What’ll they think of next? A new genre of travel story is born
You’ve heard of the first-person story, the destination feature and the photo essay. All are well-known genres in travel journalism. After last week, maybe it’s time to coin a new kind of travel story: the “what’ll they think of next?” article.
Seems everyone is writing a “what’ll they think of next” story in the wake of recent moves by three airlines to raise their fees.
The latest is Joel Schwartzberg’s humor essay in The Huffington Post.
He says the changes are more depressing than “watching a bungee-leashed toddler take the seat behind you or seeing your neighboring passenger requires a seat belt extender.” Then he suggests the new fees could be just the beginning of a big fee party. Here are some other modest proposals.
2) Charges for use of front seat pouch items:
• Dull magazine: $7
• Interesting magazine: $10
• Emergency evacuation manual: $3
• Previous passenger’s unfinished food items: $1.50
• Barf bag: $2
(Can be applied toward $10 barfing fee)
• Sky Mall: $5
(Can be a applied toward the purchase of a genuine replica Harry Potter wand or ceramic backyard critter)
It’s not just the bloggers who are writing the “what’ll they think of next” posts. Today’s Washington Post editorializes about the fees, adding that we ain’t seen nothing yet.
In the 2004 cinematic flop “Soul Plane,” passengers seated in “low class” had to contend with coin-operated overhead bins and rationed food that was passed from seat to seat under the watchful eye of stern attendants. There were even people standing in the back of the plane hanging onto poles as if they were riding the Red Line during rush hour. Air travel in real life is not that bad . . . yet.
If there’s a rule about a “what’ll they think of next” story, it probably is that it must mention pay toilets at least once. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel does. So does The New York Times. The joke’s tired and has been recycled by overexposed and often uniformed airline analysts.
If anything, we should be grateful to the airlines who have instituted these onerous new charges. They have also inadvertently given birth to a new genre of travel story.
Travel journalism could use a little innovation from time to time — even if it happens for all the wrong reasons.
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Thanks for the mention. As one of the “little guys” teasing corporations, it’s all in good fun. Note I didn’t go for the pay-toilet low-hanging fruit!
Joel