Originally Posted by
PDXpress
All these "by the time I was 23..." posts are killing me.
It's fun, let's see... By the time I was 23 I had won a knife fight with a hobo, skinned a grizzly bear with my bare hands, and landed a 747 after the pilots we're incapacitated.
But seriously, people are different. If you're 23 and have never flown before that's gonna be a difficult experience.
I agree. I think especially for the uninitiated, this is going to be a pretty miserable experience -- definitely more than just an adventure or minor annoyance. I've seen middle-aged people who don't fly often get pretty stressed out in similar situations.
That said, I do think it's one of those situations where after you get that initial anger or frustration, you calm down and realize that crap happens sometimes, and you just have to deal with it. Before I was on FT, I was only a 1-2x a year traveler and still in college, and I got stranded overnight in Syracuse without my luggage. I was tired, unhappy, and miserable, but in the end, I realized it's just one of those things that can happen when you travel. I probably complained a lot, but I remained calm and eventually I laughed it off, and took my food vouchers to a bar.
Going hysterical and crying is overreacting, but saying it's not a miserable experience is also selling it short.