It seems as if everyone who has been traveling recently has a horror story to relate about an abysmal experience with an airline. Heck, air travel has become so distasteful that I don’t even think about flying anymore if I’m traveling within the Houston-Dallas-Austin/SanAntonio triangle here in Texas. I have an excellent chauffeur (i.e., my wife) who handles the driving while I work. It’s far more pleasant than dealing with the non-stop hassles of air travel.
But if you simply must endure air travel these days, take a moment to read this Peter Greenberg article that provides about a half-dozen tips for minimizing stress during air travel, such as:
Avoid “direct” flights. The only good flight is a nonstop flight. Labeling a flight “direct” is an airline euphemism that means you’ll stop at least once, exponentially increasing your chances of being delayed.
Eh, I think the flying experience these days depends a lot on choice of carrier and being cognizant of the need to schedule around/anticipate potential problems (that includes downloading flight schedules to your phone/pda and having reservation lines programmed in, just in case things go awry).
I’ve been on a big flying kick the last year and a half, mostly on Continental, and have had some really good experiences. In fact, my only bad experience has come courtesy of an airline that used to be a media darling (Southwest) but seems to have lost its way under the current management; If there is any way to avoid booking them ever again, I’ll do my best to find that way.
Anyway, disgruntled travelers get a lot of ink, so I thought as a not-disgruntled air traveler I’d share my thoughts. I have some non-CO flights booked later in the year on Northwest and KLM — so maybe I’ll have different stories to tell about those carriers.