I'm still young and foolish, so I'm more than happy to schlep my bags around the airport and deal with them for a few extra bucks. It does help that I'm pretty tall, so I don't have any trouble getting to the bin; when I sit on the aisle I often end up helping other people with their stuff too. Being tall is noticeably less handy when trying to comfortably sit in airplane seats though...
Okay, hubby and I are 5'6" and 5'2" respectively. And we are of *average* girth. We got stuck in the last row on SW and could not get comfortable. And those back seats do not recline. Luckily it is less than 2 hours to Seattle; but it was miserable for us and the guy next to us. Tall would have been impossible!
There it is, and yes, the baggage fees are the reason. With rare exception, I never got why people hate checking bags so much (apart from the fee). If they ask for volunteers to check a bag at the gate, I'm the first one in line. Doesn't cost anything and I don't have to haul my bag on board. I need my phone, headphones, Kindle, and red wine on a plane. End of list. As for TSA, if you haven't already, I highly recommend TSA Precheck. It's good for 5 years and costs about $80 I think for the processing fee. I don't even fly that much and it is worth every penny. Keep your shoes, belt, and jacket on. Shorter lines. I'm through security in about five minutes, on average.
Reclining seats on an airplane are an optical illusion anyway. They difference between the last seat and the first one is about an inch. None of them recline enough to be comfortable and if they did the person behind you is without space. Ellen did a great stand-up about seat backs once.
There is definitely a difference in typical wait times at airports. In my experience the absolute worst are O'Hare, Orlando and Las Vegas.
Is that right? Wow, I gotta look up that episode. I wonder how come it was slower loading back to front?
The average wait for each airport is typically pretty consistent with itself, but I'm wondering what's going on that's causing these headline-making queues. 3+ hours isn't normal anywhere, yet it's been widely reported at certain places recently. Is there some sort of TSA strike that we don't know about? I doubt they're being all that much more thorough than usual, since it seems like there's hardly anything else they could do, short of a full cavity search When you board by rows, everybody in each boarding group is trying to use the same space at the same time. You have 30 people jockeying for aisle and overhead space, then everybody sits down at roughly the same time when they're all done. When it's random, you can have multiple people getting settled in different rows at the same time, leading to more efficient parallel processing. Of course, most of that goes out the window when they start boarding various loyalty customers first, but the basic concept makes sense. It's just frustrating to see, since it's a bit of organized chaos and they're always surprised at the end when there isn't enough overhead bin space for everybody's stuff (which goes back to my prior point; there's always excess overhead space on flights in other countries where checked bags are included in ticket prices...just saying...)
I think LaGuardia is even worse. The main terminal is completely inadequate for the volume of passengers it gets now (it's the same one they've had for untold decades), and they've finally announced an expansion. Of course, in the short term all the construction will only make things worse, but at least they've finally admitted they needed the expansion. It's just SO small for the amount of passengers now. LaGuardia also has only two runways (!), so a taxi waiting for takeoff averages about 25 minutes (I always time it and consider myself lucky if I beat 25), and you almost never head straight in for a landing either. They "stack you," meaning you circle over the Bronx until they're ready to let you land. The thing with NY is, with the bridges and rivers and expressways, you can always tell exactly where you are, and after you've inevitably done one circle, if you notice the scenery changing in a way that indicates they've started another circle, you think "okay, circle number two..." and so on until you get on a line for the runway and hope you get lower and stay pointed at Queens; if not, you think "okay, circle number three..." If you start another circle, you know it's about 10 minutes till they complete the circle and you have another shot at landing.
I can't stand LaGuardia and avoid it like the plague. When people complain about JFK I laugh maniacally and wonder if they really do fly into LaGuardia. Plus I'm kind of a weird guy: I'll spend money on meals, Broadway shows, some souvenirs, but I hate spending money on transportation. I always take the AirTrain from JFK to the subway, then the E into Manhattan. Takes less than an hour and costs $7.75. No subway at LaGuardia. BTW, Dabob2, it's early yet and I'm not sure what my schedule will be, but I will be in New York in November to run the marathon (everyone please keep me in your thoughts and prayers).
That's great! By the way, the first neighborhood you'll run through after you get off the Verrazano Bridge (the bridge you start on) will be my nabe. BTW, if you ever do have to fly to LaG and want to save money on transport, there's now a bus line that goes there that is surprisingly okay - long, "accordion-style" double-length buses with a place for luggage (if you get lucky). You can take it into upper Manhattan and switch for the subway, or take it elsewhere in Queens and switch for the subway, depending on where in Manhattan you want to go; free transfer either way. So $2.75 into Manhattan! Not as fast as a cab usually, although if surface traffic is bad, it can actually be faster, especially if you just take it a couple of miles to a Queens subway station and transfer there. If you ever need more detail, email me.
They can be, at least in most circumstances. For that matter, so can't regular cops. There are certain groups of them (I'm not saying all of them, though sometimes it may seem so) who believe the intimidation thing is either fun, or effective, or both.
I fly enough that I've run into all kinds. Some perfectly professional and even courteous, others on a power trip, still others just bored out of their minds but hey, it's a job.
Back in the day, you didn't have to sort of have any "runner credentials" to run in the marathon. It was just first come first served. So x-number of people used to sign up who probably shouldn't have been running a marathon. Most of them lasted a little longer than MY nabe, though. But not all. One year I remember a particularly - let's just call him "Homer Simpson-esque" - guy, who got to right in front of where I was standing (2-3 miles in), bent over with his hands on his knees, and said "What... {wheeze}... was I...{wheeze}... even... {wheeze}... thinking???" Then he went to the gas station vending machine nearby, bought a coke, and called it a day.
I am aware of that but that little bit helps me. Especially Horizon. We flew them this year and the coach seats were actually comfy with room to recline without disrupting the tray of the person behind. The seats we were in on that last row on SW were not only stationary; I think they tipped forward a bit. I have never been so uncomfortable on a flight, ever.
I have to admit that I must have been lucky because I have always been treated with respect and courtesy. However, it just took me the first time through to realize that they do not have any sense of humor. Do not joke.. it will not be appreciated, it will be scowled at. Some do take their job seriously and us making light of it tends to upset some of them. It falls back on the fact that there is a time and a place for everything. Humor in a TSA line is not compatible.
If you travel 1-2 rountrips a month, why don't you have TSA PreCheck? Keep your shoes on, belt on, and liquids and computers in your bag, and a (usually) shorter line. It's well worth the cost ($75 for 5 years). Better yet, for another $25, get Global Entry, and then also skip the Immigration and Customs lines when entering the US. Back to the original topic: the TSA press release is nonsense. The current rules regarding charging for checked bags, taking off shoes/belts, the 100ml liquids rule, laptops out, jackets off, etc., have all been in place for at least 4 years with essentially no changes. But the long lines are something new for this year. If passenger behavior was responsible for the long lines, then why is it suddenly a problem this year and not in prior years? The answer is because passenger behavior is not the problem. Rather, the problem is caused by increased passenger count, combined with a reduction in TSA staffing levels (down some 10% recently). Congress needs to allocate more money so that the ratio of TSA staffing to passenger count can return to the same level as of a couple of years ago when the system ran more or less okay (annoyance being a separate issue - at least the lines weren't out of control).
