Happy holidays and not so happy flying

I have just returned from a lovely holiday in Portugal. Ignoring popular notions about carbon footprints, we went by plane. And what a perfunctory, rather miserable experience flying has become.

I remember taking my first flight years ago when it was still exciting and there was a real sense of occasion. People dressed up, food and drink was provided within the ticket price  and you were not presumed to be about to do something dastardly with your bottle of water.

Now the combination of cost cutting and ever tighter securiy means you  go flightside like a refugee stripped of everything but your wallet, walk miles and miles down harshly lit corridors with bad carpets and join endless queues at seemingly random points hoping they are the right ones. When you get to the plane, leg room is tighter than ever and if you are very unlucky the passenger in front of you will recline onto your knees for the duration of the journey.

The cabin staff do their best to preserve the illusion of glamour with their neat uniforms and full make up but over the years their allure has too been diminished and on this year’s flight their very enthusiastic promotion of the duty free made me wonder whether they too are now paid only by commission.

Maybe next year we will look at overland options. If you factor in the time you spend waiting around at airports, it might even be quicker. Or maybe flying is like childbirth. However awful, however protracted, once it’s over you fortget all about it and before you know it, you are doing it all over again.