Why would anyone want to fly away on holiday?

Prior to World War 2 and a few years after it, only wealthy people took foreign holidays. The average honest working family would save up for a week at Blackpool or Southend in a Boarding-house, which kicked everyone out after breakfast whether the sun was shining or not (usually not).
Then the package tour made guaranteed sunshine available to all, and we've never looked back.

But it's not always much fun. Some airlines treat their customers like cattle, insist you turn up at the airport three hours before departure time, to allow an opportunity for security staff to remove your shoes and belt whilst confiscating anything liquid. Of course there will be places which are genuinely unsafe, for reasons of local disturbances or terrorist threats which are designed to cut off tourist-income for the government concerned. You might also want to re-think a second visit to the United States, where it is assumed that YOU threaten their safety.

Oh, and although they want your money in the abroad, they don't want the sort you routinely use at home.

Fly the friendly skies.

I know it wasn’t, but that could almost have been written by a UKIP supporter. Oh for those glorious 1950s, when people knew their place and when travel to faraway lands such as France (22 miles from Kent) was only for our betters. And of course nobody would ever have gone to Germany, unless they were soldiers who were stationed there. The best that ‘plebs’ could hope for was to be locked in one of Billy Butlin’s holiday camps for a week.

The thread title is really two questions – why go abroad for a holiday, and if you do, why fly? Flying is usually the cheapest and quickest way to travel – even with long delays at airports – unless you’re just travelling to Paris or Brussels from the south east of England, when Eurostar is faster. And if you’re concerned about your carbon footprint, the train wins.

Britain has some beautiful places, but the weather is unreliable, the food is nothing special, the motorways get congested and the trains are the most expensive in Europe. As for terrorist threats, we know that London and Manchester are just as big a risk as Madrid, Nice or Munich.

People go abroad for a variety of reasons – such as to laze on a beach where there is guaranteed sunshine, to walk in the Swiss Alps with (or preferably without) Theresa May, or to be a culture-vulture in Rome, Florence or Venice. Or maybe they just want a real change of scenery, different food, different customs and language, or to broaden the mind and learn that outside the UKIP mindset, the world doesn’t start and end at Dover.

Then why do so many people return from "holiday" feeling ripped-off? It isn't just me, it's well documented. The travel industry is Capitalism distilled. Unless you spend enough to be insulated from cattle-class.

I hate flying - I will occasionally do it in the interest of seeing something different or interesting or (and this is IMPORTANT) eating something different or interesting - but nothing will ever make me enjoy any part of the experience. I used to enjoy airports with their multiple retail opportunities, until I realised that the object is just to get as much as possible of your money out of you before you arrive at your destination - thus leaving less to pay for interesting foreign food.

I enjoy visiting places abroad (interesting sights, interesting food, interesting retail opportunities, chances to flirt with handsome Egyptian market stall-holders) but would always prefer to travel overland.

Flying is really for people with limited leisure time, I feel - anyone who can afford it would always choose to travel at the speed of a willing donkey

You don’t have to go abroad to feel “ripped off”. In fact, our old friend Papaumau has a forum devoted to that very topic, although it doesn’t get much ‘traffic’. You’re just as likely to feel ripped off if you take a holiday in the UK; watch a few episodes of ‘The Hotel Inspector’ and then read reviews on Trip Advisor of the premises which Alex Polizzi inspects.

I haven’t booked a package holiday since I’ve had a computer. I prefer to plan my own holidays, booking directly with hotels and often getting a better price by cutting out the middlemen (travel agents and tour operators). You don’t get treated like cattle if you make your own arrangements, but of course you still get treated like sardines on the flights if, like me, you can only afford economy class.

I really hate flying, but see it as a necessary evil, and I only use short-haul flights, no further than to Zürich or Munich from Gatwick. When I go to Munich next month I should be in the city centre by 11am. If I went by train via London and Paris (and a change of stations), I’d be lucky if I arrived by late evening.

I don't like hotels much, either - usually rent a holiday house or apartment then I have full control over my holiday experience and the dogs can usually also come

I do like restaurants

Of course holidays are meant to be attractive and rewarding, all work and no play etc.

But the travel industry has monetized our dreams in order to sell them back to us.

Flying does absolutely nothing for me. But then neither does travelling abroad on holiday. A couple of weeks in Yorkshire ( Dales or Moors) is fine for me by way of a good break - some great B&Bs or cottages available.

On those few occasions when I have been out of the country, I have principally used Eurostar - and have recently been converted to cruising , albeit not much further than Spain and Norway, as yet.

I flew up to Edinburgh once, but l much prefer long-distance train journeys , so am content to hop on at King's Cross and head for Scotland - preferably to Inverness because I can enjoy the experience for 8+ hours. And booking early can make first-class rail travel affordable for many people.

First class rail travel is almost pleasant, I will allow.

(No comment)

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/17/chris-grayling-scrapping-first-class-trains-leaves-us-all-in-third

It would be suicide for the rail companies to not have first-class seats on long ( ie Inter-city) journeys. It's bad enough that only Great Western have restaurant cars now!

Commuter trains are a different matter - but I ain't a commuter...

Quinquiremes of Nineveh had galley-slaves chained to the oars, but will charter flights get away with a modern equivalent?

'This is your computer speaking. We are now cruising at 580mph and an altitude of 36,000ft...'

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technology/this-is-your-computer-speaking-we-are-now-cruising-at-580mph-and-an-altitude-of-36000ft/ar-AApCxUQ?li=AA54rU&ocid=iehp

Some of London's tube trains already operate automatically, though they do have a human in the "Driver's Cabin" for psychological reasons. But are holidaymakers ready for the guided missile approach to package travel?

Experienced airline pilots will sometime describe their job as 98% boredom with 1% sheer terror at take-off and similarly again at landing.

Imagine a cargo of human passengers experiencing that vividly for themselves. Messy.