accomodate less than 5 hours in the air. Everybody I know who has to fly anywhere agrees that the logistical hurdles are becoming greater and greater and more and more frustrating. So, what I've started thinking about is....

At what point does air travel start to suck so much that people don't do it? When do I start saying, "you know, much as I get out of this conference, it's not worth my while to go if I have to take a plane to get there?" When do enough people start staying home or taking other transportation that the airlines' business suffers? And should we as a society give a damn if the airlines go under? If so, what do we do about it?

09-25-2003, 01:48 PM	#1
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	The discontents of travel I recently returned from San Antonio, TX where I attended the SIGUCCS conference. The conference itself was good, but jeez. The travel. Without boring you with the whole story, my flight left San Antonio for Chicago an hour late. Sometime while I was in the air the airline decided that rather flying Chicago -> Philadelphia I would fly Chicago -> Charlotte -> Philadelphia (getting in 2.5 hours later than my original schedule). I learned this because they called my house and left a message on my machine. Mrs. Dallas discovered this message when she came home from work and left me a voice mail on my cell phone, which fortunately I received as soon as I landed in Chicago. I proceeded to the counter and asked why I couldn't take the direct flight to Philadelphia since it was running late too. And so I did. (I did not even ask when I was supposed to have found out about the intinerary change.) This sucked. Between security delays and weather delays and just general airline ball-ups, I spent the whole day travelling to accomodate less than 5 hours in the air. Everybody I know who has to fly anywhere agrees that the logistical hurdles are becoming greater and greater and more and more frustrating. So, what I've started thinking about is.... At what point does air travel start to suck so much that people don't do it? When do I start saying, "you know, much as I get out of this conference, it's not worth my while to go if I have to take a plane to get there?" When do enough people start staying home or taking other transportation that the airlines' business suffers? And should we as a society give a damn if the airlines go under? If so, what do we do about it?