A decade of change – how flying (un)evolved in the noughties

As we enter the final stretch of 2009, we also leave the first decade of this new millennium behind us. This time, ten years ago, we were sitting tight hoping the Y2K bug wouldn’t kill us all. This time around, we are all sitting tight hoping the economy or exploding underpants isn’t what kills us.

Assuming we make it into 2010, lets take a quick look back at how flying changed in the past decade. I do need to point out, that it is rather depressing, and you won’t be reading too many things that improved in these ten short years.
Low cost carriers become the powerful players

Low cost carriers are not new – in fact, they have been around forever. But this past decade is when the low cost carriers became most powerful than the legacy carriers. In the United States and Europe, it is often the low cost carriers that are the only ones still making any money.

Major power players in the airline world like British Airways have been reduced to trying to compete with airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet. The most interesting part of low cost carriers is how they have forced the legacy carriers to become more like them. When low cost carriers started booming, they didn’t offer food, and they charged for luggage. Now, many major airlines have realized how well that works, and copied their business model.

Internet is everywhere

The past ten years have seen three phases of Internet becoming available everywhere – we started the decade with small corners of Internet lounges (anyone remember when Wi-Fi was only available at a single gate or lounge?).

Then in the middle of the decade, we saw the first 3G operators, and now towards the end of the decade, Internet is usually airport wide, 3G is everywhere, and we can even get online in the skies. Why does Internet matter for travelers? Without being able to get online, you often have no easy way to check on flight status, (re)book a ticket or find an affordable hotel room.

E-Ticketing

In the “good old days” (and by that, I mean ten years ago), only a handful of airlines had made the move to 100% e-ticketing. Travel agents still issued carbon printed tickets, and if you purchased a ticket directly from the airline, it would often arrive by mail.

Pretty early into the new millennium, airlines discovered that e-tickets were a great way to save money, so in just a few short years, all airlines made the switch. Your “ticket” nowadays is nothing more than an itinerary number, something you can print at home or have spit out of a boring airport kiosk.

Long gone are the days of paper tickets – except for a couple of small airlines, or complicated routing. I do miss the days when I’d get my red carbon print ticket in the mail. There was something reassuring about having a real ticket in your hands instead of just getting an email after handing the airline your credit card.

How we book our tickets

Ten years ago, booking a ticket was simple. You called or visited your travel agent or airline, or you drove to the local airport ticket office. Most major airlines had their own ticketing desk at the airport, and in many major cities, you could actually visit your airline and have them print you a ticket, or even assist with existing tickets. Sure, many airlines offered Internet booking tools back in 1999, but it was still relatively new, and not everyone wanted to use it.

Now you can still book a ticket over the phone from your airline, but it’ll cost you up to $50 per call. City Ticket Offices are all gone, and good luck finding a real person willing to sell you a ticket at the airport.

The vast majority of all tickets are sold online. Travel agents are only used by old people, or those that are scared of the Internet. Yes – travel agents still think they are a very important part of the industry, but anyone who has booked a cruise online, or researched their own trip, knows that travel agents are doomed (and rightfully so).

Airport security

Politicians like to say that 9/11 changed everything – and in the world of air travel they are spot on. Things never became the same after the tragedies of September 11th. You can no longer (easily) walk to the gate with a loved one, passing through airport security is a major hassle, and thousands of people are stopped from traveling each year thanks to a vague no-fly list.

As we leave the “noughties” behind us, we are once again reminded what a pain in the ass these terrorists are. First, Richard Reid forced us all to switch to small trial size toiletries, and now a Nigerian would-be bomber may have forced new rules upon us that mean we can’t even get up to take a pee in the final hour of our flight.

Sadly, 9 years after 9/11, we still have nothing more than a security theater. Billions have been invested to revamp airport security, but a Nigerian terrorist on a known watch list, flying with no bags on a one-way ticket paid with cash still manages to get on board a plane with a bomb strapped to his legs.

Luggage

In the final two or three years of this decade, airlines realized that they couldn’t make enough money off selling snacks – so they turned to our luggage. For years, you were welcome to bring two bags on your flight, without any additional fees.

Now only a handful of airlines still welcome your bags without extra cash – oddly enough it is once again a low cost carrier (Southwest Airlines) that decided to be nice to us, and not charge extra for checked luggage.

More smaller jets

During the good years, airlines invested billions in a large fleet of large planes they couldn’t fill. Then, during the past ten years, they realized that many of those planes were going to cost them too much to maintain.

And so began the gutting of the fleet. For several years, airlines made the transition to smaller planes, and on many routes, 737’s have been replaced by the newest generation of regional jet.

These smaller planes also allowed airlines to hand over control of short haul routes to new independent feeder carriers that fly their own fleet of planes. Sadly, with smaller planes comes smaller seats, narrower aisles and no inflight entertainment system. At least the airlines now have a good excuse for crap service.

Food (or the lack of food)

Flying in the past ten years was not good for hungry people. In just ten short years we went from full meals on many flights, to a small snack, to pretzels, to nothing.

Even when I flew one hour flights from Amsterdam to London back in 1999, I was fed a full meal. Nowadays I’m lucky if I even have the option of buying something to eat. Airlines experimented with all kinds of branded food – but finally settled on the same kind of salads and sandwiches you can buy at the airport.

The stewardess became the flight attendant

I’ve left this one till last, because it is bound to set off a bunch of angry comments. The transformation from steward(ess) to flight attendant took longer than ten years, but the past decade is when things really began to go downhill.

The flight attendant is no longer on board to look after you, and in the name of safety, the majority of them don’t even feel the need for common courtesy or anything past a forced smile.

The days of the elegant stewardess who would do everything with a smile and a wink are long gone. Nowadays, even the service up front in first class is rushed, and the cabin crew usually retreats to the galley to read a magazine after you get handed a drink and the offer to buy a stale sandwich. Oh, and asking for a glass of orange juice may get you an official warning.

I appreciate how the flight attendants think they are there primarily for your safety – but it is best if they realize the real protectors of our lives are the people flying the plane, and the air marshals. Recent events have even shown that passengers can be the ones that help save lives. Making sure tray tables are stowed is just a tiny part of safety.

For an FA to claim the role of safety guru is like having a proctologist say he’s in the business of saving lives– some will go a lifetime without doing so (Thanks Tom for that one!)

Flight attendants also love pointing out how stressful their work is, how long their days are, and how badly they get paid – and they seem to think they are the only ones in the world that deal with this kind of stuff. Except, in this case we are their customers, not the self loading freight that boards just to screw up their day and piss them off. I secretly hope that the next decade will bring back the smiling flight attendant that is once again happy to be doing their job.