WANT TO LOOK OUT ON A FLIGHT? THEN LOOK OUT!

Airlines are redefining the word greed. No longer should it be seen as a negative term, naughty as we were taught as children. 

These vastly wealthy companies are polishing it up and giving it a positive definition. Probably the

first letter will be capitalised so that it reads Greed.

Obviously, it won’t be a character fault any longer, nothing to be ashamed of because the airlines are emblazoning it with pride – and perhaps a certain haughtiness.

Could it be that it suggests how little they need care about fairness or the financial welfare of the passenger.

Searching for a good price

I’m a bit slow, obviously, for I am just catching up with this redefinition. It’s time to plan to get sunshine along with the most wonderful scenery – the Cape.

I searched online for a good price, even though the better fare means suffering an extended eastwards haul to faraway Arabia.

 There, I’ll change flights and Emirates will take me to the Cape in one enormously long leg.

 Navigation for a singlehanded round-the-world yachtsman is in my blood, so naturally I want to see out, to witness the astonishing lay of the land and at night the stars, and then the ocean all the way down the African continent.

Obviously that needs a window seat, some of the way to port, and going down Africa preferably to starboard. It’s always been a simple possibility before. Click on the link on the airline’s site, and choose.

Not any more. You want a particular seat, they say, then you pay for it. Why would I pay when the required programming has been long written to allow the process?

No reason given and no choice

But, no. No reason given and no choice. You want it, you pay for it, even though there’s nothing for the airline to do, no work involved, just same old … only with profit added now.

Two aircraft, £20 a time. That’s £40 there and £40 back. Pure profit and greed with a lower case letter 'g'. The ticket’s a little over £600. You can be very certain that there’s loads of profit in that. I mean, just look how many of us are ushered into the aircraft for each flight.

 The greed, the wonderful Greed, sorry, is offered by Emirates. It’s the first time Emirates has fleeced me like this. Could it be that generosity in the past means the airline is struggling to make ends meet?

I asked Google. It’s brief top-of-the-page snap reads, ‘The Emirates Group has a turnover of approximately US$25.8 billion …' The airline is not alone with the new Greed. A search online suggests that most of them seem to be at it. You wanna view while you fly, they seem to be saying, then you pay extra.

Continues on the blogs for my ocean travel book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com