travelhive

So like a lot of people on this forum I've spent some extra time lately at airports due to delays and cancellations and I've discovered an additional annoyance that warrants a random rant. I've noticed that some terminals have tile floors with gaps between the tiles that results in the wheels of a rollaboard making a "clacking" noise when they run over the groove. You can time how fast a person is walking by the frequency of the noise, and of course if it's a busy time with lots of people the noise is endless. On my last trip, I managed to find a "safe" place to sit near my gate that had only a few people nearby, but when I tried to doze off that rollaboard noise made it impossible. I think the worst terminal for this may be ABQ where the floor is some type of small custom-made Mexican tile that results in a continuous clattering noise, almost like a metallic cicada sound.

I know, I know, a pathetic thing to rant about, but it's just another thing to pile on all the problems with trying to travel during the current 4th or 5th Covid wave. (I know noise-cancelling headphones would be a solution, but they won't let you hear overhead announcements or remain at least semi-aware of your surroundings even if you're trying to snooze.)

Goodoldflyer

This is actually a hidden feature, so you can tell if you're going to be run over by the person behind you.

jrl767

but it presumes you don’t have your headphones in while carrying on a conversation (or watching a video) on your phone

beachmouse

On the upside, very visible over the ear style noise-cancelling headphones actively discourage people from approaching you to swap seats even if you don't have the headphones powered up at the time.

mattp1987

Last weekend, I found out that Delta had canceled a flight on my return portion of a trip next month. I finally decided what I which alternative option I wanted and was reticketed on Tuesday. Then yesterday, I find out that Air France has canceled my outbound TATL flight. It gives me the opportunity to switch to whatever I want, but I would have very much preferred to knock it all out at once. Also, the change hasn't flowed to Delta's system yet, so I can't actually call them to make the change until they recognize the AF cancelation.

amybd

This may not be petty enough for this thread. Called to find out when my delayed bags might get delivered (since they had already gotten to my destination airport) and was on hold for a very long time, so tried texting at the same time. Got the message that they would transfer me to an agent. This was Tuesday around noon. Just got a text back from the agent, on Thursday at 7am. Bags did finally arrive yesterday. I had stayed on hold and finally talked to someone, so had long forgotten about the message request.

jrl767

I will give you the "sucky timing" rant for this thread, but the AF-not-talking-to-DL (in conjunction with the fact that it's less than three weeks out, and somewhat choreography-sensitive) is worthy of its own gripe

mattp1987

Yeah, that’s the actual frustrating part. It’s still not showing on the Delta website or app as of tonight. We were supposed to take a 10am flight out of Madrid and then catch a 2:30pm connection to ATL. Now that the CDG-ATL flight is gone, what are the chances they let me drop the first segment and originate at CDG on the 10:30am CDG-ATL flight?

coke cans and winglets

At the JAX SkyClub right now in the “quiet section”. Everyone around me is quiet except the dude behind me who’s talking quite loudly on the phone and has his ringer on at full blast, got a little startled hearing the Playtime iPhone ringtone at full blast out of nowhere!

andrewk829

I have two nominations, having just flown today KBP (Kyiv) - AMS- SEA (D1 for AMS-SEA flight).

(1) At the KLM Crown Room at Amsterdam ("Lounge 52"), they have a number of tables where the electric outlets are located in little rectangular depressions in the table. If you are an American using a standard U.S-to-Europe power adaptor, it is very difficult to plug in your device into your adaptor, because of the small amount of space available.

(2) The in-flight maps on the Delta seatback video screens . . . full of annoying 3-D features and "flybys" and other graphical goo-gahs that really add nothing meaningful. The flight maps common on airliners 15 years ago were graphically simpler but more precise. And what's with the screens that show the current time in random time zones, often for places halfway around the world irrelevant to the current flight? What I really want is a 2-D map, with a few different levels of zoom available (so I can know what that lake or river is), with maybe a scroll along the bottom indicating distance and time since departure and distance and time to destination and maybe air speed. I really don't care what the outside temperature is at 30,000 feet.

jrl767

I second the map rant, and have been silently grumbling about this for years

< curmudgeon hat on >< hat off >

Goodoldflyer

Why is it so hard to find an airport terminal list of restaurants?

I keep downloading apps, and either they want way too much personal information (like tracking you) or they don't seem to function properly. I just want to know what restaurants or amenities are in my terminal, and I'm willing to enter the terminal location manually.

mattp1987

If this is Delta-specific, you should be able to see a map of all restaurants and shops in the app by clicking on the airport. The Atlanta airport website also has listings by terminal. I haven’t looked at it lately, but they had been doing a good job keeping it updated with reduced hours for COVID.

GW McLintock

I usually just google the airport and "terminal map" (i.e., "SFO terminal map") and within the first few results is usually something I can work with. Google Maps has also vastly improved their airport coverage so they show most restaurants and shops at large airports.

-J.

MSPeconomist

The last time I was in MSP, they still had the printed brochures with terminal maps and information on F&B, shops, and other services.