1. Southwest
I like Southwest. It seems like it’s not too hard to get into group A. As long as I check in by midnight the night before, it’s been a lock. From eavesdropping (aka being nosy), it sounds like a lot of people still don’t check in online. I had a dream last night that my family was flying Southwest and we forgot to check-in and got stuck with the last seats. I wish there were more to it, but that’s basically the whole dream.
2. Beverages and the laptop guy
I HATE when I have the window seat and the middle guy has a laptop and refuses to close the lid (even slightly so your keyboard isn’t exposed, please) when the attendent is handing a beverage to me. Flight attendants seem to have some kind of psychological thing where they never show signs of worry. It must be their training or just that they’re used to it, but they are very nonchalant about serving beverages in turbulence. And it’s the same thing when holding a drink directly over a laptop waiting for me to grab it.
The laptop guy is usually some suit with a million frequent flyer miles who acts like he was downgraded to coach. And he always reminds me of a Cedric the Entertainer bit in Kings of Comedy about the “wish factor”, summarized concisely and stripped of any humor in Wikipedia:
Primary among these is his embellishment of the differences between the “hope factor” and the “wish factor”: white people “hope” that nothing goes wrong, and black people wish someone would start trouble so that they can retaliate.
The laptop guy wishes the attendant would spill soda all over his keyboard. And me? On my last flight, the laptop guy looked less like a suit and more like Lennox Lewis, so I treated that cup delicate like it had the cure for cancer in it.
3. Delayed flights
People get real mad when the planes are delayed. They’re up there with people at bus stops where the bus driver doesn’t see them and keeps driving. (Opposite are the people who are running to catch the bus and actually make it on the bus. I always make sure to look at them after they pay the fare and walk down the aisle. 100% of the time, they’re smiling. And I’ve been that person and I caught myself smiling also. 100%, I promise you.) I’m with Dan, and I think I mentioned this previously.
If you need to be somewhere so badly that it’s ruined your day that you’ll be late, you should’ve got an earlier flight. I stayed in San Francisco International for 12+ hours without a change of clothes, slept on a lawn chair, and was missing out on time in Hawaii. That’s really got nothing to do with anything, but I wanted to mention that. Luckily, I was able to record the boringest video of all time so it sort of evened out. If your flight is actually fully cancelled, that’s different, rage.
4. Baggage
If I can, I try to avoid checking baggage. It took me a while to realize that you can hand-carry those small rolling suitcases. I learned this last year when my friend and I miscommunicated and I got to the airport about twenty minutes before departure time. Apparently bag checks end forty-five minutes prior to departure, but the lady said I could just toss out all my liquids and hand-carry my suitcase. And you can have a backpack as an additional personal item. This is enough for me for trips less than a week.
I’m not paranoid about people stealing personal items from my baggage, I just hate baggage claim. It always seems to take longer than you expect, even when you already expect it to take pretty long. And you’re forced to be in close quarters with tired, irritated people. If I don’t make it through the pearly gates, I’ll be sent to a never-ending baggage claim and the guy sitting next to me will refuse to close his laptop when the baggage claim attendent (it’s a nice airport) comes around serving warm soda.
5. Stole this list from Dan
And of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I stole this post idea from Dan. Here’s an excerpt from his:
4. Pacific Beach in San Diego. The beach isnǃÙt the cleanest in the city, but the area around it is just flat out awesome. PB is pretty much where the College Kids, and just recently out of College Kids go out.
Dan, wait, I missed something, why are you hanging out there? Wokka wokka wokka!