Originally Posted by
rickg523
You need to fly private because it's never, ever going to get better. The airline's and the authorities continually change and, frankly, complexify (?) the rules, so infrequent travelers are never going to catch up. They don't even want to. What must be especially grating to you is when they do all those things that irritate you, they don't even care. The rolleyes, the impatient sighs, the tapping of the feet don't even register. They don't care you're being inconvenienced by their presence any more than you care about their issues generally caused by their unfamiliarity with flying.
All this - let's call it what it is - self absorption - really makes traveling so much less pleasant for everyone. But maybe even less pleasant for you since you take their behavior as a personal imposition.
It's like going to Costco and complaining about the check out lines. It's like complaining about the weather. Costco delivers, you can stay indoors, and there's private aviation.
Oh, I understand that, and I know I will encounter it. However, that is no reason to engage in it or to not take measures to avoid it. My whole travel method involves devising the ways and means to sit up front and reduce interactions.
As for self absorption, it seems to me that imposing upon others, interfering with the smooth flow of crowd traffic, asking others to accommodate your basic wants and making things harder for strangers as a result of a lack of foresight
is itself the very result of self absorption.
After all, what is swimming up stream and back if NOT being self absorbed? What is leaving all your metals on and your liquids loose at TSA while people pile up behind you, despite the signs posted everywhere, if NOT self absorption? What is asking a stranger to swap from their seat so you can sit with a spouse if NOT self absorption? I would even go so far as to say that my behavior is the very antidote to self absorption.