WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS AIRLINE INDUSTRY?

You've built up a supply of frequent flyer mileage, and now that you want to use them, the airline has no seats available for when you want to fly. You're flying across the U.S.A. and you get hungry. Peanuts! Deal with it. Or, on some flights you can pay five dollars or so for a pre-packaged "meal," provided they don't run out of selections before the cart gets to you. Want to check your bags curbside to avoid the line at the check-in desk? Be prepared to pay for the privilege. Costs ago up. Service goes down. And the public keeps their lips zipped. What lies ahead? I fly a lot, domestically and internationally, and one thing I'm seeing more and more---sadly---is that the travelling public puts up with more and more abuse, suffering in silence, discomfort and security-angst. As long as the customers don't complain loudly and clearly, the abuses will only get worse. Cheap Tickets in Lap Class? When will the airlines offer Cargo Class flights, where they wrap you in insulation and stack you in the hold? Then comes Lap Class---cheap tickets if you're willing to sit on someone else's lap. And cheaper still if you let someone sit on your lap. Eventually there'll be O.H.C. Class---Overhead Compartment Class, where you get to lie flat and motionless in the dark space where carry-on luggage used to go. It may be claustrophobic, but boy is it cheap. I kid, of course, but with a frown, not a smile. Air travel on domestic airlines wouldn't be so bad if they kept pace with many foreign airlines. I flew recently from Mexico City to Quito, Ecuador via Panama City, and return, on an airline known as Copa. Never heard of it? Neither had I. But Copa did a fine job---hot meals and free booze on all four segments, and service with a smile. (Stay tuned for an article later this month on the Galapagos Islands, which is where I was headed from Quito.) My Copa experience compares with a recent flight on American Airlines from Los Angeles to New York, departing LAX at noon (commonly known as the start of lunch time) and was served nothing more than a bag of peanuts. I would have bought a box lunch, but they had run out long before the cart go to my row. (Of course, I should have bought a lunch-to-go at the airport, but the long wait at security didn't allow me time for such a luxury.) Want to use frequent flyer miles? Fuggedaboudit. Airlines are allowing fewer freebie seats per flight, and encouraging more customers by giving miles for credit card purchases. Screeching frustration is the result for loyal mileage customers. Meanwhile, the inane security procedures, which reportedly are of no value whatsoever, get even more ridiculous. I've been on a number of flights, and heard of more from other travellers, where passengers have to go through a security check after they disembark from a flight! As if you acquired some forbidden hair gel at 30,000 feet. Better to Drive? Given all the time wasted---getting to the airport up to two hours in advance, suffering ever more frequently delayed flights, waiting for baggage to arrive from another planet---I have crunched the numbers and find that for any journey of upwards of 300 to 400 miles, it's better to drive. My crunching takes into account weather, costs, urgency of the trip, number of people travelling with me, amount and type of baggage, need for a vehicle at the destination and time of day for outbound and return trips. The wear and tear of driving is about equal to the frustration and jostling of flying. Bottom line: I'll pick driving over flying. "Open Skies" Agreement Offers Hope Naturally, overseas trips aren't conducive to driving. If you are planning a trip abroad, there is some hope for better times ahead. Starting on March 30, the "Open Skies" agreement goes into effect, That's a pact between the U.S. and the European Union which will allow any airline from either side of the Atlantic to fly to any member-nation destination on the other side. Until now, for example, European-based airlines flying out of the U.S. could fly only to their home country. Air France could fly from the U.S. only to French destinations. British to British. And so on. Open Skies will allow Air France, for example, to fly from Los Angeles to Rome. Or British Airways from New York to Amsterdam. And vice versa. The European airlines are now plotting out which routes they think will be profitable, and the competition by this summer could be ferocious. That could mean cheaper airfares, as the airlines scramble to create revenue. Keep your eyes wide open for good deals via the Open Skies agreement. Shop around like you've never done before, both on the Internet and by phoning the airlines directly. Travel agents should be on top of all the good deals (but be prepared to possibly have to pay the agents for their ticketing services.) If you see heavy duty advertising for specific international routes, that could mean a lot of empty seats are available on those routes, which could in turn mean lower prices. Most all transatlantic flights do offer meals and free booze, but those amenities might end if prices are forced down by competition. Check with each airline to learn what will be served, and prepare accordingly. (As a courtesy to your seat-mates, skip the onions on your Whopper.) And please, for the benefit of anyone who will be flying in the future, if you are treated poorly complain long and loud, in writing. If you don't, the abuse will only get worse.