On Topic: Handle like eggs

The last time I was on a plane, just a couple months ago on trip back to Cedar Rapids, I watched from my seat as a passenger attempted to force-fed two bursting backpacks into an overhead luggage bin where he'd already mashed in a large suitcase.

He pushed and twisted and contorted, both himself and the bags. In the process, one of the backpacks fell out, narrowly missing the head of another passenger sitting directly below the bin.

I imagined he was one of the same folk who don't comprehend that 'limit 12” in the grocery express lanes means, well, 12.

After a few more attempts, he gave up, moving on to find his seat and abandoning the last of the backpacks to dangle from the bin, compartment door open.

A flight attendant came along a few minutes later, removed the offending backpack with one hand and closed the bin door with the other. She carried the bag off along the aisle, likely to some other storage space.

Mildly entertaining though that short pantomime might have been, at least for us non-participants, it doesn't neatly fit in with the air travel industry's long-advertised creed of fun - as if the travel were part of your vacation, or a pleasant, non-stressful adjunct to your business trip.

Remember when flying was supposed to be fun?

Still safe? Sure. But fun, like a trip to the State Fair?

Yes, we all know 9/11 dramatically altered how the airline industry operates and how we must interact with it. We've accepted the trade-off - comfort and ease mostly has given way to security and relative peace of mind.

No more showing up at the last moment to board a plane, no greeting friends and family as soon as you get off the plane.

We empty our pockets and doff our shoes. We've adopted the body-scan stretch - arms out, eyes front.

But still. We've journeyed some way from the long-touted friendly skies experience.

Tried to book a flight lately? I recently booked a couple flights eastward, each with the ultimate destination of fair-sized airports. Most asking fare on various airlines' websites - even if I were willing to get up and leave while robins were still brushing their teeth before breakfast - were pretty daunting. That wasn't surprising, given the Eastern Iowa Airport is not going to offer the smorgasbord of choices of, say, O'Hare or Atlanta.

Ah, but then, you see, I wanted to come back, too.

After you accept the departure rate, you click through to see the added cost for that return seat.

A few of those additional prices were very little. But some were as much as $700. I'm really not kidding.

And, hey, you want to bring along some luggage? There'll be an extra charge for that. Snacks during the trip? Yep, that, too.

And you are not mistaken - flights are more crowded, and depending on the plane, there is less legroom.

Even the restrooms on some planes are getting smaller. Boeing reported this summer it would squeeze in 14 more seats on its 777-300ER models by reducing the space for its lavatories, according to Business Insider's website.

(I once changed clothes in a plane's restroom for a business meeting, just before we landed. It was a bit cramped, but I managed. Those days, though, I suspect are long gone.)

Customers have registered their displeasure over tight seating conditions and other issues: The U.S. Department of Transportation reported in August that complaints climbed 20 percent for the first six months of the year over 2014.

And yet - you saw this coming, right? - air travel is up. The DOT's U.S. Air Carrier Traffic Statistics tally shows slightly more than 62 million passengers got onboard U.S. domestic flights in June 2015, an increase of 2.5 million more of us than the year before.

Now we all get that airlines are businesses, and there's no crime in their trying to maximize profit. But I'm not certain what economic principle is at work here.

Maybe it's like the old joke about the guy who goes to see the psychiatrist about his wife who's convinced she's a chicken.

Why don't you have her committed, the psychiatrist asks.

Because, the guy replies, I need the eggs.

As long as air travel remains the quickest, safest route between two (or three) points, many of us will keep buying the eggs.

lll

And while we're discussing eggs, I want to remind you to reserve your seat for the next Business 380 Excellence Business & Breakfast at 7 to 9 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 15, at TrueNorth, 500 First St. SE in downtown Cedar Rapids. (Breakfast, eggs - get it?)

Panelists on tap to discuss health care and health insurance business issues - and take your questions - will be Tim Sagers, MercyCare Business Health Solutions medical director; Ted Townsend, UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's Hospital president and CEO; Mike Fay, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield vice president of health networks; and Ron Fuhrman, TrueNorth CPA and benefits adviser.

I'll be there with KCRG-TV9's Ashley Hinson and Gazette health care reporter Chelsea Keenan, along with a goodly number of Corridor business professionals.

You should come, seriously. We'll network, have a bite a breakfast and talk about how to navigate today's increasingly complex benefits challenges.

I've been given to understand fried chicken and waffles will be on the menu, too.

l Michael Chevy Castranova is enterprise and Sunday business editor of The Gazette. (319) 398-5873; michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com