Apr 14, 2015, 10:52 am
Last edit by: jspira
This thread covers the 2015 Pre-Flight Air Travel Pet Peeves poll, conducted by Frequent Business Traveler magazine in conjunction with FlyerTalk.
You can view the results by clicking here
After reviewing the results, please also take part in the discussion below and talk about your favorite peeves or add peeves that weren't touched upon.
Next year's poll will be created using input from the current year's discussion so please do contribute in the thread.
You can view the results by clicking here
After reviewing the results, please also take part in the discussion below and talk about your favorite peeves or add peeves that weren't touched upon.
Next year's poll will be created using input from the current year's discussion so please do contribute in the thread.
What Are Your Top Pre-Flight Air Travel Pet Peeves? The 2015 and First Edition
May 3, 2015, 7:19 pm
#107
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 19
If "on the plane but prior to door closing" counts as pre-flight, people who put their rollaboards in sideways then give me dirty looks when I rotate them wheels-in to make room for mine (also, naturally, wheels-in).
While I'm on the topic: GAs who pull me aside for sizing my rollaboard while the person in front of me strolls through the door with 4 bags or a hockey-sized duffel. Yeah, I'm looking at you, United.
May 4, 2015, 12:36 am
#108
Join Date: May 2006
Location: BOS and ...
Programs: UA 2MM, AA 600k, DL 500k, Hyatt GP 1M, HH Gold, Rad. Gold, CP Gold, Miracle Fruit-su Club
Posts: 9,950
^^^^ +1000
If "on the plane but prior to door closing" counts as pre-flight, people who put their rollaboards in sideways then give me dirty looks when I rotate them wheels-in to make room for mine (also, naturally, wheels-in).
While I'm on the topic: GAs who pull me aside for sizing my rollaboard while the person in front of me strolls through the door with 4 bags or a hockey-sized duffel. Yeah, I'm looking at you, United.
If "on the plane but prior to door closing" counts as pre-flight, people who put their rollaboards in sideways then give me dirty looks when I rotate them wheels-in to make room for mine (also, naturally, wheels-in).
While I'm on the topic: GAs who pull me aside for sizing my rollaboard while the person in front of me strolls through the door with 4 bags or a hockey-sized duffel. Yeah, I'm looking at you, United.
May 4, 2015, 9:39 am
#109
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: PDX (wish I was in HNL)
Programs: Platinum
Posts: 1,687
I understand my mother in law and her need to dress up for a plane trip, but why does she insist on wearing the all of her big metallic jewelry? Does she not know it will set off the metal detector and slow us down?
We recently had to travel with my MIL, and I warned her NOT to wear her big bracelets and jangly neck things a week before the trip. Of course, she is wearing all of them when we pick her up. She couldn't understand why it was an issue. It's not like she has never flown before.
We recently had to travel with my MIL, and I warned her NOT to wear her big bracelets and jangly neck things a week before the trip. Of course, she is wearing all of them when we pick her up. She couldn't understand why it was an issue. It's not like she has never flown before.
May 12, 2015, 5:16 am
#110
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 69
Specifically at LHR T4 (but I'm sure it happens in other airports): pre-boarding pass scan whilst still landside, the people with the sandwich bags for liquids insisting you have them out and ready for inspection. I take mine out AFTER going through the first gate with boarding pass and only as I'm at the end of the queue about to put my stuff in the trays and walk through the scanner. Pax don't need their liquids shown at landside. What they need is their boarding pass. Worse still: it detracts their attention from having their boarding pass which is immediately required to open the gates pre-security. So after faffing around getting their liquids held in the small transparent bags, they then need to dig out their boarding pass.
Call me a travel snob, but I wish there would different fast-track lanes when queueing for security: one for frequent flyers who have accrued status through flying frequently and another for business class people who are on their first flight and not used to frequent travelling and the hoops you have to jump through: they are so disorganised and slow things down so much it's often quicker to queue in the normal Pax queues!
Call me a travel snob, but I wish there would different fast-track lanes when queueing for security: one for frequent flyers who have accrued status through flying frequently and another for business class people who are on their first flight and not used to frequent travelling and the hoops you have to jump through: they are so disorganised and slow things down so much it's often quicker to queue in the normal Pax queues!
May 12, 2015, 5:23 am
#111
Join Date: May 2009
Programs: VS Silver, Kris Silver, IC Amb, HH Gold, Hertz Gold
Posts: 386
Airport security. It's the most blatant form of security theater I see, and I work in IT.
The second worst is visa processes.
Clueless travellers are a given, it's getting cheaper to travel and we were all clueless once (or still are, depending on context).
Also, crying babies on board.
The second worst is visa processes.
Clueless travellers are a given, it's getting cheaper to travel and we were all clueless once (or still are, depending on context).
Also, crying babies on board.
Although babies are annoying, they are pretty innocent to their frustrations. It's the adults who intentionally do annoying which is one of my biggest pet peeves. No excuse.
May 12, 2015, 6:23 am
#112
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2008
Location: CHA, MAN;
Programs: Delta DM 1 MM; Hz PC
Posts: 11,169
^
May 12, 2015, 6:27 am
#113
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2008
Location: CHA, MAN;
Programs: Delta DM 1 MM; Hz PC
Posts: 11,169
Waiting areas in EVERY airport with someone sleeping across 4 seats oblivious to the rest of us?
Waiting areas in EVERY airport with rude occupants with outstretched legs and mounds of luggage who don't move a muscle to accommodate you getting to an available seat if you wanted to. Or better yet, refuse to move their 'crap' off an available seat so you don't have to stand up thereby blocking the access to the folks trying to board ahead of you!
Mounds of luggage - hum, one 'officially sized' carry on and one small item which pretty much defies anything I've seen on flights of late. As far as I'm concerned, I can just start carrying my checked luggage onto the flight!
Waiting areas in EVERY airport with rude occupants with outstretched legs and mounds of luggage who don't move a muscle to accommodate you getting to an available seat if you wanted to. Or better yet, refuse to move their 'crap' off an available seat so you don't have to stand up thereby blocking the access to the folks trying to board ahead of you!
Mounds of luggage - hum, one 'officially sized' carry on and one small item which pretty much defies anything I've seen on flights of late. As far as I'm concerned, I can just start carrying my checked luggage onto the flight!
May 12, 2015, 6:31 am
#114
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 26,288
Waiting areas in EVERY airport with rude occupants with outstretched legs and mounds of luggage who don't move a muscle to accommodate you getting to an available seat if you wanted to. Or better yet, refuse to move their 'crap' off an available seat so you don't have to stand up thereby blocking the access to the folks trying to board ahead of you!
Yeah, sometimes I consolidate that luggage ...
May 12, 2015, 7:30 am
#115
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 10
Intercom usage
Speaking through the onboard intercom is the internet equivalent of SPEAKING IN ALL CAPS. ERJs are the worst -- the regional carriers always have it set to 11. Thank science for IEMs to silence them out. When you broadcast, even to a captive audience, you are not being effective.
I won't listen to what you insist on repeating every flight through the intercom. Stop using the intercom, the beeps, and especially in three separate languages. Your announcement did not make me safer, and you breezed through the part that in the event of a water landing, I shouldn't inflate my life vest until I'm out of the plane could safe my life.
I won't listen to what you insist on repeating every flight through the intercom. Stop using the intercom, the beeps, and especially in three separate languages. Your announcement did not make me safer, and you breezed through the part that in the event of a water landing, I shouldn't inflate my life vest until I'm out of the plane could safe my life.
May 12, 2015, 7:39 am
#116
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 40
For me the most stressful part is getting to the airport without breaking the bank or getting stuck in traffic. While I might pay for an upgrade to First/Business on the plane I avoid paying for taxis and car services whenever I can. I mean, they can end up costing 50% of the price of the air ticket.
In my home city of New York the subway and AirTrain make the trip pretty seamless and predictable. My regular destination city of Los Angeles, however, is horrible with their public transit to the airport. So while I do take the public bus and occasionally an airport bus, the trip is very stressful and time consuming.
And even when I'm in a city like London or Berlin that has decent public transit to the airport, I feel very stressed about arriving on time and not getting lost.
In fact, I find getting to the airport so stressful that the relief I feel upon arrival makes check-in, security and the rest of it seem relatively easy by comparison. Of course, it helps that I have Club access and Global Entry/TSA Pre to ease the process.
In my home city of New York the subway and AirTrain make the trip pretty seamless and predictable. My regular destination city of Los Angeles, however, is horrible with their public transit to the airport. So while I do take the public bus and occasionally an airport bus, the trip is very stressful and time consuming.
And even when I'm in a city like London or Berlin that has decent public transit to the airport, I feel very stressed about arriving on time and not getting lost.
In fact, I find getting to the airport so stressful that the relief I feel upon arrival makes check-in, security and the rest of it seem relatively easy by comparison. Of course, it helps that I have Club access and Global Entry/TSA Pre to ease the process.
May 12, 2015, 7:52 am
#117
Join Date: May 2005
Programs: DL Million Miler
Posts: 1,963
The trash cans in the Atlanta airport are too loud. That's right. They intermittently grind and whine. If you manage to find a quiet workspace between banks of flights multiple trash cans will be grinding and winding, each in their own maniacal rhythm. It's like birds in trees talking to each other - - some closer by, others further away, but these are not pretty little birds going "tweet tweet", these are big ugly hulking grinding whining trash cans.
May 12, 2015, 8:01 am
#118
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Arizona
Programs: US Airways, Marriott
Posts: 6
Increase in Pre-Check
Pre-check used to be great. Very fast. Now, TSA randomly picks people to put in the Pre-Check line so it is as bad as the regular line.
Supposed emotional support animals and companions animals (mostly dogs, but I've seen pot bellied pigs). I have the $27 to get this certificate on line too.
The number of "zones" and pre-board groups. Many of the people I see limping to the gate for pre-boarding are the same people sprinting past me at our arrival terminal.
Supposed emotional support animals and companions animals (mostly dogs, but I've seen pot bellied pigs). I have the $27 to get this certificate on line too.
The number of "zones" and pre-board groups. Many of the people I see limping to the gate for pre-boarding are the same people sprinting past me at our arrival terminal.
May 12, 2015, 8:05 am
#119
Join Date: Dec 2006
Programs: HHonors Diamond, AA Platinum
Posts: 7
The TSA. They are the single worst part of air travel today by a mile for all the reasons we all know. It's incredible how much those guys suck.
The people that stow their carry-on's in the front of the plane at somebody else's seat and walk to the back. That's total BS and massively inconveniences everyone on the flight. People that do that should have their luggage gate checked for them.
People that are too big for the seat they're in and lift the arm rest so they can slop over into my presonal space. I know the seats are stupid small but if you can't fit into them you need to get two or figure out some other way to be considerate.
The people that stow their carry-on's in the front of the plane at somebody else's seat and walk to the back. That's total BS and massively inconveniences everyone on the flight. People that do that should have their luggage gate checked for them.
People that are too big for the seat they're in and lift the arm rest so they can slop over into my presonal space. I know the seats are stupid small but if you can't fit into them you need to get two or figure out some other way to be considerate.
May 12, 2015, 8:55 am
#120
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: UK
Programs: Flying Blue, BA Executive Club, Singapore KrisFlyer, Emirates Skywards
Posts: 5
Maybe it is my Britishness but I really detest queue jumpers. Just wait your turn as the plane is not going to leave without you so don't be so rude.
I'm then frustrated when people bring on more carry on bags / excessively large carry on bags which are blatantly against the airline policy. Yet somehow the airline never seem to enforce it.
Then there are the jumped up, full of their own self importance (small number of the total I may add) members of security and airport staff. This is more common in the US than anywhere else in the world. You don't have scream and shout at us and herd us like cattle. Be polite, smile and ask us nicely. We are human beings after all and we are certainly not criminals.
I'm then frustrated when people bring on more carry on bags / excessively large carry on bags which are blatantly against the airline policy. Yet somehow the airline never seem to enforce it.
Then there are the jumped up, full of their own self importance (small number of the total I may add) members of security and airport staff. This is more common in the US than anywhere else in the world. You don't have scream and shout at us and herd us like cattle. Be polite, smile and ask us nicely. We are human beings after all and we are certainly not criminals.