The airlines send a message

As you know, the airline pre-boarding process goes on forever. It starts with the Platinum Club, then the Gold, then the Silver, and on down through the Periodic Table until they finally get to those of us in the Aluminum club.

But at least families with small children got some consideration even if they weren’t tied to a heavy metal.

Until now. Now United Airlines has decided to end family pre-boarding. They still have a category called “Special needs,” but as a gate agent recently announced, we here at United consider children a blessing, not a special need, so we ask that you board according to your boarding number.”

–Prompting the latest online petition at Change.org by a frequent flier and mom of a 9-month-old boy. She’s collected 38,000 signatures in about two weeks.

And you can add to this the latest twist: in addition to the fees for checked baggage, carry on baggage, pillows, blankets — now airlines are charging for seats as if flying was a Broadway show — between $29 and $59 more for window, aisle and bulkhead seats. Everybody else sits in the middle or near the toilet — so if families want to sit together, either you pay more, or your kid sits between two strangers. The air nozzle charge is next.

And I think there is a message here.

The airlines are trying to tell us to think twice before moving away from our families. Stay within driving distance! And for vacations — pile the kids in the back of the Rambler and drive nine hours to some campground in Maine. We did it — back in the days when cars didn’t even have seatbelts, the kids rode in the cargo area with the dog and some playing cards and your Dad never used a rest area, he’d just pass you the empty peanut butter jar.