Fee-reakingdiculous!

Remember when we were kids and we'd get really excited about going on a flight?  You get on the plane and were greeted with the nice big fluffy pillow (bear in mind our heads were smaller back then), a soft blanket, a full meal where you went straight for the desert, great service, and those wings pins at the end of the flight?  

What happened to those days?  

What happened to courteous flight attendants?  

Where did all the blankets and pillows go?  And the food!  Where is the food!?  

Has everything been sent to some happy island somewhere?  

About two weeks ago I helped book a flight for a friend of mine to come to New York.  I found this great rate!  Seriously, it was 50 dollars LESS than everyone else.  Actually, I was really excited about it!  

Until...

Ok, this is what happens.  I find this flight with this amazing price and I'm stoked!  Buy the flight and the price stays the same... totally in a great saving money mood!  There's the button to pick seats... hell yes I'm getting a window seat... and then... what?  What's this?  10 DOLLARS to PICK my SEAT!?!?!  You can't be serious?  Ok, ok, it's only 10 bucks.  So I still save 40 bucks.  Alright, time to check out.   Am I checking luggage?  Of course, luggage will be absolutely be checked.  Hold on.  No freaking way.  10 DOLLARS per BAG!?!?!  WTF!  

THAT was my experience in getting this flight.  If you don't check your bag online, it's 20 bucks at the airport.  How many people really know that?  What is going on!  Oh, and food and drinks on this flight... 5 freaking bucks for a soda and a tiny bag of peanuts that should've been free!  A soda, where you don't even get the full can.  Only what fits into that little cup they give you.  Pretty soon they'll be charging for toilet paper!  Here... here's 5 dollars so I can wipe my ass!  

I realize that this is all Mr. Bush's fault.  (for those of you who don't know... that's the President)  As a side note, one of the reasons I love living in New York... NONE of the news anchors refer to him as "President Bush"... he's Mr. Bush here.  It's too bad they don't call him a few other names I could think of at this moment that would be totally inappropriate considering my parents read this.  (Hi mom & dad!) :-)  

I read an article that claims that this is the airlines way of testing whether or not people will take advantage of the services that the airline offers like food and water and toilet.  This is mind boggling to me because if I'm flying from New York to Miami, a three hour flight, you'd better believe I'm going to want something to drink... at the very least.  

It's obvious that this is all due to the high cost of gas.  To me though, it would be much better if the prices of the flights were raised and all those other fees were taken away.  That way, we know exactly what we're getting into, food, drink, pillows, blankets and all.  

As for the pins?  Well, at this point they're probably considered weapons of mass destruction.  I mean don't you know how much damage a wing pin could do to the human body?  A lot of damage my friend... a lot!