Re "Class Struggle in the Sky" (Sunday Review, July 7):
What James Atlas recounts about the experience of flying, then and now, is right on the mark.
As an employee of Pan American World Airways from 1968 to 1978, I was part of the "old days" of flying. As ground personnel, we, like the stewardesses, were as polished as the marble counters of the flagship Counter Vanderbilt office in which we worked.
When our passengers talked to one of us in preparation for their travel plans, we knew everything there was to know about their destinations. We had probably been there, and they were grateful for our expertise.
The frustrations of travel today begin even before one gets to the airport. Trying to navigate through confusing Web sites for schedules, fares and accommodations and paying for numerous add-on services are enough to make you want to stay home forever.
I never imagined in those halcyon days that flying would change so drastically for the worse.
ELEANOR M. IMPERATO
Manhasset, N.Y., July 7, 2013
To the Editor:
James Atlas betrays his own well-off background by virtue of his flying to the Bahamas at 13 in the 1960s. At that time, most families did not fly at all, much less internationally. My very middle-class mother grew up in the '50s and had never been on a commercial flight in her entire life.
Further, my parents never took our family on a vacation that involved leaving the ground or the United States — sorry, we went to Niagara Falls, the Canadian side!
The reason flying was so luxurious in the 1960s was that most people couldn't afford it. Flying is much more attainable for the middle class today. If you aren't fixated on those who are better off, you'd realize that you're lucky to be flying, period.
CHRIS SEGEDY
Brooklyn, July 7, 2013
To the Editor:
Alas, the "statusization" that James Atlas talks about is proceeding at full throttle in the skies and on the ground.
I was waiting to board my plane at Dallas-Fort Worth a few weeks ago as the gate attendant ran through the sequential list of boarding categories — in descending order of preference, with adequate time pauses between — ultimately making her way down to the unvarnished and unalloyed group-number designations.
The man standing next to me said, "I guess we're in the 'dirt' category."
I sniffed, "So much for our egalitarian society," and we chuckled to ourselves in that moment of sweet solidarity.
BARBARA ALLEN KENNEY
Santa Fe, N.M., July 7, 2013
To the Editor:
I know several well-traveled people who have declared that they will never travel by airplane again. We all agree that the annoyances of flying have made conditions not merely unpleasant but unacceptable as well. These include ticket-pricing games, intrusive security searches, bags stuffed into overhead bins, overcrowding, no food, long delays and high prices.
Refusing to rectify these problems just might cause airlines to lose customers, and vacation destinations to lose revenue.
Traveling by air, I've visited 10 countries, 33 states and 26 national parks, but my last two vacations were on cruise ships. Though not ideal, at least the vacations began as soon as we got out of the cab and onto the ship.
Two previous vacations were spent driving to Newport, R.I., and the Boston area, and we're considering train travel. We've decided that any mode of transportation is preferable to airplanes that are like cattle cars.
LINDA IMHAUSER
Whitestone, Queens, July 8, 2013
To the Editor:
What James Atlas is seeing is not the emergence of a new aristocracy in the sky but rather the democratization of flying.
Those people up front, far from lording it over the economy passengers, are subsidizing their travel.
The fact that the plane looks more like a bus terminal than a magic carpet means that regular people are going places that their parents and grandparents saw only in the pages of National Geographic. The world is a better place for it.
STANDISH M. FLEMING
San Diego, July 8, 2013
To the Editor:
We take safety in the air for granted until a crash landing, like that of Asiana Airlines. I still thank God when I have a safe flight, the most important issue in flying.
RUTH COHEN
New York, July 7, 2013
To the Editor:
The next time you find yourself inclined to whine about the conditions in the dreaded coach cabin midway through a flight from New York to Los Angeles, try imagining the experiences of the settlers traveling for months in their covered wagons to reach their destinations.
All of a sudden, flying coach doesn't seem so bad. It works for me.
"I'll have a Diet Coke, please ..."
ED WASIL
Plymouth, Mich., July 7, 2013
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