The feds have laid out a rule that will slap airlines with big fines if they let a plane full of passengers sit on the tarmac for more than three hours waiting to take off.
That means the line between an acceptable and an unacceptable delay is … three hours??
If that isn’t a good example of how bad things have gotten in the aviation industry, I don’t know what is. We’re now dealing with fewer flights, crowded planes, unpleasant crews, a bare minimum of service, more and longer delays, additional fees for checked bags or making any change, and – of course – higher and higher fares.
Still I feel obligated to note here that, for the most part, Hawaiian Airlines remains an exception to most of those problems. They still give you a meal – yes, it’s airline food, but pretty good nevertheless – the crews are young and enthusiastic, and they fly my favorite airplane, Boeing 767’s, between here and the mainland.
OK, that said, the problems we routinely encounter when flying around the mainland are more than enough for me to recommend Amtrak as an option. Here’s the key: A long-distance train is part of your vacation experience … not simply a means of reaching the place where your vacation begins. (I took this photo aboard the southbound Coast Starlight as we were passing through a horseshoe curve about 20 minutes before arriving at San Luis Obispo, California.)My next train trip will be in April: New Orleans to Chicago to Washington back to Chicago (by a different route) and from there to Los Angeles. Whee! I can’t wait.
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