Tag: airports

I don’t know how people do it

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Lately, I’ve been feeling kind of depressed and stressed about how I haven’t really traveled or seen some particular friends or family in quite some time.  Sure, I had a trip to Disney back in April, but almost at no point of that trip was I really able to sit back, relax, and kind of do nothing.  I’m not saying nothing is all I want to do, but there are times that I feel that I’m pining for occasions where there is nothing really on the agenda but loose ideas, and little or no stress if any of these ideas are acted upon.  But really, I’m finding myself missing people I used to see on a pretty regular basis, and the number of days, weeks and months since I’d seen them grows, leading to this perpetual cycle of feeling detached.

What isn’t helping the entire conundrum is the fact that I no longer have the ability to up and hop on any flight as I used to, and which is serving as impetus for writing this in the first place.  I’d like to travel and visit some friends or family pretty soon, but simply put, I just can’t afford it, or find myself being able to stomach the cost of flying, without privileges.

Frankly, I don’t know how people do this, planning so far ahead in advance to get reasonable rates, and looking at $600+ round trips if one actually wanted to make a last-minute flight somewhere.  I don’t know how people do this.

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Love it

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

TL:DR: Uzbekistan Airlines announces new policy that involves weighing passengers.

As someone who has missed a flight before, because the aircraft reached weight capacity before I could even set foot on it, I’m okay with this.  I’m not just okay with this, I really, really love this idea.

As much flack as Uzbekistan gets for being basically a third-world country out in the middle of nowhere, where nobody would even know its name if not for Borat, their national airline sure did something progressive that I wish the rest of the world would consider, but obviously will not, for an obvious myriad of reasons.

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These things exist??

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Impetus: A United flight going from Newark to Denver has to make an emergency stop in Chicago, to remove two unruly passengers from the aircraft.  The two passengers, seated one behind the other, had an altercation that stemmed from the rear passenger applying “Knee Defender” clamps, which prevent the seat ahead from being able to recline, and the front passenger taking objection to being incapable of reclining.  It culminated with front passenger throwing a cup of water in the face of rear passenger, before the flight was forced to land in Chicago to remove both from the aircraft.

Never mind the story about the altercation, the takeaway from this entire story for me is that something like Knee Defenders actually exist.  And I fucking love it.

Obviously, this is because I fly more than your average non-business traveler, and I’ve had more than my fair share of getting the one person on the entire flight who decides that they have to recline their seat.  Seriously, there will be times where I get an entire row to myself, so I decide to spread out a little bit, and the person in front of me has the exact same idea, but has to make sure that they’re in the seat in front of me.  As soon as the ding indicating that we’ve reached cruising altitude is heard, the seat plops back crudely, and if my leg is crossed, or the tray is down, it’s an unpleasant sensation of having something appear to fall into your lap.

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How to avoid Atlanta Airport curbside police aggression

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

In short, use the cell phone lot.

Cell phone lots exist at many major airports for a reason – for people to have a place to wait in their cars completely stationary, reducing the risk of inadvertent collisions while doing laps around the drop-off point.  The term comes from the obvious concept that when the person awaiting pick up is ready, both parties are in optimal and safe conditions to correspond over cell phones to arrange for pick up.

Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport was a little behind the curve, but they too now have cell phone lots.  Unfortunately, nobody uses them; either people haven’t been properly taught how to use them, or why they even exist or/and they are simply too stupid to figure it out on their own.  Subsequently, it is still a very common practice that people circle laps around the drop-off/pick up area*, even in spite of the massive construction they are doing in the middle of the route, that impedes the flow and traffic to its usual disastrous conditions.

*it baffles me to this day that despite being the statistically busiest airport in the world, Atlanta’s airport still does not have separate levels for drop off and pick up, as even a toddler could understand that one lane sharing two duties is less efficient than two lanes dividing them up separately.

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I endorse this policy

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Long story short: United Airlines is cracking down on people who abuse the lax enforcement of carry-on belongings, and will eventually begin sending people back to the ticket counter to check excessive luggage for a fee.

I support this fully.  When’s Delta going to get in on this?

Seriously though, I fly more frequently than the average person does, so I’ve witnessed beyond my share of inconsiderate people who bring a U-Haul’s worth of crap onto aircrafts, and stuff the overhead bins full before the second two-thirds of passengers can even set foot onto the plane.  It makes me feel ecstatic to see that there’s an airline that’s willing to finally push back at these greedy assholes who think that it’s perfectly acceptable for them to stuff their non-regulation size roll-aboard horizontally, along with their meticulously folded coat, as well as their purse/satchel/messenger bag, so that they can have the floor in front of them completely clear and spacious for their feet for when they inevitably lean back and sleep while snoring; in the seat right in front of yours, naturally.

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Delta Airlines gets it

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Long story short: In spite of the fact that the FCC has lifted the ban on cell phone calls during flights, Delta Airlines has stated that they will continue to not allow the use of cell phone calls during flights.

THANK GOD.

♥ Delta Airlines for doing this.

Especially since 90% of the flights I fly on are Delta, this is a massive relief to know that I will be absolved from having to listen to people blab away on their cell phones during the flight, when all I really want to do is read, peck away at my iPad and/or listen to music, without the sound of incessant chatter permeating between the cracks.

Otherwise, I hope this allowing of cell phones on flights blows up in everyone else’s faces. I hope people flying on United or American or Southwest enjoy the socially inconsiderate assholes of the world all whipping out their phones in the middle of their flights to ramble on and on about anything from their first-world problems, mind-numbingly work chatter, or gossip of the most inane and stupid shit on the planet.

I will enjoy the peace and mostly quiet that flying on Delta will continue to afford.

Owned.

Smooth as a good scotch

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Yeah, I know, gushing about how awesome a day was, is so 2001 brogging.  But it occurs to me just how rare it is that I find myself having what seems to be a genuinely good day; not to sound overly pessimistic, it just really does feel that way to me.

Anyway, I made a day trip up to Detroit, to catch a baseball game.  And anyone who’s paying attention should know by now that “going to go see a baseball game” usually entails going to see the city.  That being said, I had never been to Detroit, let alone Michigan in my entire life, and a baseball game was as good as excuse as any to tackle two goals at the same time.

Eventually, I’ll update my baseball parks page with the ballpark I went to watch the Braves lose in this time, but I just can’t really get over how smooth of a day everything went for me.  I ain’t even mad that the Braves lost.  I ain’t even mad that I had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. in order to make this day even happen.  Everything else just went so well, that it’s put me in a fantastic mood.

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