On you ain't seen bumpy yet...

Fasten your seat belts everyone. It officially sucks to travel.

I travel my fair share for work, as those of you most loyal to this blog know. As such, I've become intimately acquainted with the challenges of throwing yourself to the mercy of airlines, rental car companies and hotels. Often it seems like it's just not about service anymore. Rarely do you encounter the "customer service agent" who acts in a manner supportive of the possibility that you may have sat through a 2 hour delay at the airport, only to be bumped off of your flight, only to sit next to a disgruntled and overweight passenger taking up half of your seat on the next flight, and oops we don't have any more room on the plane for your baggage so we'll have to check it, and no there won't be beverage service because of the constant turbulence. Oh, and sorry about that, but we lost that bag we ended up having to check. Have a good day.

Don't get me wrong, very little of this happened to me this evening, only part of it, but I often feel beaten and bruised on my travel days as I watch it happen to those around me. While much of this probably can't be helped given the very real circumstances associated with the travel industry today, I think everything could be a bit improved if everyone would just try to help each other out.

And I'm not just speaking of the flight attendants I really don't know how they do their job every day. Every flight brings some issue, at least one pain in the ass traveler who can't understand that everyone gets inconvenienced once in a while.

Passengers just don't play fair anymore, and are doing their part to contribute to the overall horrible experience of travel today. Take my flight this evening... the oversold flight. The initial announcement puts everyone on edge. Oh no. Am I going to be bumped? They need five volunteers. Have five people gone up yet?

Because of my preference for aisle seats, I always end up boarding in one of the later zones. And, on an oversold flight, in that situation you are essentially guaranteed that there will be no room left for your bag when you board. I like to think of myself as a conscientious traveler. Any bag I bring on board is, in fact, carry on size and, when given a seat with normal room in front of it, I can typically fit BOTH of my carry-ons in front of my feet. Suck on that.

But not today.

And as I boarded the flight and looked down toward my seat, I saw a decidedly not carry-on sized bag occupying my seat. Hmmm.

The couple next to me had no place to put their over sized carry-on baggage. For shame. Seriously, I do feel their pain. But, at the same time, they should have been more responsible and checked them in the first place. Instead, they were incredibly rude to the flight crew, how it was somehow THEIR fault and what were they going to do about it. The crew then proceeded to hold up take off while they moved other people's bags around trying to find place to stow them. A similar incident happened on my flight up to Hartford, but I was a hell of a lot more impressed with how the crew handled that. After a certain point, everyone boarding the flight was handed a check tag for their baggage, as there was, in fact, no room left. Sure, people were pissed but, at the same time, they didn't have to go through the humiliation of making their way up and down the aisle desperately looking for a place to put their gigantic carry-on. I do wish airlines would do their part in enforcing carry-on policies, but I also wish travelers would be a little more considerate of their fellow passengers as they weigh their options.

Then there were the children. Nothing can be done about crying children and I was very impressed that the three babies on the flight tonight were almost totally silent It was the two year old whose mother was encouraging her to beat on the seat in front of her that nearly set me off. No, I'm not kidding.

I just wish we could all cut each other a little bit of slack. I keep hearing about these days when travel was a luxurious experience and service was guaranteed. These are different times now, certainly, but I really am convinced that if we didn't chew each other out at the first inconvenience, if we could just laugh things off from time to time and give each other the benefit of the doubt, a return to a more pleasant travel experience could be on the horizon