There's lots of chatter around now about what a terrible experience flying is these days. Duh. What it comes down to is expectations that are not met. Yeah, that plus infrequent vacation travelers clogging up the system for frequent business travelers.
If you travel enough, you learn to roll with it and then you learn how to prepare for it. It helps to realize that there are somethings that can't be circumvented. Newark Liberty, for instance, is always backed up by hours on a Friday. I try my best not to return to Newark on a Friday - there's no way around that. Also, knowing that you will never find a ladies room anywhere near clean in that place will prevent the shock of walking into one and getting knocked back by the tidal wave of germs rolling out.
Nevertheless, there are somethings that, if you knew, you could make alternate plans to enhance the quality of the travel experience or at the very least, avoid the worst possible scenario. It's like training for the big fight. When I know I have to go on a business trip, it helps me to pretend that I'm I like Cassius Clay insulting Sonny Liston, except with frequent flier miles. Float like an Airbus , sting like a Boeing.
Here's my armamentarium:
Airline Home page Continental.com - Almost all airlines have this function. View/change seats, check-in on line, print boarding passes and sometimes,if you're lucky, additional information. Lucky meaning if you fly Continental - you can occasionally find Continental Currency for free drinks or headphones .
Seat Guru Seatguru.com - Once you find the available seats on your airline webpage, check the out here to see if they are good, marginal or bad seating choices. There's information about the seats themselves: width and pitch. I laugh to think that at one time I didn't know that I would be living a life where pitch would become so important to me. This is the website that developed my superior airplane silhouette recognition skills without me even realizing it. I never accept a seating assignment without checking here first.
FAA Flight Delay Information Air Traffic Control system Command Center - The airport home page will lie to you, the airline 800 number for flight status will lie to you, the Departures monitor will lie to you, but only here will you find out if there is a delay at your airport. No need to rush to the airport and sit there for 2-3 hours cooling your jets. (Hey, that's funny!)
Turbulence Forecast Turbulenceforecast.com - Recently added to my list of travel sites, when you finally accept that you're stuck at the gate, you can go here and at least see if there's a God-given reason for it. If it's the undebateable "ground delay" , this won't help.
Airport Home Page Dining, Shopping and Services - And there you are, sitting for hours, waiting to go. Should you grab a power bar from the newsstand , or is there someplace better in the airport where you can sit down and have a nice meal? Major airports have websites listing their vendors. You might be willing to walk around some of the smaller places to see what's what hoping to stumble across a Chili's or a Border's, but if you're in one of the biggies like Chicago or Atlanta, that is not a good plan.
And if all else fails, all this internet checking at least kills time until your plane takes off.
I've never seen Turbulence Forecast before; nice find! :)
Posted by: pam | July 10, 2007 at 07:49 AM
I am assuming that "width and pitch" are completely different from "pitch and yaw" which is more what I worry about. Now that I know about Turbulence forecast, I may never fly again. Upside: I'll never be ahead of you in line whimpering.
Posted by: The Pump Jockey | July 10, 2007 at 03:11 PM
I live on the Continental page (and AA and USAir and Northwest and...) FAA, and SeatGuru already (I do schedule regular travel for 9 execs), but hadn't seen the others -- I'll be passing these links along to my fellow assistants tomorrow. Thanks for postin' them!
Posted by: Jen | July 10, 2007 at 08:34 PM
. . . infrequent vacation travelers clogging up the system . . .
Personally I think this accounts for almost 70% of the problem-generation source: people who don't have a GODDAMNED clue. And yes, I blame them for not honoring their duty to obtain readily available clues before going to the airport; e.g. the "You mean I can't take 5 carryons and a five-gallon drum of lighter fluid with me?" people. Oh fer cryin' out loud! Standing like human speed bumps at the bottoms of escalators ("Did you pack the sunscreen?" "No I thought you were packing it." "I didn't pack it, I thought you packed it."). Not having documents out and ready. Totally spazzing out with the black plastic trays in the xray line, like the whole process of putting your shit down FLAT in the tray is just the most complex puzzle they've ever encountered. OK, I'm finished with my mini-rant now thx.
Posted by: dogette | July 11, 2007 at 07:51 AM
I will have to show this entry to Stan...
thanks!!!
Posted by: toxiclabrat | July 11, 2007 at 08:01 AM
Well, I am looking forward to making my first flight in 30 years this fall and I am grateful for these tips. I live in mortal fear of being one of those clueless travelers that annoy dogette so greatly. Anybody else with travel tips for the novice, please visit http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2007/07/05/travel-tips-wanted-for-me/
Posted by: Kathy | July 11, 2007 at 02:18 PM