My former Life on the road

In a previous life I used to travel quite a bit.  In the 90's I traveled quite a bit by air.  In those days you showed up to the airport a half hour before your flight and had a pretty good chance of making your flight.  If you were going on a short trip for say two or three days you could pack everything you needed in a carry on bag and skip having to check any baggage.  When you did check baggage you had a 99.9% chance of it showing up with you at your destination.  Security was a lot friendlier and easier to get through.

Of course after 9/11 all that changed.  The threat and attempted acts of terrorism subsequent to that horrible day has made traveling by air far more tense and strenuous.  Now on busy travel days it pays to get to the airport at least 2 hours early to check your bags and ensure that you have enough time to get through the security checkpoints.  Your luggage on some airlines has only an 89.7% chance of getting to your destination with you.  Security is a lot less humorous and a lot tougher to get through.

I understand perfectly why all these changes have happened.  The threat of terrorism is very real and a constant in our lives now.  The inconvience of travel by air now is substanial.  What you can pack is limited now.  Even what you wear to the airport has to be well thought out before you leave.  If I were traveling today as I did in my former life I'm sure I would have adjusted and become used to the inconvenience.  The problem is I don't travel that often any more and now traveling by air especially with my family is very stressful, inconvenient and time consuming.  I still have to worry about my baggage getting to my destination with me.

My thought is that all of us as patrons, clients or customers of the airlines and airports are paying for less service and more inconvenience.  This cost of security is being passed on directly to the consumer with the airlines and airports paying little or none of the costs.  Although we are only paying about $500.00 dollars for this trip normally the cost for us to travel to our hometown would cost $1,500 at a minimum and then I wouldn't be guaranteed that my baggage would be there at the same time I arrived.