Another frustration came to light (hah) last night: I was on an overnight trip to YOW and ended up at the downtown Sheraton. A magnifying mirror was thoughtfully provided...

positioned in JUST the right spot so that your face was backlit when trying to use it. Argh. So many bathrooms have absolutely abysmal lighting! Everything's top down, or from behind, making applying a little make-up next to impossible. I almost always end up plunked down on the floor near the window instead!

YES! Can't tell you how many times in a super rush to get to the airport, at the obscenely expensive gas station near the airport and fumbling through the rental cars owners manual trying to find out how to open the stupid fuel tank door (and thats assuming there is an owners manual in the glove box...)

Or as my wife and I discovered on a drive around South Africa...a fuel tank door that just opens when it chooses to.

We stopped to fill up (from near empty) to the brim before returning the car and just couldn't get it to open! We felt complete idiots as the attendant waited to help us! In the end we gave up and crawled into Cape Town on fumes. Luckily the rental agency felt out pain and didn't charge us for the fill up ^

Airplane windows that can't be opened.

I wonder how many of us would give into the temptation to pitch an obnoxious/smelly seatmate out the window :D

Building on the airport theme, I also hate it when you get airports that have no pre-security restaurants. If you are stuck waiting for someone whose flight is late you have nowhere to go, or if you want to spend a few last minutes together before they leave, they need options for that.

And from another topic, I hate those touch screen IFE systems. When someone reclines their seat, and you are trying to read, the book keeps brushing the screen causing all sorts of things to happen. Same goes with those that put the controls on the armrest, so that whenever you put your arm down you end up either changing the channel or blaring the volume.

How 'bout this one?
 

I was one of the first to board an ORD-SNA flight and was getting settled in my exit row window seat. Was annoyed to hear very, very loud music coming from across the aisle and one row forward. A young lady, already seated, was rocking out to the Ipod music.

Funny thing was, she was very much off the beat of the music, sort of like Elaine in that famous Seinfeld episode.

I tried to ignore it, reminding myself that I'm somewhat thin-skinned about these things and I should just chill.

It took a few minutes to figure out that it wasn't her music that was annoying me. Remember on UA some aircraft still have the two headphone ports for the old, acoustic heaphone tubes? The ones that you can hear without headphones? Well, they're still active, and someone had turned the middle seat's audio way up and that what I was hearing. It was directly in line between me and the young lady.

I thanked God I hadn't asked her to turn down the music!

Why are these headphone ports still active?

[QUOTE=Efrem;9884492]i have no use for a man made built in knee defender, you see, i am so tall, people cant recline their chair. my knees are their own defenders. so when they (in front) ..... to the FA that the chair doesnt recline, and they see me folded up in cattle, theres nothing that the FA, or the selfish passenger in front that keeps trying to put the chair back can do.

Hotel room work areas. It's really rather simple: at the desk, there needs to be an easily-accessible power outlet, ethernet connection with a cord long enough to reach a laptop in the obvious position on the desk, and a telephone with speakerphone with a cord long enough to be on the desk next to the laptop.

That seems to me to be an obvious minimum configuration for a work desk in a hotel room. Often times, they'll provide some but not all of the items. This seems strange to me for a couple of reasons: first of all, it's clear that they intended the area to be used as a work desk, but don't bother to provide all the needed items - it's almost as if the person designing the room never travels on business themselves. Second, it would be very easy and relatively inexpensive to provide all of the items. For example, if there is not a phone outlet near the desk and/or they only want to provide one phone on the nightstand, then just put a cord on it long enough that you can move it to the desk if need be. I can understand when they don't want to put expensive amenities in every room, but when they skip over simple and inexpensive ways to make the room functional, it's very disappointing.