Confessions of a former frequent flyer
 

I have no idea when I developed a fascination for flying or aircraft. It’s always been there, and from the age of around 10 premium flying became an obsession. I still remember my first flights in front of the curtain as something very special. I was lucky, and ended up working for one of the most international industries there is, and my employers had great travel policies. Had a mid-life crisis at one point, quit my job and sold the flat. Travelled the world for a year, securing yet another year of gold status. At one stage or another I’ve held such status with AF/KL, SK or BA, sometimes two at a time. Loved it. Loved airports, loved people watching, loved lounges, loved seeing smartly dressed crews walking to or from boarding gates. I’d arrive hours early to enjoy it.

4 March 2020. Went for a day trip to CPH to burn some expiring miles. 12 March - the country closed down, borders shut. Since then I’ve flown four segments - two short return trips, one domestic and one to Berlin. I’ve read blogs, read articles, followed FT, spoken to friends during the pandemic. Now I’ve realised: I don’t miss it. The chaos, the queues, the lost luggage, the terrible service, having to wear masks for hours on end have killed the joy. I simply don’t want to fly anymore. Prices have gone through the roof, miles are difficult to earn and even more difficult to spend. I’m sick of worrying if my carry on is 200 grams over, sick of badly behaved fellow travellers, some of them also struggling with basic hygiene. I love London, it was my home for five years - but there’s no way I’m spending hours in an immigration queue to get there. I don’t want to worry about strikes and cancellations, with no information or help, with unreachable customer service. I don’t want the aggro.

My last gold card expired at the end of May. I have no intention of ever trying to get it back. It doesn’t mean I’ll stop travelling - but it’ll be seldom, and only to places I really want to go. I want the journey to be part of the experience, be it by car, rail, ship or plane. There was an article in a local paper the other day about travelling Europe by train. I’ve already decided to do it next year. Take the ferry to Germany, and various trains down to the Adriatic, stopping a day or two in the cities where changes have to be made. If the city is nice, I can decide to stay longer without having to pay through the nose to change my ticket or risk having my return cancelled. No worries about overweight luggage or leaving toiletries behind because they are considered a security threat. Take a different route home. Enjoy the journey, the sights, the experiences.

I’ve simply had enough.

I can relate somewhat to most of what you are saying, although I am not at the point of giving up yet. Air Travel is certainly not as fun as it used to be, I agree.

It was quite refreshing to read your post in the same as that it was not another ‘I will never fly BA again’, but rather being realistic across the board.

If you are serious about train journeys I would suggest you to have a look at https://silver-tray.co.uk/ . It offers some interesting possibilities for high-end, tailor made train journeys. One of the founders is a former executive with BA (from the good days, not the cut-to-the-bone days).

Not sure that “take the ferry” and “enjoy/relax” belong together so easily these days!

Sure, flights get cancelled, but trains get strikes or don’t run when the heat expand the tracks, ferries get log jammed queues, and cars certainly get more horror potential than any other means of transportation.

Totally sympathise with not chasing status. For the rest, There is always the option of not travelling at all anymore and using your feet, but short of that to me at least it’s not as though planes were getting a particularly short straw compared to other modes of transportation either now specifically or in general.

My view is that chasing status has suddenly become quite an old fashioned pursuit. I look at threads on here discussing TP runs and they now seem as outdated as discussing lighting up between courses in a restaurant. Frequent flying/flyers will undoubtedly become more and more frowned upon in the coming years whether we like it or not. Once my gold car expires I will continue to fly where I want to go and as the OP says ensure the journey remains part of the fun as much as anyone can but I don’t need to be an ‘elite’ to do that.

Agree the explosion in air travel is just not sustainable as the worlds population continues to grow and more and more want to fly; the golden exclusive days are truly over

Selecting carefully where you fly and when you fly will become more and more pertinent.

Agree with your point re TP runs!

That said I think Silver is still the sweet spot for the time being

This lifetime Gold might disagree with you.:D

Agree that makes the whole debate a lot easier!

If you're into trains, come over to Germany and roam around the country discovering unheard of places for only €9 for a whole month. The month of August lies before you before the offer ends. Yes, the trains are crowded, yes Deutsche Bahn is getting a lot of criticism for lack of punctuality and creating a chaos with this €9 ticket idea, but I have always been able to find a seat and the trains have got me to where I am going without extreme delays. But the amount of gems I have discovered far outweigh all of this. Yesterday I was in Velbert-Langenberg in the south Ruhr area, really beautiful and unheard of by the tourists (thank heavens). Same goes for Kempen, Aalen, and hundreds of others. The €9 ticket is good in city transportation too. It is not valid on Intercity trains.

Agreed. The German €9 ticket deal is amazing.

If you are looking at trains there are worse places to start than
https://www.seat61.com/
I have used the advice on there a lot and travelled from the UK by train to places as far afield as Africa and China.

I sympathise with the OP, and the last few months have been trying (that's me in a good mood), but having really stepped it up travel wise this past year (and clearly I'm not the only one) I realise that, in essence, I really did miss it. I missed meeting people face to face, eating and drinking in different countries and cities, talking to persons in boardrooms, offices, cafes, restaurants rather than on bloody Teams, and just doing what I always used to do and enjoy.

No doubt there are people who will feel differently, but to me what's so bewildering around the airlines' and airports' apparent failure to properly scale up is that most people I spoke to during the pandemic were, like me, of the view that they would be back on the road (so to speak) as soon as they were able to be, because face to face business was much more enjoyable and effective than tech based communications- so to my mind a resurgence in travel was always on the cards.....

I can understand the OP's perspective. For us old folks, we still like to travel to distant destinations ... and it's the destination that matters. The journey bit is something to be endured for the higher cause! Still booking BA/BAH and planning more, which will coincidentally renew Gold again.

Well said OP. Enjoy your train rides.

Majority of those currently flying right now:
1) Boomers squandering their retirement funds for overpriced tickets
2) Families on 'revenge travel' who aren't phased by airport conditions nor inflated tickets

While we can right! Looking forward to revisiting Hawaii next year. Forty years after our first visit. This time the journey will be much more pleasant, mix of first and club. Was ok to travel in economy while still young and flexible and enjoying a fag 😉. We’ll, hopefully, be enjoying a nice bubbly in CCR to start of our journey!

If BAEC Gold didn't already exist, you probably wouldn't invent it:

* Enhanced Avios earning - but Avios are increasingly hard to redeem (honourable exception for Nectar) and TFCs are ridiculous !
* Higher luggage allowance - but who wants to check a bag these days ?
* Group 1 for boarding - this of course is more honoured in the breach :(
* OK, TFW is usually great :tu: but the First Lounge is stuffy and overcrowded far too often and overseas lounges in smaller outstations are vanishing as the morning dew...
* TS seems mostly, well, theoretical
* Having a Gold card seems to make little or no difference to the onboard service

Did I miss any of the world-class benefis ;) ?