How 'bout the power of flight!

Air travel always gives me good fodder for blogging, but I never want to do it again!

Every airplane trip requires so much preparation! Searching every travel website you know to find the best deal takes up hours of your time, and you haven't even gotten to the actual flying part! Then there's that panic-filled period about 4 hours before your flight when you are absolutely convinced you have appendicitis and will have to cancel all your travel plans. Wait, that doesn't happen to everyone?

Although I'm a seasoned flier from a lifetime of vacations, every time I fly, I get a little more nervous when the plane takes off. I feel like I've used up all my luck, and surely this will be the time that I die. Yeah, you can say I'm more likely to die in a car crash, but try telling that to me when I'm looking straight out my window at a spinning propeller and thinking about what will happen when it dislodges itself, smashes into my window, and then tumbles a mile to the ground below! I just don't know if air travel is worth the cardiac stress.

And, though I mentioned this in my last flying post, once again I issue the plea for more sensible refund policies! Why are tickets nonrefundable and non-transferrable, other than to ensure the airlines make tons of money off their passengers' misfortunes? It's not like we're security-screened before buying our tickets--it shouldn't matter who actually flies using them! If you run an airline and a person can't make a flight, and if you do refuse to issue a refund because you're greedy, you should at least let them sell their ticket to someone else. You still get your money and you haven't lost anything.

I just don't know if I can continue flying on airlines that want to exploit their customers in such a way. Nor would it really be practical for me, anyway. My recent trip to Toledo by air took me 8 hours, and in that amount of time, I could have driven almost all the way here, saved hundreds of dollars, brought more stuff, emitted less carbon, and probably cried a lot less. Next time, despite the temptation to fly, I think I'll just harness the power of ground transportation.