Airline Rant

My full first name is "Samuel". Samuel is on the list of pretentious names. Sure, it's exponentially less pretentious than Augustus or Maximilian, or Alexander, but my point is that I go by "Sam" instead.

Sadly, I have a government issued ID that gives my full first name. And somehow the TSA thinks that terrorists would be dumb enough to go by "Sam" on their boarding pass, and "Samuel" on their ID. What the hell would that accomplish?

Well the TSA, in conjunction with the airlines, have accomplished wasting absurd amounts of my time.

To update my frequent flier profile with Delta, at least changing my name, I have to fax them a signed authorization. No joke. What happens to all the poor women in Delta's Frequent flier program who get married and decide to change their name? Every time they're expected to send a fax. Get the f*ck out of here Delta!

US air wouldn't change my name over the phone, or online. I have to do it at the airport. Thanks, because what I need is more stuff to do at what is surely the most depressing public space in any city.

It's simple: The US airlines, Jet Blue, Virgin America and Southwest aside don't deserve to be in business. (Please suggest others that don't deserve to die in the comments)

American

United

Continental

Delta

US Air

There is no good reason that any of them should be operating as independent companies anymore.

There is just one bad reason. Foreign companies can't own more than 25% of voting shares in US airlines. In practice, this protects US airlines from competition. They can provide shitty service and get away with it.

I'll point out that they are also further protected from competition by the US's lack of anything approaching high-speed rail. Think about how stupid it is that there are something like 40 188 flights between Boston and NYC (94!?! each way are you kidding me? And 122 each way between NYC and DC. Insanity). I never fly between these two cities, taking the train every time, - occasionally the bus if I'm skint. But the train is slow as shit. The train would be fast enough to travel 200 miles in less than two hours if it ran in the following countries:

France

Germany

Spain

Italy

Holland

Austria

Japan

South Korea

China

If Amtrak was fast enough to make the Boston - NYC trip in less than 2 hours, then I will guarantee that there would be no more than 10 flights a day between Boston and NYC, similar math for NYC - DC. Beautiful, open skies, ready to accept flights to other cities.

Oh and the NYC airports are the most congested in the country and commonly lock up half of the country's air traffic system.

You can go even further and say that we give additional lift to short-haul routes because we haven't adopted autobahn speed limits. If I could drive the 140 miles from Ft. Myers to Miami in 1.5 hours instead of 3, I surely wouldn't have suffered the propeller plane that flies that route.

America is a big country, and we should fly to many parts of it. But all that necessary flying would be much more pleasant if we killed the crappy airlines, and cut out the unnecessary flying.

And we only need to do two things to bring flying nirvana to the US of A, one free and simple, the other expensive and hard but worth it:

1. End the ban on foreign airlines owning US carriers.

2. Build a real high-speed rail system, starting with Boston - D.C. and San Diego to Sacramento, followed by a Texas line, a Florida line, a Chicago circuit, and several other obvious corridors.