Not possible. When I fly out on Mondays, I’m typically at the airport by 5:30 in the morning for a flight that does not leave until after 8:00. Even with nearly three hours before my flight, getting behind someone like sailor is enraging.
I usually do this after security because it’s far more convenient to use the 2+ hours I have before my flight to have a nice meal in one of the airport restaurants.
Checked baggage? What’s that? I carry on a small roller bag and my laptop. I have not checked a bag in a VERY long time.
Well, I could understand that except for the mp3 player. Who the fuck wants to sit on a plane for six hours with no entertainment other than what the airline makes you pay for, and the commercials they play at maximum volume? Wallets, ID, money and credit cards should be out of your physical possession only long enough to go through the actual machine. That shit gets stolen easily. But it’s really not hard to put it all in your jacket and then put your jacket through the machine.
My list was for the mouth breathers that seem to have never been to an airport, or listened to the news in the last 10 years or so. Experienced travelers should know the tricks already.
Personally, I can get to the airports I frequent very late and still make it in time. I know which security checks are usually the best, which customs booth to go through (for those I don’t have e-gate passes for), which ticket counters to hit, and the shortcuts between terminals. I never check a bag, but then I have all my stuff that I need at my work site so I don’t have to carry everything most do.
But, I still don’t tempt fate.
I know what you mean. I tend to fly Monday mornings and Friday evenings, so I time my airport arrivals to either get breakfast or dinner at the airport with ample time to make my flight. Since I don’t check bags, I print out boarding passes before I go to the airport, and at PIT (my home airport) I always go straight to the alternate security checkpoint on the second floor when it is open. Normally this is very fast, unless the screeners are too busy discussing Survivor.
I try, whenever possible, to avoid mouth-breathers and the type who think it’s fun to disrupt the whole process for shits and giggles. One of the worst groups for Number 5 on your list is college students. You can often identify them by the reek of alcohol coming out their pores.
Being told “Hurry up because you’re inconveniencing a plane full of other people” doe not constitute harassment, that’s the gate agent doing her job. Apparently you’re an idiot who lacks the emotional maturity required to travel independently.
One of the rules I wish they damn well would enforce every now and again is the one on size of carry on bags (no accusation here that your’s is too big…)
If your roller bag doesn’t fit into the overhead bin, wheels first, with space for the door to shut, it’s too freaking big and you have to check that bastard. I am sick and tired of having to put my small bag under the chair in front of me, meaning I have no leg room, to make space for some behemoth of a bag which the person has brought onto the plane thinking that because it has wheels and a handle, its a carry on. Then it can only fit sideways in the overhead bin, and everyone else is screwed.
And the absolute worst offenders for this a flight crew catching a ride on the plane.
Being told rudely to hurry up when I am hurrying up and when I am late because their own fucking flight was late does constitute harassment and, in any case, I am not going to find my passport faster just because she is rudely harrassing me. If they want to put me on the next fucking flight they can fucking do it as long as they do it politely. All she managed to do by being obnoxious was to delay the flight by a couple more minutes. I am absolutely not going to take rudeness from a flight attendant, even if I have to get on the next flight. I don’t care. This is a very good reason I avoid certain airlines and will fly with others. I do not care to be talked to like they are doing me a great favor. Specially when their flight was late to begin with. If they can’t fucking get me on that flight then put me on the next flight but there is no excuse for being rude.
In the Dubai airport they constantly make announcements that when flying Emirates you had better be at the gate at least 15 minutes before boarding finishes. Because at that point you are not getting on that plane and they are removing your bags.
sailor, your passport and boarding pass should be on your person, easily available, until you take your seat. You need it, at the least, in three possible places. 1. Checking in to get your boarding pass - photo ID. Passing through security - boarding pass and ID (they sometimes check this again at the x-ray machine, too). At the gate - boarding pass and ID. And possibly a check of boarding pass at the door to the plane.
I’ve had customs and the police check my passport in both Dubai and Frankfurt on the walkway from the plane and at the door to the plane itself on arrival. Keep your passport on you (in a zippered pocket), or in an easily accessible pocket on your luggage.
Another tip for easy travel. I always put my stuff in the same location in my baggage all the time. My wallet goes in this pocket, my passport in that one and only that one. There is nothing more panic inducing than trying to find items that you’ve randomly stuffed in your carry-on. I though I had lost my wallet once even though I checked the bag 3 times. On the 4th time I upended the bag and it popped out. WTF? It had to have been in another dimension. So, now it goes in my pocket (right front) or in the bag in one location. It can’t be anywhere else. If it is not there it is missing. So, when asked for id I know where to get it immediately. Where is my boarding pass? Front pocket in the flap of my document travel case right next to my passport. When I am finished with the passport it goes into the document case. I can’t emphasize how much this system has made traveling easier for me. (I’m usually not that anal about things, but I don’t move until I’ve placed things back where they are supposed to go. When you’ve been up for 36 hours on planes, trains, and automobiles it is important that instinct takes over from your brain because that isn’t working so well at that point).
I am pretty well organized when it comes to this but I was rushing like crazy from security to the gate with my hand luggage and clothes having all been messed up at the security inspection. Note that I have not complained about the security inspection which is what held me up for a long time. I have complained about the idiot attendant who was unnecessarily rude and there is NO excuse to be rude to a customer even if he is late and even if he is slow. I am not going to take rudeness and she can go fuck herself.
Look, I have written a few letters of complaint but I have also written a few letters of commendation when I saw they were deserved. Under similar circumstances of a rushed connection British Airways staff did an outstanding job and I wrote this letter
I doubt many people here have written as many letters of commendation as I have.
Yep. I have found that with efficient packing I am able to fit everything in the roller, which fits in the overhead wheels first with room to spare, and manage to live out of it for a week. Flight attendants who are catching a ride tend to have gigantic bags, and far more of them than a passenger is allowed, and often refuse to put anything at all under their seat. I know it sucks not to have leg room, but guess where my backpack rides?
Unless I’m in a row where there are no seats in front of me, it goes … under the seat! I sacrifice leg room for not waiting at baggage claim. Though, small bags are supposed to go under the seat. If it can’t fit under the seat, that’s when it goes in the overhead.
She would also be doing her job if she said ‘Sorry, sir, but it’s 10 prior and the door is closed. Looks like you missed it.’
No, you’re an idiot. According to you, flying is routine enough for you that you should know which documents you are going to need and when you’re going to need them. You should have them either in your hand, or very readily accessible as you approach the gate. Stopping at the jetway door to try and find them in your bags as if they are the lost Sankara stones is a sign of extreme mental deficiency and perhaps you should not be out wandering around unescorted.
Uzi is right. Pack your shit up in a neat, organized manner the same way every time. Keep things you will need frequently (like boarding documents and ID) readily accessible because you are going to be asked for them. I find it hard to believe that you weren’t asked to show an ID or a boarding document or both at the security inspection. So, when the security person handed it back to you, it would have been easy to keep it in your hand, knowing full well that you would need it at the gate and that it might save you time since you were running late.
You chose to bury it in your carry on luggage and inconvenience 100+ other people. You’re still a douchebag.
Perhaps the person with an IQ lower than room temperature is the one who cannot successfully compose a simple sentence that involves either ‘rocket science’ or ‘brain surgery’.
Crimoney, sailor, you make it clearer with each post just how much of an egomaniacal douchebag you really are. The best part is your apparent befuddlement that you are not being praised as the new Ghandi for your principled stand against tyranny. You never registered on my radar until a week or so ago. I guess you didn’t post much in the past. When you followed that policy, you also looked like much less of a douchebag.
Look, I do not care to make this into a childish exchange of insults. When i first joined this board I did not post in the Pit because I did not care for this kind of exchange. Later political discussions started moving here and I started posting but I think I am going to return to not posting here beacuse it is just not worth arguing with idiots who believe not having your documents ready is reason enough for airline employees to abuse you.
Just to make it clear, My first flight had landed late. The wait to go through airport security was long and I had to go though security even though I had entered just a few gates up the aisle. At security they made me totally empty all my carry-on luggage, take off my coat, etc. When I was finished with security I was left with an unpacked carry-on and I was woefully late so, rather than take my time packing everything I just grabbed everything in a bundle as best I could and rushed to the departure gate.
Now, under those circumstances anyone blaming me for not arriving in time and well packed and organised is a fucking idiot. I arrived at the gate as fast as I could and if I need time to find my documents and pack my stuff then they can tell me they can’t wait but they cannot be rude under any circumstances.
But it seems some airlines have people like you who think it is OK to treat customers rudely. I do not think so and I am immensely happy to see that the airlines which have given me bad service are going under one by one while British Airways and others who have treated me well are prospering. I get special satisfaction each time I hear news about Alitalia being on the verge of bankruptcy because they are one of the worst. And I get special satisfaction when I fly with BA, which I do every time I can.
So we’re all fucking idiots for not knowing things that you didn’t bother to tell us when you initially complained about the rudeness of a gate agent (who, BTW, is not a TSA employee and whose rudeness was in any case irrelevant to the topic under discussion). All you said was that when you arrived at the gate you couldn’t find your papers, which led to comments about how any intelligent person should make the effort to have that sort of thing readily available *when they initially pack their bags. Had you taken the extra few seconds to say what you just said when you first complained about being treated rudely at the gate, or perhaps in one of your subsequent posts whining about how abused you are (both at the airport and here) then you might have gotten some understanding. But when you come into this thread bragging about how you do your best to screw up other people with your “passive resistance” shit, don’t be surprised when you don’t get a lot of sympathy when people are rude to you.
No, you are the idiot. That post and story was in response to someone who said not only America had rude people and I posted that to agree and give an example of someone rude in Europe. I never said it had anything to do with the TSA. Try to keep up you moron.
There are only 3 things that are important when you travel: Your tickets/boarding passes, your passport, and your wallet. And the only thing you’ll be asked for in an airport are the first two. You pick those up and stick them in their correct location. Everything else can be crammed. Frankly, I know where everything in my bag goes, so cramming isn’t significantly faster for me.
Still not addressing the point of my post, which is that you got your panties in a twist because people pointed out what appeared to be something stupid that you had done, instead of explaining why you didn’t have your documents ready for the gate attendant.
Then why did you choose to insult me twice in response to a post in which I did not insult you? If you feel that I insulted you in the post that you quoted, please point out where.