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June 27, 2005
flying tight
While traveling to the east coast for a wedding, I had a chance to experience firsthand the financial troubles our major airlines must be having.
I knew their budget was tight. But it still felt vaguely upsetting to be subjected to the non-frills, feck-you-we're-having-a-rough-time (non)service. The unsmiling air hostess sped past by me with a once-only doling out of water in plastic cups, while in the first-class section two trollies full of drinks went back and forth at a leisurely pace. Sure, it was a red-eye deal, at a modest $250 coast-to-coast, but it did leave somewhat of a bad (not to mention dry) taste in my mouth.
Oh, and did I mention they were two-hour late departing? When we finally left the airport, as the plane inched along to a runway, a high-nosed air hostess declared: "Alright, we'd be more than happy to stop this aircraft RIGHT NOW if you want to keep moving around!"
Needless to say, our flight back was also delayed for a few hours, forcing us to take a cab home from the airport, but that's another story.
By the way, an Irish startup Ryanair, which operates pan-European low-fare flights from Ireland and UK, just got rated as the most punctual airline by the US Dept of Transport. Ryanair was said to have been modelled after the US low-fare airlines such as Southwestern. Ouch!
Posted by Akira at June 27, 2005 11:34 AM
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