Sunday 6^th May, 2018 1915

An important date I think but for the life of me I can't remember why!

No talk of food this time, more of what the hell has happened to travel?

There was a recent story of how a young man bought a banger, taxed and insured it and drove to his destination cheaper than taking the train. The railway people responded by stating that he could have bought cheaper tickets. But it takes a masters degree and a computer algorithm to find the bloody things.

Today I was just checking the prices of everything for the summer (still can't book until the holy grail, Alice's visa, is obtained) because spending money is important to me. Unlike youngsters who can travel on a shoestring, older readers with habits and accustomed standards will know what I mean.

On a whim I decided to check whether BA could offer better prices for the LHR-GLA flights. They could, except when delving deeper I found that the cheaper prices were for economy, as were the ones on travel sites. No problem with that, for an hour and a half it's fine, especially as I have the luxury of the privilege of buying a snack or drink at treble the normal price in flight.

However.

Dig a little deeper and economy tickets are hand luggage only.

I'm going to spend a week in Scotland armed with a laptop and a pair of socks and underpants???

No. I can opt for premium economy which allows me a suitcase and the ability to check in online and choose a seat. Except whenever I tried to do this in the past I only got error messages so need to check in at the airport. No extra legroom which is what you get on long haul for the additional fee of paying halfway between sitting at the back and front. I am now thinking to hell with it, I may as well go the whole hog and book business for us, no problems with luggage, free meal and drinks, bigger seats and to be fair not much more than premium economy where I could easily spend the ticket difference with three beers, a wine, gin and two fruit juices.

I know they say progress is great but sorry, I don't agree in toto. Once upon a time you bought your ticket. You paid for cattle, foreman or pickled class and everyone paid the same for whatever class you were in unless you were an airline employee or chanced your arm and booked ten minutes before takeoff.

Now you have four classes, premium economy being the addition and to be honest, which idiots pay for that? 25% more and the only benefit is an inch more legroom? And now you have to be a hawk online for price fluctuations. Maybe I can save a fiver on the price of a return flight China-UK if I use my VPN to book from Tibet. I am no different to anyone else, I still search desperately for that business seat for the same price as economy but the truth is unless you have a credit card you max out regularly and get airmiles, it ain't going to happen – you have to pay.

I can't even get enough airmiles for a domestic Chinese flight by doing online surveys. I have been a panel member for about six years for one site, religiously doing surveys and had amassed over 100,000 points. I had never cashed out nor had I looked until today. Six YEARS of doing surveys and the best I could get was £120 in Amazon vouchers! Twenty quid a year! Ok, I have cashed in other e-voucher websites and when my e-vouchers arrive I will order a camcorder plus accessories.

But it does make me yearn for the old days when it was simple. You wanted to travel, bought a ticket and never had some smug git next to you telling you he only paid the price of a Mars bar.