Effin' lineups

fredintoon

Fred Hill, S'toon.
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Spent a week in Victoria BC to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.
Vancouver Island is about the only part of Canada that's OK for riding year round so lotsa bikes
just being used for transport rather than just for fun. Victoria is just plain beautiful and our trip
coinciding with a 1,700 vehicle rod & custom car show was a surprise bonus.
Went out with Air Canada.
Luckily the inevitable Air Canada take-off time delays on the Saskatoon/Vancouver and on the Vancouver/Victoria flights were of equal duration and the cabin staff were only moderately grumpy.
Came back with WestJet.
On time and smiling friendly cabin staff.
But this ain't about the trip. It's about the airlines' modern luggage handling policy.
I purely hate the result of the modern practice of extra-billing for checked luggage.
We paid the extra to check our luggage because the saving ain't worth the hassle.
Everyone else staggers onto the 'plane hauling two maximum volume wheelie-cases
and takes forever lifting them up to the overheads, twisting them this way and that way
to get them in, some even have to remove stuff from one and stuff it in t'other to make them fit.
Meanwhile I'm just stood in line waiting for them to stop pissing about so I can sit down.
Getting off the 'plane is even worse. Every man jack (M/F) of them leaps to their feet
the minute the 'plane stops rolling, grabs their luggage from the overheads and creates
an aisle-long logjam to trap me in my seat until they've all gone away.
Gawd, I hate lineups, especially artificially created ones.
 
Air travel has become so insufferable, I’ve sworn off of it. As of this moment, I can’t imagine anything that’d make me get back in an passenger jet. On a side note I just read an article yesterday about airlines plans to reduce legroom even more, so they can cram more sardines in the can!
 
Spent a week in Victoria BC to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.
Vancouver Island is about the only part of Canada that's OK for riding year round so lotsa bikes
just being used for transport rather than just for fun. Victoria is just plain beautiful and our trip
coinciding with a 1,700 vehicle rod & custom car show was a surprise bonus.
Went out with Air Canada.
Luckily the inevitable Air Canada take-off time delays on the Saskatoon/Vancouver and on the Vancouver/Victoria flights were of equal duration and the cabin staff were only moderately grumpy.
Came back with WestJet.
On time and smiling friendly cabin staff.
But this ain't about the trip. It's about the airlines' modern luggage handling policy.
I purely hate the result of the modern practice of extra-billing for checked luggage.
We paid the extra to check our luggage because the saving ain't worth the hassle.
Everyone else staggers onto the 'plane hauling two maximum volume wheelie-cases
and takes forever lifting them up to the overheads, twisting them this way and that way
to get them in, some even have to remove stuff from one and stuff it in t'other to make them fit.
Meanwhile I'm just stood in line waiting for them to stop pissing about so I can sit down.
Getting off the 'plane is even worse. Every man jack (M/F) of them leaps to their feet
the minute the 'plane stops rolling, grabs their luggage from the overheads and creates
an aisle-long logjam to trap me in my seat until they've all gone away.
Gawd, I hate lineups, especially artificially created ones.
That's why I fly first or business class. Before you think I'm wasting a lot of money. I travel for business. My suitcase and tool case are both over 50lb's plus I have my carry on and a computer bag. In country first is usually about the same or cheaper than economy with the second bag and overweight charges. Plus United's Bloody Marys are pretty good.
 
Happy Anniversary Fred!..My last flight was in 2017 to L.A from Raleigh NC..The lines for security check ins blew my mind...Prior to 2017 my last flight was in the 1990s..I cant believe they're still making people take off their shoes.. One insigniicant event with a shoe bomber and we still have this BS... I too was one of those people toting a carry on bag to stuff overhead...it seemed like that was par for the course.
And leaving from L.A Int'l airport was even worse...I think I'm good until they perfect teleportation......
 
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Air travel has become so insufferable, I’ve sworn off of it. As of this moment, I can’t imagine anything that’d make me get back in an passenger jet. On a side note I just read an article yesterday about airlines plans to reduce legroom even more, so they can cram more sardines in the can!
Doesnt make any sense..people in general are getting bigger and bigger and airline seats are getting smaller and smaller...next time i go west i'll drive my Volvo instead...
 
The last of the RWDs..the best ones ever...
New-wheels-3.jpg
 
Air Travel is Universally Unpleasant. The ragheads have ruined the world forever.
Who ever thought it would be good to bring them to the west should be shot.
I can remember flying often in the 70's and 80's and it was a nice experience.
 
Air travel has become so insufferable, I’ve sworn off of it. As of this moment, I can’t imagine anything that’d make me get back in an passenger jet. On a side note I just read an article yesterday about airlines plans to reduce legroom even more, so they can cram more sardines in the can!

Exactly. I have family in Michigan and Arizona. I can (and every other year or so, do) drive to Michigan. It's two full days of driving, neither cheap nor convenient but hell will freeze over before I set foot on another airplane. Add to all the TSA drama the fact that the only connection between Bangor and Lansing (or, AFAIK, De-toilet) is a puddle jumper that stops like 4 times enroute. Insufferable.

Brothers and nephews in Arizona will just have to suck it up, no way in hell I'm driving that far, and we already know my feelings about flying.
 
Exactly. I have family in Michigan and Arizona. I can (and every other year or so, do) drive to Michigan. It's two full days of driving, neither cheap nor convenient but hell will freeze over before I set foot on another airplane. Add to all the TSA drama the fact that the only connection between Bangor and Lansing (or, AFAIK, De-toilet) is a puddle jumper that stops like 4 times enroute. Insufferable.

Brothers and nephews in Arizona will just have to suck it up, no way in hell I'm driving that far, and we already know my feelings about flying.
I’m with you brother.
 
I'd drive to Arizona..its the drive back that i dont like...My record solo is 2.5 days one way..Raleigh -Tucson
 
I'd drive to Arizona..its the drive back that i dont like...My record solo is 2.5 days one way..Raleigh -Tucson

For a week or two in February, maybe.

My parents retired to Mesa and we visited whilst transferring from Maine to Japan while I was still on active duty. We were there in February and it was plenty warm enough for me, thanks. I can't imagine it in July/August. Plus the scenery is not my cuppa tea. I need trees and preferably water.

Next older brother lives in Green Valley, South of Tucson, baby brother live somewhere around Scottsdale last I knew.
 
The ragheads have ruined the world forever.
Who ever thought it would be good to bring them to the west should be shot.
After spending a fair bit of time in the Middle East, and 15 yrs teaching, I call quiet a few of those "ragheads" friends. How 'bout we say the "terrorists" ruined air travel? Better yet, how 'bout we keep ignorant crap like this out of the forum altogether?
 
Air Travel is Universally Unpleasant. The ragheads have ruined the world forever.
Who ever thought it would be good to bring them to the west should be shot.
I can remember flying often in the 70's and 80's and it was a nice experience.

Take a step back, do some reading and educate yourself........

After spending a fair bit of time in the Middle East, and 15 yrs teaching, I call quiet a few of those "ragheads" friends. How 'bout we say the "terrorists" ruined air travel? Better yet, how 'bout we keep ignorant crap like this out of the forum altogether?

Totally agree Jim..........That is a raciest and ignorant comment...........
 
I’d rather have a root canal than get on a plane.

I travel a lot on business too and I’d rather have my head stapled to the floor than fly again....

...and it’s not the security stuff that gets my goat. People are the same pretty much everywhere and everyone should calm down, follow the danged rules and be safe.

What riles me is the fact that most airlines don’t even try to conduct their business with the slightest bit of respect for their passengers. You get better treatment from a pimply-faced 15 year old teenybopper selling you a $6 hamburger than you receive from most airlines after buying a ticket that cost $3,000 and entrusting your life to them.

What a f@cking ordeal.
 
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Doesnt make any sense..people in general are getting bigger and bigger and airline seats are getting smaller and smaller...next time i go west i'll drive my Volvo instead...

Hi madmax-im,
Alas, we don't have a Volvo. We drive a Hyundai Tucson and it'd take us 3 hard days on the road, 2 hotel overnights
and a ferry ride to drive from Saskatoon to Victoria, we'd be exhausted when we got there and it'd cost more to do that
than to pay the air fare. The flights were OK; even the security people were pleasant. It was just the aircraft aisle
packed full of max-sized wheelie cases when the plane stopped at the terminal that concerned me.
"In an emergency this aircraft can be exited in 3 minutes" Not with the aisle blocked with luggage it can't.
 
Fred I should have added the caveat...YMMV...Quite a few would agree that flying is a royal PITA...So Canadian airports are prolly friendlier than American airports eh?... If you had to fly into and out of L.A. then your opinion of airtravel would not be as favourable...However if i were 82 then i would prolly prefer to fly regardless. It seems theres no thought to giving those passengers with checked in luggage priority in disembarking..but then the airlines are only concerned about packing people in like sardines in a can or cattle in a freight car. Not my cup of tea sir..
Y'all have a good day...
 
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