Comment Re:How would we know? (Score 1) 819
Replying from an airport as I wait for colleagues to arrive from another city....
I haven't flown for "pleasure" more than once in the last 15 years. The last pleasure trip before that was Miami to Alaska, and there aren't a lot of good options to get to Ketchikan....
Reflecting this morning, airports have actually gotten nicer in the last 20 years, security theater is more amusing than painful, when the lines aren't stupid long.
However, the sardine packing of the trip itself borders on intolerable... I used to be 6'2" - shrinking past 6'1" these days, but unfortunately getting wider in the seat as that happens, and most of the height compresses from the spine, so my legroom problems aren't improving.
I, personally, would take up air travel for fun again if the 3+3 configurations were switched to 3+2 and a decent legroom pitch were maintained, but none of that seems likely to happen, and it's a shame. If they needed to charge extra for these seats, fine, I'd probably do a 30% premium without blinking, just for the extra space - I don't need a hot towel and a microwaved meal, thanks.
I've got 4 Southwest "free drink" coupons in my wallet right now, but just don't feel like using them on flights that leave at 6am... and the afternoon and evening flights are delayed so often that I'm glad not to be on them, though I will compliment Southwest's mostly "hubless" routing system that provides direct flights between smaller airports, even if it's only once a day, it's nice to have the option.
Now, off to convince my bosses that telecommuting is really more efficient than travel.... seems pretty obvious from this chair.