I've seen news in recent times saying that a lot of the bad times experienced by domestic airlines in the wake of September eleventh has cleared up, but I have yet to see this reflected in the prices, reliability, or timeliness of any airline in particular.  I got thinking about this fact just the other day as I was traveling by air back and forth from Indiana to New York for my brother's wedding.  I had cause for concern because one leg of my travel was going to be on a small commuter plane run by Northwest Airlines.  I had heard that Northwest is having the most problems out of all the airlines in the country with keeping up with their scheduled flights due to a host of difficulties.  When I arrived at the airport to look for that particular flight, I was shocked and relieved to see that of all the eight flights operated by Northwest Airlines on the day that I was traveling, only mine was listed as "on time", whereas the other seven were all cancelled.  That would have been a major fiasco to say the least.  So back to my question...what is the problem with the airlines?  Why is it that these hard times have continued.  Surely there is no shortage of people who prefer to travel from destination to destination by air.  It's definitely quicker, but it's no longer a reasonable option for price and reliability.  Just about everyone who I have talked to who has traveled by air recently has had some type of problem with their trip.  Whether it is lost luggage, cancelled flights, extended delays, or poor service, things are just not adding up.  Flights are jam-packed with people who have paid several hundred dollars a piece (at least) to fly on that particular flight.  With these never-flagging prices and fuel prices easing, I fail to see why the services that are offered are even poorer than in the past.  On two flights that I took myself this past weekend, a limited beverage service wasn't even offered.  On one of the particular flights, the air conditioning was so cold but the flight attendant informed several people that the subcontracted airline operating the flight for US Airways was quote "the red-headed stepchild of the parent company" and therefore "aren't permitted to have blankets and pillows."  What is up with that?  What kind of employee refers to their company of employment as a "red headed stepchild"...especially to paying customers who are essentially putting their lives in the hands of this particular crew on this particular flight and trusting them to fly safely from one place to another.  It really made me think twice about flying, and I even considered calling and/or writing to the corporate offices of US Airways so ask some questions.  Sure, I may just be some random airline passenger, but still, if I'm going to pay four hundred dollars to fly eight hundred miles, I think I have a right to know why the crew of the flight is saying such disconcerting things to passengers.  Yikes!

Anyways, I often wonder if we'll ever see a slackening of the high prices for air travel in this country.  It's scary to think that I now pay nearly the same amount of money to fly home these days as I did to travel round trip to Europe just about two years ago.  Another thing that is a little bit shocking is how you can no longer even attempt to find reasonable flights for last-minute travel.  I remember that I used to fly up to New York City for the weekend because it was just about one hundred dollars round trip at certain times of the year if you could find a last minute deal.  I happened to look for possible flights to fly up to New York again to go to the second wedding that I need to attend next week, and the prices were absolutely shocking.  There is no way that I'm going to pay upwards of five hundred dollars for a flight.  I would much rather keep my current play of paying about one hundred twenty dollars for a beautiful rental car with unlimited miles and make the drive myself.  At least I know that I'll be reliable and on time and I can bring a blanket and snacks if I want to.