Attitude Check: Has Leisure Travel Simply Become Too Much Trouble? : Trends: Annual survey reveals a major change in traveler habits. Even many of those who like to go say that the hassles just aren’t worth it anymore.

Has travel become such a hassle that you’d rather stay home? Many Americans apparently think so, and their numbers seem to be growing, at least according to the latest annual survey on lifestyles conducted by a national marketing and research company.

The number of people who claim to “love the idea of travel” has dropped in the past year from 59% to just 50%, says Watts Wacker, a trends predictor for the firm of Yankelovich Clancy Shulman of Westport, Conn. It is an astonishing figure, but Wacker has another shocker.

Of those who say that they like travel, more than a quarter of them--27%--feel that travel has become such a hassle that “I end up doing other things.” In contrast, only 14% of those surveyed last year considered travel a pursuit to be avoided.

The big gap between these last two figures “represents a major attitudinal change” in this country, says Wacker. It should give the travel industry nightmares.

In the 1970s, the American public began to look on leisure travel as “an entitlement,” says Wacker. Since then, travel for many has come to mean “success, satisfaction and status,” and it still does. But now some people are feeling so hassled by the travel experience, he says, “they are less inclined to look at travel for their discretionary spending.”

The folks who feel this way aren’t necessarily going to give up travel altogether, according to Wacker, but they are looking for ways to avoid situations where problems arise. Instead of venturing off to someplace new, they may return regularly to familiar haunts. Instead of flying, they may drive. And they may opt for full-service family resorts that can guarantee everyone in the household a snafu-free vacation.

What has happened, says Wacker, is that in the ‘80s, people acknowledged there was a lot of stress in travel, but their attitude was that they could manage it. “In the ‘90s, they are saying, ‘I’m going to avoid it.”’

Has travel really become a big hassle? There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest it, although I am not yet among the convinced.

I count myself an experienced traveler, having made 19 overnight trips so far this year alone. I like to think I know how to avoid most hassles, although I’ve certainly faced my share of delayed flights, missing luggage and similar irritants. But only once did I feel so aggrieved that I threw an angry snit. I had just missed an important connecting flight in Boston because it departed a few minutes earlier than scheduled.

Obviously, the survey’s results suggest the travel industry does not always serve its customers well. But so far--and I don’t mean to trivialize the often sad experiences of others--the hassles I have experienced this year have not been troubling enough to dissuade me from more travel.

No one can fully protect against unexpected glitches, but devoting time to research before the trip can do much to prevent surprises. Trips generally progress more smoothly if you have planned well and your expectations are realistic. It also helps to practice patience. In some chaotic situations, this is the only really useful thing you can do.

It would be a shame if travel increasingly became regarded as so trouble-prone that everyone preferred to stay home. In the hope that the travel industry might learn from its mistakes and shape up, I share here a couple of my own minor but annoying experiences this year. My woes on the road may also give less-frequent travelers a good idea where potential problems lurk.

I knew I was in trouble when the Northwest Airlines clerk in Washington told me I had 35 minutes to make my connection in Boston for an onward flight to Quebec City. I’m convinced that nobody in the history of aviation has ever made a 35-minute change of planes, and certainly I didn’t on this day. When I bought my ticket, the connecting time had been a comforting 90 minutes, but Northwest juggled its schedule at the last moment and I was stuck. Thirty-five minutes is a legal connection, the clerk assured me, because I was transferring to Precision Airlines, an official Northwest commuter.

Naturally, my takeoff from Washington to Boston was delayed 20 minutes. And when I finally landed in Boston, another five minutes disappeared while I waited to deplane. And then, still with 10 minutes to spare, I raced through a quarter-mile of corridors to the Precision desk with a full five minutes to go before departure time--or so I thought. Not so, said the Precision attendant--the plane was gone.

But why didn’t it wait? I asked in futile exasperation, throwing my little snit. Precision’s computer must have known I was just minutes away, and it would seem reasonable to expect a certain cooperation between Northwest and Precision, which was operating as a Northwest link. Sorry, but Precision has a schedule to keep, said the gate attendant, and does so quite independently of Northwest. Ultimately, I was sent back to Northwest, which booked me through Montreal on two other airlines, and I arrived in Quebec City four hours late. My luggage showed up the next day.

Moral: As a traveler, beware of tight flight connections; they are big trouble. And getting angry didn’t help at all.

I am very understanding if a flight is delayed because of bad weather or a maintenance problem. I do not want to fly in a faulty airplane or under hazardous conditions. I’m always astonished at those few travelers who do get angry when a flight is grounded because a blizzard is raging outside. An airline that is cautious has my blessing.

But I am not quite so agreeable when a rental car firm, with which I have reserved well in advance, has no car available when I arrive to pick it up. I landed in San Diego about noon on a Saturday last April to confront a large crowd hovering around the Hertz counter. A desk clerk told me a mechanical problem on the Hertz lot had slowed the processing of cars being cleaned for rental. He did not expect to have one ready for me for at least an hour. The whole crowd was ahead of me in line.

I nodded, and then went in search of a rental from another agency. But earlier Hertz customers had already beat me to it. No one had anything available except vans and limousines. And so I waited, and in just over an hour I got my car. I was disgruntled, but Hertz came through a couple of weeks later with a written apology and a voucher good for $25 off any future rental.

Moral: An hour’s wait was a nuisance, but I can’t say that it harmed my trip in any way. I took the time to eat lunch, which I might have skipped. Sometimes you have to roll with the punches. The voucher was an unexpected bonus. It wasn’t much, of course, but it showed me Hertz was aware it had tried my patience.

What else? I had a two-hour delay on a flight out of Bozeman, Mont., this summer and a one-hour delay on a flight from Newark, N.J. Hotels in Spokane, Wash., and Burlington, Vt., did not have rooms yet cleaned and ready when I showed up after the 4 p.m. check-in time. I got bum advice on a hotel in Madrid. The guidebook called it “a gem.” I thought it was a dump, and I have stayed in my share. This time, though, I checked out immediately and found a better place.

But that’s it. In 19 trips this year, those are my worst travel experiences. They are buried and all but forgotten under memories piled high of interesting places, beautiful sights and great fun. Can the hassles of others be so numerous and provoking that they would prefer to stay at home and paint the house?