I’ve gone from modestly profitable for them to “He don’t fly no more.”
Yep, I have 900,000 on united and I am not likely to make a million. They tick me off every time I fly them. I might have 500,000 on American. They are better, but not by much. I tend to fly the airline that is more convenient now. Or i drive if its possible. The airport is a place where you feel you have no rights anymore. So its best to stay away when possible.
I love the entire experience of flying. I try to get to the airport at least three hours before my flight time so that I can go to an airport bar (with my Kindle) and have a burger with a couple of tall ones. An hour before flight time, I'm at the gate with my Kindle making sure my bladder is empty before boarding because I don't want to disrupt the other passengers by getting up mid-flight to use the lavs (I prefer a window seat).
If I have some extra time, I like to walk through the terminals and people watch. Sometimes they have some interesting things in the terminal lobby to look at like those cages with the balls constantly falling to the bottom and rising back up again like some perpetual motion machine.
I get a lot of reading done prior to flight and during the flight. I like the snacks that the stewardesses hand out and I never give them a hard time, ever. I also check my luggage so I'm never one of those jerks trying to stuff a big bag in the overheads. I have respect for my fellow passengers and my stewardesses. Sometimes the stewardesses are men but that's cool. I don't judge.
I like it when the pilots make random announcements like "we are 30 miles west of Kansas City and two hours out from Palm Springs where it is a balmy 74 degrees." I like knowing where I currently am at and what the temperature is where I'm going.
Landing is always the best part. I like to look out the window as objects get closer and closer. Suddenly, just when I think I'm going to crash into a shopping mall parking lot, the runway magically appears below me. Those pilots really know what they are doing but they like to scare me once in a while.
When the plane finally comes up to the gate, I'm not anxious to get off the plane like some of my fellow passengers. I just sit calmly in my seat, reading my Kindle and I wait patiently for all those "in a rush" to extract their oversized bags from the overhead and jam the aisles looking to get off the plane first. I don't care about being among the first to get off the plane. I'm quite content to be among the last.
When it is finally time to leave the plane, I am cheerful to the crew as I depart the plane and I take my sweet time getting to the baggage claim in which I encounter my fellow passengers who were for some reason in such a rush to get off the plane. As I wait patiently for my luggage to tumble into the carousel, I push the button on my iPhone to bring the Uber over. I grab my luggage and walk on outside to grab my Uber. Life is good and it's almost totally stress free.