I picked up my husband from the airport last night. He's returned from a mind-boggling cross-country trip to four different cities in five days. He spent nearly 40 hours in airports or on airplanes, and he had the following observations to share.

Airlines are turning off the air conditioning units in the aircraft cabin while the plane is on the ground. Flight attendants are asking passengers to turn off reading lights and pull down window shades when the plane is parked at the gate because the air conditioning system is shut down. On my husband's flights, the announcer mentioned two reasons for this change - fuel savings and carbon emissions. (Yes, it got toasty onboard.)

My husband was thrilled to discover that, at least on his flights, Southwest Airlines was distributing unlimited snacks, both "healthy and unhealthy," as he put it.

The legacy airlines are definitely enforcing their "one free checked bag" policy. While he was checking in for his flights, my husband noticed that the airline representatives didn't ask travelers if they were traveling on military orders unless they presented a military ID card. (Active-duty military traveling on orders may check two bags for free.)

While my husband didn't purchase in-flight meals, he noted with pleasure that prices for the meals have fallen, at least on United and American and that the sandwiches looked fresh and appetizing.

Photo © Alex Parode