Planes, trains, and empty wallets

I do not understand why it costs so much to fly. Don’t get me wrong, I took accounting and business classes in college and thus comprehend the concepts of fixed versus variable costs and the fact that the airline industry is completely hosed by dint of those two subjects and a variety of others. What I don’t comprehend is why I can’t get someone to knock a little bit off the ticket in an effort to get a body in the seat that will otherwise be unoccupied as it flies along the route it was going to take anyway. I don’t particularly think I’m special, OK I do but not in this particular sense, but I do think that affordable air travel would be nice, for once.

Obviously I have a destination in mind, but nonetheless, I am irritated by the general cost of flying around the Continent. I mean, why does it cost $500 to fly to DC? I don’t get it. I mean, I could drive, but that’s five more days of work to account for just to get there and I really don’t want to spend my entire vacation driving without even getting where I’m going. Isn’t the fact that I am going to potentially spend 17 straight hours on a plane enough punishment without having to fork over $1,000 I don’t have for the “privilege”?

Marshall and I constantly joke about gaining the ability to Apparate, but I know that we are usually joking through gritted teeth, a la “Why the hell is there traffic between Whistler and Vancouver at 7 o’clock on a Sunday night and don’t they know that it’s still an hour to the border and five hours home from there unless you’re riding with Senor Muzzle and that’s its own set of risks to take so why can’t we just snap our fingers and BE THERE ALREADY?!?”

Don’t get me wrong, I love to drive. I drive all the time. Well, not currently, but soon. Anyway, some of my favorite vacations have been road trips. However, when I want to take a vacation that requires a plane flight, it just makes me ill as I know for a fact that it’s going to suck. Not in the sense that the trip will be bad, but that I’m going to be spending an arm and a leg getting there and back. Which is enough to send me straight for bed or a bar, depending on the time of day.

Conveniently, I don’t have any trips concretely planned right now. Not carrying a credit card really cuts down on the ability to jump a plane whenever one wants. That whole paying-rent-rather-than-jetsetting-around-the-globe-like-a-Hilton-sister gets in the way sometimes. Argh.

Maybe I just need more stuff to do at work. There’s a thought.

Quote of the Day: “It’s time to move on/it’s time to get going/what lies ahead I have no way of knowing/but under my feet, baby/grass is growing/it’s time to move on/time to get going. Time to Move On, Tom Petty