A blast from the past for sure! I haven’t heard ‘fershluginner’ since my Honey finished his postdoc in 1974. Music to these old ears. And much heard amongst the denizens of the ivy-covered halls of math and science at the U. of Chicago.

Bless you, my child! :>)))

He was involved in helping create the plethora of different revenue classes so that the airlines could “optimize” their pricing policy. Northwest licensed that code to many other airlines.
My friend got lots of free pass flying to Slovakia, including coming for my wedding, and even getting tickets for my mother and one sister to come.
Big heart, ready to give a lot to friends, but demanding on those friends.

Roy, I’m pretty sure business class (2 or 3x more expensive?) is wide enough. But who wants to pay out of pocket “so much” more, just for a little more comfort for just a couple of hours?

On the other hand, why aren’t there some wider economy plus seats only 20% more expensive, for 15% more legspace?

Genius friend long ago left the airlines, and the PC dominated bosses — I’d guess they’re now afraid to adjust the 30-25 year old “legacy code”, which works but most are afraid to change anything.

As some stagnant situation gets more optimized, thru more complex computerized algorithms, it gets more and more expensive to make adjustments or enhancements. This is still not much talked about in public.

Please provide feedback to the airlines whenever you can, complaining about the inflexibility of getting better service from them. They all monitor their feedback comments now.

Security is a hassle, but that has nothing to do with delayed or cancelled flights, overbooking, or lost bags.

The airlines have been in a service death spiral for years. The seats keep getting smaller and smaller and the seat pitch keeps getting shorter to the point that my thigh is longer than the space between seats making me have to sit a little sideways for the entire flight. (I’m 6’2″) It seems to me that the only people who can ride in comfort in coach anymore are little kids.

These days, the only way I will fly rather than drive is if time is a factor or it’s impossible.

This will continue as long as most travellers choose the first “cheapest” flight. Airlines experiment with higher prices plus more perks, vs lower prices with less, and virtually always get more business & profit with the lower prices.

Our Helsinki – Heathrow flight was delayed on take off, and also in air before landing, due to Heathrow traffic. We missed our connection to NYC; Finnaire paid for a good night in their airport hotel, but we missed a day in America.

One gets used to the silly security, tho there seems little justification for the long lines.

Mike

I’m with you regarding checking luggage. It’s so much more civilized. But, then again I almost always wear a sport coat when flying. Even to or from warm destinations. I don’t think I’ve ever flown in short pants.

Seeing all these people fret about hand luggage, and struggle with it at the gate, and on the plane… It’s degrading. The airlines fostered the situation by charging higher and higher fees for checking bags. However, they seemed to have realized it creates more problems than it has solved and are now discouraging any carry on other than a briefcase or purse.

TSA is a joke. A sad joke.