Airplane Etiquette

This is as much a plea to the universe as it is a post, but I am recently returned from a trip to visit Breen, Patrick, and the bambino. And I have to say that once again the lack of common courtesy exhibited in air travel continues to astound me. The three that bother me the most:

1. No one is comfortable on an airplane, at least not in coach. It is a tight, cramped space. It is rendered even tighter, more cramped, and less comfortable for the people sitting behind you when you put your seat back into their laps. Please keep that in mind next time you hit "recline."

2. Some people on the flight really do have tight connections. Like, connections so tight they find themselves racing through the Detroit airport, from the far end of concourse A, through the trippy tunnel, to the far end of concourse B, in order to catch their next flight before it stops boarding. I am often one such person, and I can't tell you how annoying it is to be running by people who were seated in front of me and got off of the plane ahead of me, who are now dawdling looking for something to do because they have a couple hours to kill before their next leg. If you have a lengthy layover or are at your final destination, please let the people with tight connections get off the plane first. It's not that hard and is just the polite thing to do.

Coming home I had an atypically long connection, even as things were delayed and messed up all day due to bad weather in Detroit. So, both flights I stayed seated until others in a bigger hurry (because of delays and whatnot) had gotten off the plane. The number of shocked but genuine thank yous I received from both the flight crew and fellow passengers seated behind me was an indication to me of how uncommon such a simple common courtesy really is these days.

3. I walk fast, especially after I've been cooped up in a plane, so I am usually one of the first to arrive at the baggage claim. I always stand about three to four feet away from the carousel - this is close enough that I can see if my bag is coming and can quickly pop in closer to grab it, yet far enough away that other passengers can also see whether their bag is coming and have space to walk in and grab it. Every. single. time. I am standing there waiting and my fellow passengers walk right in front of me and stand flush to the carousel, effectively forming a human wall around it. This makes it very difficult for those not part of the wall to see whether their bag is coming, and virtually impossible to step in and grab if you do happen to catch sight of it. Plus the people that have formed the wall have a hard time grabbing their bags because they are all standing so close together there is no room to maneuver their suitcase off the line. Again, such a simple, common courtesy - stand a little bit further back, give everybody a chance to see and to move.

So, fellow travelers who may be reading this - next time you fly, please keep these things in mind. A little politeness goes a long way, and could make everybody's experience of air travel a little bit better.

Stepping down from the soapbox now,
C