Experienced Fliers...Pass on Your Knowledge (1 Viewer)

[Stan]

Originally Posted by CameronJ


There are some tricks that people need to know to make business travel bearable - if not enjoyable.

1. Have the right attitude. You'll be amazed and what a bit of courtesy to airline employees and your fellow passengers will get you. Unfortunately 95% of the people flying (both frequent and infrequent flyers) are self-absorbed idiots who don't understand how their actions affect others. I'm exaggerating of course - but from the people who put their one laptop bag in the overhead instead of under the seat in front of them to those who believe the flight attendant is their personal valet - I'm constantly amazed by what I see in the airport and on planes.

A little honey rather than vinegar goes a long way. just try it.


I've been bumped to first class, had fees waived, gotten on a flight while others didn't, etc.


Woke up late once, completely missed my flight and it was $300 to transfer my ticket. They ended up doing it with no charge. They're so used to the 95% of rude people, that if you're part of that 5% of decent people, you often get treated completely differently. They have a lot of power with those little keyboards, just have to have the right attitude.

 

[DaveF]

Cameron, you forget how small coach seating is There's not room on the tray for a satchel. And if there were, what to do when my soda comes? I used to fly with a bag under my seat. I recall it being more cramped and less comfortable. I realized there was a better way a few years ago. I put whatever book and music I want in my seat and put the bag overhead. More comfortable. More relaxing. And if people with giant carryons can fly with nothing cramping their feet, why shouldn't I, with just a small bag? Maybe I should instead start flying with a big roller bag so it must go overhead? :tu: My position is consistent: I don't care for people bringing stuffed carryons, taking all the overhead space, slowing the boarding and debiatding process. I appreciate the delay of getting luggage: I always have a checked bag. and the risk of losing it. A possible solution us gate checking. This is routine for medium size flights. And if I could check my laptop, I'd try to fly with no more than I can fit in my jacket pockets.

 

[CameronJ]

Originally Posted by DaveF . Last month I did Chicago -> Hong Kong in coach and in February I did DC -> Dubai and back in coach. Granted I had unlimited leg room exit row seating, but it was still coach for 12 - 15 hours.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by CameronJ



Believe it or not Scott this is a fairly common and legitimate issue. Start with the fact that USAir (btw I hate USAir - so it pains me to defend them) only has a limited number of gates that they can use at each airport. While there are scenarios where an airline can use a gate that "belongs" to another carrier, it very rarely happens. I don't know how many gates USAir has at DTW, but its not hard to imagine that the outbound flights weren't going anywhere because of the storm so nothing was opening up. There are also instances where they just don't have the available ground crew. You think waiting for a gate is painful - try sitting there staring at the empty gate for an hour while you wait for the ground crew to show up.

Cameron, I know that the real reason was that there were no US Air assigned gates available. However, in this particular situation, the passengers were lied to and told there were no gates available in the entire airport, which everyone knew was b.s.. Also, considering the dangerous weather conditions, there was absolutely no excuse for not switching us to an available gate belonging to another airline. In this case, the airline was only concerned about their bottom line instead of passenger safety. It's situations like this and the airline's and airport's response that makes people hate air travel.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Originally Posted by CameronJ . Last month I did Chicago -> Hong Kong in coach and in February I did DC -> Dubai and back in coach. Granted I had unlimited leg room exit row seating, but it was still coach for 12 - 15 hours.

Well there's the rub. I could care less about sitting in coach if not for the lack of legroom. I don't need any of the extra perks for flying business or first class...the free meals, booze and hot towels carry little appeal to me. What I miss is the legroom. I actually enjoy flying Southwest because I have just as much chance to score an exit row seat as anyone else. When I fly United or American...forget about it if you aren't putting in 100K miles or more a year.

 

[DaveF]

Ok Cameron, I'll try that next time I fly. Anyone check a business laptop? Its probably against my corporate policy, but it would make flying much easier.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by DaveF


Anyone check a business laptop? Its probably against my corporate policy, but it would make flying much easier.

I would highly advise not doing this. A co-worker put his personal laptop and camera in his checked luggage because he and his wife were flying with two small kids and he had too many other items to deal with. Both items were stolen from his checked luggage.

 

[DaveF]

It's ironic in this age of TSA and heightened security, that we gave to worry about our checked luggage being burgled.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Originally Posted by DaveF

Anyone check a business laptop? Its probably against my corporate policy, but it would make flying much easier.

I would NEVER check a laptop, business or personal. The bottom-line is, don't check in anything you can't afford to lose.


My wife told me a story of how someone she knew was "forced" to check in her laptop because her carry-on luggage was too heavy. Sure enough, the laptop was stolen.

 

[CameronJ]

Originally Posted by DaveF

It's ironic in this age of TSA and heightened security, that we gave to worry about our checked luggage being burgled.

You missed a word in your description. It should be "perception of heightened security".


Can you tell my opinion of the TSA?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by CameronJ





You missed a word in your description. It should be "perception of heightened security".

Exactly. So many of the new security rules are just plain silly and do nothing to actually make us safer while flying. However, it offers the appearance that something is being done.

 

[Bob Graham]

Here's a couple of other things:


1. Use the website seatguru.com to help you pick out a seat. Look at your reservation to determine the type of aircraft you'll be flying. Seatguru will ask you for the airline and the aircraft information and then provide you with a map of which seats are the most comfortable and which ones have disadvantages. Use this when selecting a seat for your flight.


2. Medical devices don't count as carry-ons. I now have to use a CPAP machine and haven't had a chance to try this out yet, but theoretically at least I should be able to board with two carry-ons plus the CPAP which has its own travel bag.


3. My real pet peeve about carry ons are the frequent fliers who get to board early and sit in the middle of the plane and put their carry-ons about the first few rows of seats, so they can just pick them up on their way off the plane. This means that the people in the first few rows will have nowhere to store their carry-on luggage when they board because they will be the last to board and all carry on space will be filled. I believe that your carry-on luggage should be stored above the seat where you are sitting.

 

[CameronJ]

Originally Posted by Bob Graham


3. My real pet peeve about carry ons are the frequent fliers who get to board early and sit in the middle of the plane and put their carry-ons about the first few rows of seats, so they can just pick them up on their way off the plane. This means that the people in the first few rows will have nowhere to store their carry-on luggage when they board because they will be the last to board and all carry on space will be filled. I believe that your carry-on luggage should be stored above the seat where you are sitting.

99% of the time that's not the frequent flyers. Every instance where I see that occur I watch to see where that person sits - and it is almost always way back in the back of the plane. Most frequent flyers want to have their bag as close to them as possible, as I can't tell you the number of times someone will mess with my bag (move it farther back, put something else in the bin that then causes it not to close, or even worse try to jam their own hardshell suitcase on top of mine).

Whenever I see that happen I point out to both the guy who is then having problems with his luggage later and the flight attendant that the owner of said bag is sitting in seat 29E (trust me - I'm only a jerk when I see someone else being a jerk).

This goes back to my point above about people not being aware of how their actions impact others - and if everyone would just exercise some common courtesy the flying experience would improve dramatically.