Idiots on Airplanes and Other Travel Commentary

[apl68]

At least the recent holiday seems to have gone pretty smoothly overall with air transportation.

[AvidReader]

My uni now okays Business Class fares for flights over 8 hours (assuming you have the money in your various research accounts). I am here to say that the Polaris lounges are very heaven. There are six of them in the U.S., and they're for Business class transatlantic flyers in United. Huge lovely buffets of free food. (Unlike the usual United Club lounges, which have soup and piddly little snacks.) Not crowded. Nap rooms!

The United Credit card comes with free checked bags and two lounge passes per year, for anyone who can't get a Business flight--but I've heard the Polaris lounges are worlds better.

AR.

[sinenomine]

My uni now okays Business Class fares for flights over 8 hours (assuming you have the money in your various research accounts). I am here to say that the Polaris lounges are very heaven. There are six of them in the U.S., and they're for Business class transatlantic flyers in United. Huge lovely buffets of free food. (Unlike the usual United Club lounges, which have soup and piddly little snacks.) Not crowded. Nap rooms!

American has done away with First, so Flagship Business is now their top tier — take advantage of that before your institution figures that out! I'm flying it next month for a conference (alas, without school funds, but it'll be way better than Economy).

[mythbuster]

I have found with Southwest that I prefer to board in about mid- group B. That way I get to have some level of say as to who sits next to me. I had a flight once where I boarded in Group A and then a drunk guy ended up claiming the seat next to me. I've also seen on many Southwest flights that the A1-15 "pay" slots are often empty- so early section B is even earlier than you would think.

[MarathonRunner]

I have an eight hour flight for an international move in August. I am dreading it. Masks no longer required. COVID can damage every organ system in the body, including the brain and heart. I'll wear a respirator but there's no denying masks work better when the majority of people wear them properly. Trying to figure out how to go ten plus hours without food or water (considering when I have to get through security plus get through customs, get luggage, etc.) Also not happy that I'll have to risk my life by taking my mask off just to be identified. Yes, risking my life. Even a asymptomatic case of COVID can cause a deadly heart attack or stroke. I hate people right now. I hate that public health has become politicized.

[Hegemony]

MarathonRunner, I hear you. For what it's worth, I've flown extensively in the last two years, including four ten-hour overseas flights, as well as many cross-country flights. And I'm immune-compromised. I always wear my N95, and I've never gotten Covid. The first few flights, I tried to tough it out and not eat, but since then I do take my mask off for about 10 minutes or so to eat. I've read that once the plane is in the air, its filtration system is very efficient. In any case, I've remained Covid-free. Covid is contagious, but it's not magical. The first few times I was a bundle of anxiety, thinking that being around unmasked people for many hours was a sure route to Covid and death. But although it's prudent to be cautious, I think it's safe to relax one's fright. If contagion on the plane were certain, people would be coming off planes with everyone infected, and the hospitals would be heaving with patients. But basically everyone (except us) is unmasked and partying hearty, and the hospitalization statistics remain on the low side.

As I say, it's wise to be masked, and wise to be cautious. I certainly will be. But I think after a couple of flights from which you emerge as healthy as you started, the anxiety levels will go down.

[arcturus]

I have an eight hour flight for an international move in August. I am dreading it. Masks no longer required. COVID can damage every organ system in the body, including the brain and heart. I'll wear a respirator but there's no denying masks work better when the majority of people wear them properly. Trying to figure out how to go ten plus hours without food or water (considering when I have to get through security plus get through customs, get luggage, etc.) Also not happy that I'll have to risk my life by taking my mask off just to be identified. Yes, risking my life. Even a asymptomatic case of COVID can cause a deadly heart attack or stroke. I hate people right now. I hate that public health has become politicized.

In regards to removing your mask to be identified: it will be quick, and the person closest to you will likely be behind plexiglass. All of the passport control agents I interacted with on my most recent trip seemed to be understanding when I was slow/forgetful to pull down my mask.

Also, do not sacrifice your hydration! Dehydration is a very serious health risk too! Bring a straw so that you can drink while still wearing your mask.

[Parasaurolophus]

Just booked some flights, which I always find stressful. Idiots to come in August.

[spork]

Recently encountered a gaggle of idiots on the supply side of travel -- British Airways IT designers and ground staff at Heathrow. Get notified that I can check in online, which I can't, because the website and app say my birthday is incorrect, which it isn't. At departure terminal, kiosks aren't working. Stand in very slow line for checking bags at station B1 to get my boarding pass, even though I did not have bags to check. Got my boarding pass, not a word about my birthday. Directed to proceed to security, where the initial turnstile scanner says my boarding pass is invalid. The one human employee there, checking credentials of flight crews but not ordinary passengers, says I have to go back out. Returning to the check-in area, I'm told I need to go to station B1. The next BA employee I snag says I need to go to B2. A third employee says C1. Since I received my boarding pass originally at B1, I decide to go to C1 -- where I see many of the same passengers I saw initially at B1. After slowly making my way to the head of the line at C1, still not needing to check any bags, the BA employee scans my passport and says there are no errors in my boarding pass, but she prints out a second copy. Again I am directed to proceed to security, but a different entry point. There the turnstile scans my second boarding pass no problem. And it gets scanned another time at a second turnstile. So I am finally allowed to go through the metal detector.

[apl68]

And then there are some who have come to believe that travel is immoral and feel too guilty to enjoy it any longer:


https://lithub.com/snapshots-of-the-end-of-travel-on-trying-to-enter-a-personal-no-fly-zone?utm_source=pocket_discover_travel

[fishbrains]

Is there a female equivalent term to "man-spreading" on an airplane? The woman next to me couldn't really fit her bag under the seat in front of her (even though there was plenty of room in the overheads), so she kept trying to put her leg around her bag and under the seat in front of me. I kept nudging her foot back. An odd, two-hour game of Footsie there.

What the f*ck is wrong with people?

Had this happen to me again. Still trying to figure out what the phobia is about where people won't put bags in the overhead space. No one's getting out any faster.

[Larimar]

I'm someone who avoids the overhead bins on planes. It's for two reasons. One reason is that they are always already full by the time I get on the plane. The other reason is because I am physically tiny and can barely reach the overhead bins at all, much less heave a suitcase into one or pull one out. I'd rather not have to depend on the kindness of strangers for this, and I'd rather not end up with luggage falling on my head, or someone else's head. Instead, I have a backpack that fits neatly under a plane seat and won't bother anyone else.

[MarathonRunner]

I'm someone who avoids the overhead bins on planes. It's for two reasons. One reason is that they are always already full by the time I get on the plane. The other reason is because I am physically tiny and can barely reach the overhead bins at all, much less heave a suitcase into one or pull one out. I'd rather not have to depend on the kindness of strangers for this, and I'd rather not end up with luggage falling on my head, or someone else's head. Instead, I have a backpack that fits neatly under a plane seat and won't bother anyone else.

For 99% of the flights I've taken, that's what I do. The only times I use the overhead bin is when moving and needing to take our cats on the plane with us. Their carriers go under the seat in front of us, and our other piece of carry-on goes in the overhead bin.

[cathwen]

I am also short, and elderly, so heaving a bag into an overhead bin is not going to happen.  I also hate being encumbered with luggage in the airport while waiting for my plane.  Going to a restaurant? The ladies' room? You have to wheel the darned thing around with you.  No.  I always check my bags and take a carry-on that fits neatly under the seat.

[Caracal]

I have an eight hour flight for an international move in August. I am dreading it. Masks no longer required. COVID can damage every organ system in the body, including the brain and heart. I'll wear a respirator but there's no denying masks work better when the majority of people wear them properly. Trying to figure out how to go ten plus hours without food or water (considering when I have to get through security plus get through customs, get luggage, etc.) Also not happy that I'll have to risk my life by taking my mask off just to be identified. Yes, risking my life. Even a asymptomatic case of COVID can cause a deadly heart attack or stroke. I hate people right now. I hate that public health has become politicized.

I don't know anything about your personal health situation, so I want to be careful. That said.

1. The risk of catching covid is cumulative, so pulling down your mask for 5 seconds for identification is not dramatically increasing your risk of infection.

2. Airports and even airplanes are pretty well ventilated spaces. Otherwise they would smell terrible all the time.

3. Long Covid is very real and a concern, but some perspective is needed. It's really hard to quantify the toll of something when it involves a lot of disparate symptoms ranging from mild to disabling. Regardless, according to the CDC, most people with long covid are experiencing fairly minor symptoms that they report aren't having a significant effect on their lives-stuff like lingering coughs-annoying rather than debilitating. Heart attacks and strokes are concerning, but also pretty rare. As you'd expect, both the minor and serious symptoms do seem to decrease and often completely go away over time. It also appears that the percentage of people getting long covid is going down-which probably is about vaccination and prior infection.

4. Again, I want to be sensitive, because I don't know what your health situation is. However, some of the language you are using suggests that you might need to recalibrate your ideas about risk. It's helped me to think of covid as something that isn't going away as a problem anytime soon. So, it's worth thinking about how I want to deal with the risk in the long term and how to balance that risk against other factors. Pulling down your mask for 5 seconds is "risking your life" in the same way that driving to work is. Technically an accurate description, but probably not a particularly healthy way to think about your life.