Welcome to modern air travel...
12-03-2006, 08:29 PM
#1
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Welcome to modern air travel...
A pain on and off the plane
Workers, travelers tell what ticks them off at Sea-Tac Airport
JOHN GILLIE; The News Tribune
Rude travelers have kicked politeness off the plane and out of the airport as security measures have tightened and airlines have made tickets more affordable. For the sake of your fellow passengers, here's what not to do when you fly.
If you’re old enough, you can remember when air travel was considered something of a genteel adventure. Men wore suits and ties. Women wore dresses and heels. And nearly everyone treated everyone else with polite regard.
That, of course, was before the days of shoeless searches, $99 coast-to-coast fares, eight-peanut snacks and cattle-car seating.
And as air travel amenities disappeared under competitive pressures and security concerns, so too did air travel etiquette.
“Air travel has become a necessity of people’s lives. But at the same time, the system has been strained to the limit,” said author and travel guru Mark Gottdiener.
Perhaps few of us will miss the dress code, but many of us say our periodic air trips have been made much less pleasant by the lack of simple concern for others from not only our fellow travelers, but also from airlines, airports, travel vendors and the people they hire.
The same economic forces that have made airline travel affordable for all in the process have changed it from a kind of airborne cruise to an aerial bus ride.
Other than blame al-Qaida for the security lines and the oil companies for the bare-bones airborne accommodations, there’s little we can do to change those powerful forces.
But there is something we can do, say those who travel frequently or who work in the industry, to make sure that when we go to the airport we don’t leave our good manners behind.
Perhaps on some level we’re unaware how our behaviors bother others. It’s in that spirit and with the holiday travel season upon us that The News Tribune talked with travel professionals, airline and airport workers and our own readers about what they find vexing about the air travel experience.
Based on what they’ve told us, we’ve compiled a list, admittedly incomplete, of behaviors that get under the skin of our fellow fliers:
At the check-in counter
Ill-prepared people. You’ve just spent 20 or 30 minutes condemned to nudging your baggage forward foot by foot until it’s finally your turn, but when you reach the counter, you act surprised that the clerk wants to see your ID and perhaps your ticket and wants to know how many bags you’ll be checking. Use the dead time in line so that you’re ready when that moment finally comes.
Multitaskers. You’ve spent your time in line chatting up your clients or friends on your cell phone. When you reach the counter, you keep talking on the phone while simultaneously trying to rearrange your multiple-leg itinerary to stop in Houston instead of Dallas, in Charlotte instead of Atlanta and on Tuesday and Wednesday instead of Thursday and Friday. Tell your phone mate you’ll call him back when you’re done and focus on the task in front of you instead of trying to get two done at once.
Missing in action. Your spouse or your kids decide they don’t want to wait in line with you, so they wander off to buy a latte, use the restroom or browse Hudson’s News. When the time comes to present your IDs at the counter, they’re missing in action, holding up the whole line while they scramble back. Make those excursions early in the waiting process or at least step aside and let someone else check in if you’re missing some of your group.
Wrong place, Wrong time. You’re sending your 7-year-old unaccompanied to see Grandma in Orlando, or you’re shipping Rex in a kennel along with you to Boston. You’ve got an issue regarding the airline’s failure to give you double miles on your last flight to Tucson. You take up these issues with the regular check-in clerks during the morning rush when 200 people are in line behind you trying to make their flight to Cincinnati. During the 35 minutes you spend getting your issue solved, that same clerk could have checked in two dozen other travelers. Many major airlines, such as Alaska at Sea-Tac, have special customer service counters that deal with nothing but out-of-the-ordinary problems. Use those counters. And if your airline doesn’t have a special counter, try to show up early or at a less busy time to solve unusual issues.
At security
Been living in Antarctica. “When I last traveled, a woman in front of me got to the security checkpoint with her carry-on bag full of all kinds of liquids and gels,” said Alaska Airlines Air Line Pilots Association spokeswoman Jenn Farrell. “I’m not sure how she couldn’t have known that those were limited to 3 ounces. Where had she been all these last few months?” Brush up on security changes before you get to the airport.
Signs of the times. Sea-Tac Airport spokesman Bob Parker said he and other airport managers are amazed that travelers don’t read the numerous signs posted around the airport. Travelers manage to ignore them and even the videos on monitors over the security lines that inform them what to expect: Take off your shoes. Open your laptop for inspection. Put your coats on the inspection belt and empty your pockets of metallic objects, such as keys and coins.
Bling-bling. Women wearing huge dangling metal earrings, jeweled chains around their waists, bracelets, rings and accessories. Men wearing rodeo-style metal belt buckles. Men and women both pierced through almost every orifice and appendage and wearing metallic accessories. A guaranteed alarm at the metal detector and an almost sure bet for special screening.
Dancing the airport ballet. You’ve cleared security with your carry-on in one hand and your laptop in the other, and you’re carrying your shoes and belt in your teeth. There are few places to sit, and those available are occupied by people chatting or watching the parade of people emerging from security. You try to tie your shoes with one hand while guarding your baggage with the other, a task best reserved for the cast of Cirque du Soleil. If you’ve used one of the few airport seats after the check, get up as soon as you’re done putting yourself back together. Note to Sea-Tac: More seats please.
At the gate
Gone AWOL. You’re the type who waits until boarding begins before you decide to wander down the hall to the bathroom or to the duty-free shop to buy a cheap bottle of rum. When you fail to show on time, baggage handlers have to dig through hundreds of bags in the plane’s belly to find and remove yours because the rules don’t allow bags to fly without the people who own them. Then you show up at the gate as the door is closing and demand to be allowed to board. Plan ahead.
Cutters. It doesn’t matter much if your seat is preassigned, but on Southwest Airlines, where the letter on your boarding pass and your place in line can mean the difference between a roomy aisle seat in the exit row and the middle seat in front of the bathroom, cutting the line is a cardinal sin. If you’ve checked in late, accept your fate and pray the plane’s half empty.
Carry-ons, jumbo-sized. You know your carry-on is probably too heavy for you to lift into the overhead bins, too large to fit under the seat, but you insist on bringing it aboard anyway. If you’ve got doubts, check it before you get aboard. Putting it in the plane’s belly at the last moment can delay the departure. “People who overpack confuse traveling with relocating,” said travel consultant Sharon Faison.
On the plane
The wild child. You’re tired and frazzled. Your child isn’t. You’re tired of trying to entertain him, so you let him roam the aisles, ring the attendant button, kick the seat in front of him or bounce up and down in his seat. Peoples might not say anything, but they’re thinking bad thoughts about you and your parenting skills. Bring games and toys to occupy him, advises writer Jeanne Muchnick. Don’t be afraid to discipline him, and recognize that sometimes passing your parental trials is your ticket to heaven.
In seats 23 A, B and C, Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Carlo Rossi. If you and your friends are already drunk and show it, you’re unlikely to be allowed to board. But if you hide your inebriation well, you can make flight hell for the flight crew and your fellow passengers. Anywhere else, the bouncer would toss you out on the street or call you a cab, but as much as everyone else would like to simply show you the door, it’s just not feasible at 35,000 feet. All things in moderation.
Abusing a captive audience. Fate has thrown you together, not EHarmony.com. Some people appreciate meeting new people and talking with a seatmate. Others would rather read or look out the window. If your dialogue starts sounding like a monologue, throttle back your conversation. In no case try to sell your seatmate on your brand of religion, the multilevel marketing scheme you’re peddling or the Mexican cancer cure that worked for your sister.
Meet Mr. Unreasonable. Flight attendants say some passengers unnecessarily add to their work by making extra demands on them during the short time they have to serve passengers. Mr. Unreasonable is the guy, for instance, who parks his heavy carry-on on top of the blankets, then asks the flight attendant to get a blanket. He’s the one who sticks his feet and elbows into the aisle when the flight attendants pass, and he’s the one who orders a special vegetarian meal but changes his mind once in the air when he sees the chicken. Mr. Unreasonable wants them to find him a window seat when they’re all full or an aisle seat back once they’ve negotiated with another passenger to trade. And he’s the one who wanders back to the galley to chat when it’s the flight attendant’s only refuge, said flight attendant Sharon Wingler. Mr. Unreasonable obviously could use a little empathy.
And they’re off. Once the plane lands, you’re among the first to flip open your cell phone to announce to your office that you’ve arrived (as if anyone really cares) and you’re practically stampeding the people in front of you on the way down the aisle. “Have patience,” counsels the Air Line Pilots Association’s Farrell. “You’ll get there a lot more refreshed.”
At the luggage carousel
It’s a black one with wheels. Your nephew arrives to help you with your luggage and all you can tell him is that yours is the black one with rollers. Your nephew pulls 23 wrong bags off the belt before you finally identify one of them as yours. Pink ribbon. Orange tape. A red belt. Anything to distinguish your baggage from the millions of its black, two-wheeled clones.
It takes a village. The whole family stands shoulder-to-shoulder at the carousel to pick up their bags occupying precious near-belt real estate. Consider a designated bag plucker with other family members standing behind him to spirit the bags away.
Circling the airport. Not the plane, but your ride’s car. Your friend circles the arrival drive for 30 minutes, awaiting your appearance on the sidewalk. He and the other 200 people circling add to congestion, global warming and general confusion because they’re too unimaginative to wait in the free cell phone lot or too cheap to pay the $2 to park in the garage to wait.
Published: December 3rd, 2006 01:00 AM - The News Tribune
Workers, travelers tell what ticks them off at Sea-Tac Airport
JOHN GILLIE; The News Tribune
Rude travelers have kicked politeness off the plane and out of the airport as security measures have tightened and airlines have made tickets more affordable. For the sake of your fellow passengers, here's what not to do when you fly.
If you’re old enough, you can remember when air travel was considered something of a genteel adventure. Men wore suits and ties. Women wore dresses and heels. And nearly everyone treated everyone else with polite regard.
That, of course, was before the days of shoeless searches, $99 coast-to-coast fares, eight-peanut snacks and cattle-car seating.
And as air travel amenities disappeared under competitive pressures and security concerns, so too did air travel etiquette.
“Air travel has become a necessity of people’s lives. But at the same time, the system has been strained to the limit,” said author and travel guru Mark Gottdiener.
Perhaps few of us will miss the dress code, but many of us say our periodic air trips have been made much less pleasant by the lack of simple concern for others from not only our fellow travelers, but also from airlines, airports, travel vendors and the people they hire.
The same economic forces that have made airline travel affordable for all in the process have changed it from a kind of airborne cruise to an aerial bus ride.
Other than blame al-Qaida for the security lines and the oil companies for the bare-bones airborne accommodations, there’s little we can do to change those powerful forces.
But there is something we can do, say those who travel frequently or who work in the industry, to make sure that when we go to the airport we don’t leave our good manners behind.
Perhaps on some level we’re unaware how our behaviors bother others. It’s in that spirit and with the holiday travel season upon us that The News Tribune talked with travel professionals, airline and airport workers and our own readers about what they find vexing about the air travel experience.
Based on what they’ve told us, we’ve compiled a list, admittedly incomplete, of behaviors that get under the skin of our fellow fliers:
At the check-in counter
Ill-prepared people. You’ve just spent 20 or 30 minutes condemned to nudging your baggage forward foot by foot until it’s finally your turn, but when you reach the counter, you act surprised that the clerk wants to see your ID and perhaps your ticket and wants to know how many bags you’ll be checking. Use the dead time in line so that you’re ready when that moment finally comes.
Multitaskers. You’ve spent your time in line chatting up your clients or friends on your cell phone. When you reach the counter, you keep talking on the phone while simultaneously trying to rearrange your multiple-leg itinerary to stop in Houston instead of Dallas, in Charlotte instead of Atlanta and on Tuesday and Wednesday instead of Thursday and Friday. Tell your phone mate you’ll call him back when you’re done and focus on the task in front of you instead of trying to get two done at once.
Missing in action. Your spouse or your kids decide they don’t want to wait in line with you, so they wander off to buy a latte, use the restroom or browse Hudson’s News. When the time comes to present your IDs at the counter, they’re missing in action, holding up the whole line while they scramble back. Make those excursions early in the waiting process or at least step aside and let someone else check in if you’re missing some of your group.
Wrong place, Wrong time. You’re sending your 7-year-old unaccompanied to see Grandma in Orlando, or you’re shipping Rex in a kennel along with you to Boston. You’ve got an issue regarding the airline’s failure to give you double miles on your last flight to Tucson. You take up these issues with the regular check-in clerks during the morning rush when 200 people are in line behind you trying to make their flight to Cincinnati. During the 35 minutes you spend getting your issue solved, that same clerk could have checked in two dozen other travelers. Many major airlines, such as Alaska at Sea-Tac, have special customer service counters that deal with nothing but out-of-the-ordinary problems. Use those counters. And if your airline doesn’t have a special counter, try to show up early or at a less busy time to solve unusual issues.
At security
Been living in Antarctica. “When I last traveled, a woman in front of me got to the security checkpoint with her carry-on bag full of all kinds of liquids and gels,” said Alaska Airlines Air Line Pilots Association spokeswoman Jenn Farrell. “I’m not sure how she couldn’t have known that those were limited to 3 ounces. Where had she been all these last few months?” Brush up on security changes before you get to the airport.
Signs of the times. Sea-Tac Airport spokesman Bob Parker said he and other airport managers are amazed that travelers don’t read the numerous signs posted around the airport. Travelers manage to ignore them and even the videos on monitors over the security lines that inform them what to expect: Take off your shoes. Open your laptop for inspection. Put your coats on the inspection belt and empty your pockets of metallic objects, such as keys and coins.
Bling-bling. Women wearing huge dangling metal earrings, jeweled chains around their waists, bracelets, rings and accessories. Men wearing rodeo-style metal belt buckles. Men and women both pierced through almost every orifice and appendage and wearing metallic accessories. A guaranteed alarm at the metal detector and an almost sure bet for special screening.
Dancing the airport ballet. You’ve cleared security with your carry-on in one hand and your laptop in the other, and you’re carrying your shoes and belt in your teeth. There are few places to sit, and those available are occupied by people chatting or watching the parade of people emerging from security. You try to tie your shoes with one hand while guarding your baggage with the other, a task best reserved for the cast of Cirque du Soleil. If you’ve used one of the few airport seats after the check, get up as soon as you’re done putting yourself back together. Note to Sea-Tac: More seats please.
At the gate
Gone AWOL. You’re the type who waits until boarding begins before you decide to wander down the hall to the bathroom or to the duty-free shop to buy a cheap bottle of rum. When you fail to show on time, baggage handlers have to dig through hundreds of bags in the plane’s belly to find and remove yours because the rules don’t allow bags to fly without the people who own them. Then you show up at the gate as the door is closing and demand to be allowed to board. Plan ahead.
Cutters. It doesn’t matter much if your seat is preassigned, but on Southwest Airlines, where the letter on your boarding pass and your place in line can mean the difference between a roomy aisle seat in the exit row and the middle seat in front of the bathroom, cutting the line is a cardinal sin. If you’ve checked in late, accept your fate and pray the plane’s half empty.
Carry-ons, jumbo-sized. You know your carry-on is probably too heavy for you to lift into the overhead bins, too large to fit under the seat, but you insist on bringing it aboard anyway. If you’ve got doubts, check it before you get aboard. Putting it in the plane’s belly at the last moment can delay the departure. “People who overpack confuse traveling with relocating,” said travel consultant Sharon Faison.
On the plane
The wild child. You’re tired and frazzled. Your child isn’t. You’re tired of trying to entertain him, so you let him roam the aisles, ring the attendant button, kick the seat in front of him or bounce up and down in his seat. Peoples might not say anything, but they’re thinking bad thoughts about you and your parenting skills. Bring games and toys to occupy him, advises writer Jeanne Muchnick. Don’t be afraid to discipline him, and recognize that sometimes passing your parental trials is your ticket to heaven.
In seats 23 A, B and C, Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Carlo Rossi. If you and your friends are already drunk and show it, you’re unlikely to be allowed to board. But if you hide your inebriation well, you can make flight hell for the flight crew and your fellow passengers. Anywhere else, the bouncer would toss you out on the street or call you a cab, but as much as everyone else would like to simply show you the door, it’s just not feasible at 35,000 feet. All things in moderation.
Abusing a captive audience. Fate has thrown you together, not EHarmony.com. Some people appreciate meeting new people and talking with a seatmate. Others would rather read or look out the window. If your dialogue starts sounding like a monologue, throttle back your conversation. In no case try to sell your seatmate on your brand of religion, the multilevel marketing scheme you’re peddling or the Mexican cancer cure that worked for your sister.
Meet Mr. Unreasonable. Flight attendants say some passengers unnecessarily add to their work by making extra demands on them during the short time they have to serve passengers. Mr. Unreasonable is the guy, for instance, who parks his heavy carry-on on top of the blankets, then asks the flight attendant to get a blanket. He’s the one who sticks his feet and elbows into the aisle when the flight attendants pass, and he’s the one who orders a special vegetarian meal but changes his mind once in the air when he sees the chicken. Mr. Unreasonable wants them to find him a window seat when they’re all full or an aisle seat back once they’ve negotiated with another passenger to trade. And he’s the one who wanders back to the galley to chat when it’s the flight attendant’s only refuge, said flight attendant Sharon Wingler. Mr. Unreasonable obviously could use a little empathy.
And they’re off. Once the plane lands, you’re among the first to flip open your cell phone to announce to your office that you’ve arrived (as if anyone really cares) and you’re practically stampeding the people in front of you on the way down the aisle. “Have patience,” counsels the Air Line Pilots Association’s Farrell. “You’ll get there a lot more refreshed.”
At the luggage carousel
It’s a black one with wheels. Your nephew arrives to help you with your luggage and all you can tell him is that yours is the black one with rollers. Your nephew pulls 23 wrong bags off the belt before you finally identify one of them as yours. Pink ribbon. Orange tape. A red belt. Anything to distinguish your baggage from the millions of its black, two-wheeled clones.
It takes a village. The whole family stands shoulder-to-shoulder at the carousel to pick up their bags occupying precious near-belt real estate. Consider a designated bag plucker with other family members standing behind him to spirit the bags away.
Circling the airport. Not the plane, but your ride’s car. Your friend circles the arrival drive for 30 minutes, awaiting your appearance on the sidewalk. He and the other 200 people circling add to congestion, global warming and general confusion because they’re too unimaginative to wait in the free cell phone lot or too cheap to pay the $2 to park in the garage to wait.
Published: December 3rd, 2006 01:00 AM - The News Tribune
12-03-2006, 11:04 PM
#4
Nothing I enjoy more than having an aisle seat, and being pummeled by a steady flow of unconscious idiots, completely oblivious to the fact that they are smacking everybody with their backpacks and/or multitude of carry-ons as they head to the back of the plane, which should have been checked baggage.
12-04-2006, 02:47 PM
#5
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Scinergy
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Springfield, MO
Posts: 3,701
so that was informative, but now I have even more questions about what is ok and what is not! lol
I had no idea you could only carry 3 oz. of gels and liquids in your carry on . . . what else don't I know . . .
I had no idea you could only carry 3 oz. of gels and liquids in your carry on . . . what else don't I know . . .
12-04-2006, 03:09 PM
#6
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Nothing I love more than being crammed in the middle seat between two very large people who hog the arm rests, thus I get to sit with my arms crossed across my chest the entire flight.....
12-04-2006, 06:48 PM
#7
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Join Date: Jul 2004
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Posts: 2,235
Originally Posted by chrimsonfyre
Nothing I love more than being crammed in the middle seat between two very large people who hog the arm rests, thus I get to sit with my arms crossed across my chest the entire flight.....
Yeah, good find Tomas. Important info for the many folks who DON'T fly very often. As so many of us are car people we tend to drive more than fly on our travels. This is a very good primer for those who haven't ventured beyond the security gate in a while.
Although I must disagree on one point. The drunk girl on the plane when we were coming back from Tundra training was pretty damn funny. She tried to pick up 4 guys from Pella Windows in a highly inappropriate manner. Damn funny for about 30 minutes. After that it was a bit annoying.
-Alex
12-04-2006, 08:06 PM
#8
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Scott, here's a link to the TSA on what's allowed right now...
http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtrav...ted-items.shtm
Tomas
http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtrav...ted-items.shtm
Tomas
12-04-2006, 08:17 PM
#9
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Sorry for my rant...just last time I flew I had to sit like that for 3 hours and I was gettin cranky and annoyed. It wasn't a personal attack on anyone in particular.
12-04-2006, 08:45 PM
#11
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My buddy works for the TSA so Im very prepared when it comes to flying. He tells me all the new regs when they first hit and any changes as they are made. Im bringing a 1qt. ziploc baggie filled with individual 3oz. bottles of soda to drink. Or maybe alcohol. I havent decided yet. Thats the max you can bring on the plane with you....
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