A Travel Crunch is Coming!

The summer travel season is upon us and already travel experts are putting out the word: Brace yourself!

Here’s half of the problem: The pandemic is supposedly over and people who have put off travel because they were afraid of getting sick are now either feeling confident that they won’t get sick or they’re fed up and just don’t give a damn.

Here’s the other half: Travel experts all agree that there’s going to be a huge travel boom. The signs are already there and the airlines are gearing up for it.

How? One way is by reconfiguring their planes to accommodate more people. That means less room for everyone unable to pay for a first class seat . . . and that’s just about all of us. But wait a sec! How can there be less room when there’s already not enough room?

We’re already paying extra for another three inches of space between us and the person next to us. And if the guy sitting in front of me reclines his seat, I’ll spend the next five hours looking at the top of his bald head!

And how’s this for gall: they take away a few more precious inches of space from everyone on the plane by squeezing all the rows together just a bit more. Then they sell three or four of those inches back to a few dozen of us at $40 an inch . . . and they call it “extra comfort”!

I’m not necessarily a fan of government regulation, but the folks in charge of overseeing the aviation industry had better start taking a hard look at what the individual airlines are getting away with. 

And if you think that’s going to happen during these days of unlimited, anonymous political contributions . . . you’ve been puffing on one of those funny cigarettes folks here in Hawaii call pakalolo. 

It’s just one more reason why—once I get to the mainland—I take the train!