Dana Mathewson

United ain't the only one, and it's not all their fault. Everybody flies, and the skies are crowded, and there's that almighty bottom line. Service on all the airlines has gone into the dumper, and frankly I don't know who the hell's to blame. I'll give you a bit of my personal flying history, and you'll perhaps agree (if you're still awake at the end) that some things have gotten a bit better even as most of it's gotten worse.

I started flying commercially in about 1974 when I worked for a dinky company in Buffalo, NY. They always used Allegheny Airlines, the predecessor of US Air. Flying out of Buffalo International Airport, they used the BAC-111 airliner, a small twin-jet plane built in England with engines in the tail which looked like a toy version of today's popular MD-80. I can't remember the passenger capacity, maybe about 70, and their reclining seat worked by having the portion upon which you sat slide forward while the back was hinged at the top -- rather than the usual "big plane" configuration of stationary seat, tilting back. This was only important because on any given plane, about 20% of the seats didn't lock, and when you landed, you slid forward against the pull of the seatbelt. Ouch! Oh, wait. Every plane had four seats on each side configured in "club car" format, so four passengers could hold meetings. If any of the four rear-facing seats didn't lock, it was "Ouch" as you took off.

In those days, smoking was common on all flights, until they finally created the "non-smoking section:" the last four rows. Big deal! And seating wasn't reserved. If you wanted non-smoking you did what you could to get to the head of the line and get onto the plane first. On one of my flights I found out all but about three of the passengers (including myself) were French! Gasp!

On another flight, which co-incidentally was the following day, I noticed that a large number of the passengers were abnormally tall, and getting past the overly-long legs in the aisle was quite a feat. I finally realized I was on a flight with the Phoenix Suns NBA team, which had been handily beaten by the Buffalo Braves (now non-existent). If those poor guys had flown on a similar plane to Buffalo, no wonder they lost!

Allegheny evolved into US Air, which became a fine airline indeed, as I learned in my next job, because I eventually had to fly on them frequently (and my next employer let me keep my Frequent Flyer miles). This was in the 1980s and might, in retrospect, have been the Golden Age of American air travel. In, oh, probably 1985 I had to fly, along with my boss, from Buffalo to Pittsburgh, and from there to Westmoreland County Airport in Latrobe, which many of you probably know as Arnold Palmer territory. The plane we were on developed problems and we had to change planes (hey, this can happen). When we got on the second plane, it developed that the second plane was a tad smaller and was technically overloaded, so to get it down to weight, they were required by law to siphon some fuel out. US Air didn't have a pump and had to find another airline at the airport who did, and this took time. My boss, sitting about three rows in front of me, was getting annoyed (not having my relaxed sense of sang-froid), and I called up to him "Hey, Darryl, all they have to do is go up the street a mile or so [into the tough part of town] and they'll find any number of guys who'll be glad to help 'em suck gas out." I might have embarrassed my boss with that but I sure got some laughs, which was the point.

Eventually we got into the air and got to Pittsburgh, where we landed and taxied for about an hour to the gate (as any of you who have ever been at the airport there will understand). The story of the fun flying a Twin Otter commuter flight to Latrobe (and for me, they're fun) is for another day. Two days later, coming back, there were weather problems all through the "system" and there really are stories to tell -- as I said, another day. But we got home OK.

In 1987, a very interesting year for me for other reasons, I had to fly EVERY WEEK from Buffalo to Newark Airport and back, from January to October, and outside a couple of odd incidents which can't be blamed on anyone (like the time they had to change a throttle cable on the plane we were to fly to Newark), it was basically lovely. Coming home from Newark there were always two afternoon flights to Buffalo, and I was always booked onto the later of the two. If it happened that I got to the airport and got my rental car checked back in early enough, and showed up at the US Air desk in time, the agent would automatically put me on the earlier flight to Buffalo if there was room on it -- with a nice smile. In those days, luggage-checking was perfunctory, so didn't take a lot of time. The planes were clean. I remember writing a letter to the CEO of US Air complimenting him on the quality of his airline, the service, etc., and how much better it was than what it had been "back in the day."

Everyone who worked for the airline appeared to enjoy their jobs, and made sure we enjoyed our flying experience. In later years I used all those Frequent Flyer miles to fly Martha (and me) to visit her daughter in college, and occasionally to visit her family.

It ain't that nice now. In about 2000, a great friend of mine flew me down to spend some time with him in Houston, on Air Tran. Coming home, there was a huge delay getting out of the airport (Hobby Field, I believe) and although we were fervently promised our connecting flight in Atlanta would be waiting, it wasn't. We "slept" on whatever furniture was available, while the staff roared around us with propane gas-powered floor-cleaning equipment (Pew!). We complained at the service desk about the lies we'd been told and were informed, curtly, by someone I think was ex-Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's sister, that "connecting flights are never held." I got home on a flight the next morning OK but have vowed never to fly Air Tran again no matter how wonderful people tell me they are.

There are so many damn planes in the air that every one impinges on every other one. Back when Martha was working for National Energy, she had to fly to Scottsdale once, around Easter, and promptly needed gall bladder surgery (no, I'm not blaming that on the airlines). Got myself a flight to Phoenix to go see her, got on the plane at MSP and it immediately taxied to a side area where it sat for THREE HOURS, due to traffic problems in the system. It sure messed up the life of the driver Richard had hired to pick me up at Sky Harbor!

See our website at: www.danamarthamusic.com

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1223 words, total size 7 kb.