20 replies to this topic

[shadragon]

Or we can go with Penn Jillette's "Bacon and a Kiss" Airline...

When I flew out of Germany into Qatar for the Gulf War, they had no seats left on the Hercules aircraft, so the loadmaster used cargo straps and cinched three of us onto the bare metal floor with our backs against a couple of thousand pounds of lumpy supplies and baggage. Was not so bad for the take-offs, but (after flying several hours in -55F temps at altitude) sitting down for a landing was remarkably cool on the buttocks. I spent 14 hours in that tin can over two hops as we flew the long way around to avoid the shooting. My in-flight meal service was a cold box lunch of mystery meat and the washroom facilities were mounted on the wall of the cargo compartment.

Today when I fly I always treat people with due respect. They are just doing their jobs for the most part. However, I also embrace the Patrick Swayze "Road House" attitude of 'Be nice until it's time to not be nice...' The counter staff usually have name tags and if treated inappropriately (or exceptionally well for that matter) then a letter to the company would not be uncalled for with the date, time, person involved and the circumstances. If they want to take an extra long look at my bags, then they can feel free. I have nothing in there that is objectionable. They usually check my bags anyway when they see the regs on the x-ray. I have never spent more than 7 or 8 minutes even when they do a hand bag check.

I have had more positive experiences than negative when flying. Today I am happy to have a seat that is heading in the direction I want to go. Besides, the worse seat on the airplane arrives at the same time as the best.

My 2 psi...

[ScubaDrew]

. My in-flight meal service was a cold box lunch of mystery meat

Was it green and vaguely reminiscent of bologna?

[ScubaDrew]

I've only ever had trouble with one person in all my flights, and he was a TSA agent. I set off the metal detector twice, I forgot my tin of Eclipse mints was in my sweatshirt pocket. The agent asked me if I wanted to get patted down in private, or in the glass booth.
His eyes twinkled when he said "private", and since I have a GF I figured I would opt for the public showing. After all the peeking I did in my youth I felt it was time I gave back a little, you know?

Upon entering the booth, I remembered my wayward mints, and informed Romeo, who wanded me, removed the tin, wanded me again, and what do you know? It was quiet the second time.

He proceeded to frisk me anyway, including a rather rough, and IMO completely uncalled for introduction to Jimmy and the Twins, but hey, this was in Philly, the City of Brotherly Love, so I went with it.

I was gonna give him my number, but I felt at this point discretion was the better part of valor and just went on down to my terminal.

I often wonder what he is doing today, if he still thinks of me?...(sigh)

[shadragon]

I often wonder what he is doing today, if he still thinks of me?...(sigh)

After my day today, I needed that... Cheers!

[secretsea18]

Or we can go with Penn Jillette's "Bacon and a Kiss" Airline...

When I flew out of Germany into Qatar for the Gulf War, they had no seats left on the Hercules aircraft, so the loadmaster used cargo straps and cinched three of us onto the bare metal floor with our backs against a couple of thousand pounds of lumpy supplies and baggage. Was not so bad for the take-offs, but (after flying several hours in -55F temps at altitude) sitting down for a landing was remarkably cool on the buttocks. I spent 14 hours in that tin can over two hops as we flew the long way around to avoid the shooting. My in-flight meal service was a cold box lunch of mystery meat and the washroom facilities were mounted on the wall of the cargo compartment.

Today when I fly I always treat people with due respect. They are just doing their jobs for the most part. However, I also embrace the Patrick Swayze "Road House" attitude of 'Be nice until it's time to not be nice...' The counter staff usually have name tags and if treated inappropriately (or exceptionally well for that matter) then a letter to the company would not be uncalled for with the date, time, person involved and the circumstances. If they want to take an extra long look at my bags, then they can feel free. I have nothing in there that is objectionable. They usually check my bags anyway when they see the regs on the x-ray. I have never spent more than 7 or 8 minutes even when they do a hand bag check.
I have had more positive experiences than negative when flying. Today I am happy to have a seat that is heading in the direction I want to go. Besides, the worse seat on the airplane arrives at the same time as the best.

My 2 psi...

Simon,
Sounds like that loadmaster needs to get a negative comment in his personel file for assigning you such a bad seat. I would email off to TTU right away. Somehow I suspect that there is no place on that airline to register passenger complaints. And I think you deserve a refund of that ticket.

My dive bag never even gets a second glance at the bag xray. However, last year when I traveled to Cebu PI for my annual mission, one of my checkins contained about 125 bottle (of various sizes) of anasthesia medications and antibiotics. I informed them (as I was required) of the medication in my bag, and they then proceeded to require hand inspection (of course 25 feet away from me). After 15 minutes elapsed, I asked if it was cleared and I was good to go. I was told that they went to get the key for my lock (my TSA lock). The mo*ons did not have the key and proceeded to walk to an entirely different area screening luggage, instead of simply asking me what the combination was (and they knew I was standing there)! They proceeded to swipe and test each individual bottle separately for explosive residue. Even though they were in "mini-cases" and clearly labeled by the manufacturer. Took about 40 minutes in total. All was legal. Oh they even swiped my surgical instruments and looked in each case. Messed up the packing completely. I felt lucky that there were no broken bottles in my luggage on arrival. UGH.

[sharkbait97]

I work for Frontier and I see things both ways. I cannot stand TSA but mostly because they are a window dressing. As for customer service (an oxymoron in the airline industry), you have to understand that the desk people get abused quite often by customers. If they have had a long littany of really bad customers, and then you come up and even so much as blink wrong, you could be on the wrong end of a short stick. It isn't right, but it is the way things happen sometimes. You will never win a spitting contest with the service counter because you (the customer) truly don't have any power. Again, I am not saying it is right, I am just pointing something out from an insider's view. For what it is worth, although I may work for them, I don't really care for the airline industry in general.