By telling me life is good traveling coach and to stop complaining.  O_o  Excuse me?

In this article, 7 Ways to Annoy a Flight Attendant, the last one on the list is people complaining about coach airfares and then blaming us because “we’re not up on the news.”  I’m sorry, but fuck you.  Every piece of extra on a flight is now a la carte, I have to pay to check my bags and I can’t find a non-stop flight cross country from my REGION and I SHOULDN’T be complaining that it’s costing me no less than $600 to fly round trip across the country?  I don’t know what puddle jumper that flight attendant is taking but I haven’t seen anything that cheap in a long time.  And if I do and I don’t buy rightthatsecond, the price is gone.

And I should somehow be grateful for this?  If I want to be treated better, I should pay more?  I repeat, fuck you.  The cost of flying in the United States is absolutely ridiculous and completely unwarranted.  In Europe, they have Ryanair and EasyJet, their no frills low cost airlines.  And when they say no frills, they mean no frills.  You want water on flight, you pay for it.  You want your bags checked, you pay for it.  Want crackers?  Pay for it.  Sound familiar?  The only difference is those tickets cost maybe $20 . . . round trip if you hit a sale.  The most I’ve paid is $100 round trip and I’ve flown equivalent distances in Europe as I have here.  And this anonymous flight attendant (she would remain anonymous, wouldn’t she?) has the audacity to tell me I have it good here?  Seriously?

I just did a little bit of research.  To fly from London to Dublin, which is roughly the equivalent of flying from Connecticut to Washington DC, it’ll cost roughly $240 dollars, non-stop, no frills, round trip, flight lasting 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The cheapest flight from Connecticut to Washington DC cost $234, no frills, one stop, round trip with a flight that should only last just over an hour actually lasts over 5 hours because of the layover.  If you want a non-stop flight, the cheapest you’ll pay is $532 still with no frills and a flight time of an hour and fifteen minutes.  A regional flight.  BUT OMG THAT’S SO CHEAP!!!  O_o  I can’t even fly for a decent price within my own region and I’m somehow supposed to be thrilled about this?  And the US costs come from Travelocity, by the way.  So to fly equivalent distances, it’ll cost me nearly three times as much for the same exact flying experience here than it would in Europe.  To the flight attendant, I say bite me.

So don’t sit there and tell me I’m somehow out of the media loop because I’m complaining about shitty coach service and skyrocketing ticket prices.  Considering I’m checking ticket prices constantly as I fly on  a regular basis, I’m very much up to speed on what it costs to fly.  I’m also up to speed at the amenities that were once common practice that are now being taken out of those costs because it’s starting to cut into the profit of the airline.  What the hell are the airlines here doing wrong?  British Airways even offers competitive flights in Europe to Ryanair and EasyJet and they haven’t had panic attacks at the rising cost of fuel or operations.  And fuels costs are consistently significantly higher in Europe than here.  By a long shot.

So what are American airlines doing wrong that they feel they need to strip every piece of luxury out of a coach ticket while increasing the price of flying and can somehow justify that when their European counterparts can offer one pound seat sales without going bankrupt?  Has EasyJet and RyanAir consigned to operating at a minimal profit and feels providing to their customers a more important necessity?  Or do they have so many people flying their airlines that they easily make up lost costs on the sheer number of ticket sales?  I’m thinking the latter.  I’ve stood in Ryanair lines in London before.  Trust me.  They’re not hurting in the slightest.

So to you anonymous flight attendant that had some very reasonable gripes (I fully agree with the first six), you can take your gravy plane and sit on it.  Compared to the cost of flying a year and a half ago, yes, tickets are cheaper but while running one marathon is easier than running two back to back, that single one is no easy feat either.  The first time I flew back in 2005, I was fed, without complaint, and the cost was incorporated in my ticket.  There wasn’t a cost to check my bags and there were a myriad of flights to choose from.  Now there are significantly fewer seats, fewer flights, everything you do on a plane costs something and on top of that you have to pay out your ass, usually with multiple stops, just to get from point A to point B.  I don’t know what newspaper you’re reading, sweetheart, but it’s not the same one I am.

While I won’t complain on the plain itself, don’t you dare stand there and say I somehow have it good and if I want it better, I should pay more.  I pay enough as it is and just a few years ago, I didn’t have to pay more to have it better.  It was already incorporated in the cost of the ticket.  I was perfectly content on the no frills airlines paying $20 a ticket.  I have a right to be discontent on an airline that used to have frills but no longer does paying a $500 ticket plus the cost of checking bags, on-flight food and whatever else you people and suck out of me.  So open your eyes a little more and put yourself in our shoes.  We have every right to complain.