Miseries of flying – screenshot of a Kassy Dillon tweet with photo of feet on wall on plane. Gross!
I hardly know where to begin here.
This image of bare feet showed up in my Twitter feed. There they are; nonchalantly hanging out on an airplane bulkhead. I had to pause and stare.
This pretty much summarizes the misery of flying today.
Yes, we shake a weary fist at travelers who are clueless slobs – although this person has a better pedicure than I do, so maybe “slob” isn’t the correct term – but that is only part of the problem.
The standard flying experience is a stack of one soul-sucking moment after another.
The frenzied, crowded airport arrivals, with our little quart-sized baggies of fluids and the nothing-in-your-pockets forced march through various machines that irradiate our bodies.
The constant recorded reminders blaring through airport speakers, lecturing us over and over about leaving bags unattended or taking bags from people we do not know. Who in their right mind would accept some stranger waltzing up and saying, “Hey, do you mind carrying my bag onto the plane?”
In coach – the vast majority of passengers on a flight – we are crammed into seats that are shrinking in every dimension. Space in the seat itself. Space between you and the seat back in front of you. Space in the aisle. NO space left at all, if the person in front of you insists on reclining his or her seat.
There are no meals, of course, unless you’re on an international flight, hopefully on a non-US carrier where they remember how to serve edible food.
On my most recent flight, there were two toilets for about 100-120 people in coach. The before-landing bathroom line was ridiculous.
I keep thinking to myself that I would pay about US$50 extra per ticket to have a less cattle-car experience on a plane.
But those bare feet….
Please, please, at least put on some socks and get your feet down off the wall. Don’t make coach travel any more pathetic than it is already.
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