Photo credit: B. Snyder.

PortsAreCalling approaches writing about travel from multiple perspectives and this week’s post comes to us courtesy of Joseph Mosomillo. A frequent traveler, below are his observations on a recent flight experience.

Corporate greed and the separation of classes could not be represented any better than when traveling by air today. The bottom line is clear—you get what you paid a lot for to begin with.

It starts the minute you enter the airport.

The lines are longer for economy because of cutbacks and, possibly, there are less qualified people at the service counters. The premium class counters are brighter. The people who serve you are more attentive, and your baggage is not scrutinized because it may be a few pounds over the limit.

As a coach passenger you’re offered numerous up-charges, just to make you feel like those fortunate enough to pay for premium class. It starts with priority boarding, this eliminates the anxiety of not getting your carry-on stored above you or somewhere on the aircraft without being forced to check it because they have run out of room. Then there’s the additional leg room so you can stretch out three more inches, it usually runs about $25 an inch.

Then there’s the baggage.

Last year the airlines made two billion dollars in additional baggage fees. Two billion! Still not enough to give us that small bag of peanuts. Peanuts to them but not peanuts for us.

They also offer you the option of buying more miles at the time of check-in so you can possibly upgrade in the future, just in case someone is asleep at reservations and doesn’t sell that same ticket for hundreds or even thousands more. Imagine you’re sitting in first class on an upgrade and some schmuck paid thousands more for the luxury of free food and extra room. Hey, more power to you if you can afford the ticket.

That brings me to the whole food thing. Here I am sitting about three feet away from first class with that imaginary wall made of cheap polyester fabric separating me from a reheated meal. Instead, they offer me a beverage along with a list of prepackaged garbage food to purchase, while I’m watching trays of food being served through that polyester curtain. Boy do I feel like a second-class citizen for that moment, or that hungry kid saying, “please sir, could I have some more?” I think the worst part is the ice cream sundaes.

I don’t think the Wright brothers had this in mind. Their ideals were meant for the world to experience the invention of flight, to soar above the clouds, look down at the beauty from above, and feel free. It was a way to get people from point A to point B, to connect people to different places and faces, and share different parts of the world. Flight would be a thing of beauty and convenience, it sure seemed to start out that way.

Boy, did we overshoot the runway. How can such a beautiful thing have turned so ugly?