Silly Airlines, I'll just Road Trip!

So, I've been known to go on rants lately about the changes airlines are making. I completely understand the need for changes because of the rise in gas prices. But what those changes are kind of gets to me. American decides they should charge for checking bags. US Airways won't give us pretzels anymore. Seriously, what is the world coming to?!

Now, honestly, I don't want to pay more for a plane ticket. But that is just the reality of the world right now. So if I'm told it'll cost me an extra $300 to fly home from Christmas, I'm not going to be surprised. I'm just going to suck it up and pay it. But charging me for things that have always been free really just irritates me. I can't exactly say why I would be more willing to pay $100 more for a ticket rather than $30 to check to bags. I think it's just the principle of the matter. And taking away my pretzels is just annoying. Less annoying since I discovered that I can still get sodas, but still. More annoying since they are raising their prices as well.

I am flying American in a month for vacation. We will have to check bags as it's just not practical for me to back a weeks worth of clothes and various other things in a carry-on. And we're going to have fishing poles, which just can't be taken on the plane. So, as soon as the news story came out about paying to check bags, I called American Airlines to see what the deal was. I booked our tickets months ago, and my itinerary says I get to check bags for free. So I was not going to be a happy person if I had to pay. Of course, the person I talked to said yes, I was going to have to pay $15 for every bag I have to check. I insisted this was wrong but she insisted it was right. I have since been going around in circles with these people. I've been told I don't understand how rising gas prices are effecting the world, and many other thing. Um, I pay for gas every week too, I understand it sucks. Well, I was not getting anywhere with real people, so I emailed AA customer service. They say that I won't have to pay to check bags. It's only for flights booked after June 15, not flights that take place after June 15. So, not really sure which information to trust. But at this point I can't cancel and fly with another airline as the tickets would be twice as much.

So yeah, what really sucks is AA used to be my favorite airline. It seems like they are always the best to fly to STL, so I've been loyal to them in that regard. But I really don't want to fly with them anymore. And US Air was my 2nd favorite and they pissed me off too. I simply don't agree with taking away food because the garbage is too heavy. It's just silly. I would have never said anything if people just raised their prices. I just find all their reasonings to be not well thought out. And I'm certainly not going to be treated any better for continuing to fly with an airline.

At this point, I would like to see half the airlines go out of business. Maybe if we all stop flying someone will step up and start doing business right.

Note: It is 858 miles from my house here to my house in St. Louis. If my car gets only 20 mpg, that'll be 42.9 gallons. At $4.00 a gallon, it would cost $171.60 one way or $343.20 round trip. And my car usually gets better than that (when I don't sit in city traffic all the time) and gas isn't up to $4 everywhere. Now given that prices right now are anywhere from $800 to $1,000 for John and I both to fly to STL, we're looking at quite a bit of savings. I am seriously considering just driving home for Christmas this year. It's been a long time since I had a good road trip. Why not?!

Yay dinner!

So as I was driving home today, I was thinking how much I did not want to go home and fix dinner. I was insanely hungry but the thought of having to cook made me sad. Sometimes this feeling results in pizza nights, but I really didn't want pizza. So, I tried to convince myself that my planned meal wouldn't take long to cook and all would be well.

Then, I walked in the door to find John already home and a meal 10 minutes away from being ready. It was fantastic!

Fishing

So, in all the times I have been fishing, I've always let the little fish go. That is no longer the case! John and I went fishing a the pond behind his grandparents' house yesterday. We dug up worms from under the tree and I finally figured out how to get them on the hook. We saw a giant snapping turtle that did not eat our toes. Though, I think it would have if it had the chance. We had some trouble at first with the massive amount of baby fish who would just nibble on the worms but couldn't get their mouths around the hook. Which is actually good, cause who wants to catch the babies? We ended up getting quite a few blue gill. So we took them back to the house and cleaned them up. We had them for lunch today. Blue gill are yummy! So now, if I'm ever stranded on a tropical island, I know I can survive on fish. Yay!