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home again, thanks to ANA

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

We flew back to Tokyo today. With All Nippon, not Japan Air Lines.

And what a difference. The automated ticket pick-up just worked, the check in was smooth, the bags were no problem, and there was no ridiculous 30 minute wait in the lobby. There was no bullshit from powerless staff about whether we'd be flying. Everything was perfectly smooth, the way things should be.

After all, airline travel is nothing new. The major airlines—apparently there are rather a lot of them— must fly tens if not hundreds of thousands of people around every day. You'd think they'd have the procedure down to a simple matter of procedure by now. It should be perfectly reliable.

While I myself am not a big traveller, I took some ten flights in 2009 and am contributing to the profitability of these airlines. Again, this recent flight wasn't a serious problem. But in the end Mari and I told each other, "What did we expect, flying with JAL?" And that's bullshit. Why put ourselves through it?

I'm going to make it my business to avoid Japan Airlines, as I do with only a very select list of maybe three other companies (all back in Canada, and hence irrelevant). It's not like we lack for alternatives in Japan. This small airline, for instance, looks promising.