Why fly?

Flying used to be fun. In the mid to late 1990’s and the early 2000’s, airlines were doing very well and seemed always to try to do better. For the most part whatever they could do to gain your repeat business, they did. Upgrades, increasingly decent meals on slightly longer flights, friendly staff, more room between seats in coach class, and more.

These days, it’s nearly impossible to travel by air without hassles from the time you enter the departure airport until the time you’ve left your arrival airport. As a recreational endurance athlete, I drink a lot of water, but now I can’t carry water through security. It’s annoying to pay four or five times the market rate to buy water once I’m through security. I used to rarely check my luggage, preferring either to carry it on or to gate check it. Now it’s tougher to do that, unless I purchase special tiny containers of toothpaste, shampoo, and shaving cream, and plan to buy a razor upon arrival.

We’re planning a summer visit to the in-laws in Maryland, and Andrea is already driving up a couple of weeks early with the girls and Finley, so I looked in to my flight options. The best I could find was connecting through Charlotte, with total door to door time of 8 to 10 hours if the flight is on time, and it’s only an 11 hour drive!

There are only two reasons for me to fly on this trip, and they’re related: Andrea’s already taking one car up and it seems silly to drive both our cars that car; and it’s cheaper to fly than it is to rent a car one way.

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