At 12:07 PM 2/20/2003 -0500, you wrote: >I still say its fear of the 'hassle factor' and extreme discomfort of flying >in the USA these days. My family and several friends all have postponed or >avoided flying NOT because of any terror fears but just cause travel today is >a real pain-not any fun at all. >Dennis I have to wonder how much of this is a game of perceptions. With the minor, but distinct exception of paying more attention to scheduling for food issues, I haven't seen travel get a lot worse. Yeah, I'd rather be able to have my Swiss Army Knife and leatherman still live in my briefcase, but that's not exactly a deal breaker. With less hub-packing and lower utilization in place like LGA, I've seen far fewer flight delays, and less overall schedule chaos. Even with total bag screening in place, I've yet to see a change in lost bags, or the like. I've heard lots of third hand discussion about how bad it is, but I've yet to run into a lot of people who have seen it first hand. Maybe it's just that I've gotten the whole airplane travel experience down to a well honed routine, but it just hasn't registered on my radar as so much harder to travel that I won't do it. How many people on this list have actually had first hand experiences, in the past 18 months, that really were enough to make them cut back flying? Serious question folks. - David