...And Another Thing

I tend to blog about things that don't make sense to me. The other day, I wrote a blog about my travel experiences, and there are a few things about flying that just don't make sense. Here's one of them.

My youngest sister Victoria was here for the last week and she left this morning, long before the sun came up. Today will be a long day of travel for her, and in my opinion it doesn't have to be. She left Montana and will eventually end up in Raleigh, NC tonight.

From Kalispell, MT, she flew to Salt Lake City. Makes sense. But from SLC, she is flying to Seattle. I know geography pretty well, but maybe you don't. If you leave Montana and go to Utah, you need to take a left to get to North Carolina. She's taking a right, which means she'll pass right over the place she already was several hours earlier.

Let's say somebody is visiting your house and they ask where your bathroom is. You might say something like "go to that hallway and take a left, then it's right in front of you at the end of the hall".

I wonder what it's like to go the person's house who plans these air travel routes. "Take six steps backwards, then walk forward to that hallway. Take a right and walk until you hit the wall. When you do, stay there for a few hours and my friend will sell you a warm bottle of water and a cold ham sandwich for $36. Then turn around and walk to the end of the hall. I know that's far, but I'll give you 12 salty peanuts in a bag you can't open. Free. You're welcome."

I know it's a business decision based on a number of different variables, but are other businesses doing this same thing? I mean, a round-trip ticket from Salt Lake City to Seattle has to cost something, right? Let's skip that part. And this is a cheaper ticket! If you go to a restaurant and order a steak, they don't say "you can have this steak for $24. Or for half the price, you can have the same steak and a corn dog".

The weird thing about that is that you can't say "oh I'll take the second one, but I don't want the corn dog".

"It doesn't matter, it's a wise business decision for us to spend more money so that you can be unhappy. We're going to bring it to you, and you have to eat it."

"Wait, I don't like corn dogs...do I have a choice?"

"Yes, we also have a 16-pound olive loaf that you would need to eat instead of the corn dog. Or of course you could give us more money so we can give you less food."

"Oh, ok that makes sense. I knew that...sorry."

No wonder all the airlines are broke.