The Minnesota Farm Woman

Travelling just isn’t that much fun any more.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love both the anticipation and the destination, I just don’t like the stuff in between, especially if travelling by air.  This is my second vacation via airplane within five months, so I know there are probably more than a few of you who don’t want to hear whining from anyone who is lucky enough to get TWO vacations, so I will give you a moment to turn the page or click to something more interesting.

*INTERMISSION*

Back to the whining.  Those of you who haven’t travelled by airplane lately perhaps need to be aware that things have changed.  The airlines have not only increased the fare, but they are now charging you for your luggage.  I don’t know why they didn’t just increase the price of the ticket another $35.  Did they think we would be less upset if they charged us for luggage instead?  Note to airline executives:  Money is money and don’t think that I didn’t notice that you also increased the “surcharge”. What the heck  is a “surcharge” anyway?  

 You may have ONE bag plus ONE personal bag as carry-ons.  I wish that someone would have explained  that to the lady in the purple coat who stuffed two weeks worth of clothing into a small softsider and got it stuck in the overhead, causing all of us a delay in getting off the plane.  Her personal bag was also the size of Rhode Island, which she tried to jam under the seat in front of her, hiding it with a lap blanket. 

 Another note to the airline executives:  If you are going to offer a flight which involves two plane changes in two different cities, please allow an extra seven minutes for your passengers, some of whom have had two cups of coffee,  to take a potty break.  I have an aversion to those tiny airplane lavatories, and by the time the 17th person has finished his business, I think they have more germs growing in them than a petri dish.

 Does anyone remember the airplane dinner?  It wasn’t all that great, that’s for sure, but now all you get is a bag of 15 salted peanuts. Yep.  I counted them.  Any other snack will be charged to your credit card for about the same price that a restaurant would charge for Porterhouse and steak fries.

 If an airplane lands on Concourse H in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport and a connecting flight must be made to Duluth, it is guaranteed that said flight will be leaving in 20 minutes from Concourse B, leaving no time to grab anything from the 87 food kiosks located throughout the airport. By “throughout”, I mean every concourse except Concourse B, which is located 2 miles from nowhere. I think that the airline executives must think that most folks going north of Brainard take a dogsled and a bag of venison jerky so added Concourse B as an afterthought and thought we’d chew on our jerky if we got hungry.

All whining aside, I am thankful for vacations, friends, and warm Florida weather, if even for a short time.   Note to airline executives:  Thanks for a safe trip,  good pilots, and friendly staff. You got me home safe and sound, and that’s better than TWO bags of venison jerky.