The Joy of Flying

I just flew over the weekend, and it was a fine experience, as it usually is.  But it's not always.  Here's 5 great annoyances of flying.

You know you're in good hands with Frank Lapidus at the helm.

1. The non-English speaking couple with at least 7 pieces of over-sized luggage and/or boxes who take 20 minutes at the self check-in kiosk and ultimately need to go in line and see an agent anyway, wasting everyone's time.

2. That whenever you really need to be on the flight you're booked on, that's when they ask anyone if they'd like to catch the next flight in exchange for a free ticket; but when you've got all kinds of time, they're never overbooked.

3. Philadelphia International and Boston Logan's baggage handling.  One time I flew from Philly to Atlanta and scheduled at the same game at the same time was a flight to Richmond, VA, which of course is impossible.  I made it to Atlanta just fine, predictably my bags enjoyed a nice trip to Virginia.  This isn't out of the ordinary in Philly.  Then there was the time in Boston where an entire wing of baggage claim was filled with luggage.  There must have been a thousand pieces, it was like a Samsonite showcase.  Not surprisingly, they lost my bag too.  I didn't feel guilty telling them it would have to be driven to New Hampshire.  By 5pm.  Because I gave them my work address.

4. The guy who clearly hasn't flown since at least 2001 and so he has no idea that he needs to take his shoes and belt off, let alone take his laptop out of it's case.  So now the fast moving security line you got in comes to a screeching halt because Grandpa Simpson hasn't been on an airplane since Braniff Airlines was in existence.  You half expect his wife to have a dozen bottles of 32 ounces of liquid and complain that they have to be disposed of.

5. That not every landing is an awesome roller coaster like this is:



That's no accident, that's the way they had to land the planes everytime.