Why does flying suck so much?

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News, News Commentary, Society & Culture, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Flying can be a frustrating experience, but holiday travel tends to shift our stress levels into overdrive. Overbooking, delays, lost baggage, and long TSA lines are just the tip of the iceberg. Even pricey membership services can't promise a completely efficient or comfortable travel journey. With big price tags and the quality of service seemingly going down, host Brittany Luse wondered: How did we get here? To answer that question, aviation and travel journalist Benét J. Wilson joins the show to give us a birds eye view of the issues and why things may not be getting better anytime soon.

Then, Brittany takes on one of the most recognizable stories in Christmas lore - A Christmas Carol. To celebrate the iconic story, she plays Spot the Scrooge with NPR critics Linda Holmes and Bob Mondello.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast and the following message come from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation,
0:05.8	where young scientists pursue bold ideas.
0:08.7	100% of your donation funds groundbreaking research. Donate
0:12.9	donate today at Damon Runyon.org slash donate.
0:17.0	Hello hello I'm Brittany Loose and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about
0:25.3	what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. In the words of Carrie Bradshaw and just like that it's the holidays all over again. Many of us are making those
0:45.1	winter journeys to see friends and loved ones so today I'm getting into a topic that
0:49.6	has given me multiple headaches over the past 20 years and I'm not even a headache girl.
0:56.2	We're talking about flying.
0:59.6	I hate flying.
1:02.4	Not actually being on the plane so much, I actually am somebody who gets a good
1:05.8	little nap in when I'm on a flight, but I just have a miserable time at the airport. I even
1:12.4	have an actual enemy who works at the TSA line at JFK.
1:17.0	And I'm not the only one with bad feelings, but it wasn't always this way.
1:30.0	You dressed in your Sunday best, you know, the seats were lovely, the food was great, you know, they'd roll down the aisle with the roast beef on a cart and
1:35.6	carve your dinner right in front of you. You had the beautiful silverware and the plates,
1:40.9	and it was just all very civilized. That's Benay Wilson. Former
1:46.8	Senior Editor for The Points Guy and Aviation journalist with over 25 years under
1:52.1	her belt reporting on the consumer experience with airlines.
1:56.7	She's joining us to break down how we consumers ended up grounded in airline hell, and why we may not be taking off anytime soon
2:06.7	Support for this podcast and the following message come from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
2:12.4	The problem with cancer research
	...

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