Flying

[dreadnut]

I feel sorry for people who have to fly these days - I just couldn't do it. Flying used to be fun and enjoyable; not so much anymore..

I've flown all over the world - Europe, Japan, Singapore...back in the 90's. Once on the way back from Amsterdam, I asked the attendant if I could visit the pilot in the cabin. She said "Sure" and took me up to the cabin. I talked with the pilot as we were flying over the ocean.

Try doing that today...you'd probably be arrested just for asking.

 

[Guildedagain]

Flying high, I always liked it. The takeoff, the sound, the surreality of it.

 

[WC_Guitarist]

I just came home from a week in San Diego, helping to care for my mom who has cancer and is sadly coming down the home stretch. It was the first time I had been on a plane since March of 2020. I flew Southworst. It was terrible, and I only went from Oakland to San Diego. As I inserted the metal tab into the buckle, low and tight across my lap, I thought, "I did not miss this at all." Prior to the pandemic I used to travel all the time and while I've never loved flying, I usually did love going new places and seeing new things. Now, I love hanging out on LTG and AGF and shopping for and playing guitars.

I have been thinking about how one would fly with a guitar, if at some point in the future real travel ever becomes possible again, but I can't imagine trying to wrangle one into the cabin, and it's a hard pass on handing one over to the airlines as checked luggage. On Saturday's flight home, after we were all boarded and ready to take off, they made an announcement that four suitcases were missing from the connecting flight that had come in from Tucson. How could they be missing if they were never supposed to be taken off the plane???

I'm not going there...

So that basically leaves me the option of traveling to wherever I can drive myself, or buying some kind of guitar as a souvenir when I get there and packing it up and shipping home with an experienced carrier.

Anyone have any other ideas???

Janine

 

[Westerly Wood]

I was asked to fly to a conference for work a couple months ago. I said yes at first but then declined. I would and will fly to go out east to visit family, sure, but work related events, if they are not required for me to stay employed, I am saying no.

I'd rather go on road trips right now with family.

 

[Opsimath]

I always drive if it's an option. I have control over my schedule, my food, and my luggage. I think I have flown comercially maybe 3 or 4 times, and that's pretty much enough.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Times sure have changed, but once upon a time air travel was mainly accessible to upper middle class and above. The majority of the population had never been on a plane back in the 70’s, and it was a big deal. You’d dress in your good clothes and come presentable. Today, almost anyone can afford to fly, and people come like they are going to 7-11 for coffee in their pajamas. I remember paying upwards of $700 for a round trip flight to Germany in 1982. I booked a flight to Germany for my mother 2 1/2 yrs ago….the price? $775 w/ one layover in Iceland.
I fly periodically, and will continue to do so. When you only get limited paid vacation time, I’m not spending the bulk of it in a car driving 1/2 way across the country. I’d much rather sit in a seat for an hour or two, watch a movie w/ headphones on my iPad, and have the bulk of my vacation time spent at my destination of choice. Some domestic flights are so cheap nowadays, that it’s actually doable to fly somewhere just to go to a concert and return the next day. The thought of that would have been insane 30 yrs ago! Who are you? Rockefeller??
Yes, it can be a pain, but the convenience of being 1/2 way across the country in no time far outweighs any thing I can think to nitpick over.

The one thing I miss the most, 10 or so years ago I used to fly AirTran almost once a month for seeing friends. During online check in the night before, you were given the option to upgrade to business class for a measly $35. The difference between coach and business at booking was over $200! I’d take it every time. It was sweet! First to board. Nice big wide comfy chair, a bourbon and coke before takeoff. Then southwest bought AirTran and that ended my fun.

 

[richardp69]

I'd rather ride a mule.

 

[Rocky]

When I retire, I hope to never fly again, unless I'm crossing an ocean.

I suppose at one time, flying was glamorous, "jet-set" and all that. Now it's all hurry up and wait to be packed into a sardine can, or in the case of Spirit*, packed into a can with the dregs of humanity. I'd rather ride a city bus these days.


*The one thing Spirit gets right is that none of their seats recline.

 

[Westerly Wood]

I remember a day when they boarded the plane based on row, the back of the plane first up thru the front. It was logical.

 

[Roland]

My wife flew from Des Moines, Iowa to San Antonio, Texas last month for a conference. Everything went fine. They had a two hour delay out of Minneapolis on the last leg but that's nothing new. We fly a lot and there has always been delays and cancelled flights. Anyway, the end of September I'm flying the Iowa family out to LA to visit the West coast family. That includes a six year old and a three year old. It will be an adventure. Wish me luck on that one. For the record, I don't like flying in general, I like to road trip, but we have too many places to go and I can't just drive to them all.

I've always checked my guitar. If I'm travelling I take a Taylor GS Mini in a sturdy SKB hard case. I tried lugging it along with me through the terminals and on the planes and it just wasn't worth it to me. Like I said, I don't like flying anyway and I have enough trouble just getting me through it. I've been doing that for ten years without incident. But I have a zero deductible full replacement insurance rider that covers it so if some how it gets totaled I get a new Mini.

 

[Rocky]

I have been thinking about how one would fly with a guitar, if at some point in the future real travel ever becomes possible again, but I can't imagine trying to wrangle one into the cabin, and it's a hard pass on handing one over to the airlines as checked luggage. On Saturday's flight home, after we were all boarded and ready to take off, they made an announcement that four suitcases were missing from the connecting flight that had come in from Tucson. How could they be missing if they were never supposed to be taken off the plane???

I'm not going there...

So that basically leaves me the option of traveling to wherever I can drive myself, or buying some kind of guitar as a souvenir when I get there and packing it up and shipping home with an experienced carrier.

Anyone have any other ideas???

With airlines now charging for checked bags, I wouldn't recommend flying with a full-size guitar and expect it to make it into the overhead bin. They'll take it, and gate check it, where it will get crushed.

That said, I did manage to take an 'acoustic' guitar with me on an overseas flight, but it was one of those thin body junk acoustics that fit neatly into a Mono solidbody gig bag. And I flew first class. If you do that, the flight staff will put it into the coat closet if you ask nicely.

This may be technically true, but all I can say is "Good luck!" https://www.afm.org/what-we-are-doing/travel-resources/afm-travel-kit/

 

[Rocky]

I've always checked my guitar. If I'm travelling I take a Taylor GS Mini in a pretty sturdy SKB hard case. I tried lugging it along with me through the terminals and on the planes and it just wasn't worth it to me. I have enough trouble just getting me through. I've been doing that for ten years without incident. But I have a zero deductible full replacement insurance rider that covers it so if some how it gets totaled I get a new Mini.

Checking is an option if you have a crush-resistant case. I suppose one advantage of the post-9/11 security is that checked bags are truly tracked, and much less likely to "disappear" if they look valuable than they used to.

 

[GAD]

I believe ai have flown more than 500 times. I have a spreadsheet on my main computer but I’m not there at the moment.

Sadly the secret to enjoying a flight these days is to not fly coach. As soon as you get into business or first class, or often even economy plus, you start to get treated like a person. Back in steerage you are cattle and are treated like such.

Sadly the ability to not fly coach means either paying big money or having status. When I had Platinum 1K status with United the flight attendant would walk up and thank me personally by name for flying with them.

Being 1K meant that I’d spent $45k or flown 75 legs (or other complicated things like miles which were weirdly based in ticket class and not, you know, actual miles) so far that year or the year before, so it didn’t come cheap, but I would often maximize my status by paying the difference between economy plus and business/first class which, if you play the schedules right, was often only $100-200.

As a frequent flyer, status is everything because the highest status flyers are first in line for free upgrades. Plus I have almost a million miles in the bank that my wife and I will probably use for vacations and such. Oh, and high status customers get to pre board.

Sadly (I keep saying sadly, but it’s sadly true) you need money or status to be treated like a human. My status came from money, though it was mostly work paying me to fly all over.

Why is the system like this? Because of the massive race to the bottom caused by many many factors, some of which are political.

 

[merlin6666]

Times sure have changed, but once upon a time air travel was mainly accessible to upper middle class and above. The majority of the population had never been on a plane back in the 70’s, and it was a big deal. You’d dress in your good clothes and come presentable. Today, almost anyone can afford to fly, and people come like they are going to 7-11 for coffee in their pajamas. I remember paying upwards of $700 for a round trip flight to Germany in 1982. I booked a flight to Germany for my mother 2 1/2 yrs ago….the price? $775 w/ one layover in Iceland.
I fly periodically, and will continue to do so. When you only get limited paid vacation time, I’m not spending the bulk of it in a car driving 1/2 way across the country. I’d much rather sit in a seat for an hour or two, watch a movie w/ headphones on my iPad, and have the bulk of my vacation time spent at my destination of choice. Some domestic flights are so cheap nowadays, that it’s actually doable to fly somewhere just to go to a concert and return the next day. The thought of that would have been insane 30 yrs ago! Who are you? Rockefeller??
Yes, it can be a pain, but the convenience of being 1/2 way across the country in no time far outweighs any thing I can think to nitpick over.

The one thing I miss the most, 10 or so years ago I used to fly AirTran almost once a month for seeing friends. During online check in the night before, you were given the option to upgrade to business class for a measly $35. The difference between coach and business at booking was over $200! I’d take it every time. It was sweet! First to board. Nice big wide comfy chair, a bourbon and coke before takeoff. Then southwest bought AirTran and that ended my fun.

Indeed. Because of family reasons I have to fly to Germany several times a year now. For my last trip in May I used up all my ff miles to do this in business class and bypass the madness. I sure have a lot of gratitude that I was able to do that, but not looking forward to my next trip in October in regular seat.

 

[WC_Guitarist]

Indeed. Because of family reasons I have to fly to Germany several times a year now. For my last trip in May I used up all my ff miles to do this in business class and bypass the madness. I sure have a lot of gratitude that I was able to do that, but not looking forward to my next trip in October in regular seat.

My husband is from Vienna and we have done the flight from San Francisco to Wien countless times on every carrier connecting every different way always in coach. It still costs more than a Guild guitar and even in the emergency exit row it ain't pretty. We go for family. And for the food!!!

 

[shihan]

I had to fly last month for business. 4 different airports, all crammed with unhappy people complaining about cancelled flights. 2 of my flights were delayed for 8+ hours, forcing me to eat expensive airport food; which requires removing my mask.
I came back with a raging case of COVID that’s still kicking my behind.
fly again? Not likely.

 

[Midnight Toker]

My husband is from Vienna and we have done the flight from San Francisco to Wien countless times on every carrier connecting every different way always in coach. It still costs more than a Guild guitar and even in the emergency exit row it ain't pretty. We go for family. And for the food!!!

I used to always take Icelandic Air. A quick stop in Rekyavik, then Brussels, then on to Frankfurt....it was always about 1/2 the cost of a direct flight on Lufthansa. For a kid that often paid my own fare w/ my paper route money, you couldn't beat it. Turns out, you still can't. I've also stayed in Iceland for a few days and did some sightseeing, which is always really nice.

 

[davismanLV]

I'm glad we did so much traveling when younger and so I don't really feel the need to do it now. Some of the trips were super long, like Hong Kong (twice), Singapore, Thailand, Seoul, Taiwan, Rio de Janiero, Buenos Aires, Austria, Germany, Italy. Then lesser ski trips to New York, Powderhorn, Sun Valley, Whistler/Blackcomb, etc. It was fun and what an adventure. These days, the thought of getting squished into a plane with a bunch of people and flying in a tube of recycled air is more than I can comprehend!! I'll drive 2 hours. 4 if I have to. 6 would be a gunpoint. Other than that, I'm staying here. Flying these days is a nightmare. Everyone is stuck everywhere and no one is having a good time.

 

[GGJaguar]

These days, the thought of getting squished into a plane with a bunch of people and flying in a tube of recycled air is more than I can comprehend!!

This. I think the only way I'll fly again is for a trip to visit my ancestral towns in Italy. Otherwise, I'm done flying. Too many mean people, too many stressed people, not enough airline/airport/TSA workers, too many cancelled flights, etc.

 

[merlin6666]

I used to always take Icelandic Air. A quick stop in Rekyavik, then Brussels, then on to Frankfurt....it was always about 1/2 the cost of a direct flight on Lufthansa. For a kid that often paid my own fare w/ my paper route money, you couldn't beat it. Turns out, you still can't. I've also stayed in Iceland for a few days and did some sightseeing, which is always really nice.

Thanks I will have to look into that. They were supposed to get a connection to Winnipeg which is only a day drive away from me.