Another reason to fly yourself

Well said Jay, a lot of us have been there and done that back in the days
that commercial flying was a sheer pleasure.

It still can be, if you fly first class and pony up what it costs. Most
of us can't afford to do that. Bring back the "good old days" and you'd
have the good old choice - first class or nothing. Now we have another
alternative.

Jose
--
You can choose whom to befriend, but you cannot choose whom to love.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Jose wrote:
Well said Jay, a lot of us have been there and done that back in the days
that commercial flying was a sheer pleasure.

It still can be, if you fly first class and pony up what it costs. Most
of us can't afford to do that. Bring back the "good old days" and you'd
have the good old choice - first class or nothing. Now we have another
alternative.



Ummmm... have you flown first class recently?

International first class -- you are probably right. Last time I did
that was in 1998 and it was definitely an experience to remember.
Domestic first class -- I fly that at least twice a year and it's not
that great. Just better seats. yeah you get a meal but it's not
anything like Jay describes. I use FF miles to upgrade -- would never
pay for it, because it's not worth it.

Jay Honeck wrote:
I managed to catch the tail end of elegant train travel at that age, too.
When you contrast those days with the Russian Aeroflot model we've come to
emulate (just think -- we used to make fun of them!) since then, it is to
weep.


I have an old friend who was flying on Aeroflot with his family many years ago
(before the fall of the Soviet Union). I guess they used any opportunity to
hone their skills because the pilot started doing some airwork along the way...
s-turns along a road, etc....

I've never experienced such a thing on an American airliner.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

Jay Honeck wrote:

When you contrast those days with the Russian Aeroflot model we've come to
emulate (just think -- we used to make fun of them!) since then, it is to
weep.

Maybe if you didn't have to pay for the tickets back then. Airfare from
Knoxville to New York then and now costs over $700. But $700 was half the cost
of a new car in the early 60s.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

Ummmm... have you flown first class recently?

Ummm, yeah. NY to SF. Champaigne, china, crystal, metal (though not
silver) utensils including knives, a meal that would rival many
restaurants, cloth napkins, twice as much room as coach, maybe more,
attentive stewards and stewardesses, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.

Jose
--
You can choose whom to befriend, but you cannot choose whom to love.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Ummmm... have you flown first class recently?

International first class -- you are probably right. Last time I did
that was in 1998 and it was definitely an experience to remember.
Domestic first class -- I fly that at least twice a year and it's not
that great. Just better seats. yeah you get a meal but it's not
anything like Jay describes. I use FF miles to upgrade -- would never
pay for it, because it's not worth it.

I have flown in coach on one international flight. The other times I have
flown in business class. The coach seats for international flights are
bigger than the seats you get in coach for domestic but not quite as big as
domestic 1st class. I've flown 1st class several times on domestic flights
and I wouldn't pay extra for the little more room either, I get a 'free
upgrade' or us miles also.

I'm flying to Phoenix in January, the only thing I could find for the given
miles was 1st class from Minneapolis to Detroit and then to Phoenix. The
return trip is in coach.

-Greg B.

attentive stewards and stewardesses

in my Beavis and Butthead chuckle - hehh, hehhh, you said
"stewardesses"... :-))

Jose wrote:
Ummmm... have you flown first class recently?

Ummm, yeah. NY to SF. Champaigne, china, crystal, metal (though not
silver) utensils including knives, a meal that would rival many
restaurants, cloth napkins, twice as much room as coach, maybe more,
attentive stewards and stewardesses, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.


It may depend on the flight and the equipment. I did fly FC once on a
767 domestic and it was on par with international. Of course the flight
continued on to Zurich after I got off, so maybe it really should have
beenconsidered an international flight. Or maybe long nonstops in
widebodies are like that.

However first class on an MD-80 or 737 or A319 from your city to a
hub airport, then from the hub to your destination, is nothing special,
even though the sum of the flights is bicoastal.

Just rememeber that the cost of ticket is not the only expense in
flying commercially of GA.


Other expenses a

Additional Rental Car expenses, often have to drive farther than if
flying GA.
Additional Hotel Expenses, Often will have to stay additional nights to
make Commercial Schedules work.
If you are a business flying multiple employees. then additional
Salaries and the above expenses can really add up.

Brian

I flew commercial from West Palm Beach to Kansas City MO a few months ago.
Got pulled aside for a random search, which was pretty stupid. I could have
knitted a knife with my hair and stabbed the person beside me with it. The
TSA is truly nuts, reflecting it's association with the newly formed office
of remarkably extreme paranoia (Homeland Security). They need to really
decide if a $ 450,000 Cirrus Sr-22 can do as much damage as a $ 39.00/day
Uhaul truck. I digress ...

All things considered, it took a huge amount of time messing around with TSA
nonsense, checking in and out, waiting in Atlanta for a 2.3 hour connection,
etc. I could have walked there. I feel great sorrow for today's airlines
(what's left of them). The former arrogance of large companies such as
Eastern Airlines has certainly caught up with American and Delta. They now
treat their clients as mini cash-cows. It's not pretty. I tried to get an
earlier flight that was leaving in minutes rather than the 2.3 hours and was
told to pony up cash. What a way to treat a customer. The only reason I had
to wait 2.3 hours is because of Delta's schedule that put me on the plane.

Anything under 7 or 8 hundred miles and I'll just fly myself. Better food,
much more fun, quicker when you add up all the time wasting.
Marty from Rainy Palm Beach Florida


wrote in message
...
In rec.aviation.owning wrote:
: Right. There are lots of good reasons to fly yourself, but cost isn't
: one of them. Not by a long shot.

As far as *direct* operating costs, it's usually cheaper to fly yourself
if
it's within 500nm. You know... about the same range as it's potentially
feasible to
drive...

The indirect expenses and easily ignored as the fixed expenses of the
"hobby."
Heh...

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************