The update –
by Jorge Franz
I started writing these articles in 1996 and I am under the impression that many things have changed since then. Changes are so fast nowadays that they change in front of your eyes, and for us oldtimers, it is a little freakish. We have to adapt, but let me review some of the things that have changed for those of us that travel a lot.I used to talk about some of the little pleasures involved in air travelling. They have all disappeared. There are no airlines left that provide the kind of service which was available a few years ago. It is true that there are airlines that are better than others, but none is really good anymore. Ugly stewardesses and bad food are slowly filtering into the Asian airlines. The plastic food of the North American Airlines is now prepared by worse (and cheaper) caterers than before. The number of peanuts in the bag has been reduced from 72 to 48. They never give you the whole can of refreshment anymore, they either give you one of those tiny cans specially made for them or they give you a glass, with lots of ice. Think about that, cans specially made for the airlines... It is all in the numbers, 700 million people fly every year, if they save 5 pesetas in peanuts, they save 3.500 million pesetas, or 20 million dollars. Had you ever thought about that?
At least they are still giving the drinks for free in international flights, but it seems that if the flight is less than 4 hours, they only go through the aisle once, if is over 4 hours they go twice. They never go by three times. They compensate this by giving you some kind of extra meal, a snack or breakfast. In very small containers.Next time you fly, analyse the size of the containers being used now. If your wife, mother or someone would give you a meal of that size, what would you say? If in a restaurant they would serve you a salad in a 5 x 5 cm. container, what would happen?. The whole logic the airlines seem to be following is that they have to give you everything you normally eat, but in minuscule proportions. Why? Would it not be better to have a larger plate of meat and vegetables, than a salad that would not feed a canary, a meal that even a 3 year old would find insufficient, a bread smaller than those that accompany any Spanish tapa, and a dessert?. Let us not forget the desserts, that will not even change the sugar rates of a diabetic person.Let us go back to the concept of the specially made containers. There is of course, the wine bottle. Those of you that drink wine, have you ever considered drinking the quantity that is given to you by the airlines? At home, or at the bar, it would not be possible to make a "tinto de verano" with that quantity, on the flight, it is supposed to last for the whole lunch or dinner. You may want to try to get a second one, but on that, you are on your own. In the European airlines, it is not so bad, but in the American ones, if they give you the second bottle, they accompany it with a registration form for Alcoholic Anonymous.Breakfast is another masterpiece, a bowl of cereal with 1/16 of a liter of milk, sometime accompanied by a tiny banana, an omelette that it is made with ½ of an egg, a fruit salad with 1/32 of a canned peach, two crackers, a small package of butter, enough to cover only one of the crackers, the other one "must" be covered with the marmalade. For us in Spain, it is not so bad to have this ridiculously small breakfast, because we have little or no breakfast, and also because the strange type of schedule they create while you are flying, usually you are getting breakfast within 5 hours of having dinner. Sometimes after having lunch.So, they are reducing to the limit everything that they have to give you for free. What do you mean for free? How much did you pay for your ticket? 500 dollars, 90.000 pesetas, multiply that for 90 passenger, for a peanut bag, or for 800 dollars, 140 thousand pesetas and 300 passengers, for a full can of refreshment. We can work the numbers for our side too.American businessmen say nowadays: This can only get worst. And it is true, those 800 passenger planes they are talking about, how long do you think they are going to take to serve drinks, and how many times you think they are going to do it. We will be lucky if they do it once.Some airlines are experimenting with giving you a tray as you go into the plane, together with the newspaper. It will be a very flat tray, wrapped with cellophane plastic paper. I will leave to your imagination what will be the contents of it.For a time, I took the decision to arrive to the airport very early, with enough time to eat at the airport, and to have the pleasure of declining the food being offered on the flight. But that has changed too, the food at the airport has nothing to envy the food served on the flight! As a matter of fact, in many airports it is prepared by the same companies that cater to the airlines!
So, whenever possible, give yourself the time to eat before you go the airport. But of course, this is not valid for all of you. Some of you, I know, actually like the food and the service offered by the airlines.
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