I just got back from flying to California to visit my family. It is ridiculous what the airlines are doing nowadays to stay in business. I had already gotten used to them not serving meals on Delta's flights, so I pack accordingly, thanks in part to this forum. However I was shocked when I got on board and discovered that they were going to SELL us our meal.

I, of course, declined to even look at the menu. I noticed most of the other passengers also declined the so called meal service. However I have found the menu at Delta's website. Go here and click on the link to "Atlanta Bread Company" to see the menu. I usually fly on Delta so I don't know what the other airlines are doing in food service, but I suspect it's much the same.

I don't know what the airlines actually carry on board but I just found this. FAR Part 125 Sec. 125.207 Which lists the requirements for the first aid kit on board. This doesn't look like much. I would hope the airlines would take it upon themselves to put in a better FAK, but I doubt that. I'm not saying we should take an expedition style FAK on board but it might be nice to have some adequate supplies. On my recent trip I just threw an AMK Pocket Medic into my bag. Looks like I'm going to have to upgrade my airline FAK as well.

Yeah, -What was Once, -Only Naturally and "Of Course!", -a Matter of Complimentary Customer Service!, -Has Turned into a Sale! And as you said, -What Product is it that they're Trying to Sell you?!, -and Hopeing you'd Buy?!

Heck, -Just Up the Ticket Price a Bit, -to Cover this, -and People may Never Notice! Evidently Not Thought of / Turned Down.

I Recall the Time I Flew on Delta in the Mid 90s, I Got a Reasonably Nice, OK, -Chicken Sandwich or Two, Maybe Three. Orange Juice. And maybe Another Little Thing or Two. And a Nice, OK Enuf Packet of Delta Peanuts, -Grown Down in Rome, GA. My Flite though was Atlanta to Orlando and Back, -Not Transcontinental as was your's.

I Flew Continental on another occassion. (North-South Pretty Much the Length of the East Coast). Memory Doesn't Serve me Well Enuf to Really Comment on it's Food. But it's Food Service Wasn't Neccessarily Bad. Or I would have Remembered. It was probably a perfectly Ordinary, OK Experience as well. (By the Way, -I Remember Delta's Food, as an OK to Positive Experience, -Not a Bad One! I Add this in All Correctness and Fairness!)

This (Continental) was also in the Mid to Later 90s, -*Before* Somebody's Brite Idea to Sell their Valued Customers their Service!

It's just Another Variation on our Longstanding National Experience with Scarcity and Tight and Rising Costs! We're Always Creatively Trying to Find a New Way, -to "Get a Little More Blood Out of the Stone!"

We were Once a *Bounty* Based Country, Society, and Economy! Bountiful Abundance! Back in the 1800s, for Example. And even the Earlier Decades of the 1900s! Just Look at the Difference Between Many an Old Building, and Today's Cost Crimping Clapups that we Throw Together! Intrically Carved Wood or Stonework! Oh, We may Still have the Imitation! But Back Then they Had the Real Thing! Our Society and Economy Drew From Far More Bounty back then!, -At Least in Many Quarters. Today, -We Ever Try to Draw and Squeeze from a Tightness and Scarcity! Do we as Individuals and a Society even Realize This?! It's Partly our Fault, and Not All Unfortunate Circumstance's Fault! I'd say that the Former has Led to a Good Bit of the Latter!

Wheras if Now and over the Last Number of Decades, -We'd Have said "Yes!" to Bold Pure Science!, -We Could by Now, or in Times to Come, -Arrive Back at a New, Bountifully Rich Resources Base!

I'm Talking Space Exploration and Development, the Nuclear and Subatomic World, Nuclear Fusion, Desalinization, "Disease Detectives", Materials Science, Supercomputers, Genes and Genetics, -and Other Such Likes!

It's Nice, and also now Important, -to Creatively Squeeze Economic Blood Out of a Stone. But the Economy and Society Should be Following and Operating from Resource Adequacies to Abundance! This is Where the Real Overall Emphasis and Focus Should be On!

As a Society, -We're so Immeadiate and Short Range! That we Don't Seem to Have a Clue! It's as if we Didn't Even Know that We Don't Know!

In a Larger Picture Sense, -I Think This Looking Towards Abundance Shud be Much of our Base and Focus!

It's Lack is a Longstanding Treadmill that I Think our Society and Economy, -Should Want to Get Off Of! Something to Think of a Bit. Let's so Think Longer Term!

When you Can't Even Anymore Get a Decent, Complimentary Meal on a Flight! Let Alone be Expected to Pay for It!,....! This Only Speaks Volumes about this Larger Phenonomon I'm Talking About!

(Woops! As to my Commenting on such Larger Economic Picture, -I was Beginning to Wonder which Forum I was on, -Towards the Tail End. I'm on "Survival"! And so I Acknowledge that that Economic Portion is perhaps More Appropriate Around the Campfire. I'm Aware of / Acknowledge Such / and Duly Apologize. Airline Food is Certainly Closer, to say a Least.) [color:"black"] [/color] [email]rbruce[/email]

I recall having read somewhere that the biggest cause of internal injuries in car accidents is a burst urinary bladder. Ever since then, I try to empty as often as legally and socially possible before driving and at every possible stop instead of waiting for the urinary dams gates screaming to release.

Now I know (At least "they" keep telling me so.) that per capitia airline travel is safer than automobiles. If you were in an airplane that was going to crash, wouldn't you be better off with an empty stomach as well as an empty bladder.

I also seem to recall someone writing that if you see an accident about to happen, that you void yourself as much as possible before impact. I don't know about you all, but I tend to tense up in serious situations which makes expulsion of anything very difficult, and besides I have been changing underwear every day since my mother told me I should have clean underwear in case I have to go to the hospital, and now somebody says I should soil it just before I go to the hospital.

When I think of all the money I could have saved not buying and constantly washing my underwear all these years, it just pisses (Figuratively speaking, not actually doing so.) me off.<img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Bountyhunter

Excellent list - thanks for the info.

Really? I have heard the TSA is now confiscating the Swiss-Tech MicroPlus because of the wirecutters.

Did the TSA confiscate the masks, or just look them over?

Great post and thread! Thanks!

I just thought I'd toss in a little tidbit. I usually carry the Bausch & Lomb Sight Savers to clean my glasses. I never would have guessed, but they can set off the metal detectors. Go figure.

-john

Are you able to wear your eVest on airplanes during the summer?

My FineTex version seems way too warm for summer wear, although I think it would make a great "carry-on."

I take it you advocate a carry-on bag with wheels, then.

I have heard that rolling carry-ons are too heavy, too difficult to fling into overhead bins, and put too much strain on your wrist. Any truth to this?

What make and model do you have, may I ask? I need one, myself.