Apr. 20th, 2019

primeideal: Multicolored sideways eight (infinity sign) (Default)
Like...so the way the system usually works in my country is that for the basic/ish price you get one "carry-on bag" (small suitcase which goes in the compartment on top) and one "personal item" (backpack that goes under the seat in front of you). If you want something else, like a checked bag (larger, gets deposited at baggage claim later), you have to pay for it. Now, I tend not to need that, by this time I'm kind of an old pro at fitting lots of stuff in the backpack, yada yada. Assuming I actually make it onto the plane with my carry-on, I sometimes have trouble reaching the overhead bin, because I am small. And very often the security theater personnel will be like "...how old are you"? Spoiler alert I am old enough to travel on my own and be forced to go through all the security nonsense, I just look like a small child.

But. Very often it'll be like "oops we don't have enough space, would someone like to check their carry-on? (:" And the answer is always no, no person would like to do that, because if they didn't already pay for a checked bag they don't want the timesink of waiting for it at baggage claim. How airlines still have not figured out this basic fact of human psychology is a mystery. What they should do is

a) first, have the parties that are checking a bag anyway check their carry-on
b) if there is still a need, randomly draft people

instead of the current scenario, which is

1) guilt-trip randoms
2) just force the people boarding last to do so.

Surely they are smart enough to figure this out.

I have this gripe every few months even if I don't write it up, so a new one this week: one of my recent flights (back from an academic conference) got cancelled for weather reasons. I was able to reschedule for later that day and felt pretty good about myself when it looked like basically everything in that airport/airlines was shut down...and then they cancelled on me and there was nowhere to rebook for the next three days. Like, it's a great city and I was lucky to have great people to stay with, but...that is unusual.

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primeideal: Multicolored sideways eight (infinity sign) (Default)
primeideal

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