Tomorrow, I head to Los Angeles for the weekend to check out the food and wine festival, TASTE. Today is the prep day – lots of laundry and packing and yada yada. It’s all right – I enjoy packing, it’s unpacking after the trip that’s brutal.

I don’t have a ton of time to write today given all I have to do to prepare for the weekend, but I did read something that sort of ticked me off earlier: American Airlines is throwing more luxury at first-class passengers.

I don’t know why I am upset about it – I’m certainly not surprised – I guess my mind just works in a different way. I suppose I’m for less separation amongst the classes, not more, but now we’re going into politics (aka fifth-grade playground chatter) and no doubt someone will e-mail me and call me a socialist, so whatever.

As someone who has flown first class a few times, I’ll admit: It’s a completely different (and more enjoyable) experience. I’m not knocking the idea of giving people an option to upgrade or to “pay to play.” Yet it must be acknowledged that, in today’s world, you’re treated pretty poorly in coach. If that wasn’t the case – if it still seemed like they cared – that would be a different story.

No more food (not that it was that good to begin with), and it’s about a 50/50 chance these days that I get peanuts or pretzels on a flight. As for movies, I can only remember one flight in the past six months that showed one (you know, those DVDs are expensive!).

Continental has a pretty good setup – the screens in the back of the seat with free music and a map – but the movies are $6, and they even charge a few bucks to watch a television episode.

Come on, man. I just paid $500 for this ticket, and now you want $2 for a thirty-minute show? Shove it!

Regardless of how you feel, it’s a nice little debate. The airlines think they are doing great things, but in reality, how many people benefit?

Steve Lott, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, which represents most of the major U.S. carriers, says, “The airline industry is extremely competitive, and carriers often look to differentiate themselves through their onboard product and services on both domestic and international routes.”

My question: Couldn’t an airline differentiate itself by being the only one to cater to us normal (budget conscience) folks?