How soon we forget!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/opin ... ravel.html

I'll add a few things to the list:
Maybe it's my imagination, but over the past ten or more years, I can hardly recall encountering any serious air turbulence. Maybe it's luck.....maybe it's better technology to detect and avoid the stuff.

On our most recent return from the US, we had a Texas to LA flight, connecting to an LA to Japan flight. Our flight was late arriving to LA. After we landed, we were asked to come forward before the other passengers deplaned. We were led down the stairs to an awaiting Mercedes stretch that whisked us to our next gate. Up the stairs again and onto the plane.

I sort of like the idea of paying for perks......extra legroom, an Air Asia blanket/meal, an extra bag, etc......I know what I'm getting before I get on the airplane.

Travel agents? Tickets? Really?

And now with downloadable netflix, I can binge watch a season's worth of shows without feeling guilty that I could be doing anything else.

And as a bonus as a kid you were permitted to go to the cockpit with the stewardess to see the pilots in action. Big thrill but that has gone by the wayside.

parrot wrote:... Our flight was late arriving to LA. After we landed, we were asked to come forward before the other passengers deplaned. We were led down the stairs to an awaiting Mercedes stretch that whisked us to our next gate. Up the stairs again and onto the plane.

I sort of like the idea of paying for perks......extra legroom, an Air Asia blanket/meal, an extra bag, etc......I know what I'm getting before I get on the airplane. ...

AirAsia doing US domestic flights now? I hope it's Houston!

From the article:- One of the reasons that flying has become such a melee is because so many people now have the means to partake in it. AirAsia latched onto this with their 'Now everyone can fly' to which I add the admonishment, '...but I wish half of these munters had taken the bus instead.'

Another quote:- The spacing between rows, called “pitch” in the business, is, on average, less than it was 20 or 30 years ago — and yes, passengers themselves have become larger on average — but only slightly. It's not the introduction of extra rows across the breadth of the plane, that's been a cost-cutter for ages. It's the trend led by Emirates and their all A380 fleet to shoehorn a whole extra row lengthwise into the fuselage. Getting fatter doesn't typically affect your height thus negating seat-pitch arguments but it does make a difference in the width of your arse (or the arse of the buggers on either side of you) that is making economy travel a tad more uncomfortable.

But if you insist on a return to smoking, then excuse me while I light up another Romeo y Julieta 1875 Reserve Exhibicion # 1 Sumatra Presidente. And bring me my port. Now!

Hi John, we just returned this past week from the US arriving in San Francisco and departing from LAX using China Airlines. We seemed to encounter quite a bit of turbulence around Taiwan.