Up in the Air Again

Well, that was quick. We recently flew on a new direct route from Green Airport to Columbus on a new airline called Breeze. The flight was fine, but now it’s apparently gone with the wind, pardon the pun. This route was supposed to last through the summer, but apparently didn’t last through June. I knew that it was too good to last.

Of concern to a greater number of local flyers, their direct flights from Providence to Los Angeles, which so many people have been looking forward to, have been shelved until next February, or so they say. We’ll see. I’m not sure which of their other routes have been altered, or how long this airline will stay in business.

People who paid for tickets on this coast-to-coast route are hopping mad about the cancellations, having to try to find flights on other airlines at great expense. Maybe this isn’t the best time to try to get an airline off the ground, excuse another pun. Also, though the Breeze pilot did a good job, the flight attendants on our plane seemed awfully inexperienced.

Our trip to see family in Ohio, after over two and one-half years, turned out very well anyway. We even enjoyed great weather in the 70’s in the Midwest. This was in early June just before the dreaded heat dome came to stay over the middle of the country. My motto is go early in the summer and forget traveling in July. It’s too hot anyway. So our trip can best be summed up by saying “glad we went when we did”.

We flew back on Southwest since Breeze was only offering the Columbus flights on Friday and Monday. The airports were already mobbed on a Tuesday in early June, but then for most of the country, school’s out after Memorial Day. The phrase “less is more” can be interpreted quite literally these days, especially with travel. You will be paying more and getting less, in both service and convenience, just like in every other aspect of life. Getting through security both coming and going was as stressful and crowded as you might expect during the holidays, not with an ordinary midweek flight. This does not bode well. My sympathies to all whose travel experiences have been or will be a sore trial this summer.

Those convenient and fairly frequent Southwest flights to Providence that connected through the Baltimore airport seem to have disappeared, except for a few at inconvenient hours, and at greater expense. Why would anyone want to fly from New England to the Midwest by way of Tampa and pay a ridiculous price for the inconvenience? Convenience is the number one reason we fly.

Now some words about Terminal A at National Airport in Washington DC. Designed like spokes on a wheel, the gates are crammed close together (I felt that mask-wearing was still a must under these very crowded conditions) and the acoustics are so bad that the noise level drowns out important announcements like gate changes, etc. On the other hand, if you have a window seat on the plane, when you fly into DC you’ll get a great view of all those impressive monuments below. It was fun to be above the clouds again, one of the best parts about flying.

It was also good to use Green Airport again, but be warned there was only one restaurant open (in addition to Dunkin Donuts, of course) early this summer. If you turn right when you get through security there’s a place that sells packaged sandwiches. Another of my travel mottos is always bring food; you never know. I’m pleased to see that airports now offer water bottle refilling stations as part of the bubbler, to give it its RI name.

One gripe about Green is our experience this time with its Red Beam Garage. It’s always worked out fine for us before, but this time we discovered that the entire hood of our car was festooned with pigeon poop. The parking spot must have been right under rafters that are the pigeons’ favorite latrine. Yuck. Nothing like having to hose down the car after returning from a long day of travel.

I’ve said it before, but my favorite quip about travel comes from the inimitable Miss Piggy of the Muppets, who says, “If getting there is half the fun, you must be going somewhere really terrible.”