Originally Posted by
lwildernorva
Yeah, flying was a whole lot better when you could smoke your cigarette, walk out onto a tarmac, and board a prop plane that had a better than negligible chance of crashing.
Oh yeah, FF programs have jumped the shark (hey, thanks for the retro use of a term nobody's used since 2000). Because nobody gets to fly anywhere, anymore on any FF program. I mean nobody's interested in FF programs at all.
Oh, wait, there's at least one internet forum that appears to be devoted to discussing in minute detail how to get FF miles? And a ton of blogs? And every time a credit card company puts out an offer more people jump on it?
As the eminent hipster Emily Litella used to say, "Never mind. . ."
I have flown a lot of those prop planes over the years. From Philadelphia to Ithaca NY. Miami to Tallahassee. Miami to Bimini (sea planes). Etc. I'm not sure what the crash/death stats were on those flights - but a lot were kind of scary because they were small planes that couldn't fly "over the weather" (whether the weather was snowstorms up north in the winter - or thunderstorms in the south in the summer). The one thing I can tell you for sure. The barf bag factor was really way up there
. But I find myself on planes these days that still don't get "over the weather".
FWIW - the Holy Grail of many old time FF people like me is free front of the plane international travel. It's where you're getting at least $4-8 or sometimes more per mile. A lot of us old-timers got used to being able to get it. If we saved our miles - and were patient. And planned our trips carefully. Now - it's seems to be on its way to becoming an historical footnote. Robyn