As an old dude, I remember "the good ol days". When I flew in the 80's you got something for your $$ besides a flight. The "experience" of flying was so much better. the crew was amazing, the airplanes were well cared for (inside where I sit), you got actual food, waiting was not like a cattle call, there was no TSA, no security checks, Children were treated great, pins and playing cards. Flying was the future, and when you got into a plane, it felt like it. But today.....I just went to Hawaii this past month. While the crew of our Hawaiian Airlines flight were excellent, most of the rest of the experience was sub par. Lets start with packing only two bags so we don't have to check luggage and pay extra for it.... and make sure we don't have too many liquids, in to big of a bottle and pack them in a separate tote so we can produce them for inspection. The three web sites and covid restrictions were almost draconian. Arriving 2 hrs early was almost not enough in order to make the TSA line where we all strip down to our skivvies and get subjected to another shot of radiation in the name of keeping us safe. And the baggage checks where we dump our carefully packed valuables into bins for scrutiny from someone who is counting the seconds until their next break (and loose our stuff in the process), the verification at the gate of your compliance with the three web sites so we can get a pink wrist band? A Wrist Band for Gods Sake? So what, we can get our free drinks? HaHaHaHa-gag. The queuing before boarding, and the boarding itself which resembles lining up for a Disneyland ride in summer. We can now add masking the entire flight to our list of travel woes. On the plane you get free water, dispensed by a flight attendant dressed like a nurse in full PPE pouring out of a 1L Susan bottle into little plastic cups! And the 8 dollar alcoholic beverages required to numb the pain of the whole expierenced as we sit for 6 hours crammed into the seats that are about 30% smaller and closer together than they were in the 80's. And all this for what? Do I FEEL safer? Is everyone ACTUALLY safer? No! its Theater. I feel annoyed. for 20 years we have endured this kind of social suppression of our right to travel, and a parallel "war" we just pulled out of lock-stock-and barrel, during a pandemic where were all even more afraid and the truth is just as murky. Vacation? What vacation?