Saturday, August 2, 2008

The end of travel

From the Toronto Star:
High oil prices are crippling airlines and travellers alike and we may only be at the start of a new, global class divide between the stranded and the mobile

In Europe's late medieval period, the labouring masses rarely travelled further than a few dozen miles from where they were born. For them, travel was dangerous, onerous and slow.

But wealthy aristocrats travelled far and wide in the name of diplomacy, meeting leaders from other countries and extending their power and influence.

For Steven Flusty, an associate professor of geography at York University, this is what society could once again look like if predictions that the lower-middle classes will no longer be able to afford to fly in just a few years come true.

It would be tremendously debilitating and could wind up "breaking down everything below a certain class level, where they are being held in space as if it's some kind of a container," he says....MORE

And from Blogging Stocks:

US Airways to start charging for water on flights, effective today

...Still, US Airways Inc. may have gone one too far with the fee system. Effective today, US Airways will start charging for water on flights by coach passengers, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday (subscription required). Bottled water will be $2. Passengers flying first class are exempt from the extra fee.

Coffee? Tea? That will be a dollar fee

Further, passengers dismayed by US Airway's fee for water may want to consider coffee or tea. US Airway's will charge only $1 for those drinks, effective today, The Journal reported. Who says requesting a higher-caloric drink does not have its advantages?

Stock analyst and frequent flyer C. Leonard Bauer ain't buying US Airways water, because he isn't flying US Airways, anymore....