Frightened in Flight

We’ve just come back from Luxembourg on Ryanair, an airline that obviously believes its customers all have very short legs, and don’t need any space in front of them to do anything – such as letting down the tray to put the laptop on. And because the flights are short they don’t have anything like inflight entertainment – unless you count things like lotto tickets being sold, or having to pay large prices for a cup of coffee.

The Korean flights we came to England on had movies, as I’ve written elsewhere. There was no choice on the first leg of the trip, but on the second leg we were able to choose from a very wide range, and watch the movies on the little screen on the back of the seat in front, rather than on a screen set up high on the cabin wall.

I hadn’t considered something that’s just come to my attention: when the movie is chosen for you, and when you have children with you, they can be exposed to a surprising amount of violence that they probably wouldn’t see at home.

In an article entitled Young Fliers See the Film, Be It PG or R, by Bob Tedeschi (it appeared in the HeraldTribune), the writer considers the complaints of parents regarding films they have to sit through on some flights, and the seeming inability of those in charge of showing the movies to understand the parents’ concerns.

According to one Mr Kleiman, director of product marketing for Continental Airlines, parents need to be responsible for what their children watch while flying. Right: as if a parent is going to be able to take their child somewhere else on the plane.

Mr Kleiman also says that what’s shown on flights is consistent with what’s shown elsewhere in the media.

In the last two years the percentage of R-rated movies has jumped, and more graphic and violent movies are being shown.

Yet Nina Plotner, an account manager with Inflight Productions Inc., which works on behalf of many airlines to review and acquire films, said, in regard to editing movies so that they remove the graphic material, “If we take all the good things out, there’s not going to be a lot left to play.” And she added, “If you get a complaint, you get a complaint. You can’t please everybody.”

Mr. Kleiman, ever the public relations man explained:: “People love Pepsi, and we don’t serve that, so there you go, we just ruined their flight. That’s an accurate analogy.” Yes, we understand you entirely, Mr Kleiman.

I can remember as a child being kept awake by the thought that a mummy was walking down the corridor in my home – not my mummy, I hasten to add. This was after I’d seen Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, which by today’s standards was no doubt innocuous.

But compare that to King Kong, where people are eaten alive by some very nasty monsters, and try and explain to a child that it’s all okay.

Getting the Tickets in Advance

As my wife and I plan our trip to England, we’ve spent a lot of time on the Net checking out prices. Boy, is it confusing!
Take rail tickets for starters. You can’t believe how complex these are. It depends on what day you go, when you go on the day, whether the day is a holiday or not, what time of the year it is, whether they provide caviar and champagne (just kidding!). We could get a trip from London to Norwich (which is what we wanted to do) for £6.00 on the Sunday we wanted to go. If we’d gone the following week it would have cost £37.00! But then we discovered Rail Cards – until we have the right Rail Card in hand, we can’t book anything anyway! Good grief.
We checked out Ryanair for flights, because we were told they were the cheapest all round. And they are, but figuring out when to go is a bit of a nightmare. That’s something we’ll have to do when we get there, I think.
We’re not going to the UK via America this time, so we won’t be dropping in on places like Disney World. But if I wanted to get Disney World Tickets the place to go online is Orlandofuntickets.com. They do discount tickets for Disney World, all the Orlando theme parks, dinner shows and attractions. They know that figuring out all the factors involved in planning a trip to these sorts of place is intimidating – to use their word. So they’ve done all the work for you, and you only have to log onto them and get planning!
Would that it was as easy figuring out British Rail!