I always get goosebumps and break into a smile when the engines rev up and push me into my seatback at the end of the runway.

I enjoy being a passenger, but I love being my own pilot. I half-volunteer for business trips just for the opportunity to be in a plane, and I always request cockpit visits on international carriers.

Do I enjoy flying? Oh yes

Nothing's better than a window seat on a great big jetplane. Flying is awesome, but I don't nearly get to do it enough...


FewMiles..

I love flying. Always had the bug, and I think my kids inherited it, too
If I have one regret - I wish air travel was as simple as it used to be. I enjoy telling kids how great air travel was before (boy, do I sound like an old timer?)
- no id check
- none of these silly "did you pack your own luggage?" games
- no metal detectors
- no "size-wise" luggage restrictions
- boarding passes issued at time of reservation, both ways.
Am I the only one longing for those days?

I love flying most of the time. On a few rare occasions I sometimes hate the fact that I have to fly for work, but that happens when I have had a very bad travel day and get home really late! On some other occasions I felt a little claustrophobic on very long flights, but that has only happened less than 10 times after traveling over 600 international flights. Fortunately, that feeling does not stick for long!

On the positive side, I still get excited everytime I take an international flight, especially on a 747 and this is after 20 years of international travel! There is something different flying on a 747.

I also love to fly because one day I could be in the States, and the next day I could be in Hong Kong visiting friends and family. It is the freedom of being able to be anywhere in the world when I want to that makes flying a great thing.

While traveling for work, flying gives me the only personal time of the day to accomplish my own work and to relax. No way for anyone to call me. No way to attend a conference call, unless I want to pay some really high prices using the inflight phones. So basically, I feel that I can just get away from everything when I fly!

[This message has been edited by bagold (edited 05-24-2000).]

I like to travel, and flying is usually the best way to get there

Having said that, I really like F and C and do not like Y. Like several of the members have said, after riding in the front of the plane, the back is no longer acceptable.

Although I tend to think of flying as the price I pay to get to all the places I want to go, I do enjoy being in a place where the phones don't ring and I can catch up on my magazines, read a book for fun, and daydream like mad. That may or may not make up for the bad air (I always dehydrate), wrong temperature and generally less than perfectly comfortable seats. It doesn't make up for the food or having to ride in the back.

OK, I guess I'll be the first to say/admit it. Even after all the hours spent in the air....I'm still scared. Its a funny thing, The more I fly the more I am scared. Dont know why, just am. Will be flying to Paris this Sunday and plan on taking a sleeping pill.

Finally! It's about time for some of us to come out of the closet and to admit the REAL TRUTH. Fear of flying is alive and well! I've been flying all my life: big planes, small planes, helicopters, etc. With all these miles behind me, you would think that I should be as cool as cucumber on the plane. Yet, every take off and landing take years off my life. You can't tell that by looking at me during the flight, but deep inside I am shaking.
My Dad was a test pilot in the Air Force. The facination with aviation is deeply rooted in me. I, myself, is an engineer by training. Love big machinery, admire the design, understand how it works. But... as an engineer, I know how many things can go wrong with these birds.
Don't try to tell me that " when it's time to go, it is time to go", and " we all will be there someday"... I understand all this. Still, when we start rolling down the runway... Please, give me a double screwdriver ( even if it is 7 o'clock in the morning !)

Travel I enjoy, it's getting there that I dislike. Like the two previous posts, don't like take-off. Keep repeating the positive mantra "go, go, go, up, up, up!". Flight durations of 2-3 hours I can handle without getting fidgety. The interminable flight I've taken to Sydney from LAX (twice!), keeps me from seriously considering returning to that beautiful country soon.

One thing I do to smooth the flight and FA is to give THEM chocolate gifts (e.g. Whitmans) if I think they're providing good service or are helpful. I hope this makes up for times in the past when I wasn't such a nice, passenger.

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OK, this is probably a heretical statement on this board, but I don't particulary like flying--even up front. I'm not at all afraid, I just don't like the out-of-my-control experience of sitting in a confined space with total strangers and a limited number of activities available to me, and I just plain get bored of airports except the people watching.

As Rogues88 said, I like the travel but not the getting there. I like seeing new places and meeting people that I only know by phone, and the dining opportunities and even some hotels, but not the flying. My travel is almost 100% business. When traveling for pleasure, unless it just isn't logical, I don't fly. Most of my miles have gone to awards for other members of my family who still like to fly.

I still get very nervous flying which is a shame. Unfortunately it s just about the only way to get out of Australia.

I have tried hypnotism to combat my fear with limited success.

I know the statistics say that flying is one of the safest means of transport but I still find being flung along at 600 miles an hour in a metal capsule quite unnerving.

cheers Peter

I don't mind if its my time to go, but on a plane it worries me that it may me the guy in 23B's turn....

Great idea Rogues88! I'm flying next week - 6 legs. I'll stash a few of those small Whitman Samplers in my laptop bag.

Too bad they don't have FF coupons on Whitman Samplers

I have been flying since I was child. My parents would fly us to FL for vacation. So as a adult I went to work for the airlines just to travel. There is nothing better then getting on a aircraft in the evening and landing in a differnt country the next morning. Of course I have become addicited to f class and that makes flying that much better. to sit down before flt in a lazy boy type chair and a cocktail. Well it just makes you feel like a King. Then of course once in the air you eat and drink your way accross the pond. Then you get to watch the DVD's with those wonderful head phones that make you feel like your in a theather, yet you know your not cause here come the FA to refill the wine glass and give you a few Godiva Choc's. Then it's time to lie back in that lazy boy and sleep for a while and wake to a hot breakfast being served. Who could not LOVE FLYING.... I never understand people when they say they hate it. Have TKT will travel....

love to fly, especially when reading the miles accumulated in the FF account!

but for overseas, i can only withstand biz or first class....

and i am the only one among friends and family that can sleep ALL the way through a flight, no matter how long...
no sleeping pills, no melantonin....

hey if anything happens, i wont know!