A Sign of Changing Times

I guess I’m getting old. I shouldn’t admit this, but I remember when a gallon of gasoline cost 25 cents. I was just a kid and back then, we complained about it getting all the way up to 50 cents. It was horrible. Of course, everything is relative, I suppose. Yesterday, I paid $2.19 a gallon. I didn’t even think about it. I just did it because it’s now a way of life.

So many things cost so much money today, and we don’t even think about it. And, as time goes on, it seems as though we just get used to it, and accept it. I remember that when you would take a trip and fly from one destination to the next, you would get lunch or dinner on the plane, if you were flying around lunch or dinner time. No more. Now, they don’t serve - not lunch or dinner at least. Now, they serve crackers or pretzels with soda. When they started doing that and eliminated meals, I thought to myself that it was like going from 25 cents to 50 cents a gallon for gasoline.

Well, in a few days from now, one airline will stop serving even pretzels. Beginning June 9, Northwest Airlines will charge for anything other than soda. They estimate that this will save the airline $2 million dollars a year. How can pretzels cost that much? I mean, has anyone actually counted how many pretzels you get in one of those little packages? Well, I did. I was bored and had nothing else to do, so I counted them. There were 22 little pretzels in my package. How much longer before the other airlines follow suit?

I suppose in the not so far future all airlines will follow this practice and offer nothing at all unless you pay extra - even for soda. It doesn’t bother me so much. The truth is, the meals were never that good, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s no great loss. It’s more of a concern to me that the airlines feel that they have no other choice to do this to save money. They are all about service, so if they feel they don’t have a choice, they are running very close to the edge of survival. This should be a wake up call to all of us and especially, our government.

Today they are sacrificing service and their offerings to customers. What will be sacrificed tomorrow, safety and short cuts in maintenance?

Three senior Boeing Co. employees have filed a lawsuit against the aircraft manufacturer claiming the company ignored numerous defective parts used to build airplanes. [...]

The lawsuit contends the parts did not pass minimum Federal Aviation Administration safety requirements and were used on 737s, 747s, 757s and 767s made in Wichita and delivered for sale from March 1998 through November 2004.