France is the country we most enjoy visiting. When we were in Paris two years ago, a cup of coffee at a sidewalk table was $8. No guessing what it might be now.
The trip we’ve planned still is the best part of three months away, but I’m already grappling with the increased complexity of travel.
It can cost dearly now to check a suitcase on a plane. So I intend to go light, eliminating such indulgences as pajamas, a change of underwear and extra shoes, packing everything I need in my shaving kit and in the pockets of a loose coat.
One pair of socks, washed nightly, should be plenty for 10 days or two weeks.
The airline agent was very helpful when I called to make our reservations.
“Aisle or seat?” she asked.
“You mean aisle or window?”
“No. Aisle or seat. You’re booked in coach, and a seat costs extra. Most economy passengers travel in the aisle.”
“But it’s an eight-hour flight.”
“Actually it’s seven hours 40 minutes, and you don’t have to stand. You can sit in the aisle.”
“What about food?”
“One pretzel,” she said. “Or you might want to bring your own.”
“How the devil are we going to get box lunches through security?”
“No problem. Tell them it’s medicine.”
“Are there any other little surprises?” I asked.
“Only the surcharge for toilet tokens.”
“The what?
“You can buy them at check-in,” the agent said. “It’s $5 a visit. They’re $10 if you have to buy them from a flight attendant.”
“That’s outrageous!”
“Well, it’s only an option,” she said. “Otherwise you might want to avoid any food or fluids for 48 hours before boarding.”
I hardly could believe what I was hearing.
“Oh, one more thing,” the agent said. “You’ll need to bring plenty of euros to pay for these extra services.”
“But I’ll be carrying dollars.”
“Sorry,” she said. “We only accept hard currency.”
It was clear by then that air travel today just isn’t what it used to be.
Once I booked a seat less than an hour before the flight on the national airline of an Arab country in the Middle East. Upon boarding, I was handed a carton of matchbooks with my name printed on their covers — a routine courtesy, the flight attendant said.
Another year I was flying around Africa on a U.S. airline that no longer exists. The stewardesses passed out little packets of complimentary cigarettes, and when meal time came they asked a strange question: “How many lunches do you want?”
But that was before bad leadership, bad policies, bad luck and an epidemic of corporate malfeasance turned the American greenback into Monopoly money.
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