Category: airlines

I was on a US Airways plane last week that was held together by Band-Aids. Literally.

The flight safely transported me to my destination for the cheapest available flight. Mission accomplished.

This reminded me of a column by Sharon Schmickle on MinnPost earlier this month where she complained about the condition of the plane that safely transported her to Argentina:

Rigid and tattered
To our dismay, the plane we boarded in Atlanta for the nine-hour flight to Buenos Aires last month was an older model Boeing. Seats were rigid and tattered. One tray table was cockeyed. Forget about movies; you could barely see the tiny, circa 1980 overhead monitors.

Delta has been an all-Boeing airline, which means it’s a very uncomfortable one. A few years ago, Northwest’s planes were ranked as the oldest in the industry. But it had done a lot of recent upgrading, to the relief of passengers paying for long hauls overseas.

There isn’t necessarily a correlation between the age of the plane and the condition of the interior, so the logic in those statements is a bit tough to follow. Regardless, Ms. Schmickle was safely transported from Atlanta to Buenos Aires in 9 hours. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

This reminds me of Louis CK’s appearance on Conan in October where he points out that we need to take a step back from time to time to realize just how good we’ve got it. Jump ahead to 2:00 for his thoughts on people’s air travel expectations:

We’re living in good – but slightly tattered – times.

Here’s what I love about Winecast:

We live in a world where people like love to complain about travel. And what do they complain about?

1. Flight delays after getting to the airport two hours early so they could stand in a mile-long line 6 years after 9/11.

2. Ridiculous security procedures that make us feel more annoyed than safe.

3. Connecting through Phoenix on flights from Minneapolis to Seattle to avoid taking out a home equity loan.

But none of these common complains are what have Tim from Winecast worked up. Nope. What’s his beef?

Why Don’t Airlines Have Better Wine?

I’ve been on more than my share of flights this summer, both domestic and international, and one thing that bugs me is how poor wine service has become on airlines.

Yea, I know, there is some pretty decent juice poured in business and first class, but I’m talking about the bottles served for $5 in coach. In my recent experience none of the wines on offer are worth the money and I tend to drink ice water on flights as a result.

LOL. Tim has a point, and it’s very on point for his Winecast site.

And you know what? He’s right.

The person who picks an airline’s wine isn’t the person responsible for kicking your luggage down the luggage chute, checking your shoes thoroughly for explosive toe jam, or scheduling more flights than can possibly take off on time on any given day. Their job is to make our flights more pleasant by offering a decent mini-bottle of wine to help make at least one part of the flight interesting.

Hopefully Tim will be able to make change on the wine front in the airline industry. Tim, I’ve got your back.