What do you miss most about old school traveling?

[tony67]

I'm okay with this because there's a lot more varied diets these days and considerations of that plus my husband doesn't eat eggs. Although a common one of yogurt is not one he eats either. My meal on my flight home from Tokyo last weekend was labeled Halal for example. The Air France flight we had last year Chicago to Paris (where we connected there to get to Venice) the breakfast was yogurt, muffin, bread, jam and butter and coffee but that was also the second meal. The first meal (speaking towards your wine comment) you could order wine if you wanted no additional charge, it wasn't the mini-est of bottles but wasn't a full large bottle of wine either.

I think domestic carriers that fly international are normally not the ones to have more food although British Airways (who we flew home last year from Athens with a connection in Heathrow) has been cost cutting their meals from not carrying enough meals for the amount of passengers on board intentionally doing so to cutting out a breakfast or a meal entirely for flights after a certain time of day.

Aer Lingus has been my most common carrier from the EU and they have always been really bad - the have a lck on teh US to Ireland routes for the most part. So much worse the last few years - every time we fly with them its worse than the last. Having a "Irish" breakfast on the flight was always a thing for many years even if it was a very scaled down one. Now it just a scone - and not a nice scone. They also use a cheaper butter - it used to be Kerry Gold - now its a nock off. They are even cheap with the water now - and if you go up to them in the back of the plane and ask for water they have a bit of an attitude - you are bothering them. Its gotten to the point they are basically Ryan Air IMO.

Now that Jet Blue fly's to Ireland I have more choice now - so that is good - I just need to use up all the FF miles I have first with Aer Lingus.

I think you are better off with many of the Airlines to pick a "special" meal up front - so vegetarian for example - my wife is thrilled that Jet Blue changed to cold meals - but from what I saw the hot meals were actually pretty good.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Ethyl is tetra-ethyl lead which the Ethyl Corporation poisoned us with while knowing it was an extreme neurotoxin. Lead was known to be a neurotoxin back in ancient Rome when the plumbed population suffered from lead poisoning from the lead piping. The Ethyl Corporation was not going to let their profits be hampered by public health and pump the atmosphere with massive quantities of their IQ lowering poison.

You must be fun at parties (J/K)

Agree that advances in fuel have definitely made things better. Leaded fuel was the leading source of lead poisoning leading to developmental issues in kids - don't miss that one bit. take a look at old reruns of CHiPS - that was filmed on the So Cal freeways as they were being built and the air quality was atrocious.

I do draw the line at what CA is doing now though. The little tweaks in the fuel formulation are akin to washing your hands twice - it really doesn't make an appreciable difference and it is the source of the ridiculous CA fuel prices. They are not done - if CARB gets their way our gas prices will go up ANOTHER dollar more than every other state. You may think it's no big deal, but with that goes the food prices, and rent and absolutely everything else. It's a problem that isn't getting discussed nearly enough.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I know this is a zombie thread, but it can't be said enough. The one thing I miss about the "old school travelling"? Three words;
DISNEY
MAGICAL
EXPRESS
Putting those yellow tags on your bags at home and heading straight to the buses at the airport was glorious!

 

[tony67]

I know this is a zombie thread, but it can't be said enough. The one thing I miss about the "old school travelling"? Three words;
DISNEY
MAGICAL
EXPRESS
Putting those yellow tags on your bags at home and heading straight to the buses at the airport was glorious!

Yeah that was something that is really missed. Go from the plane to the bus, check in , go to the parks, come back to your room and the bags are there waiting. Cant be beat.

Similar heading back to the airport - they checked your bags in the AM and you did not see them till your destination - although they made you be on the bus way too early going back - especially since your bags were already checked.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Aer Lingus has been my most common carrier from the EU and they have always been really bad - the have a lck on teh US to Ireland routes for the most part. So much worse the last few years - every time we fly with them its worse than the last. Having a "Irish" breakfast on the flight was always a thing for many years even if it was a very scaled down one. Now it just a scone - and not a nice scone. They also use a cheaper butter - it used to be Kerry Gold - now its a nock off. They are even cheap with the water now - and if you go up to them in the back of the plane and ask for water they have a bit of an attitude - you are bothering them. Its gotten to the point they are basically Ryan Air IMO.

Now that Jet Blue fly's to Ireland I have more choice now - so that is good - I just need to use up all the FF miles I have first with Aer Lingus.

I think you are better off with many of the Airlines to pick a "special" meal up front - so vegetarian for example - my wife is thrilled that Jet Blue changed to cold meals - but from what I saw the hot meals were actually pretty good.

I got curious about Aer Lingus, haven't flown them but our Air France flight last year the gate next to us had a flight, it seemed chaotic in boarding. But anyways it looks like in the early 2000s Ryanair used to own almost a 1/3 of Aer Lingus in terms of stakes and repeatedly tried to buy them out (being blocked due to monopoly concerns since both of those airlines already had so much of a presence in Ireland) and only sold those off in 2015. So depending on when you flew them they may have been with Ryanair having a significant relatively speaking stake in them. Looking into it now it seems like Aer Lingus is like a lot of air carriers struggling with staying afloat (especially with the pandemic) having to let go of employees, freeze pay so I'm sure not serving Kerry Gold is a necessity over the alternative of going under but I can understand missing the more "golden days" of it.

That said I pretty much have never heard of good stuff with Ryanair although when we flew with BA last year out of Athens their check in counter opened much earlier than BA's did and seemed to do a lot better than BA who for the life of them couldn't even figure out how to queue us up legit they kept changing the path of the line by moving the posts and changing the direction of the strap that goes into those posts multiple times.

This past May we flew PLAY Airlines (ultra low cost like Spirit with a la carte no food or drink unless you buy it) from Copenhagen through Iceland to JFK and would not recommend it unless that was mostly your only choice. But I just read last weekend that they are pulling back the amount of flights to and from the U.S. after only a few years of doing so as well as pulling back on northern Europe focusing on southern Europe due to profits. I'm not surprised that they are pulling back from the U.S. Their boarding was fine, the experience on board was not.

 

[Moliphino]

I fly Aer Lingus often, since they're the only international carrier out of Bradley these days (Bradley is so much easier than driving to Boston, plus parking is about 1/3 the price). Aside from no free booze, they're not all that different an experience than other carriers I've flown international (Air France, ITA, American, United, British). Better than Icelandair, who doesn't feed you at all.

 

[Skippy918]

Buying an airline ticket and having everything included instead of this nickel and diming business. Also better snacks and food on planes.

 

[Dan Murphy]

We are supposed to be headed to WDW soon and as I roll over the things we need to do my mind settles on the things I miss.

For me the biggest is probably the bell services where I'd pull up to an airport and for $5 tip a bag someone would take my bags, pffft I'd pay twice that if it came back in any form... sigh.

Coach seating that a taller than average man can seat in and not have to purchase first class seating all the time.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Coach seating that a taller than average man can seat in and not have to purchase first class seating all the time.

Remember when you could recline your seat on an airplane and it was NOT a major debate? Those were the days...

 

[soccerdad72]

I know this is a zombie thread, but it can't be said enough. The one thing I miss about the "old school travelling"? Three words;
DISNEY
MAGICAL
EXPRESS
Putting those yellow tags on your bags at home and heading straight to the buses at the airport was glorious!

Great service, right up to the day when they stole my bag (on a non-Disney trip to Orlando). I got to baggage claim and never saw my bag. Took MCO folks hours to figure out it got swept up in the Magical Express bags and sent off to whatever central sorting warehouse they must go to. Took the better part of the rest of the day before I saw my luggage.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Remember when you could recline your seat on an airplane and it was NOT a major debate? Those were the days...

I remember those days well.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Nothing. Traveling is much easier with the current technology.

Used to be able to show up about 30 minutes before a flight. Can't do that now.
Used to get meals on most flights and snacks on the short hops.
Used to not have to pay for bag fees or early boarding fees or fees for a seat with one inch more of leg room. Used to not be crammed in like sardines.

Flying used to be an experience in and of itself. First class service on domestic flights isn't even up to what coach was years ago.

Even vacations aren't vacations any more for a lot of us. Used to be you took two weeks off and went on vacation. Now you're expected to take your phone with you and be in touch, etc etc.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Coach seating that a taller than average man can seat in and not have to purchase first class seating all the time.

I bet, I am 5'1" and I always wonder how men with long legs can stand it. I have arthritis and am miserable, I honestly can't imagine being taller on top of it, maybe the miserable discomfort is why people get drunk so often now LOL