sorry to rant, but....

I fought it as long as I could, but the time has come to start flying less.

I was determined to keep going as much as possible, but those who feel security mean submission will be filling my seat more, or it'll just be flying empty.

I've adjusted to 2 hour check-ins and long waits at security only to watch in amazement as the "security personnel" looked for everything in general and nothing in particular. i've been forced to unbuckle my belt, SURRENDER A NEEDLE AND THREAD, and be told to stand back as some undertrained security agent who i would've had a problem with touching me, got to feel up my wife.

now i can expect to be told to place my shoes on the belt, in addition to all the other indignities that come as a pre-requisite of post 9/11 travel. and i get to listen to the great unwashed tell me to accept it, all in the name of "security".

i for one feel less secure, because so many people feel the need to abdicate responsibility to the government.

so i've decided to start driving on trips of 8 hours or less. Toronto next week, Chicago the following. I'll still fly to Orlando at the end of the month. But it's gotten to the point that the time in line and aggrivation has made me reach a breaking point.

as i said, i'm sorry to rant, but enough is enough. i wouldn't take the "guilty until proven innocent" treatment anywhere else, either.

I've slowed down my flying more from shenanegans of the airlines.

I refuse to book flights far in the future when fares are supposedly lower, because of the cancellations and schedule changes that invariably occur by then. But if the passenger needs to make a change (even on a free ticket) it's a $75-$100 minimum fee. The airlines get to molest me even before I make it to the airport.

I can't wait until the security goons are government employees ACCOUNTABLE TO NO ONE. Then you'll get to see passengers treated like maximum security inmates.

Air travel today isn't what it used to be. Even before 9/11 I'd started to take road trips to destinations I would have flown to in the past. It's been a refreshing change.

If it hadn't been for the post 9/11 bonus qualification mileage on CO I'd only have met the requirements for Silver Elite. (I'm Infinite)

A whole lot of places are more than a day's drive away from here in the great northwest (SEA) so I'll continue to fly. But I'm more hesitant about booking short trips due to the increased hassle at the airport. If I have to spend 6 hours sitting in airports for a weekend trip with a layover (which is anywhere east of PHX), it makes the trip less worthwhile IMHO.

And all the delays are in the name of perceived security, which is even more frustrating. If I felt confident that the FAA/DOT were actually interested in getting serious about security, then I might feel differently. (e.g., professionals who know how to profile people and tell if they're telling the truth by looking and listening - NOT my 70 year old grandmother getting the full frisking)

I wonder when the day will come when we will have to put everything into our checked luggage and fly in airline issued paper jumpsuits with travel socks.

Flying has always been a necessity for me. It's not something that I particularly care to do more than I have to.

If I need to fly to get somewhere, then I'll do it. If I don't, then I won't.

But that's the way I've always operated, and so there's been no change in the way I operate pre and post September 11.

If there's a trade show on the west coast, well, I gotta fly there. If someone wants me to pop up to New York for the day, I'm flying there. And if I want to go skiing at Whistler, I have to fly to Vancouver, so I'll do it.

i used to think like you, MDTony, but i'm reevaluating. i had no problem hopping on a plane, even after 9/11, not at first. but as i watch the "sheeple" accept the current realities, i realize that i don't want to be one of them!

DC? 6 hours. Chicago or Toronto? about the same. I used to drive in a radius of about 3 hours (buffalo, pittsburgh, detroit), but i've widened it. it's just not worth it, otherwise.

i'd understand it if i was told why i'm the current favorite of the rubber glove crowd. is it because i like to pay cash for my tickets? maybe, but i can't get an answer. is it because my travels took me to khazakstan and turkmenistan earlier this year? maybe, but again, nobody can say.

tino makes an excellent point. all the taxpayer bailout did was enable the airlines to make themselves even less customer friendly. how is it that CO needs to charge me $100 to change a NR ticket, yet WN simply asks for the fare difference? it's all about passenger processing now. we should be happy that the airlines take our money!

they'll be getting less of mine, no doubt. and then they'll go out and spend all kinds money to try and get me back, when with less work, they could've kept me!

Wouldn't a passenger rail system be handy about now?

depends. self-supporting, or taxpayer subsidized? maybe now is the time for the feds to look at selling off amtrak? sell it off route by route, and let the private market build a product that would actually get used.

my only options here leave from either cleveland or akron at 3 or 4 in the morning. i'm not doing that to be in chicago in the morning.

Most of my travel is of the type where driving really isn't an option. I can't get to California or Denver or Chicago from DC without devoting a full day or more to it. I suppose I could drive to New York or take the train, but that's a hassle.

So I'll continue to fly. Do I like the new system? No, I do not. I think it's absurd but we have to remember that most of the population flies three or four times a year and doesn't really see this as the problem that we do. Those folks are the ones that Congress is responding to, not us.

And I am tired of the "surveys" they take asking non flyers if they are concerned, or if the delays and hassles are okay with them. Like asking a blind person what they think of the latest colors on your favorite airline. Stupid surveys.

Maybe they should reword them to ask:
"Is it okay that we feel up your wife, make you take off your belt and shoes, steal your nail clippers and sewing needles... as long as we tell you it will make your flight safer, even if it really makes little if any difference?"

Q: Have You Started Flying Less?
A: Nope. I think now is the time to support your airline. 80,358 miles in the air for chexfan since 9/11.

I'm driving if it's less than 6 hours. Houston, San Antonio. The difference for me is that I'm planning more. I used to run to DFW to zip away for a 3 day weekend. Now I plan what I really want to do and likely it's a very long trip overseas.

Traveling light and zipping around isn't fun any more.

I have not flown since 9/11 because of absolute disgust with the way "security" is being handled. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for many proceedures. Ordinary personal items we've flown with for years are now being confiscated "because". What will we do when the airports get machines that see inside our bodies and they want to inspect that, too? People profess to feel safe because the illusion is perpetrated on every level. The FAA issues some new edict AFTER an incident, not before. The airlines need to come up with prescreening safeguards
to simplify air travel. How many times have we heard that the FBI, CIA or INS had "concerns" or lost track of known terrorists before 9/11 but failed to act? It will be a long time before I fly again because I fear for my freedom.

Despite my personal feelings otherwise, my travel for the period October through January (three trips ticketed for next month) is about double my historic norm. I'd love to cut back if I could. It's just not going to work.

Business is growing beyond what our staff can handle, I inherited four direct reports 2,050 miles from my home three months ago, and my company is "assimilating" 300 people (50% head count increase) in a merger effective 1/1/02. There is just no way to cut back anytime soon. I'm going to end this year with nearly four weeks of vacation time that I haven't taken. Unfortunately I'm real close to even losing the ability to accrue more.

Even if I had the time to take some vacation, the thought of flying somewhere has little appeal. Overcoming the massive airport hassles and the paranoid airline employees has taken all the enjoyment out of business travel. Up until 9/11 I still got a thrill (albeit minor) out of any business or pleasure trip by air. And this was after 19 years of playing road warrior.

[This message has been edited by Craig6z (edited 12-26-2001).]