Agree with you here. It's not so much the size of the screens, but their placement. I'm looking at you EWR, where the screens are right there when you exit the C1 security checkpoint and everyone is standing there looking at them and you can't get through easily.

Again, I'm looking at you EWR! What the hell is the problem that you can't have any restaurants landside in terminal C. I have, however, made it a ritual that whenever I drop my wife off at the airport, or vice versa, we visit Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and bagel.

Editing this for my major pet peeve at airports around the world: Airports that don't have a proper international connection procedure, especially when you have to change terminals. I'm looking at you Jeddah, Dubai, Mumbai and Manila!!!!!

This behaviour is not confined to airports though. People do this sort of thing all over the world in metro transport systems and also in places like department stores - "let's stop as soon as we get on to the platform/get off the escalator and stand and look around for a bit while we work out what to do next. Too bad if everyone behind us has to try to come to a crashing stop as well."

Where would you put anything bigger than a coffee cart? There's no room. Terminal C was built in the 1980s, when there was nothing to stop meeters and greeters from going through security and dining airside.

It's especially bad when people do it at the end of a ski lift.

But it's annoying at airports because these people are usually also surrounded by bulky suitcases, strollers, and nine million confused relatives.

Trunkis.

They are a huge trip hazard; most people aren't expecting children to zoom around at ankle level, or have a leash cross their path at ankle level, especially across the exit of a moving walkway or escalator. Plus there are many children injured from falling off of them.

I see an average of at least one Trunki-caused accident a month in European airports, yet some FTers rave about them. I'd personally like to see them prohibited (or confined to airport play areas, or being hand-carried), although I am not generally in favour of overregulation. LHR T5 is the worst for Trunkis, with the congested walkways.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-horrible.html

And why oh why can LHR not have an M&S airside?! I agree with Carolyn about LHR and dining. I will give FRA credit; for years I was a common target for the survey takers, and it seems that they did take feedback to heart and improved the food offerings in certain areas.

Thanks exbayern......

The reason I was peeved with T5 was after a 3 + hr drive to the airport..... I discovered the person I was meeting was on a very delayed flight, which of course I was unaware of before I set off, and couldn't answer my phone en route........

So having been on the road for over 3 hrs, and a 3 hr wait which would cover dinner time, all I wanted was somewhere decent to sit down for a nice meal. Alas Carluccios is one of the worst examples of the chain with filthy tales and indifferent staff, and a pub is not somewhere a driver wishes to sit for 3 hrs......

And when you want a proper meal, sandwiches and coffee don't really hit the mark!

Now airside in T5 - how many different eateries are there???

Plenty, I suppose, from the execrable "Giraffe" to a "Gordon Ramsay" branded joint.
I always eat in the BA Lounge.

I've also been stuck landside in T5 - most recently for an Angolan visa rendezvous. Bought a sandwich and a bottle of water and sat in a plastic chair. That's as good as it gets, I'm afraid.

Buy a fully refundable ticket, eat airside and cancel!

I've arrived at T5 a few times, and had to wait for someone longer than expected.

I stand in front of that Costa case and look at the same limited selection and wish for a real meal. T3 has a decent selection landside; not sure why T5 cannot have similar.

And it seems like there is limited seating landside because there are rarely free seats in the Costa, but so many people with no food or drink in front of them, so I suspect that they are just waiting for someone.

This.

^^^

On the other hand, if you zoom towards them as if you're about to scythe through them with your Ben Hur razor-wheeled rollaboard, you do get to your gate quicker.

I agree with your gripe about people not stacking bins, but I really fault the security layout in most airports for not having enough length of belt/counter after the x-ray to allow people to re-shoe, re-belt, stash their laptop and freedom baggie, etc. It's not rocket science to figure out how much belt/counter length they need for a given throughput of passengers.

Personally, I'm not going to scoop up my pile of stuff and scuttle over to the corner just because there's not enough space. If the want me to disassemble to go through security, they should provide adequate space to re-assemble.

This happens consistently, regardless of the length of the counter. It all stems from inconsiderate people who are too oblivious/lazy to simply slide their stuff down to the end.

Rude people aside (and I agree that post-xray is prone to the "stopping cold at the bottom of the escalator for no reason" nonsense), the problem is similar to gas stations. The courteous thing is to pull to the far pump. But once you start pumping gas, you're not going to stop and pull forward if the car ahead of you departs. Once someone starts putting on their shoes, they're not likely going to move further down the counter until they're done, even if everybody ahead of them has left.

One day we'll reach a point where we don't have to take off our shoes or pull out our laptops and freedom baggies, and I think that'll solve a great deal of the problem.

The masterful book City: Rediscovering the Center by William Whyte spends the better part of a chapter analyzing this behavior. He observed it on street corners in New York City, and researched the causes: certain personality types demand attention, and an easy, passive way to get that attention involves obstruction. Standing in the way, especially where the maximum number of other people will have to notice, gets attention.

Even saying "excuse me" and stepping around them satisfies their need for attention, because you have noticed them. There is no easy fix to this problem, because the psychological nature of these people will always lead them to the same obstructive behavior. Bumping into them is not culturally acceptable.

My response is to ignore as best as possible and resume my pace and direction with minimal acknowledgement.